The Daily

By The New York Times

What's The Daily about?

This is what the news should sound like. The biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. Hosted by Michael Barbaro. Twenty minutes a day, five days a week, ready by 6 a.m.

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Qaddafi's Son is Alive, and...

10.22.2021

Before the Arab Spring, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the second son of the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was establishing himself as a serious figure internationally. Then, the Arab Spring came to Libya. His father and brothers were killed and Seif ...

The Daily episodes:

10.22.2021 Qaddafi's Son is Alive, and He Wants to Take Back Libya Before the Arab Spring, Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the second son of the Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, was establishing himself as a serious figure internationally. Then, the Arab Spring came to Libya. His father and brothers were killed and Seif ...
10.21.2021 A Showdown in Chicago Chicago is in the midst of a crime wave — but there is also a question about whether police officers will show up for work. That’s because of a showdown between the mayor, Lori Lightfoot, and the police union over ...
10.20.2021 How a Single Senator Derailed Biden’s Climate Plan The Clean Electricity Program has been at the heart of President Biden’s climate agenda since he took office. But passage was always going to come down to a single senator: Joe Manchin of West Virginia. With Mr. Manchin’s support now ...
10.19.2021 The Life and Career of Colin Powell Colin Powell, who in four decades of public service helped shape U.S. national security, died on Monday. He was 84. Despite a stellar career, Mr. Powell had expressed a fear that he would be remembered for a single event: his ...
10.18.2021 Why Are All Eyes on the Virginia Governor’s Race? In 2020, Virginia epitomized the way in which Democrats took the White House and Congress — by turning moderate and swing counties. But President Biden’s poll numbers have been waning, and in the coming race for governor, Republicans see an ...
10.17.2021 The Sunday Read: ‘Laurie Anderson Has a Message for Us Humans’ When the Hirshhorn Museum told Laurie Anderson that it wanted to put on a big, lavish retrospective of her work, she said no. For one thing, she was busy and has been for roughly 50 years. Over the course of ...
10.15.2021 The Great Supply Chain Disruption Throughout the pandemic, businesses of all sizes have faced delays, product shortages and rising costs linked to disruptions in the global supply chain. Consumers have been confronted with an experience rare in modern times: no stock available, and no idea ...
10.14.2021 ‘No Crime Is Worth That’ This episode contains strong language and descriptions of violence. A Times investigation has uncovered extraordinary levels of violence and lawlessness inside Rikers, New York City’s main jail complex. In this episode, we hear about one man’s recent experience there and ...
10.13.2021 ‘The Decision of My Life’ This episode contains descriptions of violence and a suicide attempt. When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August, our producer started making calls. With the help of colleagues, she contacted women in different cities and towns to find out how ...
10.12.2021 Is Child Care a Public Responsibility? Many Americans pay more for child care than they do for their mortgages, even though the wages for those who provide the care are among the lowest in the United States. Democrats see the issue as a fundamental market failure ...
10.11.2021 Which Towns Are Worth Saving? An enormous infusion of money and effort will be needed to prepare the United States for the changes wrought by the climate crisis. We visited towns in North Carolina that have been regularly hit by floods to confront a heartbreaking ...
10.10.2021 The Sunday Read: ‘He Was the “Perfect Villain” for Voting Conspiracists’ Over the past decade, Eric Coomer has helped make Dominion Voting Systems one of the largest providers of voting machines and software in the United States. He was accustomed to working long days during the postelection certification process, but November ...
10.08.2021 A Troubling C.I.A. Admission The C.I.A. sent a short but explosive message last week to all of its stations and bases around the world. The cable, which said dozens of sources had been arrested, killed or turned against the United States, highlights the struggle ...
10.07.2021 The State of the Pandemic The coronavirus seems to be in retreat in the United States, with the number of cases across the country down about 25 percent compared with a couple of weeks ago. Hospitalizations and deaths are also falling. So, what stage are ...
10.06.2021 The Facebook Whistle-Blower Testifies The Senate testimony of Frances Haugen on Tuesday was an eagerly awaited event. Last month, Ms. Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, leaked internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal that exposed the social media giant’s inner workings. How ...
10.05.2021 The Most Important Supreme Court Term in Decades The latest term of the U.S. Supreme Court will include blockbuster cases on two of the most contentious topics in American life: abortion and gun rights. The cases come at a time when the court has a majority of Republican ...
10.04.2021 What’s Behind the Ivermectin Frenzy? Ivermectin is a drug that emerged in the 1970s, used mainly for deworming horses and other livestock. But during the pandemic, it has been falsely lauded in some corners as a kind of miracle cure for the coronavirus. What is ...
10.03.2021 The Sunday Read: ‘I Had a Chance to Travel Anywhere. Why Did I Pick Spokane?’ Jon Mooallem, the author of today’s Sunday Read, had a bad pandemic. “I began having my own personal hard time,” he writes. “The details aren’t important. Let’s just say, I felt as if I were moldering in place.” Then, The ...
10.01.2021 ‘They Don’t Understand That We’re Real People’ This episode contains strong language. A month ago, Texas adopted a divisive law which effectively banned abortions in the state. Despite a number of legal challenges, the law has survived and is having an impact across state lines. Trust Women ...
09.30.2021 The Democrats Who Might Block Biden’s Infrastructure Plan The first year of a Congress is usually the best time for a president to put forward any sort of ambitious policy. For President Biden, whose control of Congress is fragile, the urgency is particularly intense. But now members of ...
09.29.2021 Controlling Britney Spears Britney Spears is one of the biggest celebrities on the planet — she makes millions of dollars performing, selling perfumes and appearing on television. At the same time, however, her life is heavily controlled by a conservatorship, which she has ...
09.28.2021 A Conversation With an Afghan General This episode contains strong language. Brig. Gen. Khoshal Sadat, a former Afghan deputy minister for security, has held some of the highest ranks in the Afghan security forces and government. From the moment Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, the United ...
09.27.2021 Another Crisis at the Border Increasing numbers of Haitian migrants have been traveling to the border town of Del Rio, Texas, recently, in the hope of entering the United States. Border Patrol took action — in some cases, sending the migrants back to Haiti; in ...
09.26.2021 The Sunday Read: ‘Why Was Vicha Ratanapakdee Killed?’ Throughout 2020, multiple strangers came at Monthanus Ratanapakdee seemingly out of nowhere. An old man yelled at her in Golden Gate Park — something about a virus and going back to her country. When she discussed these incidents, her father ...
