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Read The New Yorker’s complete coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests.

Dispatch

Searching with the Mothers of Mexico’s Disappeared

More than seventy thousand people have disappeared in Mexico, victims of drug-related violence. Their loved ones are grieving, searching, and, now, keeping their distance.

Our Columnists
U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting.

Trump’s Attempt to Obscure the Reality of the Pandemic Is Getting Comical

The President, having restarted his regular coronavirus briefings, is again the Administration’s primary spokesperson on the pandemic. The consequences are, by turns, absurd and alarming.

Under Review
Kate Zambreno.

Kate Zambreno’s Present Tense

The fragmentary novel is everywhere. For a self-portraitist like Zambreno, it becomes a medium for exploring the difficulty of sustaining a self.

Persons of Interest
Forward Nneka Ogwumike.

Nneka Ogwumike and the W.N.B.A.’s Big Moment

Amid a global pandemic and nationwide protests, the W.N.B.A. is playing basketball in a bubble. Ogwumike is trying to make sure it succeeds.

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Spotlight
Annals of Gastronomy
Selection of cheeses

How a Cheese Goes Extinct

When you talk with aficionados, it usually doesn’t take long for the conversation to veer away from curds, whey, and mold, and toward matters of life and death.

Q. & A.
Stuart Stevens speaks to reporters.

Why Stuart Stevens Wants to Defeat Donald Trump

The longtime Republican strategist discusses his opposition to Donald Trump, his involvement in the Lincoln Project ad campaign, and why he thinks Mitt Romney would have made a great President.

Watch
Sally Fields and Barbara Baxley in the film Norma Rae standing in the factory

The Ongoing Relevance of “Norma Rae”

Viewed today, the 1979 movie, starring Sally Field, is most striking in its suggestion that no struggle can take place alone.

Letter from the U.K.
Two laughing gas canisters in greenery at a park

The Laughing-Gas Wars of London

Whatever the reason—ostentatious littering, the mad desire for a furtive lockdown high—nitrous-oxide cannisters are ubiquitous in London this summer.

Dept. of Law Enforcement
Image may contain: Human, Person, Helmet, Clothing, Apparel, Shoe, Footwear, Military Uniform, Military, Police, and Officer

How Police Unions Fight Reform

Activists insist that police departments must change. For half a century, New York City’s P.B.A. has successfully resisted such demands.

Crossword
Eustace with a crossword puzzle

A Moderately Challenging Puzzle

Disingenuous response to an unwanted text: fourteen letters.

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The North American Maximalism of Gigi Hadid and Drake’s Home Design

There’s a sensibility at play at the highest end of interior decorating right now, the fulfillment not of a designer’s vision but of a personal identity.

11:56 A.M.

Americans Support Using U.S. Postal Service to Ship Trump to Different Address

 US Postal Service truck drives down Pennsylvania Avenue, with the US Capitol in the background.

Americans agreed that, after a new President is inaugurated on January 20th, Trump should be left on the curb outside the White House for pickup by a local mail carrier.

11:15 A.M.

Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, August 5th

The President will take it from here.

A Non-Hiker’s Terms and Conditions for Hiking

Group of people hiking in countryside.

This is a legally binding agreement entered into by the Friend Who Hikes Often (you) and the Friend Whose iPhone Autocorrects “Hike” to “Joke” (me).

7:00 A.M.

More Precise Names for the “Personal Life” Section on Wikipedia

Illustration of man surrounded by six illustrations of his wives.

The Six Marriages I Don’t Already Know About; D.U.I.s, Ranked; and more.

August 4, 2020
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From This Week’s Issue
Movies
Drive in movie theatre.

The Return of the Drive-In

With New York movie theatres closed, drive-ins, including the Warwick, upstate, and the Skyline, in Greenpoint, are thriving, offering familiar films and such new releases as “Relic” and “She Dies Tomorrow.”

Books
Buttocks and arm.

Rethinking the Science of Skin

What is all the scrubbing, soaping, moisturizing, and deodorizing really doing for the body’s largest organ?

Comment
Image may contain: Human, Person, Military, People, and Military Uniform

Protest Delivered the Nineteenth Amendment

The amendment, ratified a century ago, is often described as having “given” women the right to vote. It wasn’t a gift; it was a hard-won victory achieved after more than seventy years of suffragist agitation.

Fiction
Image may contain: Human, Person, Nature, and Outdoors

“Heirlooms”

“So, Mitsuko says, how long have you been sleeping with my son? Or is it casual? Not really, I say.”

Video

A Film Recounts the Imbalances of Obsession

In “The Song Is You,” the rarefied air of the art world serves as a backdrop for the complicated relationship between a would-be stalker and the couple she is following.

Daily Cartoon

Podcasts

The Power of Police Unions

Rows of police officers with their backs turned against a politician.

William Finnegan on what the repeal of an arcane law reveals about the conflict among police, protesters, and politicians. Plus, an interview with the mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot.

More Podcasts