First Run News

BAGHDAD — A month after liberating Mosul from the Islamic State, Iraqi forces began a new offensive Sunday to retake Tal Afar, one of the last big cities in Iraq under control of the extremists. As he has done frequently during the three-year military campaign against the Islamic State, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appeared on state television in the dark hours — close to 3 a.m.

BOSTON — Imagine if, week after week, as the Yankees chased a playoff berth, they anchored their lineup with Chris Carter, the often-booed, twice-released, feast-or-mostly-famine slugger. The back pages of the tabloids would shriek, and Twitter would be afire. But that is essentially what the Yankees have done for more than five weeks. Since Aaron Judge returned from the All-Star Game in Miami, he has barely resembled the rookie power hitter who became the belle of baseball. Instead, he has looked a lot like the long-gone Carter.

For Parson Hicks, a health care finance executive who supports President Trump, this past week has felt a little like déjà vu. Mr. Trump says something. His opponents howl and then predict, with certainty, a point of no return. The last time this happened, she said, was in October with the notorious “Access Hollywood” recording of Mr. Trump talking lewdly about women. His opponents were sure he was finished. His supporters knew better. “Let’s be honest, the people who are currently outraged are the same people who have always been outraged,” said Ms.

WASHINGTON — On a recent trip to Washington for a research symposium, Michelle Beermann veered into a nearby gift shop, drawn by the prospect of adding to her new bust collection. The 24-year-old stood in front of the display in White House Gifts, carefully weighing the faux bronze and marble options — Presidents John F.

WASHINGTON — Officials in the White House and in Arizona are bracing for a furious reception to President Trump’s campaign rally in Phoenix this week, amid the fallout from his comments faulting “both sides” for racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va. Of particular concern for some officials is the prospect that Mr.

WASHINGTON — Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian immigrant who met last summer with senior Trump campaign officials, has often struck colleagues as a classic Washington mercenary — loyal to his wife, his daughter and his bank account. He avoided work that would antagonize Moscow, they suggested, only because he profited from his reputation as a man with valuable connections there. But interviews with his associates and documents reviewed by The New York Times indicate that Mr. Akhmetshin, who is under scrutiny by the special counsel Robert S.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, under fire from Yale classmates and Jewish critics of President Trump, strongly defended the president’s equivocating response to the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Va., in a written statement this weekend. “I strongly condemn the actions of those filled with hate and with the intent to harm others,” Mr. Mnuchin said in a statement on Saturday.

SEOUL, South Korea — The United States and North Korea warned that the drills would deepen tensions on the Korean Peninsula by “throwing fuel onto fire.” Both the United States and South Korea insist that the drills are defensive in nature, but North Korea has long condemned the joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion.

Not since 2002, as the United States built a case for war in Iraq, has there been so much debate inside the White House about the merits — and the enormous risks — of pre-emptive military action against an adversary nation. Like its predecessors, the Trump administration is trying to pressure North Korea through sanctions to dismantle its nuclear program. But both President Trump and his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R.

Ten Navy sailors were missing and five were injured on Monday after a United States destroyer collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore. Maritime collisions involving two ships are considered rare, but this was the second collision involving an American naval destroyer since June. Here are a handful of other recent collisions involving United States Navy ve