San Francisco's Fire Season

Plus: Trump's plan to pillage Syria's oil, Boris Johnson gambles on a general election, and an octogenarian marathon runner. View in browser | Update your preferences California Chronicles San Francisco’s Fire Season When I was growing up, fires in the area were rare, horrific crises. Now they are a way of life, the West Coast’s answer to the hurricanes that shifting temperatures bring off the Atlantic. By Nathan Heller Our Columnists Trump’s Baffling Plan to Pillage Syria’s Oil American troops are being kept in the country to commit what legal experts identify as a potential crime. By Robin Wright Daily Comment Boris Johnson Gambles Brexit on a General Election The British Prime Minister clearly believes that his personal ambitions are better served by a quick election before everyone notices the full extent of the mess he’s made. By Amy Davidson Sorkin News Desk WhatsApp Claims That Spyware Targeted Human-Rights Activists and Journalists According to a lawsuit, an Israeli tech firm allegedly developed malware in order to access messages. By Adam Entous PAID POST “Slavery does not bargain, does not compromise. It devours.” In The Water Dancer, the brilliantly imagined debut novel from the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a young man born into bondage discovers a magical gift—and risks everything to escape from the only home he’s ever known. Culture and More Comma Queen Thoughts on Pesky Possessives On Mavis Staples’s album, Dylan Thomas’ poetry, Xerxes’s armies, and other contested ways to make words ending in “S” possessive. By Mary Norris L.A. Postcard Thomas Middleditch’s Chat-Room Childhood Playing Richard Hendricks, the angsty, low-E.Q. coder and star of “Silicon Valley,” required no research for the Internet native. By Dana Goodyear The Theatre An Ecstatic Revival of Ntozake Shange’s “for colored girls” The choreopoem is a bittersweet cabaret that shows how the tradition of the monologue can remain freshly vital. By Vinson Cunningham Video Dept. An Octogenarian Laces Up Her Sneakers Ginette Bedard, who started racing in marathons at the age of sixty-nine, says that running keeps her happy and feeling young. By Murat Oztaskin Humor from The New Yorker Daily Shouts A Letter from the Committee for Evening Experiences It has come to our attention that you recently created a dream in which you were waiting in line for a sandwich and that this was the whole dream. By Jenny Slate Daily Cartoon Wednesday, October 30th By Johnny DiNapoli Sign up for more newsletters from The New Yorker. Visit The New Yorker shop. Question about your subscription? Contact Customer Care. New Yorker digital subscribers get unlimited access to everything on newyorker.com. Log in to your account here. We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. Please send your thoughts and suggestions to TNYinbox@newyorker.com. This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, NewYorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2019. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.