The Daily

On Wednesday, residents in Montana saw a mysterious object — a balloon — hovering and bobbing around in the skies. The enigma brought Americans out to squint at the heavens, caused a diplomatic visit to be canceled and opened a political debate. How did a balloon end up kindling such tension between Washington and Beijing? Guest: Edward Wong , a diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times. Bac...

Going out to dinner with Juan Tamariz in Madrid is a little like accompanying a cartoon character on a journey to the real world. As Shuja Haider, the author of today’s Sunday Read, walked with him on side streets off the city center’s main drag, the Calle Gran Vía, heads turned left and right. Mr. Tamariz, 80, has been a professional magician for 52 years, and in that time, he has managed the sin...

The Biden administration said this week that it would end the public health emergency for Covid, a sign that federal officials believe that the pandemic has moved into a new, less dire phase. The move carries both symbolic weight and real-world consequences for millions of Americans. Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli , a science and global health reporter for The New York Times. Background reading:  The e...

For the past 50 years, the race to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee has been shaped by the where the contest begins: Iowa. But that process could soon be overhauled. In a coming meeting of the Democratic National Committee, South Carolina — a state that is more representative of the party and, possibly, of the country — could take over the key role of going first. Guest: Adam Nag...

The typical sales price of an existing family home in the United States in December: 372,700. The number of layoffs in the tech sector since the beginning of the year: 76,000. The number by which consumer spending fell in December: 0.2 percent. The increase in the cost of the same kind of carton of eggs bought by an editor on “The Daily” a year apart: 251 percent. What do these numbers tell us abo...

In the United States, 40 million people in seven states depend on water provided by the Colorado River. After 20 years of drought, the situation is dire and the river is at risk of becoming a “deadpool,” a condition in which there is not enough water to pass through the dams. The states were supposed to come up with a deal to cut their usage by Tuesday. Now, the federal government may have to step...

This episode contains descriptions of violence and strong language. Tyre Nichols was a 29-year-old Black man who lived in Memphis. His mother described him as living a simple and pleasant life. He worked for FedEx, loved to skateboard, was an amateur photographer and had a 4-year-old son. On the evening of Jan. 7, after a traffic stop, Mr. Nichols was violently beaten by the police, sustaining sev...

In the past half-century, 17 percent of the Amazon — an area larger than Texas — has been converted to croplands or cattle pasture. Less forest means less recycled rain, less vapor to cool the air, less of a canopy to shield against sunlight. Under drier, hotter conditions, even the lushest of Amazonian trees will shed leaves to save water, inhibiting photosynthesis — a feedback loop that is only...

This episode contains descriptions of violence and injury.  In September, protests began in Iran over the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, at the hands of the government. The demonstrations have since intensified, as has the government’s response, with thousands arrested and a terrifying campaign of public executions underway. Today, Iranians who have taken part in the demonstrations tell us —...

Recent advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended a bold approach to treating the millions of children in the United States who are affected by obesity. Counseling, drug treatment and even surgery should be considered, the group says. The guidelines are a response to a deeper understanding of what obesity is — and what to do about it. Guest: Gina Kolata , a medical reporter for...

Nonprofit hospitals — which make up around half of hospitals in the United States — were founded to help the poor. But a Times investigation has revealed that many have deviated from those charitable roots, behaving like for-profit companies, sometimes to the detriment of the health of patients. Guest: Jessica Silver-Greenberg , an investigative business reporter for The New York Times. Background...

Over the weekend, F.B.I. agents found classified documents at President Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Del., after conducting a 13-hour search. The search — at the invitation of Mr. Biden’s lawyers — resulted in the latest in a series of discoveries that has already led to a special counsel investigation. What miscalculations have Mr. Biden and his team make throughout this ordeal? Guest: Michae...

In the past decade or more, votes over increasing the U.S. debt ceiling have increasingly been used as a political tool. That has led to intense showdowns in 2011, 2013 and, now, 2023.  This year, both sides of the argument are dug in and Republicans appear more willing to go over the cliff than in the past.  What does this year’s showdown look like and how, exactly, did the United States’ debt ba...

In a room in a modest concrete building in a leafy Minneapolis neighborhood is silence exceeding the bounds of human perception. Technically an “anechoic chamber,” the room is the quietest place on the planet — according to some. What happens to people inside the windowless steel room is the subject of wild and terrible speculation. Public fascination with it exploded 10 years ago, with an article...

With mountains, intense mud, fast-running rivers and thick rainforest, the Darién Gap, a strip of terrain connecting South and Central America, is one of the most dangerous places on the planet. Over the past few years, there has been an enormous increase in the number of migrants passing through the perilous zone in the hopes of getting to the United States. Today, we hear the story of one family...

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the United States and allies have held back from sending Kyiv their most potent arms. Over the past few weeks, that has started to change. Guest: Eric Schmitt , a national security correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading:  Ukraine has a narrow window of time to retake more territory ahead of an expected Russian spring offensive. The Biden...

With little warning or regulation, companies are increasingly using facial recognition technology on their customers — as a security measure, they say. But what happens when the systems are actually being used to punish the companies’ enemies? Guest: Kashmir Hill , a technology reporter for The New York Times.  Background reading:  Madison Square Garden Entertainment, the owner of the arena, has p...

For nearly three years, China had one of the lowest coronavirus death rates in the world, thanks to its strict yet effective “zero Covid” approach. But last month, the government suddenly abandoned the policy. Since then, there have been millions of coronavirus cases across the country. Guest: Alexandra Stevenson , the Shanghai bureau chief for The New York Times. Background reading:  After microm...

In states where abortion is severely limited or illegal, clinicians face imminent prosecution if they continue to provide abortions. What is much less clear is what happens if providers in blue states offer telemedicine abortions to women in states where that’s against the law. These clinicians, too, could be arrested or sued or lose their medical licenses. To protect themselves, they may have to...

The Justice Department is scrutinizing how both former President Donald J. Trump and President Biden came to have classified records after they left office. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel after the discovery of two batches of classified documents from Mr. Biden’s time as vice president. How are the two cases similar, how are they different and what might that mean...

For weeks, a string of major storms have hit California, causing extreme flooding. While it might seem as if rain should have a silver lining for a state stuck in a historic drought, the reality is far more complicated. Today, how California’s water management in the past has made today’s flooding worse and why it represents a missed opportunity for the future of the state’s water crisis. Guest: C...

After Jair Bolsonaro lost October’s Brazilian presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, many believed that the threat of violence from the defeated leader’s supporters would recede. They were wrong.  Mr. Bolsonaro had spent years sewing doubt and undermining Brazil’s election system, and last week, thousands of rioters stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices.  W...

Air travel was a mess over the holidays — in the last 10 days of December, 30,000 flights were canceled.  While every airline was affected, one stood out: Southwest, which over the past few decades has transformed how Americans fly, melted down. In the last 10 days of the year, it canceled as many flights as it had done in the previous 10 months.  So what went wrong? Guest: Niraj Chokshi , a busin...

Representative Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become speaker of the House turned into a rolling disaster last week, played out over five long days and 15 rounds of voting.  Today, the inside story of how it went so wrong — and what he was forced to give up in order to finally win. Guest: Catie Edmondson , a congressional correspondent for The New York Times. Background reading:  Mr. McCarthy’s slog to th...

On Christmas Eve in 1971, Juliane Diller, then 17, and her mother boarded a flight in Lima, Peru. She was headed for Panguana, a biological research station in the belly of the Amazon, where for three years she had lived, on and off, with her mother, Maria, and her father, Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke, both zoologists. About 25 minutes after takeoff, the plane flew into a thunderstorm, was struck by light...