The New Yorker
Strongmen
Alexandre de Moraes’s efforts to fight extremism online have pitted the Brazilian judge against Jair Bolsonaro, Elon Musk, and Donald Trump. Jon Lee Anderson reports.
Today’s Mix
Regrets, the YouTube Moms Have a Few
The parents who exploit their kids for clicks in Netflix’s “Bad Influence” want you to think they couldn’t have known better.
How Trump’s Tariffs Fit the Autocrat’s Playbook
The President thrives on confrontation and demands supplication. Politicizing the economy creates opportunities for both.
TikTok and the Retreat from Technological Globalization
Global technology companies are becoming table stakes in the struggle to establish whatever new world order is emerging.
The Alien Eye
Sayaka Murata, the author of “Convenience Store Woman,” has gained a cult following by seeing the ordinary world as science fiction. In her newest book to be translated into English, “Vanishing World,” she examines a society in which all children are born through artificial insemination.
The Lede
A daily column on what you need to know.
The Other Side of Signalgate
The extraordinary security breach elicited amusement and shock. An eyewitness in Yemen describes what happened when the bombs started to fall.
The Trump Show Comes to the Kennedy Center
Can the fifty-four-year-old arts hub weather the next four years?
Trump Takes Aim at History
The urge to police the past is a reflexive obsession of autocrats everywhere. What will Trump do to the Smithsonian?
Has Trump’s Legal Strategy Backfired?
Federal judges do not take well to being lied to or treated, as one put it, like idiots.
Trump’s Ego Melts the Global Economy
On a chilly afternoon, the President announced he would single-handedly blow up a century’s worth of globalization.
The “Snow White” Controversy, Like Our Zeitgeist, Is Both Stupid and Sinister
Placing the failure of the live-action remake largely at Rachel Zegler’s feet is almost perversely flattering to her.
Bluesky’s Quest to Build Nontoxic Social Media
X and Facebook are governed by the policies of mercurial billionaires. Bluesky’s C.E.O., Jay Graber, says that she wants to give power back to the user.
The Critics
“A Minecraft Movie” Is a Tale of Two Cinematic Universes
Even a child is unlikely to be entertained by the film’s stream of Minecraft in-jokes—but fans of the director Jared Hess may find something else to excavate.
In “Dying for Sex,” Cancer and Kink Are Just the Beginning
The Michelle Williams-led series, about a woman seeking erotic fulfillment amid a terminal diagnosis, starts off as an unorthodox comedy—then deepens into something far better.
It’s a Typical Small-Town Novel. Except for the Nazis
In “Darkenbloom,” by the Austrian novelist Eva Menasse, the citizens of a European border town have secrets they’d prefer to forget.
Katie Kitamura Knows We’re Faking It
The novelist discusses her new book, “Audition,” the role of performance in everyday life, and the trick of crafting a narrative that functions as a “Rorschach blot.”
Can A.I. Writing Be More Than a Gimmick?
Vauhini Vara consulted ChatGPT to help craft her new book, “Searches.” But the most moving sections are the ones she wrote herself.
The Frick Returns, Richer Than Ever
After a few years away, the Frick Collection reopens with a renovated grandeur that marries Old Master power portraits to a domestic intimacy.
The Best Books We Read This Week
A vivid history that chronicles England’s bloodless taking of New Amsterdam from the Dutch; a twisted novel that examines motherhood and the arbitrary expectations of adulthood; a reverential portrait of the human-feline relationship; and more.
Our Columnists
The Decimation of American R. & D.
The Trump Administration’s assault on public institutions is forcing scientists to abandon their work and the patients who count on it.
Will A.I. Save the News?
Artificial intelligence could hollow out the media business—but it also has the power to enhance journalism.
The Launch of the Torpedo Bat
The New York Yankees quietly brought a physics experiment to the plate. Then came the home-run barrage.
Jonathan Majors’s Shameless Redemption Tour
In “Magazine Dreams,” the actor—who was found guilty of assault—plays a bodybuilder undone by the pressures of image-making.
The Dire Wolf Is Back
Colossal, a genetics startup, has birthed three pups that contain ancient DNA retrieved from the remains of the animal’s extinct ancestors. Is the woolly mammoth next?
Ideas
Who Gets to Define Divorce?
Many recent memoirs chronicle the dissolution of relationships and the dissatisfactions of heterosexual marriages.
Why Catullus Continues to Seduce Us
Imbuing his work with a mix of tenderness and obscenity, the Roman poet left a record of a divided and fascinating self.
Welcome to the Preschool Plague Years
Young children bring so much joy into their parents’ lives—and so, so many germs.
What Do Adopted Children Owe Their Birth Parents?
In “Filho,” the filmmaker Tomas Ponsteen, who was adopted from Brazil, grapples with whether or not to search for his biological mother.
That Sad Young Man at the Riviera
“The Great Gatsby,” with its glitzy Jazz Age parties and insatiable American desires, turns a hundred this week. During his life, the book’s celebrity author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was dogged by accusations that he was both too good-looking and drank too much. In a winking 1926 Profile, John C. Mosher caught up with the writer and his wife, Zelda, in France. “All was quiet on the Riviera, and then the Fitzgeralds arrived.”
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
In Case You Missed It
And that’s it; he feels a plummet and a deletion commensurate with the space his mother occupied in his life. Nothing will fill it.Continue reading »
