--:-- [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 Tuesday, December 31st. Here's what we're covering.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The U.S. Treasury Department says it was hacked by a Chinese intelligence agency, calling it a major cybersecurity incident. In a letter to lawmakers yesterday, the department said it learned about the incident earlier this month.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The hackers were able to get remote access to some employees' computers and unclassified documents. It's not clear what they did with that access, but senior U.S. officials tell The Times it appears to be an espionage operation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Treasury Department keeps sensitive data about global financial systems, including estimates about China's own economy, which has been struggling. It also implements sanctions, including against some Chinese firms who are helping Russia in its war against Ukraine.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Chinese officials have long denied any government role in hacking, but the Treasury breach is the latest in a series of incidents that the U.S. says China is behind.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In one of the most far-reaching and damaging of those incidents, a Chinese intelligence group hacked into U.S. telecom firms this year, getting access to text messages and phone conversations.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Investigators say phone lines used by Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and others were targeted, though it's not clear what, if anything, hackers were able to monitor.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Beyond data collection, there's been a Chinese effort to insert malicious code into U.S. utility grids and water supply systems, potentially giving hackers the capability to shut off critical infrastructure.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Treasury Department said it's working with the FBI and other investigators to determine the full impact of the latest breach.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Yesterday a man who had been detained at Guantanamo Bay since the day the U military prison opened was sent home. Riddha bin Saleh al-Yazidi was captured along with a group of other men on the Afghanistan border in December of 2001.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Some of them were suspected of being bodyguards for Osama bin Laden. Yazidi was sent to Guantanamo Bay the next month and spent almost 23 years there without ever being charged with a crime.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He was approved for transfer back to his home country of Tunisia more than a decade ago, but the deal got caught up in bureaucratic red tape, and Yazidi didn't want to meet with other countries that might have taken him in.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: His repatriation is part of a final push by the White House to follow through on an Obama-era promise to close Guantanamo. It's now clear, though, that that won't happen in this administration.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: There are still 26 detainees left at the prison.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, a plea deal with the most high-profile remaining prisoner at Guantanamo appears to be moving forward.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Earlier this year, senior Pentagon officials said Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the September 11th attacks, would plead guilty to conspiracy and murder charges in exchange for a life sentence instead of a death penalty trial.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Secretary of Defense stepped in to try and block the deal, saying he alone should be responsible for that kind of decision.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But yesterday, an appeals panel at the Pentagon ruled the deal is valid, clearing the way for a guilty plea hearing next week.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Ecuador, the country is in the grips of an extreme energy crisis.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Julie Turkowitz has been covering the blackouts that have become a near-constant reality.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: The highways are sort of inky black for long stretches. Internet service has gone down because of energy cuts.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: In some places people don't have running water for seven, eight, nine hours a day.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: Elderly people who live in towering buildings who don't want to get in elevators because they're scared to be trapped... they just get trapped in their homes for days or weeks on end.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: This has really affected almost every aspect of daily life.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: The problem is that Ecuador went all in on hydroelectric power.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: In the past few decades, it spent billions of dollars building dams along the rivers that thread through the country.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: Hydropower provides 70% of its electricity.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: But the country, along with most of South America, has now been caught in a record-breaking drought, collapsing the whole energy system.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: When Ecuador embarked on this ambitious hydropower expansion project, it really sought to be a leader in becoming not only a country that could sort of build progress through energy expansion, but do so using sustainable energy sources.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: And what we've seen is that the country that once tried to respond to climate change has instead become a victim of its own energy system.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: And so now Ecuador is being looked at as a potential warning sign for other countries around the world that have invested heavily in hydropower.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: Worldwide, more than a billion people live in countries that get the majority of their energy from hydroelectric plants.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: Many of those dams in places from China to Zambia have been strained by droughts.
--:-- Julie Turkowitz: That's left some countries looking for alternatives... including turning back to fossil fuels to keep the power on.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Finally, the Times has an annual tradition of making food predictions... what will be the big foods and food trends in the new year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Reporter Kim Severson has been digging through food companies' research, talking with chefs and restaurant groups, and analysts about what we'll be eating in 2025.
--:-- Kim Severson: Convenience stores and gas station options are going to get some culinary love.
--:-- Kim Severson: Social media reviewers are already all over it. I don't know that I've ever seen meatballs at a gas station before.
--:-- Kim Severson: Honestly, not bad. It didn't really taste like garlic or Parmesan, but it kind of had a flame-broiled taste to it, and it was so juicy.
--:-- Kim Severson: Mini-marts have been cooking up made-to-order meals, and the Japanese parent company of 7-Eleven plans to start bringing over more options like ramen and egg salad sandwiches that are common at Japanese convenience stores.
--:-- Kim Severson: Here's how to pack your oats with protein without any protein powder.
--:-- Kim Severson: Also in 2025, I say protein is going to continue to be a big buzzword.
--:-- Kim Severson: Partly for the gym bros, partly for the people on weight loss medications like Ozempic, who need more protein to maintain muscle mass.
--:-- Kim Severson: So, all hail cottage cheese, peanut butter smoothies, and meat snacks.
--:-- Kim Severson: And... these are badger flame beets. They're a beet that's bred to be much sweeter and milder than your typical red beet.
--:-- Kim Severson: Look out for designer produce. Specially tweaked fruits and veggies, like beets grown to be sweeter, are going to be popping up more often.
--:-- Kim Severson: Grapes that taste like cotton candy, strawberries bred to have a tropical twist, etc.
--:-- Kim Severson: You may see influencers on social media hyping up the latest berry. Wow, they taste like candy. So sweet.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For the full list of 2025 food trends, visit nytimes.com.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Today on The Daily, a special year-end episode looking at the best books of the year and the best books of the century.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: 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 on Thursday after the holiday.
