“People write to see if I can build a medication to fix their genes and stave off an early, imminent death. Their wish is not futuristic: Many scientists, including me, build DNA fixes for a living,” writes the CRISPR scientist @UrnovFyodor. nyti.ms/3iKqtnf “In medicine, CRISPR gene editing allows physicians to directly fix typos in the patients’ DNA.” nyti.ms/3iKqtnf

A bill that could legalize human composting in the state of New York now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature. This process can save nearly a metric ton in carbon emissions compared to a conventional burial. nyti.ms/3B754uH It works like this: a body is in a cylinder on a bed of plant material, wood chips, sawdust and alfalfa. nyti.ms/3B754uH

If you’re looking to participate in #GivingTuesday but don’t know where to start, we have good news: @nytopinion’s Giving Guide is back for its second year. For those who can, consider supporting one of the organizations our writers have chosen: nyti.ms/3GSQ2MT Read recommendations from @NickKristof, who initiated the Giving Guide effort years ago. He notes organizations that welcome refugees to the United States, help families feed themselves and more. nyti.ms/3ikGmRa

Donald Trump is facing five major investigations:
- The classified documents investigation
- The Jan. 6 investigation
- The Manhattan district attorney’s investigation
- The Georgia election investigation
- The New York State civil case

nyti.ms/3tVAlNz How will each of these investigations play out for Trump? Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, outlines the dozens of ways the former president could go scot-free: nyti.ms/3tVAlNz

“Everyone thought the Democrats would be the ones having to explain themselves today,” says @FrankBruni in a chat with @MalloryMcMorrow and @JVLast. “But the underperformance belongs to the Republicans.” nyti.ms/3fPsXj5 On abortion rights:
“Losing a fundamental right we’ve had for nearly 50 years? That wasn’t just a ‘summer blip’ of an issue. It was an earthquake that kept people motivated,” says @MalloryMcMorrow. nyti.ms/3fPsXj5

Many Americans have had enough — and they are ready to vote for change. Ahead of the midterm elections, readers told us which issue is driving them to the polls.

Read a selection below, then tell us: What's your top issue? nyti.ms/3haclCU “It doesn’t matter to me if they have a D or an R next to their name. Only candidates who make the environment central to their campaign get my time, money and votes.” — Vito Di Bona, 47, Gen X, Durham, N.C.

Who will win in these close races? Eight political experts place their bets on the midterm elections. nyti.ms/3FT53hl “Every swing voter who’s tired of inflation and irritated at the Biden administration but feels compelled to vote Democratic in the governor’s race will be a little more inclined to choose Dr. Oz for Senate,” writes @DouthatNYT. nyti.ms/3FT4WCw

As leaders gather in Egypt for #COP27, Alaa Abd El Fattah has escalated his hunger strike.

“On the night he was brought to prison, he was stripped and beaten in a spectacle inmates call the ‘Welcome Party,’” wrote his mother, Laila Soueif, in 2021. nyti.ms/3hlYxpd

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1589584730546126849

“Why is my son, Alaa Abd El Fattah, in prison?” wrote Laila Soueif. “His crime is that, like millions of young people in Egypt and far beyond, he believed another world was possible. And he dared to try to make it happen.” #COP27 nyti.ms/3hlYxpd

Many Americans have had enough — and they are ready to vote for change. Ahead of the midterm elections, readers told us which issue is driving them to the polls. Read a selection below, then tell us: What's your top issue? nyti.ms/3haclCU “My mother endured a back-room abortion in the 1930s. I promised her that I would fight to keep abortion legal.” — Jill Goodwin, 83, silent generation, San Antonio

Ahead of the midterm elections, @nytopinion asked readers what issue was most important to them as they prepared to vote. Abortion, election reform and climate change were top concerns.

See what they said and tell us what’s driving your vote. nyti.ms/3haclCU “Health care. I’m 25, in grad school. Still on my parent’s health insurance. It’s important to me that I and others like me are able to keep their coverage and keep it affordable.” — Tyler Natof, 25, Gen Z, Carbondale, Ill.

