What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon

GABRIEL MALAYA/AFP/Getty Images

“World to Peace Corps: Skilled Volunteers Needed,” by Nicholas Benequista for the Christian Science Monitor. Last year, Ethiopian officials politely told the Peace Corps that they needed people with serious expertise, not just unskilled young adults brimming with enthusiasm. Soon, they could be getting more of what they want. For more on the challenges facing the government agency, check out “Think Again: Peace Corps.”

Mike Boyer

“The Truth About Putin and Medvedev,” in the New York Review of Books. Amy Night reviews Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov’s Putin: The Results: An Independent Expert Report, a publication which the Kremlin has gone out of its way to make sure ordinary Russians know nothing about. And understandably. Its results are damning, to say the least.

Blake Hounshell

“World Bank backs anti-AIDS experiment,” by Andrew Jack in the Financial Times. Call it “reverse prostitution.” In a novel experiment, a consortium of groups is paying rural Tanzanians not to contract STDs.

Joshua Keating

“Russia’s region of ‘lawlessness’” by James Rodgers of BBC News. Chechnya, which lies inside Russia’s “zone of anti-terrorist operations,” is typically entirely off-limits to foreign journalists. The BBC’s correspondent hitched a ride with a Council of Europe delegation and found a place where appearances have improved but “something terrible has clearly happened.”

Prerna Mankad

“Hedge funds muck in down on the farm,” in the Financial Times. James Macintosh and Kate Burgess highlight the latest financial industry trend: hedge funds buying up acres of farmland across Australia, South America, and Eastern Europe. If food prices continue to rise as they are betting, a few rich people will likely get a whole lot richer.