Good morning, NBC News readers.
President Donald Trump is going to declare a national emergency today to get money for a border wall.
Here's what's we're watching.
Trump to sign spending deal, then declare national emergency
The president plans to declare a national emergency after Congress passed a government spending deal that provides further funding for border security – but no money for the wall he has long demanded.
Trump is expected to make his announcement during a Rose Garden event at 10 a.m. ET.
And he’s upped the ante — the border wall will now come with an $8 billion price tag under the emergency declaration. He previously demanded $5 billion.
The move invites a constitutional clash over who controls the federal budget, with Democrats and even many Republicans denouncing it as "dangerous," "lawless," and a "gross abuse of the power of the presidency."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Democrats could consider legal action to stop the president.
Why Amazon is done negotiating with New York
Amazon announced on Wednesday that it was pulling the plug on its much touted new headquarters in Queens, a New York City neighborhood.
What happened?
After three months of sustained opposition from state and local officials, the tech giant decided it'd had enough.
"Looking at the opposition and the timeline we decided we don't want to work in this environment in the long term," a top Amazon official told NBC News' Dylan Byers.
Local real estate agents are bummed — to say the least. Their Amazon-fueled real estate boom just went bust.
Meanwhile, New York politicians are at odds over the decision.
EXCLUSIVE: Iran's foreign minister warns U.S. it would be 'suicidal' to start war
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Washington of having a "pathological obsession" with his country for the past four decades in an exclusive interview with NBC News this morning.
Asked if he worried Trump and his allies were gearing up for war, Zarif said he hoped "some sense will prevail" but warned that "people will find out that it's suicidal to engage in a war with Iran."
He also appeared to dismiss the idea of renegotiating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which aimed to curb the country's weapons program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Here's what to expect from Trump's new attorney general
William Barr was sworn in Thursday for his second stint as the nation's attorney general after the Senate voted 54-45 to confirm him, mostly along party lines.
He will be taking the helm of the Justice Department as Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Now, the pressing question is what the country can expect from its new top law enforcement official: A continuation of predecessor Jeff Sessions’ hard-line stance on immigration and crime, or a new course?
And brace yourself, you may be disappointed by Mueller's report.
The special counsel operates under rules that severely constrain how much information can be made public.
Here's what we know about the guidelines that govern what the special counsel and the Justice Department can do with the final report.
Week in Pictures
See more of the most compelling images from past week.
Plus
- Friendly text messages between police and far-right extremists show evidence of collusion, an Oregon official claims.
- Hillsong: Is this celeb-filled, Instagram friendly church the new face of evangelicalism?
- "It was just a wrestling match": The Colorado man who killed an attacking mountain lion with his bare hands explained what happened.
THINK about it
Rep. Ilhan Omar is right to critique AIPAC. But she's wrong about lobbying, writer Noah Berlatsky argues in an opinion piece.
Live BETTER
After a day dedicated to celebrating love, we take a look at what the experience does to your brain.
One curious thing
He took a DNA test in search of his birth father — and found a daughter instead.
"When we saw each other, it was just, 'boom,'" Ted Wood said about meeting the daughter he didn't know he had for the first time. "We click.”
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — drop me an email at: petra@nbcuni.com
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Thanks, Petra
