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General Kelly,

I am grateful for your immense public service over your career and what you have sacrificed for our country along the way. I am also sorry for the loss of your son and the grief that has caused and must continue to cause you and your family. Having lost a son and a daughter (though they were gone long before they could join the military) I have great empathy for the immense, unmeasurable pain of a parent losing a child. No parent should have to bury a son or daughter.

Though I didn't lose my oldest son, he did serve two tours in Iraq in the Army, and most of my nights while he was away were fitful and fearful. And the danger he was in filled my days with worry. Also, I remember full well in October 2004 when my son was entering the service and going to be deployed, the commander in chief I worked for, President George W. Bush, and the first lady, took time out of their busy campaign schedule to meet with him privately in a heart-wrenching moment I will never forget. I also have an older brother who served more than 20 years in the Coast Guard, and a younger brother who served in the Marines in Panama and Kuwait, both in very dangerous situations. So while I don't have your exact experiences, I do have my own which have informed me.

Your speech at Thursday's press briefing was emotional and touching in parts, but other moments I felt a huge disconnect between what you were saying and your job each day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I have a very simple question: do you know who you work for? I ask this for the following reasons:

1. You spoke of how you were disgusted by the congresswoman from Florida, Frederica Wilson, for politicizing the condolence call President Trump made to the family of fallen Sgt. La David Johnson, but you know full well that this issue became political because of your boss. He started us down this road because he wouldn't take responsibility for his own actions in the aftermath of the ambush on American troops in Niger, and sought to blame previous presidents for how they handled themselves when soldiers were killed.

2. You spoke about how women are no longer treated as sacred and I think you were alluding to the allegations of Harvey Weinstein's despicable behavior. But you do know your boss has called female anchors, female presidential candidates, beauty contestants, actresses, etc. some of the most disrespectful names, and bragged in a moment caught on tape about how he likes to treat women in a predatory way. By last count, about a dozen women have courageously come forward to say that they were treated improperly by your boss (accusations he has vehemently denied).

3. You talked about how Gold Star families and the military are no longer treated as sacred, but I am sure you know that candidate Trump attacked a Gold Star family in the midst of a campaign in order to sow dissent and score political points. This same candidate -- your boss -- dismissed Republican Sen. John McCain's service and said he wasn't a hero because he was captured.

4. You talked about how religion is no longer treated as sacred, but you work for a person who wanted to ban Muslims from our country, and who seems gravely unfamiliar with the Sermon on the Mount as well as how we should treat each other with respect, dignity, love and compassion. As a candidate, he also said he never asked God for forgiveness, a major tenet of every faith in the world.

I know my question is probably a bit rhetorical, but you are chief of staff to the president. As such, your words didn't match up to that vaunted position. I hope as you move forward, you'll remember you work for us, the American people, and the thing many of us hold sacred is integrity. I also hope you'll remember that people want leaders who say and do what they mean. And one day, I hope you can explain to all of us how your service today fits in with the words you used at the podium in our House.

PS: I agree with you about contacts to the families of the fallen. Let's go back to the time of well-thought out letters handwritten on presidential stationary. If it was good enough for Abraham Lincoln, it should be good for all presidents.

Matthew Dowd is an ABC News analyst and special correspondent. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of ABC News.

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COLUMN: Gen. Kelly, admit Donald Trump is a big part of ...

President Trump doesnt plan to prevent the government from publishing classified files detailing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, he tweeted Saturday, paving the way for the likely release next week of thousands of secret CIA and FBI documents.

Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened, Mr. Trumptweeted from his personal Twitter account Saturday morning.

Federal law passed by Congress during the first Bush administration, the Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, requires the U.S. government to release millions of pages involving its investigation into JFKs death within 25 years of taking effect unless the president believes their publication may harm intelligence, law enforcement, military operations or foreign relations.

Most of the roughly 5 million pages of assassination-related files held by the National Archives have been published since the law took effect, but the remaining batch including tens of thousands of pages worth of classified documents drafted by the FBI and CIA are required to be released this Thursday, October 26, unless the president decides otherwise.

White House aides didnt clarify Saturday whether the president intends to keep any records classified, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The President believes that these documents should be made available in the interests of full transparency unless agencies provide a compelling and clear national security or law enforcement justification otherwise, a White House official told pool reporters Saturday.

Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963 while riding in a motorcade through downtown Dallas. The Warren Commission, a federal probe initiated by his vice president and successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, and chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ultimately determined that Kennedy was killed by a single gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, but conspiracies and rumors surrounding the assassination have persisted in the decades since.

Mr. Trump, for instance, claimed while campaigning for president that the father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, his former Republican rival, cavorted with Oswald before Kennedys assassination. And Roger Stone, Mr. Trumps former campaign advisor, published a book in 2013 accusing Johnson of being involved in his predecessors murder titled The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ.

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Donald Trump says he wont block release of secret JFK ...

The undoing of Harvey Weinstein underscored the increasing gravity of womens accusations. Big-name actresses like the Oscar winner Lupita Nyongo, above, have come forward with long-withheld accounts of his behavior. Now that we are speaking, let us never shut up about this kind of thing, she writes in an Op-Ed.

Actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and Reese Witherspoon discussed other perpetrators, and hundreds of thousands of women posted #MeToo messages.

In Californias capital, more than 140 women including legislators and lobbyists denounced pervasive sexual misconduct in the legislature. France, after a #MeToo-style outburst, is considering fines for catcalls.

And The Times reported a previously undisclosed sixth settlement over sexual harassment allegations against Bill OReilly, the former Fox News host. A month after the $32 million deal in January, Fox extended his contract.

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3. Meanwhile, the wheels of government are turning, if slowly. Republicans, still striving for a single marquee legislative achievement in the Trump presidency, narrowly secured Senate approval for a budget blueprint paving the way for a $1.5 trillion tax cut.

The House takes it up this week, shadowed by news from the Treasury Department: the largest annual budget deficit in four years.

Republicans aim to pass the tax bill by Christmas, but few on or off Capitol Hill have seen even a draft. Here are the mechanics of the effort.

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4. Senator Mitch McConnell and President Trump made a show of togetherness, moving to fill scores of federal court vacancies with conservatives. Above, Mr. McConnell, center left, with Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado.

On health care, Mr. Trump walked back his endorsement of a bipartisan effort to save insurance subsidies. Conversely, the I.R.S. announced a move that would bolster Obamacare: It will enforce the individual mandate, declining 2017 tax returns that do not disclose the filers health insurance status.

At the same time, the E.P.A. has been moving to ease restrictions on toxic chemicals, under the direction of a former industry lobbyist.

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5. Without speaking President Trumps name, two former presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in separate speeches implicitly condemned the president and the powers that thrust him into office. Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry and compromises the moral education of children, Mr. Bush said.

And George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager and a major Democratic donor, revealed that he had transferred $18 billion to his Open Society Foundations. A lightning rod for conservative critics, he is now squarely in the middle of the social and political debates convulsing the country.

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The shots began at 10:05. Twelve bursts of gunfire later, the police broke down Stephen Paddocks door at the Mandalay Bay. The Times mapped 30 videos to draw perhaps the most complete picture to date of what happened.

6. Disaster recovery continues: A month after Hurricane Maria, 80 percent of Puerto Rico remains without electricity. We need trucks, we need poles, we need crews, we need lines, we need more people, said a local utility employee.

In Northern California, some businesses are reopening as investigators dig through debris to determine what set off the regions staggering outbreak of wildfires, whose toll includes 40 lives and almost 8,000 structures. The findings will help decide who pays for damages that are estimated to have surpassed $1 billion.

The mass shooting in Las Vegas continues to mystify investigators. Using forensic analysis, we mapped 30 videos on a timeline to reconstruct the attack minute by minute, above, drawing perhaps the most complete picture to date of what happened when Stephen Paddock rained an estimated 900 rounds onto concertgoers.

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7. Abroad, Spains prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, in an unexpectedly forceful move, said he would seek the removal of Catalonias leader, Carles Puigdemont, to halt the regions secessionist movement.

The question of independence is particularly complex in Barcelona, which is divided between its identity as a global city and as Catalonias capital.

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8. In the Middle East, our photographer accompanied some of the U.S.-backed forces that drove the Islamic State from its de facto capital, Raqqa, Syria. That capped the groups ouster from most of Syria and Iraq, but at the cost of unfathomable destruction. Above, fighters in Raqqa.

