The New Yorker
How a Kansas Megachurch Pastor Might Determine Who Wins the Senate
Adam Hamilton’s campaign is a test of whether Democrats can find religion. Emma Green reports on the friction between politics and faith.
Today’s Mix
Obama’s Great Skewering of Trump
The former President’s riff on Saddam Hussein, the Cheesecake Factory, and our gold-besotted leader was not only funny but politically brilliant.
James Talarico’s Final Sprint
The Texas Democrat has stretched his closing message to encompass Beyoncé, the biblical David, and “Friday Night Lights.” Is that what it takes to flip the state?
Uncertainty in Israel After Election Results
A majority of Israelis rejected the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but forming a coalition could require breaking taboos.
A Global Anti-Right Backlash
After Brazil’s election, and ahead of the U.S. midterms, progressives and liberals around the world find cause to celebrate.
A Long View of the French Protests
A visual tour of the Place de la République, a site of protests and political conflict in Paris for the past hundred and fifty years.
The Lede
A daily column on what you need to know.
Can Democrats Win Back Labor?
Two years ago, Sherrod Brown, who built his career as an avatar of blue-collar frustration, lost his Senate seat in Ohio as working-class voters defected to Trump. Now he and his party are looking to make up lost ground.
The Political Upstarts That May Decide Israel’s Election
Frustrated with the polarization of the Netanyahu era, voters look for ways to create change.
An Anxious Season for Muslims in Texas
Facing severe political attacks and threats, Muslim civil-liberties activists in Texas are urging their communities to vote.
The Republicans’ Remarkably Bad Midterm Campaigns
Things were going poorly even before Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign ran the most offensive ad of the year.
The Great Schlep
Tens of thousands of Israelis living abroad are flying back to cast votes in what many describe as the most pivotal election in the country’s history.
How Jim Morrison Surmounted Tragedy and Skied Down Everest
The mountaineer and his partner, Hilaree Nelson, planned a first-ever descent. After her death, he pushed on.
A Guide to the Midterms
Read The New Yorker’s latest analysis of the issues shaping the election.
Texas Democrats Venture Into “No Man’s Land”
Democrats around the country dream of a blue wave in Texas. Organizers and voters say they need more of an irrigation system. Can the Party leaders build it?
How ICE Is Targeting the 2026 Midterms
In the run-up to the election, the Trump Administration is turning its immigration crackdown into a desperate hunt for voter fraud.
Gina Hinojosa Thinks Texas Is Different This Time
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate argues that crony capitalism, distrust of data centers, and attacks on public education have disenchanted voters enough to finally bring a blue wave to the state.
Can Justin J. Pearson Win in Tennessee?
Republicans eliminated the state’s only Black-majority district, in Memphis, so Pearson took a campaign about economic inequality to rural white voters.
How the D.S.A. Learned to Love Elections
Members of the Democratic Socialists of America believe deeply in the possibility of a class revolution. Meanwhile, they’re running for office—and winning.
How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Gave Florida Democrats a Chance
A competitive House race in Miami, which leads all American cities in ICE arrests, has revealed how mass deportations have eroded the President’s support among Latinos.
Did an Alternative-Medicine Guru Accidentally Kill Patients?
In Switzerland, Thomas Rau offers treatments that many conventional doctors would question. Now he’s accused of lethally negligent care.
The Critics
“Queen at Sea” Confronts Old Age with Bitter Empathy
Lance Hammer’s new drama, starring Anna Calder-Marshall, Tom Courtenay, and Juliette Binoche, sharply observes the private agonies and public quandaries of dementia.
The Middle-Aged Misanthropes of the Wisconsin Trilogy
Nate Lippens’s autobiographical series has earned a word-of-mouth following for its coruscating prose and frank view of Midwestern gay life.
The Unclassifiable Talent of Hervé Guibert
The French writer and photographer’s portraits of love.
The World Series No One Wanted
A matchup between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays was considered a “nightmare,” a bloodbath of small-ball hermeneutics. But the two teams have turned the Fall Classic into a showcase for what money can’t buy.
A Song of Grief and Union in “Lincoln in the Bardo”
Missy Mazzoli’s operatic adaptation of George Saunders’s novel is a charismatic, openhearted work.
Shaken and Stirred by the Search for the Next James Bond
The question may be less who will inherit the mantle than who in his right mind would want to.
What We’re Reading
An intimate biography of the singer-songwriter Elliott Smith; an “untold story” of the Blackness of Broadway; a piercing family memoir that assembles a portrait of a clan that, like millions of others, was “torn to shreds by the most murderous whirlwind of the twentieth century”; and more.
“We Were Here”
In India, a group of uncles plan to subvert the A.I. that is replacing them, in Pranav Bhasin’s mockumentary that celebrates the weirdness of regular intelligence.
Our Columnists
The Founder of Arab Americans for Trump Has Some Regrets
As the President and his party launch a wave of bigoted attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, Bishara Bahbah reflects on what, exactly, Trump has delivered in his second term.
Did Substack Fix the Internet?
A new book by Hamish McKenzie, the platform’s co-founder, argues that writers today are more empowered than ever. But online newsletters form their own kind of attention economy.
The Great, Cynical Fun of “The Traitors”
The series, which has been remade in dozens of countries, is derivative of other reality-competition shows. What’s different is the mood: it is both quaint and greasy, and perfectly in tune with our culture of incentivized fraud.
How Macron Destabilized France
Widespread protests against his policies were followed by violent riots across the country. Does this mean Marine Le Pen is all but certain to be the next President of France?
Our Man in Paris
Since taking up his post in Paris, Charles Kushner has become known for lobbing provocations onto France’s domestic scene at sensitive moments. As he put it, “Nobody has the courage to say what I say.”
Ideas
Is God Another Addiction?
A remarkable memoir recounts a writer’s struggles with alcoholism and religious faith—and the unsettling ways in which each has fed her longing for the other.
Wikipedia’s Pyrrhic Victory
The wonder of the online world was built by a community of eccentric volunteers. Can it survive the A.I. models it helped train?
How Test Engineers Decide What Counts as Good Enough
Test engineers stage reality, sometimes by extreme means, to make sure airplanes don’t fall apart, children can’t open pill bottles, and bears won’t break into coolers.
The Battle to Pass a Billionaire Tax
Most Democratic voters say that they favor a wealth tax, but a California ballot initiative has plenty of liberal opponents.
How Netanyahu’s Top General Became His Strongest Challenger
Gadi Eisenkot, whose view of war is shaped by the loss of his son, is, in manner and character, the anti-Bibi.
The State Officials Defending the Midterms from the President
Donald Trump has tried to purge voter rolls nationwide. Deidre Henderson, the Republican lieutenant governor of Utah, is among the chief election officers standing in his way.
Puzzles & Games
Take a break and play.
It’s the Fish, Stupid
The Democrats have cast the midterm elections as a referendum on President Trump. But in Alaska’s Senate race, which could decide the balance of power in Washington, the Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has tacked a different way. She really just wants to talk about salmon.
In Case You Missed It
Mom left. Dad didn’t tell us anything. He just got up, and dressed, and told us to eat something. I saw some bananas on the kitchen counter with a few freckles on them and tore one from the bunch. Dug a nail through the end and peeled its yellow skin off. It came away in strips, three thick strips. I looked for bruises. I can’t stand eating a banana with bruises and was glad to see there were none.Continue reading »
The Talk of the Town
Fun, fizzy dispatches from the city and beyond.