The Daily

Political and legal history are being made in a Lower Manhattan courtroom as Donald J. Trump becomes the first former U.S. president to undergo a criminal trial.

Jonah Bromwich, who covers criminal justice in New York, explains what happened during the opening days of the trial, which is tied to Mr. Trump?s role in a hush-money payment to a porn star.

Guest: Jonah E. Bromwich, who covers criminal justice in New York for The New York Times.

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The Environmental Protection Agency has begun for the first time to regulate a class of synthetic chemicals known as ?forever chemicals? in America?s drinking water.

Kim Tingley, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, explains how these chemicals, which have been linked to liver disease and other serious health problems, came to be in the water supply ? and in many more places.

Guest: Kim Tingley, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine.

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A Times investigation shows how the country?s biggest technology companies, as they raced to build powerful new artificial intelligence systems, bent and broke the rules from the start.

Cade Metz, a technology reporter for The Times, explains what he uncovered.

Guest: Cade Metz, a technology reporter for The New York Times.

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Overnight on Saturday, Iran launched its first direct attack on Israeli soil, shooting hundreds of missiles and drones at multiple targets.

Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The Times, explains what happened and considers whether a broader war is brewing in the Middle East.

Guest: Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.

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At the center of the criminal case against former President Donald Trump in Manhattan is the accusation that Trump took part in a scheme to turn The National Enquirer and its sister publications into an arm of his 2016 presidential campaign. The documents detailed three ?hush money? payments made to a series of individuals to guarantee their silence about potentially damaging stories in the months before the election. Because this was done with the goal of helping his election chances, the case implied, these payments amounted to a form of illegal, undisclosed campaign spending. And because Trump created paperwork to make the payments seem like regular legal expenses, that amounted to a criminal effort at a coverup, argued Alvin Bragg, the district attorney of Manhattan. Trump has denied the charges against him.

For Lachlan Cartwright, reading the indictment was like stepping through the looking glass, because it described a three-year period in his own professional life, one that he has come to deeply regret. Now, as a former president faces a criminal trial for the first time in American history, Cartwright is forced to grapple with what really happened at The Enquirer in those years ? and whether and how he can ever set things right.

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

A massive scam targeting older Americans who own timeshare properties has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars sent to Mexico.

Maria Abi-Habib, an investigative correspondent for The Times, tells the story of a victim who lost everything, and of the criminal group making the scam calls ? Jalisco New Generation, one of Mexico?s most violent cartels.

Guest: Maria Abi-Habib, an investigative correspondent for The New York Times based in Mexico City.

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For former President Donald J. Trump, 2024 was supposed to be dominated by criminal trials. Instead, he?s found ways to delay almost all of them.

Alan Feuer, who covers the criminal cases against Mr. Trump for The Times, explains how he did it.

Guest: Alan Feuer, who covers extremism and political violence for The New York Times.

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By the time his first term was over, Donald J. Trump had cemented his place as the most anti-abortion president in U.S. history. Now, facing political blowback, he?s trying to change that reputation.

Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The Times, discusses whether Mr. Trump?s election-year pivot can work.

Guest: Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

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When Elon Musk set up Tesla?s factory in China, he made a bet that brought him cheap parts and capable workers ? a bet that made him ultrarich and saved his company.

Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains why, now, that lifeline may have given China the tools to beat Tesla at its own game. 

Guest: Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

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Today, millions of Americans will have the opportunity to see a rare total solar eclipse.

Fred Espenak, a retired astrophysicist known as Mr. Eclipse, was so blown away by an eclipse he saw as a teenager that he dedicated his life to traveling the world and seeing as many as he could.

Mr. Espenak discusses the eclipses that have punctuated and defined the most important moments in his life, and explains why these celestial phenomena are such a wonder to experience.

Guest: Fred Espenak, a.k.a. ?Mr. Eclipse,? a former NASA astrophysicist and lifelong eclipse chaser.

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Chris Kerr was 12 when he first observed a deathbed vision. His memory of that summer in 1974 is blurred, but not the sense of mystery he felt at the bedside of his dying father. Throughout Kerr?s childhood in Toronto, his father, a surgeon, was too busy to spend much time with his son, except for an annual fishing trip they took, just the two of them, to the Canadian wilderness. Gaunt and weakened by cancer at 42, his father reached for the buttons on Kerr?s shirt, fiddled with them and said something about getting ready to catch the plane to their cabin in the woods. ?I knew intuitively, I knew wherever he was, must be a good place because we were going fishing,? Kerr told me.

