While what is happening to us is as serious as a guillotine, we must harness our best humorous selves in order to keep it from falling.

Telling stories is how we make sense of life and what it means to be human.

Spanish has become a sanctioned indicator of potential criminality in the United States of America.

Senator Ruben Gallego says Democrats must strategize more shrewdly. President Trump’s base has “already set up the field to fight in,” he says. “They have all the information and we’re just playing catch-up.

“The troquita – the truck – it’s symbolic,” Senator Ruben Gallego tells David Leonhardt on “The Opinions.” “It really is a status symbol that you have succeeded in this country.”

Lessons from a Democrat who won in a Republican state.

Lessons from a Democrat who won in a Republican state.

Smartphones are becoming casinos. Trump, whose son is invested in the industry, is only goosing the business.

The antidote to our polarized politics is a creative, re-energized political center.

The administration’s plan would defund the very intervention that has ended homelessness for people across the country.

Language policing. Cancel culture. Victimhood contests and cultural grievances. Despite attacking the left for partaking in such practices, there’s an emerging set of individuals on the right who have became exactly what they’ve criticized. Meet the woke right.

Trying to find purpose in an endless scroll of A.I.-generated videos.

Readers discuss the political battle over health care in America.

The Young Republicans’ Telegram chat was revealing in so many ways.

Since the first election of President Trump, Hollywood has fretted about portraying rural and red state Americans. Some new TV series show how to get it right.

Shutting out China’s best minds will only push them into a homegrown Chinese research ecosystem that is eclipsing American universities.

Democrats’ vision for the country won’t matter unless they can get people to pay attention to it.

Virginia Roberts Giuffre spent so much of her life telling the story of her abuse.

What explains the Republican Party’s posture toward these protests?

A lot happened this week. The Opinion editor of The New York Times, Kathleen Kingsbury, highlights one thing you shouldn’t miss: OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman, announced that the company’s new version of ChatGPT will have a more “humanlike” personality — and even offer erotica for verified adults. Watch Kingsbury explain why more regulation of A.I. chatbots is needed.

In a supposed effort to crack down on immigration, Trump continues to bombard American cities with federal agents. Chicago is the latest target, and the administration’s efforts are only leading to chaos and unrest. The musician and actor Vic Mensa, a Chicago native, breaks down how we got here in the first place and what it means for the city.

Seeing my kid wear my bat mitzvah dress gave me a new outlook on adolescence and sentimental objects.

Jamelle Bouie says the South’s appeal isn’t just cheaper living; it’s the power to use wealth to control others. Tressie McMillan Cottom calls it “the ‘Yellowstone’-ification of the country.” But that kind of dominance also means giving up something: the diversity and cultural egalitarianism of cosmopolitan life.

Tressie McMillan Cottom argues that our obsession with Southern culture isn’t just about charm or nostalgia. It’s about reassurance. We romanticize its music, verandas and magnolias, yet, despite the political drift in other states, insist that “at least we’re not the South.”

Pete Hegseth can’t handle the truth.

Why Congress should take up Insurrection Act reform.

Three Southern Opinion columnists on the region and its outsize role in national politics.

The Trump administration risks squandering the progress it has made in securing the border.

Readers weigh in on the challenges of defining and diagnosing the condition.