09.24.2021 Germany, and Europe, After Merkel After 16 years in power, Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, is walking out of office one of the most popular politicians in the country. In those years, Ms. Merkel has not only served as the leader of Germany, but ...
09.23.2021 Redrawing the Map in New York New York, like many other states, is enmeshed in the process of redrawing legislative districts. The outcome of the reconfiguring could be crucial in determining which party takes control of the House of Representatives next year. Clearly aware of the ...
09.22.2021 Submarines and Shifting Allegiances The recent U.S.-British deal to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines might look relatively inconsequential. But it signifies a close alliance between the three countries to face off against China. It is also notable for another reason: It has greatly angered ...
09.21.2021 A ‘Righteous Strike’ When he visited the site of an American drone strike in Kabul, Matthieu Aikins, a Times journalist, knew something wasn’t adding up. He uncovered a story that was quite different from the one offered up by the United States military. ...
09.20.2021 One Family’s Fight Against the Dixie Fire Annie Correal, a reporter for The Times, has family in Indian Valley, in Northern California, roots which extend back to the 1950s. This summer, as wildfires closed in on the area, she reported from her family’s property as they sought ...
09.19.2021 The Sunday Read: ‘The Composer at the Frontier of Movie Music’ You have almost certainly heard Nicholas Britell’s music, even if you don’t know his name. More than any other contemporary composer, he appears to have the whole of music history at his command, shifting easily between vocabularies, often in the ...
09.17.2021 A Broadway Show Comes Back to Life This episode contains strong language. “Six,” a revisionist feminist British pop musical about the wives of King Henry VIII, was shaping up to be a substantial hit on Broadway after finding success in London. On its opening night, however, in ...
09.16.2021 The United States v. Elizabeth Holmes When Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos, the blood testing start-up, she was held up as one of the next great tech innovators. But her company collapsed, and she was accused of lying about how well Theranos’s technology worked. Now she is ...
09.15.2021 Mexico’s Path to Legalizing Abortion In a major turn of events in Mexico, which has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world, its Supreme Court last week decriminalized abortions. The Supreme Court ruling is a milestone for Mexico’s feminist movement. But change might ...
09.14.2021 A Hidden Shame in Nursing Homes For decades, the law has sought to restrain nursing homes from trying to control the behavior of dementia patients with antipsychotic drugs, which are known to have adverse health effects. An alarming rise in schizophrenia diagnoses suggests some homes have ...
09.13.2021 Biden’s Bet on Vaccine Mandates As recently as a month ago, President Biden appeared to be skeptical about imposing coronavirus vaccine mandates. Now that skepticism has given way to a suite of policies that aim to force the hands of the unvaccinated. What has changed?
09.11.2021 Special Episode: What Does It Mean to 'Never Forget'? Two planes hijacked by Al Qaeda pierced the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. A third slammed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. A fourth crashed in an open field outside Shanksville, Pa. All in less than ...
09.10.2021 ‘We’re Going to Take Over the World’ On the internet, there are bizarre subcultures filled with conspiracy theorists — those who believe the coronavirus is a hoax or that the 2020 election was stolen, or even that Hillary Clinton is a shape-shifting lizard. It’s a way of ...
09.09.2021 ‘I’m Part of Something That’s Really Evil’ This episode contains strong language. Terry Albury joined the F.B.I. just before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, drawn in by the bureau’s work fighting child exploitation. His role quickly changed after 9/11 however, and he subsequently spent over a ...
09.08.2021 The Summer of Delta This summer was supposed to be, in the words of President Biden, the “summer of freedom” from the coronavirus. What we saw instead was the summer of the Delta variant. The surge driven by Delta — which has seen rises ...
09.07.2021 How Will the Taliban Rule This Time? Since the Taliban took over Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, last month, many have wondered what kind of rulers they will be. The memory of the Taliban of the 1990s — the public executions, the whippings in the streets and the harsh ...
09.03.2021 How Texas Banned Almost All Abortions In a way, the new Texas law that has effectively banned abortions after six weeks is typical — many other Republican-led states have sought to ban abortions after six, 10 or 15 weeks. But where federal courts have routinely struck ...
09.02.2021 New Orleans in the Aftermath of Hurricane Ida After Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans, leaving destruction in its wake, comparisons with Hurricane Katrina were made. There are, however, big differences between the two disasters — namely that the city, in the 16 years since Katrina, has heavily invested ...
09.01.2021 The Education Lost to the Pandemic The closure of schools because of the pandemic and the advent of widespread virtual learning has impacted students of all ages — but particularly the youngest children. Research suggests that the learning missed during this period could have lasting impacts. ...
08.31.2021 America’s Final Hours in Afghanistan On Monday night, after a 20-year war that claimed 170,000 lives, cost over $2 trillion and did not defeat the Taliban, the United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan. As the last of the American forces left under the cover ...
08.30.2021 The Tale of California’s Recall Election Almost from the moment Gavin Newsom was elected governor of California, there were attempts to remove him from office. Initially, a recall election against him seemed highly unlikely — but the pandemic has changed things. What is behind the recall ...
08.29.2021 The Sunday Read: ‘How Long Can We Live?’ Jeanne Calment lived her entire life in the South of France. She filled her days with leisurely pursuits, enjoying a glass of port, a cigarette and some chocolate nearly every day. In 1997, Ms. Calment died. She was 122. With ...
08.27.2021 The Bombings at the Kabul Airport For days, many dreaded an attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, as Western forces scrambled to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. On Thursday, those fears were realized — amid the large crowds outside the airport, ...
08.26.2021 Biden’s Border Dilemma Early on in the Biden administration, it rolled out a two-pronged migration plan: A reversal of the most punitive elements of Donald Trump’s policy and rooting out the causes of migration from Central America, namely corruption. There is, however, a ...
08.25.2021 The Race to Evacuate Kabul Since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban last week, everything and everyone has been focused on Hamid Karzai International Airport and the massive military operation to get thousands of Americans and Afghan allies out of the country. It is ...
08.24.2021 Why Mexico Is Suing U.S. Gunmakers For years, Mexico has been gripped by horrific violence as drug cartels battle each other and kill civilians. In the last 15 years alone, homicides have tripled. The violence, the Mexican government says, is fueled, in part, by American guns. ...

