The Daily

This episode contains strong language. In Bucks County, Pa., what started out as a group of frustrated parents pushing for schools to reopen devolved over the course of a year and half into partisan disputes about America’s most divisive cultural issues. But those arguments have caused many to overlook a central role of the Central Bucks School District’s board: providing quality education. In Par...

This episode contains strong language. A new battleground has emerged in American politics: school boards. In these meetings, parents increasingly engage in heated — sometimes violent — fights over hot-button issues such as mask mandates and critical race theory. Suddenly, the question of who sits on a school board has become a question about which version of America will prevail. We visit the sch...

This episode contains strong language. In March 2019, workers inside an Air Force combat operations center in Qatar watched as an American F-15 attack jet dropped a large bomb into a group of women and children in Syria. Assessing the damage, the workers found that there had been around 70 casualties, and a lawyer decided that it was a potential war crime. We look at how the system that was design...

In 1980, when few Americans knew the meaning of toro and omakase , the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, spoke to dozens of his followers in the Grand Ballroom of the New Yorker Hotel. It was said Moon could see the future, visit you in dreams and speak with the spirit world, where Jesus and Buddha, Moses and Washington, caliphs and emperors and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther...

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, described the current status of the pandemic in the United States as a “mixed bag” that is leaning more toward the positive than the negative. But, he said, there is still more work to do. In our conversation, he weighs in on vaccine mandates, booster shots and the end of the pandemic. Guest: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading...

This episode contains strong language. When the coronavirus hit the United States, the nation’s public health officials were in the front line, monitoring cases and calibrating rules to combat the spread. From the start, however, there has been resistance. A Times investigation found that 100 new laws have since been passed that wrest power from public health officials. What is the effect of those...

Over the past year, a record 2,000 migrants from Africa have drowned trying to reach Spain. Many of these migrants make the journey in rickety vessels, not much bigger than canoes, that often don’t stand up to strong currents. What happens, then, when their bodies wash ashore? This is the story of Martín Zamora, a 61-year-old father of seven, who has committed himself to returning the bodies of dr...

In a bipartisan win for President Biden, Democrats and Republicans have passed a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. Now comes the difficult part — trying to win approval for a $2 trillion social spending bill. For more moderate Democrats in swing districts, the vote will be among the toughest of the Biden era — and one that some fear could cost them their seats in next year’s midterms. To gauge...

The U.S. Supreme Court is gearing up to rule on an area of the law that it has been silent on for over a decade: the Second Amendment. The case under consideration will help decide whether the right to bear arms extends beyond the home and into the streets. The implications of the decision could be enormous. A quarter of the U.S. population lives in states whose laws might be affected. Guest: Adam...

Like many other Americans, Jamie Lauren Keiles, the author of this week’s Sunday Read, bought their first motorcycle during the coronavirus pandemic. “I thought I was just purchasing a mode of transportation — a way to get around without riding the train,” they wrote. “But after some time on the street with other riders, I started to suspect I’d signed up for a lot more.” Jamie was aware of biker...

This episode contains strong language and scenes of violence. Last summer, as the country reeled from the murder of George Floyd, another Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by police in Kenosha, Wis. People took to the streets in Kenosha in protest and were soon met by civilians in militia gear — a confrontation that turned violent. On the third night of protests, a white teenager shot and killed tw...

On a major night of elections across the United States on Tuesday, the Republican Glenn Youngkin claimed an unexpected victory over his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, to win the governor’s race in Virginia. As the night went on, it became clear that the contest in Virginia was not a singular event — Republicans were doing well in several unlikely places. What do the results tell us about th...

In a giant conference hall in Glasgow, leaders from around the world have gathered for the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention, or COP26. This is the 26th such session. Many say this may be the last chance to avoid climate disaster. Will anything change this time? Guest: Somini Sengupta , the international climate reporter for The New York Times.  Sign up here to...

Inflation in the United States is rising at its fastest rate so far this century. At 4 percent, according to one index, it is double the Federal Reserve’s target. We look at why prices are on the rise and at the tense political moment they have created. Guest: Jim Tankersley , a White House correspondent for The New York Times.  Sign up here to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an...

This episode contains strong language and scenes of violence.  Over the past five years, police officers in the United States have killed more than 400 unarmed drivers or passengers — a rate of more than one a week, a Times investigation has found. Why are such cases so common, and why is the problem so hard to fix? Guest: David D. Kirkpatrick , a national correspondent for The New York Times.  Lo...

Over the past decade, the waters around Cape Cod have become host to one of the densest seasonal concentrations of adult white sharks in the world. Acoustic tagging data suggest the animals trickle into the region during lengthening days in May, increase in abundance throughout summer, peak in October and mostly depart by Thanksgiving. To conservationists, the annual returns are a success story, b...

President Biden and Democratic leaders say they have an agreement on a historic social spending bill that they have spent months negotiating. But liberals in Congress demanded assurances that the package would survive before they would agree to an immediate vote on a separate $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Today, we explore why compromise remains a work in progress. Guest: Emily Cochrane , a cor...

In the coming days, a trial will begin to determine whether the fatal shooting of Amaud Arbery, an unarmed Black man, by two armed white men is considered murder under Georgia state law. Today, we explore why that may be a difficult case for prosecutors to make. Guest: Richard Fausset , a correspondent based in Atlanta who writes about the American South. Love listening to New York Times podcasts?...

As congressional Democrats dramatically scale back the most ambitious social spending bill since the 1960s, they’re placing much of the blame on moderates who have demanded changes. One senator, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, has played an outsized role in shaping the bill — but has remained quiet about why. Today, we explore what brought her to this moment. Guest: Reid J. Epstein , who covers campaig...

When Democrats first set out to expand the social safety net, they envisioned a piece of legislation as transformational as what the party has achieved in the 1960s. In the process, they hoped that they’d win back the working-class voters the party had since lost. But now that they’re on the brink of reaching a deal, the question is whether the enormous cuts and compromises they’ve made will make...

Every once in a while a company grows so big and messy that governments fear what would happen to the broader economy if it were to fail. In China, Evergrande, a sprawling real estate developer, is that company. Evergrande has the distinction of being the world’s most debt-saddled property developer and has been on life support for months. A steady drumbeat of bad news in recent weeks has accelera...

On June 24, 2015, Dawn Dorland, an essayist and aspiring novelist, did perhaps the kindest, most consequential thing she might ever do in her life. She donated one of her kidneys — and elected to do it in a slightly unusual and particularly altruistic way. As a so-called nondirected donation, her kidney was not meant for anyone in particular, but for a recipient who may otherwise have no other liv...

Before the Arab Spring, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the second son of the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was establishing himself as a serious figure internationally. Then, the Arab Spring came to Libya. His father and brothers were killed and Seif himself was captured by rebels and taken to the western mountains of Libya. For years, rumors have surrounded the fate of Seif. Now he has re-e...

Chicago is in the midst of a crime wave — but there is also a question about whether police officers will show up for work. That’s because of a showdown between the mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the police union over a coronavirus vaccine mandate. Some 30,000 city workers are subject to the mandate, but no group has expressed more discontent than the police. Guest: Julie Bosman , the Chicago bureau c...

The Clean Electricity Program has been at the heart of President Biden’s climate agenda since he took office. But passage was always going to come down to a single senator: Joe Manchin of West Virginia. With Mr. Manchin’s support now extremely unlikely, where does that leave American climate policy? Guest: Coral Davenport , a correspondent covering energy and environmental policy for The New York...