Sunday Long Reads
Longer articles and in-depth investigation pieces for those quiet Sunday mornings.
Ex-Detainee Describes Torture In China's Xinjiang Re-Education Camp
"They made me wear what they called 'iron clothes,'" the man tells NPR, describing a 50-pound metal suit he was forced to wear for 12 hours. When he returned home, people were afraid to speak to him.
By the time Chinese guards began torturing Kayrat Samarkand inside a re-education camp l…
How America’s police became so heavily armed
Nearly 90% of American cities with populations above 50,000 have SWAT teams, more than four times the level of the mid-1980s
As with so much else in American governance, the explanation starts with federal cash. Every year Congress passes the National Defense Authorization Act, which set…
Opinion | Little Rock’s dangerous and illegal drug war
In Arkansas' largest city, drug cops are waging astonishingly violent raids based on bad information, and the city's judges are looking the other way.
First, the narcotics unit appears to be routinely violating the Fourth Amendment by serving nearly all of its warrants with no-knock raid…
Brazil’s Bolsonaro-Led Far Right Wins a Victory Far More Sweeping and Dangerous Than Anyone Predicted. Its Lessons Are Global.
His policy prescriptions were even more deranged. Western media has often referred to him as “Brazil’s Trump” but that is wildly inaccurate, understating the case by many magnitudes. In temperament, ideology, and personal history, Bolsonaro – a former Army Captain during Brazil’s notorious 21-ye…
Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America
Nobel laureate James Buchanan is the intellectual linchpin of the Koch-funded attack on democratic institutions, argues Duke historian Nancy MacLean
At the 1997 fiftieth anniversary of the Mont Pelerin Society, MacLean recounts that Buchanan and his associate Henry Manne, a founding theo…
How Do You Take a Picture of a Black Hole? With a Telescope as Big as the Earth
A planet-spanning virtual observatory, years in the making, could change how we think about space, time and the nature of reality. Will it work?
Avery Broderick, a theoretical astrophysicist who works with the Event Horizon Telescope, said in 2014 that the first picture of a black hole c…
Kent Sorenson Was a Tea Party Hero. Then He Lost Everything.
This, at last, is when Sorenson’s outrage turns to guilt. It’s not that he could have done more from the inside; it’s that he should have done more from the outside, when he had the power, when he was a policymaker with authority and influence, before he became just another discarded member of s…
Chicago 1968: when it all changed - The Boston Globe
Some 2,600 official delegates crowded inside the convention hall in August 1968, as 100,000 protesters roamed, and then rioted, outside. At least 11,900 police officers, 7,500 Army troops airlifted from Fort Hood, and 5,500 National Guardsmen were mobilized to keep the peace, but compounded the …
How Russia, China or America Could Accidentally Start a Nuclear War
What happens when you use the same satellites to control nuclear forces as well as conventional troops?
War Without End
Second Platoon did not hide its dark mood as its soldiers waded across the Korengal River in the bright light of afternoon. It was early in April 2009 and early in the Pentagon’s resumption in earnest of the Afghan war. The platoon’s mission was to ascend a mountain slope and try to ambush the T…
5 Ways a Nuclear War Could Still Happen Today
Nuclear war, the exchange of nuclear weapons between two or more states in open conflict. It’s unthinkable. It can’t happen. Right? Wrong.
A Deadly Hunt for Hidden Treasure Spawns an Online Mystery
An epic riddle. An eccentric storyteller. A missing person. When a man vanishes in the wilderness, his family takes to the internet to find him.
Cold War Fact: Russia Planned to Attack NATO with Hundreds of Nuclear Weapons
This is a plan for the end of the world, dated 1970.
Extreme global weather is 'the face of climate change' says leading scientist
Exclusive: Prof Michael Mann declares the impacts of global warming are now ‘playing out in real-time’
Inside Google’s Shadow Workforce
Every day, tens of thousands of people stream into Google offices wearing red name badges. They eat in Google’s cafeterias, ride its commuter shuttles and work alongside its celebrated geeks. But they can’t access all of the company’s celebrated perks. They aren’t entitled to stock and can’t ent…
When We Eat, or Don’t Eat, May Be Critical for Health
A growing body of research suggests that our bodies function optimally when we align our eating patterns with our circadian rhythms.
Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet
The long read: No language in history has dominated the world quite like English does today. Is there any point in resisting?
The Timeless Myth of Medusa, a Rape Victim Turned Into a Monster
Since Ancient Greece, the snake-haired Gorgon has been a sexualized symbol of women's rage.
The Soviet roots of invoking fears about World War III
Dire predictions about foreign intervention leading to “World War III” aren’t merely the most predictable and laziest form of anti-interventionist “logic.” They’re also an insidious echo of Soviet propaganda, routinely deployed to undercut the West’s defense of democracy and international norms.…
In the J20 Trials, the Feds Said They Went After “Bad Protesters.” That Just Means Another Crackdown on Dissent.
Despite not winning jury convictions, putting hundreds on trial is sure to chill dissent — and the crackdown is only just beginning.
Declining Trust in Facts and Institutions Imposes Costs on Society
“Truth Decay” is the diminishing reliance on facts and analysis in American public life. It has many damaging consequences: the erosion of civil discourse, political paralysis, alienation and disengagement from political and civic institutions, and uncertainty over U.S. policy.
MSNBC Does Not Merely Permit Fabrications Against Democratic Party Critics. It Encourages and Rewards Them.
The network routinely allows outright lies to stand if aimed at critics of Democrats, especially fabricated allegations of being Kremlin agents. The latest is Malcolm Nance.
The world has never seen a Category 6 hurricane. But the day may be coming
One NASA scientist suggests that by the end of the century hurricanes could reach wind speeds of 230 mph if current global warming trends continue.
The 'supply-and-demand model of labor markets is fundamentally broken,' and that's why you're not getting a pay raise anytime soon
Working is no longer a guaranteed way of getting ahead. Instead, it may keep you poor. You cannot get rich working for Uber. You cannot get rich working for Deliveroo.
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