Podcast: The Daily

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard a case that could hand parents with religious objections a lot more control over what their kids learn in the classroom.

Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court, explains how a case about children’s picture books with titles like “Pride Puppy” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” has broad implications for schools across the country.

In the increasingly bitter trade war between the United States and China, perhaps nobody has more at stake than America’s soybean farmers, whose crop has become the country’s single biggest export to China.

Michael Barbaro speaks to an Iowa farmer who helped build that $13 billion market, and asks her what President Trump’s sky-high tariffs mean for her and for tens of thousands of other American farmers.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants by quickly labeling them as gang members and foreign enemies, and boarding them on planes to El Salvador. It’s sidestepping their rights to a court hearing where anyone might be able to scrutinize the claims against them.

As a result, very little has been known about who these men are, or how they were targeted by immigration officials. Until now.

Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief for The New York Times, explains who was actually on those planes, and discusses the secretive process that led to their deportations.

Church bells rang out across the world on Monday to mark the death of Pope Francis at the age of 88.

Jason Horowitz, the Rome bureau chief at The New York Times, discusses the pope’s push to change the church, his bitter clashes with traditionalists, and what his papacy meant to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Across the country, millions of Americans with unpaid student loans are discovering that years of patience and forgiveness from the U.S. government have officially come to an end.

Stacy Cowley, a business reporter for The Times, explains what is behind the change of heart, sets out its financial consequences for borrowers — and discusses the larger reckoning that it may cause about how Americans pay for higher education.

One day at Wrigley Field in Chicago last May, Paul Skenes was pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, carving out a small piece of baseball history in his second big-league game. He struck out the first seven batters he faced. By the end of the fifth inning, he had increased his strikeout total to 10. More impressive, he hadn’t allowed a hit.

Over the past two decades, analysts have identified a treasure trove of competitive advantages for teams willing to question baseball’s established practices.

Perhaps the most significant of competitive advantages was hidden in plain sight, at the center of the diamond. Starting pitchers were traditionally taught to conserve strength so they could last deep into games. Throwing 300 innings in a season was once commonplace; in 1969 alone, nine pitchers did it. But at some definable point in each game, the data came to reveal, a relief pitcher becomes a more effective option than the starter, even if that starter is Sandy Koufax or Tom Seaver — or Paul Skenes.

The self-deprecating stand-up comic discusses having a magician for a father, the challenge of mainstream comedy and his aspirations to build the next Disneyland.
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

President Trump’s tariffs have terrified stock markets, business owners and anyone with a 401(k). Does that mean that his approach to trade is becoming a major political liability?

Astead W. Herndon, a national politics reporter, asked voters in Michigan what they thought. He found that the answer to that question was not so simple.

Testimonies began this week in one of the most aggressive cases the government has ever brought against a big tech company. Over the next eight weeks, the Federal Trade Commission will argue that Meta, the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg, should be broken up.

Cecilia Kang, who covers technology and regulatory policy, discusses the strange and contentious relationship between Mr. Zuckerberg and President Trump that has led to this moment, and what the case means for them.

For years, President Trump has mocked the Obama administration for the nuclear agreement that it reached with Iran — a plan he disliked so much that he revoked it.

Now, as he embarks on talks with Iran to reach a nuclear agreement of his own, the question is whether his administration can achieve a better deal.

David E. Sanger, who covers the White House and national security, takes us inside the negotiations.

When President Trump met with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, at the White House, the fate of one man was hanging in the balance.

Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court, discusses the Maryland man who was mistakenly sent to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador, and what his case means for the limits of presidential power and the rule of law.

When President Trump raised tariffs against China to an astonishing 145 percent last week, he radically changed the cost of doing business for thousands of American companies.

Michael Barbaro speaks to Beth Benike, a small-business owner who fears her business will not survive the tariffs.

When Daniel and Victoria Van Beuningen first toured their future home, a quiet villa in the Polish city of Wroclaw, it had been abandoned for years, its windows sealed up with bricks. But something about its overgrown garden spoke to them. They could imagine raising chickens there, planting tomatoes and cucumbers. They could make something beautiful out of it, they thought — a place where their children could run and play.

They moved in knowing very little about what happened at the villa before World War II, when Wroclaw, formerly Breslau, was still part of Germany.

The couple wanted to know more, and their inquiries eventually led to the Meinecke family in Heidelberg, Germany, elderly siblings who said they were born in the home. Over a long afternoon, they showed the couple pictures of the place from happier times before the war, but they also offered the Van Beuningens a surprising warning: The couple might find the remains of some German soldiers buried in the garden.

The creator and comedian discusses his penchant for self-reflection, how politics fits into his work and why he’s not interested in representing anyone but himself.

This week, we interviewed two people with leading roles in the rapidly escalating conflict between the Trump administration and American higher education.

Today, we speak with Christopher Rufo, who led the conservative critique of, and assault on, critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Mr. Rufo’s vision and campaigning have helped inspire Trump’s wide-ranging crackdown on higher education.

Earlier, we talked with Christopher L. Eisgruber, the president of Princeton University, about the institution’s path forward in the face of drastic funding cuts, and his vow to protect academic freedom at all costs. You can listen to that conversation here.

After promising that tariffs against dozens of countries were here to stay, no matter how much they hurt businesses or the stock market, President Trump has abruptly reversed course.

But there’s an exception: his levies on China, which he said he would raise to 125 percent.

Jonathan Swan, who covers the White House, explains why the president changed his mind, and David Pierson, who covers China, discusses why Beijing won’t back down.

Over the past few weeks, some of the most prestigious universities in the country have faced a threat to their very existence.

President Trump has frozen billions of dollars in federal funds in an attempt to rid higher education of what he calls its woke ideology.

Rachel Abrams speaks to the president of Princeton University, Christopher L. Eisgruber, who has vowed that to fight.

On Monday, global stocks whipsawed over President Trump’s tariffs, a bear market briefly became official in the United States and tit-for-tat retaliation with China intensified.

As trillions of dollars in corporate value evaporates and Mr. Trump’s support in the business world is cracking, even Republican members of Congress are debating whether to take away the president’s power to wage a trade war.

Andrew Ross Sorkin, who covers business and policy, and Jonathan Swan, who covers the White House, talk through the tumultuous past few days on the stock market.

Over the past few weeks, President Trump has used executive orders to wage war on law firms, specifically targeting those whose lawyers have investigated or sued him, or represented his enemies in court.

Michael Barbaro speaks to Thomas Sipp, a lawyer who chose to quit after his firm, Skadden, negotiated a deal to placate the president.

“The force of his will is the thing I remember about him,” says Taffy Brodesser-Akner, who wrote a profile of Val Kilmer for The New York Times Magazine in May 2020. “He was sure he was going to come back to his exact former self. ”

The two met for an interview just as a lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic seemed all but certain to happen.

Mr. Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 and had undergone a tracheotomy, was still performing. Mr. Brodesser-Akner credits him with providing “the first whiff of overarching hope and positivity that I’d witnessed in I couldn’t remember how many months.”

“What does somebody do when the thing that they are known for, which is being a superhero, which is being an action hero, which is being handsome, which is being this sort of picture of good health and vigor, what do you do next?” she said. “And a lot of people, they fade away. But that’s not how it went for Val. ”

Mr. Kilmer, who played classic roles such as Batman and Iceman in “Top Gun,” died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 65.