As the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have became clearer, the Biden administration has pivoted to a more aggressive stance, with officials talking about constraining Moscow as a global power. But that is an escalation, and escalations can go wrong. Guest: David E. Sanger , a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter . Background reading: The United S...
Apr 29, 2022•26 min
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data that showed around 60 percent of Americans — more than half of adults and three quarters of children — have now been infected with the coronavirus. But herd immunity looks likely to remain elusive, and many people are still at high risk from Covid-19. What do the C.D.C. figures mean for immunity in the United States, and for the future of the pandemic? Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli , a science and global health reporter for ...
Apr 28, 2022•24 min
Joseph A. Kennedy, a former high school football coach, was fired after he made a habit of going to the 50-yard line after his team’s games to thank God and to lead his players in prayer. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard his suit. The justice’s decision in the complex case could make a major statement about the role religion may play in public life. Guest: Adam Liptak , a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each wee...
Apr 27, 2022•31 min
In January 2021, one of President Biden’s first big moves in office was to sign an executive order mandating masks in airports and on planes and other forms of public transit. But an unexpected ruling from a judge in Florida has abruptly and unexpectedly overturned that mandate — and the implications of the decision could tie the government’s hands when it comes to future health emergencies. Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg , a Washington correspondent covering health policy for The New York Times; an...
Apr 26, 2022•28 min
A Times investigation last year found that minor traffic stops in the United States were far more deadly than widely thought — in the previous five years, 400 unarmed motorists who were not under pursuit for any violent crime were killed by the police during such checks. We look at the different efforts across the country to rethink the stops and at the pushback from opponents who say that restrictions on the practice could keep more guns and criminals on the streets. Guest: David D. Kirkpatrick...
Apr 25, 2022•24 min
America is home to 735 billionaires with a collective worth greater than $4.7 trillion, according to Forbes. There were just 424 billionaires in 2012, Forbes found, and only 243 a decade before that. The billionaires keep multiplying. In this article, Willy Staley uses information from the first billionaire count — commissioned in 1981 by the entrepreneur Malcolm Forbes for his own magazine — to consider the reasons behind the rapid increase in American billionaires, but also the changing attitu...
Apr 24, 2022•35 min
When they go to the polls on Sunday, voters in France will be faced with the same two presidential candidates as 2017: Emmanuel Macron, the president and a polished centrist, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party. Yet the context is different. There is a war in Europe, and the contest is tight. What are the stakes in the runoff election, and how has the race become so close? Guest: Roger Cohen , Paris bureau chief for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? Fo...
Apr 22, 2022•32 min
In Texas, a heated political battle is taking place over care provided to young transgender people, with Gov. Greg Abbott taking a leading role. The story of this confrontation began, improbably, with the contentious divorce of a suburban couple from Dallas, and a nasty custody battle over their daughter. We look at how a domestic dispute precipitated one of the fiercest political clashes in the country, and return to yesterday’s story about a trans teenager, Grayson, and his mother to explore t...
Apr 21, 2022•34 min
In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of younger Americans who identify as transgender and are seeking medical intervention to support their transition. This increase has coincided with laws introduced in Republican State Houses across the country that seek to block trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care. Nowhere is the political battle more polarized and heated than in Texas. In the first of two episodes on the situation in Texas, we explore the story of one f...
Apr 20, 2022•35 min
Nearly two months into the war in Ukraine, many Russians have gone from shock and denial to support for their troops and anger at the West. What is behind this shifting view, and what does it mean for those who go against it? Guest: Anton Troianovski , the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter . Background reading: In Russia, some citizens are turning on one another , illustrating ho...
Apr 19, 2022•23 min
Across the United States, 45 million borrowers now owe $1.6 trillion in debt for federal loans taken out for college — more than consumers owe on any other debt except mortgages. For the past two years, beginning as the pandemic spread, the U.S. government has allowed tens of millions of Americans to stop paying back their students loans. This experiment in debt deferral has had unintended consequences, and poses a dilemma for President Biden. Guest: Stacy Cowley , a finance reporter for The New...
Apr 18, 2022•26 min
The Indigenous Brazilian territory of Ituna-Itatá was established in 2011 for the protection of an isolated group that has never been contacted by outsiders or fully confirmed to exist. But despite its special status, it has become one of the most invaded Indigenous territories in Brazil since the election of the pro-development, anti-regulatory president, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018 — becoming something of a poster board for the Amazon’s eventual demise. William Langewiesche explores the process of...
Apr 17, 2022•1 hr 21 min
In the 1990s, Dennis Wayne Hope committed a series of armed robberies. After proving adept at escaping prison, he was put in isolation. He has been there for nearly three decades. His case, if the Supreme Court agrees to hear it, could answer the fundamental question of how long people can be held in solitary confinement. Guest: Adam Liptak , a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to ...
Apr 15, 2022•22 min
Elon Musk’s recent investment in Twitter has turned a high-profile and frequent user of the platform into the company’s largest stakeholder. At first, the involvement of Mr. Musk, the C.E.O. of Tesla, was seen by the social media giant as a chance to gain a powerful ally. Instead, Twitter’s fate has suddenly become much harder to predict. Guest: Mike Isaac , a technology correspondent for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscrib...
Apr 14, 2022•29 min
After a disastrous defeat in northern Ukraine, Russia has begun a high-stakes battle for the east, while Western allies arm Ukrainian fighters determined to stave off the attack. After Moscow’s pivot, what lies in store in the coming weeks? Guest: Eric Schmitt , a senior writer covering terrorism and national security for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter . Background reading: President Vladimir V. Puti...
