The Daily

One by one, blue states across the United States have been rolling back their Covid-19 restrictions, going against C.D.C. guidelines that are still backed by the White House.

Why are governors in states like California, Illinois and New York taking those actions? And what do they say about the shifting politics of the pandemic?

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

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Background reading: 

• Democratic governors have been easing Covid rules in a loosely coordinated effort that is the result of months of public-health planning, back-channel discussions and political focus groups.
• The Biden administration said that federal masking guidance would not change for now, but officials are seeking advice from health experts on the way forward.

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

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Birds Aren’t Real, a conspiracy theory with an apparently absurd premise, has become surprisingly popular in the past few years.

But its followers were in on the joke: The movement’s aim was to poke fun at misinformation … by creating misinformation.

Has it been successful?

Guest: Taylor Lorenz, a former technology reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Among the outlandish claims of the Birds Aren’t Real movement: Our feathered friends are really U.S. government drones used to spy on Americans.

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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.

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If Russia invades Ukraine, it would be the largest and potentially deadliest military action in Europe since World War II.

So why is there so much division between the U.S. and its European allies over how seriously to take the threat?

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

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Background reading: 

• Biden administration officials told lawmakers that a large-scale Russian invasion could kill as many as 50,000 civilians and prompt a refugee crisis in Europe.
• U.S. and European leaders say that they are “absolutely united.” But are they?

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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.

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This episode contains depictions of violence

Almost two years ago, a shocking nine-minute video was released showing a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, fatally kneeling on the neck of George Floyd.

Mr. Chauvin is now serving a long sentence for murder.

A few weeks ago, a trial began in the case of the three other officers who were on the scene that day. They are charged with violating Mr. Floyd’s civil rights during the arrest that caused his death.

Guest: Kim Barker, an enterprise reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• The three former officers are accused of failing to intervene when they saw Mr. Chauvin using excessive force against Mr. Floyd.
• The case centers on a crucial issue in American policing: the duty of officers to act against colleagues when they witness misconduct.

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

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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.

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If you didn’t think poker and artificial intelligence could be bedfellows, think again. Keith Romer delves into the history of man’s pursuit of the perfect game of poker, and explains how the use of A.I. is altering how it is played: individuals using an algorithmic “solver program” to analyze potential weaknesses about themselves and their opponents, thus gaining an advantage.

While it feels futuristic, this desire to optimize poker isn’t new.

Are these new generations of A.I. tools merely a continuation of a longer pattern of technological innovation in poker, or does it mark an irreversible structural shift? One thing’s for certain: The stakes are high.

This story was written by Keith Romer. 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.

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Reporters from The Times are joining athletes from around the world as they descend on Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, where they are encountering the strictest and most wide-ranging health requirements ever attempted at an Olympic Games.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has made it his goal to keep the coronavirus out of the country as much as possible, and these requirements are an extension of his “zero Covid” strategy.

We ask what exactly is the zero-Covid strategy, and how long can it last? And we explore what life is like inside China’s Olympic superbubble.

Guest: Amy Qin, an international correspondent for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Robots, swabs and a big gamble: One Times correspondent details what life is like inside Beijing’s Olympic bubble.
• China holds the line on “zero Covid,” but some wonder for how long.

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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.

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A recent ISIS attack on a prison in northeastern Syria became the biggest confrontation between the terrorist group and the United States and its allied forces since 2019. The attack raises a question: Could the Islamic State group be on the cusp of a resurgence? 

We explore what the attack means, why the prison was so vulnerable in the first place and what has become of the thousands of fighters and families left behind after the fall of the Caliphate. 

Guest: Jane Arraf, the Baghdad 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, RECORD A VOICE MEMO and email it to us at  [email protected]. You can find more information and specific instructions here.

Background reading: 

• The Islamic State may no longer be able to control territory, but the attack on a prison in northeastern Syria has shown that it can still pull off opportunistic military operations.

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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.

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Since the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, a clearer picture has emerged of the steps that President Donald J. Trump and his allies took to try to keep him in power and overturn the 2020 election.

One of the biggest questions, however, has been how far was Mr. Trump willing to go in using the apparatus of the federal government to stay in power?

The Times has uncovered that in the weeks after Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory, Mr. Trump considered using the levers of the federal government to seize voting machines in swing states.

What exactly did Mr. Trump do, and will this revelation tip the scales of the congressional effort to hold him legally accountable?

Guest: Michael S. Schmidt, a Washington correspondent covering national security and federal investigations for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• New accounts show that Mr. Trump was more directly involved than previously known in plans developed by outside advisers to use national security agencies to seek evidence of fraud.
• The House Jan. 6 committee will look into efforts by Mr. Trump’s outside advisers to create a legal basis for national security agencies to help reverse his defeat in 2020, and it will investigate his involvement in those proposals. 

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.

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Inflation in the United States has been getting worse. In December, prices were up 7 percent from the previous year — the fastest rise in 40 years. 

Americans feel terrible about the economy, imperiling the Democratic Party’s chances of holding on to power in Washington in this year’s midterm elections.

While disruption caused by the pandemic is a key cause of higher prices — a situation that predates the Biden administration — a question remains: How much have the Democrats’ own policies contributed to the problem?

Guest: Ben Casselman, an economic and business reporter for The New York Times.

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Background reading: 

• Prices in the United States are rising rapidly, wages are growing and consumers are glum as a fraught economic moment poses big challenges for policymakers.
• President Biden is suffering in the polls as high inflation saps confidence in the economy, even as growth comes in strong.

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.

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America, it seems, might be at a turning point in how we think about and respond to the pandemic. Yet, the U.S., at this moment, is still in the midst of crisis — thousands of people are in hospital and dying every day.

In the second part of our exploration of the state of the pandemic, we speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the conditions under which we could learn to live with the virus and what the next stage of the pandemic looks like. 

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Background reading: 

• Dr. Anthony Fauci has cautioned against overconfidence but says the U.S. Omicron wave looks like it’s “going in the right direction” and that coronavirus cases could fall to manageable levels in the coming months.

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.

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