Facebook’s Looted-Artifact Problem
The Islamic State turned the social platform into a global marketplace for stolen relics—until a group of vigilante archaeologists took matters into their own hands.
Features
Why America Is Afraid of TikTok
The company’s founder says in an interview that he wants it to be “a window” on the world. A Republican senator says it is a “Trojan horse.”
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The Panopticon Is Already Here
Xi Jinping is using artificial intelligence to enhance his government’s totalitarian control—and he’s exporting this technology to regimes around the globe.
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Why Is Bob Ross Still So Popular?
Twenty-five years after his death, the painter who gave us “happy little trees” is more ubiquitous than ever.
I Went to Disney World
As the coronavirus pandemic ravaged Florida, the Magic Kingdom welcomed back its most loyal subjects—and me.
How Ugly Politicking Ate Election Oversight
The federal Election Assistance Commission has neglected key responsibilities or ceded them to other agencies—and two of its four commissioners are spreading the president’s unfounded warnings about voting by mail.
‘They Got Her This Time, Son’
Mike Liles found his wife and the mother of his five children dead on the kitchen floor—attacked in the couple’s home for the second time in two decades. Still, the family opted for restorative justice over the death penalty for the killer. What happened next made them question the very meaning of justice.
A Mental-Health Crisis Is Burning Across the American West
Each fire season can compound the trauma of the one before it.
How a Fake Baby Is Born
For years, women on the internet have been writing conspiracy theories about celebrity pregnancies. What sparks them?
Australia Has a Flesh-Eating-Bacteria Problem
In the beach towns south of Melbourne, everyone, it seems, knows someone who’s been attacked.