Apr 13, 2022•28 min
On the campaign trail and when he first came to office, President Biden had ambitious plans to deal with climate change, including promises to reduce fossil fuel production. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, however, Mr. Biden has largely stopped making the case for these plans, instead turning his focus to pumping as much oil and gas as possible. What is behind the president’s retreat on climate? Guest: Coral Davenport , an energy and environmental policy correspondent for The New York Tim...
Apr 12, 2022•23 min
This episode contains strong language. A year and a half ago, the Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Karen Weise began examining labor practices at Amazon. In the process, they met Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, two Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York, who had embarked on an improbable attempt to create the company’s first union. Last week, they did it. We sat down Mr. Smalls and Mr. Palmer to ask them how it happened. Guest: Jodi Kantor , an investigative reporter for The New York Ti...
Apr 11, 2022•54 min
For more than two decades, Belarus existed in an equilibrium of quiet authoritarianism. If the government’s repressions didn’t directly touch them, most Belarusians tolerated them. But over the course of 2020, the country’s history and identity, which never much interested a majority of people who lived there, became something they would sacrifice their lives for. Sarah A. Topol explores the battle over a political mural in a public park in Minsk and considers the future of Belarus. As a remarka...
Apr 10, 2022•2 hr 53 min
Thirty years ago, Germany put forth a theory for how to work with Russia. Major energy deals, leaders argued, would keep Russia from going to war with its neighbors. Over the past 20 years, Germany has made itself incredibly dependent on Russian gas. The war in Ukraine has complicated that relationship and has shown how Germany’s approach to Russia has not only failed, but also backfired. Guest: Katrin Bennhold , the Berlin bureau chief for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one b...
Apr 08, 2022•30 min
As countries have struggled with disease and death throughout the coronavirus pandemic, one part of the world seems to have been mostly spared: central and western Africa. South Africa was deeply affected by waves of the coronavirus, as were countries in East Africa like Kenya and Uganda. But nations in the center and west of the continent appear to have been largely spared. What is behind these low case and death rates — and what does that tell us about the future of the pandemic? Guest: Stepha...
Apr 07, 2022•31 min
This episode details graphic scenes. Many around the world are calling the indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Bucha, a suburb northwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, a war crime. But investigating such atrocities is painstakingly complicated. Could one case that resulted in convictions — the genocide in Bosnia in the 1990s — offer lessons on how to proceed? Guest: Roger Cohen , the Paris bureau chief for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week f...
Apr 06, 2022•32 min
Ukraine and Russia are enormous producers of wheat, corn, barley, sunflower oil and fertilizer. One study calculated that the two countries accounted for 12 percent of the world’s calories. With Ukraine under attack and Russia hit with strict sanctions, a huge supply of food is suddenly trapped — with Africa and the Middle East particularly imperiled. Guest: Jack Nicas , the Brazil bureau chief for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team...
Apr 05, 2022•22 min
After months of investigation by a congressional committee, a federal judge has found that President Donald J. Trump and his allies most likely engaged in illegal activity in the wake of the 2020 election. How did the committee achieve that ruling? Guest: Luke Broadwater , a congressional reporter for The New York Times. Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their na...
Apr 04, 2022•24 min
Exploring the personal experiences of Sara Mardini and Seán Binder, two volunteers who were arrested in February 2018 after helping migrants cross safely into Lesbos, Greece, the journalist Alex W. Palmer outlines the complex situation aid workers in Europe find themselves in: increasingly demonized by local authorities while also facing pressure from different ends of the international political spectrum. Palmer traces the origins of the problem, explaining how, in the early days of the migrant...
Apr 03, 2022•1 hr 7 min
This episode details graphic scenes. Russia has mounted a brutal siege around the port city of Mariupol for more than a month, framing it as the key to a war of liberation. In reality, it’s a campaign against a city that is critical to Russia’s strategy — it would help open an important supply route and serve as a symbol of victory. What is happening inside Mariupol, and what does the fighting mean for the future of Russia’s war on Ukraine? Guest: Valerie Hopkins , a correspondent for The New Yo...
Apr 01, 2022•26 min
In the past, Republicans have been able to secure what some see as an unfair political advantage by gerrymandering political districts. But after the recent redrawing of zones, the congressional map across the U.S. is perhaps more evenly split than at any time in the past 50 years. What happened? Guest: Nate Cohn , a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times. Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have los...
Mar 31, 2022•25 min
A series of text messages released in the past week show how Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, urged White House officials to push to overturn the result of the 2020 election. There has never been a spouse of a sitting justice who has been as overt a political activist as Ms. Thomas — and that presents a real conundrum for the court. Guest: Jo Becker , an investigative reporter for The New York Times. Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is w...
Mar 30, 2022•32 min
At every step of his political career, Senator Joe Manchin III has helped a West Virginia power plant that is the sole customer of his private coal business, including by blocking ambitious climate action. A Times investigation has revealed the strands of the unusual relationship between Mr. Manchin and that especially dirty power plant, showing just how entwined they are. Guest: Christopher Flavelle , a climate reporter for The New York Times. Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The ...
Mar 29, 2022•31 min
Since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, 10 million Ukrainians — about a quarter of the population — have been displaced, and about four million have fled the country. Iryna Baramidze is one of them. From a middle-class neighborhood of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, she has been married to her husband for 12 years and has an 11 year-old son, Yuri. Over three weeks, our producer Clare Toeniskoetter followed Iryna as she made an impossible choice. Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic...
Mar 28, 2022•44 min
Demand for traveling nurses skyrocketed during the pandemic. In March 2020, there were over 12,000 job opportunities for traveling nurses, but by early December of that year, the number had grown to more than 30,000 open positions. Lauren Hilgers details the experiences of America’s traveling nurses and questions whether this “boom” will continue. Myriad factors compelled thousands to abandon their permanent posts, among them the flexible nature of being a traveling nurse and its associated life...
Mar 27, 2022•46 min
