The Latest

“Dennis Rhodes, Hawesville, Kentucky, 2013,” by Lisa Elmaleh. Elmaleh, a Harper’s Magazine contributing artist, will show her new series of tintype photographs of old-time musicians at an exhibition called American Folk, opening Thursday, July 17, at Foley Gallery in New York City. For more, please visit the Foley Gallery’s website.

Watch Jessica Bruder on MSNBC’s The Cycle

Against a current of extremist violence, Northern Nigeria struggles to modernise Koranic schools

The United States prepares to return thousands of minors to Central America; Israel launches an offensive in Gaza; and a wildfire traces back to Freddie Smoke

Furthur!, an oil and copper painting on canvas by William Monk, whose work was on view last month at Grimm Gallery, in Amsterdam. Courtesy the artist and De Nederlandsche Bank Art Collection. This image appears in the Readings section of the August 2014 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

Jessica Bruder on the end of retirement, Mary Gordon on the new Vatican, Laura Kipnis on narcissism, and more

An ex–Jehovah’s Witness visits Watchtower headquarters

Will a four-game stint as a World Cup host city improve life in Manaus?

Tensions rise over murders in Israel and Palestine, the VA schedules an appointment for a deceased veteran, and the Vatican legitimizes Catholic exorcists

On the endemic corruption of the global oil industry

From Swim: The Water in Between, a photographic series by Francine Fleischer. Courtesy the artist. This photograph accompanies the Findings section of the July 2014 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

“Belgium is a sniveling little ragamuffin . . .”

Christopher Beha discusses sex tapes as literary vehicle, the celebrity impulse, and the problematic absence of religion in American literature

The U.S. Supreme Court weakens the ACA’s contraception mandate; ISIL attempts to legitimize its territorial gains in the Middle East; and Facebook gives you feelings 

A story

Jeff Sharlet on his collection of essential dispatches, reports, confessions, and other essays on American belief

“He actually said these awful things. But the story is McCarthy’s arrangement of the colonel’s utterance of the words and of her changing perception of their meaning.”

“Tabatioca,” a photo collage by Caio Reisewitz, whose work is currently on view at the International Center of Photography, in New York City. © The artist. Courtesy Luciana Brito Galeria, São Paulo. This photo collage appears in the Readings section of the July 2014 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

From Johnny Cash to “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”

Photographs that push the boundaries of what a photograph can be

A retrospective exhibition from June 27 to September 21 in New York City

Futebol and family in Belo Horizonte during the opening week of the World Cup

Joy, agony, and racism at the 2014 World Cup; ISIL on the march in Iraq; and crowd-surfing to Handel’s Messiah

Andrew Cockburn discusses the origins and possible fate of Nouri al-Maliki’s prime ministership

“AUTOMOBILE. Field Sobriety Test. Photographer Unknown. 07-06-1958,” one in a series of photographs from the archives of the Los Angeles Police Department on view in April at Paris Photo LA. © Los Angeles Police Department. Courtesy Fototeka Los Angeles. This photograph appears in the Readings section of the July 2014 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

The Last Magazine exposes the lies and obfuscations of the march to war in Iraq 

And how it foretold the 2008 financial crisis

ISIS launches a major offensive in Iraq, the 2014 World Cup begins, and Florida keeps on being Florida

The train deaths of Atlas Shrugged