First Run News

WASHINGTON — President Trump is doubling down this week on his bid to remake the tax code, meeting with Democrats, tying tax legislation to hurricane recovery and dispatching his economic team to Capitol Hill almost daily to prod lawmakers into action. But he is bringing to the game a relatively weak team — a chief economic adviser whom he has openly disparaged and a Treasury secretary whose counsel he has dismissed — and is promoting quick passage of a new tax code that has yet to be written as members of his party bicker over the details. The urgency was evident on Wednesday, as Mr.

WASHINGTON — President Trump is doubling down this week on his bid to remake the tax code, meeting with Democrats, tying tax legislation to hurricane recovery and dispatching his economic team to Capitol Hill almost daily to prod lawmakers into action. But he is bringing to the game a relatively weak team — a chief economic adviser whom he has openly disparaged and a Treasury secretary whose counsel he has dismissed — and is promoting quick passage of a new tax code that has yet to be written as members of his party bicker over the details. The urgency was evident on Wednesday, as Mr.

FRANKFURT — Sometimes it is hard to tell where the German government ends and the auto industry begins. Daimler and Volkswagen’s top lobbyists were once close aides to Chancellor Angela Merkel. The foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, used to sit on Volkswagen’s supervisory board. Ms. Merkel herself once buttonholed the governor of California to complain about the state’s strict emissions standards. Those close relations between public officials and car manufacturers were once considered vital economic policy for Germany’s most important export.

OSNABRÜCK, Germany — Just 9 years old when Chancellor Angela Merkel was first elected in 2005, Kristin Auf der Masch cannot really remember a time when Germany was led by a man. But if Ms. Auf der Masch, now 21 and an apprentice at a wind energy company in this northwestern city, finds it hard to imagine a male chancellor, she also finds it impossible to imagine a female boss. “There are lots of women at my level, and then there is Angela Merkel,” she said during a recent classroom debate about the election on Sept.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — This place calls itself the “Ancient City,” and, by the standards of American cities, that’s about right. St. Augustine is 452 years old, having been founded by the Spanish conquistador Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. But residents are reckoning with a stunning turn in its more recent history. Last October, Hurricane Matthew poured historic flooding into St.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The first patient was rushed into the emergency room of Memorial Regional Hospital around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, escaping a nursing home that had lost air-conditioning in the muggy days after Hurricane Irma splintered power lines across the state. Another arrived at 4 a.m. After a third rescue call, around 5 a.m., the hospital’s staff was concerned enough to walk down the street to check the building themselves. What they found was an oven. The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills needed to be evacuated immediately.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The first patient was rushed into the emergency room of Memorial Regional Hospital around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, escaping a nursing home that had lost air-conditioning in the muggy days after Hurricane Irma splintered power lines across the state. Another arrived at 4 a.m. After a third rescue call, around 5 a.m., the hospital’s staff was concerned enough to walk down the street to check the building themselves. What they found was an oven. The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills needed to be evacuated immediately.

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders on Wednesday night declared that they had a deal with President Trump to quickly extend protections for young undocumented immigrants and to finalize a border security package that does not include the president’s proposed wall. The Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, said in a joint statement that they had a “very productive” dinner meeting with the president at the White House that focused on the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Maxwell said on MSNBC that “identity politics need to be at the center of what the Democrats need to do going forward” even though Bannon told the American Prospect‘s Robert Kuttner that Republicans would “crush” Democrats if they become the salad-bowl party. “The Democrats,” Bannon told Kuttner, “the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day.

Maxwell said on MSNBC that “identity politics need to be at the center of what the Democrats need to do going forward” even though Bannon told the American Prospect‘s Robert Kuttner that Republicans would “crush” Democrats if they become the salad-bowl party. “The Democrats,” Bannon told Kuttner, “the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day.