The Crossword: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
A beginner-friendly puzzle.
Robyn Weintraub has been constructing crosswords since 2010 and began contributing puzzles to The New Yorker in 2020. Her puzzles have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Video
Virtual Togetherness Through Partner Crosswords
Social dynamics of the crossworld, a crossword meet-cute, and other ways to puzzle with friends while social distancing.
The Lede
On the Ground During L.A.’s Wildfire Emergency
With four fires raging, tens of thousands have evacuated and others are confronting the precarity of where they live.
By Emily Witt
The Weekend Essay
Writing as Transformation
Words and phrases came from nowhere; I rarely had any sense of what they meant or to what context they belonged.
By Louise Glück
Letter from Israel
Netanyahu’s Media Poison Machine
The talk-show host Yinon Magal is at the center of a campaign to protect the Prime Minister and destroy the opposition.
By Ruth Margalit
Critic’s Notebook
Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, and the Collapse of the Hollywood #MeToo Era
The reportage that thrived in the late twenty-tens cannot break through on today’s volatile Internet, where information is misinformation and victims are offenders.
By Doreen St. Félix
The Lede
An Arson Attack in Puerto Rico
A violent act on New Year’s Day allegedly committed by a tourist highlights rising tensions between the island and the mainland United States.
By Graciela Mochkofsky
A Reporter at Large
Do Russians Really Support the War in Ukraine?
A group of sociologists found that few Russians were steadfast supporters of the war. Most had something more complicated to say.
By Keith Gessen
Books
Does One Emotion Rule All Our Ethical Judgments?
When prehistoric predators abounded, the ability to perceive harm helped our ancestors survive. Some researchers wonder whether it fuels our greatest fights today.
By Elizabeth Kolbert
The Political Scene
Lauren Boebert’s Survival Instincts
The Colorado congresswoman’s inflammatory rhetoric has made her a national symbol of the Trumpist far right. She presents a different image closer to home.
By Peter Hessler
Open Questions
Why Can’t You Just Deal with It?
Often, it’s our most obviously necessary tasks that feel the most impossible.
By Joshua Rothman