This episode contains descriptions of sexual harassment.

After accusations of sexual harassment against Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York surfaced early this year, an independent investigation was begun.

And while people around the governor — and his critics — expected the ensuing report to be bad, what came out this week was worse.

There have been widespread calls for Mr. Cuomo to resign, but will he go?

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Investigators into sexual harassment by Mr. Cuomo said they had corroborated the claims of 11 women who accused the governor of inappropriate behavior, including suggestive comments and instances of groping.
• A new account of sexual harassment by Mr. Cuomo from a state trooper bolsters a meticulous new report on his misdeeds — and how his inner circle allowed such conduct to fester.
• In the wake of the report, the New York governor has been met with consequential defections from core constituencies, including labor, white suburban lawmakers and Black political leaders.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Tunisia was supposed to be the success story of the Arab Spring — the only democracy to last in the decade since revolutions swept the region.

Recently, after mass protests, President Kais Saied appears to be taking the reins of power for himself.

What happened? We hear from Mr. Saied and citizens of Tunisia on the ground. 

Guest: Vivian Yee, the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Why is Tunisia’s promise of democracy struggling to bear fruit?
• In the days since their president staged a power grab, threatening their young democracy, many Tunisians are banking on the hope that things cannot get much worse.
• “Why do you think that, at 67, I would start a career as a dictator?” In a conversation with Vivian Yee, President Kais Saied vowed to preserve hard-fought rights.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language. 

Bartenders, sous chefs, wait staff — at the moment, managers in the U.S. hospitality industry are struggling to fill a range of roles at their establishments.

Managers blame pandemic unemployment benefits for the dearth of talent. Employees say that the pandemic has opened their eyes to the realities of work.

We spoke to workers and managers about why it has become so hard to get some staff back to work.

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Background reading: 

• Why is it so hard to hire right now? Experts weigh in on what’s going on in the labor market — and what companies can do to attract workers.
• The sharp rebound in hiring, especially in service industries, is widening opportunities and prompting employers to compete on pay.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Recent data from the C.D.C. has found that not only can vaccinated people get infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus, though instances are rare, but they also can potentially spread the virus just as much as an unvaccinated person.

What are the practical implications of this new information?

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• A recent report from the C.D.C. strongly suggested that fully immunized people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant can spread the virus to others just as readily as unvaccinated people.
• According to an internal C.D.C. presentation, the Delta variant is much more contagious, more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines and may cause more severe disease than other known versions of the virus.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Activists slammed the TV show “In the Dark” for casting a sighted actress in a blind lead role. But what if blindness is a performance of its own?

This story was written and narrated by Andrew Leland. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

You’ve heard the 1619 podcast right here on The Daily. And we’ve covered the backlash to the 1619 Project and the battle over critical race theory that followed. In this interview, Ezra Klein, an Opinion columnist at The New York Times and host of The Ezra Klein Show, speaks with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates about these skirmishes, and how they have gripped our national discourse. At the heart of the conversation in this episode is the question: How do we understand American history?

Each Tuesday and Friday for New York Times Opinion, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 

This episode contains mentions of sexual abuse.

Simone Biles, 24, showed up on the national stage at 16, when she competed in and won the national championships. She equally impressed at her first Olympics, in 2016 in Rio.

Going into the Tokyo Games this year, Ms. Biles — who is considered one of the greatest gymnasts of all time — was expected to win the all-around. So she shocked many this week when she pulled out of the competition.

What prompted her decision?

Guest: Juliet Macur, a sports reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Ms. Biles was widely embraced as the latest elite athlete who had the courage to acknowledge her vulnerability. In pulling out of the Olympics, she rejected a long tradition of stoicism in sports.
• By withdrawing from competition citing concerns over her mental health, Ms. Biles showed that resisting expectations could be more powerful than persisting through them.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For decades, nuclear weapons did not figure prominently in China’s military planning. However, recent satellite images suggest that the country may be looking to quintuple its nuclear arsenal. 

Why is China changing strategy now?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Is China scrapping its “minimum deterrent” strategy and joining an arms race? Or is it merely looking to create a negotiating card?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language.

The first hearing of the special congressional committee on the Jan. 6 riots was an emotional affair, but it was not quite the investigation that was originally envisaged.

In January, lawmakers on both sides spoke of putting aside partisanship and organizing an investigation akin to the 9/11 commission, considered the gold standard of nonpartisan fact-finding.

Why did the commission fail and what is taking place instead?

Guest: Luke Broadwater, a congressional reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• “A hit man sent them.” Police officers at the Capitol recounted the horrors of Jan. 6 on the first day of the House committee investigation into the event.
• In remarks before the hearing, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, said Republicans wanted the focus of the inquiry to be on the lack of preparation for the violence and ways to prevent future attacks.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the effort to raise America’s vaccination rate, some agencies and private organizations have turned to the last, and most controversial, weapon in the public health arsenal: vaccine mandates.

How have the federal government and the White House approached the issue?

Guest: Jennifer Steinhauer, a Washington reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• California and New York City will require vaccinations or tests for their employees, while the Department of Veterans Affairs said frontline health care workers must get vaccinated or face possible termination.
• With some health care workers still refusing to be immunized, medical centers around the country are requiring shots as cases climb once again.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For the past couple of weeks, some Americans have reported a curious phenomenon: They have caught the coronavirus despite being vaccinated.

Vaccines are still doing their job by protecting against serious illness and hospitalization, but the frequency of so-called breakthrough infections has surprised experts.

How do such cases happen, and what risks do they pose?

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Breakthrough infections are still relatively uncommon, experts said, and those that cause serious illness, hospitalization or death even more so.
• While being fully inoculated protects against serious illness and hospitalization from Covid-19, no vaccine offers 100 percent protection, and vaccinated people may need to take a few more precautions. Here’s what you need to know.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

An activist investment firm won a shocking victory at Exxon Mobil. But can new directors really put the oil giant on a cleaner path?

This story was written by Jessica Camille Aguirre and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Extreme weather across Europe, North America and Asia is highlighting a harsh reality of science and history: The world as a whole is neither prepared to slow down climate change nor live with it.

European officials are trying to change that. The European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, recently introduced ambitious legislation aimed at sharply cutting emissions to slow down climate change within the next decade, specifically by weaning one of the world’s biggest and most polluting economies off fossil fuels. But can it generate the political will to see it through?

Guest: Somini Sengupta, the international climate reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Our climate correspondent explains what you need to know about the implications of recent extreme weather events for rich countries.
• Want to learn more about the science behind climate change? Here are some answers to the big questions, like how we know we’re really in a climate crisis.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

A promise of a well-paying assignment abroad for retired Colombian soldiers. A security company in Miami. An evangelical Haitian American pastor with lofty ideas. Trying to join the dots in the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse took us from the Caribbean to South America to Florida — and there are still plenty of questions.

Guest: Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief for The New York Times, and Frances Robles, a national and foreign correspondent for The Times based in Florida.

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Background reading: 

• Interviews with more than a dozen people suggest that the suspects had been working together for months — but to what end is still mysterious.
• One suspect was said to have claimed he was “sent by God” to help Haiti.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Chinese government’s hacking of Microsoft was bold and brazen.

The Biden administration tried to orchestrate a muscular and coordinated response with Western allies. But while the U.S. has responded to cyberattacks from Russia with economic sanctions, when it comes to Beijing, the approach is more complicated.

Why does the U.S. take a different course with China?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The Biden administration organized a broad group of allies to condemn Beijing for cyberattacks around the world but stopped short of taking concrete punitive steps.
• Over the past decade, China has transformed into a sophisticated and mature cyber threat to the U.S.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Is misinformation on Facebook an impediment to ending the pandemic?

President Biden even said that platforms like Facebook, by harboring skepticism about the shots, were killing people.

Facebook immediately rejected the criticism, but who is right?

Guest: Cecilia Kang, a correspondent covering technology and regulatory policy for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Mr. Biden’s blunt statement about Facebook capped weeks of frustration in the White House over the spread of vaccine disinformation on social media.
• In response, Facebook called on the administration to stop “finger-pointing.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The rise of the Delta variant has prompted a thorny question: Do we need a booster dose of the vaccine for Covid-19? Vaccine makers think so, but regulators are yet to be convinced.

Principles are also at stake: Should richer countries be talking about administering extra doses when so many people around the world are yet to receive even a single shot?

Guest: Rebecca Robbins, a business reporter covering Covid-19 vaccines for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Although studies of a third dose are underway, experts agree that the vaccines are still working well. Here’s what to know about the potential booster dose.
• U.S. officials said that the decision to go ahead with a booster shot would depend partly on how many infections cause serious disease or hospitalization in vaccinated people.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It made headlines around the world: a New Jersey sandwich shop with a soaring stock price. Was it just speculation, or something stranger?

This story was written by Jesse Barron and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains accounts of physical and sexual abuse.

The residential school system was devised by the Canadian government under the auspices of education, but very little education took place. Instead, children were taken from their families in order to wipe out Indigenous languages and culture.

In 1959, when Garry Gottfriedson was 5, he was sent to one such school: Kamloops Indian Residential School.

On today’s episode, we hear his story and explore how Indigenous activists have agitated for accountability and redress from the federal government.

Guest: Ian Austen, a correspondent covering Canada for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Two gruesome discoveries of what Indigenous groups say are the remains of hundreds of children have strengthened the groups’ resolve to hold Canada accountable for a long-hidden brutal history.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language.

It was a surprise to many recently when protesters took to the streets in a small town near Havana to express their grievances with Cuba’s authoritarian government. Cubans do not protest in huge numbers.

Even more remarkable: The protests spread across the island.

Why are Cubans protesting, and what happens next?

Guest: Ernesto Londoño, the Brazil bureau chief for The New York Times, covering the southern cone of South America. 

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Background reading: 

• Thousands of Cubans have taken to the streets in cities around their country to protest food and medicine shortages, in a remarkable eruption of discontent not seen in nearly 30 years.
• Security forces arrested dozens of protesters after a wave of demonstrations on Sunday. But dissidents expressed hope the protests would lead to lasting change.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The heat wave that hit the usually cool and rainy American Pacific Northwest was a shock to many — Oregon and Washington were covered by a blanket of heat in the triple digits.

After the temperatures soared, a group of scientists quickly came together to answer a crucial question: How much is climate change to blame?

Guest: Henry Fountain, a climate change reporter for The New York Times; and Sergio Olmos, a freelancer for The Times. 

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Background reading: 

• An analysis of the recent record-breaking heat found that it would have been virtually impossible without the influence of human-caused climate change.
• The extreme temperatures in Oregon, Washington State and Canada were exacerbated by an intense drought. Here is what to know about these heat waves.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In its investigation of the Trump Organization’s financial affairs, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has zeroed in on Allen Weisselberg, the company’s former finance chief, who spent almost half a century working for the Trump family. 

Criminal charges have been brought against Mr. Weisselberg in the hopes of getting him to cooperate in an investigation of former President Donald Trump. Will he flip?

Guest: Ben Protess, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Michael Rothfeld, an investigative reporter for The Times’s Metro Desk. 

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Background reading: 

• The Trump Organization has been charged with running a 15-year scheme to help its executives evade taxes by compensating them with fringe benefits that were hidden from the authorities.
• In nearly half a century of service to Mr. Trump’s family businesses, Allen Weisselberg has survived — and thrived — by anticipating and carrying out his boss’s dictates in a zealous mission to protect the bottom line. His fealty has now landed him in serious legal jeopardy. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For decades, the granting of racial reparations in the United States appeared to be a political nonstarter. But Evanston, Ill., recently became the first city to approve a program of reparations for its Black residents.

How did this happen, and can it be replicated in other parts of the country? 

Guest: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The proposal in Evanston in March was pioneering: a blueprint to begin distributing $10 million in reparations to Black residents of the city in the form of housing grants.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For Aleksander Doba, pitting himself against the wide-open sea — storms, sunstroke, monotony, hunger and loneliness — was a way to feel alive in old age. Today, listen to the story of a man who paddled toward the existential crisis that is life and crossed the Atlantic alone in a kayak. Three times.

Mr. Doba died on Feb. 22 on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. He was 74.

This story was written by Elizabeth Weil and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Early on Wednesday morning, a group of men killed President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti in his residence on the outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

It was a brazen act. Very rarely is a nation’s leader killed in at home.

What does the attack means for Haiti’s future?

Guest: Maria Abi-Habib, bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The assassination of Mr. Moïse has rocked his nation, stoking fear and confusion about what is to come. Here is what we know and don’t know.
• The killing has left a political void and deepened the turmoil and violence that has gripped Haiti for months, threatening to tip one of the world’s most troubled nations further into lawlessness.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After a 20-year war, the United States has effectively ended its operations in Afghanistan with little fanfare.

In recent weeks, the Americans have quietly vacated their sprawling military bases in the nation, and without giving Afghan security forces prior notice.

What does this withdrawal look like on the ground?

Guest: Thomas Gibbons-Neff, a correspondent in the Kabul bureau for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The Americans have handed over Bagram Air Base — once the military’s nerve center — to the Afghans, effectively ending operations.
• Just a mile from the base, where U.S. forces departed on Thursday, shops sell items left over from two decades of fighting. Each one tells a story.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When the F.D.A. approved the drug Aduhelm, the first Alzheimer’s treatment to receive the agency’s endorsement in almost two decades, it gave hope to many.

But the decision was contentious; some experts say there’s not enough evidence that the treatment can address cognitive symptoms.

What is the story behind this new drug?

Guest: Pam Belluck, a health and science writer for The New York Times.  

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Background reading: 

• Aduhelm, also known as aducanumab, was approved despite opposition from the F.D.A.’s independent advisory committee and some Alzheimer’s experts.
• Even those who supported the F.D.A.’s approval have said that authorizing it for anyone with the disease is much too broad.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Delta variant of the coronavirus is threatening to put the world in an entirely new stage of the pandemic.

The variant is spreading fast, particularly in places with low vaccination rates — it is thought to be around 50 percent more transmissible than previous versions.

What can be done to stop Delta, and how will the variant hamper global efforts to return to normalcy?

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Vaccines are driving down coronavirus case numbers in the U.S., but it’s unclear whether Delta will reverse that trend. Here’s what scientists know about it.
• Conflicting advice from the health authorities about masks has bewildered a worried public.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In Loudoun County, Va., a fierce debate has been raging for months inside normally sleepy school board meetings.

At the heart of this anger is critical race theory, a once obscure academic framework for understanding racism in the United States.

How, exactly, did critical race theory enter American public life, and what does this debate look like on the ground?

Guest: Trip Gabriel, a national correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• In a culture-war brawl that has spilled into the country’s education system, Republicans at the local, state and national levels are trying to block curriculums that emphasize systemic racism.
• More than 20 states have introduced legislation restricting lessons on racism and other so-called divisive concepts.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Throughout its 115-year history, the N.C.A.A.’s bedrock principle has been that student-athletes should be amateurs and not allowed to profit off their fame.

This week, after years of agitation and legislation, the rule was changed.

What will this new era of college sports look like?

Guest: Alan Blinder, a reporter covering college sports for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Here’s a breakdown of why the N.C.A.A. finally relented to pressure to allow athletes to make money beyond the cost of attending their universities.
• Despite the N.C.A.A’s argument that payments would be a threat to amateurism, this month, the Supreme Court backed payments to student-athletes.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Recently, the government released a long-awaited report: a look at unexplained aerial phenomena.

We explore the report and what implications it may have. Will it do anything to quell theories of extraterrestrial visitors?

Guest: Julian E. Barnes, a national security reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The United States has no explanation for unidentified objects, but the report stops short of ruling out aliens.
• Rather than explaining when sightings of U.F.O.s were really just sightings of top-secret planes, the government has sometimes allowed public eagerness about the possibility of aliens to take hold.
• U.F.O.s were once a taboo topic for the federal government, but not anymore. Why are we all talking about them now?

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A few years ago, engineers sounded alarm bells about Champlain Towers, a residential building in Surfside, Fla. Last week, disaster struck and the towers collapsed. At least 11 residents have been confirmed dead and 150 more are still unaccounted for.

What caused the building to fail, and why are so many people still missing?

Guest: Patricia Mazzei, the Miami bureau chief for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The collapse of Champlain Towers may be one of the deadliest accidental collapses in American history. Here are the key facts.
• Some engineers looking at the building’s failure said that the collapse appeared to have begun somewhere near the bottom of the structure.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After last year’s postponement, both the International Olympic Committee and the Japanese government are determined that the Tokyo Games will take place this summer.

But the public in Japan appears unconvinced: About 85 percent of people say they fear that the Olympics will cause a rebound of the virus in the country.

Will the sense of discontent fade as the Games begin?

Guest: Motoko Rich, the Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Why haven’t the Tokyo Games been canceled? The answer lies in billions of dollars, years of work and thousands of athletes who can’t wait any longer.
• Japan’s latest outbreak is receding and vaccinations are slowly picking up, but health experts warn that the government must remain vigilant.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Neglected by art history for decades, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, the sister-in-law to Vincent van Gogh, is finally being recognized as the force who opened the world’s eyes to his genius.

This story was written by Russell Shorto and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

On this episode of Sway, a podcast from NYT Opinion, America’s chief immunologist responds to the recent leak of his emails, being compared to Hitler, and weighs in on the Wuhan lab-leak theory. 

Every Monday and Thursday on Sway, Kara Swisher investigates power: who has it, who’s been denied it and who dares to defy it. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode, we get answers on just how bad the problem of far-right infiltration in the German military and police really is — and how Germany is trying to address it. 

We learn about Germany's "defensive democracy," which was designed after World War II to protect the country against threats from the inside. One of those threats, according to some German officials, is the Alternative for Germany, widely known by its German initials AfD. We meet intelligence officials who have put parts of the party under formal surveillance.

When the coronavirus hit, the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, seemed uniquely positioned to help. It struck a deal with AstraZeneca, promising a billion vaccine doses to low- and middle-income nations. 

Earlier this year, a ban instituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi put a stop to those plans. 

What has that meant for the nations promised millions of doses?

Guest: Emily Schmall, a South Asia correspondent for The New York Times based in New Delhi. 

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Background reading: 

• The Serum Institute vowed to protect its country from the coronavirus and inoculate the world’s poor, but India’s crisis has pushed it past its limits.
• Big-power muscle flexing helps explain many of the world’s vaccine inequities, but there’s another problem: The manufacturing challenge is unprecedented.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The For the People Act, a bill created by House Democrats after the 2018 midterm elections, could have been the most sweeping expansion of voting rights in a generation.

