First Run News

Not everyone benefits equally from the tax legislation that House Republicans unveiled Thursday. GOP leaders toiled for weeks to decide what deductions and tax breaks should be axed to pay for the tax cuts.

A week ago, reporters and editors in the combined newsroom of DNAinfo and Gothamist, two of New York City’s leading digital purveyors of local news, celebrated victory in their vote to join a union. On Thursday, they lost their jobs, as Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade who owned the sites, shut them down. At 5 p.m., a post by Mr. Ricketts went up on the sites announcing the decision.

Jerome H. Powell will come to the chairman’s job at the Federal Reserve with a wide-ranging résumé. He has worked in investment banking, in law and in government as an under secretary in the Treasury Department.

WASHINGTON — President Trump nominated Jerome H. Powell to chair the Federal Reserve on Thursday, bypassing Janet L. Yellen for a second term but turning to a replacement who is expected to stay the course on monetary policy if the economy continues its steady growth. “He’s strong, he’s committed, he’s smart,” Mr. Trump said in the White House Rose Garden, where he introduced Mr. Powell as his choice. Using Mr.

Robert Mercer, a billionaire investor and top financial backer of conservative causes, is stepping down as co-chief executive of Renaissance Technologies, as the giant hedge fund faces a backlash from some clients who resent Mr. Mercer’s embrace of polarizing political figures. Discomfort with Mr. Mercer’s political activism — including protests aimed at university endowments, foundations and pension funds with money invested in Renaissance — has showed signs of taking a small but growing toll.

WASHINGTON — A former Trump campaign aide dropped out of the running on Thursday for a senior position at the Department of Agriculture three days after his name was tied to a former campaign foreign policy adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I.

WASHINGTON — Standing before reporters in February, President Trump said unequivocally that he knew of nobody from his campaign who was in contact with Russians during the election. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told the Senate the same thing. Court documents unsealed this week cast doubt on both statements and raised the possibility that Mr. Sessions could be called back to Congress for further questioning. The special counsel, Robert S.

New York transportation authorities on Thursday began placing hundreds of large concrete barriers at 57 intersections along the Hudson River Park Bikeway in an effort to protect the popular path from future terror attacks. The move comes after the attack on Tuesday, in which Sayfullo Saipov is accused of

When H. A. Hellyer is out walking with his family, strangers sometimes approach him and declare, “Allahu akbar!” Many Westerners may find it hard to believe these days, but Mr. Hellyer does not recoil in fear. “I’ll be walking out with my kids,” he said, “and someone will say: ‘Oh, they’re so cute.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility late Thursday for the terrorist attack in Lower Manhattan two days earlier that killed eight people and wounded a dozen more. The statement was issued in the group’s weekly newsletter and called Tuesday’s rampage “one of the most prominent attacks targetting Crusaders in America.” It describes the suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, as a “soldier of the Caliphate” and goes on to say that the attack was carried out in response to the group’s call to target “citizens of the Crusader countries involved in the alliance against the Islamic State.” It was an unchar