Rukmini Callimachi en The New York Times: «The ISIS Files, When terrorists Run The City Hall». Thousands of internal documents that help explain how the Islamic State stayed in power so long. On five trips to battle-scarred Iraq, journalists  scoured old Islamic State offices, gathering thousands of files abandoned by the militants as their ‘caliphate’ crumbled. La conclusión, o al menos una de ellas, es notable: «The documents and interviews with dozens of people who lived under their rule show that the group at times offered better services and proved itself more capable than the government it had replaced». Y llamativa: «More surprisingly, the documents provide further evidence that the tax revenue the Islamic State earned far outstripped income from oil sales. It was daily commerce and agriculture — not petroleum — that powered the economy of the caliphate».

Amos Harel y Aluf Benn en Haaretz: «No Longer a Secret: How Israel Destroyed Syria’s Nuclear Reactor«.  It was one of the Israeli army’s most successful operations, but was censored for over a decade. Now, a Haaretz investigation goes behind the scenes of the 2007 strike on ‘The Cube,’ shortly before it became an active nuclear reactor: From the intelligence failures and American foot-dragging, to the arguments at the top levels and the threats of a total war with Syria.

Asaf Ronel en Haaretz: «Orgies, Blackmail and anti-Semitism: Inside the Islamic Cult Whose Leader Is Embraced by Israeli Figures» . He has a harem of scantily clad ‘kittens,’ claims the U.K. ‘deep state’ brought Hitler to power and is accused of sex slavery. What draws Israeli politicians and rabbis to Turkish cult leader Adnan Oktar?

Jonathan Izard en The Guardian: «‘I had become a killer‘: how I learned to live again, after running a man over», un texto maravillosamente escrito desde el dolor y el remordimiento más profundo. Un accidente, apenas un instante en una larga vida, y cómo todo cambia para siempre. La depresión, el miedo, y cómo los ánimos llegan de los lugares más inesperados.

Thomeas Meaney en The New Yorker: «A Celebrity Philosopher Explains the Populist Insurgency«. Peter Sloterdijk has spent decades railing against the pieties of liberal democracy. Now his ideas seem prophetic.

Joan Acocella en The New Yorker: «Queen of Crime«.  How Agatha Christie created the modern murder mystery.

Susan Goldberg en National Geographic: «For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It«.  We asked a preeminent historian to investigate our coverage of people of color in the U.S. and abroad. Here’s what he found. Vía Luis Faci.

Andrew Anthony en The Guardian: Six former foreign secretaries on Brexit, Britain… and Boris.

Eric Alder en The Kansas City Star: «Hundreds of Missouri’s 15-year-old brides may have married their rapists«. Un mayor de 21 años no puede tener relaciones sexuales con una menor de 17. Es violación. Salvo que estén casados. Y por eso cientos de parejas van cada año a Missouri a firmar los papeles. Vía Droblo.

María Hernández en El Mundo: «Las últimas raquetistas«. Entre 1917 y 1980, decenas de mujeres del País Vasco y de fuera de la región coparon los frontones de todo el país jugando a la pelota con raquetas de madera. Eran las raquetistas, las primeras mujeres federadas en un deporte en España. Se cree que pudieron ser muchas, cientos incluso, pero apenas quedan algunas con vida. Emili Gómez y Rosa Soroa son dos de ellas, dos de las últimas raquetistas y testigos de aquella época que sí existió.

Reeves Widerlman en NY Magazine: «Gray Hat«.  Marcus Hutchins stopped one of the most dangerous cyberattacks ever. Then the FBI arrested him. Does a hacker hero always have to have a past?

Henry Foy en Financial Times: «Russia’s $55bn pipeline gamble on China’s demand for gas«.  In temperatures below -40°C in Russia’s far eastern wilderness, Gazprom is building a $55bn project to pump gas to China – the country’s most ambitious energy project since the fall of the USSR.

Buen domingo a todos.