On Tuesday night, however, Senate Republicans filibustered the bill before it could even be debated.

What lessons can we take from its demise? 

Guest: Nicholas Fandos, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• By blocking the sweeping voting rights bill, Republicans dealt a blow to Democrats’ attempts to counter a wave of state-level ballot restrictions, while also supercharging a campaign to end the legislative filibuster.
• In the wake of the bill’s demise, Democrats and civil rights groups have reaffirmed their resolve to fight for voting protections in Congress.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the wake of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, a central question of the New York City mayoral contest has become: Is New York safer with more or fewer police officers?

Today, we see this tension play out in a single household, between Yumi Mannarelli and her mother, Misako Shimada.

Guests: Misako Shimada and Yumi Mannarelli, a mother and daughter who live in New York City. 

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Background reading: 

• The New York City mayoral race has been fluid, but the centrality of crime and policing has remained constant. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

How does the 1965 Voting Rights Act work? That is the question in front of the Supreme Court as it rules on a pair of Arizona laws from 2016 — the most important voting rights case in a decade.

What arguments have been made in the case? And what implications will the decision have?

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the United States Supreme Court for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The Supreme Court has signaled that it could tighten the standards for using the Voting Rights Act to challenge all kinds of voting restrictions.
• The sprawling voting rights legislation known as H.R. 1, could result in lawsuits leading to a dozen Supreme Court cases, according to legal experts.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

During his childhood, Nicholas Casey, Madrid bureau chief for The New York Times, received visits from his father. He would arrive from some faraway place where the ships on which he worked had taken him, regaling his son with endless stories. He had black curly hair like Nicholas’s and the beard he would one day grow.

But then after Nicholas’s seventh birthday, he vanished.

The familial riddle that plagued him would remain unsolved until his 33rd birthday with a gift from his mother: an ancestry test.

This story was written by Nicholas Casey and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

We meet Franco A., an officer in the German military who lived a double life as a Syrian refugee and stands accused of plotting an act of terrorism to bring down the German government.

In 2019, it seemed to many that Gov. Ralph Northam’s career was over.

That year, the Democratic governor of Virginia became embroiled in a highly publicized blackface scandal centered on a racist picture in his medical-school yearbook. There were widespread calls for his resignation.

Two years later, Mr. Northam has emerged as the most racially progressive leader in the state’s history. How did it happen?

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• When a racist picture was discovered on his yearbook page, Ralph Northam refused to resign. Now he’s leaving office with a widely praised progressive record on racial justice.
• Virginia’s governor survived a blackface scandal with the help of Black Democrats, who saw a chance for policy concessions. Both got more from the relationship than they could have imagined.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence.

Just a few years ago, Ethiopia’s leader was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Now, the nation is in the grips of a civil war, with widespread reports of massacres and human rights abuses, and a looming famine that could strike millions in the northern region of Tigray. 

How did Ethiopia get here?

Guest: Declan Walsh, the chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Thousands of Ethiopians have fled the country and given accounts of a devastating and complex conflict. A U.S. report found that officials are leading a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in the northern region of Tigray.
• United Nations agencies have said the crisis in the Tigray region had plunged it into famine. It’s  a starvation calamity bigger at the moment than anywhere else in the world.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Elon Musk and George Soros are household names. They are among the wealthiest people in the United States.

But a recent report by ProPublica has found another thing that separates them from regular Americans citizens: They have paid almost nothing in taxes.

Why does the U.S. tax system let that happen?

Guest: Jonathan Weisman, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• An analysis by ProPublica showed that from 2014 to 2018, the nation’s richest executives paid just a fraction of their wealth in taxes — $13.6 billion in federal income taxes during a time when their collective net worth reportedly increased by $401 billion.
• The exposé has refocused attention on the tax code and how it applies to the superrich.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Apple built the world’s most valuable business by figuring out how to make China work for Apple.

A New York Times investigation has found that the dynamic has now changed. China has figured out how to make Apple work for China.

Guest: Jack Nicas, who covers technology from San Francisco for The New York Times. He is one of the reporters behind the investigation into Apple’s compromises in China.

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Background reading: 

• An investigation from The New York Times offers an extensive inside look at how Apple has given in to escalating demands from the Chinese authorities.
• One of the compromises Apple made to China was storing its Chinese customers’ data on servers controlled by the Chinese government. Here are four more takeaways from the report.
• In the United States, data requests have placed Apple and other tech giants in an uncomfortable position between law enforcement, the courts and the customers whose privacy they have promised to protect.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

During months of pandemic isolation, Wesley Morris, a critic at large for The New York Times, decided to grow a mustache.

The reviews were mixed and predictable. He heard it described as “porny” and “creepy,” as well as “rugged” and “extra gay.”

It was a comment on a group call, however, that gave him pause. Someone noted that his mustache made him look like a lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P.’s legal defense fund.

“It was said as a winking correction and an earnest clarification — Y’all, this is what it is,” Wesley said. “The call moved on, but I didn’t. That is what it is: one of the sweetest, truest things anybody had said about me in a long time.”

On today’s episode of The Sunday Read, Wesley Morris’s story about Blackness and the symbolic power of the mustache.

This story was written by Wesley Morris and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Franco A. is not the only far-right extremist in Germany discovered by chance. For over a decade, 10 murders in the country, including nine victims who were immigrants, went unsolved. The neo-Nazi group responsible was discovered only when a bank robbery went wrong. 

In this episode, we ask: Why has a country that spent decades atoning for its Nazi past so often failed to confront far-right extremism?

When she was at graduate school in the 1970s, Dr. Katalin Kariko learned about something that would become a career-defining obsession: mRNA.

She believed in the potential of the molecule, but for decades ran up against institutional roadblocks. Then, the coronavirus hit and her obsession would help shield millions from a once-in-a-century pandemic. 

Today, a conversation with Dr. Kariko about her journey. 

Guest: Gina Kolata, a reporter covering science and medicine for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Collaborating with devoted colleagues, Dr. Kariko laid the groundwork for the mRNA vaccines turning the tide of the pandemic.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The Senate passed the largest piece of industrial policy seen in the U.S. in decades on Tuesday, directing about a quarter of a trillion dollars to bolster high-tech industries.

In an era where lawmakers can’t seem to agree on anything, why did they come together for this?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times. 

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The Daily is doing a live online event: We follow up with students and faculty from our series Odessa. And we hear from the team who made the documentary. Times subscribers can join us June 10.

Background reading: 

• The wide margin of support in the Senate reflects a sense of urgency among lawmakers in both parties about shoring up the technological and industrial capacity of the United States.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In the past few weeks, some of the biggest industries in the U.S. have been held up by cyberattacks.

The first big infiltration was at Colonial Pipeline, a major conduit of gas, jet fuel and diesel to the East Coast. Then, J.B.S., one of the world’s largest beef suppliers, was hit.

The so-called ransomware attacks have long been a worry. But who are the hackers and how can they be stopped?

Guest: Nicole Perlroth, a reporter covering cybersecurity and digital espionage for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

The Daily is doing a live online event: We follow up with students and faculty from our series Odessa. And we hear from the team who made the documentary. Times subscribers can join us June 10.

Background reading: 

• The Biden administration has taken steps to counter the growing threat of cyberattacks on U.S. businesses. The F.B.I. director compares the danger of ransomware to the 9/11 terror threat.
• As the ransomware industry exploded, a Russian-speaking outfit called DarkSide offered would-be computer criminals not just the tools, but also customer support. Here’s how the group became a hacking powerhouse.
• It’s been almost a decade since Leon Panetta, then the secretary of defense, warned of an impending “Cyber Pearl Harbor.” He didn’t want to be right.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has always sold himself as a peerless defender of his country. In the minds of many Israelis, he has become a kind of indispensable leader for the nation’s future.

Despite that image, Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, might soon be ousted from office.

What has given his rivals the momentum to try to topple him? And who might be his replacement?

Guest: David M. Halbfinger, who covered Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and the Middle East as the Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

The Daily is doing a live online event: We follow up with students and faculty from our series Odessa. And we hear from the team who made the documentary. Times subscribers can join us June 10.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Netanyahu, a dominant figure who has pushed his nation’s politics to the right, is on the verge of losing power.
• The main players in the latest twist in Israeli politics have very different agendas, but one common goal. Can they change Israel?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Andrea Smith had long been an outspoken activist and academic in the Native American community. Called an icon of “Native American feminism,” she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy work and has aligned herself with prominent activists such as Angela Davis.

Last fall, however, a number of academics, including Ms. Smith, were outed as masquerading as Black, Latino or Indigenous.

While many of them explained themselves and the lies they told, Ms. Smith never did. Why?

This story was written by Sarah Viren and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

On this episode of The Ezra Klein Show, former President Barack Obama discusses Joe Biden, aliens and what he got right and wrong during his two terms in office.

Each Tuesday and Friday for The New York Times Opinion section, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. Subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

Franco A. visited the workplaces of two of his alleged targets. We meet both targets to hear the stories of two Germanies: One a beacon of liberal democracy that has worked to overcome its Nazi past, the other a place where that past is attracting new recruits. 

Today, we explore how Germany's history is informing the fight for the country’s future.

Over the weekend, months of tension in the Texas Legislature came to a head. A group of Democratic lawmakers got up and left the building before a vote — an act of resistance amid the most conservative Texas legislative session in recent memory. 

The population of Texas is becoming less old, less white and less Republican, so why is its Legislature moving further right?

Guest: Manny Fernandez, the Los Angeles bureau chief for The New York Times. He spent more than nine years covering Texas as the Houston bureau chief.

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Background reading: 

• The recent session that pushed Texas further to the right, at a time when it seemed least likely to do so — as the state becomes younger, less white and less Republican.
• After Democrats killed a bill to restrict voting in the state, Republicans pledged to pass it in a special legislative session. A new fight looms. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Representing a vanishing brand of Democratic politics that makes his vote anything but predictable, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has become the make-or-break legislator of the Biden era.

We explore how and why Mr. Manchin’s vote has become so powerful.

Guest: Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• In Washington, policy revolves around Joe Manchin. Read Jonathan Martin’s exploration of why the senator likes it that way. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode includes disturbing language including racial slurs.

In the early 20th century, Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an epicenter of Black economic influence in the United States. However, in the early hours of June 1, 1921, a white mob — sanctioned by the Tulsa police — swept through the community burning and looting homes and businesses, and killing residents.

A century later, the question before Congress, the courts and the United States as a whole is: What would justice look like?

Guest: Brent Staples, a member of the New York Times editorial board.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• A century ago, a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa perished at the hands of a white mob. Here is what the massacre destroyed.
• The three known survivors, who were all children in 1921, offered their firsthand accounts of the race massacre at a hearing in Washington last month.
• A centennial commission that raised $30 million for a history exhibit center has said the government should be responsible for repaying survivors and their descendants.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains strong language. 

The mysterious story of a German soldier, a faked Syrian identity and a loaded gun in an airport bathroom cracks the door open to a network of far-right extremists inside the German military and the police. They are preparing for the day democracy collapses — a day they call Day X. But just how dangerous are they?

See all episodes of Day X at 

nytimes.com/dayx

Last week, when the pilots on a commercial flight headed for Lithuania told passengers they were about to make an unexpected landing in the Belarusian capital of Minsk many were confused — except Roman Protasevich.

The 26-year-old dissident journalist and one Belarus’s biggest enemies sensed what was about to happen.

How and why did Belarus force down the plane and arrest Mr. Protasevich? And what comes next? 

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The forced landing of a commercial flight on Sunday has put Belarus and its authoritarian leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, in a new global spotlight. Here’s what you need to know.
• Disgusted by the brutality of Mr. Lukashenko, Mr. Protasevich bravely embarked at 16 on a life in opposition.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

After 11 days of fighting over the skies of Israel and Gaza, a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel was announced last week.

The conflict wrought devastation in Gaza. Yet Hamas’s leaders took to television and declared victory.

We look at where the organization comes from and their objectives to understand why it has, for decades, engaged in battles it knows it can’t win.

Guest: Ben Hubbard, the Beirut bureau chief for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• After the cease-fire, in addition to relief, some Gaza residents felt a sense of déjà vu, having survived several recent wars with Israel. After each war, it takes years for Gaza to recover.
• Israel’s military said its airstrikes killed dozens of senior Hamas operatives and destroyed critical military infrastructure. But victory is hard to measure.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

When Brandi Levy was 14, she posted an expletive-filled video to Snapchat, expressing her dismay at not making the varsity cheerleading squad. It got her suspended from cheerleading entirely for a year.

Can a public school deal with off-campus speech in this way without infringing the First Amendment? The Supreme Court will decide.

Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the United States Supreme Court for The New York Times.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• In a lively Supreme Court argument, the justices struggled to determine how the First Amendment applies to public schools’ power to punish students for social media posts and other off-campus speech.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

It had long appeared that the National Rifle Association was impervious to anything or anyone.

Now, an investigation into financial misconduct accusations led by the New York attorney general’s office imperils the very existence of America’s most powerful gun rights group.

We look at how a plan to circumvent this investigation through a bankruptcy filing backfired.

Guest: Danny Hakim, an investigative reporter for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The N.R.A. filed for bankruptcy this year to beat regulatory action in New York, but a judge rejected the strategy.
• How an internal power struggle, a New York State investigation and accusations of fraud and betrayal on all sides left Mr. LaPierre reeling.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the summer of 1856, workers quarrying limestone in a valley outside Düsseldorf, Germany, found an odd looking skull. It was elongated and almost chinless.

William King, a British geologist, suspected that this was not merely the remains of an atypical human, but belonged to a typical member of an alternate humanity. He named the species Homo neanderthalensis: Neanderthal man.

Guided by racism and phrenology, he deemed the species brutish, with a “moral ‘darkness.’” It was a label that stuck.

Recently, however, after we’d snickered over their skulls for so long, it became clear we had made presumptions. Neanderthals weren’t the slow-witted louts we’d imagined them to be.

This story was written by Jon Mooallem and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

When our friends at This American Life made an episode called ... wait for it! ... “The Daily,” we knew we wanted to share it with you. It’s about life’s daily practices, and what you learn from doing a thing every day. Wait for the end. There’s a little surprise. 

And if you want to hear more episodes of This American Life, you can find the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

This episode contains strong language and scenes of war that some may find distressing. 

In 2010, James Dao, then a military affairs reporter for The New York Times, began following a battalion of U.S. soldiers headed for Afghanistan.

Two soldiers caught his attention: Adrian Bonenberger, a single, 32-year-old captain, and Tamara Sullivan, a 30-year-old sergeant and mother of two.

As President Biden prepares to withdraw troops from Afghanistan this fall, we revisit those interviews and follow up with the two soldiers.

Guest: James Dao, the Metro editor for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• In 2010, over the course of the year, James followed one battalion’s wrenching deployment to Afghanistan. Read the beginning of his reporting here.
• An exploration of how decisions weighed heavily on Adrian Bonenberger, a junior officer.
• In 2011, after a year in combat, there were many unexpected perils of coming home.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

It has been more than a week since the latest escalation between Israel and Hamas, and President Biden has been taking a cautious approach.

The president has stressed Israel’s right to defend itself, but he seems reluctant to place too much pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Mr. Biden has known Mr. Netanyahu for decades. Is that a help or a hindrance?

Guest: Michael Crowley, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Mr. Biden has maintained his public support toward Israel even as he adopted a somewhat sharper private tone with Mr. Netanyahu, a calculus shaped by their longtime relationship.
• Among Democrats in Congress, attitudes toward Israel have grown more critical as the party base expresses concern about the human rights of Palestinians.
• Here’s what to know about the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

“You never get used to the sound of bombings,” Rahf Hallaq tells us on today’s episode.

Ms. Hallaq, an English language and literature student, lives in the northwestern area of Gaza City, where she shares a home with her parents and five siblings. She turns 22 next month.

We talk with Ms. Hallaq about her life, her dreams and what the last nine days have been like in Gaza.

Guest: Rahf Hallaq, a 21 year-old English student and resident of Gaza City.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• In Gaza, an ordinary street, and extraordinary horror, as missiles thunder in.
• As fighting enters its second week, it is being defined by civilian casualties, undiminished rocket fire and airstrikes, and by historical tensions erupting into unrest. Here’s what to know about the conflict. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Why is the economic recovery from the pandemic so uneven? Why are companies finding it hard to hire? And why are the prices of used cars surging?

Recent economic reports have commentators scratching their heads. We dig into the theories behind this strange moment for the American economy. 

Guest: Ben Casselman, an economics and business reporter for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• April’s anemic job creation was so out of line with what other indicators have suggested that it will take some time to unravel the mystery.
• The weak jobs report could help the Federal Reserve justify its patient approach to its policies. Officials have said that they want to see real, not just forecast, progress toward full employment and stable inflation.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the months since a pro-Trump mob breached the walls of the Capitol building, some 420 people have been arrested and charged in connection with the attack. And that number is expected to rise.

As federal prosecutors prepare for a unique challenge, we look at the twists and turns of bringing those who were in the building to justice.

Guest: Alan Feuer, a reporter covering courts and criminal justice for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Prosecutors are negotiating plea agreements as they confront a sprawling investigation with hundreds of defendants.
• Defense lawyers have complained that some charges do not apply to what unfolded on Jan. 6. Here’s how those accused have challenged the accusations against them.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In this episode of The Sunday Read, we revisit a story from our archives.

Sam Anderson, a staff writer, claims Weird Al Yankovic is not just a parody singer — he’s “a full-on rock star, a legitimate performance monster and a spiritual technician doing important work down in the engine room of the American soul.” In these absurd times, Sam reaches into his childhood to explain the enduring appeal of an absurd artist.

This story was written by Sam Anderson and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language.

What started out as a kind of inside joke in the world of cryptocurrency has quickly become, for some, a very serious path to wealth. Today we explore the latest frenzy around a digital currency, what it tells us about the flaws in the old economy — and the risks and rewards of the new one.

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times, spoke with Glauber Contessoto about his investment in Dogecoin.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Dogecoin has experienced a scarcely believable surge in the past few weeks. And the currency’s value has been closely tied to the Twitter presence, and even the “Saturday Night Live” appearance, of Elon Musk.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the past few days, the deadliest violence in years has erupted between Israel and the Palestinians. Hundreds of missiles are streaking back and forth between Gaza and cities across Israel, and there have been shocking scenes of mob violence on the streets.

Why is this happening and how much worse could it get?

Guest: Isabel Kershner, a correspondent for The New York Times based in Jerusalem. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Rioting and mob violence between Arabs and Jews has torn through towns and cities across Israel, while rockets from Gaza and Israeli airstrikes have continued to kill civilians.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Today, Liz Cheney, the No. 3 Republican in the House, is expected to be removed from her leadership position.

