Longform

Read recent longform news stories on Newser.com

Stories 1481 - 1500 | << Prev   Next >>

Cub Scouts Boot 8-Year-Old Transgender Boy
Cub Scouts Boot
8-Year-Old Transgender Boy
LONGFORM

Cub Scouts Boot 8-Year-Old Transgender Boy

'How dare they judge me,' says New Jersey's Joe Maldonado

(Newser) - Joe Maldonado was excited about his new Cub Scout pack from the moment he joined it. But the 8-year-old had only been settled into the Secaucus, NJ, group for about a month when his mom received a phone call that stunned his family: He was being kicked out because he...

Iraq Facing Potential 'Catastrophe of Biblical Proportions'

Mosul Dam breach could pose greater threat than ISIS

(Newser) - As Iraqi forces continue their battle against ISIS in Mosul, there's another problem lurking just 25 miles away from the embattled city: the Mosul Dam, a structure the US Army Corps of Engineers has called the "most dangerous dam in the world," per a piece by Dexter...

5 Rwandan Rape Survivors Stood Up and Changed History

But after groundbreaking UN conviction, there's controversy over documentary

(Newser) - For millennia, rape has been considered "a thing men do" during war, as a story at BuzzFeed puts it. Only recently have stories told by the survivors of rape shined a light on the price of this brutality—a thing that "ruined our hearts, our bodies, even our...

Meet the Man Who&#39;s &#39;The Best at the Worst Job in the World&#39;
Meet the Man Who's 'the Best
at the Worst Job in the World'
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Meet the Man Who's 'the Best at the Worst Job in the World'

Robert Jensen makes sense of the aftermath of the world's disasters

(Newser) - Robert Jensen is "the best at the worst job in the world"—and it's a job you've probably never given any thought to. Jensen handles the aftermath of terrorist attacks, natural disasters, plane crashes, and more, GQ reports in a haunting profile of the head of...

The US Computer Geek Who May Be ISIS' 2nd in Command

The chilling story of John Georgelas (aka Yahya Abu Hassan) of Texas in the 'Atlantic'

(Newser) - What Yahya Abu Hassan has described as the "best day of his life" involved sneaking his emaciated, pregnant wife and three sick young kids through a barbed-wire fence over the Syrian border to Turkey, where he didn't even say goodbye before they were whisked to safety. That day...

NYC Needed Water, but 4 Little Towns Were in the Way

They're not in the way anymore: Atlas Obscura looks back

(Newser) - A handful of picturesque villages in New York's Catskills region had bleak Christmases 63 years ago—residents were well aware that their homes were about to be deliberately sent underwater for good. It was all in the name of progress, explains a feature at Atlas Obscura . In this case,...

With $1.5M, the 'Schindler' of Canada Has Saved 200

Jim Estill has given Syrian refugees new life in Canada

(Newser) - The quote near the top of the story is this: "I didn't want to be 80 years old and know that I did nothing during the greatest humanitarian crisis of my time." It's from Jim Estill, CEO of the Danby appliance company in Guelph, Ontario, and...

They Came to the Bronx for a New Life, Found Death

Sisters Ibanez Ambrose, 2, and Scylee Ambrose, 1, died Dec. 7

(Newser) - It was a tragedy covered by all the local papers: Sisters Ibanez Ambrose, 2, and Scylee Ambrose, 1, died after a valve popped off the radiator in their bedroom on Dec. 7, filling it with scalding steam. And while that bedroom was in the Bronx, the family wasn't from...

Tracing the Origins of the Year's Biggest News Hoax

BuzzFeed explores how an infamous pope-Trump story came to be

(Newser) - Of all the fake news stories that circulated before the election, one stands above the rest: The tall tale that Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump was shared more than any other on social media. So how did it come to be? A BuzzFeed investigation traces it back to a network...

They Starved Her, Kept Her in a Dog Crate&mdash;and Then She Died
They Starved Her,
Kept Her in a
Dog Crate—and
Then She Died
in case you missed it

They Starved Her, Kept Her in a Dog Crate—and Then She Died

The short, tragic life of 3-year-old Crystal Reyes, and how her cold case got reopened

(Newser) - "Dig deeper." Those were the last two words Anna Reyes said to Avelino Tamala before the tiny body of her daughter, Crystal, was lowered into the ground in April 1997, and a chilling glimpse into the tragic life and death of the 3-year-old at the hands of her...

