The Headlines - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Resign, and U.S. Reports First Bird Flu Death

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Plus, the Taliban is welcoming tourists.   On Today’s Episode:Justin Trudeau’s Trying to Save His Party. Is He Hurting Canada?, by Matina Stevis-GridneffFirst Bird Flu Death in U.S. Reported in Louisiana, by Apoorva Mandavilli and Emily AnthesDana White, the Ultimate Fighting Championship C.E.O., Joins Meta’s Board, by Kate CongerFor Many Returning Russian Veterans, a Long Road of Recovery Awaits, by Valerie HopkinsIgnoring Warnings, a Growing Band of Tourists Venture to Afghanistan, by David Zucchino Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, January 7th. Here's what we're covering. So last night over dinner, I told my kids about the decision that I'm sharing with you today. I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader through a robust nationwide competitive process.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced yesterday that he will step down from the country's top post, bowing to an increasingly disgruntled public and fighting within his own Liberal party. It's time for the temperature to come down, for the people to have a fresh start, to be able to navigate through these complex times, both domestically and internationally. Trudeau came to power nearly a decade ago, writing the same message of hope and change as Barack Obama.

But he's now the latest Western leader to fall to a wave of dissatisfaction. Unemployment's high, the pain of inflation's still fresh, and there's been backlash to the country's immigration policies. A poll last month showed 73 percent of Canadians wanted Trudeau out as party leader. His resignation comes as Canada's facing a major economic threat, American tariffs. Donald Trump has threatened to put 25% tariffs in place on Canadian imports if the country doesn't do more to stop drugs and migrants from coming across the border.

The tariffs would upend Canada's economy, since the U.S. and Canada are each other's largest trading partners. Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago for talks with Trump after he announced the tariffs, but Trump mocked him online afterwards, and has even joked that Canada should become America's 51st state. For now, Trudeau will stay on as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party until a replacement can be chosen. General elections must happen by October, but a vote could happen earlier. The first person in the U.S. to get seriously ill from bird flu has now died, according to health officials in Louisiana. The patient got infected after being exposed to wild birds and a backyard flock. They were over 65, had underlying health conditions,

and had been hospitalized since last month. It's the only death so far caused by the virus in the US, and officials say there are no other cases in the state and no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Still, samples of the virus from the patient show that it had mutated over the course of the illness in a way that might allow it to infect

other people more easily. Scientists say people should avoid sick animals and wild birds, and because the virus has been spreading rapidly among dairy cattle, you should not drink raw milk. Meanwhile, in China, a surge in cases of a different virus, human metanumavirus, known as HMPV, has sparked fears online.

But medical experts say it's not a major concern. The respiratory virus is similar to RSV and generally causes cough, fever, and congestion. Patients with pre-existing conditions can get more sick, though it's rarely fatal in countries with advanced healthcare systems. What is the most common case of a virus? fatal in countries with advanced healthcare systems. With just two weeks until Donald Trump takes office, Meta, the parent company of Facebook,

Instagram, and WhatsApp, is tightening its ties to his administration. The company has donated a million dollars to Trump's inaugural fund, appointed a new head of global policy known for his Republican connections, and has now added a longtime friend of Trump's to the Metta board, Dana White. White runs UFC, Ultimate Fighting Championship, which has become something like the semi-official sport of the MAGA movement. In a post announcing the appointment, Metta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote that he admires White's, quote, ability to build such a beloved brand.

Zuckerberg and White have known each other for years. Zuckerberg took up mixed martial arts back in 2022. White then tried to organize a televised cage match between Zuckerberg and another billionaire, Elon Musk. White said he spent days on the phone with them trying to broker the spectacle. Musk eventually backed out of the battle. It's now been nearly three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, and Moscow is continuing to push forward on the front lines at great human cost,

not just to Ukrainian troops and civilians, but to its own soldiers. Russia's classified a lot of details about how many soldiers have been killed or wounded, but some estimates say 300,000 Russian soldiers have now been seriously injured. That's left the country scrambling to accommodate them as they return home, whether that's ordering a record number of prosthetic limbs or trying to train more therapists to deal with the mental health toll. I was able to speak to a Russian colonel who expressed concern that really surprised me for such a high-level military official to say that, you know, Russia was not institutionally

ready to help the returning soldiers grapple with PTSD. Valerie Hopkins covers Russia for the Times. She's been looking at how the country is trying to reintegrate so many veterans. People are aware of stories of veterans returning and becoming violent and are frankly concerned about the way that the return of participants in the war will reverberate in society. You know, I was on a train from the city of Rustov in the west to Moscow, and I spoke to women there who were concerned Rustov is a big hub for soldiers that are returning back home from the front. And the woman said she had paid a lot extra to sleep in a women's only car because she

had had a negative experience with soldiers. And it prompted a discussion in our whole train cabin about the consequences of people who have witnessed so much horror and experienced so much trauma and what that means as they, you know, continue to live their lives back in a civilian society. And finally... This is what it's like to backpack in Taliban controlled Afghanistan as an American tourist. We then tasted the delicious Afghani Bolani, an Afghan stuffed flatbread. It's a country that I wanted to visit for a long time. Despite everything going on politically, I still wanted to see the country for myself.

I've been reporting from Afghanistan since 2001 and I anticipated that a few hearty souls might try to go to Afghanistan after the war ended, but I really was surprised at the number and how many people were willing to take the risk to travel there. Lauren Henry My colleague David Zucchino has been covering an unlikely surge in tourism in Afghanistan. After decades of war and terrorism, the Taliban government has started promoting travel to the country, in part to boost its struggling economy. And over 14,000 people from around the world have made the trip, exploring Afghanistan's mosques, museums, and mountains, despite sometimes dire warnings

from their own governments about the potential for kidnapping and crime. Two of the tourists I talked to said they had visited every other country in the world except Afghanistan and Afghanistan had been on their list for a long time, so they were checking it off. Another one had visited more than 100 countries, so they tended to be very experienced travelers, just open to adventure. I ran into one woman, a 23-year-old young woman from Japan who had traveled alone through Pakistan on her own and crossed the border

into Afghanistan. I did ask her about being a woman there and how she felt about it, whether she had concerns. And he said, well, she knew treatment of women in Afghanistan is horrible. But she said she was treated very well, was not harassed in any way. She mentioned to me that some people looked at her with a lot of curiosity and a little bit of disapproval. And because of that, she said she was considering buying a headscarf. But otherwise, she said she had a very wonderful trip. And I'm sure the experience was exactly what the Taliban was hoping for. They are really counting on the word getting out as a way to sort of open up Afghanistan to the world and bring in hard currency. Those are the headlines.

Today on The Daily, Republicans will soon control both the House and the Senate. A look at how they may still struggle to push through Trump's agenda. That's next in the New York Times audio app where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.