She has found herself on a lonely political island by continuing to speak out against former President Donald Trump.

We look at the factors behind her ouster and the new requirements for Republican leadership. 

Guest: Catie Edmondson, a reporter in The New York Times’s Washington bureau. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• In turning on Ms. Cheney,Republicans have bowed to Mr. Trump’s election lies.
• The Wyoming congresswoman challenged Republicans to turn away from Trump after Jan. 6. Instead, they turned on her.
• “History is watching.” Here are five key arguments from Ms. Cheney’s Washington Post opinion essay this month.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Recently, Apple released a seemingly innocuous software update: a new privacy feature that would explicitly ask iPhone users whether an app should be allowed to track them across other apps and sites. 

For Facebook, however, this feature is anything but innocuous — it strikes at the heart of the company’s business model.

The dispute represents a further deterioration in the frosty relations between the two companies. What’s at the heart of this conflict, and why have the stakes become so high for both sides? 

Guest: Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The chief executives of Facebook and Apple have opposing visions for the future of the internet. Their differences have recently escalated.
• With Apple’s latest mobile software update, we can decide whether apps monitor and share our activities with others. Here’s what to know.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Vaccine hesitancy is a major reason that many experts now fear the United States will struggle to attain herd immunity against the coronavirus.

And while many initially hesitant demographics have become more open to vaccinations, one group is shifting much less: white Republican evangelical Christians, who tend to live in rural communities.

Here’s what that looks like in Greeneville, Tenn.

Guest: Jan Hoffman, a reporter covering behavioral health and health law for The New York Times.  

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Background reading: 

• Reluctance to get vaccinated is widespread in white, Republican communities like this one in Appalachia. But it’s far more complicated than just a partisan divide. Read Jan’s reporting here. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In this episode of The Sunday Read, we revisit a story from our archives.

When the university told one woman about the sexual-harassment complaints against her wife, they knew they weren’t true. But they had no idea how strange the truth really was.

This story was written by Sarah Viren and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

From the earliest days of the pandemic, herd immunity has consistently factored into conversations about how countries can find their way out of lockdowns and restrictions.

Now, many experts believe that the United States may never reach the requisite level of immunity.

We explore why, and what it might look like to live in a country where there is no herd immunity against the coronavirus.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The emergence of widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus appears to be here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Was Facebook right to indefinitely bar former President Donald J. Trump from the platform after the Capitol riot?

The company’s oversight board, which rules on some of the thorniest speech decisions on the platform, decided that, while the ban was justified at the time, the parameters of the suspension needed to be defined.

What does the ruling tell us about Facebook’s “Supreme Court.”

Guest: Cecilia Kang, a reporter covering technology and regulatory policy for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Facebook’s company-appointed panel ruled that Facebook should reassess the barring of Mr. Trump and make a final decision in six months.
• Lawmakers, both Republican and Democrat, have criticized the board’s decision.
• Here are some central facts to know about the oversight board.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Japan is the “grayest” nation in the world. Close to 30 percent of the population is over 65. The reason is its low birthrate, which has caused the population to contract since 2007.

With the birthrate in the United States also dropping, what are the implications of a shrinking population, and what lessons can be learned from Japan?

Guest: Motoko Rich, the Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times.  

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Background reading: 

• The contracting population in Japan poses a serious threat to the country’s economic vitality and the security of its social safety net.
• As Japan’s population shrinks and ages, rural areas are emptying out. In one childless village, two dozen adults compensate for the absence with the company of hundreds of giant handmade dolls.
• The birthrate in the United States declined for the sixth straight year in 2020 and has fallen by about 19 percent since its recent peak in 2007.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The latest census revealed that the United States had seen the second-slowest decade of population growth since 1790, when the count began.

The country may be entering an era of substantially lower population growth, demographers said.

How could this redefine the nation’s future?

Guest: Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent covering demographics for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The numbers, the product of the most embattled census process in decades, underlined the long-running trend of population gains in the South and West.
• Here is a roundup of what you need to know about the census results.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Inside the world of complaint sites and what can be done about the “the bathroom wall of the internet.”

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Background: 

• Listen to part one here. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For years, Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a Dominican-born teacher of classics at Princeton, has spoken openly about the harm caused by the discipline’s practitioners in the two millenniums since antiquity — the classical justifications of slavery, race science, colonialism, Nazism and other 20th-century fascisms.

He believes that classics is so entangled with white supremacy as to be inseparable from it.

Today on The Sunday Read, how Dr. Padilla is trying to change the way the subject is taught.

This story was written by Rachel Poser and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

For at least a decade, allegations of cheating have swirled around elections in rural Bladen County, N.C. Some people point fingers at a Black advocacy group, the Bladen County Improvement Association, accusing it of bullying voters, tampering with ballots and stealing votes outright. These allegations have never been substantiated, but they persist. The reporter Zoe Chace went to Bladen County to investigate what’s really going on. From the makers of Serial and The New York Times, this five-part audio series about allegations of election fraud -- and the powerful forces that fuel them -- is out now. Binge the whole series, and find out more here: https://nytimes.com/improvementassociation

This episode contains references to mental health challenges, including eating disorders.

Joanna Lopez, the high school senior we met in our first episode of Odessa, has turned inward: staying in her bedroom, ghosting friends and avoiding band practice. But playing with the marching band at the last football game of her high-school career offers a moment of hope that maybe, one day, things will get better.

In the finale of our four-part series, we listen as the public health crisis becomes a mental health crisis in Odessa.

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, President Biden set out an expansive vision for the role of American government. He spent much of the address detailing his proposals for investing in the nation’s economic future — spending that would total $4 trillion. 

We analyze the president’s address and his plans for remaking the American economy. 

Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• President Biden laid out an ambitious agenda on Wednesday night to rewrite the American social contract. Invoking the legacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Mr. Biden unveiled a $1.8 trillion social spending plan to accompany previous proposals.
• Read highlights from the president’s first address to Congress here. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

At the beginning of this year, many people in India thought the worst of the pandemic was finished there. But in the last few weeks, any sense of ease has given way to widespread fear. 

The country is suffering from the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world, with people being turned away from full hospitals and a scarcity of medical oxygen.  

How did India, after successfully containing the virus last year, get to this point?

Guest: Jeffrey Gettleman, the South Asia bureau chief for The New York Times, based in New Delhi. 

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Background reading: 

• In a dispatch from New Delhi, Jeffrey describes the fear of living amid a disease spreading at such scale and speed.
• Fatalities have been overlooked or downplayed, understating the human toll of the country’s outbreak, which accounts for nearly half of all new cases in a global surge.
• The new wave of the virus in India will hurt global efforts and vaccine supplies, experts say. And researchers are scrambling to assess whether new coronavirus variants are playing a role. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

During a global climate summit, President Biden signaled America’s commitment to fighting climate change with an ambitious target: The U.S. will cut its economywide carbon emissions by 50 percent of 2005 levels by 2030.  

What became clear is that the rest of the world has become cautious about following the United States’ lead after years of commitments shifting from one administration to the next. 

What happened at the summit and how can the U.S. regain its credibility in the struggle against climate change?

Guest: Coral Davenport, who covers energy and environmental policy for The New York Times, with a focus on climate change.

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Background reading: 

• At the virtual summit meeting he convened, Mr. Biden cast the fight against global warming as an economic opportunity for the world and committed the U.S. to cutting its carbon emissions by half. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In recent years, Russia has tried to reassert its global influence in many ways, from military action in Ukraine to meddling in U.S. elections.

So when Russia developed a coronavirus vaccine, it prioritized exporting it to dozens of other countries — at the expense of its own people.

Today, we look at how Russia has put vaccine diplomacy to work. 

Guest: Andrew E. Kramer, a reporter based in the Moscow bureau of The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The Kremlin has scored propaganda points and bolstered several longstanding foreign policy goals by offering its Sputnik V vaccine around the world. But production capacity is limited.
• A microstate surrounded by Italy, San Marino feared being left behind in Europe’s inoculation campaign. Now it has jumped ahead, with the Sputnik vaccine.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In summer 2003, Shahawar Matin Siraj, then 21, met Osama Eldawoody, a nuclear engineer twice his age. To Mr. Siraj’s delight they struck up an unlikely friendship — never before had someone this sophisticated taken him so seriously.

At the older man’s encouragement, Mr. Siraj became entangled in a plot to place a bomb in Herald Square subway station. He would later want out of the plan, but it was too late: Mr. Eldawoody, it turned out, was one of thousands of informants recruited by the police and the F.B.I. after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Today on The Sunday Read, did the U.S. government’s network of informants create plots where none existed?

This story was written by Rozina Ali and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language. 

On Sunday, 12 elite soccer teams in Europe announced the formation of a super league. The plan was backed by vast amounts of money, but it flew in the face of an idea central to soccer’s identity: You have to earn your place.

Fans reacted with blind fury and protest. Players and managers spoke out. Figures like Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and Prince William expressed disapproval. Within 48 hours, the idea was dead.

Amid the rubble, a question was left: What does the future hold for the world’s biggest sport?

Guest: Rory Smith, chief soccer correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Frantic phone calls, clandestine meetings and high-stakes threats: The inside story of how a billion-dollar European super league was born, scorned and swept away in less than a week.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Last spring, Brandon Hole’s mother alerted the police in Indiana about her son’s worrying behavior. Invoking the state’s “red flag” law, officers seized his firearm.

But Mr. Hole was able to legally purchase other weapons, and last week, he opened fire on a FedEx facility, killing eight people and then himself.

Why did the law fail?

Guest: Campbell Robertson, a national correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Red flag laws are supposed to keep guns away from people who should not have them. That did not happen with Mr. Hole.
• Citing shortcomings of the state’s red flag law, the senior county prosecutor in Indianapolis explained why he did not seek a ruling last year that would have barred Mr. Hole from possessing guns.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On Tuesday, after three weeks of jury selection, another three weeks of testimony and 10 hours of deliberations, Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty of murder in the death of George Floyd.

The jurors found Mr. Chauvin guilty of all three charges: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Sentencing will take place several weeks from now. Second-degree murder could mean as long as 40 years in prison.

We look back on key moments from the trial and discuss the reactions to the guilty verdict.

Guest: John Eligon, a national correspondent covering race for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The verdict against Mr. Chauvin brought a rare rebuke of police conduct.
• After the decision, there was a scene of collective relief and satisfaction in Minneapolis.
• Here are 13 key moments that shaped the trial.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Just four months into 2021 and there have already been more than 80 bills, introduced in mostly Republican-controlled legislatures, that aim to restrict transgender rights, mostly in sports and medical care.

But what’s the thinking behind the laws, and why are there so many?

We look into the motivation behind the bills and analyze the impact they could have.

Guest: Dan Levin, who covers American youth for The New York Times’s National Desk.

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Background reading: 

• Lawmakers in a growing number of Republican-led states are advancing and passing bills to bar transgender athletes in girls’ sports, a culture clash that seems to have come out of nowhere.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

When a nuclear fuel enrichment site in Iran blew up this month, Tehran immediately said two things: The explosion was no accident, and the blame lay with Israel.

Such an independent action by Israel would be a major departure from a decade ago, when the country worked in tandem with the United States to set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

We look at what the blast says about relations between the United States, Iran and Israel.

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.  

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Background reading: 

• After the blackout at the nuclear plant in Iran, Tehran threatened reprisals, while Washington denied any involvement in the apparent attack.
• Iran vowed to increase uranium enrichment in response to the explosion.
• Another round of talks in Vienna about reviving the 2015 nuclear accord has been positive, despite the feuding over the nuclear plant.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Skagit Valley choir last sang together on the evening of March 10, 2020. This rehearsal, it would turn out, was one of the first documented superspreader events of the pandemic. Of the 61 choristers who attended practice that night, 53 developed coronavirus symptoms. Two later died.

The event served as an example to other choirs of the dangers of coming together in the pandemic. It also provided crucial evidence for scientists seeking to understand how the coronavirus was being transmitted.

Today, a look at the Skagit Valley case and the choir’s road to singing together once again.

This story was written and narrated by Kim Tingley. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language and emotional descriptions about the challenges of parenting during the pandemic, so if your young child is with you, you might want to listen later.

Several months ago, The Times opened up a phone line to ask Americans what it’s really been like to raise children during the pandemic.

Liz Halfhill, a single mother to 11-year-old Max, detailed her unvarnished highs and lows over the past year.

Guest: Liz Halfhill, a single mother and full-time paralegal, in Spokane, Wash.

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Background reading: 

• The Times followed Liz and two other mothers in different parts of America who shared their experience of pandemic parenting over dozens of interviews. What emerged was a story of chaos and resilience, resentment and persistence, and of course, hope.
• Take a look at “The Primal Scream,” a series from The Times that examines the pandemic’s effect on working mothers in America.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Federal health agencies on Tuesday called for a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus shot as they examine a rare blood-clotting disorder that emerged in six recipients.

Every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico halted their rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine almost immediately. The same went for the U.S. military, federally run vaccination sites, and CVS, Walgreens, and other stores.

Today, science writer Carl Zimmer explains the decision-making process, how long the suspension might last and the impact it could have not only in the U.S. but around the world.

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Injections of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine came to a sudden halt across the United States on Tuesday after federal health agencies called for a pause in the vaccine’s use.
• The pause could continue for a week to 10 days, after expert advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined on Wednesday that they needed more time to assess a possible link to a rare but serious blood-clotting disorder.
• What does the pause mean for people who have recently received the Johnson & Johnson shot and how common are blood clots? Here’s what you need to know.
• Safety worries about the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have jeopardized inoculation campaigns far beyond the United States. The actions of American and European officials have stoked doubts in poorer countries, where a history of colonialism and unethical medical practices have left a legacy of mistrust in vaccines.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In a ruling a few days ago, the Supreme Court lifted coronavirus restrictions imposed by California on religious services held in private homes. The decision gave religious Americans another win against government rules that they say infringe on their freedom to worship.

With the latest victory, the question has become whether the Supreme Court’s majority is protecting the rights of the faithful or giving them favorable treatment.

Guest: Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times.

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Background reading: 

• Late Friday night, the Supreme Court lifted California’s restrictions on religious gatherings in private homes. The order followed earlier ones striking down limits on attendance at houses of worship.
• A study that considered data from the past 70 years found that the Supreme Court had become far more likely to rule in favor of religious rights in recent years.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It started with a picture posted on the internet, and ended in an extravagant cryptocurrency bidding war. NFTs, or “nonfungible tokens,” have recently taken the art world by storm. Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The Times, speaks with the Times columnist Kevin Roose about digital currency’s newest frontier, his unexpected role in it and why it matters.

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The Times who examines the intersection of technology, business, and culture.

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Background reading: 

• NFT mania has reached new highs in recent months, with a digital artwork by an artist known as Beeple selling for $69.3 million. A trading card featuring the quarterback Tom Brady sold for $1.3 million and an NFT of the first tweet from Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, went for $2.9 million.
• What are these nonfungible tokens and why do people pay so much for them? Here’s a primer.
• A picture of Kevin Roose’s column “Buy This Column on the Blockchain!” was put up for auction and sold for about $725,000. He also wrote about the surreal experience of selling the NFT and spoke to a few people who placed bids.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Europe’s vaccination process was expected to be well-orchestrated and efficient. So far, it’s been neither. Sabrina Tavernise, a national correspondent for The Times, spoke with our colleague Matina Stevis-Gridneff about Europe’s problems and why things could get worse before they get better.

Guest: Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Brussels correspondent for The New York Times, covering the European Union.

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Background reading: 

• A cascade of small decisions has led to increasingly long delays in the European Union’s inoculation efforts. While Washington went into business with the drug companies, Brussels took a conservative, budget-conscious approach that left the open market largely untouched. And it has paid for it.
• Falling behind the pace of vaccine rollouts in countries like Britain, the United States and Israel, Europe is now tightening export rules in a bid to speed up its inoculation campaign and stem political criticism.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The author Philip Roth, who died in 2018, was not sure whether he wanted to be the subject of a biography. In the end, he decided that he wanted to be known and understood.

His search for a biographer was long and fraught — Mr. Roth parted ways with two, courted one and sued another — before he settled on Blake Bailey, one of the great chroniclers of America’s literary lives.

Today on The Sunday Read, the journey of rendering a writer whose life was equal parts discipline and exuberance.

This story was written by Mark Oppenheimer and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Odessa is a four-part series. All episodes of the show released so far are available here. 
Last fall, as Odessa High School brought some students back to campus with hybrid instruction, school officials insisted mask wearing, social distancing and campus contact tracing would keep students and faculty safe. And at the beginning of the semester, things seemed to be going OK. But then a spike in coronavirus cases hit town, putting the school’s safety plan to the test. 

In part three of our four-part series, we follow what happened when a student quarantine stretched the school’s nurses to capacity, fractured friendships and forced some marching band members to miss a critical rite of passage: the last football game of their high school career.

In Minneapolis, the tension is palpable as the city awaits the outcome of the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer accused of murdering George Floyd last summer.

The court proceedings have been both emotional — the video of Mr. Floyd’s death has been played over and over — and technical.

At the heart of the case: How did Mr. Floyd die?

Today, we look at the case that has been brought against Mr. Chauvin so far. 

Guest: John Eligon, a national correspondent covering race for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Bystanders’ pain had been mostly hidden for the last 10 months. But over the first week of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial, it spilled tearfully into the open as witnesses testified to their shared trauma.
• Follow along live here for the latest updates on the trial of Mr. Chauvin.
• What to know about the death of George Floyd.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The I.R.S. says that Bristol Myers Squibb, America’s second-largest drug company, has engaged a tax-shelter setup that has deprived the United States of $1.4 billion in tax revenue.

The Biden administration is looking to put an end to such practices to pay for its policy ambitions, including infrastructure like improving roads and bridges and revitalizing cities.

We look at the structure of these tax arrangements and explore how, and whether, it’s possible to clamp down on them. 

Guest: Jesse Drucker, an investigative reporter on the Business desk for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The I.R.S. says that Bristol Myers Squibb used an “abusive” offshore setup to avoid $1.4 billion in federal taxes.
• In a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made the case for a global minimum corporate tax rate, kicking off the Biden administration’s effort to help raise revenue in the United States. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily

. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

How one woman with a grudge was able to slander an entire family online, while the sites she used avoided blame.

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Two months ago, Myanmar’s military carried out a coup, deposing the country’s elected civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and closing the curtains on a five-year experiment with democracy. 

