As California watches the impact of rising temperatures devastate its environment with brutal heat waves and raging fires, the state is taking increasingly far-reaching steps to combat climate change.

One of those measures — banning the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 — could prove a turning point for the transition to electric vehicles.

Guest: Neal E. Boudette, an automotive correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Not only is California the largest auto market in the United States, but more than a dozen other states also typically follow California’s lead when setting their own auto emissions standards.
• Automakers such as General Motors have equally ambitious aspirations for electric cars, but moving away from internal-combustion vehicles will not be easy.

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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A counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces to try to drive Russian troops out of southern Ukraine has placed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, directly in the path of the fighting.

As the world scrambles to prevent a catastrophe, the plant’s workers find themselves in a dangerously precarious position.

Guest: Marc Santora, an international news editor for The New York Times, currently based in Kyiv. 

Background reading: 

• Renewed shelling has put the Zaporizhzhia plant at risk despite the presence of U.N. monitors, underscoring what the International Atomic Energy Agency has called the “unprecedented” peril of the moment.
• The U.N. inspectors have called for a security protection zone around the plant. The risks are grave for all involved.

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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In November, Americans will head to the polls for the first nationwide election since the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. But what happens this fall won’t just be about who wins and who loses. On the first episode of "The Run-Up,” host Astead Herndon lays out the stakes of the midterm elections and explores the big questions the podcast is looking to answer. 

“The Run-Up” is a new politics podcast from The New York Times. You can follow it wherever you get your podcasts, including on Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher and Amazon Music.

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Today marks the unofficial start of the campaign for the midterm elections. This year’s midterms will be the first major referendum on the Biden era of government — and a test of how much voters want to reinstall the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

On today’s episode, Astead W. Herndon, a political reporter and the host of our new podcast, “The Run-Up,” offers a guide to the campaign. He’ll explore the forces at play in this election and how we arrived at such a fraught moment in American politics.

Background reading: 

• Listen to the premiere of "The Run-Up," a podcast dedicated to the 2022 midterms.
• Democratic leaders, once beaten down by the prospect of a brutal midterm election in the fall, sense a shift in the political winds. But it may not be enough.
• Heading into 2022, Republicans were confident of a red wave. But now some are signaling concern that the referendum they anticipated on President Biden is being complicated by former President Donald Trump.

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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 An influx of Fentanyl, a highly lethal synthetic narcotic, has aggravated the opioid crisis in the United States and prompted communities to scramble for ways to lower the skyrocketing rates of overdose deaths.

In Vancouver, a Canadian city that has been at the forefront of innovative approaches to drug use, a novel and surprising tactic is being tried: It’s called “safer supply.”

Guest: Stephanie Nolen, a global health reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The mounting toll of overdose deaths has spurred a search for new solutions, and Vancouver has tried more of them, faster, than anywhere else.
• Why is fentanyl so deadly? How can you ensure that your loved ones, including your children, stay safe? Experts offer tips to talk about opioids with your family.

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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Few leaders have had as profound an effect on their time as Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who died this week at 91.

It was not Mr. Gorbachev’s intention to liquidate the Soviet empire when he came to power in 1985. But after little more than six tumultuous years, he had lifted the Iron Curtain and presided over the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, ending the Cold War.

Guest: Serge Schmemann, a member of The New York Times’s editorial board.

Background reading: 

• Adopting principles of glasnost and perestroika, Mr. Gorbachev weighed the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and set a new course, decisively altering the political climate of the world.
• With the war in Ukraine, Russia’s current leader, Vladimir V. Putin, is trying to unravel Mr. Gorbachev’s legacy.

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 detailed descriptions of a mass shooting that some listeners may find disturbing.

A trial is underway in Parkland, Fla., to determine the fate of the gunman who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

The trial is expected to last for months, forcing people in Parkland to relive the pain of a day they have spent years trying to put behind them.

We look back at conversations with some of the survivors of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Guest: Jack Healy, a national correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The rare trial of a gunman in a mass shooting has underscored how massacres shatter families and communities over time.
• As weeks of painful testimony and videos unfold to determine whether the Parkland gunman will face the death penalty, students who spoke out about gun violence have encouraged engagement and changed the national debate.

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 discussions about suicide, self-harm and mental health issues.

In decades past, the public health risks teenagers in the United States faced were different. They were externalized risks that were happening in the physical world.

Now, a new set of risks has emerged.

In 2019, 13 percent of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60 percent increase from 2007. And suicide rates, which had been stable from 2000 to 2007 among this group, leaped nearly 60 percent by 2018.

We explore why this mental health crisis has become so widespread, and why many people have been unprepared to handle it.

Guest: Matt Richtel, a correspondent based in San Francisco for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Depression, self-harm and suicide are rising among American adolescents. The coronavirus pandemic intensified the decline in mental health among teenagers but predated it.
• Increasingly, anxious and depressed teens are using multiple, powerful psychiatric drugs, many of them untested in adolescents or for use in tandem.

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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Since he left office, former President Donald J. Trump has been facing several investigations.

They include the congressional inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol and the F.B.I.’s search of Mar-a-Lago, his club and Florida residence, as part of an investigation into his handling of classified material.

Of all the government investigations, the one that is receiving the least attention — a case being made by a local prosecutor in Georgia — may end up being the most consequential.

Guest: Richard Fausset, a correspondent based in Atlanta for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Over a year into a criminal investigation of election interference by Mr. Trump and his allies, a Georgia prosecutor is beginning to show the broad contours of her inquiry.
• Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta area district attorney, is seeking to build a broad conspiracy case that encompasses multifaceted efforts by Trump allies to disrupt and overturn the 2020 election.

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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Going to college can be a shock to most: Leaving the comfort of friends and family for a leap into the unknown, a fresh start. But what is the university experience like as a refugee?

The journalist Maddy Crowell met some of the 148 Afghan women who have been enrolled in U.S. colleges to complete their degrees, and relates how they have adapted to American and collegiate life a year on from the fall of Kabul.

It has, she finds, been far from easy. Ms. Crowell wrote that one student said “she spent her days pinballing among exhaustion, despair and a sort of cautious optimism.”

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

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