Kerr now calls what he witnessed an end-of-life vision. His father wasn?t delusional, he believes. His mind was taking him to a time and place where he and his son could be together, in the wilds of northern Canada.

Kerr followed his father into medicine, and in the last 10 years he has hired a permanent research team that expanded studies on deathbed visions to include interviews with patients receiving hospice care at home and with their families, deepening researchers? understanding of the variety and profundity of these visions.

Decades of efforts to cut carbon emissions have failed to significantly slow the rate of global warming, so scientists are now turning to bolder approaches.

Christopher Flavelle, who writes about climate change for The Times, discusses efforts to engineer our way out of the climate crisis.

Guest: Christopher Flavelle, who covers how the United States tries to adapt to the effects of climate change for The New York Times.

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The Israeli airstrike that killed seven workers delivering food in Gaza has touched off global outrage and condemnation.

Kim Severson, who covers food culture for The Times, discusses the World Central Kitchen, the aid group at the center of the story; and Adam Rasgon, who reports from Israel, explains what we know about the tragedy so far.

Guest: Kim Severson, a food correspondent for The New York Times.

Adam Rasgon, an Israel correspondent for The New York Times.

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In his campaign for re-election, President Biden has said that raising taxes on the wealthy and on big corporations is at the heart of his agenda. But under his watch, overall net taxes have decreased.

Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy for The Times, explains.

Guest: Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy at the White House for The New York Times.

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Long after schools have fully reopened after the pandemic, one concerning metric suggests that children and their parents have changed the way they think about being in class.

Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter for The Times, discusses the apparent shift to a culture in which school feels optional.

Guest: Sarah Mervosh, an education reporter for The New York Times.

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Ronna McDaniel?s time at NBC was short. The former Republican National Committee chairwoman was hired as an on-air political commentator but released just days later after an on-air revolt by the network?s leading stars.

Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The Times, discusses the saga and what it might reveal about the state of television news heading into the 2024 presidential race.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The New York Times.

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Maybe you have an idea in your head about what it was like to work at Guantánamo, one of the most notorious prisons in the world. Think again.

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

It?s been nearly six months since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, when militants took more than 200 hostages into Gaza.

In a village called Nir Oz, near the border, one quarter of residents were either killed or taken hostage. Yocheved Lifshitz and her husband, Oded Lifshitz, were among those taken.

Today, Yocheved and her daughter Sharone tell their story.

Guest: 

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Over the past few years, Donald Trump?s social media platform, Truth Social, has been dismissed as a money-losing boondoggle.

This week, that all changed. Matthew Goldstein, a New York Times business reporter, explains how its parent venture, Truth Media, became a publicly traded company worth billions of dollars.

Guest: Matthew Goldstein, a New York Times business reporter.

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Against all odds and expectations, Speaker Mike Johnson keeps managing to fund the government, inflame the far right of his party ? and hold on to his job.

Catie Edmondson, a congressional correspondent for The Times, explains why it might be Democrats who come to his rescue.

Guest: Catie Edmondson, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.

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Last week, the Justice Department took aim at Apple, accusing the company of violating competition laws with practices intended to keep customers reliant on their iPhones.

David McCabe, who covers technology policy for The Times, discusses the latest and most sweeping antimonopoly case against a titan of Silicon Valley.

Guest: David McCabe, who covers technology policy for The New York Times.

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Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

More than a hundred people died and scores more were wounded on Friday night in a terrorist attack on a concert hall near Moscow ? the deadliest such attack in Russia in decades.

Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The Times, discusses the uncomfortable question the assault raises for Russia?s president, Vladimir V. Putin: Has his focus on the war in Ukraine left his country more vulnerable to other threats?

Guest: Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times.