Since then, the Burmese people have expressed their discontent through protest and mass civil disobedience. The military has responded with brutal violence. 

We look at the crackdown and how Myanmar’s unique military culture encourages officers to see civilians as the enemy. 

Guest: Hannah Beech, the Southeast Asia bureau chief for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• Four officers speak about life in the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s feared army, which has turned its guns on civilians again. “The Tatmadaw is the only world” for most soldiers, one said.
• Myanmar’s security forces have killed more than 40 children since February. Here is the story of one, Aye Myat Thu. She was 10.
• As the nation’s military kills, assaults and terrorizes unarmed civilians each day, some protesters say there is no choice but to fight the army on its own terms.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

During the pandemic, cheerleader-ish girls performing slithery hip-hop dances to rap music on TikTok has been the height of entertainment — enjoyed both genuinely and for laughs.

Addison Rae, one such TikToker, is the second-most-popular human being on the platform, having amassed a following larger than the population of the United Kingdom.

In seeking to monetize this popularity, she has followed a path forged by many social media stars and A-list celebrities like Rihanna and Kylie Jenner: She has started her own beauty brand.

On today’s Sunday Read, a look at how beauty has entered a phase of total pop-culture domination and how influencers are changing the way the sell works by mining the intimate relationships they have with their fans.

This story was written by Vanessa Grigoriadis and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

President Biden is pushing the boundaries of how most Americans think of infrastructure.

In a speech on Wednesday, he laid out his vision for revitalizing the nation’s infrastructure in broad, sweeping terms: evoking racial equality, climate change and support for the middle class.

His multitrillion-dollar plan aims not only to repair roads and bridges, but also to bolster the nation’s competitiveness in things like 5G, semiconductors and human infrastructure.

Today, we take a detailed look at what his plans entail and the congressional path he will have to navigate to get it passed.

Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• President Biden began selling his infrastructure proposal on Wednesday, saying that it will fix 20,000 miles of roads and 10,000 bridges while also addressing climate change and racial inequities and raising corporate taxes.
• Here is how his $2 trillion in proposed spending on infrastructure breaks down.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Since its earliest days, Amazon has been anti-union, successfully quashing any attempt by workers to organize.

A group of workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., just might change that — depending on the outcome of a vote this week.

We look at how their effort came together and what it means for the nature of work in savvy, growing companies like Amazon.

Guest: Michael Corkery, a business reporter for The New York Times. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• The outcome of a vote at a warehouse in Alabama could have far-ranging implications for both Amazon and the labor movement.
• Here’s what will happen after this week’s union vote. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Republican-led legislatures are racing to restrict voting rights, in a broad political effort that first began in the state of Georgia. To many Democrats, it’s no coincidence that Georgia — once a Republican stronghold — has just elected its first Black senator: Raphael Warnock. Today, we speak to the senator about his path from pastorship to politics, the fight over voting rights and his faith that the old political order is fading away.

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Georgia Republicans passed a sweeping law to restrict voting access in the state, making it the first major battleground to overhaul its election system since the turmoil of the 2020 presidential contest.
• Last year, Mr. Warnock ran for office in a state where people in predominantly Black neighborhoods waited in disproportionately long lines. Several Black leaders have said Georgia’s new law clearly puts a target on Black and brown voters.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Georgia, a once reliably red state, has been turning more and more purple in recent years. In response, the Republican state legislature has passed a package of laws aimed at restricting voting.

Today, we look at those measures and how Democrats are bracing for similar laws to be passed elsewhere in the country. 

Guest: Nick Corasaniti, a domestic correspondent covering national politics for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Georgia Republicans have moved early in a campaign to rewrite voting rules. Republicans in other states are determined to follow them.
• The country’s most hotly contested state has calmed down after months of drama, court fights and national attention. But new storms are on the horizon.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

On the docket on Monday at a Minneapolis courthouse is the biggest police brutality case in the United States in three decades: the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white former police officer accused of killing George Floyd, a Black man, last year.

The case centers on a 10-minute video, shot by a bystander, showing Mr. Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck. That video reverberated around the world.

We look at the contours of the trial and what we know about it so far.

Guest: Shaila Dewan, a national reporter covering criminal justice for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Read an exploration of the life and death of George Perry Floyd Jr., from “I want to touch the world” to “I can’t breathe.”
• Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, faces charges of manslaughter, second-degree murder and third-degree murder in the death of George Floyd. Here’s what you need to know about the trial.
• In more than 19 years on the Minneapolis police force, Mr. Chauvin had a reputation as a rigid workaholic with few friends. He sometimes made other officers uncomfortable.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It was in the winter of 2016 that Jan Six, a Dutch art dealer based in Amsterdam, made a discovery that would upend his life. He was leafing through a Christie’s catalog when he spotted a painting featuring a young man wearing a dazed look, a lace collar and a proto-Led Zeppelin coif. Christie’s had labeled it a painting by one of Rembrandt’s followers, but Mr. Six knew it was by the Dutch master himself.

Today on The Sunday Read, a look at Mr. Six’s discovery of the first new Rembrandt painting in over four decades, and the fallout from finding it.

This story was written by Russell Shorto and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The Good Shepherd Nursing Home in West Virginia lifted its coronavirus lockdown in February.

For months, residents had been confined to their rooms, unable to mix. But with everybody now vaccinated, it was finally time to see one another again.

We share some of the relief and joy about the tip-toe back to normalcy for staff members and residents.

Guest: Sarah Mervosh, a national reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The Good Shepherd Nursing Home, where vaccinations have finished, offers a glimpse at what the other side of the pandemic might look like.
• Nursing homes, once hot spots of the coronavirus, are far outpacing the rest of the United States in Covid declines.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The United States has never undertaken a vaccination campaign of the scale and speed of the Covid-19 program. Despite a few glitches, the country appears to be on track to offer shots to all adults who want one by May 1.

We look at the ups and downs in the American vaccination campaign and describe what life after inoculation might look like.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• It’s not clear how easily vaccinated people may spread the virus, but the answer to that question is coming soon. Until then, scientists urge caution.
• Many scientists are expecting another rise in infections. But this time, vaccinations should help to counter the surge. By summer, Americans may be looking at a return to normal life.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In less than a week, the United States has seen two deadly mass shootings: one in Boulder, Colo., and another in the Atlanta area.

These events prompted President Biden to address the nation on Tuesday. In his speech, he said it was time to ban assault weapons.

Mr. Biden has been here before. He has tried several times in his political career to bring in gun-control legislation, all to little avail.

How likely is this latest attempt to succeed, and what lessons can Mr. Biden take from his decades-long effort?

Guest: Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• A deadly shooting at a Boulder supermarket left 10 people dead and a state full of grief and anger.
• After the second mass shooting in a week, President Biden has said tighter gun laws should not be a partisan issue, but Republicans in Congress have shown little interest in Democratic proposals.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

For Tejal Rao, a restaurant critic for The Times, a sense of smell is crucial to what she does. After she contracted the coronavirus, it disappeared. It felt almost instant.

“If you’re not used to it, you don’t know what’s going on,” she said. “It’s almost like wearing a blindfold.”

We follow Tejal on her journey with home remedies and therapies to reclaim her sense. 

Guest: Tejal Rao, a California restaurant critic and columnist for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Regaining a sense of smell is tedious and slow, but Tejal is using the only therapy proven to work.
• Listen to our Sunday Read about how the coronavirus could precipitate a global understanding of the sense of smell, which has long been disregarded as the least important sense.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains strong language.

Ivan Agerton of Bainbridge Island, Wash., was usually unflappable. A 50-year-old adventure photographer and former marine, he has always been known to be calm in a crisis.

Soon after testing positive for the coronavirus this fall, he began experiencing psychosis. He spent Christmas in a psychiatric ward.

Today, we hear from Ivan and look at the potential long-term neurological effects of the Covid-19

Guest: Pam Belluck, a health and science reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• A small number of coronavirus patients have reported severe psychotic symptoms. Most had no history of mental illness.
• Some people experiencing long-term Covid-19 symptoms are feeling better after getting the vaccine, but it is too soon to tell whether the shots have a broad beneficial effect on patients with continuing issues.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The bright elastic throats of anole lizards, the Fabergé abdomens of peacock spiders and the curling, iridescent and ludicrously long feathers of birds-of-paradise. A number of animal species possess beautifully conspicuous and physically burdensome features.

Many biologists have long fit these tasking aesthetic displays into a more utilitarian view of evolution. However, a new generation of biologists have revived a long-ignored theory — that aesthetics and survival do not necessarily need to be linked and that animals can appreciate beauty for its own sake.

Today on The Sunday Read, a look at how these biologists are rewriting the standard explanation of how beauty evolves and the way we think about evolution itself. 

This story was written by Ferris Jabr and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Introducing the new season of “Still Processing.” The first episode is the one that the co-hosts Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris have been wanting to make for years. They’re talking about the N-word. It’s both unspeakable and ubiquitous. A weapon of hate and a badge of belonging. After centuries of evolution, it’s everywhere — art, politics, everyday banter — and it can’t be ignored. So they’re grappling with their complicated feelings about this word. Find more episodes of “Still Processing” here: nytimes.com/stillprocessing

Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is known as a hard-charging, ruthless political operator.

But his power has always come from two sources: legislators’ fear of crossing him and his popularity among the electorate.

After recent scandals over bullying allegations, his administration’s handling of nursing home deaths and accusations of sexual harassment, the fear is gone.

But does he still have the support of voters?

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• As he tries to plot a political survival strategy, Andrew Cuomo is an object lesson on the dangers of kicking people on the way up.
• Nearly all of the Democrats in New York’s congressional delegation, including Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have said that Mr. Cuomo has lost the ability to govern. But the governor has said that he will not bow to “cancel culture.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The pandemic has precipitated a rise in anti-Asian violence in the U.S. However, the full extent of this violence may be obscured by the difficulty in classifying attacks against Asian-Americans as hate crimes. 

A recent shooting at three spas in the Atlanta area, in which the eight victims included six women of Asian descent, has heightened anxiety in the Asian-American community. Many see this as a further burst of racist violence, even as the shooter has offered a more complicated motive. 

Today, a look at why it’s proving so difficult to reckon with growing violence against Asian-Americans and whether the U.S. legal system has caught up to the reality of this moment. 

Guest: Nicole Hong, a reporter covering New York law enforcement, courts and criminal justice for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The suspect in the Atlanta spa attacks has been charged with eight counts of murder. Six of the people killed were women of Asian descent, setting off a new wave of outrage and fear.
• The killing of eight people in Atlanta and suburban Cherokee County has come amid a rising tide of anti-Asian incidents nationwide.
• Hate crimes involving Asian-American victims soared in New York City last year.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The passage of the stimulus package last week ushered in an expansion of the social safety net that Democrats have celebrated. But one key policy was not included: a doubling of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.  

Today, we look at the history of that demand, and the shifting political and economic arguments for and against it. 

Guest: Ben Casselman, an economics and business reporter for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Earlier this month, a group of senators from both sides of the aisle declined to advance a federal minimum wage increase to $15 an hour.
• The politics of a higher minimum wage are increasingly muddled, but some Republicans are gravitating toward the idea, citing the economic needs of working-class Americans.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Wyoming has powered the nation with coal for generations. Many in the state consider the industry part of their identity.

It is in this state, and against this cultural backdrop, that one of America’s largest wind farms will be built.

Today, we look at how and why one local politician in Carbon County, Wyo. — a conservative who says he’s “not a true believer” in climate change — brought wind power to his community.

Guest: Dionne Searcey, a domestic correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• The tiny town of Rawlins, Wyo., will soon be home to one of the nation’s largest wind farms. But pride in the fossil fuel past remains a powerful force. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Just a few months ago, Israel was in dire shape when it came to the coronavirus. It had among the highest daily infection and death rates in the world. 

Now, Israel has outpaced much of the world in vaccinating its population and hospitalizations have fallen dramatically. 

Today, how it is managing the return to normality and the moral and ethical questions that its decisions have raised. 

Guest: Isabel Kershner, a correspondent in Jerusalem for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Israel’s “Green Pass” creates a two-tier system for the vaccinated and unvaccinated, raising legal, moral and ethical questions.
• The pandemic lockdowns brought tensions between Israel’s secular and ultra-Orthodox communities to the boiling point. The political consequences could be felt for years.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Long before it became an archaic and filthy symbol of everything wrong with America’s broken cities, the New York subway was a marvel.

In recent years, it has been falling apart.

Today on The Sunday Read, a look at why failing to fix it would be a collective and historic act of self-destruction. 

This story was written by Jonathan Mahler and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Odessa is a four-part series. All episodes of the show released so far are available here. 
In 1988, a high school football team in Odessa, Texas, was so good that it became the inspiration for a book, movie and, eventually, the television series “Friday Night Lights.” And in the decades since, as West Texas has weathered the unsettling undulations of the oil industry, football has remained steady. 

So after the pandemic hit, the town did what it could to make sure the season wasn’t disrupted. And at Odessa High School, where the football team struggles to compete against local rivals, the members of their award winning marching band were relieved they could keep playing. In Part 2 of Odessa, we follow what happened when the season opened — and how the school weighed the decision to start against the possible risks to students’ physical and mental health.

New episodes of Odessa will be released as they become available in this feed. For more information visit nytimes.com/odessa.

This episode contains references to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

In 1995, Diana, Princess of Wales, made a decision that was unprecedented for a member of the British royal family: She sat down with the BBC to speak openly about the details of her life.

On Sunday, her younger son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, told Oprah Winfrey of their own travails within the family.

Today, we look at the similarities between these two interviews.

Guest: Sarah Lyall, a writer at large for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• A quarter-century after Diana broke her silence about life among the British royals, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, did the same. Their stories were remarkably similar.
• The Sussexes have accused the royal family of failing to protect them, both emotionally and financially. Here’s what we learned from Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When Officer Harry Dunn reporter for work at the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, he expected a day of relatively normal protests. But the situation soon turned dangerous.

Today, we talk with Officer Dunn about his experience fending off rioters during the storming of the Capitol.

Guest: Officer Harry Dunn, a Capitol Police officer who was on duty during the storming of the Capitol. 

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Background reading: 

• “Black officers fought a different battle” on Jan. 6, Officer Harry Dunn said. Here is what he saw and heard when rioters, including white supremacists, stormed the Capitol.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Even as recently as a year ago, even the most cleareyed analysts thought it was a long shot. But this week, a child tax credit is expected to be passed into law, as part of the economic stimulus bill.

The child tax credit is an income guarantee for American families with children. It will provide a monthly check of up to $300 per child — no matter how many children.

We look at why this provision is so revolutionary and what has changed in the policy landscape to allow its passage.  

Guest: Jason DeParle, a senior writer for The New York Times and frequent contributor to The Times Magazine. 

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Background reading: 

• The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package moving through Congress advances an idea that Democrats have been nurturing for decades: establishing a guaranteed income for families with children.
• What’s in the stimulus bill? Here is a guide to where the money will be going. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The number of unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border is growing — and, with it, anxiety in the Biden administration.

Newer concerns have mixed with longstanding ones to create a situation at the border that could become untenable.

Today, in the second part of our series on what we’re learning about the Biden administration, we look at the president’s response to the growing number of minors at the border.

Guest: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a homeland security correspondent based in Washington for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• In recent months, hundreds of migrant families have been released into the United States by Border Patrol agents. Thousands more are hoping for a chance to enter under looser policies.
• President Biden is trying to untangle an interlocking web of Trump-era border restrictions, leading for now to disparate treatment of migrants and rampant confusion.
• The Biden administration has said it will shorten the detention of migrant families. Researchers say children can show symptoms of trauma after spending long periods in custody.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Thousands die in New York every year. Some of them alone. The city might weep when the celebrated die, or the innocent are slain, but for those who pass in an unwatched struggle, there is no one to mourn for them and their names, simply added to a death table.

In 2014, George Bell, 72, was among those names. He died alone in his apartment in north central Queens.

On today’s Sunday Read, what happens when someone dies, and no one is there to arrange their funeral? And who exactly was George Bell?

This story was written by N.R. Kleinfield and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Joe Biden has had harsh words for the Saudis and the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

It appeared that the period of appeasement toward the Saudis in the Trump administration was over. But the Biden administration’s inaction over a report that implicated the crown prince in the 2018 killing of the dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi has disappointed many of his allies.

Today, the first of a two-part look at what we’re learning about the Biden administration. First, a look at its approach to Saudi Arabia. 

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The Times. 

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Background reading: 

• For President Biden, deliberation and caution has thus far been his approach on the world stage.
• The president has decided not to penalize the Saudi crown prince over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, fearing a breach in relations. This decision will disappoint many in the human rights community and in his own party. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

It’s been almost a year since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

And the virus is persisting: A downward trend in the U.S. caseload has stalled, and concern about the impact of variants is growing. Yet inoculations are on the rise, and the F.D.A. has approved Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, the third to be approved in the U.S.

Today, we check in on the latest about the coronavirus.

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• After the Johnson & Johnson vaccine approval, President Biden vowed that there would be enough vaccine doses for “every adult in America” by the end of May.
• For more information about the emerging mutations, check out The Times’s variant tracker. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Microsoft founder Bill Gates was the most powerful and provocative private individual operating within global public health.

Today, we look at the role he has played in public health and his latest mission: procuring Covid-19 vaccines for countries in the developing world.

Guest: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Nicholas Kulish, an enterprise correspondent covering philanthropy, wealth and nonprofits for The Times.

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Background reading: 

• Bill Gates is working with the World Health Organization, drugmakers and nonprofits to tackle the coronavirus, including in the world’s poorest nations. Can they do it?
• An operation to supply billions of vaccine doses to poorer countries got underway last week. But as rich countries buy most of the available supply, stark inequalities remain.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The Senate is preparing to vote on another stimulus bill — the third of the pandemic.

The bill has the hallmarks of a classic stimulus package: money to help individual Americans, and aid to local and state governments. It also contains provisions that would usher in long-term structural changes that have been pushed for many years by Democrats.

Today, we explore the contours of the Biden administration’s stimulus bill and look at the competing arguments. 

Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.  

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Background reading: 

• The stimulus bill is polling strongly across the country, including with many Republican voters, despite a scattershot series of attacks from congressional Republicans.
• Before the vote on President Biden’s stimulus package, here’s a fact check on some of the common talking points. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Even as the cold has lifted and the ice has melted in Texas, the true depth of the devastation left by the state’s winter storm can be difficult to see.

Today, we look at the aftermath through the eyes of Iris Cantu, Suzanne Mitchell and Tumaini Criss — three women who, after the destruction of their homes, are reckoning with how they are going to move forward with their lives.

