The New Yorker
The Guerrilla-Librarian Resistance
A “digital book burning” is under way at federal agencies, laying waste to masses of records. Julian Lucas on the volunteer archivists and data hoarders resisting Trump’s information purge. Can they save the country’s files from DOGE?
Today’s Mix
Uncertainty Is Trump’s Brand. But What if He Already Told Us Exactly What He’s Going to Do?
“Tariff Man” is gonna tariff—and other lessons from the predictably unpredictable President’s return to power.
The Detention of Mahmoud Khalil Is a Flagrant Assault on Free Speech
Whatever legal rationale the Trump Administration cooks up, deporting protesters for things they say is wildly un-American—and possibly unpopular, too.
The Strange Experimental-Theatre Experience Giving New Meaning to “Show, Don’t Tell”
The minds behind “You Me Bum Bum Train,” which has sparked a ticket frenzy, discuss re-creating real-life scenarios, crafting a show that gives people “epiphanies,” and why they ask participants to sign an N.D.A.
The Felling of the U.S. Forest Service
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The Trump Administration has cut two thousand workers, making it harder for the service to fight wildfires and repair storm damage across the country.
The Case of the Missing Elvis
Since 1984, a kitschy plaster bust of the King had sat in the window of 54 Great Jones. A few years ago, bandits made off with it. The tussle over its return stirred up an old New York question: Are we all gentrifying, or being gentrified?
The Lede
A daily column on what you need to know.
Trump Is Still Trying to Undermine Elections
The President has been busy dismantling the guardrails protecting voting and voters.
Who Gets to Determine Greenland’s Future?
Trump’s comments about purchasing the island sent shock waves through the Danish territory, and enlivened its independence movement.
Trump Is Undermining American Science
Federally funded research has been used in many of the defining technologies of our time. This Administration threatens that progress.
What’s Next for Ukraine?
The war’s underlying logic has been flipped on its head since the White House meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump.
The Dangers of R.F.K., Jr.,’s Measles Response
The H.H.S. Secretary has touted over-the-counter remedies and stressed that the decision to vaccinate is “personal.”
Canada, the Northern Outpost of Sanity
Justin Trudeau, in his final week as Prime Minister, tells Donald Trump to shove it.
How Many Immigrants Will Die in U.S. Custody?
More detentions will lead to more deaths, but the Trump Administration has options to conceal the losses.
The Silencing of Russian Art
Vladimir Putin views his country’s cultural sphere like any other sector: a subordinate dominion, which should submit to the state’s needs and interests. What’s been lost?
The Critics
Lady Gaga’s Return to Form
Her new album, “Mayhem,” is a work of self-citation, rummaging around in Gaga’s own past for inspiration. It’s also, somehow, the freshest collection of songs she has released in years.
The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Virgins
How Christianity blurred the line between celibacy and androgyny.
“An Unfinished Film” Puts the Pandemic in the Spotlight
This historical docufiction, directed by Lou Ye, boldly dramatizes the outbreak of *COVID*{: .small} in China by way of its impact on a movie shoot.
Uneven Revivals of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Ghosts”
Paul Mescal and Patsy Ferran star in a heavy-handed production of Tennessee Williams’s masterpiece, and a mismatched cast stumbles around Henrik Ibsen’s haunted classic.
Akram Khan’s “Gigenis” Mines the Drama of Indian Classical Dance
In a piece loosely inspired by the Mahabharata, performers from various traditions enact a dance that feels like a collective ritual of mourning.
Should We View Tatlin as a Russian Constructivist or a Ukrainian?
In “Tatlin: Kyiv,” at the Ukrainian Museum, the revolutionary artist—a star of the avant-garde while the Soviet Union still permitted one—is Volodymyr, not Vladimir.
The Best Books We Read This Week
A vivid account of how the papacy has masked the Church’s stubborn resistance to change; an assiduously researched history that advocates for a reëvaluation of Anne Frank as a human being and a literary artist; an assured novel modelled on the real-life Preppy Murder case; and more.
