The Magazine
August 20, 2018
Reporting
Personal History
A New Citizen Decides to Leave the Tumult of Trump’s America
After decades in New York, I’ve made the wrenching choice to return to Britain. But England isn’t home.
A Reporter at Large
Virgin Galactic’s Rocket Man
The ace pilot risking his life to fulfill Richard Branson’s billion-dollar quest to make commercial space travel a reality.
Annals of Politics
How Bill Browder Became Russia’s Most Wanted Man
The hedge-fund manager has offered a fable for why the West should confront Putin.
The Critics
Pop Music
The Return of West Coast Hip-Hop
YG belongs to a new generation of California rappers whose antennae are tuned to the past as well as the present.
Musical Events
Wagner On Trial at the Bayreuth Festival
Directors confront the composer’s anti-Semitism and give his work a feminist spin.
Books
How Charles de Gaulle Rescued France
His life shows that right-wing politics needn’t bend toward absolutism.
The Current Cinema
Spike Lee Does Battle with “BlacKkKlansman”
Set in the seventies, Lee’s blistering film abounds with topical hints about our present era, drunk as it is on its own craziness.
The Talk of the Town
Homecoming Dept.
Awkwafina Comes Home
The rapper and actress Nora Lum appears in two summer blockbusters, but she still feels like a scrappy hustler from Queens.
The Pictures
Helena Howard and Josephine Decker Trek to Storm King
At the outdoor museum, the director and the young star of “Madeline’s Madeline” try not to touch the art.
War Room
Rat Academy Is in Session
Civilians learn preventive measures and battle tactics for Bill de Blasio’s “War on Rats.”
Do-Gooders Dept.
Saving the Planet and Your Glutes
On their jaunts through the city, ploggers pick up empty wine bottles, cigarette butts, and other refuse.
Comment
Alex Jones, the First Amendment, and the Digital Public Square
How should we challenge hate-mongering in the age of social media?
Shouts & Murmurs
Shouts & Murmurs
It’s the Data, Dolts
Cartoons
1/9
Fiction
Poems
Goings On About Town
Tables for Two
A Falafel Master Turns to Couscous with Kish-Kash
The chef Einat Admony’s newest restaurant evokes North African and Middle Eastern home cooking.
Bar Tab
Testing the Tradewinds at Sunken Harbor Club
At the weekly tiki pop-up, two cocktails are all you need.
Art
Artist Activists Light Up the High Line with “Agora”
Several works in the plein-air group show reveal their best sides at sundown.
The Mail
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