“They used to bark at me when I walked into the courtroom,” lawyer Steven Wise said in the Sundance documentary Unlocking the Cage, which debuted on HBO last month. His use of the word “bark” is literal. By Ariana DiValentino. (Mar. 13, 2017)

How does the Vault 7 leak look to a famous CIA whistleblower? It’s complicated. By Emma Grey Ellis.

If torture is wrong, it’s wrong whether or not it works. It’s wrong because it’s torture. In conversation with ABC News in his first televised interview since taking office, President Donald Trump spoke in strikingly frank terms about the possible use of torture as a tool for interrogation. “I have spoken as recently as twenty-four hours ago with people at the highest level of intelligence,” Trump said. “And I asked them the question, ‘Does it work? Does torture work?’ And the answer was, ‘Yes, absolutely.’”

Germany is on the frontline of controversial debate that has put European governments in a quandary – whether to recognise child marriage. By Chris Harris.

Studies led by researchers at VU Amsterdam suggest that the path to corrupt behavior may sometimes be a steep cliff instead of a slippery slope, contrary to popular belief.

The material sheds additional light on the torture program as the future of the Senate’s classified full report on it hangs in the balance with the Obama presidency ending. By Sheri Fink, James Risen and Charlie Savage.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke about race, segregation, poverty, militarism, and nonviolent resistance in two talks that he gave in Hollywood, in March 1968, and in London, in December 1964. From the Pacifica Radio Archives. Via KPFA.

On 4 April 1967 Martin Luther King delivered his seminal speech at Riverside Church condemning the Vietnam War. Declaring, ‘‘my conscience leaves me no other choice,’’ King described the war’s deleterious effects on both America’s poor and Vietnamese peasants, and insisted that it was morally imperative for the U.S. to take radical steps to halt the war through nonviolent means.

Parfit isn’t a household name, but his ideas were profound. By Dylan Matthews.

Assaults on democracy are working because our current political elites have no idea how to defend it. By William Easterly.

A former CIA interrogator who terrorized prisoners hasn’t learned the lessons of his own immoral behavior. By Conor Friedersdorf.

We tend to think that our memories determine our identity, but it’s moral character that really makes us who we are. By Nina Strohminger.

We can think of ourselves as an animal’s peer—or its protector. What will robots decide about us? Harambe, a gorilla, was described as “smart,” “curious,” “courageous,” “magnificent.” But it wasn’t until last spring that Harambe became famous, too. On May 28th, a human boy, also curious and courageous, slipped through a fence at the Cincinnati Zoo and landed in the moat along the habitat that Harambe shared with two other gorillas.

The Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, an excerpt.

For animal people. Pass it on. By Ameena Schelling.

Adam Smith is regarded as the father of the free market, based on the notion that if we follow our self-interest without the intervention of governments, it will lead to the best possible outcome. But his moral philosophy has been forgotten or discarded by his supposed disciples…

Victims’ relatives take opposing sides in California’s election fight over the death penalty. By Liliana Segura.

Animal welfare campaigners have decried incidents of monkeys dying from strangulation, water deprivation, poor handling by staff and attempted escapes. By Oliver Milman.

The Guantánamo parole board has rejected a plea for release by the war-on-terror captive known as Abu Zubaydah, who became the guinea pig in the CIA’s post- 9/11 interrogation program. By Carol Rosenberg.

He kills enemies halfway around the world by pushing a button. Welcome to the modern age of warfare. By Matthew Power.