First Run News

One of my kids has asked for a Google Home Mini. But hold up, Santa. It’s been three years since Amazon debuted Echo, a speaker that came with a talking digital assistant named Alexa, which you can ask to order a pizza or play a song or a great many other things.

One of my kids has asked for a Google Home Mini. But hold up, Santa. It’s been three years since Amazon debuted Echo, a speaker that came with a talking digital assistant named Alexa, which you can ask to order a pizza or play a song or a great many other things.

NEW DELHI — As millions of Indians watched a televised cricket match this week between the national teams of India and Sri Lanka, the game suddenly stopped. The pollution in New Delhi is especially bad right now, and one of the Sri Lankan players could barely breathe.

WASHINGTON — F.B.I. officials warned one of President Trump’s top advisers, Hope Hicks, earlier this year about repeated attempts by Russian operatives to make contact with her during the presidential transition, according to people familiar with the events. The Russian outreach efforts show that, even after American intelligence agencies publicly accused Moscow of trying to influence the outcome of last year’s presidential election, Russian operatives were undaunted in their efforts to establish contacts with Mr. Trump’s advisers. There is no evidence that Ms. Hicks did anything improper.

GEORGIANA, Ala. — Four days before an Alabama Senate election with broad implications for American government, the narrow questions of whether Roy S. Moore wrote in a high school yearbook 40 years ago, and what it means for sexual misconduct allegations against him, once again took center stage on Friday. Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who has accused Mr. Moore, the Republican candidate, of misconduct, acknowledged on Friday that a few of the words in her yearbook under what she said was an inscription by Mr. Moore were written by her, not him. At a news conference with Ms.

PENSACOLA, Fla. — President Trump’s crowd was here in Florida on Friday night, but his audience was in Alabama. Just four days before a crucial special election for a Senate seat in Alabama, Mr. Trump again offered his unequivocal backing for the Republican nominee, Roy S. Moore, a candidate dogged by accusations from women, including one who was 14 at the time, that he had assaulted them or had inappropriate contact with them decades ago. Mr.

Vanessa Alarid was a lobbyist in New Mexico when she asked a lawmaker over drinks one night if she could count on his support for a bill that appeared to be coming down to a single vote. “You can have my vote if you have sex with me,” Ms. Alarid recalled the lawmaker saying, although he used cruder language for sexual intercourse. He told Ms. Alarid she had the same first name as his wife, so he would not get confused if he called out in bed. Then he kissed Ms. Alarid on the lips, she said. Shocked, Ms. Alarid, who was 32 at the time, pushed him away.

WASHINGTON — Representative Trent Franks announced Friday that he would resign from Congress immediately after accusations emerged that he had offered $5 million to a female employee to be a surrogate mother for his children, and that she and another female employee worried that the lawmaker wanted to have sex as a means of impregnating them. Mr.

The fires sweeping through Southern California, destroying property and threatening human lives, have also killed at least 54 horses, according to the authorities. The California Horse Racing Board said Thursday that at least 25 horses were killed and at least three people were injured when a fire burned through about eight barns at the San Luis Rey training center in Bonsall, in San Diego County.

VENTURA, Calif. — The quick-moving fires that have forced thousands of Californians to evacuate their homes swept across the southern part of the state on Friday, destroying buildings and taxing fire crews that have been working for days. Evacuees in San Diego County, where a 4,100-acre fire was only 15 percent contained as of late Friday night, told of swiftly encroaching flames that left at least six people injured, prized racehorses dead and dozens of homes in ruins. “I got the ‘Get the hell out of here’ evacuation,” said Paul Anderson, who left his home in San Diego County on Thursday.