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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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)

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

Apple has a secret team working on the holy grail for treating diabetes  — Apple has a secret group of biomedical engineers developing sensors to monitor blood sugar levels, sources tell CNBC  — If successful, the advance could help millions of diabetes patients and turn devices like the Apple Watch into a must-have

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.

Marine Le Pen Campaign HQ Hit by Arson Attack  —  PARIS (AFP) — A building housing French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's campaign headquarters was hit by an arson attempt on Thursday, firefighters and police said, with only minor damage caused.  —  Firefighters were called around 2:40 am …

Facebook Rapists Will Not Be Deported from Sweden  —  Two asylum seekers who are on trial for raping a Swedish girl and streaming the ordeal live on Facebook will not face deportation back to their home countries.  —  The asylum seekers directly involved in the rape, aged 18 and 21 …

Facebook publishing child pornography  —  • Social media giant apologises for refusing to remove images  • Company could be prosecuted as jihadist posts also exposed  —  Facebook is at risk of a criminal prosecution in Britain for refusing to remove potentially illegal terrorist …