British spies were first to spot Trump team's links with Russia  —  Exclusive: GCHQ is said to have alerted US agencies after becoming aware of contacts in 2015  —  Britain's spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members …

Undercooled meat.  Dangerous fish.  Health inspectors zing Trump's Mar-a-Lago kitchen  —  Just days before the state visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's Palm Beach private club, Florida restaurant inspectors found potentially dangerous raw fish …

Judge washes up dead along the Hudson River  —  Medical examiners remove Abdus-Salaam's body.  —  Robert Miller  —  A pioneering judge, who became the first Muslim woman in US history to serve on the bench, was found dead Wednesday — washed up on the Manhattan side of the Hudson River, sources said.

NC lawmaker calls Abraham Lincoln a ‘tyrant’ like Hitler  —  A day after setting off one firestorm, a Cabarrus County lawmaker set off another Wednesday by calling Abraham Lincoln “the same sort (of) tyrant” as Adolf Hitler.  —  Republican Rep. Larry Pittman of Cabarrus County made the comparison …

Trump backs off fiscal pledges and adopts centrist policies that he once fought  —  President Trump is abandoning a number of his key campaign promises on economic policy, adopting instead many of the centrist positions he railed against while campaigning as a populist.

Inside Bannon's struggle: From ‘shadow president’ to Trump's marked man  —  When Stephen K. Bannon reported for work Wednesday, he did not act like a man who had just been publicly humiliated by his boss.  —  The chief White House strategist cycled in and out of the Oval Office for meetings …

Why I won't date hot women anymore  —  When it came to dating in New York as a 30-something executive in private equity, Dan Rochkind had no problem snagging the city's most beautiful women.  —  “I could have [anyone] I wanted,” says Rochkind, now 40 and an Upper West Sider with a muscular build and a full head of hair.

Teen accidentally kills himself as friends watch on Instagram Live … “I heard a big boom.  I couldn't tell if it was a gun shot or what.”  —  Shaniqua Stephens had just watched her 13-year-old son take out the trash Monday evening when she heard a noise.  —  “I just knew that it was something that was wrong,” she said.

Syria's Assad says chemical attack ‘100 percent fabrication’  —  A handout picture released by the Syrian presidency's press office shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during an interview with AFP in the capital Damascus on April 12, 2017  —  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad …

Letter: I was on United flight 3411.  Here's what I saw.  —  This video posted on social media shows a passenger on an April 9, 2017, United Airlines flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Louisville being removed by security.  (Jayse D. Anspach)

Trump on North Korea: “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it's not so easy”  —  President Donald Trump recounted an absolutely astounding detail about one of his conversations with Chinese President Xi Jinping in comments published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday afternoon.

Trump Threatens to Withhold Payments to Insurers to Press Democrats on Health Bill  —  Almost three weeks after canceling a vote on his health-care package over infighting among his fellow Republicans and the opposition of the Democrats, President Donald Trump dug back into the fight …

Deal over Trump-branded Dallas hotel is dead  —  The developer trying to build a Trump-brand hotel in Dallas told the city this week that the deal is dead.  —  Mukemmel “Mike” Sarimsakci, who has been promoting plans to launch the Trump Organization's new Scion line of luxury hotels …

House Democrats want Kushner's security clearance suspended  —  A handful of House Democrats are calling on federal authorities to suspend Jared Kushner's security clearance amid a wide-ranging probe into Trump associates' contacts with Russian officials.  —  President Donald Trump's son …

64% of Republicans want to see Trump's tax returns  —  The big number: 80% of Americans want President Trump to release his tax returns, including 64% of Republicans, according to a MoveOn.org poll conducted by Global Strategy Group.  —  The shiny object: Trump shows no signs of changing his mind …

18 Syrian Fighters Allied With U.S. Are Killed in Coalition Airstrike  —  WASHINGTON — An airstrike by the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State killed 18 Syrian fighters allied with the United States, the military said on Thursday.  —  The strike, on Tuesday in Tabqah, Syria …

GOP rep: ‘Bullcrap’ to say taxpayers pay my salary  —  Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) faced off with constituents at a town hall this week, telling the audience that they don't pay his salary.  —  “You say you pay for me to do this?  That's bullcrap,” Mullin said at the town hall in Jay, Okla., according to a video of the incident.

After Campaign Exit, Manafort Borrowed From Businesses With Trump Ties  —  That morning, he stepped down from guiding Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign, after a brief tenure during which Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination, Democrats' emails were hacked and the campaign's contacts with Russia came under scrutiny.

Carter Page: ‘Something may have come up in a conversation’ with Russians about lifting US sanctions  —  Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, said that when he was in Moscow last summer, “something may have come up in a conversation” with Russians about lifting U.S. sanctions.

Coffman pummeled at town hall over GOP Obamacare repeal  —  AURORA, Colo. — Nearly every other constituent brought up health care at a town hall here on the outskirts of Denver on Wednesday night, in one of the most competitive House districts in the country.

The Broken Supreme Court  —  When he was discussing military strategy or diplomacy, Gen. Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, liked to invoke what he called the Pottery Barn rule: “If you break it, you own it.”  —  Well, the Republicans broke the Supreme Court confirmation process.