The Daily

In the high-stakes competition to dominate the business of clean energy, the Democratic Republic of Congo is a major arena: The country is the source of more than two-thirds of the world’s cobalt, a key component of electric-car batteries.

In recent years, China has established a strong presence in Congo, while the United States has lost ground. We went to the African country to understand how that happened.

Guest: Dionne Searcey, a correspondent for The New York Times.

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• The United States failed to safeguard decades of diplomatic and financial investments in Congo, where the world’s largest supply of cobalt is now controlled by Chinese companies backed by Beijing.
• The power struggle over Congo’s cobalt has rattled the clean-energy revolution.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It has been three weeks since the war in Ukraine began. The fighting grinds on and there is no clear end in sight. But what are the potential paths forward in the coming days and weeks?

On Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelensky, in an address to Congress, proposed one such path, though it is an incredibly unlikely one: a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

Elsewhere, Times reporting has suggested four other potential scenarios — a diplomatic end to the conflict; protracted monthslong fighting; China coming to Russia’s rescue; and President Vladimir V. Putin expanding the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.

We explore these scenarios and consider which of them is most likely to occur.

Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• The United States accurately predicted the start of the war in Ukraine, sounding the alarm that an invasion was imminent despite Moscow’s denials and Europe’s skepticism. Predicting how it might end is proving far more difficult.
• In a speech to Congress, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine called for a no-fly zone and more weapons to combat Russia’s assault and implored President Biden to be “the leader of peace.”

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

With prices on the rise in the U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve is expected to announce on Wednesday an increase in interest rates, essentially pouring a cold glass of water on the economy.

Why would the central bank do that? The answer lies in the inflation crisis of the 1970s, when a failure to react quickly enough still looms large in the memory.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek, a reporter covering the Federal Reserve and the economy for The New York Times.

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• The Federal Reserve is facing the fastest inflation most Americans have ever seen. The response may require some aggressive — and painful — measures.
• What is inflation, why is it up, and whom does it hurt? Here’s what to know.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode details graphic scenes and contains strong language.

The image shows four people lying on the ground — a woman, a man and two children who had been fleeing from a suburb of Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. The woman and her children had been killed by a mortar moments earlier. Around them are Ukrainian soldiers attempting to revive the man.

The picture was taken by the photojournalist Lynsey Addario, alongside Andriy Dubchak, a Ukrainian videographer. When it was published by The Times, the image became a watershed, offering irrefutable evidence that Russia’s tactics in the war were killing civilians.

Guest: Lynsey Addario, a photojournalist currently working in Ukraine.

Background reading: 

• President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has repeatedly denied that his forces are targeting civilians. But only a handful of Ukrainian troops were near the bridge when mortar shells began raining down, and they were helping refugees escape Kyiv.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Russians and Ukrainians are deeply connected. Millions of Ukrainians have relatives in Russia. Many have lived in the country.

But Moscow has taken steps to shield its people from open information about the war, even as its bombing campaign intensifies.

When Ukrainians try to explain the dire situation to family members in Russia, they are often met with denial, resistance, and a kind of refusal to believe.

Guest: Valerie Hopkins, a correspondent for The New York Times, currently in Ukraine.

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• A wave of disinformation has emanated from the Russian state as the Kremlin tries to shape the messages most Russians are receiving.
• At the same time, the last vestiges of a Russian free press are being dismantled.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rozina Ali profiles Rashida Tlaib, the 45-year-old second-term congresswoman from Detroit, who has risen from adverse circumstances to play a significant role in American politics, most notably bringing greater awareness to the ongoing conflict over Palestine.

Tlaib is the only Palestinian American serving in the House of Representatives, and the first with family currently living in the West Bank, whose three million inhabitants’ lives are, as Ali explains, “intimately shaped by American support for Israel.”

The article explores the criticism leveled at Tlaib, sometimes viciously, by Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats for calling Israel an “apartheid regime,” and for her support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which aims to end military occupation by exerting economic pressure on Israel. She has been called antisemitic for her criticism of Israeli policies, and has become a favored quarry of Fox News.

But, as Ali explains, Tlaib’s arrival on the national stage coincided with an opening, albeit a small one, within the Democratic Party to challenge the United States’ Israel policy. At the same time that the left has gained a legible footing on the national stage, the Palestinian cause has become a significant part of the politics of the American left. And so Tlaib, a democratic socialist more outspoken on domestic issues than she is on the Palestinian cause, has found herself at the center of this turn.

Tlaib stands up for many causes — but what, exactly, does she represent?

This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ending the war in Ukraine very much depends on how and when President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia allows it to end.

In an interview for his podcast “The Ezra Klein Show,” the opinion columnist Ezra Klein spoke with one of the world’s leading experts on Mr. Putin, Fiona Hill, a foreign policy adviser for three United States presidents.

Today, we run the discussion between Ms. Hill and Ezra Klein about how Mr. Putin is approaching this moment, and the right and wrong ways for the West to engage him. 

Guest: Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• Here’s a guide to the roots of the Ukraine war.
• About two-thirds of Ukraine’s population of 44 million people lived in cities before Russia’s invasion began. Now, many urban areas are in the cross hairs of war. What cities is Russia targeting?

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It has been two weeks since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and Russia’s high-tech army of nearly 200,000 soldiers have not taken control of any major cities, except the southern port of Kherson. 

The state of the war is eerily stalled and the Russians’ answer has been to encircle cities and, from a distance, bomb what they can’t control. 

Today, we hear dispatches on two cities in Ukraine’s south that are surrounded and under attack. 

Guest: Michael Schwirtz, an investigative reporter for The New York Times; and Valerie Hopkins, a Moscow correspondent for The Times, currently in Ukraine.

Background reading: 

•  Two weeks after the invasion began, tens of thousands of Ukrainians are without food, water or power. The Russians are increasingly resorting to indiscriminate shelling to help their forces advance.
• The southern city of Mariupol is under a relentless barrage — there is no heat or electricity and little communication with the outside world. 

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On Tuesday morning, President Biden took to the podium at the White House to deliver a solemn and provocative speech. As punishment for waging war on Ukraine, he announced,  the United States would cut off Russian oil imports.

Mr. Biden said the move would require some sacrifice, but would be for the greater good.

How much will the ban hurt Russia, and American consumers?

Guest: Clifford Krauss, a national energy business correspondent for The New York Times.

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• Mr. Biden banned oil imports from Russia, calling it a “blow to Putin’s war machine.”
• The ban could have meaningful consequences for the U.S. economy, pushing up prices at the gas pump when inflation is already rapid. 

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, no single figure has antagonized President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as effectively or persistently as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. His defiant videos and speeches have inspired the West into action and, by his own account, made him a target for Russian assassins. 

What is it about the comedian-turned-president and his rise to power that poses such a unique threat to Mr. Putin?

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

Have you lost a loved one during the pandemic? The Daily is working on a special episode memorializing those we have lost to the coronavirus. If you would like to share their name on the episode, please RECORD A VOICE MEMO and send it to us at [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• How Volodymyr Zelensky rallied Ukrainians, and the world, against Putin.

Want more from The Daily? For one big idea on the news each week from our team, subscribe to our newsletter. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.