The transformational charismatic figure is a myth, and we believe it to our own detriment. By Shane Ryan.

When the Defense Department flunked its first-ever fiscal review, one of our government’s greatest mysteries was exposed: Where does the DoD’s $700 billion annual budget go? By Matt Taibbi.

Despite facing one embarrassment after the other, British Prime Minister Theresa May continues to plow ahead, seemingly undeterred. It's becoming increasingly clear that she is the main impediment to solving the Brexit mess. By Peter Müller, Jörg Schindler.

The city’s district attorney not only declined to charge the officers involved in Stephon Clark’s death, but implied the victim wanted to die. By Jamil Smith.

Uber filed a lawsuit on Friday to overturn New York City’s first-in-the-nation law capping the number of ride-hail drivers that operate on its streets. The law, which went into effect last August, paused the issuance of new licenses to drivers for 12 months. But Uber wants the law overturned for fear that the city will ultimately make the cap permanent.

India began its super-computing journey with the Param in the 1980s after the United States (US) banned the export of Cray supercomputers and in 2008, ‘EKA’, from Tata’s Computational Research Laboratories, was ranked 9th among global high-power computing (HPC) systems. This was a time when both India and China had only a handful of supercomputing systems that could make it to the TOP 500 list. Since then, however, their respective supercomputing stories have diverged significantly.

Should we break up Amazon and Facebook? Columbia Law School academic fellow Lina Khan, who wrote the impactful “Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox” for The Yale Law Journal, joins Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel to discuss whether Amazon and Facebook should be broken up and what it might look like if that were to happen.

Network investment is down, layoffs abound, and networks are falling apart. This isn’t the glorious future Ajit Pai promised. By Karl Bode.

America’s muddled involvement with Syria. By Charles Glass.

He went from the rumpled bit player of the progressive movement to a legit presidential candidate and liberal kingmaker. But now that Sanders wields such enormous power in Democratic politics, the question is, what’s he going to do with it? By Jason Zengerle.

I circulated this letter to NBC colleagues on January 2 and since it quickly leaked and got recirculated all over, I’d thought I’d post it here... By William M. Arkin.

Under the Real ID Act, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen has the power to bypass environmental safeguards, rendering any ecological downside to a border wall a moot point. By Jimmy Tobias.

While a noisy Supreme Court fight captivated America last fall, an obscure federal accounting body quietly approved a system of classified money-moving. By Matt Taibbi.

Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and other major Republicans are spreading misinformation in support of the president's fixation on a border wall. By Nick Gillespie.

Better to stay meek and humble, lest the splendor of our victories renders us haughty and boastful. By Sean Keady.

Trump's AG pick was top cop during the federal siege and killing of Randy Weaver's wife and son. By James Bovard.

The 1920s weren’t just gin joints and jazz. Anti-immigrant racism was all the rage. By Lisa McGirr.

He started a bad fight over an unpopular wall and can't admit he's wrong. By Harry Cheadle.

The “gilet jaune” protests target the middle-of-the-road policies pursued by Emmanuel Macron. The far right’s Marine Le Pen appears to be benefitting. By Joe Penney.

Her deal has been obliterated and the country is in chaos, yet May felt weirdly OK. By John Crace.