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Security ramped up for New Year's Eve. A bitterly cold night ahead for some celebrants. The new year means higher Obamacare premiums. CBS's Christopher Cruise has those stories and more on the World News Roundup podcast.
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People who are in default on their federal student loans could start seeing their wages garnished in the new year. Next week, the Department of Education plans to start sending out letters to borrowers who have missed at least nine months of payments, letting them know the government will begin taking 15% from their paychecks. Also, the U.S. Mint pressed the final batch of pennies last month. We examine the penny's 232-year run.
From the BBC World Service: Tens of thousands of app-based delivery workers in India are holding a day-long strike that is likely to impact food delivery services on the final day of the year. They're demanding better wages and improvements in safety conditions, among other things. We hear more. Then, a British company says it's a step closer to manufacturing materials in space, and we look at the role of AI over the past year.
Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Rebekah Metzler, James Hider, Rebecca Davis, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
Our Supervising Producer is Michael Lipkin.
(0:00) Introduction
(03:30) U.S. Strikes Inside Venezuela
(07:25) Iran Protests
(11:22) Flu Cases Surge
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2025 brought some new speed bumps for electric vehicle sales, namely the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It cut federal EV tax credits — up to $7,500 for new cars and $4,000 for used ones. Those incentives had been on the books in some form since 2008 and were expanded during the Biden administration. They expired at the end of September.
Consumers rushed to take advantage before they disappeared, leading to record high sales earlier this year. But now the market faces an uncertain road ahead.
Marketplace's Meghan McCarty Carino spoke with her colleague Henry Epp about the outlook for EV sales in the U.S. now that federal tax credits are gone.
Demis Hassabis is the CEO of Google DeepMind. He joined Big Technology Podcast in early 2025 discuss the cutting edge of AI and where the research is heading. In this conversation, we cover the path to artificial general intelligence, how long it will take to get there, how to build world models, whether AIs can be creative, and how AIs are trying to deceive researchers. Stay tuned for the second half where we discuss Google's plan for smart glasses and Hassabis's vision for a virtual cell. Hit play for a fascinating discussion with an AI pioneer that will both break news and leave you deeply informed about the state of AI and its promising future.
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President Trump said Monday that the U.S. “hit” an alleged drug facility along a shoreline as he escalates pressure on Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security launched a fraud investigation in Minneapolis, targeting suspects accused of stealing billions in government funds. In California, the DMV rolled out a new pilot program aimed at cracking down on reckless driving, with added penalties for motorists clocked at more than 100 miles per hour. The state also became the first in the nation to require folic acid in most tortilla and corn masa products, a move aimed at reducing birth defects. And in sports, the Rams fell 27–24 to the Falcons on Monday night, sliding to the No. 6 seed in the NFC heading into the playoffs. Read more at LATimes.com.
Dreams are one of the most mysterious aspects of human existence, and we still don't fully understand the strange phenomenon known as dreaming. For thousands of years, human beings have taken action in the waking world based on information they encounter in a dream -- and, every so often, people have felt their dreams aren't just reminding them of the past or re-contextualizing the present. Instead, in virtually every culture and in every era of recorded history, people have claimed their dreams also, sometimes, tell them about the future. Join Ben, Matt and Noel as they delve into the science of dreams, and the conspiracies our own brains may hatch against us.
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array(3) { [0]=> string(150) "https://www.omnycontent.com/d/programs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/2e824128-fbd5-4c9e-9a57-ae2f0056b0c4/image.jpg?t=1749831085&size=Large" [1]=> string(10) "image/jpeg" [2]=> int(0) }This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since.
Warning: This episode discusses sexual themes.
Artificial intelligence has changed how millions of people write emails, conduct research and seek advice.
Kashmir Hill, who covers technology and privacy for The New York Times, tells the story of a woman whose relationship with a chatbot when much further than that.
Guest: Kashmir Hill, a features writer on the business desk at The New York Times, covering technology and privacy.
Background reading:
Photo: Helen Orr for 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.
Here's a preview of Law'd Awful Movies!!! If you'd like the full thing, become a $2+ patron at patreon.com/law!
LAM 1010 - After taking a break with a couple of things we actually enjoyed (Juror #2 and My Cousin Vinny), Law’d Awful Movies returns to form with the first two episodes of USA’s uniquely terrible adaptation of John Grisham’s classic 1995 legal thriller The Rainmaker. Thomas, Lydia, and Matt review the show’s bizarre and often cowardly divergences from the source material, its AI-level of understanding of how humans operate in the world and talk to one another--and, of course, the many ways that The Rainmaker gets the most basic elements of law (and lawyering) wrong.