Opinion: Poland will be the EU's biggest challenge in 2018

Poland refuses to reinstate the rule of law, yet happily accepts EU funding. Authorities in Brussels can no longer accept this. It puts the bloc at risk of falling apart, says DW's Bernd Riegert.
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How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt

George Papadopoulos, a Trump foreign policy adviser, was the improbable match that set off a blaze that has consumed the first year of the Trump administration.
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Digital residency pays off big for Estonia

Estonia is expected to get a 100-to-one-euro return on investment for its e-Residency program, which lets anybody start a business from afar. It is even planning to launch ‘estcoins,’ its own cryptocurrency.
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Westminster Abbey's attics yield a treasure trove of stained glass

Archaeologists clearing attics to create new museum space find 30,000 stained glass shards, some dating back to 13th century
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The Most Expensive Mile of Subway Track on Earth

How excessive staffing, little competition, generous contracts and archaic rules dramatically inflate capital costs for transit in New York.
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Is this the future? Dutch plan vast windfarm island in North Sea

Advanced plans by Dutch power grid aims to build power hub possibly at Dogger Bank whose scale would dwarf current offshore sites
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'Unclear, unfunny, delete': editor's notes on Milo Yiannopoulos book revealed

Court documents filed in the US have revealed the editorial concerns of the publisher Simon & Schuster about the manuscript of the “alt-right” controversialist Milo Yiannopoulos’s autobiography Dangerous. Having reportedly secured the book for an advance of $255,000 (£200,000), Simon & Schuster cancelled the deal in February after a recording emerged that appeared to show Yiannopoulos endorsing sex between “younger boys” and older men.
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The hairy secret behind Indian temples.

Where do hairs for fashion wigs and hair extensions come from? The answer is: everywhere, but the majority of them come from China and India, where human hair is a lucrative business. In earlier times, the hair was thrown away into the river. But today they are sold to vendors in western countries through online auctions that fetches the temple between $3 to $6 million every year. Everyday between 500 to 600 barbers working in rotation shave over 20,000 heads. Baskets filled with hair are collected every six hours and stored in a vast warehouse where it is piled knee deep.
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How Author Timothy Tyson Found the Woman at the Center of the Emmett Till Case

With a renewed cultural interest in the 1955 murder that catalyzed the 20th century civil rights movement, an interview with the author of a new book who tracked down the long-hidden woman at its center.
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Spicy Prawns with Spinach & Coconut Recipe

Prawns and coconut, how can you go wrong?
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As Putin seethes over Olympic ban, doping whistleblower fears for his life

The whistleblower who exposed Russia’s systematic doping of Olympic athletes has been warned by U.S. officials that Russian agents may be inside the United States looking for him and that new security measures needed to be taken to insure his safety, the lawyer for the whistleblower tells Yahoo News.
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Vietnam Deploys 10,000 Cyber Warriors to Fight ‘Wrongful Views’

Vietnam is deploying a 10,000-member military cyber warfare unit to combat what the government sees as a growing threat of “wrongful views” proliferating on the internet, according to local media.
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Russia is going to attack our next election. The Trump administration may not even try to stop it.

It was even worse in 2016 than we knew. And our government may be paralyzed in the face of the threat.
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The poorest countries by GDP are pristine paradises everyone should visit

Almost all poorest countries in world by GDP are paradise islands located far away from modern civilization.
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On Christmas Eve in Ukraine, the Church Is Chilly (or Is It?)

I celebrated Christmas with relatives in the village of Shutromynsti. There were many courses, multiple toasts, piercing memories and joyful singing.
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China to Overtake U.S. Economy by 2032 as Asian Might Builds

The growing importance of Asia’s major economies will continue in 2018 and beyond, according to a league table that sees the region dominating in terms of size in just over a decade.
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The Ghost That Haunts Grant’s Memoirs

T.J. Stiles discusses a new, completely annotated edition of Grant’s memoirs, edited by John F. Marszalek, with David S. Nolen and Louie Gallo.
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No 'shame' in Polish punk band's prophetic songs from the past

Adam Sobolewski is the drummer for Polish punk band Hańba! The band sets music to lyrics by anti-fascist poets of the 1920s and '30s. The content is eerily prophetic. For example, there's a tune about radio-controlled empty planes.
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I have a mental illness, let me die

Adam Maier-Clayton had a mental condition which caused his body to feel severe physical pain. He fought for those with mental illness to have the right to die in Canada. Adam took his own life in April 2017.
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Ron Chernow’s Grant Is Popular History at its Best

A new biography of the 18th president manages to avoid the pitfalls of what has become a highly lucrative genre.
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Only a United Opposition Can Defeat Poland’s Ruling Law and Justice Party

When, back in April 2015, I had the honour and pleasure of setting up NowoczesnaPL with Ryszard Petru and 19 other eminent individuals, we didn’t expect that Law and Justice (PiS) would be able to ruin Poland to the extent that it has. For ruining the country is exactly what it is doing.
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Opinion | Poland is illegally dismantling its own constitution. Can the E.U. do anything?

