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Arts, Culture & Media
I'll never think of Rubik's Cube in the same way again, after Snowden
The World
May 19, 2014
On the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube, PRI's The World Host Marco Werman muses on how icons like Rubik's Cube and Jell-O have forever been altered by the roles they played in history.
Global Politics
Spying on friends doesn't necessarily make them enemies
The World
July 10, 2014
Germany says it has uncovered American spies, and Chancellor Angela Merkel is "unamused." But even after the Germans ordered the removal of a CIA official in Berlin, the flap is unlikely to change much in the US-German relationship.
Conflict
Hamas tries to send a message to Israel — with an unprecedented mass execution
The World
August 22, 2014
Hamas' public execution of suspected Israeli spies sent a clear message: If you work with Israel, you'll pay the steepest possible price. But the killings come after top commanders died in Israeli airstrikes, which could mean that the group is deeply vulnerable to Israeli intelligence.
Justice
Here's what happens when a spy sleeps with his targets
The World
September 04, 2014
This is the story of Bob and Jacqui — Bob Lambert was a British police spy who worked in counterterrorism and Jacqui fell in love with the man she thought was a Greenpeace activist. Now, decades later, their relationship is at the center of a lawsuit over "rape by the state."
Justice
After five years in a Cuban jail, an American contractor is 'literally wasting away'
The World
December 03, 2014
USAID contractor Alan Gross completed his fifth year in a Cuban jail on Wednesday, and his family says his mental state is deteriorating rapidly. But a proposal for a prisoner swap with Cuba is still too much of a political lightning rod.
Culture
Entrepreneurs around the world love this Soviet-era storytelling game
The World in Words
December 04, 2014
The psychological game "Mafia" pits a well-connected minority against a civilian majority. It was invented in the Soviet Union as sort of spoof of KGB thinking, but it has gone global. The Russian government uses it to train spies, and would-be entrepreneurs around the world play it to practice their negotiating skills.
Books
A huge intelligence screw-up turned the government and private companies into cyberwarfare partners
The World
December 08, 2014
Today, many private companies have serious cybersecurity chops — but it hasn't been that way for long. Journalist Shane Harris describes the major hacking incident that forced corporations to get serious about cyberwarfare in an excerpt from his book, "@WAR: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex."
Justice
Moscow gets formal blame for the 2006 killing of a dissident in London
The World
January 27, 2015
A court of inquiry in London has accused Russia of a "miniature nuclear attack" on the British capital. The inquiry says 2006 murder of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with radioactive material, appears to have been carried out at Moscow's behest, but the evidence is still secret.
Conflict
Russia's 'incompetent' spies get nabbed in New York, but here's why it doesn't matter
The Takeaway
January 27, 2015
The FBI has uncovered a Russian spy ring in New York and arrested one of its members — even though the spies didn't accomplish much at all. So are the arrests just a way for the US to distract from its lack of bargaining power as Russia steps up its involvement in Ukraine again?
Global Politics
Argentina's president declares war on 'the power behind the power' — her country's spies
The World
January 27, 2015
The Secretaría de Inteligencia allegedly got its start helping Nazis move to Argentina. It's now a powerful spy agency that the president of Argentina is blaming for the recent murder of a prosecutor, and is trying to disband.