The New Yorker

6 days ago | newyorker.com | Paul Elie

Every morning, a line forms at about six outside the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, on West Thirty-first Street, near Penn Station, as it has done (with a few exceptions) since 1930; on average, there are two hundred and fifty people, mostly men in various states of need. At seven, a bell is rung and meal bags—people can choose from oatmeal, fruit, a sandwich, nuts, juice, and coffee—are distributed by half a dozen volunteers standing at folding tables set up on the sidewalk.

1 week ago | newyorker.com | Isaac Chotiner

I recently spoke by phone with the economist Yasheng Huang, an expert on China who teaches at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the ways in which tariffs provide an opportunity for Xi to reform his country’s economy, how the tariff war is likely to play out, and why disappointing economic growth figures have not caused any weakening of the Chinese Communist Party’s grip on power.

1 week ago | newyorker.com | With Vinson Cunningham |Naomi Fry |Alexandra Schwartz

Download a transcript. Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Wherever You ListenSign up to receive our weekly cultural-recommendations newsletter. For nearly as long as we’ve been waging war, we’ve sought ways to chronicle it. “Warfare,” a new movie co-directed by the filmmaker Alex Garland and the former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, takes an unorthodox approach, recreating a disastrous real-life mission in Iraq according to Mendoza’s own memories and those of the soldiers who fought alongside him.

1 week ago | newyorker.com | Helen Shaw

Hytner’s version of Plantagenet England seems less overtly medieval and rather more like the New York of the HBO series “Succession.” The play’s piano-and-strings compositions, by Grant Olding, closely recall Nicholas Britell’s discordant TV soundtrack; Richard wears sumptuous suits and velvet loafers without socks, then goes to prison in comfy gray sweats, sporting quiet luxury to the end.

1 week ago | newyorker.com | Kyle Chayka

Anecdotally, signs of a recession are already here. Hairdressers are reporting that their clients are ordering less expensive treatments. “I’ve been eliminated from their budget,” one aesthetician told Bloomberg. Young people are hosting home cafés, making their own cappuccinos and iced matchas in lieu of patronizing coffee shops.