Today’s required reading: Romney’s Euro vision, the London Olympics from Ai Weiwei’s point of view and reports of renewed repression in Mali.
TIME Exclusive: Meet the Islamist Militants Fighting Alongside Syria’s Rebels
As foreign jihadists rally around the cause of Syria’s rebels, TIME meets two factions of Islamist fighters seeking to overthrow the Assad regime and set up a political state in their image
Heavy Rain Wreaks Havoc Across China
Heavy rain has battered 17 Chinese provinces since July 20, leaving 95 dead and another 45 missing, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Beijing received it’s worst rainfall in more than 60 years and the Yangtze River …
Forged Transcripts and Fake Essays: How Unscrupulous Agents Get Chinese Students into U.S. Schools
Because many Chinese students have trouble making sense of the American admissions process, a huge industry of education agents has arisen in China to help guide them — and, in some cases, to do whatever it takes to get them accepted
Requiem for a Cuban Dissident: Why Oswaldo Payá Spooked Castro
The untimely death of Oswaldo Payá leaves Cuba bereft of a charismatic dissident who sought a middle path between the hardline dogmas of both his country’s communist rulers and right-wing exiles abroad
A Sudden Death in Ghana: President John Atta Mills (1944-2012)
Though Mills’ passing was sudden, the encouraging sign was the smoothness with which Ghana’s democratic processes kicked into gear
Eight Charged: It’s the Beginning of the End of the Hacking Scandal
The scandal that laid bare the workings of British public life, the clubby cosiness between the police and the popular press, politicians and newspaper proprietors—in particular, Rupert Murdoch—is finally wrapping up.
Do U.S. Gun Laws Make All of North America Less Safe?
While a real conversation over gun control in the U.S. is a domestic nonstarter, neighboring countries end up suffering from lax American laws
Where Terrorists Have Tanks: A Ride Through al-Qaeda Country
TIME’s Bobby Ghosh and Yuri Kozyrev embedded with a Yemeni unit in early July as it patrolled territory only recently reclaimed from al-Qaeda and its proxies.
Must-Reads from Around the World, July 25, 2012
Among today’s picks: An endless battle in eastern Syria, melting ice, and the CNOOC-Nexen deal.
A Leftist Powwow: Hollande Welcomes Cameron Foe to the Élysée
U.K. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband arrived at the Élysée as the first British dignitary to call on French President François Hollande since the Socialist’s May election victory, generating speculation (and denials) that the …
“It's not like an Indiana Jones flick where you go through a door and there it is. It's not like that—it's never like that.”
China’s Newest City Raises Threat of Conflict in South China Sea
China has declared its establishment of a municipal settlement on a disputed island chain in the South China Sea. The move, combined with an earlier announcement about the islands’ militarization, further raises tensions in this …