The Daily

Did President Trump fall for the myth of surgical warfare? Gen. Stanley McChrystal joins the columnist David French, both veterans of the Iraq War, to discuss what may have been overlooked in the planning of Operation Epic Fury. McChrystal, who retired from the Army in 2010, argues that the United States often overestimates the decisive power of aerial bombing while underestimating the weight of historical grievance. And the general weighs in on the current culture of bravado coming from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. This conversation was recorded on Friday, March 20.

President Trump announced that he would be replacing Pam Bondi as attorney general on Thursday. Tyler Pager, who broke the story of her removal, discusses how she fell out of favor with the president.

The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday morning over President Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship. In a historic first, the president himself showed up to the hearing. Ann E. Marimow, who covers the Supreme Court, took us inside the room.

Today, NASA is set to send four astronauts on a trip around the moon and back. If the mission succeeds, a return of astronauts to the moon’s surface could follow. Kenneth Chang, who covers science, explains why the United States wants to go back to the moon.

Warning: this episode contains mentions of suicide. The civil rights icon had a history of sexually abusing women and girls, which the Times reporters Manny Fernandez and Sarah Hurtes spent five years investigating. They spoke to “The Daily” about how they uncovered the story.

Despite his threats of escalation, President Trump seems increasingly determined to end the war in Iran through negotiations. The Iranian government doesn’t appear to be on the same page. David E. Sanger, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the standoff over turning from war to diplomacy.

“Love Story,” the FX limited series about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s relationship, has taken audiences by storm. Its unstoppable wave of ’90s nostalgia has swept through the world of fashion, revitalized iconic New York landmarks and set off a yearning for simpler days before smartphones and dating apps. The series has also drawn significant backlash, with criticism ranging from bad reviews to accusations of inaccuracy and even harm. Today, Rachel Abrams talks to Alexandra Jacobs, a critic for The New York Times Book Review, about why America can’t seem to look away from “Love Story.”

Neal Mohan on A.I. slop, parental controls and his platform’s impact on our lives.

For the past four weeks, soaring gas prices across the United States have become a symbol of the domestic impact of the war in Iran. Cameron Joudi, who owns and manages a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla., discusses how the war is reaching him at home.

For the past week, travelers flying across the United States have waited in security lines that snaked through airports and parking lots as Transportation Security Administration officers called out of work because of a partial government shutdown. Karoun Demirjian, a breaking news reporter for the The New York Times, explains what has led to the extraordinary delays, and Michael Gold, a congressional correspondent for The Times, discusses the negotiations in Congress to bring an end to the crisis.

Targeting oil and gas infrastructure in the Persian Gulf threatens to hurt businesses and customers around the world for months or even years.

About a year into President Trump’s global trade war, China hasn’t just survived. It has emerged stronger than ever on the world stage. Keith Bradsher, the Beijing bureau chief for The New York Times, discusses the domination of China’s robot-powered superfactories and how the country essentially made itself tariff-proof.

The war in Iran has created strong divisions among President Trump’s supporters. An anti-interventionist wing of the Republican coalition and some senior administration officials partial to Mr. Trump’s criticism of long overseas conflicts have quickly become uneasy about the war, which has shown no immediate signs of ending. Robert Draper, a domestic politics journalist for The New York Times based in Washington, discusses Mr. Trump’s justification for the war and whether he is explicitly violating a pact he made with his base not to start another.

If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ve probably come across a video of a young, square-jawed influencer calling himself Clavicular. He has become the face of an internet subculture called looksmaxxing, in which men do almost anything — like taking steroids and hormones or bashing their jaws with a hammer — to try to become more handsome. In this episode, Natalie Kitroeff talks with reporter Joseph Bernstein about the world of looksmaxxing and how what might seem like a fringe phenomenon is actually the culmination of a digital culture that rewards physical perfection with status and algorithmic power.

The writer and actor found unexpected success by sharing his trauma. Now he’s exploring male pain in a new way.

This week, the Senate is debating the contentious SAVE America Act, a strict voter identification bill that could overhaul who gets to vote. President Trump has called it his “No. 1 priority,” threatening to not sign any other legislation until it is passed. Michael Gold and Nick Corasaniti, reporters for The New York Times, discuss why some Republicans are standing against the president to block it, and the administration’s other plans to try to reshape the electoral process.

Nearly three weeks into the war in Iran, the United States and Israel have largely decimated the regime’s missile capacity, taken out key leaders and disrupted its central command. Yet, the regime in Iran has become more hardened and is wreaking more havoc than ever. Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the state of the war and President Trump’s options for getting out of the conflict.

This past weekend, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission threatened to revoke broadcasters’ licenses over their coverage of the war in Iran. Last month, Stephen Colbert said he had to drop an interview with a Senate candidate because of F.C.C. guidance that targeted political interviews on late-night shows. Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The New York Times, explains how the Trump administration is trying to shape media coverage to fit its agenda.

At the heart of the Iranian regime’s defiant stance toward the United States and Israel in the war is Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader and a son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the regime’s longtime ruler. Farnaz Fassihi, who covers Iran for The New York Times, discusses the extraordinary jockeying that led to his selection and whether the United States and Israel helped motivate Iran to replace one hard-line leader with another.

With the world’s attention on the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, a second front in the conflict has opened in Lebanon. Israel has pummeled an area in the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway, as well as southern Lebanon, with airstrikes, displacing almost one million people. Israel has also expanded its assault into other parts of Beirut, the capital. Christina Goldbaum, The New York Times’s bureau chief in Beirut, explains how the crisis in Lebanon connects to the broader war, what Israel hopes to achieve and what people in Lebanon fear might come next.

For 12 years, Pete Wells had his dream job: working as the chief restaurant critic for The New York Times. The job’s journalistic mission required Wells to eat out most nights and taste nearly everything on any given restaurant’s menu. He didn’t realize it at the time, but the excessive eating had taken a toll on his body. Then came a health crisis, followed by his doctor’s advice to “stop doing what you’re doing right now.” In 2024, Wells gave up his post as restaurant critic and set out to remake his entire relationship with food. On today’s episode, Michael Barbaro speaks with Wells about the realities of life as a restaurant critic, and what he’s learning about the joys of home cooking, mindful eating and grocery shopping for the diet he intends to follow.

The governor of Illinois and Trump antagonist has become a national figure for Democrats. Where will that lead?

Warning: This episode contains strong language. The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department — founded to focus on fighting race-based discrimination — has drastically changed the kinds of cases it pursues, dropping or setting aside many already in progress. Sarah Koenig from Serial Productions tells the story of Kristie Metcalfe — her civil rights case and how it was squandered.

A continuing military investigation has determined that the United States is responsible for a strike that hit an elementary school in Iran, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the preliminary findings. Iranian officials have said the death toll was at least 175 people, most of them children. Malachy Browne and Julian E. Barnes, who have been covering the strike, discuss what probably led to one of the most devastating military errors in decades.

As Iran has tightened its chokehold on one of the world’s most vital shipping routes and the Trump administration sent mixed signals about how long the war would last, oil prices have swung wildly. Rebecca F. Elliott, who covers energy for The New York Times, explains just how much the world depends on that route — the Strait of Hormuz — and how quickly shutting it down can throw global energy markets into chaos.