“When an organization has, say, financed the overthrow of the government of Guatemala, you would think there might be a speaking fee.”
government
Watch the Skies: A UFO Believers Reading List
Amid a new flurry of media coverage, we revisit some of our favorite stories about ufologists and close encounters.
The Humiliating History of the TSA
“I don’t really recognize the America that exists at a TSA checkpoint. It is overly paranoid, vindictive, and unaccountable to us as citizens.” Since 9/11, there isn’t really evidence that shows the Transportation Security Administration has made air travel any safer for passengers. For The Verge, Darryl Campbell dives into two decades of unnecessary security check […]
Unsettled: The Afghan Refugee Crisis Collides with the American Housing Disaster
Part of The Verge‘s Homeland series, this feature by Makena Kelly on resettlement programs in the U.S. shows what Afghan families are facing from day to day, particularly in communities of the San Francisco Bay Area where the housing crisis is dire. Ongoing support and aid comes from local nonprofits, overworked volunteers, and generous families […]
A Year of “Protecting Children” in Texas
In the days after the Uvalde school shooting, Christopher Hooks looks at how the government has failed the children of Texas, focusing on banning books and demonizing transgender kids rather than working on ways to keep children safe. How can anyone be expected to live this way, let alone a fifth grader? We should remember […]
In the Dark
This is an in-depth look at the rise of government-led internet blackouts around the world over the past decade, since the Mubarak regime’s shutdown of the internet in Egypt during the Arab Spring of 2011. Whole countries, including Sudan, Uganda, and Myanmar, have gone offline for days on end, as leaders try to cripple their […]
‘A Profound Betrayal of Trust’: Why Jackson’s Water System Is Broken
“How a shrinking city, aging infrastructure and racism left thousands of Jacksonians without water for weeks.”
How We Got Here
“Texas’ health system has been underfunded, understaffed, and unprepared for years. Here, COVID-19 found the perfect place to spread.”
How Cartographers for the U.S. Military Inadvertently Created a House of Horrors in South Africa
John and his mother Ann, who live in a house in Pretoria, South Africa, were two victims of faulty IP address mapping — and the U.S. government played a big role in the mess.
Earth to Congress
The world-changing potential of a Green New Deal