The outcome will have far-reaching consequences for other member states.
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Summary: European Commission Addresses Judicial Independence in Poland

The European Commission has taken new steps to address concerns about judicial independence and the rule of law in Poland.
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Poland broke my heart

I want to go back to feeling I can be both Polish and Jewish, but Poland is making that increasingly
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Gigantic Sculptures of Cats Wearing Helmets by Kenji Yanobe

The Japanese sculptor Kenji Yanobe is known for his large-scale robotic and nightmarish toys. But animals too have always played an important role in Yanobe’s work too. And in his latest work titled Ship’s Cat, Yanobe has created a series of large-scale cat sculptures in various positions wearing protective helmets.
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The Story of Cudjo Lewis — The Last Living Slave Brought To America

As a slave, he went by the name "Cudjo," a day-name given to boys born on a Monday, as the slavers could not pronounce the name "Kossola."
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How recreational marijuana in California left chemists in the dark

On a gray afternoon in early November, Samantha Miller supervised a handful of people in long white coats while they placed very delicate samples into very expensive machines.
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Tiananmen Square death toll 'was 10,000'

The figure for the pro-democracy killings in Beijing in 1989 comes from newly-released UK cables.
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Andrew Sullivan: Putin’s First Year in the White House

How successful has the Kremlin’s investment in shaping America’s governance been?
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The Browns live in Hell

Chart Party
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Frozen Baikal Lake

The Baikal Lake is an ancient rift lake located on the Mongolian Border. It is said to be the deepest freshwater lake in the world, and freezes during the winter.
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President Lincoln’s Last Christmas

The character of American Christmas changed as a result of the Civil War
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The monster beneath

Everyone has heard of Vesuvius but the caldera of Campi Flegrei is a far more dangerous volcano. Helen Gordon travels to Naples to understand the enormous threat it poses
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Hard Times in Trump Country

Over the course of a year, photographer Stacy Kranitz documented life in the Ohio River Valley, where voters went for Trump by wide margins. By Alice Speri.
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These Eerie Civil War Photos Changed How the U.S. Saw Veterans

Reed Bontecou's groundbreaking photography used a new medium to bring attention to the wounds of war
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The Greatest Leap, Part 3: The triumph and near-tragedy of the first Moon landing

Across the cislunar blackness, we set sail for a landing that almost didn't happen.
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The Soviet Era's Deadliest Scientist Is Regaining Popularity in Russia

Trofim Lysenko’s spurious research prolonged famines that killed millions. So why is a fringe movement praising his legacy?
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The Amargosa River Defies the Desert

The slender, delicate stream flows through the Mojave, giving life to plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.
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Dragon of Afghanistan: Bruce Lee lookalike adored by youth, reviled by Islamic fundamentalists

People on the streets of Kabul call Abbas Alizada the “Afghan Bruce Lee.” After his striking resemblance to the Chinese martial arts icon made him a social media star, he took a year to work on himself and become even more like his hero. His makeover was a smashing success. Today, Abbas uses his celebrity to inspire other young Afghan athletes, but fame has come with a price – he now must be wary every time he leaves his house.
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Silicon Valley Is Turning Into Its Own Worst Fear

We asked a group of writers to consider the forces that have shaped our lives in 2017. Here, science fiction writer Ted Chiang looks at capitalism, Silicon Valley, and its fear of superintelligent AI.
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World's steepest funicular railway starts chugging up Swiss mountainside

Funicular railways are cable-based train lines that shuttle carriages up steep inclines, and they don't come any steeper than the Stoosbahn that has just opened in Switzerland that connects the mountain village of Stoos to the valley below.
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Deliverance From 27,000 Feet

Two mountain climbers died near the top of Mount Everest in 2016. Their bodies lay frozen there for a year. Then a journey began to bring them home.
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The Fascinating Hidden History of London Railings

There’s a surprising link between railings and the capital’s wartime past
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0% of Icelanders aged 25 or younger believe world was created by God

No Icelanders taking part in a new poll who were aged 25 or younger and identify themselves as Christians believe the world was created by God. The poll, commissioned by the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, an association of atheists, documented that a record low number of Icelanders – 4.4 percent – say they are religious.
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Analysis | Hurricane Maria killed 64 Puerto Ricans. Another 1,000 died because the disaster response was inadequate.

The U.S. excels at delivering international humanitarian relief. But FEMA has a different mission.
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The Russian Villagers Living In The Shadow Of A Nuclear Tragedy

People still live in shadow of Mayak, site of one of history's most hushed-up nuclear disasters.
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Why Don’t Americans Eat Horse?

It's common in many cultures, but diners in the U.S. aren't ready for it
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The mystery of the baby in the box

Robin was abandoned as a baby 74 years ago. Now thanks to DNA and his daughter's detective work he finally knows where he came from.
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The Snowflake Photographer

A Russian man uses Soviet-made lenses to reveal the magical world of snowflakes.
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As Venezuela Collapses, Children Are Dying of Hunger

For five months, The New York Times tracked 21 public hospitals in Venezuela. Doctors are seeing record numbers of children with severe malnutrition. Hundreds have died.
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