Revealed: Ecuador spent millions on spy operation for Julian Assange  —  Exclusive: Files show at least $5m went on activities including spying on guests at London embassy  —  Ecuador bankrolled a multimillion-dollar spy operation to protect and support Julian Assange in its central London embassy …

(LEAD) N. Korea cancels high-level talks with S. Korea over military drill … North Korea said Wednesday it is canceling high-level talks with South Korea planned for later in the day due to ongoing military exercises between the South and the United States.

China gave Trump a list of crazy demands, and he caved to one of them … After top Trump officials went to Beijing last month, the Chinese government wrote up a document with a list of economic and trade demands that ranged from the reasonable to the ridiculous.

Tom Wolfe, Pyrotechnic Nonfiction Writer and Novelist, Dies at 87  —  Tom Wolfe, an innovative journalist whose technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattans moneyed status-seekers in works like …

Qatari investor confirms he attended Trump Tower meetings in 2016  —  Washington (CNN)A Qatari investor referenced in a series of tweets from Michael Avenatti this week confirmed to CNN through a spokesperson on Tuesday that he did attend meetings at Trump Tower in December 2016.

U.S. identifies suspect in major leak of CIA hacking tools … The U.S. government has identified a suspect in the leak last year of a large portion of the CIA's computer hacking arsenal, the cyber tools the agency had used to conduct espionage operations overseas, according to interviews and public documents.

Key Democrat backs Haspel for CIA director after she says interrogation program should not have been started  —  Gina Haspel appears to have secured enough votes to be confirmed as the country's next CIA director after stating in a letter to a top Democrat that the agency never …

Trump administration preparing to shelter migrant children on military bases  —  The Trump administration is making preparations to warehouse migrant children on military bases, according to Defense Department communications, the latest sign the government is moving forward with plans to split up families who cross the border illegally.

Living in the Gaza Strip isn't so bad, despite what Gazan protesters say  —  Foreign and Defense Policy, Middle East  —  Israeli forces reportedly killed 52 Gazan protesters along the border fence amid violent protests.  The Palestinian Authority called the killings a “terrible massacre” …

White House eliminates top cyber adviser post  —  The Trump administration has eliminated the White House's top cyber policy role, jettisoning a key position created during the Obama presidency to harmonize the government's overall approach to cybersecurity policy and digital warfare.

The truth is about to catch up to Trump.  He has Giuliani to thank for it. … THE MORNING PLUM:  —  Today is the deadline for President Trump to file his financial disclosure form for 2017.  That fact may seem trivially bureaucratic, but lurking at its core is a dilemma for Trump …

Disgraced former congressman Blake Farenthold won't repay $84K sexual harassment settlement  —  Former Rep. Blake Farenthold, the disgraced Texas Republican who resigned last month in the aftermath of a sexual harassment settlement, has secured his next paid gig - as a government lobbyist.

Twitter Is Going To Limit The Visibility Of Tweets From People Behaving Badly  —  Act like a jerk, and Twitter will start limiting how often your tweets show up.  —  On Tuesday, Twitter announced a massive change to the way its conversations will work, evaluating not just the content of individual tweets …

Federal lawsuit accuses Obama center organizers of pulling an ‘institutional bait and switch’  —  The design for the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park was unveiled May 3, 2017.  —  A federal lawsuit filed by a Chicago nonprofit in an attempt to block the Obama Presidential Center …

Trump's lawyer falsely claimed in 2017 interview that Trump Organization had no recent activity in Russia  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, claimed in a January 2017 interview that the Trump Organization had no recent relationship with Russia …

Two Colleagues Contradict Brennan's Denial of Reliance on Dossier  —  Former CIA Director John Brennan's insistence that the salacious and unverified Steele dossier was not part of the official Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election is being contradicted by two top former officials.

For Meghan Markle's American Family, a Relentless U.K. Glare  —  It is notoriously hard to escape your background in Britain, no matter how successful you are or how much your life has diverged from that of your relatives.  And so the British tabloids have for some months been treating …

First lady ‘in good spirits and resting’ following kidney procedure  —  First lady Melania Trump is continuing her recovery in the hospital following a kidney-related procedure Monday that her office said was long-planned.  —  “I want to start by saying that Melania is in the hospital doing really well …

Conservatives Freak Out at Miami Cheesecake Factory Over MAGA Hat Incident … A brave, free-speech MAGA warrior is under attack, America.  Eugenior Joseph, a Miami native and former Westwood Christian School basketball star, says he walked into the Cheesecake Factory at Dadeland Mall …

In leaky West Wing, not even a phone ban can stop embarrassing disclosures  —  Washington (CNN)The dustup over a White House aide's crass remark about Sen. John McCain's health has once again inflamed the White House's frustration with staffers who reveal the inner workings of the West Wing to reporters outside the building.

Why Keith Richards had to get rid of Donald Trump  —  Rolling Stones star Keith Richards says he can't be bothered to get angry any more - but the last time he did was nearly 30 years ago with Donald Trump.  —  “He [Trump] was the promoter for us in Atlantic City [during 1989's Steel Wheels Tour],” he told the BBC.

The Ivy League School That Won't Talk About Its Most Famous Graduate  —  For 176 years, William Henry Harrison was the only president the University of Pennsylvania had any kind of claim on, and even then it was kind of a stretch.  As a student, Harrison did a brief stint at Penn, but he didn't stay long enough to get a degree.

The Untold Story of Robert Mueller's Time in Combat  —  Robert Mueller's job is to make sense of how Russia hacked the 2016 election.  But to make sense of Mueller, you have to revisit some of the bloodiest battles of Vietnam.  —  ONE DAY IN the summer of 1969, a young Marine lieutenant …

Researchers Uncover Two Hidden Pages in Anne Frank's Diary  —  AMSTERDAM — Anne Frank tried to cover up two pages of writing in her diary that contained dirty jokes and a description of what she referred to as “sexual matters,” pasting brown paper over the pages in her red-and-white plaid notebook.

The Hill Ran an Anti-Iran Deal Op-Ed by a Paid Agent of Saudi Arabia Without Disclosing It  —  Norm Coleman might be vaguely familiar to you as a former senator from Minnesota and the guy whom Al Franken narrowly defeated in 2008, but he has since settled into a nice life behind the scenes in Washington.

GOP golden boy mails it in  —  Republicans worry that Josh Hawley, the party's top Senate recruit, is squandering his opportunity to beat vulnerable Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.  —  FENTON, Mo. — As GOP Rep. Ann Wagner prepared to introduce candidates in a Republican Senate debate here Friday …

Fox News Host Exits His Company Over Support for Trump … A top nonpartisan political crowdfunding site on Tuesday cut ties with its CEO, a Fox News weekend host, and temporarily suspended all fundraising on its platform for Republican candidates.  —  In a Medium.com post, entitled …

Millions of dollars in suitcases fly out of MSP, but why?  —  MINNEAPOLIS (KMSP) - For five months, Fox 9 has been investigating what appears to be rampant fraud in a massive state program.  —  This fraud is suspected of costing Minnesota taxpayers as much as $100 million a year.