In Python, __new__ is a special method that is automatically called before the __init__ method when creating a new instance of a class. It is responsible for creating and returning a new instance of the class.

Here is an example to demonstrate the usage of __new__:

class MyClass:  
    def __new__(cls, *args, **kwargs):  
        print("Creating a new instance")  
        instance = super().__new__(cls)  # Creating a new instance using the superclass __new__ method  
        return instance  
    def __init__(self, name):  
        print("Initializing instance")  
        self.name = name  
obj = MyClass("Example")  

In this example, the __new__ method is defined in the MyClass class. It prints a message indicating that a new instance is being created and uses the super() function to call the __new__ method of the superclass. Finally, it returns the newly created instance.

After __new__ finishes, the __init__ method is called. It prints a message indicating that the instance is being initialized and sets the name attribute of the instance.

When running this example, you will see the following output:

Creating a new instance  
Initializing instance  

This shows that the __new__ method is called before the __init__ method and is responsible for creating the new instance.