The story of Song Yang, a woman working in one of Queens’ notorious massage parlours, but brought up in Liaoning, China. The story starts with her death, but it goes on to explore how she came to that moment, and the brutal environment in which she found herself, in a finely nuanced portrait.
This one could run and run. Of all the forms of cyber warfare, hacking the hardware (i.e physical machines), is perhaps the hardest to pull off. It also has the potential to be the most damaging. The story alleges that cloud servers owned by Super Micro, a big player in the tech infrastructure industry, contained tiny processors that could enable back door access to devices, programmes or networks that used them. Super Micro clients have included Amazon, Apple and numerous other blue chips, as well as several branches of the Federal government. The organisation that is alleged to have perpetrated the hack – the People’s Liberation Army of China.
The story of Luvo Manyonga, a hugely gifted South African long jumper, and also a one time user of tik, a local variant of crystal methamphetamine. The story looks at his life and career and the lives of the people who saw his potential and sought to help him.
The result of months of investigative work, this story examines Donald Trump’s finances and tax arrangements in detail. In doing so, it kills off one of the key Trump myths – that he was self-made, and it suggests that the family’s approach to tax was highly creative.
Devin Nunes is amongst President Trump’s most enthusiastic cheerleaders in Congress, so his family running a large scale dairy in Iowa employing undocumented workers would be politically inconvenient. The investigative aspect of the story is gripping – featuring uncomfortable interactions with Nunes family members, chance meetings in the local cafe, sit downs with the mayor and the priest, and being followed around town by mysterious white SUVs. Of even greater value perhaps are the nuanced portraits of Iowans carefully balancing politics, faith, immigration, the global economy, personal finances, and human relationships.
The important, powerful story of Amber Wyatt, a woman who in 2006 reported that she had been raped at a high school party, and the many ways in which she was subsequently let down by her community.
Michael Lewis (Moneyball, Flash Boys, The Big Short) on Trump’s transition is exactly what you’d expect – a tragicomedy. In amongst the tales of alarming incompetence, the piece features such glorious anecdotes as Trump declaring his enjoyment of The Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” to Egypt’s President, the first head of state to congratulate him on his election victory.
The first instalment of a two part look at Catherine de’ Medici’s storied life, running from her birth into one of the most powerful families in Europe, to a precarious position as an unpopular Dauphine of France, pleading her fate with her father-in-law Francis 1st.
A look at the rise of the far-right wing party Alternative for Germany (Alternative fr Deutschland) and what it means for democracy. The piece shares this insight on political upheavals – “They begin slowly, and then one morning you wake up and find yourself in another country”.
A look at a conference for flat earth conspiracy theorists. A speaker at one of the events kicks off with “I don’t accept logic and reason”, which is a pretty good summary, all in all.