The Headlines - A Frantic Search for Survivors in Venezuela, and Fires Scorch Western U.S.

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Plus, microdramas are trying to go mainstream.  Here’s what we’re covering: Iran Risks Peace Talks With U.S. to Maintain Leverage Over Strait, by Erika Solomon With Final Decisions Ahead, the Supreme Court Is Sharply Divided, by Ann E. Marimow Johnson Says He Will Send Housing Bill to Trump, by Michael Gold The Trail of Devastation Along the Venezuelan Coast, by Leanne Abraham, Agnes Chang, Simon Ducroquet, Samuel Granados and Pablo Robles Firefighters Mourn 3 Fallen Comrades as Blazes Ravage Utah and Colorado, by Bernard Mokam, Jack Healy, Nancy Lofholm and Maia Spoto Welcome to the Luxury City Built by Taiwan’s A.I. Boom, by Amy Chang Chien and Meaghan Tobin Microdramas, Often Dismissed as Lowbrow Curiosities, Eye the Mainstream, by Jonathan Abrams Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, June 29th. Here's what we're covering. Heading into the week, there are three key things to watch. First, in the Middle East, there's the question of how far the fragile two-week-old agreement between the U.S. and Iran can bend. Iran has now struck two ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. An analyst say the country is risking the peace deal in order to show it still has power over the crucial waterway. The strikes set off a wave of back-and-forth attacks over the weekend as the U.S. responded, hitting Iranian targets. Still, analysts say neither side appears eager to return to full-blown war. Iran is still seeking relief from years of punishing sanctions, and President Trump may be reluctant to restart the conflict, which is unpopular with voters, before the midterms. Next, in Washington, the Supreme Court is poised to make a big decision this week on birthright citizenship and whether President Trump can end that long-standing guarantee for babies born to undocumented immigrants.

Trump has been bracing for a likely defeat in the case. During the oral arguments, key justices appeared skeptical about the administration's efforts to limit who is automatically a citizen. The justices are set to issue. rulings today and at least one other day this week before going on their traditional summer break. In that mix are a couple of other major cases, including decisions on who the president has the authority to fire. And last thing to watch for. I certainly want him to take the biggest, boldest marker that he has and do that big Trump

signature proudly on that legislation because we're delivering for the people and that's what he wants to do. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he is sending President Trump the bipartisan housing bill that cleared Congress, though there's no word on whether Trump will sign it. He was supposed to sign it last week. There was a ceremony set for it and everything, but Trump abruptly canceled, saying he wouldn't act on it until the Senate passed an unrelated bill that would impose nationwide voter restrictions.

Trump has called the housing bill, which is aimed at bringing down prices and is the first major housing legislation in decades, quote, of minor importance. Once Johnson formally transfers the bill to him today, it starts a clock, and the president has 10 days to sign it or veto it. In Venezuela over the weekend. The search for survivors of the deadly back-to-back earthquakes turned increasingly frantic, has first responders and volunteers picked through the rubble of flattened homes and high rises. There were stills. some moments of relief as workers found victims and pulled them free, but rescuers were largely

working without the heavy machinery that would have let them dig deeper. Instead, people used pickaxes and jackhammers to try and get through the crushed concrete. Some even used their bare hands, and crowds lined up to clear bucket after bucket of debris. At times, the rescuers called for silence, hoping to be able to hear anyone who might be shouting for help from underneath the collapsed buildings. The desperate search came in what's known as the golden window, the first 72 hours after an earthquake when experts say there's the highest chance of locating victims alive. That window is now closed, and scores of people are still believed to be trapped. According to Venezuelan authorities, the official death toll is more than 1,400, and that number is expected to rise. Rescue workers and aid from many other countries have started flowing in, but the disaster is testing Venezuela.

as well as already fragile health care system. Officials say many hospitals have been damaged by the earthquakes, and according to a doctor, one of the facilities in the hardest hit area was operating without running water, and patients were being treated intense outside. Across the western and southwestern U.S., at least a dozen new fires have erupted in Utah in just the last 24 hours. Wildfires are raging in Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.

A huge smoke plume associated with that. This is a new one that while we've been on air has developed and now it is really taking off. According to the governor of Utah, one of the wildfires, the Cottonwood Fire, is now the most destructive blaze in the state's history in terms of property loss, burning rural cabins and mountain condos to the ground. And on the Colorado-Utah border, a series of fires have merged into a kind of mega blaze that killed three, five. firefighters who were overwhelmed by fast-moving flames. This is really just the latest sign of how devastating this wildfire season has become only just a few days into the official start of summer. My colleague Jack Healy has been covering the fires. Conditions across the West have been primed for a terrible fire season, and we are starting to see that come to pass, unfortunately.

It was a very dry winter with limited snows, and then things heated up, extraordinary. ordinarily quickly, burning away the snowpack and really parching the ground. So what you have is a deadly tinderbox across multiple Western states. And so it's going to be a very long and very difficult summer out here. As the AI boom continues to take off around the world, there's one place that can be considered ground zero, Taiwan. It's home to TSM, which makes some of the most sought-after chips that power. AI systems. Amid the chip frenzy, Taiwan's economic growth has accelerated rapidly, shooting up to become one of the fastest in the world. And my colleague Megyn Tobin has been reporting

on what that looks like in TSM's hometown, Xinju. The area used to be farmland. And now when you get to town, you know, you can take the high-speed rail there. And there's luxury high rises, there's glittery Tesla dealerships, there's plastic surgery clinics. and real estate offices and Pilates studios, you can feel the money. And beyond that, one super interesting thing that's happened here is as household incomes have gone up in the area, people are also having more kids.

So there actually haven't been enough schools to educate all the children that have been born here in the last decade or so. While this small slice of people in Xinju are doing really well, it kind of masks a deeper divide in the economy in Taiwan. You know, making chips does not. really take that many people. And the wealth from the global interest in AI has not translated to broader wage gains across other industries. So this mirrors a trend that economists are

observing around the world as a result of the rise in AI. They call it a K-shaped divide where people close to the industry are really benefiting and those who are not are struggling to find a way in. And finally, talk of microdramas has been around for years. The shows are designed to be watched on your phone. They're shot vertically and released in little bite-sized episodes, as short as a minute or two. They're huge in other countries, especially China. There's an $11 billion global market for them.

In the U.S., they've been slower to catch on. A few years ago, a startup devoted to them, Quibi went down in flames so spectacularly. that Quibi became kind of entertainment industry slang for a bad idea. But now... We should just talk about everything, all of our secrets, confess what we think you may know about us. Mainstream networks like Fox, Bravo, and Lifetime are looking at microdramas with renewed interest. Hollywood actors like Tay Diggs and Issa Ray have thrown their weight behind producing them. The shows can be 57 episodes long, but then it takes less than two hours to

watch the whole thing. You just flip through them like you would TikTok videos. The big companies looking at this aren't all necessarily creating new content. In one case, Fox struck a deal to slice up an existing reality show Farmer wants a wife and release it as more than 100 micro-series episodes. One TV executive told the times that younger people are already consuming more and more content on their phones. So, quote, we're just meeting audiences where they are. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford.

We'll be back tomorrow.