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 …

Brat: New ObamaCare repeal bill has ‘significant’ changes … A Republican who opposed the first House GOP ObamaCare replacement bill says a revamped effort is the “same fundamental bill” as the one that failed last month.  —  Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), who has signaled he might be able to back the new bill …

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 …

White House demands disrupt shutdown negotiations  —  Congressional leaders' efforts to hatch a massive spending deal have been thrown off course by the Trump administration's 11th-hour intervention, leaving the bipartisan bill teetering on the brink of collapse just a week before a government shutdown deadline.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

No, Gov. Dean, there is no ‘hate speech’ exception to the First Amendment  —  Former Vermont governor Howard Dean writes: … This leads me to repeat what I've said before: There is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment.  Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) …

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 …

Google is a monopoly — and it's crushing the internet  —  Five to 10 years ago, independent bloggers used to be able to get by on internet advertising, like the broadsheets of yore.  But that changed quite quickly, and for two big reasons: Facebook and Google.

The Crisis of Western Civ  —  Between 1935 and 1975, Will and Ariel Durant published a series of volumes that together were known as “The Story of Civilization.”  They basically told human history (mostly Western history) as an accumulation of great ideas and innovations, from the Egyptians …

Ann Coulter's Berkeley Speech: Lawyers Blast College for Rescheduling During Finals  —  The university reversed its decision to allow the Conservative news pundit to speak on campus, but the scheduled time, during finals week, was not acceptable for the group.

Jeff Sessions's attack on a Hawaii judge is an attack on judicial review itself  —  It's not “amazing that a judge on an island in the Pacific” can strike down an executive order.  It's how the US works.  —  The ability of federal judges to strike down actions taken by Congress …

Sanctuary Cities Face Aid Cuts as Justice Dept. Tightens Screws  —  WASHINGTON — Escalating a threat to withhold grants from state and local governments that block the police from telling federal authorities about undocumented immigrants in custody, the Trump administration sent letters Friday …

House intel panel invites former acting AG Sally Yates to testify  —  The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday asked several senior Obama administration officials, including former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, to testify publicly in the panel's probe into Russian interference in the U.S. election.

Gorsuch's First Big Supreme Court Vote Allows Arkansas Execution  —  Justices vote 5-4 to let state start lethal injections  —  Convicted murderer Ledell Lee subsequently put to death  —  Justice Neil Gorsuch took his first major action on the U.S. Supreme Court by casting the deciding vote …