First Run News

Top Trump advisers recruited two businessmen with backgrounds in military contracting to come up with alternative plans for Afghanistan, the New York Times reported Monday. Blackwater Worldwide founder Erik D. Prince and DynCorp owner Stephen A. Feinberg have floated proposals to use contractor instead of U.S.

The federal government will reportedly end its years-long hunt for a new headquarters for the FBI.  The Washington Post, citing officials within the General Services Administration (GSA), reported that the officials will make the announcement on Tuesday. The end of the search for a new FBI campus comes after real estate developers had sought to bid on the endeavor and after attempts by the federal agencies during both the Trump and Obama

WikiLeaks suggested on Sunday that its founder, Julian Assange, should lead the U.S.-Russian cyber security unit after President Trump announced the idea on Twitter. “Why not put @JulianAssange in charge of it?

LONDON — How many people died in the Grenfell Tower blaze? On Monday, after weeks of criticism, the police for the first time offered an estimate of the number of people who should have been in the building that night — 350 — and said that of that figure, 255 had survived and 14 were not at home, which would imply that 81 people had died. But the official death toll in London’s deadliest fire since World War II has been repeatedly challenged by survivors and their advocates. Skeptics, including thr

LONDON — How many people died in the Grenfell Tower blaze? On Monday, after weeks of criticism, the police for the first time offered an estimate of the number of people who should have been in the building that night — 350 — and said that of that figure, 255 had survived and 14 were not at home, which would imply that 81 people had died. But the official death toll in London’s deadliest fire since World War II has been repeatedly challenged by survivors and their advocates. Skeptics, including thr

MOSUL, Iraq — The fighting is all but over in Mosul, and the billboards are already up: hastily raised signs in which the government urged the city’s Sunni residents to “turn the page” from the terrorists of the Islamic State. As Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Mosul to declare victory and call for unity, civilians on the longer-secured east side of the city danced and waved Iraqi flags.

ATLANTA — At least 16 people were believed dead after a military plane crashed in the Mississippi Delta on Monday, prompting an urgent rescue effort in one of the South’s most rural regions, the authorities said. Fred Randle, the emergency management director in Leflore County, Miss., said in a brief interview late Monday that officials thought at least 16 people had died in the crash. The fire chief in Greenwood, Marcus Banks, said only that there were “multiple fatalities” in the episode, which occurred around 4 p.m.

Finding time is hard. I often think about all the things I would do if I could just find the time. But really, what a crazy thing that is to say. Find the time? Where should I look? Did I hide it in the bushes outside the White House? Can I find it on Aisle 10 at Whole Foods next to the biodegradable toilet paper? I’ve let this question bounce around in my head for the last few months, and I think I figured out where the time went to hide. Let me explain with a small but painful story. I often work from my home office.

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Donald J.