First on CNN: US drops largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan  —  Washington (CNN)The US military has dropped an enormous bomb in Afghanistan, according to four US military officials with direct knowledge of the mission.  —  A GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, nicknamed MOAB …

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 …

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.

Sheila Abdus-Salaam, Judge on New York's Top Court, Is Found Dead in Hudson River  —  Sheila Abdus-Salaam, an associate judge on New York State's highest court and the first African-American woman to serve on that bench, was found dead on Wednesday in the Hudson River, the authorities said.

Trump Said No to Troops in Syria.  His Aides Aren't So Sure.  —  Listening to his campaign rhetoric, the last thing you would expect Donald Trump to do as president would be to escalate a ground war in the Middle East.  He won the Republican nomination last year by campaigning …

Trump's base turns on him  —  Donald Trump's true believers are losing the faith.  —  As Trump struggles to keep his campaign promises and flirts with political moderation, his most steadfast supporters — from veteran advisers to anti-immigration activists to the volunteers who dropped …

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.

In its last year, the Obama administration had its eyes on burnishing the outgoing president's legacy — and ignored the threat from an old foe.  —  No one from  —  the Obama administration seems to remember when they figured out they were falling victim to one of the greatest intelligence operations in history.

Trump signs bill targeting funding for abortion providers  —  President Trump on Thursday signed a bill to nix an Obama-era rule that blocked states from defunding healthcare providers for political reasons.  —  The bill, which Democrats say is really an effort to defund Planned Parenthood …

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.

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.

House Democrats call for revoking Kushner's security clearance  —  A group of House Democrats is calling for Jared Kushner's security clearance to be suspended amid a federal investigation into whether associates of President Trump were in contact with Russian government officials during the 2016 campaign.

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 …

‘Survivor’ Contestant Opens Up About Being Outed as Transgender (Guest Column)  —  “I'm not wild about you knowing that I'm trans,” two-time show player Zeke Smith writes for THR about this week's episode. … I'm not wild about you knowing that I'm trans.

Where in the World Are Jared & Ivanka for Passover?  Canada  —  In a misdirection of sorts, Ivanka Trump posted the following photo on Monday of her family at the White House: … This post led to much of the media including The Jerusalem Post to conclude, “This year …

Uber's Top Secret “Hell” Program Exploited Lyft's Vulnerability  —  As the ride-sharing market was exploding in the U.S. between 2014 and the early part 2016, Uber had an advantage over Lyft that helped Uber maintain its lead, The Information has learned.  Thanks to a secret software-based …

Prediction prof: Trump will be impeached  —  The professor who took hell for predicting President Donald Trump has a much longer case for predicting President Mike Pence — and it's all in his new book, out next week.  —  Allan Lichtman, a professor at American University …

Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?  —  Some of the biggest blows to the progressive cause in the past year have often been due to the votes of white men.  If white men were not allowed to vote, it is unlikely that the United Kingdom would be leaving the European Union …

Vulgar video causes Republicans to pull support from Assembly candidate in competitive district  —  The video clip is just 10 seconds long, but it was enough to cause Cape May County Republicans to pull support from the candidate they had endorsed for Assembly in what was supposed …

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 …

Nearly $14M in ads have flooded Georgia's Sixth for special election  —  Candidates and outside groups have spent nearly $14 million on an unending ad blitz in the race to replace Rep. Tom Price's suburban Atlanta seat, and that tally that will surely grow in the final days before Tuesday's nationally-watched vote.

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.

WATCH: 5 reasons Maxine Waters should be our next president  —  Today on Salon 5 we discuss Maxine Water's political prowess and why she'd make a great president VIDEO  —  This Salon video was produced by Kevin Carlin  —  The way Republicans gloat about the new president is disgusting­­ …