The search for Syrian war criminals in EuropeIllustrations by George Butler. Source photograph © John MacDougall/AFP/Getty ImagesThe search for Syrian war criminals in EuropeFrom theAdjustShareAnwar al-Bunni, who fled Syria in 2014, was at the time one of the country’s leading human-rights lawyers. Born into a prominent family of leftists, al-Bunni had spent his days drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes on the steps of the Palace of Justice, the seat of the high court in Damascus, where the families of imprisoned dissidents and activists knew they could find him. Al-Bunni himself had been...…The search for Syrian war criminals in EuropeIllustrations by George Butler. Source photograph © John MacDougall/AFP/Getty ImagesThe search for Syrian war criminals in EuropeFrom theAdjustShareAnwar al-Bunni, who fled Syria in 2014, was at the time one of the country’s leading human-rights lawyers. Born into a prominent family of leftists, al-Bunni had spent his days drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes on the steps of the Palace of Justice, the seat of the high court in Damascus, where the families of imprisoned dissidents and activists knew they could find him. Al-Bunni himself had been...WW…

Collective ownership gives power back to poor farmersCharles Sherrod (second from left) at the New Communities farm in Georgia, 1973. Photograph by Joe Pfister. Courtesy New Communities and Open Studio Productions, from Arc of Justice: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Beloved CommunityCollective ownership gives power back to poor farmersFrom theDecton Hylton guided his tractor through a grove of pecan trees whose canopy of leaves filtered the sun. As we drove across the 1,638-acre farm near Albany, Georgia, on a scorching day last October, Hylton told me about the nut’s history in the...…Collective ownership gives power back to poor farmersCharles Sherrod (second from left) at the New Communities farm in Georgia, 1973. Photograph by Joe Pfister. Courtesy New Communities and Open Studio Productions, from Arc of Justice: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Beloved CommunityCollective ownership gives power back to poor farmersFrom theDecton Hylton guided his tractor through a grove of pecan trees whose canopy of leaves filtered the sun. As we drove across the 1,638-acre farm near Albany, Georgia, on a scorching day last October, Hylton told me about the nut’s history in the...WW…

AdjustSharet is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more...…AdjustSharet is an interesting and somewhat macabre parlor game to play at a large gathering of one’s acquaintances: to speculate who in a showdown would go Nazi. By now, I think I know. I have gone through the experience many times—in Germany, in Austria, and in France. I have come to know the types: the born Nazis, the Nazis whom democracy itself has created, the certain-to-be fellow-travelers. And I also know those who never, under any conceivable circumstances, would become Nazis.It is preposterous to think that they are divided by any racial characteristics. Germans may be more...WW…

India’s unending occupation of KashmirBaramulla, a city on the Jhelum River, thirty miles northwest of Srinagar, Kashmir. All photographs from Kashmir, August 2019 © Abid Bhat. Bhat’s work was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.India’s unending occupation of KashmirFrom theOne winter’s night in the Kashmir Valley, the power went out. A bone-piercing cold swept through my hotel room in Srinagar. The next morning, the radiator, the water heater, and all the light switches were useless things. I knew that I would feel isolated in the Valley, given that India had imposed a...…India’s unending occupation of KashmirBaramulla, a city on the Jhelum River, thirty miles northwest of Srinagar, Kashmir. All photographs from Kashmir, August 2019 © Abid Bhat. Bhat’s work was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.India’s unending occupation of KashmirFrom theOne winter’s night in the Kashmir Valley, the power went out. A bone-piercing cold swept through my hotel room in Srinagar. The next morning, the radiator, the water heater, and all the light switches were useless things. I knew that I would feel isolated in the Valley, given that India had imposed a...WW…

July 7, 2020The below letter will be appearing in the Letters section of the magazine’s October issue. We welcome responses at letters@harpers.orgInstitutions are listed for identification purposes only.×…July 7, 2020The below letter will be appearing in the Letters section of the magazine’s October issue. We welcome responses at letters@harpers.orgInstitutions are listed for identification purposes only.×WW…

AdjustShareTheses on a philosophy of newsThis is what I feared, that she would speak about the news . . . about how her father always said that the news exists so it can disappear, this is the point of news, whatever story, wherever it is happening. We depend on the news to disappear . . .—Don DeLillo, “Hammer and Sickle”What a story. What a fucking story.—Dean Baquet, on the election of Donald TrumpStills from Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, which is currently screening at Northwest Film Forum, in Seattle. Beginning in 1979, Stokes recorded television around the clock for over thirty...…AdjustShareTheses on a philosophy of newsThis is what I feared, that she would speak about the news . . . about how her father always said that the news exists so it can disappear, this is the point of news, whatever story, wherever it is happening. We depend on the news to disappear . . .—Don DeLillo, “Hammer and Sickle”What a story. What a fucking story.—Dean Baquet, on the election of Donald TrumpStills from Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, which is currently screening at Northwest Film Forum, in Seattle. Beginning in 1979, Stokes recorded television around the clock for over thirty...WW…