Guest: Jack Healy, a Colorado-based national correspondent for The New York Times. 

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Background reading: 

• Even with power back on across most of the state and warmer weather forecast, millions of Texans whose health and finances were already battered by a year of Covid-19 now face a grinding recovery from the storm.
• Here’s an analysis of how Texas’s drive for energy independence set it up for disaster.
• As the freak winter storm raged, historically marginalized communities were among the first to face power outages.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

It all started when Sigrid E. Johnson was 62. She got a call from an old friend, asking her to participate in a study about DNA ancestry tests and ethnic identity. She agreed.

Ms. Johnson thought she knew what the outcome would be. When she was 16, her mother told her that she had been adopted as an infant. Her biological mother was an Italian woman from South Philadelphia, and her father was a Black man.

The results, however, told a different story.

Today on The Sunday Read, what the growth in DNA testing, with its surprises and imperfections, means for people’s sense of identity.

This story was written by Ruth Padawer and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Odessa is a four-part audio documentary series about one West Texas high school reopening during the pandemic — and the teachers, students and nurses affected in the process.

For the past six months, The New York Times has documented students’ return to class at Odessa High School from afar through Google hangouts, audio diaries, phone calls and FaceTime tours. And as the country continues to debate how best to reopen schools, Odessa is the story of what happened in a school district that was among those that went first.

All episodes of the show released so far are available here. 

Five years ago, Judge Merrick B. Garland became a high-profile casualty of Washington’s political dysfunction. President Barack Obama selected him to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, but Senate Republicans blocked his nomination. In the process, Mr. Garland became known for the job he didn’t get.

Now, after being nominated by the Biden administration to become the next attorney general, Mr. Garland is finding professional qualifications under scrutiny once again. In light of the attack on the Capitol, we explore how his career leading investigations into domestic terrorism prepared him for his Senate confirmation hearing.

Guest: Mark Leibovich, the chief national correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, who spoke with Judge Merrick B. Garland.

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Background reading: 

• In his confirmation hearing this week, Mr. Garland said the United States now faced “a more dangerous period” from domestic extremists than at the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
• Here’s why Mr. Garland described his experience leading the Justice Department’s investigation into the 1995 bombing as “the most important thing I have ever done in my life.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When the pandemic was bearing down on New York last March, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration issued a directive that allowed Covid-19 patients to be discharged into nursing homes in a bid to free up hospital beds for the sickest patients. It was a decision that had the potential to cost thousands of lives.

Today, in the second part of our look at New York nursing homes, we explore the effects of the decisions made by the Cuomo administration and the crisis now facing his leadership. 

Guest: Amy Julia Harris, an investigative reporter on The New York Times’s Metro desk. 

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Background reading: 

• Trying to quell a growing outcry over the state’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched into a 90-minute defense of his actions while hitting back at critics.
• The scrutiny of Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes has also put Mr. Cuomo’s aggressive behavior in the spotlight.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When New York was the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, Gov. Andrew Cuomo emerged as a singular, strong leader. Now his leadership is embattled, particularly over the extent of deaths in nursing homes during the peak.

Today, in the first of two parts on what went wrong in New York's nursing homes, we look at the crisis through the eyes of a woman, Lorry Sullivan, who lost her mother in a New York nursing home.

Guest: Amy Julia Harris, an investigative reporter on The New York Times’s Metro desk. 

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Background reading: 

• Trying to quell a growing outcry over the state’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched into a 90-minute defense of his actions while lashing out at critics.
• The scrutiny of Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes has also put Governor Cuomo’s aggressive behavior in the spotlight.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh died last week. He was 70.

For decades, he broadcast mistrust and grievance into the homes of millions. Mr. Limbaugh helped create an entire ecosystem of right-wing media and changed the course of American conservatism.

Today, we look back on Rush Limbaugh’s career and how he came to have an outsize influence on Republican politics.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The New York Times and The Times Magazine. 

Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. 

Background reading: 

• With a following of many millions and a a divisive, derisive style of mockery and grievance, Rush Limbaugh was a force in reshaping American conservatism. Read his obituary here.
• Weaponizing conspiracy theories and bigotry long before Donald Trump’s ascent, the radio giant helped usher in the political style that came to dominate the Republican Party.  

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

In recent years, travel — cheap travel, specifically — has boomed. Like all booms it has its winners (including influencers and home-sharing platforms like Airbnb) and its losers (namely locals and the environment). Somewhere in that mix is The Points Guy, Brian Kelly, who runs a blog that helps visitors navigate the sprawling, knotty and complex world of travel and credit card rewards.

Today on The Sunday Read, a look at the life and business of Mr. Kelly, a man who goes on vacation for a living.

This story was written by Jamie Lauren Keiles and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The end of summer 2021 has been earmarked as the time by which most American adults will be vaccinated. But still remaining is the often-overlooked question of vaccinations for children, who make up around a quarter of the U.S. population.

Without the immunization of children, herd immunity cannot be reached.

Today, we ask when America’s children will be vaccinated.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, a science and global health reporter for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Pfizer and Moderna have begun testing their vaccines on children 12 and older. The vaccine for kids is coming, but not for many months.
• New research has cast doubt on the idea that prior infections with garden-variety coronaviruses might shield some people, particularly children, from the pandemic.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The story of how Paul Rusesabagina saved the lives of his hotel guests during the Rwandan genocide was immortalized in the 2004 film “Hotel Rwanda.” Leveraging his celebrity, Mr. Rusesabagina openly criticized the Rwandan government, and is now imprisoned on terrorism charges.

Today, we look at what Mr. Rusesabagina’s story tells us about the past, present and future of Rwanda.

Guest: Declan Walsh, chief Africa correspondent for The New York Times; and Abdi Latif Dahir, East Africa correspondent for The Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Paul Rusesabagina was mysteriously taken back to Rwanda late last year and arrested. His supporters say he has no chance of getting a fair hearing.
• In a jailhouse interview with Abdi Latif Dahir, Mr. Rusesabagina said he was duped into an arrest. He believed he was being flown to Burundi to talk to church groups.

An intense winter storm has plunged Texas into darkness. The state’s electricity grid has failed in the face of the worst cold weather there in decades.

The Texas blackouts could be a glimpse into America’s future as a result of climate change. Today, we explore the reasons behind the power failures.

Guest: Clifford Krauss, a national energy business correspondent based in Houston for The New York Times; and Brad Plumer, a climate reporter for The Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Systems are designed to handle spikes in demand, but the wild and unpredictable weather linked to global warming will very likely push grids beyond their limits.
• As a winter storm forced the Texas power grid to the brink of collapse, millions of people were submerged into darkness, bitter cold and a sense of indignation over being stuck in uncomfortable and even dangerous conditions.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

There was a sense of fatalism going into former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. Many felt that it would almost certainly end in acquittal.

Not the Democratic impeachment managers. “You cannot go into a battle thinking you’re going to lose,” said Stacey Plaskett, the congressional representative from the U.S. Virgin Islands who was one of the managers.

Today, we sit down with Ms. Plaskett for a conversation with Ms. Plaskett about the impeachment and acquittal and what happens next.

Guest: Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, an impeachment manager in the second trial.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Who is Stacey Plaskett? She could not vote to impeach President Donald Trump, but she made a case against him in his Senate trial.
• As one of the few Black lawmakers to play a role in the impeachment proceedings, Ms. Plaskett plans to turn her newfound prominence into gains for her constituents.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The app Truecaller estimates that as many as 56 million Americans have fallen foul to scam calls, losing nearly $20 billion.

Enter L., an anonymous vigilante, referred to here by his middle initial, who seeks to expose and disrupt these scams, posting his work to a YouTube channel under the name “Jim Browning.”

On today’s Sunday Read, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee follows L.’s work and travels to India to understand the people and the forces behind these scams.

This story was written by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

“Laïcité,” or secularism, the principle that separates religion from the state in France, has long provoked heated dispute in the country. It has intensified recently, when a teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded after showing his class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

We look at the roots of secularism and ask whether it works in modern, multicultural France.

Guest: Constant Méheut, a reporter for The New York Times in France.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• For generations, public schools assimilated immigrant children into French society by instilling the nation’s ideals. The beheading of a teacher raised doubts about whether that model still worked.

For more information on today’s episode, visit 

nytimes.com/thedaily.

 Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence. 

Victor Rivera has framed his life story as one of redemption and salvation. Escaping homelessness and drug addiction, he founded the Bronx Parent Housing Network, one of the largest nonprofits operating homeless shelters in New York City.

But that’s not the whole story. A Times investigation has found a pattern of allegations of sexual abuse and financial misconduct against him during his career.

We look at the accusations against Mr. Rivera and ask what lessons can be learned.

Guest: Amy Julia Harris, an investigative reporter on The New York Times’s Metro desk. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Victor Rivera gained power and profit as New York’s homeless crisis worsened.
• After the Times investigation, Mr. Rivera was fired and now faces a criminal inquiry.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Almost a year into the pandemic and the American education system remains severely disrupted. About half of children across the United States are not in school.

The Biden administration has set a clear goal for restarting in-person instruction: reopening K-8 schools within 100 days of his inauguration.

Is that ambitious target possible?

Guest: Dana Goldstein, a national education correspondent for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• A slow vaccine rollout and local fights between districts and unions could make it harder for President Biden to fulfill his promise to reopen schools quickly.
• In cities and suburbs where schools are closed, teachers’ unions are often saying: not yet. One powerful union leader is trying to change that.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump will begin today.

This time, the case against Mr. Trump is more straightforward: Did his words incite chaos at the Capitol on Jan. 6?

We look ahead to the arguments both sides will present.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The New York Times and The Times Magazine.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• The impeachment case claims that former President Donald Trump was “singularly responsible” for the Capitol riot. His defense team argues that he cannot be tried.
• Here’s what to watch for as the trial begins.
• Hours after the 2020 vote, Mr. Trump declared the process a fraud. We look at his 77-day campaign to subvert the election.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

The departure of President Donald Trump and the storming of the Capitol have reignited a long-dormant battle over the future of the Republican Party.

Today, we look at two lawmakers in the Republican House conference whose fate may reveal something about that future: Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who voted in favor of Mr. Trump’s second impeachment, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a proponent of conspiracy theories.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• The Republican leadership would like to blunt President Donald Trump’s influence over the party. Mr. Trump and his allies want to punish those who have crossed him. A series of clashes loom.
• In back-to-back votes, the Republican conference voted to keep Liz Cheney in a leadership position and the House moved to eject Marjorie Taylor Greene from its committees. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Jay Caspian Kang, the author and narrator of this week’s Sunday Read, spoke with the actor Steven Yeun over Zoom at the end of last year. The premise of their conversations was Mr. Yeun’s latest starring role, in “Minari” — a film about a Korean immigrant family that takes up farming in the rural South.

They discussed the usual things: Mr. Yeun’s childhood, his parents and acting career — which includes a seven-year stint on the hugely popular television series “The Walking Dead.” But the topic of conversation kept circling back to something much deeper.

Today on The Sunday Read, Jay’s profile and meditation on Asian-American identity.

This story was written by Jay Caspian Kang. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

“The Earth is round. Two plus two equals four. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the 2020 election for president and vice president of the United States.” So begins the 280-page complaint filed by Smartmatic, an election software company, against the Fox Corporation.

Smartmatic accuses the network of doing irreparable damage to the company’s business by allowing election conspiracy theorists to use Fox News as a megaphone for misinformation.

Today, we hear from Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic’s C.E.O., and the lawyer Erik Connelly about the $2.7 billion case.

Guest: Ben Smith, the media columnist for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• In the latest volley in the dispute over disinformation in the presidential election, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation has been sued by Smartmatic, which accuses his cable networks of defamation and contributing to the fervor that led to the siege of the Capitol.
• In December, Ben Smith spoke with Mr. Mugica and Mr. Connelly about the claims being made against Smartmatic. Read the interview here.  

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Rumors had been swirling for days before Myanmar’s military launched a coup, taking back power and ousting the civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar’s experiment with democracy, however flawed, now appears to be over.

Today, we examine the rise and fall of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Guest: Hannah Beech, The New York Times’s Southeast Asia bureau chief. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• The coup returns Myanmar to full military rule after a short span of quasi-democracy. Here is what we know.
• Myanmar seemed to be building a peaceful transition to civilian governance. Instead, a personal struggle between military and civilian leaders brought it all down.
• Aung San Suu Kyi, once considered a shimmering icon of democracy, has lost her halo.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

When her daughter Karen was kidnapped in 2014, Miriam Rodríguez knew the Zetas, a cartel that ran organized crime in her town of San Fernando, Mexico, were responsible.

From the hopelessness that her daughter may never return came resolve: She vowed to find all those responsible and bring them to justice.

One by one, Ms. Rodríguez tracked these people down through inventive, homespun detective methods.

Today, we share the story of her three-year campaign for justice.

Guest: Azam Ahmed, The New York Times’s bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Armed with a handgun, a fake ID card and disguises, Miriam Rodríguez was a one-woman detective squad, defying a system where criminal impunity often prevails. Read Azam's full story (also available in Spanish here).

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

President Biden’s plans for curbing the most devastating impacts of a changing climate are ambitious.

His administration is not only planning a sharp U-turn from the previous White House — former President Donald Trump openly mocked the science behind human-caused climate change — but those aims go even further than the Obama administration’s.

Today, we look at the Biden administration’s environmental proposals, as well as the potential roadblocks and whether these changes can last.

Guest: Coral Davenport, an energy and environmental policy reporter for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• President Biden, emphasizing job creation, has signed an array of directives that elevate climate change across every level of the federal government. But huge hurdles, some from within his own party, lie ahead.
• On taking office, Mr. Biden brought with him the largest team of climate change experts ever assembled in the White House.
• The Biden administration’s ambitions could mean big changes in America’s trade, foreign relations and even defense strategy.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

This episode contains strong language.

GameStop can feel like a retailer from a bygone era. But last week, it was dragged back into the zeitgeist when it became the center of an online war between members of an irreverent Reddit subforum and hedge funds — one that left Wall Street billions of dollars out of pocket.

Today, we look at how and why the GameStop surge happened, as well as how it can be viewed as the story of our time.

Guests: Taylor Lorenz, a technology reporter covering internet culture for The New York Times; and Andrew Ross Sorkin, a financial columnist for The Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• GameStop shares have soared 1,700 percent as millions of small investors, egged on by social media, employ a classic Wall Street tactic to put the squeeze on Wall Street.
• A legion of young people — primarily male — have been pouring into digital trading floors for years, raised on social media and eager to teach themselves about stocks. These are the misfits shaking up Wall Street.
• It has been a weird time in the stock market, where a video game retailer has suddenly become the center of attention. Here are four things you need to know about the GameStop insanity. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

“Smell is a startling superpower,” writes Brooke Jarvis, the author of today’s Sunday Read. “If you weren’t used to it, it would seem like witchcraft.”

For hundreds of years, smell has been disregarded. Most adults in a 2019 survey ranked it as the least important sense; and in a 2011 survey of young people, the majority said that their sense of smell was less valuable to them than their technological devices.

The coronavirus has precipitated a global reckoning with the sense. Smell, as many have found in the last year, is no big deal until it’s missing.

This story was written by Brooke Jarvis and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language. 

Inauguration Day was supposed to bring vindication for adherents of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory QAnon.

Instead, they watched as Joe Biden took the oath as the 46th president of the United States.

What happens to a conspiracy theory and its followers when they are proved wrong?

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• As Mr. Biden took office and Mr. Trump landed in Florida, with no mass arrests in sight, some QAnon believers struggled to harmonize the falsehoods with the inauguration on their TVs.
• Valerie Gilbert posts dozens of times a day in support of QAnon. Her story hints at how hard it will be to bring people like her back to reality.
• What is QAnon? Here is an explainer on the “big tent conspiracy theory.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

As Democrats and Republicans haggled over how to share power in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, made one key demand: Do not touch the filibuster rule.

Today, we explore the mechanics and history of the rule and look ahead at its fate. 

Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, the congressional editor for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• The debate over the minority’s ability to filibuster legislation has foreshadowed a fraught landscape ahead over what Democrats should do if Republicans obstruct President Biden’s agenda.
• Mr. Biden doesn’t want to eliminate the filibuster, which can be an impediment to major legislation. Left-leaning Democrats disagree, but they’re holding back for now.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is falling, but has the country turned a corner in the pandemic? And what kind of threats do the new variants pose to people and to the vaccine rollout?

Today, we discuss the latest in the quest to stamp out the pandemic.  

Guest: Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• New daily cases are starting to slow, in what some health experts see as a turning point. But they warn of a bumpy vaccination rollout amid the emergence of more contagious variants.
• The C.D.C. has eased coronavirus vaccine rules: The agency now says people can switch authorized vaccines between the first and second doses, and also extend the interval between doses to six weeks.
• One year, 400,000 coronavirus deaths: a look at how the U.S. set itself up for failure.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

This episode contains strong language.

In many instances while advising the Trump administration on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci was faced with a “difficult” situation. Yet he said he had never considered quitting.

What was it like working under President Donald J. Trump? We listen in on a candid conversation between Dr. Fauci and Donald G. McNeil Jr., the Times science and health reporter.

Guest: Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci described to Donald G. McNeil Jr. a fraught year as an adviser to President Donald J. Trump on the pandemic.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

The Russian activist Aleksei Navalny has spent years agitating against corruption, and against President Vladimir Putin. 

Last summer he was poisoned with a rare nerve agent linked to the Russian state. Last week, after recovering in Germany, he returned to Moscow. He was arrested at the airport, but he managed to put out a call for protest, which was answered in the streets of more than a hundred Russian cities.

Today, we look at the improbable story of Aleksei Navalny.

Guest: Anton Troianovski, who has been a Moscow correspondent for The New York Times since 2019. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Pro-Navalny protests moved across time zones and more than 3,000 people were arrested in at least 109 cities, signaling widespread fatigue with the corruption-plagued political order presided over by President Vladimir Putin.
• The protests presented the Russian government with its biggest wave of dissent in years.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

The cultural history of clouds seemed to be shaped by amateurs — the likes of Luke Howard and the Honorable Ralph Abercromby — each of whom projected the ethos of his particular era onto those billowing blank slates in the troposphere. Gavin Pretor-Pinney was our era’s.

On today’s Sunday Read, the story of the Cloud Appreciation Society and how Mr. Pretor-Pinney, backed by good will, challenged the cloud authorities.