Goings On
Recommendations on what to read, eat, watch, listen to, and more.
The British Hits Are Coming
Helen Shaw on the bumper crop of London productions in New York’s spring theatre season, and more.
Jesmyn Ward’s Favorite Novels of Bewilderment
The best-selling author recommends four books well worth the work required to understand the worlds they create.
What’s Coming in Culture This Spring
Mary J. Blige at Madison Square; Seth Rogen returns to TV; the Frick reopens; and more seasonal selections from our critics and editors.
The Deliriously Witty Spy Games of “Black Bag”
Justin Chang reviews Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, a caper that hums with style.
The Unchecked Authority of Greg Abbott
The Texas governor is an unlikely MAGA crusader, but he has turned the Lone Star State into ground zero for President Trump’s radical mass-deportation plans.
Our Columnists
Mahmoud Khalil’s Constitutional Rights and the Power of ICE
A legal scholar explains the unusual justification for the Columbia graduate’s arrest, and what it could augur for immigration enforcement in Trump’s second term.
Inside the DOGE Threat to Social Security
A day in the life of a claims rep for America’s largest government program.
Why John Mearsheimer Thinks Trump Is Right on Ukraine
And that the West has misunderstood Vladimir Putin.
The New Literalism Plaguing Today’s Biggest Movies
Buzzy films from “Anora” to “The Substance” are undone by a relentless signposting of meaning and intent.
Ruben Gallego Thinks Liberals Shouldn’t Panic
The new Arizona senator argues that Donald Trump’s agenda is largely popular but destined to fail.
Ideas
So Hot Right Now
Menopause is having a moment. Why does every generation think it’s the first to go through it?
Why I Left the Washington Post
Owner Jeff Bezos wants to transform the Opinions section of the paper, where I worked for forty years.
The End of Children
In the U.S. and around the world, fertility rates are plummeting. Is it a matter of economic necessity, cultural crisis, or moral decay?
Will Democrats Learn How to Build?
Liberals have long emphasized protections over progress. Champions of the “abundance agenda” propose a new political order.
Zyn and the New Nicotine Gold Rush
White snus pouches were designed to help Swedish women quit cigarettes. They’ve become a staple for American dudes.
How the Red Scare Reshaped American Politics
At its height, the political crackdown felt terrifying and all-encompassing. What can we learn from how the movement unfolded—and from how it came to an end?
From the Anniversary Issue
Gary, Indiana, and the Long Shadow of U.S. Steel
Can a company town that’s been called “the most miserable city in America” remake itself?
Fifty Weird Years of “Saturday Night Live”
“SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” delves into cast auditions, “More Cowbell,” and a fateful season in which Lorne Michaels almost lost the show with new experiments.
The Long Flight to Teach an Endangered Ibis Species to Migrate
Our devastation of nature is so extreme that reversing even a small part of it requires painstaking, quixotic efforts.
The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row
Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.
High-School Band Contests Turn Marching Into a Sport—and an Art
Band kids today don’t just parade up and down the field playing fight songs. They flow across it in shifting tableaux, with elaborate themes and spandex-clad dancers.
Lost and Found: A Newly Discovered Poem by Robert Frost
“Nothing New,” which the American poet wrote in 1918, is published for the first time in The New Yorker’s Anniversary Issue.
The Power of Pi
“Every March 14th, mathematicians like me are prodded out of our burrows like Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day, blinking and bewildered by all the fuss,” Steven Strogatz wrote, on the occasion of Pi Day in 2015. He explains what it is about the famous ratio that makes it so deserving of celebration.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
Will Harvard Bend or Break?
Power struggles at America’s oldest university—conflicts over free speech, the politicized pulling of funding, and individuals being put on leave—echo the headlines out of Washington and raise questions about the soul of higher education.
In Case You Missed It
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