First Run News

SAN FRANCISCO — The phone calls began late Friday among Uber’s new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, and the ride-hailing company’s executives, as well as board members and a raft of lawyers. They were facing an emergency. The problem was that Travis Kalanick, Uber’s former chief executive and a board member, had appointed two new directors — Ursula Burns, the former C.E.O. of Xerox, and John Thain, the former chief of Merrill Lynch — to the privately held company without informing them.

WASHINGTON — The sweeping tax rewrite unveiled by President Trump and Republican lawmakers this past week leaves many of the details to Congress, but two sentences in the nine-page framework have Washington lobbyists salivating over a payday that some industry experts predict could top $1 billion. Tucked away on Page 8, the sentences refer vaguely to plans to repeal or roll back “numerous” exclusions and deductions, and to “modernize” tax rules affecting specific industries “to ensure that the tax code better reflects economic reality and that such rules provide little opportunity for tax avoi

WASHINGTON — Anna C. Corbin had not been involved in politics, had not even been to the Capitol before this year. But since March, she has made the two-hour drive here from her home in Hanover, Pa., 15 times so her sons, Jackson and Henry, could lobby against efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Jackson, 12, and Henry, 9, have a genetic condition known as Noonan syndrome, which causes a bleeding disorder, short stature and digestion problems.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s selection of a secretary of health and human services could be a turning point in a health care debate that has polarized Washington, as he faces a choice of working with Democrats to fix the current system or continuing his so-far failed efforts to dismantle his predecessor’s program. The

ERBIL, Iraq — After a century of yearning, the Kurds of Iraq have managed, at last, to pull off a vote for independence, but not without antagonizing nearly everyone in perhaps the world’s most volatile region. The question now is whether an arid, landlocked proto-state dependent on hostile neighbors can overcome is own shortcomings — and

ERBIL, Iraq — After a century of yearning, the Kurds of Iraq have managed, at last, to pull off a vote for independence, but not without antagonizing nearly everyone in perhaps the world’s most volatile region. The question now is whether an arid, landlocked proto-state dependent on hostile neighbors can overcome is own shortcomings — and

Catalonia, the restive northeastern region that is Spain’s economic powerhouse, is attempting to vote on Sunday in an independence referendum. In defiance of Spanish authorities, thousands of Catalans turned out to vote early Sunday. Some had slept overnight at polling stations to make sure the police could not close them. The central government in Madrid, with the support of Spanish courts, says the vote is unconstitutional and should be suspended.

TERRASSA, Spain — Jordi Juanico Sabaté, a 6-foot-8 giant of a man, folded himself into a cafe chair in this Catalan city and fixed his eyes at a point on the horizon. He was thinking about Sunday, when Catalan leaders have scheduled a vote on separating from Spain.

BARCELONA — Catalans lined up before sunrise on Sunday, massing on rain-slicked streets in towns and cities across the northeastern region, to vote in a banned referendum on independence, even as Spanish security forces entered dozens of sites and attempted to confiscate ballot boxes. The turnout by thousands, young and old, was an extraordinary show of determination in the face of a steady drumbeat of threats from the government in Madrid, which considers the referendum unconstitutional and had ordered the police to seal public facilities to prevent voting. Officers from the Catalan police fo

BEIJING — The Trump administration acknowledged on Saturday for the first time that it was in direct communication with the government of North Korea over its missile and nuclear tests, seeking a possible way forward beyond the escalating threats of a military confrontation from both sides. “We are probing, so stay tuned,” Secretary of State Rex W.