The Daily

If the Supreme Court revokes Roe v. Wade, individual states will probably be left to make their own decisions about abortion provision. Some states will ban abortion, and some will continue to allow it. And then there is a third group: swing states, where a final decision will be up for grabs. Guest: Margot Sanger-Katz , a domestic correspondent covering health care for The New York Times. Want mo...

The revelation that the Supreme Court could end the constitutional right to abortion in the United States has set off a political firestorm and deepened divisions about one of the most contentious issues in American society. What exactly is in the draft opinion that was leaked this week, and what does it mean for the court and for the country? Guest: Adam Liptak , who covers the Supreme Court for...

Unlike other former presidents after leaving office, Donald J. Trump has remained in the middle of the political stage — raising more money than the Republican Party itself and doling out coveted endorsements. Who has Mr. Trump backed in the midterms? And to what lengths have candidates gone to secure his favor? Guest: Shane Goldmacher , a national political reporter for The New York Times. Want m...

The United States is seeing a revival in union membership. In the last six months, the National Labor Relations Board has recorded a 60 percent increase in workers filing for petitions that allow for union elections to take place. The circumstances that have prompted these unionization efforts have some similarities with the period that brought the largest gain in union membership in U.S. history,...

Is there a connection between former President Donald J. Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine, the Russian invasion and the events of Jan. 6, 2021? The journalist Robert Draper talked to Fiona Hill, John Bolton and other former Trump advisers to gauge the extent to which the ex-president’s actions had a ripple effect. This story was written by Robert Draper and recorded by Audm . To hear more audi...

As the horrors of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have became clearer, the Biden administration has pivoted to a more aggressive stance, with officials talking about constraining Moscow as a global power. But that is an escalation, and escalations can go wrong. Guest: David E. Sanger , a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.   Want more from The Daily? For one big id...

This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data that showed around 60 percent of Americans — more than half of adults and three quarters of children — have now been infected with the coronavirus.  But herd immunity looks likely to remain elusive, and many people are still at high risk from Covid-19. What do the C.D.C. figures mean for immunity in the United States, and...

Joseph A. Kennedy, a former high school football coach, was fired after he made a habit of going to the 50-yard line after his team’s games to thank God and to lead his players in prayer. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard his suit. The justice’s decision in the complex case could make a major statement about the role religion may play in public life. Guest: Adam Liptak , a reporter covering the S...

In January 2021, one of President Biden’s first big moves in office was to sign an executive order mandating masks in airports and on planes and other forms of public transit. But an unexpected ruling from a judge in Florida has abruptly and unexpectedly overturned that mandate — and the implications of the decision could tie the government’s hands when it comes to future health emergencies. Guest...

A Times investigation last year found that minor traffic stops in the United States were far more deadly than widely thought — in the previous five years, 400 unarmed motorists who were not under pursuit for any violent crime were killed by the police during such checks. We look at the different efforts across the country to rethink the stops and at the pushback from opponents who say that restric...

America is home to 735 billionaires with a collective worth greater than $4.7 trillion, according to Forbes. There were just 424 billionaires in 2012, Forbes found, and only 243 a decade before that. The billionaires keep multiplying. In this article, Willy Staley uses information from the first billionaire count — commissioned in 1981 by the entrepreneur Malcolm Forbes for his own magazine — to c...

When they go to the polls on Sunday, voters in France will be faced with the same two presidential candidates as 2017: Emmanuel Macron, the president and a polished centrist, and Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Rally party. Yet the context is different. There is a war in Europe, and the contest is tight. What are the stakes in the runoff election, and how has the race become so...

In Texas, a heated political battle is taking place over care provided to young transgender people, with Gov. Greg Abbott taking a leading role. The story of this confrontation began, improbably, with the contentious divorce of a suburban couple from Dallas, and a nasty custody battle over their daughter. We look at how a domestic dispute precipitated one of the fiercest political clashes in the c...

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of younger Americans who identify as transgender and are seeking medical intervention to support their transition.  This increase has coincided with laws introduced in Republican State Houses across the country that seek to block trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care. Nowhere is the political battle more polarized and heated...

Nearly two months into the war in Ukraine, many Russians have gone from shock and denial to support for their troops and anger at the West. What is behind this shifting view, and what does it mean for those who go against it? Guest: Anton Troianovski , the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our ne...

Across the United States, 45 million borrowers now owe $1.6 trillion in debt for federal loans taken out for college — more than consumers owe on any other debt except mortgages. For the past two years, beginning as the pandemic spread, the U.S. government has allowed tens of millions of Americans to stop paying back their students loans. This experiment in debt deferral has had unintended consequ...

The Indigenous Brazilian territory of Ituna-Itatá was established in 2011 for the protection of an isolated group that has never been contacted by outsiders or fully confirmed to exist. But despite its special status, it has become one of the most invaded Indigenous territories in Brazil since the election of the pro-development, anti-regulatory president, Jair Bolsonaro, in 2018 — becoming someth...

In the 1990s, Dennis Wayne Hope committed a series of armed robberies. After proving adept at escaping prison, he was put in isolation. He has been there for nearly three decades. His case, if the Supreme Court agrees to hear it, could answer the fundamental question of how long people can be held in solitary confinement. Guest: Adam Liptak , a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York...

Elon Musk’s recent investment in Twitter has turned a high-profile and frequent user of the platform into the company’s largest stakeholder. At first, the involvement of Mr. Musk, the C.E.O. of Tesla, was seen by the social media giant as a chance to gain a powerful ally. Instead, Twitter’s fate has suddenly become much harder to predict. Guest: Mike Isaac , a technology correspondent for The New...

After a disastrous defeat in northern Ukraine, Russia has begun a high-stakes battle for the east, while Western allies arm Ukrainian fighters determined to stave off the attack. After Moscow’s pivot, what lies in store in the coming weeks? Guest: Eric Schmitt , a senior writer covering terrorism and national security for The New York Times. Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news e...

On the campaign trail and when he first came to office, President Biden had ambitious plans to deal with climate change, including promises to reduce fossil fuel production.  Since the start of the war in Ukraine, however, Mr. Biden has largely stopped making the case for these plans, instead turning his focus to pumping as much oil and gas as possible.  What is behind the president’s retreat on c...

This episode contains strong language.  A year and a half ago, the Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Karen Weise began examining labor practices at Amazon. In the process, they met Christian Smalls and Derrick Palmer, two Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York, who had embarked on an improbable attempt to create the company’s first union. Last week, they did it. We sat down Mr. Smalls and Mr. P...

For more than two decades, Belarus existed in an equilibrium of quiet authoritarianism. If the government’s repressions didn’t directly touch them, most Belarusians tolerated them. But over the course of 2020, the country’s history and identity, which never much interested a majority of people who lived there, became something they would sacrifice their lives for. Sarah A. Topol explores the battl...

Thirty years ago, Germany put forth a theory for how to work with Russia. Major energy deals, leaders argued, would keep Russia from going to war with its neighbors. Over the past 20 years, Germany has made itself incredibly dependent on Russian gas.  The war in Ukraine has complicated that relationship and has shown how Germany’s approach to Russia has not only failed, but also backfired. Guest:...

As countries have struggled with disease and death throughout the coronavirus pandemic, one part of the world seems to have been mostly spared: central and western Africa. South Africa was deeply affected by waves of the coronavirus, as were countries in East Africa like Kenya and Uganda. But nations in the center and west of the continent appear to have been largely spared. What is behind these l...