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By the time Sam Apple pulled up with his goldendoodle, Steve, to their resting place, he was tired from the long drive and already second-guessing his plan. He felt a little better when they stepped inside the Dogwood Acres Pet Retreat. The lobby, with its elegant tiled entrance, might have passed for the lobby of any small countryside hotel, at least one that strongly favored dog-themed decor. But this illusion was broken when the receptionist reviewed their reservation ? which, in addition to their luxury suite, included cuddle time, group play, a nature walk and a ?belly rub tuck-in.?

Venues like this one, on Kent Island in Maryland?s Chesapeake Bay, didn?t exist when Apple was growing up in the 1980s. If you needed a place to board your dog back then, you went to a kennel, where your dog spent virtually the entire day in a small ? and probably not very clean ? cage. There were no tuck-ins, no bedtime stories, no dog-bone-shaped swimming pools. There was certainly nothing like today?s most upscale canine resorts, where the dogs sleep on queen-size beds and the spa offerings include mud baths and blueberry facials; one pet-hotel franchise on the West Coast will even pick up your dog in a Lamborghini. Apple knew Dogwood Acres wouldn?t be quite as luxurious as that, but the accommodations still sounded pretty nice. So he decided to check his dog in, and to tag along for the journey.

In a pointed speech from the Senate floor this month, the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, called for Israel to hold a new election and for voters to oust the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Soon after, Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent for the Times, sat down with Mr. Schumer to understand why he did it.

Guest: Annie Karni, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.

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This year, the star of college basketball is Caitlin Clark, a woman who is changing everything about the game ? from the way it?s played, to its economics, to who is watching.

Matt Flegenheimer, a profile writer for The Times, discusses Clark?s extraordinary impact.

Guest: Matt Flegenheimer, who writes in-depth profiles for The New York Times.

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For decades, an invisible hand has been guiding and controlling the American real estate industry, dictating how much buyers and sellers pay to their agents and how homes are sold. A few days ago, after a stunning legal settlement, that control ? wielded by the National Association of Realtors ? collapsed.

Debra Kamin, who reports about real estate desk for The Times, explains how the far-reaching change could drive down housing costs.

Guest: Debra Kamin, a reporter on real estate for The New York Times.

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Over the past week, Donald J. Trump has burned down and rebuilt the Republican National Committee, gutting the leadership and much of the staff.

Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The Times, explains why the former president is trying to reinvent such a crucial piece of campaign apparatus so close to an election.

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

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Warning: this episode contains a discussion about domestic abuse.

As cars become ever more sophisticated pieces of technology, they?ve begun sharing information about their drivers, sometimes with unnerving consequences.

Kashmir Hill, a features writer for The Times, explains what information cars can log and what that can mean for their owners.

Guest: Kashmir Hill, a features writer on the business desk at The New York Times.

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In October 2022, amid a flurry of media appearances promoting their film ?Tàr,? the director Todd Field and the star Cate Blanchett made time to visit a cramped closet in Manhattan. This closet, which has become a sacred space for movie buffs, was once a disused bathroom at the headquarters of the Criterion Collection, a 40-year-old company dedicated to ?gathering the greatest films from around the world? and making high-quality editions available to the public on DVD and Blu-ray and, more recently, through its streaming service, the Criterion Channel. Today Criterion uses the closet as its stockroom, housing films by some 600 directors from more than 50 countries ? a catalog so synonymous with cinematic achievement that it has come to function as a kind of film Hall of Fame. Through a combination of luck, obsession and good taste, this 55-person company has become the arbiter of what makes a great movie, more so than any Hollywood studio or awards ceremony.

Russians go to the polls today in the first presidential election since their country invaded Ukraine two years ago.

The war was expected to carry a steep cost for President Vladimir V. Putin. Valerie Hopkins, who covers Russia for The Times, explains why the opposite has happened.

Guest: Valerie Hopkins, an international correspondent for The New York Times.

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Jeanna Smialek, who covers the U.S. economy for The Times, will be 33 in a few weeks; she is part of a cohort born in 1990 and 1991 that makes up the peak of America?s population.

At every life stage, that microgeneration has stretched a system that was often too small to accommodate it, leaving its members ? so-called peak millennials ? with outsize economic power but also a fight to get ahead.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek, a U.S. economy correspondent for The New York Times.

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Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence and self harm.

Last fall, an Army reservist killed 18 people at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, before turning the gun on himself.

