Monday's Headlines: Political chaos in Washington is a return on investment for Moscow

Top lawmakers: If Trump has tapes, Congress needs access to them; Under Trump, inconvenient data that was previously public is being sidelined; 'Did you hear that?': Amid Baltimore's surge in killings, a faint cry shocks police; As Trump's interior secretary enters the fight over Utah's Bears Ears, natives feel unheard;   Democracy Dies in Darkness     The morning's most important stories, selected by Post editors   Top Stories Political chaos in Washington is a return on investment for Moscow President Trump's decision to fire James Comey as FBI director was the latest in a series of destabilizing jolts to core institutions of the U.S. government, actions that, although driven by the president, have in some ways amplified the effect Russia sought to achieve with its effort to undermine the 2016 presidential race. And while the Kremlin may have hoped for sanctions relief from the Trump administration, the tumult in the United States is a welcome alternative. By Greg Miller  •  Read more » Top lawmakers: If Trump has tapes, Congress needs access to them Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer were among leaders in both parties requesting that any recordings of White House conversations be turned over for review immediately. Sen. Mike Lee, a former federal prosecutor, said "it's probably inevitable" that such tapes would be subpoenaed. By Ed O'Keefe and Jenna Johnson  •  Read more »   Under Trump, inconvenient data that was previously public is being sidelined Workplace violations, climate data, animal welfare and ethics records are among the types of information that has been obscured. In some cases, data that was once easily accessible has moved to locations that are harder to find, while others have entirely vanished. By Juliet Eilperin  •  Read more »   'Did you hear that?': Amid Baltimore's surge in killings, a faint cry shocks police The stunning pace of killings this year has made Baltimore's homicide rate per capita one of the highest in the country — surpassing even Chicago and New Orleans. When police found a 10-month-old at the scene of her father's death, the baby came to symbolize the stakes of the city's grim trend. By Peter Hermann and Theresa Vargas  •  Read more »   As Trump's interior secretary enters the fight over Utah's Bears Ears, natives feel unheard The fate of the national monument has pitted Native Americans from across three states, who want to preserve artifacts and sacred lands, against white residents and cleaved a rural Utah community. Although Ryan Zinke said he tried to hear all sides, conservationists wonder whether the administration has already betrayed its intent. By Darryl Fears  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Opinions   Preet Bharara: Are there still public servants who will say no to the president? By Preet Bharara  •  Read more »   How Trump could lead on human rights. Really. By Jackson Diehl  •  Read more »   The amateurish autocrat By E.J. Dionne Jr.  •  Read more »   Globalization's ill effects have been wildly exaggerated By Robert J. Samuelson  •  Read more »   Too many children are killed for insurance money. Here's how states can stop it. By Editorial Board  •  Read more »   In the ‘tolerant’ Netherlands, solidarity is for white women By Flavia Dzodan  •  Read more » ADVERTISEMENT   More News   Experts fear North Korea getting closer to developing intercontinental ballistic missile Kim Jong Un trumpeted a successful test of the "perfect weapon system" after his engineers launched what they said was a new kind of ballistic missile system on Sunday. By Anna Fifield  •  Read more » The federal appeals court that Trump hates the most will now hear arguments on his travel ban A three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit will hear arguments today on whether to restore his controversial travel ban. The president has said the circuit has a "terrible record of being overturned." By Matt Zapotosky  •  Read more » White nationalist Richard Spencer leads torch-bearing defense of Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia "What brings us together is we are white, we are a people, we will not be replaced," said the man who coined the term "alt-right." He organized two protests Saturday against plans to remove the Confederate monument in Charlottesville. By Laura Vozzella  •  Read more » James Comey: Out of a job, but still in the public eye Since his firing, the former FBI director has been spotted in his yard, received cookies from a 9-year-old neighbor and taken in a Broadway show. By Amy B Wang  •  Read more » U.S.-Turkish relations deeply strained ahead of Erdogan's visit to White House Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saw President Trump's election as a potential new dawn in U.S.-Turkish relations. But as he prepares to meet with Trump on Tuesday in Washington, Erdogan is not a happy man. By Karen DeYoung  •  Read more » Fact Checker | Analysis Health insurance premiums will keep going up, under either ACA or AHCA Advocates for the House Republicans' health-care overhaul plan frequently say or suggest that premiums would decline under the proposal. However, while average premiums by 2026 are projected to be roughly 10 percent lower than the baseline for the Affordable Care Act, they still would go up. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more » Perspective 'Dude fires people': How the chaotic Trump news cycle confuses and misinforms the public President Trump's firing of FBI Director James B. Comey on Tuesday pulverized a once-stately 24-hour news cycle into mere seconds, cranking up the difficulty factor for dizzied news consumers attempting to discern what, or whom, to believe. By Margaret Sullivan  •  Read more » These Russian TV operatives aren't 'The Americans,' but they were created by one The writer of "The Optimists," a Latvian immigrant to the United States, has set the series on the day-to-day life of diplomats in the Soviet Union of the 1960s.  By Andrew Roth  •  Read more » How a woman in England tracks civilian deaths in Syria, one American bomb at a time With the usual sources absent from the battlefields, an eight-person nonprofit has been sifting through thousands of social media posts, military accounts and more to find evidence of those killed by the U.S.-led air campaign. By Greg Jaffe  •  Read more »         Share Today's Headlines:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. 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