Democrats Make a Fresh Push to Win State Legislatures

The arm of the party that focuses on statehouses is targeting hundreds of seats and more than 40 chambers, according to a strategy memo, reflecting Democrats’ new optimism.The Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. The state is one of several with Republican-controlled legislatures that Democrats are try

N Nick Corasaniti

Democrats Press to Expand House Map, Targeting 5 New G.O.P. Seats

Four of the additions are for districts where President Trump won handily, but Democrats are feeling emboldened by election outcomes this fall.The seat of Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican whose California district Democrats redrew to lean Democratic, is among those added to the Democratic C

S Shane Goldmacher

Inside the Pentagon’s Scramble to Deal With Boat Strike Survivors

Officials initially weighed sending survivors of U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling to a notorious prison in El Salvador, to keep them away from American courts.Recent news reports on strike orders given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have raised questions of potential war crimes.

D Damien Cave, Edward Wong and Maria Abi-Habib

A History of U.S. Military Action in Latin America

The United States’ history in the region includes several about-faces, contradictions and missteps.U.S. troops in Veracruz, Mexico, in April 1914, as part of a blockade of the city’s port.

H Helene Cooper

Starting With Formaldehyde, Trump Administration Reassesses Chemical Risks

A draft memo from the E.P.A. assumes a safe threshold exists for formaldehyde, upending earlier findings that there is no safe level of exposure to the carcinogen.Between one to five billion pounds of formaldehyde is produced in the United States each year for a wide range of industries and products

H Hiroko Tabuchi

Judge Grants Request to Unseal Jeffrey Epstein Grand Jury Records

The ruling could lead to the most expansive look yet at the federal investigation of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The ruling followed a similar decision in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, who conspired with Jeffrey Epstein in his sex-trafficking scheme and is serving a 20-year prison se

B Benjamin Weiser

Trump’s Interest in Warner Bros. Deal Weighs On Justice Department

President Trump’s unusual decision to involve himself in the government’s review of the deal puts his antitrust chief in an awkward position.Gail Slater is in charge of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, which is expected to handle the government’s review of a Warner Bros. deal.

D David McCabe

Tony Dokoupil Is Named Anchor of ‘CBS Evening News’

He replaces John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois in one of the most high-profile decisions of Bari Weiss’s early tenure as the network’s editor in chief.Tony Dokoupil is a veteran TV journalist who joined CBS as a correspondent in 2016.

M Michael M. Grynbaum

The Conservative Overhaul of the University of Texas Is Underway

The school has been brought to heel by conservative critics of higher education. It is part of a broader transformation at the state’s universities.A Republican lawyer, not an academic, now runs the University of Texas at Austin. Other changes are also underway.

V Vimal Patel and Callaghan O’Hare

16 Best Theater Moments of 2025

Lea Michele’s star turn in “Chess.” Kara Young as an 8-year-old. A 12-minute monologue delivered from a cloud. These are our favorite scenes from this year.

L Laura Collins-Hughes, Alexis Soloski and Elisabeth Vincentelli

Sophie Kinsella, ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ Author, Dies at 55

Writing under a pseudonym, Madeleine Wickham cultivated an international following for her series centered on a young woman addicted to shopping.The British author Madeleine Wickham in 2024. Under the pen name Sophie Kinsella, she wrote nine “Shopaholic” novels, which sold tens of millions of copies

S Sopan Deb

She Was Diagnosed With Brain Cancer, Then Wrote a Rom-Com About It

Sophie Kinsella, the author of “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” packs love, laughter and a harrowing real-life health ordeal into a 133-page novella.At an event in London in June, Sophie Kinsella said, “I’m so overwhelmed, yet again, by my lovely readers and by the lovely response that I get to what I

E Elisabeth Egan