First Run News

TOA BAJA, P.R. — Everywhere they looked there was water. It swept in from the ocean to the north. And it surged toward them from overflowing rivers to the south. Hurricane Maria’s wrath left residents in this coastal town trapped by water. Entire neighborhoods were submerged and some people were swept away in the surge, residents recounted on Friday. When the waters began rushing in two days before, Laura Hernandez evacuated her home and huddled in the second floor of a neighbor’s house with several dozen other residents. Two of them were bedridden.

A dam in northwestern Puerto Rico suffered structural damage on Friday, the governor said at a news conference, prompting evacuations of areas nearby in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. “Close to 70,000 is the estimate of people that could be affected in the case of a collapse,” the governor, Ricardo Rosselló, said about the Guajataca Dam, which is operated by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. “We don’t know the details.

SAN JUAN, P.R. — Two days after Hurricane Maria flattened this island of 3.5 million people, knocking out all its power and much of its water, the rebuilding of the services and structures needed for people to resume some semblance of ordinary life was looking more complicated by the day. All or part of three towns in the northwestern part of the island — Isabela, San Sebastián and Quebradillas — were being evacuated Friday because of fears about structural damage to the nearby Guajataca Dam.

HONG KONG — When President Trump threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea and mocked its leader, Kim Jong-un, as “Rocket Man” in a speech on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, the rhetorical retaliation from Pyongyang was inevitable. That Mr. Kim would call Mr. Trump a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard” on Friday was something more of a surprise.

WASHINGTON — If North Korea follows through on its threat to conduct an atmospheric nuclear test, it would be a far more dangerous step than anything Kim Jong-un, its leader, has attempted — and poses a host of hard decisions for the Trump administration because attempting to stop the test could be as dangerous as letting it go ahead. All six of the North’s nuclear tests have been underground, containing the radioactive fallout.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has long cultivated an image of defiant belligerence, punctuating its propaganda and diplomacy with colorful threats, insults and bluster.

WASHINGTON — The war of words between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, raised concerns on Friday that it could escalate into a new and more volatile phase as the White House weighed its next steps in response to a threat by Pyongyang to conduct the world’s first atmospheric nuclear test in 37 years. Mr. Trump derided Mr.

WASHINGTON — As more than 40 subdued Republican senators lunched on Chick-fil-A at a closed-door session last week, Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado painted a dire picture for his colleagues. Campaign fund-raising was drying up, he said, because of widespread disappointment among donors over the inability of the Republican Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act or do much of anything else. Mr.

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain of Arizona announced on Friday that he would oppose the latest proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act, leaving Republican leaders with little hope of succeeding in their last-ditch attempt to dismantle the health law and fulfill their longstanding promise to conservative voters. For Mr. McCain, it was a slightly less dramatic reprise of his middle-of-the-night thumbs-down that killed the last repeal effort in July.

WASHINGTON — Senator John McCain of Arizona announced on Friday that he would oppose the latest proposal to repeal the Affordable Care Act, leaving Republican leaders with little hope of succeeding in their last-ditch attempt to dismantle the health law and fulfill their longstanding promise to conservative voters. For Mr. McCain, it was a slightly less dramatic reprise of his middle-of-the-night thumbs-down that killed the last repeal effort in July.