The wrong machine
The weekend despatch: American companies, hired by the White House to break into computers overseas. Off Angola’s Lisima Plateau, a survey team’s palm-sized beetles and blue spiders. + Who is Rustie?
‘A shield of peace’
The weekend despatch: A new military alliance is taking applications. An unknown ancestor is in every human genome. + Who is Kurt Ballou?
Buying time
The weekend despatch: Engineers from America’s leading AI labs, all asking Washington to help them cool things down. Astronomers listening for alien signals, now opening up beyond a band they’ve been using for decades. + Who is Vini Reilly?
To the victor …
The weekend despatch: In Budapest, the machinery of the old order, handed to the people who ran against it. A 25-kilometer crater in the Quebec bush that no one noticed for 390 million years. + How rare are creative multi-hyphenates in Hollywood?
Oil, oil, everywhere
The weekend despatch: A petrostate lines up for petrol. The discovery in Egypt of a town that buried its dead with gold on their tongues. + Is time slowing down, or are jazz tracks getting longer?
‘There is no road’
The weekend despatch: A Maya city found after 11 centuries, intact in the rainforest. A glow at the center of the galaxy that could be dark matter. + What are Boards of Canada doing in hell?
A 10-day peace
The weekend despatch: Tanker crews back to dodging fire in Hormuz, days after it officially reopens. Bronze Age correspondence, X-rayed through the envelope. + How does FIFA end up with its World Cup anthems?
The art of not losing
The weekend despatch: A war to disarm Iran ends with a pledge to build it up again. Nature, it turns out, is still selecting. + What’s Rock Action Records?
The color of law
The weekend despatch: An unusual disturbance in the U.S. Senate. Sparta’s founding myth, undone. + What was the Neue Slowenische Kunst?
