Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
Good morning.
Here’s what you need to know:
• The first charges in the investigation by Robert Mueller into Russian ties to the Trump campaign did not implicate the president but “collectively amounted to a political body blow,” o ur chief White House correspondent writes .
If you missed the flurry of developments on Monday, here’s a wrap-up .
Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, and a business partner, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty to charges of tax fraud and money laundering. We explain five key points from their indictment, which you can read here.
The White House said that none of the charges proved that the president had colluded with Russia, but Mr. Mueller also announced that a former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty to lying to the F. B. I. and was cooperating with the inquiry.
• Our reporters in Washington explain: “It is now clear, from Mr. Papadopoulos’s admission and emails related to a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016, that the Russian government offered help to Mr. Trump’s candidacy and campaign officials were willing to take it.”
• George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old aide to the Trump campaign, repeatedly sought to set up a meeting with Russian officials last year, according to court documents. We look at how he did it.
We also traced the path of the $18 million that Paul Manafort is accused of laundering, including where he spent the money (more than $900,000 at an antique-rug store, for instance).
• In explaining the ambition that led to Mr. Manafort’s downfall, a friend referred to the former Ukrainian president for whom Mr. Manafort did work: “He could have kept running campaigns for the Yanukovychs of the world, and nobody would have cared. But he took on the Trump campaign because he believed that the country was going down the wrong path, and he wanted to make a difference.”
• Previously undisclosed complaints of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein expand the time frame of his alleged wrongdoing to the 1970s.
A spokeswoman for the Hollywood producer said that “any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.”
• How does The Times write about sexual assault? Our journalists and lawyers explain the terminology we use .
• A judge on Monday halted a White House policy barring military service by transgender troops, ruling that it was most likely unconstitutional and based on “disapproval of transgender people generally.”
• In announcing the ban in July, President Trump said that U. S. forces could not afford the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender troops.
Three people have been charged. George Papadopoulos may be the one to tell the most meaningful story.
Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device .
• President Trump is expected to nominate Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve, according to two people familiar with the plans.
Mr. Powell, a Fed governor whom one White House official described as a “safe” choice, would replace Janet Yellen next year.
• 126 million Facebook users were exposed to inflammatory posts by Russian agents, a detailed disclosure about the scope of Moscow’s influence on U. S. social media before the presidential election shows.
We talked to nine experts about how to improve the social media giant. Representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter are to testify in Congress beginning today.
• The next season of “House of Cards” will be the last, Netflix said on Monday, a day after the show’s star, Kevin Spacey, was accused of making a sexual advance on a 14-year-old boy in the 1980s.
A spokeswoman said the decision to end the show was made months ago.
• U. S. stocks were down on Monday. Here’s a snapshot of global markets.
Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.
• You don’t need to drain your battery before recharging, and other tech myths debunked .
• C locks’ seasonal shifts offer an opportunity to assess sleep habits .
• Recipe of the day: monster Halloween cookies .
• A piece of New York history.
In today’s 360 video, walk among century-old fishing shacks in Hudson, N.Y., that were once at risk of being demolished but are now being preserved.
• Partisan writing you shouldn’t miss.
Writers from across the political spectrum discuss the developments in the Russia investigation on Monday.
• In memoriam.
Fred Beckey, a fabled mountaineer for seven decades, was the first to take hundreds of routes to the summits of North America’s tallest peaks. He was 94.
Robert Blakeley designed the yellow-and-black fallout shelter sign, a once-ubiquitous symbol in the U. S. He was 95.
• They can’t believe there’s no butter.
The French consume three times as much butter as Americans, so shortages are a problem in the land of the croissant .
• Internetting with Amanda Hess
Our reporter starts a new video series today about everything that’s weird, wrong and totally sad about online culture. You can sign up here to be notified when episodes are published.
• Best of late-night TV.
The comedy hosts took stock of the charges filed against Paul Manafort. He’s “one eye patch away from being a Bond villain,” Trevor Noah said.
• Quotation of the day.
“The lack of an ability to compromise led to the Civil War.”
— John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, in an interview on Fox News.
We begin Halloween with a ghost story.
Stingy Jack invited the devil for a drink.
As Irish folklore goes, Jack didn’t want to pay for the drinks, so he persuaded the devil to turn himself into a coin that could be used to settle the bill.
The devil agreed, but Jack ditched the tab and kept the coin. When he died, Stingy Jack was denied entry to both heaven and hell and was instead given a burning coal to light his way as he roamed the earth for eternity. He placed the coal in a carved-out turnip, turning it into a lantern.
Stingy Jack became known as “Jack of the Lantern,” or Jack-o’-Lantern, by the late 17th century. Elsewhere in Europe, making lanterns from potatoes and beets was part of a fall harvest celebration. Lights were also thought to ward off evil spirits.
By the end of the 19th century, European immigrants in America switched their carving tradition to pumpkins .
