Today's Headlines: Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Is Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation

[Trump Team Knew Flynn Was Under Investigation Before He Came to White House]( | View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. | [Unsubscribe]( [The New York Times]( [Most Popular]( | [Video]( | [Today's Headlines]( Thursday, May 18, 2017 IN THIS EMAIL [NYT] [World](#worldNews) | [U.S.](#nationalNews) | [Politics](#politicsNews) | [Business](#businessNews) | [Technology](#technologyNews) | [Sports](#sportsNews) | [Arts](#artsNews) | [N.Y./Region](#nyregionNews) | [Fashion & Style](#dailyFeatureNews) | [Today's Video](#videoNews) | [Obituaries](#obituaries) | [Editorials](#editorialsNews) | [Op-Ed](#opinionNews) | [On This Day](#onthisdayNews) | [CUSTOMIZE »]( Top News [Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was chosen to oversee the inquiry amid escalating pressure.]( [Robert Mueller, Former F.B.I. Director, Is Named Special Counsel for Russia Investigation]( By REBECCA R. RUIZ and MARK LANDLER The decision came after a cascade of damaging developments for President Trump in the wake of his abrupt firing of the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey. [Michael T. Flynn at Trump Tower in December. His lawyer told the transition team in January that Mr. Flynn was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey.]( [Trump Team Knew Flynn Was Under Investigation Before He Came to White House]( By MATTHEW ROSENBERG and MARK MAZZETTI Michael T. Flynn told the transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a lobbyist for Turkey. [President Trump at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., on Wednesday. He told graduates that he had been treated worse than any other politician.]( Washington Memo [Washington Is Abuzz With Surround Sound of Scandal]( By PETER BAKER After a succession of self-inflicted wounds, President Trump now faces the most daunting moment yet as a special counsel is appointed to investigate. For more top news, go to [NYTimes.com »]( [Get the Morning Briefing in Your Inbox]( What you need to know to start your day, delivered Monday through Friday. [Sign up »]( ADVERTISEMENT Editors' Picks [Children walked through the Parco Saraceno neighborhood of Villaggio Coppola, Italy.]( WORLD | Villaggio Coppola Journal [Forsaken Village on Italy's Coast Tells Tale of a Paradise Lost]( Text by GAIA PIANIGIANI Villaggio Coppola was built in the 1960s with utopian ambitions, but it has instead become a vivid concentration of southern Italy's abiding troubles. [Robert Mueller in 2013.]( OPINION | Editorial [The Special Counsel America Needs]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD With the former F.B.I. director Robert S. Mueller III in charge, Americans should be assured of a strong, independent inquiry. QUOTATION OF THE DAY "I think Putin gets personal pleasure from exploiting the vulnerable position Trump has found himself in." [VALERIY SOLOVEY]( a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, about President Vladimir V. Putin's offer to provide a transcript of the meeting with Russian diplomats at which President Trump disclosed classified intelligence. [] Today's Videos [Police officers outside the Turkish embassy during a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington on Tuesday.]( [[Video] Video: Brawl in Washington Over President Erdogan's Visit]( Supporters and opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan fought outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington on Tuesday. [Joe Buglewicz for The New York Times. Technology by Samsung.]( [[Video] Video: A Fading City Loses an Unlikely Lifeline]( Cairo, Ill., has a population of fewer than 3,000 people. A plan to demolish two public housing developments would force many residents to leave and cut the school enrollment in half. Visit Cairo in this 360° video. [[Interactive Feature] Interactive Feature: Commencement Addresses Offer Road Maps to the Future]( They may be cliché-ridden, funny, witty, inspirational, sad and sometimes angry. One thing they never are is cynical. But whatever their emotional tone, commencement speeches are a guide to life. [] World [President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, right, and Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni of Italy at a joint news conference in Sochi, Russia, on Wednesday.]