Sources: US prepares charges to seek arrest of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange  —  Washington (CNN)US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN.  —  The Justice Department investigation of Assange …

Trump wades into French elections  —  Two days before a French election that has Europe on edge, President Donald Trump weighed in Friday with a tweet that seemed to imply support for the controversial far-right populist Marine Le Pen.  —  Trump's Friday morning tweet responded to a shooting …

Freed Egyptian American prisoner returns home following Trump intervention  —  An Egyptian American charity worker who was imprisoned in Cairo for three years and became the global face of Egypt's brutal crackdown on civil society returned home to the United States late Thursday …

Emails show O'Reilly lawyers' last-ditch effort to save his job  —  The day before Bill O'Reilly was cut loose from Fox News after 20 years with the network, his handlers appeared to believe they had at least one more card to pull that might help save his job in the midst …

YAF to Berkeley: Honor First Amendment or Face Litigation  —  Late Thursday night, Young America's Foundation put UC-Berkeley on notice that their attempts to deny the First Amendment rights of students will not be tolerated any longer.  —  In a letter to Berkeley's Vice Chancellor Stephen Sutton …

How Trump Blew Up the Conservative Media  —  Months before Donald Trump blew up American politics with his surprise win in November, he did the same thing to the conservative media.  Through much of the campaign, two very different media moguls with colliding visions for the Republican Party vied …

The Professional Class Strikes Back  —  Notes from realignment: A solid Republican district becomes the site of a Democratic resurgence.  In the first round of a special election a thirty-something unknown outperforms Hillary Clinton's 2016 margin.  A runoff looms, but the lesson to draw from this result is clear.

Mattis tells lawmakers Trump budget won't fully rebuild military: report  —  Defense Secretary James Mattis has privately cast doubt on President Trump's proposed Pentagon spending levels, telling members of Congress that the $603 billion request is not enough to fulfill Trump's vow to rebuild the military, CNN reported Friday.

Secret meeting at Mar-a-Lago raises questions about Colombia peace and Trump  —  BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA  —  President Donald Trump quietly met a pair of former Colombian presidents last weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, thrusting his administration into an ugly power struggle …

Yikes!  New Behind-the-Scenes Book Brutalizes the Clinton Campaign  —  ‘Shattered,’ a campaign tell-all fueled by anonymous sources, outlines a generational political disaster  —  There is a critical scene in Shattered, the new behind-the-scenes campaign diary by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes …

AG Jeff Sessions: Judges shouldn't ‘psychoanalyze’ Trump to see if executive orders are lawful  —  (CNN)Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this week that judges shouldn't “psychoanalyze” President Donald Trump when determining whether his executive orders are lawful.

Poll: Evan McMullin beats Sen. Orrin Hatch in head-to-head matchup  —  SALT LAKE CITY — Former independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin would beat Sen. Orrin Hatch in a head-to-head matchup for the U.S. Senate, a new poll shows.  —  The Centrist Project, which is recruiting candidates …

French police officer killed, Champs-Elysees in Paris closed, CNN affiliate says  —  Paris (CNN)One police officer and an attacker have been killed in a shooting in Paris on Thursday, the French Interior Ministry said.  —  A car stopped at 102 Champs-Elysees, in front of a police van, ministry spokesman Pierre Henry Brandet said.

Chaffetz says ‘absolutely’ no scandal is forcing him out  —  Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz — who shocked the political establishment when he announced his retirement earlier this week — said that he has already started looking for post-congressional employment, and hopes to serve on boards …

Repeal and Piecemeal: A Better Obamacare Strategy  —  Repeal Obamacare now.  Here's why it would work.  —  House Republicans are reportedly ready to return any day now to health-insurance reform after the spectacular failure in late March of the American Health Care Act …

Senate leader investigating possible FBI deception about Texas terror attack  —  A powerful U.S. senator has launched an investigation into whether the FBI knew about a planned attack by ISIS-inspired terrorists at an anti-Muslim cartoon show in the Dallas area and did nothing to stop it …

Several Google engineers have left one of its most secretive AI projects to form a stealth start-up  —  Google has slowly been pulling back the curtain on homegrown silicon that could define the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence.  —  Some key creators of that project …

Crisis-ridden Venezuela gave $500K to Trump inauguration  —  Why Venezuelans are protesting  —  Venezuela faces shortages of food, water, medicine, electricity and money.  —  But its state-run oil company — through a subsidiary — donated $500,000 to President Trump's inauguration committee on December 22, 2016.

Post reporter Robert Costa takes over helm of PBS's ‘Washington Week’  —  Washington Post national political reporter Robert Costa is taking over for the late Gwen Ifill as moderator of the long-running PBS political talk show “Washington Week.”  —  Costa, 31, will remain in his current position …

Cuba Gooding Sr. — Dead at 72 ... Possible Overdose  —  EXCLUSIVE  —  Cuba Gooding Sr., a popular soul singer and father to the Oscar winner, was found dead Thursday in the San Fernando Valley ... TMZ has learned.  —  Law enforcement sources tell us Cuba Gooding Jr.'s dad was slumped …

Most Millennials Are Finding It Hard to Transition Into Adulthood: Report  —  By his twenties, Kyle Kaylor imagined he would be living on his own, nearing a college degree, and on his way to a job that fulfilled him.  —  Instead, at 21, he found himself out of school, living with his parents …