A Good Night for Democrats

In the first big elections of the new Trump era, Democrats triumphed in New York City, Virginia and New Jersey. They also won up and down the ballot across the country.Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent, explains what the voting tells us about President Trump’s status and discusses whether Democrats have finally found their footing.Guest: Shane Goldmacher, a national political correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Read six takeaways from the elections.Here are results from key races.In New York, Zohran Mamdani became the city’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest in more than a century.Photo: Bryan Anselm for The New York TimesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

Tens of millions of Americans depend on the food-stamp program known as SNAP. Without federal assistance, many of them do not know how they will provide for themselves or their families. “The Daily” visits one of the communities most reliant on food aid.The Trump administration has agreed to restore some of the funding for SNAP, but there’s still uncertainty about how much money will come through, and when.Tony Romm, who covers economic policy and the Trump administration for The New York Times, discusses the fight over SNAP as the government enters its second month of shutdown.Guest: Tony Romm, a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The New York Times, is based in Washington.Background reading: The Trump administration will send only partial food stamp payments this month.The cuts to SNAP have exposed President Trump’s strategy to use the government shutdown to advance his agenda.Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

Over the past two decades, no company has done more to shape the American workplace than Amazon. In its ascent to become the nation’s second-largest employer, it has developed an aggressive corporate culture and pioneered using technology to hire, monitor and manage workers.Now, interviews and a cache of internal strategy documents reveal that Amazon executives believe their company is on the cusp of their next big workplace shift: replacing more than half a million jobs with robots.Karen Weise takes us inside Amazon’s push toward automation and the implications for the company and potentially for the broader economy.Guest: Karen Weise, a technology correspondent for The New York Times, based in Seattle.Background reading: Amazon plans to replace more than half a million jobs with robots.Meet Sparrow, Cardinal and Proteus, the robots powering Amazon’s automation.Photo: Emily Kask for The New York TimesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

This year has been a banner year for video games, with an abundance of surprise releases and unexpected hits.On this week’s Sunday Special, Gilbert Cruz talks with two fellow gamers — Zachary Small, a culture reporter, and Jason Bailey, an editor on The Times’s culture desk — about the state of the industry, the biggest releases and the games they loved playing in 2025. They also share their predictions for Game of the Year.On Today’s EpisodeZachary Small is a culture reporter for The Times.Jason M. Bailey is an editor on the culture desk, and oversees The Times’s video game coverage. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 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.

At only 35, the actress has been through the celebrity wringer. Here’s where she landed.Thoughts? Email us at [email protected] our show on YouTube: youtube.com/@TheInterviewPodcastFor transcripts and more, visit: nytimes.com/theinterview Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 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.

Representative Kevin Kiley is one of five California Republicans who are all but certain to lose their seats in the next midterm elections if voters grant final approval to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s newly drawn congressional districts.Mr. Kiley showed up to work in protest against Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to send the House home indefinitely as the government shutdown drags on.A new poll from The Washington Post found that more Americans blame the shutdown on Trump and congressional Republicans than on Democrats.“The Daily” sat down with Mr. Kiley for a conversation about his one-man campaign to try to fix what he believes his party is getting wrong in this moment.Guest: Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican of California.Background reading: The lonely House Republican still coming to work during the shutdown.Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

Earlier this month, after Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement, the Israeli military said it would withdraw from parts of Gaza — allowing some Palestinians displaced to the south to try to return home to the north.Rachelle Bonja, a producer of “The Daily,” ​recently spoke by phone with three Gazans​ who were making or contemplating the journey home. ​One of them, Saher ​Alghorra​, is a photojournalist ​who often works with The Times; another is Nidal Kuhail​, ​a former restaurant worker ​whom The Times has spoken to over the course of the war.The third is Hussein Khaled Auda​, a former bodybuilder who ran a small gym in Jabalia. Mr. Auda’s story is about his family. His four young children were killed in airstrikes during the war, and his wife was seriously injured. He has been traveling back home in large part to find and bury the remains of two of his children, who had been in the rubble of his house after one of the airstrikes. We interviewed his wife, Rawa, and other relatives, and reviewed death certificates and video footage to help understand what happened to his family.In our reporting, The Times also learned that a cousin of Mr. Auda’s was a senior leader of Hamas in Gaza who was killed during the war last year. The Times asked Mr. Auda if he himself had any ties to Hamas. He said he was not a member of Hamas and not political, and had dozens of cousins. He said he had seen the one affiliated with Hamas just a couple of times in his life.Like other news organizations, The Times has not yet been able to send its own staff journalists into Gaza unescorted. This episode, like many other Times pieces for more than two years, seeks to help our audience understand the experiences of Gazans during a devastating war.Guest: Rachelle Bonja, a New York Times audio producer for “The Daily.”Saher Alghorra, a photojournalist for The New York Times.Nidal Kuhail​, ​a former restaurant worker ​whom The Times has spoken to over the course of the war.Hussein Khaled Auda​, a former bodybuilder who ran a small gym in Jabalia.Mohammed Abu Namous, a journalist in Gaza.Background reading: “Everything Is Gone”: Gazans return home to find devastation and little hope.Who were the 2,000 Palestinians freed by Israel?Photo: Saher Alghorra for The New York TimesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

President Trump’s trade war against China has so far proved harder to win than his administration ever let on. And it reached new levels of tension this month when China said it would further restrict exports of rare-earth minerals to the United States and Europe.Keith Bradsher, the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, discusses a potential turning point in the standoff as Mr. Trump meets this week with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in what will be their first talks since the trade war began.Guest: Keith Bradsher, the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times.Background reading: Chinese and U.S. officials reached a framework of a trade deal on Sunday.Trump’s deal with China may avert a crisis of his own making.Photo: The New York TimesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

As wildfire seasons grow longer and deadlier, states are increasingly relying on private companies to provide thousands of firefighters to the front lines.Hannah Dreier, who has been covering the story, explains how lax rules and regulatory loopholes have left many of these firefighters sick, in debt and on their own.Guest: Hannah Dreier, a New York Times reporter who writes in-depth stories about national issues.Background reading: Wildfire fighters, unmasked in toxic smoke, are getting sick and dying.Read the story about Joel Eisiminger. Just before turning 25, he was diagnosed with a cancer that usually strikes people more than twice his age.Photo: Loren Elliott for The New York TimesFor 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 and Spotify. 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.

A federal investigation into illegal gambling has rocked the N.B.A. On Thursday, more than 30 people were indicted in the case, which involves the Mafia, high-profile players and the manipulation of professional basketball games to rig bets.Jonah E. Bromwich and Jenny Vrentas, who have been covering the story, discuss the shocking facts and the growing concern that online betting might be compromising the integrity of the sport.Guest:Jonah E. Bromwich, a New York Times reporter covering criminal justice in the New York region, with an emphasis on federal prosecutors and judges.Jenny Vrentas, a New York Times reporter covering money, power and influence in sports.Background reading: The United States charged an N.B.A. coach and others in gambling schemes.Who was the unnamed “Player 3” in the N.B.A. gambling case?Photo: USA TODAY Sports, via ReutersFor 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 and Spotify. 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.