( [Putin Offers to Provide a 'Record' of Trump's Disclosures to Russian Envoys]( By ANDREW HIGGINS As with many of Mr. Putin's maneuvers, his offer to release a record of a recent White House meeting involving top Russian diplomats seemed designed to unnerve and confuse. [Ebrahim Raisi at a campaign rally in Tehran last month.]( [Iran Has Its Own Hard-Line Populist, and He's on the Rise]( By THOMAS ERDBRINK Ebrahim Raisi, the darling of the country's conservative clerics, might one day become the supreme leader. But can he win the presidency? [Two men accused of having sex with each other faced trial in a Shariah courtroom in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on Wednesday. They were each sentenced to 85 lashings.]( [2 Men in Indonesia Sentenced to Caning for Having Gay Sex]( By JON EMONT The sentence of 85 lashes alarmed rights activists, who called it excessive and a dangerous turn of events in the province of Aceh, which has imposed a strict version of Shariah. For more world news, go to [NYTimes.com/World »]( ADVERTISEMENT [] U.S. [Officer Betty Jo Shelby arriving at the Tulsa County Courthouse for her first-degree manslaughter trial on May 9 in Tulsa, Okla.]( [White Tulsa Officer Is Acquitted in Fatal Shooting of Black Driver]( By LUCIA WALINCHUS and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA The shooting of Terence Crutcher by Officer Betty Jo Shelby is one of several cases that have prompted a national debate about race relations and the police's use of force. [Guadalupe García de Rayos reunited with her children, Angel, 16, and Jacqueline, 14, who are United States citizens, at the Kino Comedor, a soup kitchen that serves breakfast and lunch to people who have been deported, on Feb. 9 in Nogales, Mexico.]( [Immigration Arrests Rise Sharply as a Trump Mandate Is Carried Out]( By CAITLIN DICKERSON Under a new Trump administration policy, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is casting a wider net. [Police officers outside the Turkish embassy during a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Washington on Tuesday.]( [Erdogan Security Forces Launch 'Brutal Attack' on Washington Protesters, Officials Say]( By NICHOLAS FANDOS and CHRISTOPHER MELE Photos and videos showed people kicking and punching demonstrators outside the ambassador's residence as the police tried to intervene. For more U.S. news, go to [NYTimes.com/US »]( ADVERTISEMENT [] Politics [President Trump arrives at the United States Coast Guard Academy commencement ceremony in New London, Conn., on Wednesday.]( [Trump, Saying He Is Treated 'Unfairly,' Signals a Fight]( By MAGGIE HABERMAN and GLENN THRUSH Delivering the commencement address to Coast Guard cadets, Mr. Trump said that "no politician in history" had "been treated worse." [Supporters of President Trump gathered near his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., earlier this month.]( [The Right Builds an Alternative Narrative About the Crises Around Trump]( By JEREMY W. PETERS On conservative media, President Trump's supporters have used unfounded allegations, diversions and conspiracies to keep his troops behind him. [.][How Murder of D.N.C. Staff Member Fueled Conspiracy Theories]( [Speaker Paul D. Ryan has been promoting a 20 percent tax on imports, which the House will take a look at next week.]( [Republican Hopes for Rewriting Tax Code in 2017 Are Fading]( By ALAN RAPPEPORT Upheaval at the White House and a growing list of matters for Congress to address have made the prospect even of tax cuts likely to be pushed into the next year. For more political news, go to [NYTimes.com/Politics »]( [] Business [Drama in Washington Rattles Wall Street, and Stocks Dive]( By KATE KELLY and ALEXANDRA STEVENSON Investors have shrugged off previous turmoil in the Trump administration, but not the latest episode. [Household Debt Makes a Comeback in the U.S.]( By MICHAEL CORKERY and STACY COWLEY Nearly a decade after the 2008 credit bubble, Americans have accumulated a total of $12.7 trillion in debt - a new peak. [Mark Fields, the Ford chief executive, at the New York International Auto Show last month.]