The Sunday Read: ‘What Alice Munro Knew’

When Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post more than a decade ago, journalists inside and outside the newsroom were cautiously optimistic. But those hopes were dashed on Wednesday, when the paper carried out widespread layoffs. Erik Wemple, who covered the developments, discusses what went wrong and what comes next.

The explosion of prediction markets in the United States, where people bet on everything from Taylor Swift’s wedding date to election outcomes, has radically expanded the universe of gambling. David Yaffe-Bellany, a technology reporter, explains how these platforms became so widespread so fast, and how betting on everything could change the way we live.

Last week, F.B.I. agents searched an election center in Fulton County, Ga., seizing truckloads of ballots from 2020. The move escalated the investigation into President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the state after his 2020 defeat in the state. It has since been learned that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, was present during the search. Devlin Barrett, a Times reporter who covers the F.B.I., discusses the presence of the nation’s top intelligence official and the stunning phone call that shows how personally involved Mr. Trump has become in the investigation.

Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, traveled to Minneapolis a few days ago with a message: the faster local officials cooperate with federal immigration agents, the faster those agents will leave. Hamed Aleaziz and Ernesto Londoño, New York Times reporters, explain why that kind of cooperation is so difficult to pull off.

At the Grammy Awards tonight, the Puerto Rican pop sensation Bad Bunny is the first Spanish-language artist to be nominated for album, record and song of the year simultaneously. For most artists, this would be the high point of their year, if not their career. For Bad Bunny, this is just an appetizer for what’s in store for him next week. Next Sunday, he will headline the Super Bowl halftime show. His performance comes in the middle of a nationwide crackdown on immigration — an issue he’s been vocal about — and follows a backlash against the N.F.L. for booking him in the first place. Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the hosts of The Times’s pop music show “Popcast,” discuss Bad Bunny’s rise to the heights of pop stardom, and explore what it means for a Puerto Rican artist to headline the world’s biggest stage.