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The Daily

What's The Daily about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Daily episodes:

Qaddafi's Son is Alive, and He Wants to Take Back Libya

A Showdown in Chicago

How a Single Senator Derailed Biden’s Climate Plan

The Life and Career of Colin Powell

Why Are All Eyes on the Virginia Governor’s Race?

The Sunday Read: ‘Laurie Anderson Has a Message for Us Humans’

The Great Supply Chain Disruption

‘No Crime Is Worth That’

‘The Decision of My Life’

Is Child Care a Public Responsibility?

Which Towns Are Worth Saving?

The Sunday Read: ‘He Was the “Perfect Villain” for Voting Conspiracists’

A Troubling C.I.A. Admission

The State of the Pandemic

The Facebook Whistle-Blower Testifies

The Most Important Supreme Court Term in Decades

What’s Behind the Ivermectin Frenzy?

The Sunday Read: ‘I Had a Chance to Travel Anywhere. Why Did I Pick Spokane?’

‘They Don’t Understand That We’re Real People’

The Democrats Who Might Block Biden’s Infrastructure Plan

Controlling Britney Spears

A Conversation With an Afghan General

Another Crisis at the Border

The Sunday Read: ‘Why Was Vicha Ratanapakdee Killed?’

Germany, and Europe, After Merkel

Redrawing the Map in New York

Submarines and Shifting Allegiances

A ‘Righteous Strike’

One Family’s Fight Against the Dixie Fire

The Sunday Read: ‘The Composer at the Frontier of Movie Music’

A Broadway Show Comes Back to Life

The United States v. Elizabeth Holmes

Mexico’s Path to Legalizing Abortion

A Hidden Shame in Nursing Homes

Biden’s Bet on Vaccine Mandates

Special Episode: What Does It Mean to 'Never Forget'?

‘We’re Going to Take Over the World’

‘I’m Part of Something That’s Really Evil’

The Summer of Delta

How Will the Taliban Rule This Time?

How Texas Banned Almost All Abortions

New Orleans in the Aftermath of Hurricane Ida

The Education Lost to the Pandemic

America’s Final Hours in Afghanistan

The Tale of California’s Recall Election

The Sunday Read: ‘How Long Can We Live?’

The Bombings at the Kabul Airport

Biden’s Border Dilemma

The Race to Evacuate Kabul

Why Mexico Is Suing U.S. Gunmakers

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