The Man Who Refused to Spy
by Laura Secor
The F.B.I. tried to recruit an Iranian scientist as an informant. When he balked, the payback was brutal.
The Man Who Refused to Spy
How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda
How My Mother and I Became Chinese Propaganda by Jiayang Fan
Immigrant struggles in America forged a bond that became even tighter after my mother’s A.L.S. diagnosis. Then, as COVID-19 threatened, Chinese nationalists began calling us traitors to our country.
A Transit Worker’s Survival Story
A Transit Worker’s Survival Story
Driving a New York City bus during a pandemic and an uprising.
by Jennifer Gonnerman
Face Time
Brave New World
The Samuel Johnson of Emoji
Jeremy Burge isn’t like other tech C.E.O.s. He has never raised money, he has no employees, and his official title is Chief Emoji Officer. But he still deals with controversy, such as demands for a Kurdish-flag emoji and for more emoji skin tones.
by Leo Mirani
How China Controlled the Coronavirus
A Reporter at Large
How China Controlled the Coronavirus
Teaching and learning in Sichuan during the pandemic.
by Peter Hessler
All the King’s Data.
American Chronicles
All the King’s Data.
When J.F.K. ran for President, a team of data scientists with powerful computers set out to model and manipulate American voters. Sound familiar?
by Jill Lepore
“Palm Springs” and the Comedy of Eternity
The Current Cinema
“Palm Springs” and the Comedy of Eternity
Following in the footsteps of “Groundhog Day,” Max Barbakow’s spirited film turns a wedding into Purgatory, with bumbling speeches and so-so canapés on endless repeat.
by Anthony Lane
How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands
A Reporter at Large
How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands
Once a distant outpost of the British Empire, the islands have become a global crossroads. In the season of the coronavirus, the intimate communities may evolve yet again.
by Larissa MacFarquhar
Overseas Operations
The Current Cinema
“Mr. Jones” Remembers When Stalin Weaponized Famine
The horrors of the Holodomor, in which millions of Ukrainians starved, are dramatized, but not inflated, in Agnieszka Holland’s new film.
by Anthony Lane
Edward Hopper and American Solitude
The Art World
Edward Hopper and American Solitude
Pandemic or not, the artist’s masterly paintings explore conditions of aloneness as proof of belonging.
by Peter Schjeldahl