Firm Tied to Russian Oligarch Made Payments to Michael Cohen  —  A shell company that Michael D. Cohen used to pay hush money to a pornographic film actress received payments totaling more than $1 million from an American company linked to a Russian oligarch and several corporations with business …

Top takeaways from the first big primary of 2018  —  Republicans can exhale now.  —  Convicted coal magnate Don Blankenship's surprise third-place finish in Tuesday's West Virginia GOP Senate primary sidestepped yet another debacle for the party after consecutive meltdowns in special elections in Alabama and Pennsylvania.

‘She Should Have Fought Back.  Other People Did’: Inside Gina Haspel's Black Site … Ahead of her Senate reckoning, Gina Haspel's defenders in U.S. intelligence circles have adopted the fallback position that she'll be a check on Donald Trump as his CIA director.

Why Trump torpedoed Obama's Iran deal … The lobbying campaign to save the Iran nuclear agreement was intense and took months.  British Prime Minister Theresa May raised the deal with President Trump in more than a dozen phone calls.  French President Emmanuel Macron pressed him on it during an elaborate state visit.

N. Korea to release 3 U.S. captives: Cheong Wa Dae official … North Korea is expected to release three U.S. citizens held in the communist state on Wednesday, an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said, in an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of a historic meeting between …

Trump ‘unleashes general rage’ in scrapping Iran deal  —  One story dominated front pages across the Continent Wednesday morning: U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement and reimpose sanctions on Tehran.  Britain's Daily Telegraph led with a quote …

Trump's Rightward Pull on the GOP Primaries  —  The results of Tuesday's primary elections simultaneously bolstered the Republican Party mainstream and demonstrated how much ground it has yielded to Donald Trump, particularly on the volatile issue of immigration.

Risk to intelligence source who aided Russia investigation at center of latest showdown between Nunes and Justice Dept.  —  Last Wednesday, senior FBI and national intelligence officials relayed an urgent message to the White House: Information being sought by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes …

A Duke University VP Walked Into the Campus Joe Van Gogh, Heard a Rap Song, Demanded That the Employees Be Fired  —  On Monday, two employees of Duke University's Joe Van Gogh location had their contracts terminated after vice president for student affairs Larry Moneta and executive director …

Mormon Church breaks all ties with Boy Scouts, ending 100-year relationship … The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Tuesday it will sever all ties with the Boy Scouts of America, ending a century-old tradition deeply ingrained in the religious life of Mormon boys.

On the Road With Rose McGowan: An Actress Turned Activist Leaves the “Hollywood Bubble” Behind  —  Six months since going public with rape accusations about Harvey Weinstein and helping to ignite the #MeToo movement, McGowan has been portrayed as both a fearless hero and flame-throwing narcissist.

Rachel Crooks, who accused Trump of sexually assaulting her, wins uncontested Ohio House primary … Rachel Crooks, one of at least 19 women who have publicly accused President Trump of sexual assault, won an uncontested primary Tuesday for a seat in the Ohio state House of Representatives, her campaign manager confirmed.

Pretty Loud For Being So Silenced  —  Critics of the left aren't oppressed and they don't believe in “rational debate.”  —  Irony can be a difficult concept to grasp, but some hypothetical examples can illustrate it clearly.  It would be ironic, for instance, if people who claimed …

When Everything Is Possible and Nothing Is True  —  Hannah Arendt proves indispensable in understanding the Trump era.  —  One of my favorite stories about Winston Churchill goes like this. … Unfortunately, the story is what we would now call fake news.

Is This How Avenatti Found Out?  —  TPM Reader TH thinks he knows where Michael Avenatti got his amazingly specific details.  And it sounds right to me ...  I have no idea who leaked this or whether it was a leak per se.  But this is extraordinarily detailed information.  It all seems accurate.

FX Lands New York Times TV Series ‘The Weekly’  —  Hulu will stream episodes of the half-hour series, based on the Michael Barbaro-hosted podcast ‘The Daily,’ the day after their linear premiere.  —  FX has landed The New York Times' television news series, The Weekly.

Shouting match erupts on House floor over chaplain  —  Two lawmakers on Tuesday evening erupted into a shouting match on the House floor over Speaker Paul Ryan's firing — and then reinstatement — of the House chaplain, reigniting a contentious religious fight the Wisconsin Republican hoped would fade.

Ronan Farrow to Loyola Marymount's Class of 2018: ‘Trust that inner voice’  —  “I wish I could tell you I was confident.  That I was sure of myself.  That I didn't care,” Farrow said of reporting the hardest story of his life.  “But the real version was that I was heartbroken and scared …