Candid Q&amp;A With First Man in US to Get Penis Transplant


First US Man With
Penis Transplant
Not Afraid to
Talk About It
in case you missed it

First US Man With Penis Transplant Not Afraid to Talk About It

Thomas Manning talks sex, his hopes for the future, and the one thing he 'won't tolerate'

(Newser) - A 64-year-old man became the first in the US to receive a penis transplant in May, and Thomas Manning is now ready to talk about it. In a Q&A with Blair Miller for Boston Magazine , the "not shy" Manning talks about how his life first changed four years...

Where This Mound Stands Was a City Larger Than Paris

Exploring what remains of Cahokia in modern-day Illinois

(Newser) - What drove the rapid decline of the largest city of North America some seven centuries ago? Annalee Newitz takes an up-close look for Ars Technica after traveling to the outskirts of East St. Louis, Ill., this past summer to help archaeologists dig up what evidence they can of Cahokia, which...

One of the Most 'Disgustingly Brilliant' Escapes of All Time

WWII POWs spent months toiling away in excrement to escape from the Germans

(Newser) - A 25-year-old Texan named William Ash and a 21-year old from Quebec named Eddy Asselin climbed into a toilet and dropped into a sewage pit—and that's how the story of "one of history's most disgustingly brilliant escape schemes" begins on Narratively . Stephen Dando-Collins presents this excerpt...

In Germany, a Neo-Nazi Trial Has Troubling Undertones

Guardian report suggests nation allows these groups to thrive

(Newser) - A criminal trial underway in Germany is straightforward enough: A woman named Beate Zschaepe is accused of helping two Neo-Nazi male friends pull off a string of immigrant murders over several years beginning in 2000. The two men are dead and the 41-year-old Zschaepe, who faces life in prison, says...

Ta-Nehisi Coates Reflects on Obama's Place in History

Atlantic writer says he's one of our greatest presidents

(Newser) - In the new Atlantic cover story, one of the nation's most prominent black voices provides a lengthy assessment of the nation's first black president. The 17,000-word piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates makes clear that Coates considers Obama a man worthy of high esteem. After noting that Obama's...

Mystery Death Perhaps Tied to Poison, Profits, and Putin

No one is sure who killed Alexander Perepilichny (or if he was killed), but signs point to Kremlin

(Newser) - A healthy 44-year-old man collapses while jogging in a posh London suburb and dies an "unexplained" death, per police, and of course there's more to this already intriguing-sounding story. Jeffrey E. Stern wades through the weeds of the mysterious 2012 death of Alexander Perepilichny for the Atlantic , detailing...

It Might Be the Greatest Food Crime in History
It Might Be the Greatest
Food Crime in History
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

It Might Be the Greatest Food Crime in History

'Vanity Fair' takes a deep dive into maple syrup theft of 2012

(Newser) - It was an epic heist and the most Canadian crime ever, to boot: Back in 2012, thieves stole 540,000 gallons of maple syrup worth at least $13 million. It was nothing less than mind-boggling, writes Rich Cohen at Vanity Fair . "It felt less like a crime than a...

Comatose Patient&#39;s 16-Year Mystery Is Solved
Comatose Patient's
16-Year Mystery Is Solved
in case you missed it

Comatose Patient's 16-Year Mystery Is Solved

Young man from Mexico lay unidentified in a coma all that time

(Newser) - Nobody's exactly sure how it came to be—maybe it was related to a route number or perhaps to the auto shop that handled the accident—but a comatose patient lying in a hospital bed in California came to be legally identified as Sixty-Six Garage. His caretakers didn't...

Nearly Killed as Babies, Here's What Happened to the 'Avondale Quads'

Quadruplets are 18 now, have defied the odds for years

(Newser) - Eighteen years ago, the "Avondale Quads" were born to a couple living in a small one-bedroom apartment in Avondale, Arizona. Thanks to news articles about the impending birth of the quadruplets, donations of money and baby necessities poured in for Elizabeth Whittle and Anthony Perez. Despite the donations and...

Woman Flees Dad&#39;s Cult After 30 Years
Escape After 30
Years as an
'Unperson'
LONGFORM

Escape After 30 Years as an 'Unperson'

'New Yorker' tells horrifying story of 'Rosie,' who grew up in dad's South London cult

(Newser) - In 2013, a 30-year-old woman named Rosie escaped from a life of captivity—and her story, as told by Simon Parkin in the New Yorker , is a terrifying one of human imprisonment, beatings, and mind games. She grew up shuttled from one rundown South London home to another, always with...

Stories 1481 - 1500 | << Prev   Next >>