This story was written by Jon Mooallem and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Within hours of assuming the presidency, President Biden signed a flurry of executive orders. He rejoined the Paris climate agreement, repealed the so-called Muslim travel ban and mandated the wearing of masks on federal property.

The actions had a theme: They either reversed former President Donald Trump’s actions or rebuked his general policy approach.

But governing by decree has a downside. We look at the potential positives of the orders and point out the pitfalls.

Guest: Michael D. Shear, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Biden’s actions on Day 1 included orders on immigration, criminal justice and the climate.
• Here are the president’s 17 executive orders and other directives in detail.
• The U.S. has some catching up to do on the Paris climate agreement. Here’s an explainer on the history of the accord.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

Unity was the byword of President Biden’s Inaugural Address.

The speech was an attempt to turn the page. But can this be achieved without, as many in the Democratic coalition believe, a full reckoning with and accountability of how America got to this point of division?

Today, we explore the defining messages of the president’s inaugural address. 

Guests: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times; Emily Cochrane, a congressional reporter for The Times.  

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• President Biden spoke of a return to the ordinary discord of democracy, with a reminder that “politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path.” You can read the full annotated speech here.
• For many in an exhausted, divided nation, the inauguration was a sea change, not just a transition.
• At the made-for-TV swearing-in, rituals of normalcy ran into reminders that these are anything but normal times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States today. Among Democrats, there is a sense of joy and hope, but also of caution and concern.

We speak with a range of Mr. Biden’s supporters, including activists who had originally hoped for a more progressive ticket and longtime fans who embrace his moderation.

Guests:

• Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Urging unity, Mr. Biden has tried to focus on his policy plans. But many of those who elected him are still fixated on his predecessor.
• Mr. Biden’s long career in public office spanned eight presidents. Now, at 78, he will join their ranks.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

Polling in the days since the storming of the Capitol paints a complex picture. While most Americans do not support the riot, a majority of Republicans do not believe that President Trump bears responsibility. And over 70 percent of them say they believe that there was widespread fraud in the election.

Before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, we called Trump supporters to hear their views about what happened at the Capitol and to gauge the level of dissatisfaction the new president will inherit.

Guest:

• Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• A Pennsylvania woman accused of taking Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the attack on the Capitol turned herself in to the police.
• Mr. Trump has prepared a wave of pardons for his final hours in office. Among those under consideration: the former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and the rapper Lil Wayne.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

Most Americans treat climate change seriously but not literally — they accept the science, worry about forecasts but tell themselves that someone else will get serious about fixing the problem very soon.

The Valve Turners, on the other hand, take climate change both very seriously and very literally.

In the fall of 2016, the group of five environmental activists — all in their 50s and 60s, most with children and one with grandchildren — closed off five cross-border crude oil pipelines, including the Keystone.

On today’s Sunday Read, who are the Valve Turners and what are their motivations?

This story was written by Michelle Nijhuis and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language. 

Three days after being sworn into Congress, Representative Peter Meijer, Republican of Michigan, was sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives as pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol.

After the siege, Mr. Meijer made his feelings clear: President Trump’s actions proved that he was “rankly unfit.” A week later, he became one of just a handful of Republicans to vote for impeachment.

We talk with Mr. Meijer about his decision, his party and his ambitions.

Guest: Representative Peter Meijer, a first-term Republican congressman from Michigan.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Meet the first-term Republican representatives who are emerging as some of their party’s sharpest critics.
• Many Republican leaders and strategists want to prepare the party for a post-Trump future. But the pro-Trump voter base has other ideas.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

“A clear and present danger.” Those were the words used by Nancy Pelosi to describe President Trump, and the main thrust of the Democrats’ arguments for impeachment on the House floor.

While most House Republicans lined up against the move, this impeachment, unlike the last, saw a handful vote in favor.

Today, we walk through the events of Wednesday, and the shifting arguments that led up to the history-making second impeachment.

Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• President Trump has become the first president to be impeached twice, after the House approved a single chargea single charge of inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol. He faces a Senate trial that could disqualify him from future office.
• Senator Mitch McConnell is said to have privately backed the impeachment of Mr. Trump.
• The second impeachment — in a Capitol ringed by troops — seemed like the almost inevitable culmination of four years that left the nation fractured, angry and losing its sense of self.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

After the attack on the Capitol, social media platforms sprang into action, deleting the accounts of agitators.

Without a central place to congregate, groups have splintered off into other, darker corners of the internet. That could complicate the efforts of law enforcement to track their plans.

We ask whether the crackdown on social media has reduced the risk of violence — or just made it harder to prevent.

Guest: Sheera Frenkel, a cybersecurity reporter for The New York Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• In the days since rioters stormed Capitol Hill, fringe groups like armed militias, QAnon conspiracy theorists and far-right supporters of President Trump have vowed to continue their fight in hundreds of conversations on a range of internet platforms.
• Amazon, Apple and Google have cut off Parler, all but killing the service just as many conservatives were seeking alternatives to Facebook and Twitter.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

At the heart of the move to impeach President Trump is a relatively simple accusation: that he incited a violent insurrection against the government of the United States.

We look at the efforts to punish the president for the attack on the Capitol and explain what the impeachment process might look like.

Guest: Nicholas Fandos, a national reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would formally call on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to strip President Trump of power and move to impeach the president if Mr. Pence refused.
• Here’s a closer look at what the president said at a rally of his supporters, which is a focus of the impeachment case.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

As 2020 drew to a close, a concerning development in the pandemic came out of Britain — a new variant of the coronavirus had been discovered that is significantly more transmissible. It has since been discovered in a number of countries, including the United States.

The emergence of the new variant has added a new level of urgency to the rollout of vaccines in the U.S., a process that has been slow so far.

Today, an exploration of two key issues in the fight against the pandemic.

Guests: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times; Abby Goodnough, a national health care correspondent for The Times. 

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading: 

• The new variant of the coronavirus, discovered in December, appears to be more contagious than, and genetically distinct from, more established variants. Here is what we know about it.
• The first case of the variant in the U.S. was found in Colorado in December. Pfizer has said that its vaccine works against the key mutation.
• The distribution of the vaccine in the U.S. is taking longer than expected — holiday staffing and saving doses for nursing homes are contributing to delays. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily 

Without many predators or any prey, rhinos flourished for millions of years. Humans put an end to that, as we hunted them down and destroyed their habitat.

No rhino, however, is doing worse than the northern white. Just two, Najin and Fatu, both females, remain.

In his narrated story, Sam Anderson, a staff writer at The Times Magazine, visits the pair at the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, speaks to the men who devote their days to caring for them and explores what we will lose when Najin and Fatu die.

This story was written by Sam Anderson and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language.

The pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday made their plans in plain sight. They organized on social media platforms and spoke openly of their intentions to occupy the Capitol.

But leaders in Washington opted for a modest law enforcement presence. In the aftermath, those security preparations are attracting intense scrutiny.

Today, we explore how the events of Jan. 6 could have happened.

Guest: Sheera Frenkel, who covers cybersecurity for The New York Times; Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a homeland security correspondent for The Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Inside Trump supporters’ online echo chambers, the chaos of Jan. 6 could be seen coming.
• Failures by the police have spurred resignations and complaints of double standards.
• During the storming of the Capitol, social media sites were used by the mob to share information, including directions on which streets to take to avoid the police and which tools to bring to help pry open doors.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This episode contains strong language.

It was always going to be a tense day in Washington. In the baseless campaign to challenge Joe Biden’s victory, Wednesday had been framed by President Trump and his allies as the moment for a final stand.

But what unfolded was disturbing: A mob, urged on by the president, advanced on the Capitol building as Congress was certifying the election results and eventually breached its walls.

Today, the story of what happened from Times journalists who were inside the Capitol.

Guests: Nicholas Fandos, a national reporter for The New York Times; Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent for The Times; and Emily Cochrane, a congressional reporter for The Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Journalists from The Times witnessed the violence and mayhem. Here’s how it unfolded.
• One of the most disturbing aspects of Wednesday’s events was that they could be seen coming. The president himself had all but circled the date.
• Here is an explanation of how the pro-Trump mob managed to storm the Capitol

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

The long fight for control of the U.S. Senate is drawing to a close in Georgia, and the Democrats appear set to win out — the Rev. Raphael Warnock is the projected winner of his race against Senator Kelly Loeffler, while Jon Ossoff is heavily favored to beat the other incumbent Republican, Senator David Perdue.

Today, we look at the results so far from these history-making Senate races and at what they mean for the future and fortunes of the two main parties.

Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• A Baptist preacher born and raised in Georgia, Raphael Warnock has defeated Kelly Loeffler to become his state’s first Black senator, breaking a barrier with distinct meaning in American politics.
• A surge in turnout from Georgia’s Black voters has powered the fortunes of Mr. Warnock and Jon Ossoff.
• You can follow the results here.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Since the presidential election was called for Joe Biden, President Trump has relentlessly attacked the integrity of the count in Georgia. He has floated conspiracy theories to explain away his loss and attacked Republican officials.

Today, we speak to Republican activists and voters on the ground and consider to what extent, if at all, Mr. Trump’s rhetoric could discourage Republicans from voting in the runoff elections.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have sought to motivate a conservative base that remains loyal to Mr. Trump while also luring back some of the defectors who helped deliver Georgia to a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since 1992.
• Democrats may have claimed a bigger share of the early vote than they did in November’s vote, election data shows. Here’s what else we know about the voting in Georgia so far.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

A strong Black turnout will be integral to Democratic success in the U.S. Senate races in Georgia this week.

In the first of a two-part examination of election strategies in the Georgia runoffs, we sit down with Stacey Abrams, a Georgia Democrat who has become synonymous with the party’s attempts to win statewide, to talk about her efforts to mobilize Black voters.

And we join LaTosha Brown, a leader of Black Voters Matter, as she heads out to speak to voters.

Guest: Audra D.S. Burch, a national correspondent for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Control of the Senate could hinge on Black voters in Georgia — and on an ambitious effort by the likes of Black Voters Matter to get them to the polls in the largest numbers ever for the runoff elections on Tuesday.
• Democrats are making their final push to rally supporters, targeting Black voters in regions far from Atlanta but equally important to Georgia’s emerging Democratic coalition.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

When Alaska was hit by a devastating earthquake in 1964, it was the voice of Genie Chance — a journalist, wife and mother — that held the state together in the aftermath.

In the episode, we heard about sociologists from Ohio State University’s Disaster Research Center rushing to Anchorage to study residents’ behavior.

Today, Jon Mooallem, who brought us Genie’s story in May, speaks to a sociologist from the University of Delaware to make sense of the current moment and how it compares with the fallout of the Great Alaska Earthquake.

Guest: Jon Mooallem, writer at large for The New York Times Magazine and author of “This Is Chance!,” a book about the aftermath of the earthquake.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background Reading:

• For our Opinion section, Jon Mooallem wrote about the lessons of the 1964 earthquake.
• Listen to Jon talk about his experience writing and researching for his book about the aftermath of the disaster on an episode of The Times’s Book Review podcast.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

Scott Watson — a Black police officer in his hometown, Flint, Mich. — has worked to become a pillar of the community. And he always believed his identity put him in a unique position to discharge his duties.

After watching the video of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May, his job became a source of self-consciousness instead of pride.

Today, we call up Scott once again and ask how he’s been doing and how things have been in his police department.

Guest: Scott Watson, a police officer in Flint, Mich.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Lynsea Garrison wrote about interviewing Scott in an edition of The Daily newsletter.
• Many Black and Hispanic officers in New York City have found themselves caught between competing loyalties in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes from this year and checking in on what has happened since the stories first ran.

In our society, the public part of mourning is ritualized by a coming together. What do we do now that the opportunity for collective mourning has been taken away?

Earlier this year, we heard the story of Wayne Irwin. A retired minister of the United Church of Canada who lost his wife, Flora May, during the coronavirus pandemic.

He never once considered delaying her memorial, opting to celebrate her life over the internet — a new ritual that, as it turned out, felt more authentic and real.

Today, we check back in with Wayne to find out how he’s been doing in the months since his wife’s passing.

Guest: Catherine Porter, Toronto bureau chief for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• The rituals of our lives have been transformed. An expert on gathering shares advice for birthdays and baby showers in our audio series “Together Apart.”

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

When Jack Nicas, a technology reporter for The Times, first moved to California five years ago, he set about finding a local bar of choice. Unpretentious, cheap and relaxed, the Hatch fit the bill.

Over six months during the coronavirus pandemic, he charted the fortunes of the bar and its staff members as the lockdown threatened to upend the success of the small business.

Today, Jack checks in with the bar’s owner — Louwenda Kachingwe, known to everyone as Pancho — to see what has happened since we last heard from him in the fall.

Guest: Jack Nicas, a technology reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Here’s the full article about the Oakland tavern and its staff members as they try to weather the fallout from the pandemic.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

The escapism of movies took on a new importance during pandemic isolation. Caity Weaver, the author of this week’s Sunday Read, says that to properly embrace this year’s cinematic achievements, the Academy Awards should not only hand out accolades to new releases, but also to the older films that sustained us through this period.

If they did, Caity argues, Cher would be on course to win a second Oscar for her performance as Loretta Castorini in 1987’s “Moonstruck” — a film that, under lockdown, was a salve to many.

On today’s episode, a conversation with Cher about the film’s production, cast and legacy.

This story was written by Caity Weaver and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

This episode contains strong language.

This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.

When New York City was the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S., Sheri Fink, a public health correspondent for The Times, was embedded at the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

In April, she brought us the story of a single day in its intensive care unit, where a majority of patients were sick with the virus.

Today, we check back in with one of the doctors we heard from on the episode, the unflappable Dr. Josh Rosenberg.

Guest: Sheri Fink, a correspondent covering public health for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• “Covid will not win” — here are some portraits and interviews with the staff members powering the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

A few weeks ago, we put a callout on The Daily, asking people to send in their good news from a particularly bleak year.

The response was overwhelming. Audio messages poured into our inboxes from around the world, with multiple emails arriving every minute. There was a man who said that he had met Oprah and realized he was an alcoholic, a woman who shared that she had finally found time to finish a scarf after five years and another man who said he had finished his thesis on representations of horsemanship in American cinema. Eventually, we decided to construct the entire show out of these messages.

This episode is the result — a Daily holiday card of good news, from our team to you.

It is a very human thing, at the end of a year, to stop and take stock. Part of that involves acknowledging that some remarkable people who were here in 2020 will be not joining us in 2021.

Today, we take a moment to honor the lives of four of those people. And in marveling at the extraordinary and sometimes vividly ordinary facets of their time among us, we hold a mirror up to the complexities of our own lives.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

The radio host Delilah has been on the air for more than 40 years. She takes calls from listeners across the United States, as they open up about their heavy hearts, their hopes and the important people in their lives.

She tells callers that they’re loved, and then she plays them a song. “A love song needs a lyric that tells a story,” she says. “And touches your heart, either makes you laugh, or makes you cry or makes you swoon.”

On today’s episode, producers Andy Mills and Bianca Giaever do what millions before them have done: They call Delilah.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

“If death practices reveal a culture’s values,” writes Maggie Jones, the author of today’s Sunday Read, “we choose convenience, outsourcing, an aversion to knowing or seeing too much.”

Enter home-funeral guides, practitioners who believe families can benefit from tending to — and spending time with — the bodies of the deceased.

On today’s Sunday Read, listen to Ms. Jones’s story about the home-funeral movement and the changing nature of America’s funeral practices.

This story was written by Maggie Jones and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

For years there has been an evictions crisis in the United States. The pandemic has made it more acute.

On today’s episode, our conversations with a single mother of two from Georgia over several months during the pandemic. After she lost her job in March, the bottom fell out of her finances and eviction papers started coming. The federal safety net only stretched so far.

And we ask, with Congress seeking to pass another stimulus bill, what do the next few months hold for renters in the United States?

Guest: Matthew Desmond, a Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and contributing writer for The Times Magazine.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Emergency pandemic funding to help renters must be distributed by Dec. 30. But getting the money to those who need it is no small task.
• Residents of weekly rentals worry they will be kicked out if they can’t pay the rent. It’s unclear if the federal moratorium on evictions applies to them.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This episode contains strong language.

When the photo-sharing app Instagram started to grow in popularity in the 2010s, the chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, had two options: build something comparable or buy it out. He opted for the latter.

The subsequent $1 billion deal is central to a case being brought against Facebook by the federal government and 48 attorneys general. They want to see the social network broken up.

Will they succeed? On today’s episode, we look at one of the biggest cases to hit Silicon Valley in decades.

Guest: Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Regulators have accused Facebook of buying up rising rivals to cement its dominance over social media.
• The cases against Facebook are far from a slam dunk — the standards of proof are formidable.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Undetected for months, sophisticated hackers working on behalf of a foreign government were able to breach computer networks across a number of U.S. government agencies. It’s believed to be the handiwork of Russian intelligence.

And this is far from the first time.

Today, why and how such hacks keep happening and the delicate calculation that dictates how and if America retaliates.

Guest: David E. Sanger, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• In one of the most sophisticated and perhaps largest hacks in more than five years, email systems were breached at the Treasury and Commerce Departments. Other breaches are under investigation.
• The sophistication and scope of the attack has stunned experts. About 18,000 private and government users downloaded a Russian tainted software update — a Trojan horse of sorts — that gave its hackers a foothold into victims’ systems, according to SolarWinds, the company whose software was compromised.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

North Dakota and New Orleans have been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus.

On today’s episode, we speak to health care workers in both places as they become some of the first to receive and administer the vaccine, and tap into the mood of hope and excitement tempered by a bleak fact: The battle against Covid-19 is not yet over.

Guest: Jack Healy, a national correspondent for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Monday’s vaccinations, the first in a staggeringly complicated national campaign, were a moment infused with hope and pain for hundreds of America’s health care workers.
• Some of the very medical centers that have endured the worst of the coronavirus found the gloom that has long filled their corridors replaced by elation. The vaccine campaign, however, began on the same day that America surpassed 300,000 deaths from Covid-19.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Friday, clearing the way for millions of highly vulnerable people to begin receiving the vaccine within days.

The authorization is a historic turning point in a pandemic that has taken more than 290,000 lives in the United States. With the decision, the United States becomes the sixth country — in addition to Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico — to clear the vaccine. Today, we ask the science and health reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr. what might happen next.

Guest: Donald G. McNeil Jr., a science and health reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Pfizer has a deal with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine by next March. Under that agreement, the shots will be free to the public.
• The vaccines are on their way, but experts still say a difficult winter of coronavirus infection and death lies ahead.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Amid the death and desperation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, two inmates, David Wisnia and Helen Spitzer, found love.

