The Newsroom Shortlist: The New York Times’s best journalism

Read about climate change, modern motherhood and a marriage class at Guantánamo.

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Credits clockwise from left: Josh Haner/The New York Times; Andy Mills/The New York Times; T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times; and Bryan Denton for The New York Times Lara Takenaga Greetings from the New York Times newsroom! I'm Lara Takenaga, a journalist here, and I feel honored to be in touch daily with Times readers as a member of the Reader Center. Our team is focused on listening to readers, responding to your questions and incorporating your feedback and ideas into our work. Independent, original journalism is at the heart of everything The Times does. In an era of misinformation and relentless attacks on the media, our commitment to holding power to account seems more urgent than ever. (Above are some of our journalists in the field, from left: Nicholas Casey on Easter Island, Rukmini Callimachi in Iraq, Jeffrey Gettleman in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cecilia Kang in Washington.) My colleagues and I depend on readers (and viewers and listeners) for our work. Their support allows us to surface untold stories, give voice to the unseen and explain the issues that matter most. We publish some 160 articles every day by our reporters around the world. Here's a selection of some of our best recent journalism:

Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change Our current magazine issue is dedicated to this one article, reported by Nathaniel Rich over 18 months. It delves into the period from 1979 to 1989, when a small group of scientists, activists and politicians came painfully close to solving climate change. An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Presidential Election Do you live in a political bubble? This interactive map, a masterpiece of data and graphics, shows election results by voting precinct. 11 and Married: Malaysia Spars Over an Age-Old Practice Reporting from Malaysia, our Southeast Asia bureau chief, Hannah Beech, shines a light on underage unions there through the case of an 11-year-old girl married to a man nearly four times her senior. Motherhood in the Age of Fear This Opinion essay has started an impassioned conversation about modern parenting. In a shift from decades past, the author argues, mothers in the United States now face extreme judgment when they make perfectly rational decisions. What's Left in Laos After a Massive Dam Collapsed A sweeping video by our foreign correspondent Ben Solomon reveals the destruction caused by deadly flooding last week in one of Asia's poorest countries. The piece is one of our new Dispatches, stories meant to transport readers to the distant lands we cover. The Strange Case of QAnon On Thursday's episode of our podcast "The Daily," Kevin Roose, a technology reporter, explains the rise of QAnon, an internet group that trades in conspiracy theories and rose to prominence after a rally for President Trump this week. Taking Marriage Class at Guantánamo In a recent Modern Love column, a former detainee at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base shares what he learned about relationships from a fellow prisoner — and an iguana. When Is a Burrito More Than Just a Burrito? When It's a Lifestyle Chipotle, Pizza Hut and IHOP don't want to be known merely for their food. As some companies strive to be more than the sum of their products, they've started marketing themselves as "lifestyle brands."

I hope you find these stories interesting! If you have feedback on this newsletter or questions about subscribing, please contact me at hello@nytimes.com. Have a great weekend. All the best, Lara Takenaga

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