Newsweek August 21, 2015

Approach the massive Orathupalayam Dam by road, and it quickly becomes clear that something has gone terribly wrong. Within 2 miles of the dam, the lush rice paddies, coconut palms and banana trees that have characterized this part of southern India suddenly give way to a parched, bright red landscape, dotted only with scrub forest. The Noyyal River, which used to be clean and clear, now runs foamy and green, polluted with the toxic runoff of the titanic textile industry 20 miles to the west, in Tirupur. At first glance, Tirupur, aka “Knit City,” appears to be an exemplar of how globalization can improve the developing world. The garment industry here in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu earns billions of dollars annually, employs about a half-million people and exports…

When Charles Darwin set sail from Plymouth, England, on the HMS Beagle in 1831, the British biologist fell seasick almost immediately, and he remained nauseated for most of the next five years on that ship. Yet the journey, however arduous for Darwin, paid off for the rest of us in one of the greatest scientific theories of all time. After studying the South American coast for several years, Darwin made his way to the Galapagos Islands, where he grew curious about the finches and their various-sized beaks. How, he wondered, had these birds on a small archipelago hundreds of miles from the mainland come to differ so greatly from others of the same species? “We seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact—that mystery of mysteries —the appearance…

At the end of May, during a pause in the Iran nuclear talks in Switzerland, Secretary of State John Kerry was riding his bike around Lake Geneva when he accidentally hit a curb and crashed. This was no ordinary accident. Kerry’s thigh bone broke close to his hip, which doctors had previously replaced. Such a painful injury might have forced another 71-year-old to lie in bed for months. But in just four weeks, Kerry bounced back. Hobbling on crutches in his signature blue suit and pink pastel tie, he flew to Vienna at the end of June for the final round of talks with Tehran. In marathon sessions that often ran into the early hours, Kerry worked through his pain and hammered out what could prove to be one of…

Of all the many missions Walter McIntosh undertook in his long CIA career, buying life-size rubber sex dolls in a Washington, D.C., porno shop was maybe the most memorable. It was all for a good cause, of course, and deadly serious, both for Langley and for McIntosh, who headed the CIA’s disguise unit from 1977 to 1979. The agency’s Moscow operatives were in desperate need of something—anythingto trick Russian counterspies into leaving them alone, if only for a few minutes, so they could meet their secret agents without fear of being arrested. A key operation was in peril. Enter the inflatable sex doll. Tricked out with an ersatz mouth and vagina, the life-size rubberized playthings have been pleasuring lonely men for a century. Modified to a male likeness, appropriately clothed and rigged…

At the first modern Olympics in Athens, Greece, in 1896, spectators watched 300 top athletes battle for gold in nine sports, including gymnastics, swimming and tennis. While those and a few other sports remain a mainstay of the games, the rest of the Olympic roster has fluctuated on the whims of politics and popularity, with sports like rope climbing, roller hockey and live pigeon shooting dropping out and beach volleyball now a fan favorite. Being included in the games is “an incredible milestone” for emerging sports, says Robert “Nob” Rauch, president of the World Flying Disc Federation, which this week celebrated its recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), effectively paving the way for Frisbee sports to possibly be played in future Olympic Games. Being an IOC-recognized sport doesn’t automatically mean a…

The world has to confront an increasingly intractable problem: the growing threat from radical Christian terrorists who have slaughtered thousands of innocents. There’s the loose affiliation of terror groups tied to the Christian Identity movement, as well as the Orange Volunteers, the Army of God, the Phineas Priesthood and many, many others. And those are just the homegrown organizations—Christianity has inspired violent groups overseas that murder and behead people, and rape and kill young children. The Lord’s Resistance Army, a radical fundamentalist Christian group, has committed thousands of murders and kidnappings in the name of Jesus. There’s also the Church of Almighty God in China, the National Liberation Front of Tripura in India and other Christian terrorist organizations around the globe. On top of those are the “lone wolf” terrorists inspired…