The Daily

Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 20, flooding neighborhoods and villages and cutting power to 3.4 million people. More than four months later, much of the island is still in shock. A recent visit to a suicide prevention center shows the long-term toll on mental health in a place struck by the overwhelming impression that the rest of the world has moved on. Gu...

When Republicans handed out large tax cuts to corporations, most economists rejected lawmakers’ claims that the benefits would trickle down to working Americans. So why do many companies seem to be giving their employees more money? Guests: Jim Tankersley, who covers taxes and the economy for The New York Times; Wes Carter, the president of Atlantic Packaging in Wilmington, N.C., who spoke to Sabr...

The Republican push to release a classified memo has brought attention to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and to the long battle to determine when national security concerns outweigh civil liberties. What has surprised many is the side Republicans chose this time. Guest: Charlie Savage, who covers national security and the law for The New York Times. For more information on today’s epis...

President Trump has claimed credit for a booming U.S. economy. But is it actually booming, and to what extent is he responsible? Guest: Peter S. Goodman, who writes about the economy for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast...

Almost from the moment that he was appointed to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt has been cast by environmentalists as an ideologue on a mission to destroy the very agency he runs. But Mr. Pruitt, who built a career suing to block environmental rules, sees it differently. Guests: Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Coral Davenport, who covers e...

Republicans insist that their push to release a secret memo that is said to question the conduct of the F.B.I. and the Justice Department in the early stages of the Russia investigation is not an attempt to undermine the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller. But whatever their intentions, the possible fallout from the memo’s release has everything to do with Mr. Mueller. Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, w...

In his first State of the Union address, President Trump left behind divisive rhetoric and called for one American family. But hidden in his many stories of everyday American heroes was a deeply nationalist message. Guest: Mark Landler, a White House correspondent for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts o...

The U.S. government announced this month that it would withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan. In the weeks since, Afghanistan has experienced one of the most violent and deadly periods in its 16-year war. How are the two connected? Guest: Mujib Mashal , a New York Times correspondent in Afghanistan, who describes the sense of terror in Kabul. For more information on today’s e...

As the Trump administration clamps down on immigration, some asylum seekers are fleeing to Canada. But is it the promised land they had hoped for? Guest: Dan Bilefsky , a New York Times reporter in Canada. Thank you to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for their interviews with migrants crossing the border. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily . Subscribe today a...

The New York Times is reporting that President Trump tried to order the firing of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation, but ultimately backed down when his own lawyer threatened to quit. And Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, talks about trying to hammer out a compromise on immigration policy. He has described dealing with the White House as “like...

Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar was lauded as the go-to doctor for the United States’ best gymnasts. After he pleaded guilty to multiple sex crimes, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina cleared her docket to give each of his accusers a chance to speak at the sentencing hearing. More than 150 women, including several Olympians, confronted Dr. Nassar in the courtroom and spoke of their abuse over seven days. It was an e...

Tonya Harding had talent, but the world of figure skating wanted nothing to do with her. She was called “white trash.” And when Nancy Kerrigan was bashed in the knee just before the 1994 Winter Olympics, Ms. Harding became a villain. Now, 24 years later, her narrative is being revisited — and she is back in the spotlight. Guest: Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who interviewed Tonya Harding (now Tonya Price...

President Trump’s plan to build a “big, beautiful wall” between the United States and Mexico has become the ultimate symbol of a hard-line immigration policy. So why, as Congress voted to end a government shutdown and take up the issue of immigration, have Democrats suggested that they would agree to fund the wall if Republicans protect the Dreamers? Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a White House co...

Democrats forced the federal government to shut down by saying there could be no budget deal without a deal on the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Republicans have refused to end the shutdown by saying there can be no DACA deal without a budget deal. There’s been a lot of finger-pointing between the two parties, and the future of young undocumented immigrants hangs in the b...

The only Democrat in the room when President Trump railed against African immigrants as coming from “shithole countries” tells his side of the story. The ensuing fight over immigration has put the government on the verge of a shutdown. If that happens, whose fault would it be? Guests: Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, who spoke to Carl Hulse, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, ab...

America’s addiction crisis has become a lucrative business, and fortunes have been made in the growing rehab industry. But the death of a patient in California has raised questions about how to treat people who want to get clean, and what it means to profit from the health crisis. Guest: Michael Corkery, an investigative reporter for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, vis...

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on border walls turned into a fight over the language President Trump used to describe Haiti and some African countries. Why does it matter so much to members of Congress? Also, Stephen Bannon is the first member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle to receive a grand jury subpoena in the Russia investigation. Guests: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a White House correspondent...

As South Korea prepares to host the Winter Olympics, it has been eager to get the North to participate. What is Seoul afraid will happen if it won’t? And, for 38 minutes on Saturday morning, people in Hawaii believed that a missile was headed for the state. Guest: Susan Chira, a Times journalist who covered Asia in the 1980s, when South Korea hosted the Olympic Games for the first time; voice mail...

President Trump has demanded to know why the United States should welcome immigrants from “shithole countries.” His words have alarmed lawmakers and threatened an immigration deal. But they have also raised a question about a certain American ideal: Who should be let in? Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, who covers the White House for The Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes....

When President Trump announced that he would end the Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, he gave Congress six months to make it law. Otherwise, many undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children could be deported. As the clock counts down, why is the president making the program his problem once again? Guest: Michael D. Shear, a White House...

George Papadopoulos drew worldwide attention when he was identified as the low-ranking foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who got in over his head with Russia and inadvertently set off the Mueller investigation. But another foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, also drew the attention of the F.B.I.: Why did his story end so differently? Guest: Jason Zengerle, a contributing writer for The...

In 2001, the United States granted Temporary Protected Status to people from El Salvador, after two deadly earthquakes ravaged their country. Nearly 20 years later, that protection seemed to be permanent. And then he Trump administration announced that the rights would end. Guest: Azam Ahmed, the New York Times bureau chief for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. For more information on tod...

Five days after the release of the tell-all book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” President Trump defended his mental health, calling himself a “very stable genius.” And Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist, backed away from calling Donald Trump Jr. “treasonous.” Why did a publication with little new reporting in it cause such a big stir? Guests: Peter Baker , c...

After eight days, the largest protests in Iran in years appear to be winding down, calmed, at least in part, by the government. But a closer look at what ignited the outrage in the first place suggests that the country’s president may have lit the match. Guest: Thomas Erdbrink, the Tehran bureau chief for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily . Sub...

A new tell-all book about the first year of the Trump administration has the White House in a fury. Its key source is Stephen K. Bannon, President Trump’s former chief strategist, who disparages the president and his children. Mr. Trump responded: “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.” Guests: Peter Baker, chief Whi...