( [Ford Moves to Trim Its Ranks as Its Chief Faces a Test]( By BILL VLASIC and NEAL E. BOUDETTE With Mark Fields under investor pressure, the automaker is shedding 1,400 salaried jobs in a step to balance cutbacks with technology investments. For more business news, go to [NYTimes.com/Business »]( [] Technology [Uber employees testing a self-driving Ford Fusion in Pittsburgh last year.]( [How Uber and Waymo Ended Up Rivals in the Race for Driverless Cars]( By MIKE ISAAC Google was an early ally of Uber when it was a ride-hailing start-up. That relationship changed when both pursued self-driving technology in earnest. [Randy Meyers, a technology consultant for a rural Texas hospital, last month discovered a virus similar to what took over computers around the world last week. Eventually, he brought in cybersecurity experts, ensuring that the struggling hospital would not have to pay the roughly $18,000 in bitcoin ransom to retrieve patients' files.]( [With Ransomware, It's Pay and Embolden Perpetrators, or Lose Precious Data]( By MARK SCOTT and NICOLE PERLROTH Thousands affected by the global digital attack must decide whether to fork out money to gain control of their computers or face losing their data forever. [Google offered a vision of life in which you'll never be alone in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, during the internet giant's annual conference for software developers.]( [Google Wants to Be Everywhere With Everyone]( By DAVID STREITFELD At the company's annual conference for software developers, the internet giant offered a vision of life in which you'll never be alone. For more technology news, go to [NYTimes.com/Technology »]( [] Sports [Mark Tatum, far left, the N.B.A. deputy commissioner, with representatives for the teams selecting 1-2-3 in the coming draft: from left, Wyc Grousbeck (Celtics), Magic Johnson (Lakers) and Joel Embiid (76ers).]( On Pro Basketball [It's Back to the Future for the Celtics, the Sixers and the Lakers]( By HARVEY ARATON It is not hard to imagine a day soon when the Celtics and the 76ers are grappling for supremacy in the East, with the Lakers awaiting the winner, just like in the 1980s. [Players from Trisakti University after winning last year's LIMA badminton nationals. The competition is part of a nascent organized college sports culture in Indonesia.]( [An N.C.A.A. for Indonesia? Selling College Sports to a Sedentary Nation]( By JON EMONT The California-educated sports executive who made Liga Mahasiswa into his nation's largest college league has goals that go beyond the field of play. [Maria Sharapova playing in the Italian Open in Rome this week.]( [Denying Maria Sharapova, Inviting a Debate]( By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY The French Tennis Federation's call not to give Sharapova a wild card into the French Open has some claiming it went too far. For more sports news, go to [NYTimes.com/Sports »]( [] Arts [Jimmy Fallon on ]( [Jimmy Fallon Was on Top of the World. Then Came Trump.]( By DAVE ITZKOFF Late night got partisan. The competition found its groove. And now "The Tonight Show" host is looking for all the luck he can get. [For its sale on Thursday evening, ]( [How Basquiat Became the $60 Million Man]( By ROBIN POGREBIN and SCOTT REYBURN With 16 Basquiats headlining in this week's evening auctions, the graffiti rebel has become the heavyweight artist of the season. [Andrea Constand's Story: Will It Send Bill Cosby to Prison?]( By GRAHAM BOWLEY and SYDNEY EMBER Though more than 40 women have accused Mr. Cosby of sexual assault, the task of convincing a jury that he is a predator will largely fall to just one. For more arts news, go to [NYTimes.com/Arts »]( [] New York [Oscar López Rivera, who spent more than three decades in prison, will be the Puerto Rican Day Parade's National Freedom Hero.]( [Puerto Rican Day Parade to Honor a Long-Jailed Militant]( By WILLIAM NEUMAN and FRANCES ROBLES Oscar López Rivera, who was associated with a group that carried out a deadly bombing in Manhattan in 1975, will be a the parade's National Freedom Hero. [Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, right, during a town hall meeting in March in which he criticized a plan by Mayor Bill de Blasio, center, to bring new shelters to Brooklyn.]