Every story that appeared in the number five slot in our Weekly Top 5, all in one place.
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In Hot Pursuit of STS-50, High Seas Scofflaw
What’s in the hold, captain? Oh nothing, just tonnes upon tonnes of illegal Chilean bass — nothing to see here!
A Crime By Any Name
The Trump administration’s commitment to deterring immigration through cruelty has made horrifying conditions in detention facilities inevitable.
How a Hurricane’s Trailing Winds Retold Willie Earle’s 1947 Mass Lynching
“Even with a preponderance of evidence and testimonies, every man on trial got away with murder. This fact was not front-page news but tucked beneath odd stories called ‘Flashes of Life.'”
“What Do I Know To Be True?”: Emma Copley Eisenberg on Truth in Nonfiction, Writing Trauma, and The Dead Girl Newsroom
“We were interested in dead girls, but so interested in them that we were trying to do the opposite of what had been done before.”
Roxie Laybourne: the World’s First Forensic Ornithologist
“Having spent thousands of hours preparing thousands upon thousands of specimens, Laybourne had accumulated a library’s worth of knowledge about birds.”
They Were Extortionists and the Calls Came from Inside the Prison
“At least 442 service members across almost every branch of the armed forces had been conned—by prisoners—out of a total of more than half a million dollars.”
How the US Spied on Allies and Adversaries Alike
The “United States and its allies exploited other nations’ gullibility for years, taking their money and stealing their secrets.”
The Top 5 Longreads of the Week
This week, we’re sharing stories from John Woodrow Cox, Nathaniel Penn, Len Necefer, Aymann Ismail, and Michael Venutolo-Mantovani.

