The Daily

It was a head-spinning week in the tech world with the abrupt firing and rehiring of OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman.  The hosts of “Hard Fork,” Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, interviewed Altman only two days before he was fired. Over the course of their conversation, Altman laid out his worldview and his vision for the future of A.I. Today, we’re bringing you that interview to shed light on h...

Polls suggest that they are – and that Black voters’ support for former President Donald J. Trump, especially among men, is rising. Astead W. Herndon, host of "The Run-Up," convened a special Thanksgiving focus group to explore what might be behind those numbers. He spoke with family, friends and parishioners from his father’s church, community members and people he grew up with. It’s a lively con...

The board of OpenAI, the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot and one of the world’s highest-profile artificial intelligence companies, reversed course late last night and brought back Sam Altman as chief executive. Cade Metz, a technology reporter for The Times, discusses a whirlwind five days at the company and analyzes what the fallout could mean for the future of the transformational technology. Guest...

As the war against Hamas enters a seventh week, Israel finds itself under intense pressure to justify its actions in Gaza, including the raid of Al-Shifa Hospital, which it says is a center of Hamas activity. Hamas and hospital officials deny the accusation. Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The Times, was one of the reporters invited by the Israeli military on an escorted trip into...

By working with Democrats to avert a government shutdown this past week, Speaker Mike Johnson seemed to put himself on the same path that doomed his predecessor. Or did he? Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress for The Times, explains why things could be different this time. Guest: Catie Edmondson , a reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Background reading:  Congress prevented a...

The Space Force, the sixth and newest branch of the U.S. military, was authorized by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump in December 2019. The initiative had been shaped within the armed forces and Congress over the previous 25 years, based on the premise that as satellite and space technologies evolved, America’s military organizations had to change as well. From the start, the...

One of the most highly anticipated diplomatic events of the year took place this week in a mansion outside San Francisco. President Biden and Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, met to repair their countries’ relations, which had sunk to one of their lowest points in decades. Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the effort to bring the relationship back from the br...

A little over a year ago, at President Biden’s urging, congressional democrats passed a sweeping plan to supercharge the production and sale of electric vehicles. Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy for The Times, explains whether the law is actually working. Guest: Jim Tankersley , an economic policy correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading:  President Biden’s 2022 climate...

A historic set of new lawsuits, filed by more than three dozen states, accuses Meta, the country’s largest social media company, of illegally luring children onto its platforms and hooking them on its products. Natasha Singer, who covers technology, business and society for The New York Times, has been reviewing the states’ evidence and trying to understand the long-term strategy behind these laws...

To much of the outside world, Hamas’s decision to murder hundreds of Israelis and trigger a war that has since killed many thousands of its own people looks like a historic miscalculation — one that could soon result in the destruction of Hamas itself. Hamas’s leaders, however, say that it was the result of a deliberate calculation. Ben Hubbard, the Istanbul bureau chief for The New York Times, ha...

Warning: This episode contains descriptions of injuries and death. As Israel’s war on Hamas enters its sixth week, hospitals in Gaza have found themselves on the front lines. Hospitals have become a refuge for the growing number of civilians fleeing the violence, but one that has become increasingly dangerous as Israel’s military targets what it says are Hamas fighters hiding inside and beneath th...

In April 2016, 11 Black schoolchildren, some as young as 8 years old, were arrested in Rutherford County, Tenn. The reason? They didn’t stop a fight between some other kids.  What happened in the wake of those arrests would expose a juvenile justice system that was playing by its own rules. For years, this county had arrested and illegally jailed hundreds, maybe thousands, of children. Why was thi...

Warning: this episode contains some explicit language. When Adidas terminated its multibillion-dollar partnership with Kanye West over his antisemitic and other offensive public remarks, it seemed like a straightforward story of a celebrity’s suddenly imploding. But a New York Times examination has found that, behind the scenes, the collaboration was fraught from the start. Megan Twohey, an invest...

A critical gun case was argued before the Supreme Court this week. But instead of opening further freedoms for gun owners — as the court, with its conservative supermajority, did in a blockbuster decision last year — justices seemed ready to rule that the government may disarm people under restraining orders for domestic violence. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, explains w...

Of all the legal cases that former President Donald J. Trump is facing, perhaps the most personal is playing out in a courtroom in Manhattan: a civil fraud trial that could result in him losing control of his best-known buildings and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines. In recent days, Mr. Trump and some of his children have taken the stand, defending the family business and the former...

It’s been one month since the attack on Israel, but Washington has yet to deliver an aid package to its closest ally. The reason has to do with a different ally, in a different war: Speaker Mike Johnson has opposed continued funding for Ukraine, and wants the issue separated from aid to Israel, setting up a clash between the House and Senate. Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress for The Times, dis...

In a major new campaign poll from The New York Times and Siena College, former President Donald J. Trump leads President Biden in five of the six battleground states likeliest to decide the 2024 presidential race. Widespread discontent with the state of the country and growing doubts about Biden’s ability to perform his job as president threaten to unravel the diverse coalition that elected him in...

The beginning of the story was strangely familiar, like the opening scene in a shopworn police procedural: A woman runs screaming down a street in Oak Beach, a secluded gated community on Long Island’s South Shore, only to vanish, it seems, into thin air. It was almost dawn on May 1, 2010. Hours earlier, Shannan Gilbert traveled from New Jersey to see a man who had hired her as an escort from a Cr...

As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enters its darkest chapter in decades, both sides are evoking the same foundational moment in their past: the events of 1948. David K. Shipler, a former Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times and the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about the conflict, discusses the meaning and reality of what happened that year. Guest: David K. Shipler, author of...

The mass shooting in Maine last week, which killed 18 people, was the country’s deadliest of the year. It may have also been one of the most avoidable. More than five months earlier, the Army Reserve and a Maine sheriff’s department had been made aware of a reservist’s deteriorating mental health. Just six weeks before the killings, he had punched a friend and said he was going to carry out a shoo...

In late September, one of the world’s most intractable conflicts ended suddenly and brutally when Azerbaijan seized the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh and tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians fled their homes. Andrew Higgins, the New York Times bureau chief for East and Central Europe, explains how the conflict started, why it lasted for more than 30 years, and what its end can tell us about the nat...

A wave of strikes that has paralyzed the auto industry came to an end on Monday, when the last of the three big car manufacturers, General Motors, reached a deal with the United Automobile Workers union. Neal E. Boudette, who covers the auto industry for The Times, discusses the historic deal and why it was such a big win for workers. Guest: Neal E. Boudette , an auto industry correspondent for Th...

Over the weekend, the Israeli military appears to have begun an invasion of the Gaza Strip, with tanks rolling into the enclave and Israeli soldiers fighting Hamas inside. But the operation remains shrouded in secrecy, and Israel is revealing little about its actions. Raja Abdulrahim, a Middle East correspondent for The Times, and Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief, discuss the latest es...

On Oct. 19, 2021, Armando Linares López was writing up notes from an interview when his cellphone buzzed with an unknown number. Linares, 49 and stocky with black hair that was just starting to show gray streaks, ran an online news site in a small Mexican city called Zitácuaro. He knew his beat so intimately that calls from unfamiliar phone numbers were rare. But the man on the other end spoke in...

Hurricane Otis, which killed more than two dozen people in southern Mexico this week, exemplified a phenomenon that meteorologists fear will become more and more common: a severe hurricane that arrives with little warning or time to prepare. Judson Jones, who covers natural disasters for The Times, explains why Hurricane Otis packed such an unexpected punch. Guest: Judson Jones , who covers natura...