( [De Blasio Quietly Seeks Allies in Battle Over Homeless Shelters]( By NIKITA STEWART The city is scrambling to enlist influential New Yorkers who can help marshal support for an unpopular plan to open 90 community-based homeless shelters. [Jennifer Blumin]( [A Power Player and Her Sons Disappear in the Bermuda Triangle]( By JACOB BERNSTEIN The Coast Guard found debris east of Eleuthra, but Jennifer Blumin, her two young sons and the pilot, Nathan Ulrich, remained missing. For more New York news, go to [NYTimes.com/NewYork »]( [] Fashion & Style [Isabel and Ruben Toledo at the Columbus Museum of Art, which had an exhibition of their work.]( [We Settle a Big Fashion Rivalry: Nashville vs. Columbus]( By STEVEN KURUTZ Far from the coasts, two cities vie for fashion bronze. Our reporter checks out the scenes and, after many expense-account dinners, selects a winner. [Shefali Kumar Friesen, a digital artist, at home in San Francisco. ]( [Suffering for Your Art? Maybe You Need a Patron]( By JENNIFER MILLER Wealthy individuals, grant-making foundations and others turn to a model reminiscent of the Renaissance that focuses on a creators' full career, not just a piece or a collection. [President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife, Brigitte, on the steps of the Élysée Palace after a handover ceremony on Sunday.]( [Brigitte Macron Inaugurates a New Look for France]( By VANESSA FRIEDMAN The powder-blue ensemble she wore to her husband's inauguration was a statement of independence and of support for him. For more fashion news, go to [NYTimes.com/Fashion »]( []Obituaries [Lee Hall in her studio in Massachusetts in 2013.]( [Lee Hall, Artist and de Kooning Biographer, Dies at 82]( By WILLIAM GRIMES Ms. Hall was an abstract landscape painter who also served as president of the Rhode Island School of Design during a difficult period there. [Jean Fritz in a photograph from 1990.]( [Jean Fritz, Who Wrote History Books for Children, Dies at 101]( By MARGALIT FOX Her works were full of human narratives and quirks, backed by engaging prose and deep archival research. [Lloyd Cotsen at Neutrogena in 1988. He became chairman of the company, which his father-in-law Emanuel Stolaroff had founded as Natone, and sold it to Johnson & Johnson in 1994.]( [Lloyd Cotsen, Collector of the Ordinary and the Odd, Dies at 88]( By RICHARD SANDOMIR Mr. Cotsen, who sold Neutrogena for $924 million, amassed diverse treasures like children's books or bamboo baskets in finding "the extraordinary in the ordinary." For more obituaries, go to [NYTimes.com/Obituaries »]( [] Editorial Editorial [China's Trillion-Dollar Foreign Policy]( By THE EDITORIAL BOARD President Xi Jinping is building his way across continents as American influence recedes. For more opinion, go to [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [] Op-Ed [President Trump at the White House on Wednesday.]( Op-Ed Columnist [Dangerous Times for Trump and the Nation]( By NICHOLAS KRISTOF What if an unstable president reaches for the nuclear button? [President Trump on Air Force One on Wednesday.]( Op-Ed Columnist ['The Flight 93 Election' Crashes Again]( By BRET STEPHENS To a certain kind of conservative, last fall's was "the Flight 93 election." Perhaps it was, but not as they intended. [President Trump with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House in February.]( Op-Ed Contributor [What Israel Makes of Trump's Intel Gaffe]( By YOSSI ALPHER Netanyahu may turn concerns over the president's leak into useful leverage. For more opinion, go to [NYTimes.com/Opinion »]( [] ON THIS DAY On May 18, 1980, the Mount St. Helens volcano in Washington state exploded, leaving 57 people dead or missing. [See this Front Page]( | [Buy this Front Page]( FOLLOW US: [Facebook] [Facebook]( | [Twitter] [@NYTimes]( | [Pinterest] [Pinterest]( | [Instagram] [Instagram]( [NYT]( Access The New York Times from anywhere with our suite of apps: [iPhone®]( | [iPad®]( | [Android]( | [All]( [.] Save 15% at [The NYTimes Store »]( [.] Have questions? [Help Section »]( [.] Visit our mobile website at [m.nyt.com »]( About This Email This is an automated email. Please do not reply directly to this email. You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Today's Headlines newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Manage Subscriptions]( | [Change Your Email]( | [Privacy Policy]( | [Contact]( | [Advertise]( Copyright 2017 | The New York Times Company | NYTimes.com 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018