By the time it’s over, this year’s race for president will have cost at least $3.5 billion. The single biggest expense will be campaign ads.

Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The Times, discusses the story that each campaign has been using those ads to tell, 30 seconds at a time.

Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Donald J. Trump and the Republicans have bet big on anti-trans ads across the country.
• The Harris campaign’s recent Spanish-language advertising has highlighted an insult toward Puerto Rico at Mr. Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden.
• Both parties are running ads that tell voters it’s OK to switch sides. “You can vote any way you want. And no one will ever know,” one says.

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 sheriff’s deputy arrived at Nathan and Danielle Clark’s front door on the outskirts of Springfield, Ohio, in September with the latest memento of what their son’s death had become. “I’m sorry that I have to show you this,” she said and handed them a flier with a picture of Aiden, 11, smiling at the camera after his last baseball game. It was the same image the Clarks had chosen for his funeral program and then made into Christmas ornaments for his classmates, but this time the photograph was printed alongside threats and racial slurs.

“Killed by a Haitian invader,” the flier read. “They didn’t care about Aiden. They don’t care about you. They are pieces of human trash that deserve not your sympathy, but utter scorn. Give it to them … and then some.”

“They have no right to speak for him like this,” Danielle said. “It’s making me sick. There must be some way to stop it.”

This was the version of the country the Clarks and their two teenage children had encountered during the last year, ever since Aiden died in a school bus crash in August 2023 on the way to his first day of sixth grade. The crash was ruled an accident, caused by a legally registered Haitian immigrant who veered into the bus while driving without a valid license. But as the presidential campaign intensified, former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, began to tell a different story.

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On Tuesday night, as the voting ends and the counting begins, the election system itself will be on trial.

Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The Times, explains how some local election officials entrusted with certifying ballots are preparing to reject the results  and create chaos in the weeks ahead.

Guest: Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine.

Background reading: 

• The army of election officials ready to reject the vote.
• What to know about the potential election certification crisis.

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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Warning: This episode contains strong language and racial slurs.

For decades, Black Americans formed the backbone of the Democratic Party, voting by overwhelming margins for Democratic candidates. While most Black voters are expected to cast their ballots for Kamala Harris, polls suggest that support for her might be softening, particularly among Black men.

Sabrina Tavernise travels to Georgia, a key swing state, with two “Daily” producers, Lynsea Garrison and Sydney Harper, to speak with one family about their experiences through the decades.

Guest: 

• Sabrina Tavernise, co-host of “The Daily.”
• Lynsea Garrison, a producer on “The Daily.”
• Sydney Harper, a producer on “The Daily.”

Background reading: 

• Some Black voters have drifted from Democrats, imperiling Ms. Harris’s bid, a poll showed.
• As Black voters appear to hesitate on their support, Democrats race to win them over.

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 the final week of the race for president, Donald J. Trump’s big rally in New York appeared to backfire, while Kamala Harris’s closing message cast her as a unifier. Fears about election interference also resurfaced after arsonists burned ballots in three states.

The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Lisa Lerer, Shane Goldmacher and Astead Herndon try to make sense of it all.

Guest: 

• Lisa Lerer, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
• Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.
• Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter and the host of the politics podcast “The Run-Up.”

Background reading: 

• Trump at the Garden: A closing carnival of grievances, misogyny and racism.
• Michelle Obama made a searing appeal to men: “Take our lives seriously.”
• Investigators have identified a “suspect vehicle” in the ballot drop box fires in the Pacific Northwest.

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 Donald J. Trump wins next week’s election, it will be in large part because voters embraced his message that the U.S. immigration system is broken.

David Leonhardt, a senior writer at The New York Times, tells the surprising story of how that system came to be.

Guest: David Leonhardt, a senior writer at The New York Times who runs The Morning.

Background reading: 

• Whoever wins the election, seeking asylum in the United States may never be the same.
• For people fleeing war, the U.S. immigration fight has real-life consequences.

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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Warning: this episode contains strong language.

The presidential campaign is in its final week and one thing remains true: the election is probably going to come down to a handful of voters in a swing states.

Jessica Cheung,  a producer for “The Daily,” and Jonathan Swan, a reporter covering politics for The Times, take us inside Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign to win over those voters.

Guest: 

• Jessica Cheung, a senior producer of “The Daily.”
• Jonathan Swan, a reporter covering politics and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• In Arizona, many Latino families are divided about the 2024 election.
• The electorate has rarely seemed so evenly divided. The latest New York Times/Siena College poll found Harris and Trump tied at 48 to 48 percent.

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 you take a journey deep within Netflix’s furthest recesses — burrow past Binge-worthy TV Dramas and 1980s Action Thrillers, take a left at Because You Watched the Lego Batman Movie, keep going past Fright Night — you will eventually find your way to the platform’s core, the forgotten layers of content fossilized by the pressure from the accreted layers above.

Netflix’s vast library changed the business of television — in part by making a better product and showing the rest of the industry that it had to follow suit — but it also changed the very nature of television.

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