First Run News

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea decided Friday to resume construction of two nuclear plants, reversing a campaign promise by the new president and frustrating supporters who want the country to phase out nuclear power. In the months before his election, President Moon Jae-in had vowed not to allow any new reactors. When he made that pledge, five nuclear power plants were under construction, three of them near completion. Mr.

WASHINGTON — Janet L. Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, said on Friday night that the Fed is making “good progress” in reducing its vast portfolio of bond holdings, the most recent stage in the central bank’s gradual unwinding of its post-crisis economic stimulus program. Ms. Yellen said a safe retreat was a crucial step in establishing that similar measures could be used to respond to future economic downturns. “The bottom line is that we must recognize that our unconventional tools might have to be used again,” Ms.

HOUSTON — At the crack of the ball off Todd Frazier’s bat — a sound heavier and more authoritative than any the Yankees have produced off Justin Verlander in the postseason — it seemed as if everyone who had squeezed into Minute Maid Park on Friday night was consumed by a singular thought. “I thought holy hell,” Houston Astros Manager A. J. Hinch said.

CAIRO — At least 52 Egyptian police and conscripts were killed and six more wounded in a gun battle on Friday during a raid on a suspected militant hideout in the western desert, three security sources said. Sources had said late on Friday at least 30 police were killed. Egypt is battling an Islamist insurgency concentrated in the Sinai peninsula from two main groups, including an Islamic State affiliate, that has killed hundreds of security forces since 2013. The interior ministry released a statement on the operation on Friday but has so far not given any details on casualties.

Updated, Oct. 20: Republicans moved closer to opening oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with a Senate budget vote late Thursday, setting off a new political scramble over the future of the pristine habitat in northern Alaska. The dispute over the refuge has been simmering for decades.

ST. LOUIS — Chris Sommers, who runs a chain of successful pizza restaurants here, has long supported both sides in the fierce standoff between police officers and black residents playing out in this city. He donated to civil rights groups after the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., which is just 10 miles away. He also backed officers, giving them discounts at his pizzerias and supporting the mayoral candidate endorsed by the police union. But Mr. Sommers chose sides about a month ago. After protesters peacefully marched past one of his restaurants one night, Mr.

After a series of high-profile police shootings, police departments across the nation turned to body cameras, hoping they would curb abuses.

BROWNSBURG, Ind. — The courtship started out well enough. President Trump invited Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana and two other Democrats to the White House for dinner to talk about his tax plan. “It was civil and I thought he was really interested in what I had to say,” Mr. Donnelly remembered, adding, “It was not a show.” The president later asked Mr. Donnelly, who is up for re-election next year, to join him on Air Force One to travel to Indiana in late September to formally roll out the proposal, and to ride with him in the presidential motorcade.

WASHINGTON — A fight over President Trump’s trade agenda is playing out in the White House as top advisers spar over how far the United States should go in implementing the America First trade policies the president has promised to enact. On one side are Peter Navarro — a trade skeptic tapped by Mr. Trump to run the newly created Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy — and Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative leading negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta.

Despite President Trump’s pronouncements, not only is Obamacare not dead, there are signs that his administration is keeping it alive. In the latest signal that the Affordable Care Act is still law, the Internal Revenue Service said this week that it is taking steps to enforce the most controversial provision: the tax penalty people face if they refuse to obtain health insurance. Next year, for the first time, the I.R.S.