And counterterrorism officials say ISIS could morph into a new, lethal incarnation.

To the west, the Iraqi military vanquished Kurdish forces to reclaim Kirkuk, checking the Kurds move toward independence. The U.S., despite its long reliance on the Kurds in the fight against ISIS, sat by, lining up with Irans priorities.

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9. While world attention has been on North Koreas nuclear program, the country has nurtured a secretive hard-currency trade that nets $1 billion annually, and built a cyberwar program capable of stealing millions and unleashing global havoc.

Elsewhere on the world stage, Nikki Haley, President Trumps U.N. ambassador, made strident denunciations of Iran and urged tougher action by the Security Council against its outlaw behavior.

(She also received something of a tutorial on statecraft at a panel discussion with the former secretaries of state Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright.)

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10. In Africa, some are referring to the twin truck bombings in Mogadishu that killed more than 270 people as Somalias 9/11.

Kenyans are on edge as the redo of their presidential election approaches on Thursday. The warring between parties led an official to say that the repeat might not be credible, either.

In West Africa, a health implication resulting from the 2013-16 Ebola outbreak is shocking doctors: Many survivors have cataracts, even children as young as 5. Above, a child preparing to undergo eye surgery in Sierra Leone.

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11. President Xi Jinpings dominance in China has been on display at the Communist Party congress, which culminates this week with a reshuffle of the powerful Politburo.

Here are the five takeaways from Mr. Xis marathon, 205-minute opening speech, which projected military and economic power.

And the extraordinary security clampdown on Beijing for the congress further emphasized his message: Nothing can stand in my way.

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12. The Houston Astros are back. They face the Dodgers in L.A. on Tuesday for Game 1 of the World Series.

The Yankees lost the chance Saturday night, after the Astros celebrating above held them to three hits and no runs to win the American League Championship Series.

Lance McCullers Jr. spun curve after curve 24 in a row to end the game.

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13. Finally, ready for a bit of escapism? For those who stream, here are 11 underappreciated TV shows now on Hulu. For those whod rather scream, The Walking Dead returns tonight for Season 8. Heres a look back at where the horror series left off.

For a more erudite diversion, curl up with George Saunderss experimental first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which just won the Man Booker Prize, or this years T Magazine Greats issue. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, above, a defining voice on race and gender for the digital age, is featured.

Have a great week.

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Your Weekend Briefing is published Sundays at 6 a.m. Eastern.

And dont miss Your Morning Briefing, weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern, and Your Evening Briefing, weeknights at 6 p.m. Eastern.

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Catalonia, John Kelly, Donald Trump: Your Weekend Briefing ...

Its a major blow to the militant group, which had long used the city as the de facto capital of its self-declared caliphate.

Astronomers are excited.

It was announced on Monday that they had observed a pair of dead stars colliding, the first glimpse of the violent process by which most of the gold and silver in the universe was created.

I cant think of a similar situation in the field of science in my lifetime, where a single event provides so many staggering insights about our universe, an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago said.

We have a video to explain it all, and answer some questions about the discovery.

For the first time, astronomers have seen and heard a pair of neutron stars collide in a crucible of cosmic alchemy.

One of our reporters, Caitlin Dickerson, visited a remote village in Puerto Rico devastated by Hurricane Maria.

Residents, she said, were quick to point out that other Puerto Ricans were living in worse circumstances, though it was hard to imagine whom they could have been talking about.

And in California, the wildfires are far from over, but officials are confronting the next challenge: the huge amount of debris and ash that will be left behind.

Just think of all the hazardous materials in your house, the chief public health officer in Napa County said. Your chemicals, your pesticides, propane, gasoline, plastic and paint it all burns down into the ash.

In the past two weeks, more than 30 women have accused the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

There has been an outpouring on social media of stories of sexual harassment, punctuated by the hashtag #MeToo.

Nina Jacobson, a film producer, predicted a change in the entertainment industry: I think the floodgates being opened is something that had to happen, and that finally brings a subject to the surface that has sort of gone unchecked for countless years.

In todays show, we discuss the guilty plea by Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Listen on a computer, an iOS device or an Android device.

The health care industry is the job engine of many parts of the U.S., aided by funding as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

We visited a county in Arkansas where health care accounts for one in four jobs.

