The Headlines - Ships Under Fire in Strait of Hormuz, and Kennedy’s Pushback on Antidepressants

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Plus, the gowns — and the backlash — at the Met Gala.  Here’s what we’re covering: Shipping Firms Left Guessing by Confusion in Strait of Hormuz, by Peter Eavis, Gregory Schmidt and Eric Schmitt Trump Tries to Downplay Economic Effects of the Iran War, by Erica L. Green and Zolan Kanno-Youngs 7 Elections on Tuesday Will Test Trump’s Power, by Mitch Smith Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants, by Ellen Barry What to Know About the Suspected Hantavirus Outbreak on an Atlantic Cruise Ship, by Jin Yu Young and Claire Moses The Met Gala’s Embrace of Jeff Bezos Causes a Backlash, by Jesse McKinley and Alisha Haridasani Gupta 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 Tuesday, May 5th. Here's what we're covering. One day into President Trump's plan to get traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz again. The U.S. military says it's been shooting down cruise missiles and drones fired at commercial ships by Iran. It's responded with force, sinking six Iranian speedboats. The new attacks have shaken the temporary truce, and they've also added to the confusion and uncertainty for ships

caught near the waterway. While the U.S. is vowing to help tankers carrying everything from natural gas to fertilizer get out, it's unclear if the shipping companies will take the risk. One trade analyst told the Times, a key reason cargo ships aren't going through yet is insurance costs. Even if a captain is willing to sail through the strait, the ship's owners, or the owners of its cargo, could refuse. Shipping companies said Iran needs to be part of any plan to move a large number of ships through the waterway. According to the International Maritime Organization, around 1,600 vessels are currently trapped in the Gulf. Before the war, about 130 ships a day used to cross the strait. Yesterday, according to one financial intelligence firm,

four ships got through. Meanwhile, China, let's see them step up with some diplomacy and get the Iranians to open the street. Treasury Secretary Scott Besant called on China to try and help get the straight open. The country has continued to buy Iranian oil through the war, which has in part kept Iran's economy afloat. But the U.S. has been applying pressure, warning China that it will go after entities involved in those oil sales, like refineries and financial institutions. So far, the Chinese government has avoided taking a strong position on the war. In Indiana today, voters will cast ballots in a state legislative. legislative primary. Usually that's kind of a sleepy affair, down ballot races without a lot of eyes on

them. Not this time. Today will be a test of President Trump's power in the Republican Party. It stems from last year when Trump urged red states to redraw their election maps to try and get the GOP more seats in Congress. Several followed suit, but not Indiana. In a rare instance of elected Republicans publicly defying the president, a critical mass of Indiana lawmakers said no to his redistricting effort. So Trump has primaried them. For months, he's been inviting challengers to the White House and putting out endorsements on social media. And tonight, seven Republican incumbents will be fighting to keep their seats against candidates that Trump backed over them. It will be one of several tests of the president's power this primary season.

When you look at a suite of races in May, these are a pretty remarkable set of primaries where President Trump has laid out one singular criteria. Will you be loyal to him? And if you have crossed him before and not done his bidding, he wants you out and he wants people in, some of whom he has personally recruited, who he believes once in office will vote lockstep with him into the future. Times political correspondent Shane Goldmacher has more on what races to watch this primary season on today's episode of the Daily. And the Times will have coverage of the Indiana results as they come in tonight.

In Washington. The United States does not just face the mental health crisis. We face a dependency crisis driven by over-medicalization. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan yesterday to rein in what he's called Americans' overuse of antidepressants. We will no longer treat them as the default. Kennedy has narrowed in specifically on SSRIs, the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants. That includes household names like Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac. The user base is huge. Roughly one in six Americans reported taking an SSRI this year. Kennedy acknowledged that patients can benefit from them, and he stressed that

he wasn't telling anyone to just stop. But he argued that. too many people start taking the meds without knowing how long they'll stay on them and with no plan to come off. He has singled out SSRIs before. He's previously claimed without evidence that they are partly responsible for the rise in school shootings and that they can be harder to quit than heroin. I happen to be an actual expert on this. Something he repeated yesterday. I was addicted to heroin for 14 years. For his new effort, Kennedy announced several initiatives. like trainings and new guidelines to nudge clinicians to help patients get off medications and consider other treatment options like therapy or exercise.

No major medical organizations were represented at yesterday's event. And my colleague Ellen Barry, who covers mental health, has been speaking with psychiatrists and other experts in the field about Kennedy's new push. I think there's sort of two issues here. One is the kind of technical and structural question of what do people know, need to get off cocktails of psychiatric medications. They've been on for a long time. And I think sort of genuinely, you hear from people inside the profession that they could absolutely do better on this. At the same time, I hear some concern about the overall statement that we overuse

psychiatric medication. And the concern I hear from psychiatrists is that this conversation could end up sort of undermining confidence in an entire system of care. Some of these psychiatric meds are used by tens of millions of Americans. They are the first-line treatments in many cases for anxiety and depression-grade common disorders, and there's concern about undermining confidence in them. And finally, the feathers, the diamonds, the headpiece. The Met Gala is often billed as the world's most exclusive party. Can you just look at the detailing in my dress?

And last night, it brought what has become a... It's trademark mix of high fashion and heated controversy. The event, which raised a record amount of money for the museum's costume institute, had a red carpet filled with sometimes eye-popping looks. Bad Bunny shocked people by showing up looking old, wrinkled, and gray, thanks to heavy special effects makeup that he joked took 53 years to put on. Heidi Klum also went extreme, coming dressed exactly like a stone statue in full body makeup. It was honestly kind of eerie.

Even before the night got started, though, protesters had been calling out the event as a glaring symbol of wealth inequality. The gala's lead sponsors this year were Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos, which sparked a lot of backlash. Demonstrators set up their own alternate red carpets nearby. and some went a little further. One activist group put bottles of fake urine around the museum, a reference to reports from some Amazon workers that they're not even given time for bathroom breaks. The group also projected a giant slogan

on buildings near Bezos's New York penthouse, including, if you can buy the Met Gala, you can pay more taxes. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.