“Over the past five years, incidents of political violence in the United States by right-wing extremists have soared,” the Times editorial board writes. The attack on Paul Pelosi “was only the latest episode.” nyti.ms/3TYLet8 This scourge of extremism is evident across the political spectrum. But the threat to the current order comes disproportionately from the right. nyti.ms/3TYLet8

Since 2014, Elisabeth Bik (@MicrobiomDigest) has dedicated herself — at first, in her free time, and later, as her career — to uncovering cases of manipulated data and imagery in scientific research. nyti.ms/3SOWmaz This image, from a paper discussing a method for fighting cancerous tumors, contains regions that appear to have been copied and pasted, as well as duplicated and flipped. nyti.ms/3SOWmaz

See if you can spot it in this video:

For years, Bret Stephens considered himself “an agnostic on the causes of climate change.” A trip to Greenland changed his mind. nyti.ms/3TJaAv9 In August, Bret traveled to Western Greenland, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle. “The data show unmistakably that Greenland’s ice is not ‘in balance.’ It is losing far more than it is gaining,” he writes. nyti.ms/3TJaAv9

The Times editorial board endorses Kathy Hochul for governor of New York.

In an unusually close election, the board writes that her opponent, Lee Zeldin, is “unfit for the office he is seeking.” nyti.ms/3sgBz59 Mr. Zeldin “has embraced the conspiracy theories and lies surrounding the 2020 presidential election,” and “played an active role in attempts by Donald Trump and his allies to undermine American democracy.” nyti.ms/3sgBz59

It’s known as the troubled teen industry. Spread across the U.S., these facilities and programs are supposed to help children with mental health and behavioral issues.

In reality, it is harming many of them. nyti.ms/3fXSZk2 According to lawsuits, government reports and the testimonies of former patients and employees, children are often abused, assaulted, sedated and placed in solitary confinement. Dozens of children have died. nyti.ms/3fXSZk2

From the courtroom to the waiting room, it’s impossible to take politics out of mental health. Welcome to the third chapter of It’s Not Just You, our series about mental health in America. nyti.ms/3RFjjN0 “You are given free will — don’t squander it,” Dea Bridge, a conservative therapist, tells @meghan_daum in an interview about her work with patients. nyti.ms/3yhdEpi

“Across the country hundreds of thousands of Americans with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, have been consigned to lives of profound instability,” writes the Times editorial board. nyti.ms/3RvHOMl Of the 14 million or so people who experience the most debilitating mental health conditions, roughly one-third don’t receive treatment. nyti.ms/3RvHOMl

Therapists and psychiatrists decide what your care looks like. What shapes those decisions? Welcome to the second chapter of It’s Not Just You, our series about mental health in America. nyti.ms/3rc1uu6 “Using Woebot was like reading a good book of fiction. I never lost the sense that it was anything more than an algorithm — but I was able to suspend my disbelief and allow the experience to carry me elsewhere,” writes @barclaybram. nyti.ms/3dJzyuz

In a new Opinion Video film, @johnnywharris and @mcottle take you inside the tedious, boring, bureaucratic G.O.P. plot to overturn American democracy – and explain how it might actually work. nyti.ms/3DDCByU “When people think of threats to democracy, usually the first place they go is voter suppression, in part because it’s just the easiest to explain,” says @mcottle. But that’s not the whole picture.

Conversations about mental health are everywhere. So why do we still feel so bad? Welcome to the first chapter of “It’s Not Just You,” our new series about mental health in America. nyti.ms/3LtAY91 The number of Americans seeking mental health treatment is on the rise. This summer, we wanted to hear from readers who’d started going to therapy in the past two years. Here’s what they had to say. nyti.ms/3dwhYd9

Barbara Ehrenreich, who died on Thursday, was a journalist, activist and author of many books, including “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.” Here are some of her essays for @nytopinion that we hope you’ll revisit. 🧵 “My atheism is hard-core,” Ms. Ehrenreich wrote in 2014. “But something happened when I was 17 that shook my safely rationalist worldview and left me with a lifelong puzzle.” nyti.ms/3eqDr7B