Some airlines have begun offering free meals in coach on selected U.S. flights.

U.S. stocks were up on Monday. Heres a snapshot of global markets.

Tips, both new and old, for a more fulfilling life.

Pristine environments for children can contribute to allergies and asthma.

Tough workout? Try these five things to speed up recovery.

Recipe of the day: This pumpkin Bundt cake with a maple brown-butter glaze is full of fall spices.

Biking in New York City.

In todays 360 video, ride through the busy streets of a city that has spent millions to improve safety for cyclists.

The city of New York has spent millions on improving bicycle safety, but a recent study that monitored cyclists brainwaves while biking highlighted the dangers that still exist.

Partisan writing you shouldnt miss.

Writers from across the political spectrum discuss the state of the Republican Party.

Theyre cute now, but then they grow up

No matter how you raise a wolf, you cant turn it into a dog. Scientists are trying to determine why.

Basketball is back.

The N.B.A. tips off its 72nd season tonight. We have previews of the Eastern and Western conferences.

Our new basketball columnist, Marc Stein, has covered the league for more than 20 years and says hes never seen a more overwhelming favorite to win the championship than the Golden State Warriors.

Best of late-night TV.

Kicking off a week of shows from Brooklyn, Jimmy Kimmel took a jab at its reputation for liberal pretension: All of the jokes you will hear tonight were written in small batches, by hand, on biodegradable hemp parchment, using natural ink that was made from sustainably harvested lingonberries.

And we spoke to Mr. Kimmel about his new visibility after he addressed the news in personal terms.

Quotation of the day.

They may have made a miscalculation of historic proportions by proceeding with the referendum over the objections of just about everyone who counts.

Joost Hiltermann, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, on the fallout from the Kurdish independence vote. On Monday, the Iraqi government carried out a military assault to wrest territory from separatists.

The Man Booker Prize, which honors the best novel written in English and published in Britain, will be announced today.

On this years shortlist: 4 3 2 1, by Paul Auster; History of Wolves, by Emily Fridlund; Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid; Autumn, by Ali Smith; Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders; and Elmet, by Fiona Mozley.

First awarded in 1969, the Booker McConnell Prize was named for the multinational company that established it, as an effort to rival the Prix Goncourt in France. In 2002, sponsorship passed to the Man Group, an investment management firm, which added its name to the title.

The award was initially open only to writers from Britain, Ireland, Zimbabwe and the Commonwealth. Eligibility expanded in 2014 to include any English-language novelist, raising concerns that it would become dominated by Americans. (Since then, one U.S. novel Paul Beattys The Sellout has won. Half of the authors on this years shortlist are Americans.)

Winners receive 50,000 pounds, or about $66,000. Howard Jacobson, who won in 2010 for The Finkler Question, told The Guardian that he was going to spend the prize money on his wife: Have you seen the price of handbags?

Sara Aridi contributed reporting.

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Your Morning Briefing is published weekdays at 6 a.m. Eastern and updated all morning. Browse past briefings here.

If photographs appear out of order, please download the updated New York Times app from iTunes or Google Play.

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Donald Trump, California, N.B.A.: Your Tuesday Briefing ...

Spurs head coach Gregg Popovichhas made no secret of his opinion of President Donald Trump, but he took his criticism to another level on Monday afternoon.

Trump held a press conference on Monday during which he claimed that many past presidents have not made phone calls to the families of military members killed in action. Whether he was just being astoundingly ignorant or was telling a massive lie, the comments made Popovichan Air Force veteranirate. Unsolicited, he called journalist Dave Zirin ofThe Nationto vent.

This man in the Oval Office is a soulless coward who thinks that he can only become large by belittling others. This has of course been a common practice of his, but to do it in this mannerand to lie about how previous Presidents responded to the deaths of soldiersis as low as it gets. We have a pathological liar in the White House: unfit intellectually, emotionally, and psychologically to hold this office and the whole world knows it, especially those around him every day. The people who work with this President should be ashamed because they know it better than anyone just how unfit he is, and yet they choose to do nothing about it. This is their shame most of all.

In addition to his military service, Popovich is now the head coach of Team USA. Luckily, his boss is Jerry Colangelonot Trump.

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Gregg Popovich on Donald Trump: President is 'soulless ...