Trump Goes After Venezuela’s Oil

In the past decade or more, votes over increasing the U.S. debt ceiling have increasingly been used as a political tool. That has led to intense showdowns in 2011, 2013 and, now, 2023. This year, both sides of the argument are dug in and Republicans appear more willing to go over the cliff than in the past. What does this year’s showdown look like and how, exactly, did the United States’ debt balloon to $31 trillion?Guest: Jim Tankersley, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Two decades of tax cuts, recession responses and bipartisan spending fueled more borrowing has set the stage for another federal showdown over the debt limit.Last week, America hit its debt limit. Here’s what to know. 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.

23 Jan 202328min

In a room in a modest concrete building in a leafy Minneapolis neighborhood is silence exceeding the bounds of human perception. Technically an “anechoic chamber,” the room is the quietest place on the planet — according to some.What happens to people inside the windowless steel room is the subject of wild and terrible speculation. Public fascination with it exploded 10 years ago, with an article on The Daily Mail’s website. The article left readers to extrapolate their own conclusions about the room from the short, haunting observations of its proprietor, Steven J. Orfield, of Orfield Laboratories.“You’ll hear your heart beating,” Orfield was quoted as saying. And, “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound.”Much of the lore about the chamber’s propensity for mind-annihilation centers on the concept of blood sounds. Hearing the movement of blood through the body is supposedly something like an absolute taboo, akin to witnessing the fabrication of Chicken McNuggets — an ordeal after which placid existence is irreparably shattered.Despite this, Caity Weaver, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, wanted to give the chamber a go.To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. 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.

22 Jan 202327min

With mountains, intense mud, fast-running rivers and thick rainforest, the Darién Gap, a strip of terrain connecting South and Central America, is one of the most dangerous places on the planet.Over the past few years, there has been an enormous increase in the number of migrants passing through the perilous zone in the hopes of getting to the United States.Today, we hear the story of one family that’s risking everything to make it across.Guest: Julie Turkewitz, the Andes bureau chief for The New York Times.Background reading: The pandemic, climate change and growing conflict are forcing a seismic shift in global migration.Two crises are converging at the Darién Gap: an economic and humanitarian disaster underway in South America, and the bitter fight over immigration policy in Washington.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.

20 Jan 202338min

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the United States and allies have held back from sending Kyiv their most potent arms.Over the past few weeks, that has started to change.Guest: Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Ukraine has a narrow window of time to retake more territory ahead of an expected Russian spring offensive.The Biden administration is considering the argument that Kyiv needs the power to strike Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.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.

19 Jan 202331min

With little warning or regulation, companies are increasingly using facial recognition technology on their customers — as a security measure, they say.But what happens when the systems are actually being used to punish the companies’ enemies?Guest: Kashmir Hill, a technology reporter for The New York Times. Background reading: Madison Square Garden Entertainment, the owner of the arena, has put lawyers who represent people suing it on an “exclusion list” to keep them out of concerts and sporting events.Some have undermined the company’s ban by using a law passed in 1941 to protect theater critics.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.

18 Jan 202323min

For nearly three years, China had one of the lowest coronavirus death rates in the world, thanks to its strict yet effective “zero Covid” approach.But last month, the government suddenly abandoned the policy. Since then, there have been millions of coronavirus cases across the country.Guest: Alexandra Stevenson, the Shanghai bureau chief for The New York Times.Background reading: After micromanaging the coronavirus strategy for nearly three years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has suddenly left people to improvise.China said that it recorded nearly 60,000 fatalities linked to the coronavirus in the month since the country lifted the “zero Covid” policy.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.

17 Jan 202323min

In states where abortion is severely limited or illegal, clinicians face imminent prosecution if they continue to provide abortions. What is much less clear is what happens if providers in blue states offer telemedicine abortions to women in states where that’s against the law. These clinicians, too, could be arrested or sued or lose their medical licenses. To protect themselves, they may have to give up traveling to certain parts of the country — and it’s still no guarantee.In the face of so much uncertainty and an invigorated anti-abortion movement, large organizations and most clinicians are loath to gamble.But some providers think that the end of Roe v. Wade calls for doctors to take bold action.This story was recorded by Audm. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. 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.

15 Jan 202355min

The Justice Department is scrutinizing how both former President Donald J. Trump and President Biden came to have classified records after they left office.Attorney General Merrick B. Garland appointed a special counsel after the discovery of two batches of classified documents from Mr. Biden’s time as vice president.How are the two cases similar, how are they different and what might that mean for both?Guest: Glenn Thrush, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: Special counsels are looking into both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump. Here’s how the situations differ.Robert K. Hur has been appointed to oversee the investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of classified documents. Who is he?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.

13 Jan 202320min