Social Media on Trial

For years, social media companies have relied on an impenetrable first amendment protection to shield them from legal claims that their products are dangerous to children.But now, a cluster of plaintiffs are trying a different tact.Cecilia Kang, who covers technology, explains why these new lawsuits pose an existential threat to social media giants, and how those companies are likely to defend themselves.Guest: Cecilia Kang, a reporter covering technology and regulatory policy for The New York Times.Background reading: Here’s what to know about the social media addiction trials.TikTok reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit, avoiding the first in a series of landmark trials.Photo: David Gray/Agence France-Presse — 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.

The intense fallout from Alex Pretti’s death has forced President Trump to publicly change course in Minneapolis.The White House reporters Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Tyler Pager discuss the changes, and whether they are real or merely symbolic.Guest:Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Trump and his administration.Tyler Pager, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, covering President Trump and his administration.Background reading:Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol official leading an aggressive immigration crackdown, was pulled from Minneapolis as the White House tries to distance the president from the uproar over Mr. Pretti’s killing.Here’s how the Trump administration rushed to judgment in the shooting of Mr. Pretti.Republicans in Congress are shifting their tone after the killings in Minneapolis, criticizing Mr. Trump’s immigration push.Photo: David Guttenfelder/The New York Times.For 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.

Since December, the U.S. has been stopping and seizing oil tankers traveling in and out of Venezuela. They are part of what is known as a ghost fleet — tankers that try to secretly move oil around the world, funding states such as Venezuela, Iran and Russia.Christiaan Triebert, a reporter on the Visual Investigations team, explains what these ghost fleets are and why their days might now be numbered.Guest: Christiaan Triebert, a reporter for The New York Times working on the Visual Investigations team.Background reading: U.S. forces seized its sixth oil tanker linked to Venezuela.What are “ghost fleet” ships?Photo: Andy Buchanan/Agence France-Presse — 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.

Warning: This episode contains strong language.Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Minneapolis resident, on Saturday. It was the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the city during protests against a ramped-up immigration enforcement effort by the Trump administration.Devon Lum, from the Visual Investigations team, and Ernesto Londoño, who covers the Midwest, explain how the shooting unfolded and what may come next.Guest:Devon Lum, a New York Times reporter working on the Visual Investigations team.Ernesto Londoño, a reporter for The New York Times based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest.Background reading: Timeline: A moment-by-moment look at the shooting Mr. Pretti.Here’s what we know about the shooting.For 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.

Pop culture has not been kind to the Neanderthal. In books, movies and even TV commercials, the species is portrayed as rough and mindless, a brutish type that was rightly supplanted by our Homo sapiens ancestors.But even 40,000 years after the last Neanderthals walked the earth, we continue to make discoveries that challenge that portrayal. New research suggests Neanderthals might have been less primitive — and a lot more like modern humans — than we might have thought.The Times science reporters Carl Zimmer and Franz Lidz discuss recent discoveries about Neanderthals, and what those discoveries can tell us about the origins of humanity. On Today’s Episode:Carl Zimmer writes the Origins column and covers news about science for The Times.Franz Lidz writes about archaeology for The Times. Background Reading:The Year in NeanderthalsMorning Person? You Might Have Neanderthal Genes to Thank.What Makes Your Brain Different From a Neanderthal’s?The Neanderthal Inside Us Photo: Frank Franklin II/Associated Press 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.

The “Hamnet” director on trying to overcome her deepest fears — and open her heart.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.

Three years after his appointment as special counsel, Jack Smith finally delivered the legal argument against President Trump on Thursday that he was never allowed to make in court.Glenn Thrush, who reports on the Justice Department, explains what Mr. Smith told Congress and why his message is likely to make him Mr. Trump’s next target.Guest: Glenn Thrush, who reports on the Justice Department for The New York Times.Background reading: In his testimony, Jack Smith defended the decision to prosecute Mr. Trump.Here are four takeaways from what he said to a House committee.Photo: Kenny Holston/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 has been raising tensions around the world for weeks by claiming that he would stop at nothing in his quest to seize Greenland from Denmark.But on Wednesday, he appeared to back down, announcing that he’d reached the framework of an agreement with NATO over Greenland’s future.Mark Landler, the London bureau chief, explains the ups and downs of Mr. Trump’s Greenland gambit, and why it may signal the beginning of a new world order.Guest: Mark Landler, the London bureau chief of The New York Times, working with a team of correspondents to cover the United Kingdom.Background reading: Mr. Trump said he had a framework for a Greenland deal as NATO mulled the idea of U.S. sovereignty over bases.For decades, leaders have gathered in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss a shared economic and political future. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump turned the forum into a bracing clash between his worldview and theirs.Photo: Sean Gallup/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.

For weeks, protests around Minneapolis have caught nationwide attention as the city shows open defiance to a federal immigration crackdown.But behind the scenes, a quieter organized resistance has taken shape.Anna Foley and Michael Simon Johnson, producers for “The “Daily,” go on the ground in Minneapolis to capture that effort, and Charles Homans, a New York Times reporter, explains why the city has become ground zero in the fight over the government’s deportation strategy.Guest: Charles Homans, a reporter for The New York Times and The Times Magazine, covering national politics.Background reading: In Minneapolis, an intense cat-and-mouse game is putting enraged residents face to face with heavily armed federal agents.President Trump’s fight with Minnesota is about more than immigration.Photo: Jamie Kelter Davis 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.

In the 365 days since Donald J. Trump was sworn into his second term as president, he has fired, pardoned, prosecuted, tariffed, deployed, deposed, dismantled and deported his way to a new kind of American government, one designed almost entirely in his image. In the process, he has not only transformed the federal government, he has also changed, possibly forever, the very nature of the American presidency.On today’s episode, Michael Barbaro speaks with three longtime chroniclers of Trump’s presidency about how to make sense of what Trump has done over the past year and what his next three years in office might bring.Guests:Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.Jonathan Swan, a White House reporter for The New York Times.Charlie Savage, who covers national security and legal policy for The New York Times.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.Photo: Kenny Holston/The New York TImes 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.