How Google, Amazon, and Facebook control our livesIllustrations by Doug Chayka. Source images © iStockHow Google, Amazon, and Facebook control our livesFrom theAdjustSharePopular histories present the Boston Tea Party as a rebellion against taxes. Yet what the colonists objected to more than anything was the idea of an all-powerful corporate middleman regulating commerce. They viewed the 1773 protest in Boston Harbor as a victory for liberty and a blow against the British East India Company’s trade monopoly.That corporation owed its dominance not to any proprietary advantage but to an...…How Google, Amazon, and Facebook control our livesIllustrations by Doug Chayka. Source images © iStockHow Google, Amazon, and Facebook control our livesFrom theAdjustSharePopular histories present the Boston Tea Party as a rebellion against taxes. Yet what the colonists objected to more than anything was the idea of an all-powerful corporate middleman regulating commerce. They viewed the 1773 protest in Boston Harbor as a victory for liberty and a blow against the British East India Company’s trade monopoly.That corporation owed its dominance not to any proprietary advantage but to an...WW…

Life in a cop-free zoneIllustrations by Hokyoung KimLife in a cop-free zoneFrom theAdjustShareAbu Bakr Bryant had been sleeping in his red Monte Carlo for three weeks when George Floyd was murdered by the police. Most nights, he parked his car near the Cup Foods market in South Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed. But as he headed back across town from a temp job on May 29, four days after Floyd’s death, protesters blocked the streets. Bryant watched from the driver’s seat as crowds marched, chanted, and overturned trash cans. Looting had begun in the neighborhood the previous night, and...…Life in a cop-free zoneIllustrations by Hokyoung KimLife in a cop-free zoneFrom theAdjustShareAbu Bakr Bryant had been sleeping in his red Monte Carlo for three weeks when George Floyd was murdered by the police. Most nights, he parked his car near the Cup Foods market in South Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed. But as he headed back across town from a temp job on May 29, four days after Floyd’s death, protesters blocked the streets. Bryant watched from the driver’s seat as crowds marched, chanted, and overturned trash cans. Looting had begun in the neighborhood the previous night, and...WW…

Selling the story of disinformationIllustrations by Dan BejarSelling the story of disinformationAdjustShareIn the beginning, there were ABC, NBC, and CBS, and they were good. Midcentury American man could come home after eight hours of work and turn on his television and know where he stood in relation to his wife, and his children, and his neighbors, and his town, and his country, and his world. And that was good. Or he could open the local paper in the morning in the ritual fashion, taking his civic communion with his coffee, and know that identical scenes were unfolding in households...…Selling the story of disinformationIllustrations by Dan BejarSelling the story of disinformationAdjustShareIn the beginning, there were ABC, NBC, and CBS, and they were good. Midcentury American man could come home after eight hours of work and turn on his television and know where he stood in relation to his wife, and his children, and his neighbors, and his town, and his country, and his world. And that was good. Or he could open the local paper in the morning in the ritual fashion, taking his civic communion with his coffee, and know that identical scenes were unfolding in households...WW…

What happens when we talk to animals?Linocuts by Jonathan Gibbs for Harper's MagazineWhat happens when we talk to animals?From theAdjustShareWhen the crow whisperer appeared at the side gate to Adam Florin and Dani Fisher’s house, in Oakland, California, she was dressed head to toe in black, wearing a hoodie, gloves, and a mask. This was a few weeks into the coronavirus lockdown, so Adam initially took her garb to be a sign of precautionary vigilance. In fact, it was a disguise. “It’s so the crows don’t recognize me and—no offense—start associating me with you.”Adam found this odd, but he...…What happens when we talk to animals?Linocuts by Jonathan Gibbs for Harper's MagazineWhat happens when we talk to animals?From theAdjustShareWhen the crow whisperer appeared at the side gate to Adam Florin and Dani Fisher’s house, in Oakland, California, she was dressed head to toe in black, wearing a hoodie, gloves, and a mask. This was a few weeks into the coronavirus lockdown, so Adam initially took her garb to be a sign of precautionary vigilance. In fact, it was a disguise. “It’s so the crows don’t recognize me and—no offense—start associating me with you.”Adam found this odd, but he...WW…