On today’s episode, the story of how they found each other — first within the camp and again, seven decades later.

This story was written by Keren Blankfeld and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In three weeks, an election will take place that could be as important as the presidential vote in determining the course of the next four years.

The Jan. 5 runoff elections in Georgia will determine whether two Republican senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, keep their seats. If their Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, both win, Democrats would claim control of the Senate, giving President-Elect Joe Biden expanded power to realize his policy agenda.

Today, we offer a guide to the two Senate races in Georgia.

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• In the runoffs, Republicans are focusing attacks on the Rev. Raphael Warnock, portraying him as radical, a claim he has rejected.
• Some Atlanta suburbs that used to be “blood red” went blue in November. After helping deliver the presidency to Democrats, we examined whether they might give them the Senate, too.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

From the start of the pandemic, the Trump administration said it was committed to ordering and stockpiling enough potential vaccine doses to end the outbreak in the United States as quickly as possible.

But new reporting from The Times has revealed that Pfizer, the maker of the first vaccine to show effectiveness against the coronavirus, tried unsuccessfully to get the government to lock in 100 million extra doses.

Today, we investigate how the Trump administration missed that opportunity and what the repercussions might be.

Guest: Sharon LaFraniere, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• U.S. officials had the opportunity to secure enough doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine to inoculate most of the country — at no upfront cost to the government. Instead, they turned down the offer.
• With a smaller-than-expected order from the United States, Pfizer turned to fulfilling orders from other countries, like Britain, which began vaccinating people this week.

In Britain, news that the country had become the first to start administering a fully tested coronavirus vaccine was met with hope, excitement — and some trepidation.

Amid the optimism that normal life might soon resume, there is also concern. Has the vaccine been developed too fast? Is it safe? On today’s episode, we examine how Britons feel about the prospect of receiving a shot and attend a vaccination clinic in Wales.

Guest: Megan Specia, a story editor based in London for the New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• For the first recipients of the vaccine, among them older Britons and hundreds of doctors and nurses who pulled the National Health Service through the pandemic, the shots offered a glimpse at a return to normalcy.
• Dr. Chris Hingston was one of the first health care workers in Britain to receive the vaccine. He was clearly aware that the simple act had a greater purpose: protecting not only himself, but hopefully his family, colleagues and patients from a potentially life-threatening virus.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter for The Times, says there is one word that sums up the Trump administration’s approach to border crossing: deterrence. For nearly four years, the U.S. government has tried to discourage migrants, with reinforced walls, family separation policies and threats of deportation.

Those policies have led to the appearance of a makeshift asylum-seeker camp of frayed tents and filthy conditions within walking distance of the United States.

Today, we ask: What will the legacy of President Trump’s immigration policies be? And will anything change next year?

Guest: Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• This is what we saw inside the tent camp on the U.S.-Mexico border.
• The Trump administration’s immigration policies have not deterred pregnant women from trying to enter the United States. Here are some of their experiences.
• A federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to fully restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program designed to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

The state of the 2020 U.S. election is, still, not a settled matter in Georgia. For weeks, conservatives have been filing lawsuits in state and federal courts in an effort to decertify results that gave a victory to Joe Biden. On Twitter, President Trump has been making unsubstantiated claims that the state has been “scammed.”

With Georgia in political turmoil, threats of violence have been made against state election officials, who have been scrambling to recount votes by hand, and against their families.

Still, dozens of prominent national Republicans have stayed silent.

Last week, Gabriel Sterling, a little-known election official in Georgia, did something his party is refusing to do: condemn the president’s claims.

For today’s episode, we called him to ask why he decided to speak up.

Guest: Gabriel Sterling, a Republican official who is the voting system implementation manager in Georgia.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here

Background reading:

• “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone is going to get hurt, someone is going to get shot, someone is going to get killed. And it’s not right,” Mr. Sterling said in a four-minute rebuke of the president last week.
• The last act of the Trump presidency has taken on the stormy elements of a drama more common to history or literature than a modern White House.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Foresters once regarded trees as solitary individuals: They competed for space and resources, but were otherwise indifferent to one another.

The work of the Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard upended that, finding that while there is indeed conflict in a forest, there is also negotiation, reciprocity and even selflessness.

Ms. Simard discovered that underground fungal threads link nearly every tree in a forest.

On today’s Sunday Read, listen to an exploration of these links and the influential and contentious work of Ms. Simard.

This story was written by Ferris Jabr and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

The power to pardon criminals or commute their sentences is one of the most sacred and absolute a president has, and President Trump has already used it to rescue political allies and answer the pleas of celebrities.

With his term coming to an end, the president has discussed granting three of his children, his son-in-law and personal lawyer pre-emptive pardons — a rarity in American history.

We look ahead to a potential wave of pardons and commutations — and explore who could benefit.

Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here

Background reading:

• Speculation about pardon activity at the White House is churning furiously, underscoring how much the Trump administration has been dominated by investigations and criminal prosecutions of people in the president’s orbit.
• The president’s pardoning of Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser, signals the prospect of a wave of pardons and commutations in his final weeks in office.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault.

When the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy this year, it created a final window for claims of sexual abuse against the organization’s leaders.

Within nine months, nearly 100,000 victims filed suits — that far eclipses the number of sexual-abuse allegations that the Roman Catholic Church faced in the early 2000s.

Today, we hear from one of the victims, Dave Henson, a 40-year-old naval officer who was sexually abused for five years by one of his scout troop’s leaders. Alcoholism and emotional trauma followed. Now, he has joined the ranks of thousands of people seeking redress.

Guest: Mike Baker, Seattle bureau chief for The New York Times.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here

Background reading:

• The bankruptcy proceedings allowed the Boy Scouts organization to keep operating while it grapples with questions about the future of the century-old movement.
• The deluge of sex-abuse claims documents a decades-long accumulation of assaults at the hands of scout leaders across the nation who had been trusted as role models.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

What kind of foreign policy is possible for the United States after four years of isolationism under President Trump?

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, has an interventionist streak, but some vestiges of Trump-era foreign policy will be hard to upend.

If confirmed, Mr. Blinken faces the challenge of making the case at home that taking a fuller role abroad is important, while persuading international allies that the United States can be counted on.

What course is he likely to steer through that narrow channel?

Guest: David E. Sanger, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. Read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

• Mr. Blinken’s extensive foreign policy credentials are expected to help calm American diplomats and global leaders after four years of the Trump administration’s ricocheting strategies and nationalist swaggering.
• European allies of the United States have welcomed a president who doesn’t see them as rivals. But with the possibility of a Republican-controlled Senate, they are also wary.
• Mr. Biden wants to reactivate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but the killing of the top nuclear scientist in the Middle Eastern nation, which Tehran has blamed on Israel, could complicate that aim.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Janet Yellen, who is poised to become secretary of the Treasury, will immediately have her work cut out for her. The U.S. economy is in a precarious state and Congress is consumed by partisan politics.

Ms. Yellen, however, is no stranger to crisis. She has already held the government’s other top economic jobs — including chairwoman of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, helping the country through the last major financial emergency.

Now, facing another steep challenge, we look at the measures she might take to get the economy humming again.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek, who covers the Federal Reserve and the economy for The New York Times.

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Background reading:

• Ms. Yellen became an economist when few women entered the discipline. She is now set to become the first female Treasury secretary and one of the few people ever to have wielded economic power from the White House, the Federal Reserve and the president’s cabinet.
• While she may have excelled at some big jobs in the past, this role may be her hardest yet.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

For Americans, months of collective isolation and fear could soon be winding down. A coronavirus vaccine may be just weeks away.

According to Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to accelerate vaccine development, the first Americans could receive the vaccine in mid-December.

With the vaccine within reach, we turn to more logistical questions: Who will receive the shots first? Who will distribute them? And what could go wrong?

Guest: Katie Thomas, who covers the drug industry for The New York Times.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Promising clinical trials have buoyed hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight. But even if the vaccines are authorized, only a sliver of the American public will be able to get one by the end of the year.
• In mid-December, 6.4 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine are expected to be shipped across the United States in an initial push.

On a day early this fall, Nikita Stewart, who covers social services for The New York Times, and the Daily producers Annie Brown and Stella Tan spent a day at Council of Peoples Organization, a food pantry in Brooklyn, speaking to its workers and clients.

As with many other pantries in the city, it has seen its demand rocket during the pandemic as many New Yorkers face food shortages. And with the year drawing to a close, many of New York City’s pantries — often run with private money — face a funding crisis.

Today, the story of one day in the operations of a New York food pantry.

Guest: Nikita Stewart, who covers social services for The New York Times; Annie Brown, a senior audio producer for The Times; and Stella Tan, an associate audio producer for The Times.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

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Background reading:

• Here are five key statistics that show how hunger is worsening in New York City.
• An estimated 1.5 million New Yorkers can’t afford food, and tens of thousands have shown up at the city’s food pantries since the pandemic began. But there is relief and hope when they are at home cooking.

Pressure and litigation appear to have been the pillars of President Trump’s response to his general election loss.

His team filed a litany of court cases in battleground states. In some, such as Georgia and Michigan, the president and his allies took an even more bullish approach, attempting to use their influence to bear down on election officials.

As preparations for the transfer of power finally get underway, we take a look at how the Trump campaign’s attempts to overturn the election played out.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer-at-large for The New York Times and The Times Magazine, walks us through the Trump campaign’s strategy in key states.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

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Background reading:

• The Trump administration’s authorization of the transition process is a strong sign that the president’s last-ditch bid to overturn the results of the election is coming to an end. But he has yet to concede the election.
• In a chaotic effort to overturn the election results, the president and his campaign lawyers have spent weeks claiming without convincing proof that rampant fraud corrupted vote tallies in many battleground states.
• These efforts heavily targeted cities with large Black populations.

This week New York City’s public schools will close their doors and students will once again undertake online instruction.

The shutdown was triggered when 3 percent of coronavirus tests in the city came back positive over seven days. There are questions, however, around this number being used as a trigger — some health officials maintain that schools are safe.

When is the right time for schools to reopen and what is the right threshold for closures? We explore what lessons New York City’s struggles hold for the rest of the nation.

Guest: Eliza Shapiro, who covers New York City education for The New York Times, walks us through the city’s decision to reopen schools and the difficult decision to shut them down.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

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Background reading:

• New York City’s public school system will close this week, moving to all-remote instruction and disrupting the education of roughly 300,000 children.
• As schools close again, frustrated and angry parents say the decision does not make the city safer.

For years, Wil S. Hylton had been drawn to his cousin’s strength and violence. He was pulled in by the archetype that he embodied and was envious of the power he seemed to command.

Wil describes his relative’s violence as “ambient” and “endemic,” but he was sure it wouldn’t turn on him. Until a few years ago, when his cousin tried to kill him.

“My attraction to my cousin and my detachment as a husband both reside in the pantheon of male tropes,” he wrote. “Masculinity is a religion. It’s a compendium of saints: the vaunted patriarch, the taciturn cowboy, the errant knight, the reluctant hero, the gentle giant and omniscient father.”

On today’s Sunday Read, Wil’s wide-ranging exploration of masculinity.

This story was written by Wil S. Hylton and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

When the pandemic struck, Patty Schachtner, in her capacity as both a member of the Wisconsin State Senate and chief medical officer for St. Croix County, tried to remain one step ahead. It was an approach criticized by many in her conservative community.

She was preparing for the worst-case scenario. And now it has arrived — cases and deaths are on the rise in Wisconsin.

We chart her journey through the months of the pandemic.

Guest: Julie Bosman, who covers the Midwest for The New York Times, spoke with Patty Schachtner over several months about how she was experiencing the pandemic.

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For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• The recent coronavirus outbreak in Wisconsin has escalated rapidly. Here is our case tracker for the state.
• As coronavirus cases rise across the United States, death rates have been rising far more slowly. But there are signs that this is shifting. Last week, Wisconsin was among a number of states that recorded more deaths in the previous seven days than in any other week of the pandemic.

There are several figures that tell the story of the American economy right now.

Some are surprisingly positive — the housing market is booming — while others paint a more dire picture.

Using seven key numbers, we look at the sectors that have been affected most profoundly and consider what the path to recovery might look like.

Guest: Ben Casselman, who covers economics and business for The New York Times, walks us through the pandemic’s impact.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Here is Ben’s snapshot of the key data points for understanding the impact of the pandemic on the economy.
• The expiration of two critical programs at the end of this year could leave millions of Americans vulnerable and short-circuit the nation’s precarious recovery.

President Trump is pushing the military to accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, all but guaranteeing a major place for the Taliban in the country’s future.

As a child, Mujib Mashal lived through the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Now a senior correspondent there for The New York Times, he has for years reported on the extremist group and, more recently, has covered the progress of peace talks.

In this episode of “The Daily,” he shares memories of his childhood and tales from his reporting, and reflects on whether a peaceful resolution is possible.

Guest: Mujib Mashal, senior correspondent in Afghanistan for The New York Times.

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Background reading:

• President Trump is expected to order the U.S. military to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia by the time he leaves office in January.
• The Taliban have outlasted a superpower through nearly 19 years of grinding war and now stand on the brink of realizing their most fervent desire: U.S. troops leaving Afghanistan. They have given up little of their extremist ideology to do it.
• Children of men who played key roles in the war against the Soviets in the 1980s are on both sides of the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban. They know all too well what is at stake.

As it became clear that Europe was heading into another deadly wave of the coronavirus, most of the continent returned to lockdown. European leaders pushed largely similar messages, asking citizens to take measures to protect one another again, and governments offered broad financial support.

Weeks later, the effort seems to be working and infection rates are slowing.

In several parts of the United States, it’s a different story. In the Midwest, which is experiencing an explosion of cases similar to that seen earlier in Europe, leaders have not yet managed to come up with a coherent approach to loosen the virus’s grip.

Is it too late for America to learn the lessons from Europe?

Guests: Matina Stevis-Gridneff, who covers the European Union for The New York Times, and Mitch Smith, a national correspondent for The Times based in the Midwest.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Much of Europe went back into lockdown late last month to try to stop the spread of the virus and ease the strain on hospitals.
• After weeks of warnings that cases were again on the rise, a third surge of coronavirus infection has firmly taken hold in the United States.
• As cases grow, the pandemic is becoming so widespread in the United States that every American will know someone who has been infected.

For four years, Democrats had been united behind the mission of defeating President Trump.

But after the election of Joe Biden, the party’s disappointing showing in congressional races — losing seats in the House and facing a struggle for even narrow control of the Senate — has exposed the rifts between progressives and moderates.

In interviews with The New York Times, House members on each side of that divide — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Representative Conor Lamb of Pennsylvania — shared their views about how the Democrats can win back support in local races.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about The Daily and other shows at: nytimes.com/thedailysurvey

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a national political reporter for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• In the wake of Joe Biden’s victory, the divides that have long simmered among Democrats are now beginning to burst into the open.
• In an interview with The New York Times, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dismissed criticism from House moderates and said the next few weeks would set the tone for how the incoming administration would be received by liberal activists.
• Representative Conor Lamb told The Times that he expected the Biden team to govern as it had campaigned: with progressives at arm’s length.

For the folk duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, pandemic isolation brought about a creative boon. In a year that has been defined by uncertainty, they have returned to what they know: songs about the slow, challenging, beautiful heat of living.

This story was written by Hanif Abdurraqib and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Maggie Haberman on why the traditional transfer of power is not happening this year, and the implications of that delay.

Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Days after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner of the election, President Trump has still refused to concede.
• Advisers to the president say Mr. Trump is seeing how far he can push his case and ensure the continued support of his Republican base.
• A number of leading Republicans have rallied around the president, declining to challenge the false narrative that it was stolen from him. Instead, senators have tiptoed around the reality of Mr. Trump’s loss, and the lack of evidence to suggest widespread election fraud or improprieties that could reverse that result.

It’s a dark time in the struggle with the coronavirus, particularly in the United States, where infections and hospitalizations have surged.

But amid the gloom comes some light: A trial by the drug maker Pfizer has returned preliminary results suggesting that its vaccine is 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19.

With the virus raging, how strong is this new ray of hope?

Guest: Carl Zimmer, a science writer and author of the “Matter” column for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Pfizer has announced positive early results from its coronavirus vaccine trial, cementing the lead in a frenzied global race that has unfolded at record-breaking speed.
• Meet the couple behind the German company, BioNTech, that partnered with Pfizer to develop the vaccine.

We want to hear from you. Fill out our survey about this show and others at nytimes.com/thedailysurvey.

After the tumult of last week’s voting, one crucial question remains: Who will control the Senate?

The answer lies in Georgia, where two runoff elections in January will decide who has the advantage in the upper chamber.

With so much at stake, we look at how those races might shake out.

Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, congressional editor for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have leveled unfounded claims of foul play in Georgia’s elections, a signal that their campaigns will focus on turning out President Trump’s conservative base.
• What’s a runoff, and why are there two? Here’s an explainer on the Senate races in Georgia.

Nate Cohn, an expert on polling for The New York Times, knows that the predictions for the 2016 presidential election were bad.

But this year, he says, they were even worse.

So, what happened?

Nate talks us through a few of his theories and considers whether, after two flawed performances, polling should be ditched.

Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times, speaks to us about the polls and breaks down the election results.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• As the results rolled in on Tuesday night, so did a strong sense of déjà vu. Pre-election polls, it appeared, had been misleading once again.
• Leading Republicans — including Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader — have backed President Trump’s refusal to concede.

This episode contains strong language.

The sound of victory was loud. It was banging pots, honking horns and popping corks as supporters of President-elect Joe Biden celebrated his win.

But loss, too, has a sound. In the days after the U.S. election result was announced, some of the 71 million-plus Americans who backed President Trump are grieving.

Can the country overcome its differences? In discussions with voters in areas both red and blue, we traced the fault lines of the country’s deep rifts.

Guest: Astead W. Herndon, a Times national political reporter, spoke with voters in Mason County, Texas. Robert Jimison, Jessica Cheung and Andy Mills, producers of “The Daily,” and Alix Spiegel, an editor, also reported from across the country.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• In his victory speech, President-elect Biden vowed to try to unite all Americans, despite ideological differences. But President Trump’s refusal to concede could undermine Mr. Biden’s perceived legitimacy in some corners of the country.
• In the aftermath of the election, a crucial question emerged for divided families and a divided nation: What happens now?

On the afternoon of Sept. 15, 1942, the U.S.S. Wasp, an aircraft carrier housing 71 planes, 2,247 sailors and a journalist, was hit by torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine, sending it more than two and a half miles to the bottom of the Pacific. It has remained there ever since.

