The Daily

In Britain, news that the country had become the first to start administering a fully tested coronavirus vaccine was met with hope, excitement — and some trepidation. Amid the optimism that normal life might soon resume, there is also concern. Has the vaccine been developed too fast? Is it safe? On today’s episode, we examine how Britons feel about the prospect of receiving a shot and attend a vac...

Caitlin Dickerson, an immigration reporter for The Times, says there is one word that sums up the Trump administration’s approach to border crossing: deterrence. For nearly four years, the U.S. government has tried to discourage migrants, with reinforced walls, family separation policies and threats of deportation. Those policies have led to the appearance of a makeshift asylum-seeker camp of fray...

The state of the 2020 U.S. election is, still, not a settled matter in Georgia. For weeks, conservatives have been filing lawsuits in state and federal courts in an effort to decertify results that gave a victory to Joe Biden. On Twitter, President Trump has been making unsubstantiated claims that the state has been “scammed.” With Georgia in political turmoil, threats of violence have been made a...

Foresters once regarded trees as solitary individuals: They competed for space and resources, but were otherwise indifferent to one another. The work of the Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard upended that, finding that while there is indeed conflict in a forest, there is also negotiation, reciprocity and even selflessness. Ms. Simard discovered that underground fungal threads link nearly every tree...

The power to pardon criminals or commute their sentences is one of the most sacred and absolute a president has, and President Trump has already used it to rescue political allies and answer the pleas of celebrities. With his term coming to an end, the president has discussed granting three of his children, his son-in-law and personal lawyer pre-emptive pardons — a rarity in American history. We l...

This episode contains descriptions of sexual assault. When the Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy this year, it created a final window for claims of sexual abuse against the organization’s leaders. Within nine months, nearly 100,000 victims filed suits — that far eclipses the number of sexual-abuse allegations that the Roman Catholic Church faced in the early 2000s. Today, we hear from one...

What kind of foreign policy is possible for the United States after four years of isolationism under President Trump? Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, has an interventionist streak, but some vestiges of Trump-era foreign policy will be hard to upend. If confirmed, Mr. Blinken faces the challenge of making the case at home that taking a fuller role abroad is...

Janet Yellen, who is poised to become secretary of the Treasury, will immediately have her work cut out for her. The U.S. economy is in a precarious state and Congress is consumed by partisan politics. Ms. Yellen, however, is no stranger to crisis. She has already held the government’s other top economic jobs — including chairwoman of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018, helping the country thro...

For Americans, months of collective isolation and fear could soon be winding down. A coronavirus vaccine may be just weeks away. According to Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, the federal effort to accelerate vaccine development, the first Americans could receive the vaccine in mid-December. With the vaccine within reach, we turn to more logistical questions: Who will receive the sh...

On a day early this fall, Nikita Stewart, who covers social services for The New York Times, and the Daily producers Annie Brown and Stella Tan spent a day at Council of Peoples Organization, a food pantry in Brooklyn, speaking to its workers and clients. As with many other pantries in the city, it has seen its demand rocket during the pandemic as many New Yorkers face food shortages. And with the...

Pressure and litigation appear to have been the pillars of President Trump’s response to his general election loss. His team filed a litany of court cases in battleground states. In some, such as Georgia and Michigan, the president and his allies took an even more bullish approach, attempting to use their influence to bear down on election officials. As preparations for the transfer of power final...

This week New York City’s public schools will close their doors and students will once again undertake online instruction. The shutdown was triggered when 3 percent of coronavirus tests in the city came back positive over seven days. There are questions, however, around this number being used as a trigger — some health officials maintain that schools are safe. When is the right time for schools to...

For years, Wil S. Hylton had been drawn to his cousin’s strength and violence. He was pulled in by the archetype that he embodied and was envious of the power he seemed to command. Wil describes his relative’s violence as “ambient” and “endemic,” but he was sure it wouldn’t turn on him. Until a few years ago, when his cousin tried to kill him. “My attraction to my cousin and my detachment as a hus...

When the pandemic struck, Patty Schachtner, in her capacity as both a member of the Wisconsin State Senate and chief medical officer for St. Croix County, tried to remain one step ahead. It was an approach criticized by many in her conservative community. She was preparing for the worst-case scenario. And now it has arrived — cases and deaths are on the rise in Wisconsin. We chart her journey thro...

There are several figures that tell the story of the American economy right now. Some are surprisingly positive — the housing market is booming — while others paint a more dire picture. Using seven key numbers, we look at the sectors that have been affected most profoundly and consider what the path to recovery might look like. Guest: Ben Casselman , who covers economics and business for The New Y...

President Trump is pushing the military to accelerate the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, all but guaranteeing a major place for the Taliban in the country’s future. As a child, Mujib Mashal lived through the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. Now a senior correspondent there for The New York Times, he has for years reported on the extremist group and, more re...

As it became clear that Europe was heading into another deadly wave of the coronavirus, most of the continent returned to lockdown. European leaders pushed largely similar messages, asking citizens to take measures to protect one another again, and governments offered broad financial support. Weeks later, the effort seems to be working and infection rates are slowing. In several parts of the Unite...

For four years, Democrats had been united behind the mission of defeating President Trump. But after the election of Joe Biden, the party’s disappointing showing in congressional races — losing seats in the House and facing a struggle for even narrow control of the Senate — has exposed the rifts between progressives and moderates. In interviews with The New York Times, House members on each side o...

For the folk duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, pandemic isolation brought about a creative boon. In a year that has been defined by uncertainty, they have returned to what they know: songs about the slow, challenging, beautiful heat of living. This story was written by Hanif Abdurraqib and recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publishers like The New York Times, download Audm for i...

Maggie Haberman on why the traditional transfer of power is not happening this year, and the implications of that delay. Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: Days after President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. was declared the winner of the election, President Trump has still re...

It’s a dark time in the struggle with the coronavirus, particularly in the United States, where infections and hospitalizations have surged. But amid the gloom comes some light: A trial by the drug maker Pfizer has returned preliminary results suggesting that its vaccine is 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19. With the virus raging, how strong is this new ray of hope? Guest: Carl Zimmer, a...

After the tumult of last week’s voting, one crucial question remains: Who will control the Senate? The answer lies in Georgia, where two runoff elections in January will decide who has the advantage in the upper chamber. With so much at stake, we look at how those races might shake out. Guest: Julie Hirschfeld Davis, congressional editor for The New York Times. For more information on today’s epis...

Nate Cohn, an expert on polling for The New York Times, knows that the predictions for the 2016 presidential election were bad. But this year, he says, they were even worse. So, what happened? Nate talks us through a few of his theories and considers whether, after two flawed performances, polling should be ditched. Guest: Nate Cohn, a domestic correspondent for The Upshot at The New York Times, s...

This episode contains strong language. The sound of victory was loud. It was banging pots, honking horns and popping corks as supporters of President-elect Joe Biden celebrated his win. But loss, too, has a sound. In the days after the U.S. election result was announced, some of the 71 million-plus Americans who backed President Trump are grieving. Can the country overcome its differences? In disc...

On the afternoon of Sept. 15, 1942, the U.S.S. Wasp, an aircraft carrier housing 71 planes, 2,247 sailors and a journalist, was hit by torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine, sending it more than two and a half miles to the bottom of the Pacific. It has remained there ever since. Last year, a team on the Petrel — perhaps the most successful private vessel on Earth for finding deepwater wrecks — s...