Joe Biden "has prioritized politics over just and fair policymaking" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, former government officials argued in their first joint statement since quitting. By Akbar Shahid Ahmed

How a young journalist untangled the riddle of My Lai. By Seymour M. Hersh.

When a general worried about Lee's next move, Grant tersely replied, "I am heartily tired of hearing what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land on our rear and on both our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do." By Gregory A. Mertz.

A recording salvaged from three miles deep tells the story of the doomed “El Faro,” a cargo ship engulfed by a hurricane. By William Langewiesche.

Forty years ago sleepy Bowral was occupied by the Australian military with armed soldiers protecting some of the world's most important people. By Justin Huntsdale.

The night that Stephen Paddock opened fire on thousands of people at a Las Vegas country music concert, nearby Sunrise Hospital received more than 200 penetrating gunshot wound victims. Dr. Kevin Menes was the attending in charge of the ED that night, and thanks to his experience supporting a local SWAT team, he’d thought ahead about how he might mobilize his department in the event of a mass casualty incident.

A review of NASA research highlights the risk that prolonged social isolation poses to long-distance space missions, as well as other dangers like radiation. (Jan. 11, 2017)

On the eve of the Civil War, a nightmare at sea turned into one of the greatest rescues in maritime history. More than a century later, a rookie treasure hunter went looking for the lost ship—and found a different kind of ruin. By David Wolman.

It started with a candle in an abandoned warehouse. It ended with the men of the Worcester Fire Department in a fight for their lives. By Sean Flynn.

From noon to dusk on November 22, 1963, history went dark, locked inside the closed and crowded cabin of Air Force One. Fifty years later, what happened after JFK died has fully come to light. By Chris Jones. (Sep, 16, 2013)

If you want others to follow, learn to be alone with your thoughts. By William Deresiewicz.

With help from friends, a transplanted Philadelphian embarks on a voyage of discovery through Alaska's waters. By Brendan Jones.

The fire department working a desolate New Mexico mesa is made up of 15 anarchists and recluses and led by a friendly giant whose job is to be an administrator in a place that defies administration. By Michael Canyon Meyer.

Among the institution’s earliest employees were female “computers” whose calculations made the first rocket launches possible. By Nathalia Holt.

Many organizations, from government agencies to philanthropic institutions and aid organizations, now demand that programs and policies be “evidence-based.” But the way this idea is being implemented may be doing a lot of harm, impairing our ability to learn and improve on what we do. By Ricardo Hausmann.

“If the sheriff of Baker County would not close down Copperfield's saloons, the governor told the press, then he would send his five-foot-three-inch tall, 104-pound private secretary, Miss Fern Hobbs, to do the work.” By Joe Blakely.

Ape in space: astronaut Scott Kelly celebrates his year in space in an unusual way. By Chiara Palazzo.

Inspired but isolated, Maria Quiñones-Sánchez is at war with her own party, Latino political bosses and half her [Philly] Council colleagues. Her fighting spirit could make her mayor someday — or leave her career in ashes. By Holly Otterbein. (Jan. 24)

“‘It’s hard with the secrecy and the way no one is willing to talk to us,’ said his sister, Bronwyn De Maso. ‘No matter how he died, if he did kill himself, he was a casualty of war.’” By Nicholas Kulish and Christopher Drewjan.

At the bottom of the biggest underwater cave in the world, diving deeper than almost anyone had ever gone, Dave Shaw found the body of a young man who had disappeared ten years earlier. What happened after Shaw promised to go back is nearly unbelievable, —unless you believe in ghosts. By Tim Zimmermann. (2005)