The Morning: Natural selection

June 27, 2026

Good morning. Sometimes, our preference for certitude, our need to define things with conviction, closes us off from possibility.

In an illustration, a mirror sitting atop a sand dune in the desert seems to be blowing away with the breeze.

María Jesús Contreras

Natural selection

	By Melissa Kirsch

When Serena Williams retired from tennis in 2022, she was 40 years old, had won 23 Grand Slam singles tournaments, 14 more in doubles, and had spent 319 weeks as the No. 1 player in the world. She had “never liked the word retirement,” she said in an essay in Vogue, offering a reframing of her departure from the sport that she’d dominated for so many years: “Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.”

“Evolving away”! At the time, this phrasing seemed to offer a distinction without a difference — a “conscious uncoupling” from tennis. This week, though, when Wimbledon announced that Williams would play singles at the tournament for the first time in four years, the language seemed less poetic and more deliberate. She evolved away from tennis; now, it seems, at least for the moment, she has evolved back.

We get to decide how we narrate our lives, and sometimes our preference for certitude, our need to define things with conviction, closes us off from possibility. I’m not asserting that Williams scripted her return to tennis four years ago. But I’m intrigued, now, by the way she framed her decision to leave the sport — for her fans, and, one imagines, for herself — not as a rejection of tennis, but as an embrace of her family, her business ventures, the other things in her life that matter to her.

I’ve written about how much I value the practice of making “Away/Toward” lists, where you itemize the things in your life you want to move away from, the things you want to move toward. My “Away” lists are always a series of negatives I need to rid myself of — bad habits, soured relationships, unproductive ways of thinking. But I love the idea of looking at one’s life more objectively, without so much judgment: I’m evolving away from this person, this job, this particular chapter, and who’s to say I won’t evolve back?

This openness with language seems particularly useful when you’re making a decision or change that’s difficult. Leaving tennis was painful for Williams. “I don’t want it to be over,” she said in her farewell essay, “but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.” For most of us, this is the ideal “away” scenario: We love what we’re doing, but we’re leaving it, on our own terms, and we’re looking forward to the next chapter. Moving away from one thing without rancor, moving toward something else with enthusiasm.

As Williams evolves back onto the court at the All England Club this coming week, I’m wondering about my own evolutions. Where can I narrate my own experience with more spaciousness? Celebrities’ purposely ambiguous public statements don’t often offer much in the way of wisdom, but in this case, I think there’s something to be heeded. What elements of our own lives could benefit from some less definitive framing? What are we leaving behind that, who knows, we might want to one day revisit?

THE LATEST NEWS

Venezuela Earthquakes

A person stands on a large pile of collapsed building rubble, holding a thin stick. Concrete slabs and broken bricks are scattered.

The ruins of a residential building in La Guaira. Adriana Loureiro Fernandez for The New York Times

Officials say the earthquakes in Venezuela this week killed at least 920 people and injured at least 3,300 others. The toll could still rise, as many people remained missing or trapped.
These satellite photos show the trail of destruction down the northern coast.
Search-and-rescue teams from around the world have arrived to help recover people from the rubble. The U.S. State Department has earmarked $150 million for relief efforts.
The quakes exposed the fragility of Venezuela’s infrastructure. There are only three functioning ambulances serving greater Caracas, one doctor said. Firefighters are relying on cellphone lights. A hospital in the disaster zone is operating without running water.

War in Iran

The U.S. military said it had struck missile and drone storage locations in Iran, as well as coastal radar sites, in retaliation for Iran’s attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
President Trump called Iran’s ship attack a “foolish violation” of the cease-fire. A U.S. defense official told The Times that yesterday’s attacks were not intended to revive the war.

Around the World

An aerial shot of a bridge, with plumes of smoke coming off.

Vantor, via Reuters

Crimea: Weeks of Ukrainian airstrikes have rattled the Russian-controlled peninsula. The authorities there declared a state of emergency after Russia said it had intercepted 660 drones overnight.
China: A small aircraft flew into the tallest building in Beijing, sending debris and plane parts onto the street.

Politics

John Bolton, who was national security adviser during Trump’s first term, pleaded guilty to mishandling classified information. He faces up to five years in prison.

Vice President JD Vance downplayed the Watergate scandal, saying that if it happened today it would be “like a 12-hour news story.”
Times Exclusive: The administration is investigating whether Yale’s admissions practices hurt white and Asian applicants. The university has hired a high-powered law firm to try to reach a settlement.

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

A girl with blonde hair wears a blue bodysuit with a red S in the middle of her chest.

Milly Alcock as Supergirl. Warner Bros.Entertainment

“Supergirl” is a watchable (if derivative) bit of summer superhero entertainment, our critic writes, held up by a strong central performance from Milly Alcock.
In “The Invite,” Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde star as a millennial couple whose tense marriage gets a wild jolt from their neighbors. It’s a critic’s pick.
“Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” a seven-episode historical sketch show starring Larry David and produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, premieres on HBO this weekend.

Fine Arts

A record Sotheby’s auction in London brought in £393.4 million with fees — about $521 million — across 25 works. The top earner: Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 “Seated Nude With Necklace,” which sold for £48.2 million.
As Europe broiled in a heat wave this week, some museums billed themselves as refuges. London’s Imperial War Museum called itself a space of “salvation” from the heat.
A new National Geographic museum opened in Washington, D.C., this week. Here are five standout photographs from its collection.

More Culture

In a black and white photo, a woman in black and a man in a light sweater pose on a bench. She is holding a bat.

Eisa Davis and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Daniel Weiss for The New York Times

Lin-Manuel Miranda is returning to Broadway: “Warriors,” his first musical since “Hamilton,” is set to open next spring. It’s based on the cult classic 1979 film about a street gang that has to fight its way from the Bronx to Coney Island.
Major networks are taking a new look at microdramas, the vertically shot, mobile-first soap operas delivered in dozens of rapid-fire episodes.
Will Canada be the next country to join the Eurovision Song Contest? Its broadcaster has joined the European Broadcasting Union, the requirement for entry in the competition.

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RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Dane Tashima for The New York Times

By Melissa Clark

Apricot Snack Cake

Apricots and other stone fruits are coming into season in much of the country right now, and Kay Chun’s moist and rich apricot snack cake is a perfect use for the ones that have gone a bit soft. She calls for fresh apricots, but peaches, plums and nectarines work well, too. And while this is a delightful afternoon snack, it’s also lovely for dessert, preferably with some vanilla or butterscotch ice cream scooped on top.

REAL ESTATE

A grid of four photos. The first shows three women posing outdoors, all wearing purple. The other three show modest homes in leafy areas.

Gabriela Hasbun for The New York Times

The Hunt: Three women wanted to start a family in the Bay Area. Could they find a house to do it in? Play our game.

What you get for $900,000: An Italianate house in St. Louis. A stone house in Round Mountain, Texas. A farmhouse with outbuildings in Bovina, N.Y.