picks What 'Independence Day' Is Like In Transnistria, An Unrecognized Country Inside Moldova Katherine Leipper

books Holidays in Soviet Sanatoriums Andrea James

Kids Watch this trippy Soviet kid's cartoon from 1976 Andrea James

podcasts A new podcast explores the CIA's involvement with writing a hit song for the Scorpions Thom Dunn

News Maria Butina plea hearing set for Thursday, her spy boss Torshin missing, Putin unhappy Xeni Jardin

politics Sheryl Sandberg ordered Facebook staff to investigate George Soros after he gave THIS speech (READ IT) Xeni Jardin

News Trump's son Don Jr. promotes false smear linking Jamal Khashoggi to Osama bin Laden and terrorism Xeni Jardin

anthropogenics Intelligent engineering and planning brings (some) life back to the Aral Sea Clive Thompson

uk Scottish police confirm requests from world governments to find money laundered through "the UK's homegrown secrecy vehicle" Cory Doctorow

russia Scotland is still a financial secrecy exporter, laundering billions for Russia's crime-bosses and oligarchs Cory Doctorow

siberia A trip to Siberia inspired "Madness Treads Lightly" Polina Dashkova

History What to do with Confederate statues? James Glaser

trump Occam's Razor and 'the worst case' in Trump's Russia scandal align Jason Weisberger

puzzles Excellent $5 puzzle book: The Moscow Puzzles: 359 Mathematical Recreations Mark Frauenfelder

#trumprussia New secretary of commerce Wilbur Ross has ties to illicit Russian finance Mark Frauenfelder

Soviet Union Mechanical movements of the Cold War: how the Soviets revolutionized wristwatches Ben Marks

picks John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, hospitalized in declining health at 95 Xeni Jardin

politics Left-wing activists across the former USSR launch "September," to rally opposition to far-right movements Cory Doctorow

not food Vegan restaurant in Tblisi, Georgia says that neo-Nazis pelted it with meat Cory Doctorow