Dave Philipps, who covers military affairs for The Times, had already been investigating the idea that soldiers could be injured just by firing their own weapons. Analyzing the case of the gunman in Lewiston, Dave explains, could change our understanding of the effects of modern warfare on the human brain.

Guest: Dave Philipps, who covers war, the military and veterans for The New York Times.

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In 2020, motivated to try a different way to combat drug use, Oregon voted to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of hard drugs including fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine.

Things didn?t turn out as planned.

Mike Baker, a national reporter for The Times, explains what went wrong.

Guest: Mike Baker, a national reporter for The New York Times.

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For years, a mysterious company has been buying farmland on the outskirts of Silicon Valley, eventually putting together a plot twice the size of San Francisco.

At every step, those behind the company kept their plans for the land shrouded in secrecy. Conor Dougherty, an economics reporter at The Times, figured out what they were up to.

Guest: Conor Dougherty, an economics reporter for The New York Times.

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That people will travel to Mars, and soon, is a widely accepted conviction within NASA. Rachel McCauley, until recently the acting deputy director of NASA?s Mars campaign, had, as of July, a punch list of 800 problems that must be solved before the first human mission launches. Many of these concern the mechanical difficulties of transporting people to a planet that is never closer than 33.9 million miles away; keeping them alive on poisonous soil in unbreathable air, bombarded by solar radiation and galactic cosmic rays, without access to immediate communication; and returning them safely to Earth, more than a year and half later. But McCauley does not doubt that NASA will overcome these challenges. What NASA does not yet know ? what nobody can know ? is whether humanity can overcome the psychological torment of Martian life.

A mission known as CHAPEA, an experiment in which four ordinary people would enact, as closely as possible, the lives of Martian colonists for 378 days, sets out to answer that question.

President Biden used his State of the Union address last night to push for re-election and to go on the attack against Donald J. Trump, his likely adversary in November.

Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy at the White House for The Times, discusses the speech?s big moments.

Guest: Jim Tankersley, who covers economic policy at the White House for The New York Times.

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When Google released Gemini, a new chatbot powered by artificial intelligence, it quickly faced a backlash ? and unleashed a fierce debate about whether A.I. should be guided by social values, and if so, whose values they should be.

Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The Times and co-host of the podcast ?Hard Fork,? explains.

Guest: Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times and co-host of the podcast ?Hard Fork.?

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Millions of voters in states across the country cast their ballots in the presidential primary on Super Tuesday, leaving little doubt that the November election will be a rematch between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump.

But in a race that is increasingly inevitable, a New York Times/Siena College poll found a critical group of voters who are making the outcome of that race anything but certain.

Nate Cohn, The Times?s chief political analyst, explains who these voters are and why they present a particular threat to Mr. Biden.

Guest: Nate Cohn, the chief political analyst for The New York Times.

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Late last week, an effort to get food into northern Gaza turned deadly, as thousands of desperate Gazans descended on aid trucks, and Israeli troops tasked with guarding those trucks opened fire.

Exactly how people died, and who was responsible, remains contested. Hiba Yazbek, a reporter-researcher in Jerusalem for The Times, explains what we know about what happened and what it tells us about hunger in Gaza.

Guest: Hiba Yazbek, a reporter-researcher in Jerusalem for The New York Times.

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A single piece of unverified intelligence became the centerpiece of a Republican attempt to impeach President Biden.

Michael S. Schmidt, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains how that intelligence was harnessed for political ends, and what happened once it was discredited.

Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, covering Washington.

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At the end of a quiet, leafy street in the Valley in Los Angeles, the reality TV star Tom Sandoval has outfitted his home with landscaping lights that rotate in a spectrum of colors, mimicking the dance floor of a nightclub. The property is both his private residence and an occasional TV set for the Bravo reality show ?Vanderpump Rules.? After a series of events that came to be known as ?Scandoval,? paparazzi had been camped outside, but by the new year it was just one or two guys, and now they have mostly gone, too.

