After 15 months of war, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a temporary cease-fire. The deal prompted hope that the war could end soon, but also caused worry that the tentative terms could easily fall apart.

Patrick Kingsley, the Times’s Jerusalem bureau chief, explains why the agreement finally happened — and what it means for Gaza, Israel and the broader Middle East.

Guests: Patrick Kingsley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Here’s what we know about the agreement.
• The Times obtained a copy of the provisional deal. Here’s what it says.
• Follow continuing coverage.

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

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On Tuesday, the confirmation process for President-elect Donald J. Trump’s cabinet picks kicked off with Pete Hegseth, for the position of defense secretary.

Eric Schmitt, who covers U.S. national security, explains how the four-hour hearing unfolded, and what the odds are that Mr. Hegseth will soon be leading the Pentagon.

Guests: Eric Schmitt, a national security correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Read four takeaways from the hearing.
• Here’s how Senate confirmation works.

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

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

 A week after fires broke out in the Los Angeles area, Californians are grappling with the widespread destruction.

They’re also seeking answers from their leaders about why so much has been lost.

Mike Baker and Christopher Flavelle, who have been covering the fires, discuss the authorities’ response and whether some of the devastation could have been avoided.

Guests: 

• Mike Baker, a national reporter for The New York Times.
• Christopher Flavelle, a reporter for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Some Pacific Palisades residents said the community had long asked for more detailed fire preparation plans.
• The L.A. fires show the limits of America’s efforts to cope with climate change.
• How Los Angeles firefighters ran out of water.

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

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

“My life has gone rosy, again,” Alice Munro told a friend in a buoyant letter of March 1975. For Munro, who was then emerging as one of her generation’s leading writers, the previous few years had been blighted by heartbreak and upheaval: a painful separation from her husband of two decades; a retreat from British Columbia back to her native Ontario; a series of brief but bruising love affairs, in which, it seems, Munro could never quite make out the writing on the wall. “This time it’s real,” she wrote, speaking of a new romantic partner, Gerald Fremlin, the emphasis acknowledging that her friend had heard these words before. “He’s 50, free, a good man if I ever saw one, tough and gentle like in the old tire ads, and this is the big thing — grown-up.”

The judgment would prove premature. In July 2024, two months after Munro’s death at age 92, Andrea Skinner, the youngest of her three daughters, revealed in an essay in The Toronto Star that Fremlin had sexually abused her.

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The actor-director discusses the long-awaited return of the hit series, the comedies that made him a star and growing up with his famous parents.Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Jeanna Smialek, who covers the U.S. economy for The Times, will be 33 in a few weeks; she is part of a cohort born in 1990 and 1991 that makes up the peak of America’s population.

At every life stage, that microgeneration has stretched a system that was often too small to accommodate it, leaving its members — so-called peak millennials — with outsize economic power but also a fight to get ahead.

Guest: Jeanna Smialek, a U.S. economy correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• When millennials gripe that they get blamed for everything, the accusers might actually be onto something.
• Millennials have the children, but boomers have the houses.

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

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.