--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the host, Tracy Mumford, begins speaking]
--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, March 24th. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Trump administration has announced U.S. officials will make two trips to Greenland this week, alarming the territory's prime minister, who called the move highly aggressive and an attempt to demonstrate power over us. President Trump has vowed to make Greenland, which is a Danish territory, part of the United States, quote, one way or the other.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: His administration has cited national security interests in the Arctic, and they've also eyed the island's lucrative rare earth minerals. In the first trip, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will visit a U.S. military base there.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Then, I'm so excited to share that I'll be visiting Kalalitina, Greenland. Second Lady Usha Vance will arrive on the island to watch a national dog sled race. She announced her trip in a social media post.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: While the Trump administration has presented her visit as a friendly one, Greenland's prime minister rejected that, saying, quote, we are now at a point where it can no longer be described as an innocent visit from a politician's spouse.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He added, the international community must now react.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today, the U.S. is holding talks with Russian officials to try and iron out the details of a possible limited ceasefire in Ukraine. The U.S. spoke to Ukrainian officials yesterday. As of now, both sides have agreed to the idea of halting attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the attacks have continued.
--:-- Michael Saaar: Our job is to narrow the issues bring the parties together and stop the killing That the game plan
--:-- Stephanie Syedical: Steve Witkoff who President Trump has sent to meet with Vladimir Putin twice said in an interview on Fox News that the hope is to hammer out this temporary truce first which will allow time to negotiate a more permanent end to the fighting.
--:-- Stephanie Syedical: But analysts say Putin may just be stalling. Russia is earning goodwill with Washington for participating in the talks, but has shown no sign of slowing its offensive.
--:-- Stephanie Syedical: Over the weekend, Russia launched nearly 150 armed drones at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. The attacks killed at least three people in Kyiv.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Rome, Pope Francis made his first public appearance in more than six weeks after being hospitalized for multiple respiratory infections. A crowd of people gathered to see him and chanted his name as he was brought out onto the balcony of the hospital in a wheelchair, looking frail.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He spoke briefly in a voice that was thin and raspy. Doctors say that the 88-year-old Pope had been in such critical condition that he was on the verge of death twice while being treated.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They say he'll need to recover for two more months at home and limit meetings with large groups to avoid reinfection, a sharp turnabout from what used to be the Pope's packed public schedule.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In online shopping, a different kind of payment method is becoming more and more prevalent. For several years, consumers have seen the buy now, pay later option pop up when they shop for clothes, electronics, maybe even plane tickets.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The option lets people pay off big purchases in multiple installments with no interest But increasingly the option is being offered for small ticket items This past week the payment company Klarna said it bringing its buy now pay later service to DoorDash, the food delivery app.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: It already partners with Uber Eats and Instacart. So now people who've racked up a charge for a late night burrito delivery or pizza will be able to take out a loan to cover it as long as it meets the $35 minimum.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The companies who offer these services say they're a better deal than credit cards because they don't charge interest, only late fees.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But their growing popularity has raised concerns among consumer advocates that users will get caught up in a cycle of small loan after small loan.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Research has shown that the buy-now-pay-leader feature is most often used by people already in debt.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, legendary boxer George Foreman died Friday at 76. He leaves behind a legacy in the ring where he once fought Muhammad Ali and later became the oldest heavyweight champion ever after a shocking comeback in his 40s.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But Foreman also leaves behind a legacy in the kitchen. Had a busy day. My lean, mean, fat-reducing grilling machine is great to come home to.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: You know, this is not the person you would think would come into America's culinary scene and change its trajectory, right? It was just such an unexpected partnership.
--:-- Kim Severson: As Foreman stepped away from boxing, he turned to evangelical preaching. And the charisma that he developed at the pulpit gave way to commercials.
--:-- Kim Severson: By the mid-90s, companies were sending him all kinds of products for him to consider endorsing. A company had sent this contraption that was two metal plates with a floating hinge so you could adjust it to different size hamburger patties.
--:-- Kim Severson: He put it on a shelf He thought it was kind of a piece of junk But his wife Mary made him a couple hamburgers in it and said this thing is great I love this So he decided that they could use his name on these grills
--:-- Kim Severson: And it landed at this particular moment. Food Network had just started. People were really into watching food on television, but it was also just peak infomercial time. QVC was getting going. Infomercials were really big.
--:-- Kim Severson: The perfect landscape for something like this. And this particular period of the 90s was, you know, America's low-fat era, right? That was the thing.
--:-- Kim Severson: And the little innovation of this grill was that it had little channels on a metal plate and it was tilted 20 degrees. So you could cook your burger and the fat would miraculously roll off into this little plastic container at the base of the machine.
--:-- Kim Severson: So low-fat cooking, convenient, it had everything. And the thing about George Foreman is he was a very macho guy. So there's something appealing about this big former boxer saying, hey, guys, go in the kitchen. You can cook with this.
--:-- Kim Severson: And it gave men all kinds of permission to fall in love with a kitchen gadget. Within the first year, they were selling $5 million worth. And eventually the company would sell more than $100 million of the George Foreman grill.
--:-- Kim Severson: And it's such a ubiquitous piece of the culinary fabric of America. that the original 1996 version is on display at the Smithsonian next to the first crockpot, the first microwave, and Julia Child's entire kitchen.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, how President Trump's attacks on universities, including major funding cuts, could change the future of higher education. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