?Scandoval? is the nickname for Sandoval?s affair with another cast member, which he had behind the backs of the show?s producers and his girlfriend of nine years. This wouldn?t be interesting or noteworthy except that in 2023, after being on the air for 10 seasons, ?Vanderpump? was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding unstructured reality program, an honor that has never been bestowed on any of the network?s ?Housewives? shows. It also became, by a key metric, the most-watched cable series in the advertiser-beloved demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds and brought in over 12.2 million viewers. This happened last spring, when Hollywood?s TV writers went on strike and cable TV was declared dead and our culture had already become so fractured that it was rare for anything ? let alone an episode of television ? to become a national event. And yet you probably heard about ?Scandoval? even if you couldn?t care less about who these people are, exactly.

As ?Vanderpump? airs its 11th season, Tom Sandoval reflects on his new public persona.

President Biden and Donald J. Trump both made appearances at the southern border on Thursday as they addressed an issue that is shaping up to be one of the most important in the 2024 election: immigration.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The Times, discusses Mr. Biden?s risky bid to take perhaps Trump?s biggest rallying point and use it against him.

Guest: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

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A Times investigation has revealed how applesauce laced with high levels of lead sailed through a food safety system meant to protect American consumers, and poisoned hundreds of children across the U.S.

Christina Jewett, who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The Times, talks about what she found.

Guest: Christina Jewett, who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The New York Times.

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U.S. officials have acknowledged a growing fear that Russia may be trying to put a nuclear weapon into orbit.

Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains that their real worry is that America could lose the battle for military supremacy in space.

Guest: Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

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In the past few weeks, activists in Michigan have begun calling voters in the state, asking them to protest President Biden?s support for the Israeli military campaign in Gaza by not voting for him in the Democratic primary.

The activists are attempting to turn their anger over Gaza into a political force, one that could be decisive in a critical swing state where winning in November is likely to be a matter of the slimmest of margins.

Jennifer Medina, a political reporter for The Times, explains how the war in Gaza is changing politics in Michigan.

Guest: Jennifer Medina, a political reporter for The New York Times.

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 A surprise ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court has halted fertility treatments across the state and sent a shock wave through the world of reproductive health.

Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender, and science for The Times, explains what the court case means for reproductive health and a patient in Alabama explains what it is like navigating the fallout.

Guests: Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender and science for The New York Times; and Meghan S. Cole, who is in the final stages of IVF treatment in Alabama.

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The closest thing to a bat signal for stoners is the blue lettering of the Cookies logo. When a new storefront comes to a strip mall or a downtown shopping district, fans flock to grand-opening parties, drawn by a love of the brand ? one based on more than its reputation for selling extremely potent weed.

People often compare Cookies to the streetwear brand Supreme. That?s accurate in one very literal sense ? they each sell a lot of hats ? and in other, more subjective ones. They share a penchant for collaboration-based marketing; their appeal to mainstream audiences is tied up with their implied connections to illicit subcultures; and they?ve each been expanding rapidly in recent years.

All of it is inextricable from Berner, the stage name of Gilbert Milam, 40, Cookies? co-founder and chief executive, who spent two decades as a rapper with a sideline as a dealer ? or as a dealer with a sideline as a rapper. With the company?s success, he is estimated to be one of the wealthiest rappers in the world, without having ever released a hit record.

Last week, when a civil court judge in New York ruled against Donald J. Trump, he imposed a set of penalties so severe that they could temporarily sever the former president from his real-estate empire and wipe out all of his cash.

Jonah Bromwich, who covers criminal justice in New York, and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The Times, explain what that will mean for Mr. Trump as a businessman and as a candidate.

Guests: Jonah E. Bromwich, a criminal justice correspondent for The New York Times; and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.

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Last week, the Russian authorities announced that Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia?s most prominent opposition leader and an unflinching critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, had died in a remote Arctic prison at the age of 47.

Yevgenia Albats, his friend, discusses how Mr. Navalny became a political force and what it means for his country that he is gone.

Guest: Yevgenia Albats, a Russian investigative journalist and a friend of Mr. Navalny.

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Over the past few weeks, a growing sense of alarm across Europe over the future of the continent?s security has turned into outright panic.

As Russia advances on the battlefield in Ukraine, the U.S. Congress has refused to pass billions of dollars in new funding for Ukraine?s war effort and Donald Trump has warned European leaders that if they do not pay what he considers their fair share toward NATO, he would not protect them from Russian aggression.

Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The Times, discusses Europe?s plans to defend itself against Russia without the help of the United States.

Guest: Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.

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