The Daily

At the end of a quiet, leafy street in the Valley in Los Angeles, the reality TV star Tom Sandoval has outfitted his home with landscaping lights that rotate in a spectrum of colors, mimicking the dance floor of a nightclub. The property is both his private residence and an occasional TV set for the Bravo reality show “Vanderpump Rules.” After a series of events that came to be known as “Scandoval,” paparazzi had been camped outside, but by the new year it was just one or two guys, and now they have mostly gone, too.

“Scandoval” is the nickname for Sandoval’s affair with another cast member, which he had behind the backs of the show’s producers and his girlfriend of nine years. This wouldn’t be interesting or noteworthy except that in 2023, after being on the air for 10 seasons, “Vanderpump” was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding unstructured reality program, an honor that has never been bestowed on any of the network’s “Housewives” shows. It also became, by a key metric, the most-watched cable series in the advertiser-beloved demographic of 18- to 49-year-olds and brought in over 12.2 million viewers. This happened last spring, when Hollywood’s TV writers went on strike and cable TV was declared dead and our culture had already become so fractured that it was rare for anything — let alone an episode of television — to become a national event. And yet you probably heard about “Scandoval” even if you couldn’t care less about who these people are, exactly.

As “Vanderpump” airs its 11th season, Tom Sandoval reflects on his new public persona.

President Biden and Donald J. Trump both made appearances at the southern border on Thursday as they addressed an issue that is shaping up to be one of the most important in the 2024 election: immigration.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The Times, discusses Mr. Biden’s risky bid to take perhaps Trump’s biggest rallying point and use it against him.

Guest: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• In appearances some 300 miles apart, Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump tried to leverage a volatile policy dispute of the 2024 campaign.
• How visiting the border has become a potent form of political theater.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A Times investigation has revealed how applesauce laced with high levels of lead sailed through a food safety system meant to protect American consumers, and poisoned hundreds of children across the U.S.

Christina Jewett, who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The Times, talks about what she found.

Guest: Christina Jewett, who covers the Food and Drug Administration for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Lead-tainted applesauce sailed through gaps in the food-safety system.
• What to know about lead exposure in children.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

U.S. officials have acknowledged a growing fear that Russia may be trying to put a nuclear weapon into orbit.

Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The Times, explains that their real worry is that America could lose the battle for military supremacy in space.

Guest: Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• The U.S. warned its allies that Russia could put a nuclear weapon into orbit this year.
• The Pentagon is in the early stages of a program to put constellations of smaller and cheaper satellites into orbit to counter space-based threats of the sort being developed by Russia and China.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In the past few weeks, activists in Michigan have begun calling voters in the state, asking them to protest President Biden’s support for the Israeli military campaign in Gaza by not voting for him in the Democratic primary.

The activists are attempting to turn their anger over Gaza into a political force, one that could be decisive in a critical swing state where winning in November is likely to be a matter of the slimmest of margins.

Jennifer Medina, a political reporter for The Times, explains how the war in Gaza is changing politics in Michigan.

Guest: Jennifer Medina, a political reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Will Biden’s Gaza stance hurt him in 2024? Michigan is the first test.
• The war in Gaza turned this longtime Michigan Democrat against Biden.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

A surprise ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court has halted fertility treatments across the state and sent a shock wave through the world of reproductive health.

Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender, and science for The Times, explains what the court case means for reproductive health and a patient in Alabama explains what it is like navigating the fallout.

Guests: Azeen Ghorayshi, who covers sex, gender and science for The New York Times; and Meghan S. Cole, who is in the final stages of IVF treatment in Alabama.

Background reading:

• Alabama ruled frozen embryos are children, raising questions about fertility care.
• Fertility clinics are routinely sued by patients for errors that destroy embryos, as happened in Alabama. An effort to define them legally as “unborn children” has raised the stakes.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The closest thing to a bat signal for stoners is the blue lettering of the Cookies logo. When a new storefront comes to a strip mall or a downtown shopping district, fans flock to grand-opening parties, drawn by a love of the brand — one based on more than its reputation for selling extremely potent weed.

People often compare Cookies to the streetwear brand Supreme. That’s accurate in one very literal sense — they each sell a lot of hats — and in other, more subjective ones. They share a penchant for collaboration-based marketing; their appeal to mainstream audiences is tied up with their implied connections to illicit subcultures; and they’ve each been expanding rapidly in recent years.

All of it is inextricable from Berner, the stage name of Gilbert Milam, 40, Cookies’ co-founder and chief executive, who spent two decades as a rapper with a sideline as a dealer — or as a dealer with a sideline as a rapper. With the company’s success, he is estimated to be one of the wealthiest rappers in the world, without having ever released a hit record.

Last week, when a civil court judge in New York ruled against Donald J. Trump, he imposed a set of penalties so severe that they could temporarily sever the former president from his real-estate empire and wipe out all of his cash.

Jonah Bromwich, who covers criminal justice in New York, and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The Times, explain what that will mean for Mr. Trump as a businessman and as a candidate.

Guests: Jonah E. Bromwich, a criminal justice correspondent for The New York Times; and Maggie Haberman, a senior political correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Mr. Trump was met with a $450 million blow to his finances and his identity.
• Here’s a guide to the New York law that made the fierce punishment possible.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Last week, the Russian authorities announced that Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition leader and an unflinching critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, had died in a remote Arctic prison at the age of 47.

Yevgenia Albats, his friend, discusses how Mr. Navalny became a political force and what it means for his country that he is gone.

Guest: Yevgenia Albats, a Russian investigative journalist and a friend of Mr. Navalny.

Background reading:

• Who was Aleksei Navalny?
• The sudden death of Mr. Navalny left a vacuum in Russia’s opposition. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, signaled that she would try to fill the void.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Over the past few weeks, a growing sense of alarm across Europe over the future of the continent’s security has turned into outright panic.

As Russia advances on the battlefield in Ukraine, the U.S. Congress has refused to pass billions of dollars in new funding for Ukraine’s war effort and Donald Trump has warned European leaders that if they do not pay what he considers their fair share toward NATO, he would not protect them from Russian aggression.

Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The Times, discusses Europe’s plans to defend itself against Russia without the help of the United States.

Guest: Steven Erlanger, the chief diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• In Europe, there is a dawning recognition that the continent urgently needs to step up its own defense, especially as the U.S. wavers, but the commitments still are not coming.
• Europe wants to stand on its own militarily. Is it too little, too late?

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.