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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

Sen. Frank Artiles apologizes for using racial slurs  —  Miami Republican Sen. Frank Artiles formally apologized on the Florida Senate floor on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, for insulting and using racial slurs against two black lawmakers two days prior.  —  Friends of Artiles …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Fearmongering at Homeland Security  —  The United States is as vulnerable to an attack today as it was the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.  Information in the press about national security is misleading or flat-out wrong, offering a false sense of security.  The men and women of the Department …

Russia flexes muscle from Alaska to Japan  — Russian aircraft have also been spotted recently flying near the coastline of US allies, including Japan  —  Washington (CNN)US defense officials are calling recent sightings of Russian bombers off the Alaskan coast “nothing out of the ordinary” …

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 …