Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin  —  Natalia V. Veselnitskaya arrived at a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 hoping to interest top Trump campaign officials in the contents of a memo she believed contained information damaging to the Democratic Party and, by extension, Hillary Clinton.

Conway confirms Trump wanted FBI informant's gag order lifted  —  Washington (CNN)In response to reporting that President Donald Trump personally pressed for an informant's gag order to be lifted, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Friday that he wanted the informant to be free to speak out.

Orrin Hatch Tells Friends He Plans to Retire  —  SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—Senator Orrin Hatch has privately told allies in Utah that he is planning to retire at the end of his term next year, and if he does, Mitt Romney intends to run for his seat, according to five sources familiar with the situation.

Gaffes, TV ratings concerns dominated as NFL, players forged anthem peace  —  NOBODY KNEW WHERE to sit.  Side by side or across from one another?  —  It was the final question raised by a group of 11 NFL team owners as they mingled inside the sixth-floor conference room …

British newspaper received mystery call minutes before JFK assassination  —  A British newspaper received a mystery call minutes before the assassination of John F Kennedy.  —  This is one of the most astonishing revelations from the JFK files, released on Thursday.

I'm writing this to make sure other young women won't stay silent like I did  —  Mark Halperin apologizes after sexual harassment claims  — Eleanor McManus: When I was just out of college, in a private informational meeting with Mark Halperin, he tried to kiss me and attempted a bit more

Rep. Jackie Speier says she was sexually harassed on Capitol Hill  —  A Bay Area congresswoman said Friday that she was sexually harassed as a congressional staffer — and decided to go public with her story to shed light on what she described as a culture of harassment on Capitol Hill.

This Is What the Trump Abyss Looks Like  —  The past week was another watershed, it seems to me, in the rising power of Donald Trump.  Flake is quitting; Corker is retiring; McCain is mortal.  Sasse, Murkowski, Collins, and Paul remain, but the odds are mounting against them.

Catalan parliament declares independence from Spain  —  The Catalan regional parliament has voted to declare independence from Spain, while the Spanish parliament has approved direct rule over the region.  —  Catalan MPs backed the motion 70-10 in a ballot boycotted by the opposition.

Whitefish Energy contract bars government from auditing deal  —  A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke  —  's hometown prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company's relief efforts …

Update on Our Advertising Transparency and Authenticity Efforts  —  When it comes to advertising on Facebook, people should be able to tell who the advertiser is and see the ads they're running, especially for political ads.  —  That level of transparency is good for democracy and it's good for the electoral process.

The Attempted Remaking of Michael Grimm  —  Steve Bannon looked at a convicted felon — and saw a populist.  —  It was Friday, which meant it was Michael Grimm's cheat day.  —  The muscle mass he carried during his time as a Marine, an undercover FBI agent, and even as a congressman has …

‘Terry Richardson Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg’  —  This week, in an apparently defensive move after a social media outcry, the biggest fashion magazines cut ties with the photographer Terry Richardson over his history of alleged sexual harassment.  —  On Monday, The Telegraph broke …

Russia's Troll Factory Made ‘Hillary Clinton’ Sex Tape, Ex-Worker Claims … A Russian-government-backed “troll factory” hired a black man and a Hillary Clinton look-alike to make a sex tape, according to the first former employee of the factory's American division to go on the record.

The Week Trump Won  —  One hundred years ago on Friday, John Reed was in St. Petersburg watching Lenin, Trotsky and the rest of the Bolsheviks take over Russia.  It was interesting to read his account, “Ten Days That Shook the World,” this week — the week when Donald Trump and Steve Bannon solidified …

Leon Wieseltier: A Reckoning  —  It was never an “open secret” among me and my then-colleagues that Leon Wieseltier, the longtime literary czar of the New Republic, behaved inappropriately with women in the workplace.  It was simply out in the open.  This week, Wieseltier's previously …

This Company Added the Word ‘Blockchain’ to Its Name and Saw Its Shares Surge 394%  —  A British company that has been investing in internet and information businesses is having its best day on record.  —  On-line Plc jumped as much as 394 percent on Friday after announcing plans to change …

‘Something fairly big is coming’: Ex-FBI double-agent predicts Russia bombshell after Trump evasions  —  MSNBC anchor Joy Reid investigated whether the latest revelations involving Cambridge Analytica and Wikileaks may be related to Republicans ‘hysteria’ to find a Russia-related story that tarnishes Democrats.

GOP eyes end of Russia probes with Trump collusion unanswered  —  Republican lawmakers say they're approaching the end of their investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election even though the most politically explosive issue — whether associates of President Donald Trump colluded …

Gillespie's ads are poisonous to Virginia and the nation  —  (Pete Marovich/For The Washington Post)  —  SINCE 2001, when he was convicted of a sex offense and served a brief prison term, and early this year, when he was convicted on child-pornography charges, Virginia resident John Bowen …

Outnumbered and outgunned, US troops got separated in Niger ambush  —  Niamey, Niger (CNN)Outnumbered and lightly armed, a Green Beret-led team that was ambushed by militants in Niger earlier this month became separated during the firefight, US officials and a Nigerien soldier told CNN Thursday.

The Surrender  —  Everyone's talking about the civil war in the Republican party.  It seems more like a surrender to us.  —  The great bulk of elected Republicans have surrendered to the forces of Donald J. Trump.  And they didn't even put up much of a fight.

State Department Scraps Sanctions Office  —  The Trump administration is three weeks late on Russia sanctions.  But it's killed the office that coordinates them.  —  The State Department shuttered an office that oversees sanctions policy, even as the Donald Trump administration faces criticism …