Brandon Herrera, long an anti-establishment outsider, is trying to help the party defend a red-leaning House district in West Texas. It’s proving messy.

© Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

A shooting at a U.S. Consulate has thrust a neighborhood with a troubled past into the center of an emerging criminal phenomenon: young guns for hire as gig workers in the underworld economy.

© Ian Willms for The New York Times

Widespread online abuse and visits from the police show the added risks women take standing up for their beliefs in a patriarchal society.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times