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 …

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 …

Conservative Sexual Abuse Anyone?  What's The “Conservative” Response Been to the Rash of Fox News-Sexual Predators?  Silence.  —  When I grew up in the evangelical ghetto good manners about all things sexual were the gold standard of both my evangelical upbringing and our ideas about what it meant to be a conservative.

Bernie Sanders Defends Campaigning For Anti-Abortion Rights Democrat  —  Sen. Bernie Sanders is campaigning for Omaha, Neb., mayoral candidate Heath Mello Thursday night, and he's not apologizing for it.  —  “Absolutely, and I want him to win,” Sanders, I-Vt., told NPR Thursday, after a rally in Grand Prairie, Texas.

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 …

Vacation's Over: Obama Returns to Public Life Next Week  —  WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's extended post-presidential vacation is about to end.  After spending weeks in French Polynesia — including time on the yacht of the movie mogul David Geffen along with Bruce Springsteen …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Trump condos worth $250 million pose potential conflict  —  LAS VEGAS — President Trump's companies own more than 400 condo units and home lots whose sale could steer millions of dollars to Trump, a USA TODAY investigation has found.  —  USA TODAY spent four months cataloging every property Trump's companies own across the country.

Donald Trump moves towards imposing tariffs on steel imports  —  White House launches national security investigation using 1962 law  —  Read next … The US has set the stage for a global showdown over steel, launching a national security investigation that could lead to sweeping tariffs …

ATTN BANNON: REINCE and JARED break bread at BLT Prime — Health care reality: WH hungry for wins, Hill moored in reality — CHAFFETZ: No scandal coming, but I might resign — COSTA named host of ‘Washington Week’  —  Listen to the Playbook Audio Briefing http://bit.ly/2oQVmI8 …

One Country's War Changed the World  —  ISTANBUL — The world seems awash in chaos and uncertainty, perhaps more so than at any point since the end of the Cold War.  —  Authoritarian-leaning leaders are on the rise, and liberal democracy itself seems under siege.

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 …

RNC raises record-setting $41.5M haul  —  The Republican National Committee (RNC) on Friday announced it raised $41.5 million in the first three months of 2017, its strongest-ever total for the first quarter following a presidential race.  —  “Our record-setting fundraising pace has been fueled …

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 …

‘Dark money’ vs. corporate cash: Democratic rivals clash over funding  —  RICHMOND — One candidate takes money from an international activist group that doesn't disclose its sources of funding.  The other takes money from Virginia's biggest utility, which is also the top lobbyist in the state.