Intelligence Chief's Olive Branch to Trump Gets Twisted in Translation  —  James R. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, offered a public olive branch to President-elect Donald J. Trump on Wednesday night, which Mr. Trump appears to have twisted.  —  Team Trump went to war …

Senate Takes Major Step Toward Repealing Health Care Law  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans took their first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, approving a budget blueprint that would allow them to gut the health care law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

Former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, who produced Donald Trump Russian dossier, ‘terrified for his safety’ and went to ground before name released  —  A former MI6 officer who produced a dossier making lurid allegations about Donald Trump is “terrified for his safety” after he was unmasked by a US publication.

Mattis views on women in combat takes center stage  —  Retired Gen. James Mattis's stance on women in combat and LGBT troops will be thrust in the spotlight Thursday when he faces senators for his confirmation hearing to be the next secretary of Defense.  —  The man whom Mattis is in line to replace …

Tillerson on Russia: 'We're not likely to ever be friends'  —  Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson expressed hope that relations with Russia could be moderately improved under his stewardship, explaining that Kremlin aggression is mainly about one thing: bruised ego.

Trump Just Shot Jim Acosta In The Middle Of Fifth Avenue And The Press Didn't Blink  —  On the campaign trail last January, President-elect Donald Trump bragged that he “could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters.”  —  Today during his press conference …

Anthony Weiner hoping Huma will call off divorce  —  MORE FROM:  —  Finally out of the media glare, Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin have been focusing on their 5-year-old son, as Weiner waits to hear if he'll face charges for sending sexually charged texts to an underage girl.

Billionaire George Soros Lost Nearly $1 Billion in Weeks After Trump Election  —  Billionaire hedge-fund manager George Soros lost nearly $1 billion as a result of the stock-market rally spurred by Donald Trump's surprise presidential election.

FACEBOOK DEATH Girl, 12, streams her own suicide on Facebook Live for 20 minutes after being ‘sexually abused by a relative’ - and cops are powerless to take it down  —  Cops say they have asked websites to remove the video of Katelyn Nicole Davis's death but admit they are unable to do more

Trump ‘compromising’ claims: How and why did we get here?  —  Donald Trump has described as “fake news” allegations published in some media that his election team colluded with Russia - and that Russia held compromising material about his private life.  The BBC's Paul Wood saw the allegations …

Why the media's Trump dossier coverage is suicidal  —  The media is sinking to Donald Trump's level.  —  Reeling from their inability to stop his election, envious of his power to make people believe his most ridiculous statements, and rinsed by a needy mood for self-soothing …

Trump Shows How to Smother a Scandal: With a Bigger Story  —  The bar for scandal in the Trump administration keeps being raised.  —  Every week brings potentially damaging developments that in other contexts could have generated weekslong controversies.  With so many competing stories …

Trump conducts his own sting operation to ensnare intelligence briefers - and says he caught them leaking  — President-elect Donald Trump described a sting operation he says he conducted after becoming infuriated by a series of leaks about his own classified briefings

Russia moves to decriminalize domestic violence  —  The country has already decriminalized assault and battery that does not lead to actual bodily harm.  —  A bill that seeks to downgrade domestic violence from a criminal to an administrative offense passed its first reading on Wednesday in the duma …

Trump aide Monica Crowley plagiarized thousands of words in Ph.D. dissertation  —  By Andrew Kaczynski, Chris Massie, and Nathan McDermott, design by Tal Yellin  —  Conservative commentator Monica Crowley, who is slated to serve in a top national security communications role …