The Daily

This episode contains strong language. A new battleground has emerged in American politics: school boards. In these meetings, parents increasingly engage in heated — sometimes violent — fights over hot-button issues such as mask mandates and critical race theory. Suddenly, the question of who sits on a school board has become a question about which version of America will prevail. We visit the school board meeting in Central Bucks, Pa...

This episode contains strong language. In March 2019, workers inside an Air Force combat operations center in Qatar watched as an American F-15 attack jet dropped a large bomb into a group of women and children in Syria. Assessing the damage, the workers found that there had been around 70 casualties, and a lawyer decided that it was a potential war crime. We look at how the system that was designed to bring the airstrike to light, ended up keeping it hidden...

In 1980, when few Americans knew the meaning of toro and omakase, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, spoke to dozens of his followers in the Grand Ballroom of the New Yorker Hotel. It was said Moon could see the future, visit you in dreams and speak with the spirit world, where Jesus and Buddha, Moses and Washington, caliphs and emperors and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and even God himself would all proclaim his greatness...

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, described the current status of the pandemic in the United States as a “mixed bag” that is leaning more toward the positive than the negative. But, he said, there is still more work to do. In our conversation, he weighs in on vaccine mandates, booster shots and the end of the pandemic. Guest: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases.

This episode contains strong language. When the coronavirus hit the United States, the nation’s public health officials were in the front line, monitoring cases and calibrating rules to combat the spread. From the start, however, there has been resistance. A Times investigation found that 100 new laws have since been passed that wrest power from public health officials...

Over the past year, a record 2,000 migrants from Africa have drowned trying to reach Spain. Many of these migrants make the journey in rickety vessels, not much bigger than canoes, that often don’t stand up to strong currents. What happens, then, when their bodies wash ashore? This is the story of Martín Zamora, a 61-year-old father of seven, who has committed himself to returning the bodies of drowned migrants to their families...

In a bipartisan win for President Biden, Democrats and Republicans have passed a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. Now comes the difficult part — trying to win approval for a $2 trillion social spending bill. For more moderate Democrats in swing districts, the vote will be among the toughest of the Biden era — and one that some fear could cost them their seats in next year’s midterms. To gauge their concerns, we speak to one such lawmaker, Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia...

The U.S. Supreme Court is gearing up to rule on an area of the law that it has been silent on for over a decade: the Second Amendment. The case under consideration will help decide whether the right to bear arms extends beyond the home and into the streets. The implications of the decision could be enormous. A quarter of the U.S. population lives in states whose laws might be affected. Guest: Adam Liptak, a reporter covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times.

Like many other Americans, Jamie Lauren Keiles, the author of this week’s Sunday Read, bought their first motorcycle during the coronavirus pandemic. “I thought I was just purchasing a mode of transportation — a way to get around without riding the train,” they wrote. “But after some time on the street with other riders, I started to suspect I’d signed up for a lot more...

This episode contains strong language and scenes of violence. Last summer, as the country reeled from the murder of George Floyd, another Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by police in Kenosha, Wis. People took to the streets in Kenosha in protest and were soon met by civilians in militia gear — a confrontation that turned violent. On the third night of protests, a white teenager shot and killed two people, and maimed a third...