Last year, a team on the Petrel — perhaps the most successful private vessel on Earth for finding deepwater wrecks — set out to find it.

In his narrated story, Ed Caesar, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, joins the team aboard the Petrel and speaks to the family of Lt. Cmdr. John Joseph Shea, a heroic naval officer killed in the attack on the Wasp.

This story was written by Ed Caesar and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

After days of uncertainty, Joe Biden has been elected president, becoming the first candidate in more than a quarter of a century to beat an incumbent. His running mate, Kamala Harris, is the first woman and woman of color elected vice president.

Mr. Biden’s win is set to be contested — President Trump said in a statement that “the election is far from over.”

Today we host a roundtable of three Times political journalists who discuss the election results, Mr. Biden’s victory and Mr. Trump’s next move.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times; Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The Times; and Jim Rutenberg, a writer-at-large for The Times and The New York Times Magazine.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Mr. Biden achieved victory offering a message of healing and unity. He will return to Washington facing a daunting set of crises.
• He has spent his career devoted to institutions and relationships. Those are the tools he will rely on to govern a fractured nation.

When President Trump took to the podium in the White House briefing room Thursday evening to give a statement on the election count, he lied about the legality of the votes against him in key battleground states and called into question the integrity of poll workers, laying a conspiracy at the feet of Democrats.

Both the Republican establishment and the conservative news media have been split in their responses to his claims.

Inside the White House and the Trump campaign, there is shock at the direction the contest has taken — many in his camp believed that a win was certain.

Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• In a stunning appearance in the White House, Mr. Trump lied about vote-counting, conjuring up a conspiracy of “legal” and “illegal” ballots being tabulated and claiming without evidence that states were trying to deny him re-election.

By the end of election night, the results in six key states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — were still to be called.

On Wednesday, as mail-in ballots were totaled up, Joe Biden gained ground, taking Michigan and Wisconsin and placing him within striking distance of the Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.

The count is still in progress in many places. Mr. Biden is leading by a decent margin in Arizona and slightly in Nevada, while President Trump’s advantage in Georgia and Pennsylvania has been narrowing.

As the former vice president formed paths to victory, Mr. Trump continued to raise the specter of litigation and escalated his baseless attacks on the legitimacy of the vote.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent, speaks to us about the latest on an unfinished election.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Mr. Biden may be closing in on victory, but the “blue wave” that some hoped would sweep the Democrats to shore never materialized.
• We have live updates on the progress of the count, and you can follow the election results here.

The U.S. presidential election is a lot closer than the polls indicated. Millions of votes, many in key battleground states, are yet to be counted.

Florida — which went for President Trump — is the only bellwether to have confirmed its result. Other crucial states, including Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, are yet to be called.

For the moment, it looks like both Mr. Trump and Joe Biden will need to break through in the Midwest and Pennsylvania to clinch victory.

The race to control the Senate is also tight, though the Republicans seem to be in a better position.

With the picture still foggy, Mr. Biden called for patience as the votes were counted, while Mr. Trump falsely claimed victory and threatened court action.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times, speaks to us about where things stand with the election and the remaining paths to victory.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• You can follow the election results here.
• We also have live updates on the progress of the vote.

This episode contains strong language.

At the heart of one race for the Wisconsin State Assembly are some of the same political cracks splitting the U.S. as a whole. Some believe keeping businesses running is a priority during the coronavirus pandemic; others think keeping people safe and healthy should be given precedence.

What do the different approaches reveal about Wisconsin politics and about broader American divisions? Reid J. Epstein, a politics reporter for The New York Times, and Andy Mills and Luke Vander Ploeg, audio producers for The Times, went to the state to find out.

Guests: Reid J. Epstein, who covers campaigns and elections for The New York Times; Andy Mills, a senior audio producer for The Times; Luke Vander Ploeg, an audio producer for The Times.

Bonus Election Day special: The Daily is going LIVE today. Listen to Michael Barbaro and Carolyn Ryan, a deputy managing editor at The Times, as they call our correspondents for the latest on a history-making day.

Tune in from 4 - 8 p.m. Eastern, only on nytimes.com/thedaily and on The New York Times iPhone app. Click here for more information.

Background reading:

• Here’s Reid’s story about how the virus has divided the conservative town of Minocqua, Wis.
• President Trump and Joe Biden barnstormed through battleground states, concluding an extraordinary campaign conducted amid a health crisis and deep economic anxiety.

The Daily is going live today! Join us at 4 p.m. Eastern time for our first-ever Election Day broadcast. You can listen at nytimes.com/thedaily and on The New York Times iPhone app.

Michael Barbaro and Carolyn Ryan, a deputy managing editor at The Times, will call our correspondents for the latest on a history-making day. We’ll get live updates from key battleground states and break down the state of the race. We hope to see you soon.

There are many permutations of the U.S. presidential election — some messier than others.

Joe Biden’s lead in national polls suggests he has a number of paths to victory. If states like Florida or Georgia break for him early on, then the Trump campaign could be in for a long night.

The task for President Trump is to close those paths. If he can hold Florida and quickly add the likes of Arizona and North Carolina, then the signs could point to re-election.

And then there is a third scenario. If fast-counting states are too close to call immediately and battlegrounds in the Midwest take a long time to tally votes, then a long wait for a final result — and bitter, lengthy legal challenges — could be on the cards.

We speak to Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The Times, on the likely plotlines for election night.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times, walks us through possible election night scenarios.

In addition to our regular show on Election Day, The Daily is going LIVE tomorrow afternoon. Spend your Election Day with Michael Barbaro and Carolyn Ryan, deputy managing editor at The Times, as they call our correspondents for the latest on a history-making day.

Tune in from 4 - 8 p.m. Eastern, only on nytimes.com/thedaily. Click here for more information.

Background reading:

• The Trump and Biden campaigns are intensifying their efforts in Pennsylvania — an increasingly critical state.
• How long will counting take? We asked officials about their election results processes and about what share of the vote they expect to be finished by Wednesday.
• Americans are pushing through challenges like the pandemic and long lines to cast their ballot. The United States is on course to surpass 150 million votes for the first time.

At 16, Reginald Dwayne Betts was sent to prison for nine years after pleading guilty to a carjacking, to having a gun, and to an attempted robbery.

“Because Senator Kamala Harris is a prosecutor and I am a felon, I have been following her political rise, with the same focus that my younger son tracks Steph Curry threes,” Mr. Betts said in an essay he wrote for The New York Times Magazine.

He had hoped that her presidential bid would be an opportunity for the country to grapple with the injustice of mass incarceration in a thoughtful way. Instead, he explained, the basic fact of her profession as a prosecutor was used by many as an indictment against her.

On today’s “Sunday Read,” listen to Mr. Betts’s exploration of his experiences with the criminal justice system, Kamala Harris and the conversations that America needs to have about mass incarceration.

This story was written and introduced by Reginald Dwayne Betts and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

Florida’s seniors played an important role in President Trump’s victory there in 2016. Older voters, who are mostly conservative, make up around 25 percent of the swing state’s electorate and turn out in astonishing numbers.

They are also disproportionately affected by the pandemic, and polling suggests that Joe Biden is making inroads with Republican-leaning older voters.

In Florida’s conservative retirement communities, however, the decision to switch from Mr. Trump can have consequences and many stay quiet for fear of reprisals.

Some of these consequences are obvious: One resident who erected a sign in support of Mr. Biden woke up to “Trump” written in weedkiller on his lawn. Other effects are more personal, and more insidious.

Today, Annie Brown, a senior audio producer at The Times, speaks to some of Florida’s seniors about their voting intentions — including one, Dave Niederkorn, who has turned his back on Mr. Trump and almost lost a close friend in the process.

Guests: Annie Brown, a senior audio producer for The New York Times; and Patricia Mazzei, the Miami bureau chief of The Times, who covers Florida and Puerto Rico.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Older people are a crucial voting bloc in Florida. In a speech earlier this month, Joe Biden made his pitch to them.
• “If it’s here, it’s here” — how retirees in Florida’s Villages confronted the coronavirus in the summer.

This episode contains strong language.

With an election in which uncertainty may abound, concerns are swirling around the possibility of political violence. Experts and officials — including those charged with the security of polling stations and ballot counting facilities — have been taking extra precautions.

Americans across the political spectrum appear to be preparing themselves for this possibility, too: Eight of the 10 biggest weeks for gun sales since the late 1990s took place since March this year. Many of those sales were to people buying guns for the first time.

Today’s episode examines these anxieties from two perspectives.

Andy Mills, a senior audio producer for The New York Times, speaks to patrons of gun stores in Washington State about their motivations and sits down with a first-time gun owner who relays his anxiety, ignited by the unrest and protests in Seattle over the summer.

And Alix Spiegel, a senior audio editor for The Times, visits three women of color in North Carolina, one of whom says the scenes in Charlottesville, the killing of Black people at the hands of the police and the threat of white militias have encouraged her to shift her anti-gun stance.

Guests: Andy Mills, a senior audio producer for The New York Times; Alix Spiegel, a senior audio editor for The Times; and Reid J. Epstein, who covers campaigns and elections for The Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Gun buyers say they are motivated by a new sense of instability that is pushing them to purchase weapons for the first time, or if they already have them, to buy more.

Local news in America has long been widely trusted, and widely seen as objective. But as traditional local papers struggle, there have been attempts across the political spectrum to create more partisan outlets.

Few can have been as ambitious or widespread as the nationwide network of 1,300 websites and newspapers run by Brian Timpone, a television reporter turned internet entrepreneur.

He has said that he sees local news as a means of preserving American civil discourse. But a Times investigation has found that Republican operatives and public relations firms have been paying for articles in his outlets and intimately dictating the editorial direction of stories.Today, we speak to the Times journalists behind the investigation.

Guests: Davey Alba, a technology reporter for The New York Times covering online misinformation and its global harms; and Jack Nicas, who covers technology for The Times from San Francisco.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Here’s the full investigation into a nationwide operation of 1,300 local sites that publishes coverage ordered up by Republican groups and corporate P.R. firms.

What does the specter of the 2000 election mean for the upcoming election? The race between George W. Bush and Al Gore that year turned on the result in Florida, where the vote was incredibly close and mired in balloting issues. After initially conceding, Mr. Gore, the Democratic nominee, contested the count.

What followed was a flurry of court cases, recounts, partisan fury and confusion. It would be months until — after a Supreme Court decision — Mr. Bush would become the 43rd president of the United States.

The confrontation held political lessons for both sides. Lessons that could be put to the test next week in an election likely to be shrouded in uncertainty: The pandemic, the volume of mail-in voters and questions around mail delivery could result in legal disputes.

Today, we take a look back at the contest between Mr. Gore and Mr. Bush.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer-at-large for The New York Times and The Times Magazine.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• A number of legal battles over voting rights are in the pipeline. Any ruling could resonate nationwide.
• Elections supervisors say they have learned the hard lessons of the 2000 presidential recount and other messes. But challenges are already apparent.

In America’s increasingly divided political landscape, it can be hard to imagine almost any voter switching sides. One demographic group has provided plenty of exceptions: white suburban women.

In the past four years, the group has turned away from the president in astonishing numbers. And many of them are organizing — Red, Wine and Blue is a group made up of suburban women from Ohio hoping to swing the election for Joe Biden. The organization draws on women who voted for the president and third parties in 2016, as well as existing Democratic voters.

In today’s episode, Lisa Lerer, who covers campaigns, elections and political power for The New York Times, speaks to white suburban women on the ground in Ohio and explores their shifting allegiances and values.

Guest: Lisa Lerer, a reporter for The New York Times covering campaigns, elections and political power.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• The white suburban voters the president needs to carve a path to victory have turned away from him, often for deeply personal reasons.

During months of pandemic isolation, Wesley Morris, a critic at large for The New York Times, decided to grow a mustache.

The reviews were mixed and predictable. He heard it described as “porny” and “creepy,” as well as “rugged” and “extra gay.”

It was a comment on a group call, however, that gave him pause. Someone noted that his mustache made him look like a lawyer for the N.A.A.C.P.’s legal defense fund.

“It was said as a winking correction and an earnest clarification — Y’all, this is what it is,” Wesley said. “The call moved on, but I didn’t. That is what it is: one of the sweetest, truest things anybody had said about me in a long time.”

On today’s episode of The Sunday Read, Wesley Morris’s story about self-identity and the symbolic power of the mustache.

This story was written by Wesley Morris and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

At the start of Thursday night’s debate its moderator, Kristen Welker of NBC News, delivered a polite but firm instruction: The matchup should not be a repeat of the chaos of last month’s debate.

It was a calmer affair and, for the first few segments, a more structured and linear exchange of views.

President Trump, whose interruptions came to define the first debate, was more restrained, seemingly heeding advice that keeping to the rules of the debate would render his message more effective.

And while there were no breakthrough moments for Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice president managed to make more of a case for himself than he did last month, on issues such as the coronavirus and economic support for families and businesses in distress.

Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent, gives us a recap of the night’s events and explores what it means for an election that is just 11 days away.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• While the tenor of Thursday’s forum was more sedate, the conflict in matters of substance and vision could not have been more dramatic.
• Here are some highlights from last night’s debate.

The winner-take-all system used by the Electoral College in the United States appears nowhere in the Constitution. It awards all of a state’s electors to the candidate with the most votes, no matter how small the margin of victory. Critics say that means millions of votes are effectively ignored.

The fairness of the Electoral College was seriously questioned in the 1960s. Amid the civil rights push, changes to the system were framed as the last step of democratization. But a constitutional amendment to introduce a national popular vote for president was eventually killed by segregationist senators in 1970.

Desire for an overhaul dwindled until the elections of 2000 and 2016, when the system’s flaws again came to the fore. In both instances, the men who became president had lost the popular vote.

Jesse Wegman, a member of The Times’s editorial board, describes how the winner-take-all system came about and how the Electoral College could be modified.

Guest: Jesse Wegman, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Here’s a guide to how the Electoral College works.
• Watch Jesse’s explainer, from our Opinion section, on how President Trump could win the election — even if he loses.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have invested a significant amount of time and money trying to avoid the mistakes made during the 2016 election.

A test of those new policies came last week, when The New York Post published a story that contained supposedly incriminating documents and pictures taken from the laptop of Hunter Biden. The provenance and authenticity of that information is still in question, and Joe Biden’s campaign has rejected the assertions.

We speak to Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The Times, about how the episode reveals the tension between fighting misinformation and protecting free speech.

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Here’s Kevin’s full report on the efforts by Twitter and Facebook to limit the spread of the Hunter Biden story.
• The New York Post published the piece despite doubts within the paper’s newsroom — some reporters withheld their bylines and questioned the credibility of the article.
• Joe Biden’s campaign has rejected the assertions made in the story.

In the struggle to control the U.S. Senate, one race in North Carolina — where the Republican incumbent, Thom Tillis, is trying to hold off his Democratic challenger, Cal Cunningham — could be crucial.

North Carolina is a classic purple state with a split political mind: progressive in some quarters, while firmly steeped in Southern conservative tradition in others.

Two bombshells have recently upended the race: Mr. Tillis fell ill with the coronavirus after attending an event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination without a mask. And Mr. Cunningham’s image was sullied by the emergence of text messages showing that he had engaged in an extramarital affair.

Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent for The Times, talks us through the race and examines the factors that could determine who prevails.

Guest: Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• North Carolina is a linchpin in the 2020 election — the presidency and the Senate could hinge on results in the state.
• Here’s how the critical senate race was engulfed in chaos in a single night.

This episode contains strong language.

In the last decade, elections have tightened in Arizona, a traditionally Republican stronghold, as Democrats gain ground.

According to polls, Joe Biden is leading in the state — partly because of white suburban women moving away from President Trump, but also because of efforts to activate the Latino vote.

Will that turn states like Arizona blue? And do enough Hispanic voters actually want Mr. Biden as president?

To gauge the atmosphere, Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The New York Times, spoke to Democratic activists and Trump supporters in Arizona.

Guests: Jennifer Medina, a national politics reporter for The Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• Though a majority of Latino voters favors Democrats, Hispanic men are a small but enduring part of Trump’s base. Those supporters see him as forceful, unapologetic and a symbol of economic success.
• If Joe Biden wins Arizona, he would be only the second Democratic presidential candidate to have done so since 1952. But the state has been trending more friendly to the party for years.

Jim Dwyer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for The New York Times, died earlier this month. He was 63.

Throughout his nearly 40-year career, Jim was drawn to stories about discrimination, wrongly convicted prisoners and society’s mistreated outcasts. From 2007, he wrote The Times’s “About New York” column — when asked whether he had the best job in journalism, he responded, “I believe I do.”

Dan Barry, a reporter for The Times who also wrote for the column, has called Jim a “newsman of consequence” and “a determined voice for the vulnerable.” Today, he reads two stories written by Jim, his friend and colleague.

These stories were written by Jim Dwyer and read by Dan Barry. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

In the second of a two-part examination of the presidential candidates’ policies, we turn to Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s agenda and how he plans to govern a nation wracked by a public health and economic crisis.

The themes of Mr. Biden’s Democratic primary campaign were broad as he eschewed the policy-intensive approach of opponents like Senator Elizabeth Warren. But the onset of the pandemic helped shape and crystallize his policy plans.

His approach stands in stark contrast to that of President Trump: Mr. Biden wants to actively mobilize federal resources in addressing the pandemic, an expansion to health care that he hopes will endure beyond the coronavirus.

Today, we speak to Alexander Burns, a national political correspondent, about Mr. Biden’s plans for dealing with the current crisis and beyond.

Guest: Alexander Burns, a national political reporter at The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• We delve into the candidates’ backgrounds and present key questions about the campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
• With 18 days to go, here’s a guide to the 2020 election with the latest updates, polling news and information on how to vote.

In a two-part examination of the policies of the president and of the man seeking to replace him, Joe Biden, we first take a look at what Donald Trump said he would do four years ago — and what he’s actually accomplished.

On some of the big issues, Mr. Trump has been the president he told us he was going to be, keeping commitments on deregulation, taxes, military spending and the judiciary.

But other potent promises — such as replacing Obamacare, draining “the swamp” in Washington and forcing Mexico to pay for a border wall — have withered.

Today, we speak to Peter Baker, The Times’s chief White House correspondent, about Mr. Trump’s record. Tomorrow, we scrutinize Mr. Biden’s plans for the presidency.

Guest: Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for The New York Times.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Background reading:

• We delve into the background of the candidates and present key questions about the campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
• With 19 days to go, here’s a guide to the 2020 election with the latest updates, polling news and information on how to vote.