Longform’s Picks of the Week
The best stories from around the world.
Every weekend, Longform highlights its favorite international articles of the week. For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow @longform on Twitter. Have an iPad? Download Longform's new app and read all of the latest in-depth stories from dozens of magazines, including Foreign Policy.
Every weekend, Longform highlights its favorite international articles of the week. For daily picks of new and classic nonfiction, check out Longform or follow @longform on Twitter. Have an iPad? Download Longform’s new app and read all of the latest in-depth stories from dozens of magazines, including Foreign Policy.
The Shooting Star and The Model
Mark Seal • Vanity Fair
Inside the Oscar Pistorius murder case.
“What do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow?,” Reeva tweeted the day before she died. However, during what sounded like an argument in Pistorius’s house between two and three A.M., according to Hilton Botha, “witnesses said they heard a lady scream, and they heard bullet shots fired, and then they heard a scream again and then another few shots fired.”
“She wanted to make herself heard,” said Sarit Tomlinson. “And she did.” Gina Myers added, “I can’t imagine living my life without her, but I know that something good will come out of it. People have heard her and will continue to hear her. She has become an icon.”
ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images
Ashley Harrell, Lindsay Fendt • SB Nation
A profile of Costa Rica’s most famous bull, who is responsible for two riders’ deaths and a brand of craft beer.
Immediately after the fall, Malacrianza sprang back to his feet, as if embarrassed by his clumsiness. With no interest in the unconscious Cubillo, the bull whipped around and charged an improvisado, knocking him over. Malacrianza continued to trot around the ring while two men grabbed Cubillo’s arms and legs and carried his limp body away.
Though Cubillo was rushed to the hospital and treated for excessive brain injuries, two days later, he was dead.
“He killed my brother,” montador Willy Cubillo told the press shortly after the incident. Then he said something surprising. “Now I want to ride him.”
MAYELA LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
The Heartbreaking Saga of Zhu Ling
Kevin Morris • The Daily Dot
How the case of a poisoned college student in China, cold for 18 years, has suddenly turned into “what may be the largest amateur online manhunt in history.”
The longer Zhu Ling’s poisoner remains unpunished, the deeper anger settles into the bones of China’s Internet.
“The intelligent, diligent, multi talented, and beautiful Zhu Ling … represents every Chinese parent’s dream and is every young Chinese student’s role model,” China Files Sun Yunfan wrote last week. “For 19 years many people in China have believed that her dreams were shattered by someone with a powerful family, and that justice could not be served because the ‘ruling class’ was above the rules.”
CCTV/YouTube
Katerine Eban • Fortune
An investigation into widespread criminal fraud at a generic drug company.
The two men strolled into the hall to order tea from white-uniformed waiters. As they returned, Kumar said, “We are in big trouble,” and motioned for Thakur to be quiet. Back in his office, Kumar handed him a letter from the World Health Organization. It summarized the results of an inspection that WHO had done at Vimta Laboratories, an Indian company that Ranbaxy hired to administer clinical tests of its AIDS medicine. The inspection had focused on antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that Ranbaxy was selling to the South African government to save the lives of its AIDS-ravaged population.
As Thakur read, his jaw dropped. The WHO had uncovered what seemed to the two men to be astonishing fraud. The Vimta tests appeared to be fabricated. Test results from separate patients, which normally would have differed from one another, were identical, as if xeroxed.
NARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images
The Unstoppable Force vs. the Immovable Object
Noah Feldman • Foreign Policy
Could the United States really go to war with China?
This is the central global question of our as-yet-unnamed historical moment. What will happen now that America’s post-Cold War engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan have run their courses and U.S. attention has pivoted to Asia? Can the United States continue to engage China while somehow hedging against the strategic threat it poses? Can China go on seeing the United States as both an object of emulation and a barrier to its rightful place on the world stage?
The answer to these questions is a paradox: the paradox of Cool War.
Pool/Getty Images News
For daily picks from around the web, check out Longform or download Longform for iPad.
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