New Role for Max Bearak

For more than a dozen years, Max Bearak has reported from more than 50 countries on every continent except Antarctica. Now we are lucky and thrilled to announce that for his next assignment, he will bring his breadth of knowledge, deep empathy for his subjects and innate curiosity to his most wide-ranging beat yet as a correspondent on the Live team based in New York.

Max joined The Times in 2022 as a climate reporter covering energy politics around the globe. He focused on human stories, bringing to life a beat that could have easily fallen into wonkiness or geopolitical abstraction. He wrote memorably about First Nations in Canada at odds over whether they should invest in fossil fuel infrastructure, and about a gritty team of scientists conducting a tree census in the Amazon. He also detailed how poor countries are trying to push ahead with a shift to cleaner power despite the United States' pushback under President Trump and explained why we all needed to pay attention to " the world's most boring man ."

Lyndsey Layton, the Climate editor, said: "Max has been a cornerstone of our global reporting, tackling the most urgent issues - from the geopolitical maneuvering of international climate policy to the human cost of global warming - with both rigor and nuance.

"While he has been able to capture complex scientific and political data in a way that resonates with our readers, it is his presence in the newsroom that we will miss most. A quintessential team player and a model of collegiality, Max has partnered with nearly everyone on the desk on a story or a coverage line, embodying the collaborative spirit that defines our best work."

For the past several months, Max has reported for International from Venezuela and Colombia, where he and his colleagues found the first physical evidence of the U.S. airstrikes on boats the Trump administration claims belong to drug traffickers, interviewed Colombia's president twice , and chronicled the wild moment when María Corina Machado gave Mr. Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal .

After graduating from Carleton College in Minnesota, Max returned to India, where he had spent his childhood, and began to freelance as a journalist. He was eventually hired by The Washington Post to cover foreign affairs, and after an initial stint in Washington he was based in Kenya for four years and then in Ukraine.

While in Africa, Max was awarded the James Foley Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism for his reporting on Ebola , Boko Haram and post-election violence in Zimbabwe . He also won an Overseas Press Club of America award for a project he led called Africa's Rising Cities , that explored the challenges of breakneck urban growth across the continent.

On Live, Max will help keep us on top of the biggest stories, and to write authoritatively about the latest developments in the Iran war and whatever else calls for his steady hand and curious mind. While he will also continue to travel and report occasionally for International, Max said that he is happy to be in the city he considers his home in the world .

Please join us in welcoming Max.

- Julie and Andy