(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. We’re covering the confusing environment for diplomats in Washington, doubts about Jeffrey Epstein’s wealth and the oldest Homo sapiens fossil ever found in Europe. Flap over leaked cables: ‘It could have been any of us’ Members of the Washington diplomatic corps agreed that […]

(Reuters) – U.S. private equity firm Vista Equity Partners has raised $850 million for a second fund dedicated to investing in early-stage enterprise software companies, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The fundraising underscores investor appetite for fledgling software businesses, many of whom are benefiting from the expansion of cloud computing because they […]

Volkswagen is halting production of the last version of its Beetle model this week at its plant in Puebla, Mexico. It’s the end of the road for a vehicle that has symbolized many things over a history spanning eight decades since 1938. It has been: a part of Germany’s darkest hours as a never-realized Nazi […]

I reached out to the philosopher Judith Butler last year, not long after I wrote an article titled “I Am A Sexist,” as the #MeToo movement was in full swing. I hoped to get an unvarnished critique of the essay. I got much more: A bracing and profound exchange that led to this interview and […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. We’re covering clashes between Britain’s candidates for prime minister, a harrowing trial in France and a crackdown on drunken scooter-driving in Denmark. Johnson and Hunt spar over Trump and Brexit In their first head-to-head debate, the two contenders to lead the Conservative Party […]

It will be difficult to find many foreign diplomats in Washington who did not share most, if not all, of the views expressed by Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the US, about the Trump administration. And it is not just representatives of other nations. As frequent and explosive leaks to the media have revealed, former […]

(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest. 1. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta defended himself amid calls to resign because of his previous role in a lenient plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged on Monday with sex trafficking. Mr. Acosta, pictured above in April, said the […]

To the Editor: Re “My Son Got Lyme Disease. He’s Totally Fine” (Well, nytimes.com, June 27): It took five years from my first Lyme-related emergency room visit to diagnosis, during which time the disease spread to my brain, heart, lungs, central nervous system and nearly every tissue in my body. By 2016, I was sleeping […]

(Reuters) – The owners of JPIMedia are in talks to sell the i newspaper and regional titles, Sky News reported on Monday. JPIMedia and its advisers have set a deadline of Monday for preliminary offers for papers including The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, the report said. A financial adviser has recently been appointed to […]

I’m planning on hitting the Galway Races at the end of the month, a bucket list promise to myself long overdue. In search of a few tips, I linked up with a horsey veteran, clinking our glasses in the blissful evening sun this weekend. The talk meandered, as it often does in these circumstances, to […]