First Run News

IOWA FALLS, Iowa — Republicans home for the congressional recess have been greeted with an earful at town hall-style meetings. Many lawmakers have no such meetings scheduled — sparing them the possibility of a YouTube moment — but opening them up to criticism that they are ducking their constituents.

A number of other Republicans will be hearing from constituents on Tuesday, and reporters for The New York Times will be there to gauge the sentiment. Come for the stories, stay for the videos.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday said anti-Semitism is “horrible,” and “painful,” speaking out for the first time about a rising tide of incidents and threats targeting Jewish people and institutions since he was inaugurated.

During a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Mr. Trump made the comments after drawing criticism in recent days for failing to condemn anti-Jewish threats and actions.

So Presidents Day has come and gone, along with the whingeing over C-Span’s latest ranking of American presidents, which predictably put Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on top (yawn); demoted the beleaguered Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson; and positioned Barack Obama, in his post-presidential debut, at No. 12.

JACKSON, Miss. — When officials in Mississippi’s rural Holmes County, about an hour’s drive north of here, hired an architecture firm to fix the county’s ailing schools, they got back plans for a new $40 million high school to serve 1,200 students.

Holmes County is among the poorest counties in the nation, plagued by age-old systematic racism, with a population (18,340) that has been declining for more than a half-century. Holmes didn’t have $40 million to pay for a high school.

A digital sleuth has discovered an anonymously published 1852 serial novel by the poet, which survived in only a single copy of an obscure newspaper.

By JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

An architectural firm’s soup-to-nuts approach is leaving an indelible imprint on poor, once-neglected corners in and around this state’s capital.

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

A guide to the best and worst American leaders in history, and which ones might prevail in a knife fight.

The chief executive of Uber on Sunday opened an internal investigation into claims of sexual harassment made by a former engineer at the company.

The engineer, Susan Fowler, said that she was sexually harassed by her direct supervisor during her time at Uber and that after she reported those claims to the human resources department, they were ignored. She gave her account in a lengthy post on her personal blog on Sunday.

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook offered $3 billion to buy the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat in 2013. Snapchat’s founder, Evan Spiegel, turned down the offer.

Ever since, Facebook and some of its top apps — including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger — have been trying to tap into the explosively popular photo-sharing features pioneered by Snapchat.

That prospect has real estate agents, money managers and luxury goods purveyors excited for a potential business windfall, of the sort often seen in Silicon Valley.

By KATIE BENNER

With Facebook and some of its top apps trying to tap into popular features pioneered by Snapchat, WhatsApp unveiled a version of its Status feature that focuses on sharing images.

By MIKE ISAAC

During his frenetic first week in office, President Trump made good on a core campaign pledge to overhaul the nation’s immigration enforcement. With the stroke of a pen, he redefined the meaning of “criminal alien” by vastly expanding the criteria used to decide who is a priority for deportation.

SAN MIGUEL, Ariz. — The phone calls started almost as soon as President Trump signed his executive order, making official his pledge to build a wall to separate the United States from Mexico.