The United States vs. the iPhone
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.Background reading: The lawsuit caps years of regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s suite of devices and services.Read about five major U.S. cases targeting Big Tech.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Sunday Read: ‘My Goldendoodle Spent a Week at Some Luxury Dog ‘Hotels.’ I Tagged Along.’
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.
Chuck Schumer on His Campaign to Oust Israel’s Leader
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.Background reading: Mr. Schumer, America’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official, said he felt obligated to call for new leadership in Israel.His speech was the latest reflection of the growing dissatisfaction among Democrats with Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Caitlin Clark Phenomenon
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.Background reading: Her fiery competitiveness, no-look passes and 3-point bombs have made for must-see basketball in Iowa. What happens when she leaves?For women’s basketball, Caitlin Clark’s lasting impact may be economic.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Bombshell Case That Will Transform the Housing Market
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.Background reading: The National Association of Realtors agreed to a landmark deal that will eliminate a bedrock of the industry, the standard 6 percent sales commission.Read about five ways buying and selling a house could change.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Trump’s Plan to Take Away Biden’s Biggest Advantage
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.Background reading: Days after allies took over the Republican National Committee, Mr. Trump’s advisers were imposing mass layoffs on the party.The former president is facing converging financial crunches as he and the Republican Party confront a shortfall against President Biden and the Democrats.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Your Car May Be Spying on You
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.Background reading: Automakers are sharing consumers’ driving behavior with insurance companies.If your car is tracking you, abusive partners may be, too.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Sunday Read: ‘Sure, It Won an Oscar. But Is It Criterion?’
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.
A Journey Through Putin’s Russia
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.Background reading: Mr. Putin, in pre-election messaging, was less strident on nuclear war.What to know about Russia’s 2024 presidential vote.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
It Sucks to Be 33
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.Background reading: When millennials gripe that they get blamed for everything, the accusers might actually be onto something.Millennials have the children, but boomers have the houses.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Alarming Findings Inside a Mass Shooter’s Brain
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.Background reading: Profound damage was found in the Lewiston gunman’s brain, possibly from explosions.The finding has broad implications for treatment strategies in veterans and for criminal justice.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Billionaires’ Secret Plan to Solve California’s Housing Crisis
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.Background reading: Tech industry investors spent roughly $900 million buying land to build a dream city in a rural part of the Bay Area.In Solano County, Calif., a who’s who of tech money is trying to build a city from the ground up. But some of the locals whose families have been there for generations don’t want to sell the land.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Sunday Read: ‘Can Humans Endure the Psychological Torment of Mars?’
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.
The State of the Union
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.Background reading: Biden made it clear that he saw the election as an existential struggle between democracy and extremism.Read five takeaways from the address.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
A Deadly Aid Delivery and Growing Threat of Famine in Gaza
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.Background reading: Palestinian and Israeli officials offered differing accounts of a deadly scene in northern Gaza, in which local health officials said more than 100 people were killed.Delivering supplies into Gaza, especially the north, has taken on increased urgency as the United Nations has warned that many Gazans are on the edge of famine.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
An F.B.I. Informant, a Bombshell Claim, and an Impeachment Built on a Lie
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.Background reading: Ignoring warnings, Republicans trumpeted a now-discredited allegation against President Biden.Analysis: An informant’s indictment undercuts Republicans’ impeachment drive.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
The Sunday Read: ‘How Tom Sandoval Became the Most Hated Man in America’
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.
Biden, Trump and a Split Screen at the Texas Border
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.Background reading: In appearances some 300 miles apart, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump tried to leverage a volatile policy dispute of the 2024 campaign.How visiting the border has become a potent form of political theater.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
How Poisoned Applesauce Found Its Way to Kids
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.Background reading: Lead-tainted applesauce sailed through gaps in the food-safety system.What to know about lead exposure in children.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
An Arms Race Quietly Unfolds in Space
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.Background reading: The U.S. warned its allies that Russia could put a nuclear weapon into orbit this year.The Pentagon is in the early stages of a program to put constellations of smaller and cheaper satellites into orbit to counter space-based threats of the sort being developed by Russia and China.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.