The Magazine
August 25, 2025
Goings On
The Talk of the Town
Margaret Talbot on the federal takeover of D.C.; conservation on Staten Island; Swedish hard rock; Met Opera vs. Met Museum; “And Just Like That.”
Comment
Trump Sends in the National Guard
Is the President’s takeover of D.C. a dry run for other cities?
Local Critters
The Birds Flocking Back to the Fresh Kills Dump
New Yorkers stuck their garbage in Staten Island for fifty-three years. As the landfill becomes a park, foxes, deer, and grasshopper sparrows are moving in again.
Ghouls Dept.
The Ghouls of GHOST Are Dialling Back the Devil Stuff
Fresh from selling out Madison Square Garden, the dark priest of the Swedish metal band talked about his childhood TV dreams while backstage at “The Tonight Show.”
Intramural Dept.
The Met vs. the Met—Softball Edition
The Metropolitan Opera’s team was undefeated. So was the Metropolitan Museum’s. On a Central Park ball field, sound guys and lighting technicians faced off against art handlers and registrars.
Sketchpad
“And Just Like That . . . ,” the Lost Season
Plotlines we’ll never see: Carrie grapples with shoe tariffs, and Miranda moves into the sewers.
Reporting & Essays
Annals of Inquiry
The Family Fallout of DNA Surprises
Through genetic testing, millions of Americans are estimated to have discovered that their parents aren’t who they thought. The news has upended relationships and created a community looking for answers.
Onward and Upward with the Arts
The Otherworldly Ambitions of R. F. Kuang
The author of “Babel” and “Yellowface” is drawn to stories of striving. Her new fantasy novel, “Katabasis,” asks if graduate school is a kind of hell.
The Political Scene
Pam Bondi’s Power Play
Donald Trump now has the Attorney General he always wanted—an ally willing to harness the law to enable his agenda.
U.S. Journal
Bill Belichick Goes Back to School
Can the legendary former Patriots coach transform U.N.C. football?
Takes
Takes
Adam Gopnik on Joseph Mitchell’s “Joe Gould’s Secret”
Mitchell captured New York’s oddballs and renegades with an understated lyricism that transformed fact into literature.
Shouts & Murmurs
Fiction
Fiction
“Something Has Come to Light”
He asked me if I wanted to ride with him, and I said no. He repeated that back to me. He said, No? Or . . . yes?
The Critics
A Critic at Large
Did Racial Capitalism Set the Bronx on Fire?
To some, the fires lit in New York in the late seventies signalled rampant criminality; to others, rebellion. But maybe they were signs of something else entirely.
Books
Helen Oyeyemi’s Novel of Cognitive Dissonance
Kinga, the protagonist of “A New New Me,” has an odd affliction: there are seven of her.
The Current Cinema
“Highest 2 Lowest” Marks a Conservative Pivot for Spike Lee
Denzel Washington stars as a music executive who takes police matters into his own hands, in this remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 kidnapping classic.
Poems
Poems
“Suburban Divorcée”
“Mowing the lawn, it’s revealed, is not the torture / it once appeared as the loved one tore through // the yard in heated fury.”
Cartoons
Puzzles & Games
The Mail
Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to themail@newyorker.com. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.