First Read is your briefing from "Meet the Press" and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.

India’s top defense official, who had been steering the biggest transformation of the nation’s military since its independence in 1947, was killed in an helicopter crash in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

India’s military chief, Gen. Bipin Rawat, and 12 others were killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash in southern Tamil Nadu state, the air force said. It said in a tweet that the helicopter “met with a tragic accident.” The dead included Rawat’s...

Two high-profile Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, both of them close to tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel, are supporting an effort to merge former President Donald Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election with accusations of meddling against...

To win a global competition, it is important to speak to the global audience, and most of that audience resides in developing countries.