A Conversation With Vice President Vance

For the past week, an international outcry has been building, particularly in Europe, over Israel’s plans to escalate its military campaign in Gaza and over its two-month-long blockade, which has put Gaza’s population on the brink of starvation. On Wednesday in Washington D.C., two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed by a man who chanted “Free Palestine” afterward. Aaron Boxerman, who covers Israel and Gaza for The Times, explains the desperate situation in Gaza … and Israel’s fears that the world has become an increasingly dangerous place for its people.

President Trump once approached the challenge of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine as a straight-ahead deal that he could achieve easily. But after months of trying, he’s signaling that he might actually walk away. Michael Crowley, who covers U.S. foreign policy for The New York Times, discusses the recent phone call between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and what it tells us about how the conflict could end.

Over the past few days, the health of former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called into focus with the disclosure that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. At the same time, Democrats are undertaking a painful re-examination of what went wrong with Joe Biden’s campaign for re-election, and the Trump White House has released embarrassing audio of Biden being interviewed. The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Reid J. Epstein, Lisa Lerer and Tyler Pager sit down to make sense of it all.

For decades, white South Africans ruled with an iron fist, overseeing the country’s apartheid system of racial oppression. Why is President Trump now welcoming them to the United States as victims? John Eligon, the Johannesburg bureau chief for The New York Times, explains how the MAGA movement became obsessed with Afrikaners.

When did you realize you were falling in love? The Modern Love podcast asked listeners this question, and the voice messages came pouring in. Listeners sent in stories that happened over dinner dates, on subway rides, while watching sunsets or at concerts. They described love at first sight, love built over time and much more. Today, we hear some of the most moving and surprising listener messages. Then, the Modern Love editor Daniel Jones discusses how we fall in love, and what the famous “36 Questions That Lead to Love” reveal about that process. And finally, Mandy Len Catron, the writer who popularized the 36 questions in her Modern Love essay, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This," tells us whether she’s still in love with the same man 10 years later. For more Modern Love, search for the show wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Wednesday.