First Run News

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans, abandoning a key fiscal doctrine, agreed on Tuesday to move forward on a budget that would add to the federal deficit in order to pave the way for a $1.5 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years. The Republican lawmakers, under mounting pressure to score a legislative win on taxes, say a tax cut of this magnitude will stimulate economic growth enough to offset any deficit impact. Yet critics say a deficit-financed tax cut is at odds with longstanding Republican calls for fiscal discipline, including that tax cuts not add to the ballooning federal deficit.

MEXICO CITY — It was about midnight, as Hurricane Maria was battering the Caribbean nation of Dominica, that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit took to Facebook. Roofs everywhere, he wrote, were being torn off by the powerful storm’s winds. He himself had to be rescued from his official residence. “We will need help, my friend, we will need help of all kinds,” he said, describing the damage as “mind-boggling.” And then silence. From Mr.

SAN JUAN, P.R.

UNITED NATIONS — President Trump, in declaring Tuesday that sovereignty should be the guiding principle of affairs between nations, sketched out a radically different vision of the world order than his forebears, who founded the United Nations after World War II to deal collectively with problems they believed would transcend borders. Mr.

Leaders from around the globe took the lectern at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday — a particularly big moment for President Trump, who addressed the gathering for the first time. In his speech, Mr. Trump vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies.

Leaders from around the globe took the lectern at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday — a particularly big moment for President Trump, who addressed the gathering for the first time. In his speech, Mr. Trump vowed to “totally destroy” North Korea if it threatened the United States or its allies.

UNITED NATIONS — President Trump brought the same confrontational style of leadership he has used at home to the world’s most prominent stage on Tuesday as he vowed to “totally destroy North Korea” if it threatened the United States and denounced the nuclear agreement with Iran as “an embarrassment” that he may abandon. In his first address to the

ASUNCIÓN IXTALTEPEC, Mexico — The death toll from Mexico’s strongest earthquake in living memory rose to 90 on Sunday, as the people of southern Oaxaca State mourned their dead and rescue workers began assessing the damage in small towns where dust still hung in the air. The state of Oaxaca was hit the hardest, with 71 dead, said Águeda Robles, a spokeswoman for the state civil protection agency.

The death toll from the powerful earthquake that struck Mexico on Tuesday jumped to 216, government officials said Wednesday, as searchers worked desperately to find survivors in the ruins of collapsed structures. The new death toll was announced by Luis Felipe Puente, the country’s civil protection coordinator. He said that more than half the dead were found in Mexico City and nearby Morelos State. The Tuesday afternoon quake toppled dozens of buildings and led to the deaths of 21 children in a school that collapsed in Mexico City.

MEXICO CITY — A powerful earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday afternoon, toppling buildings, killing children in a school that collapsed, rattling the capital and sending people flooding into the streets for the second time in just two weeks. Early Wednesday, the director of Mexico’s civil protection agency, Luis Felipe Puente, said on Twitter that 216 people had been killed, revising an earlier toll of 248. Eighty-three people were killed in Mexico City, Mr.