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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Justice Department and F.B.I. Are Investigating Cambridge Analytica  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and the F.B.I. are investigating Cambridge Analytica, the now-defunct political data firm, and have sought to question former employees and banks that handled its business …

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 …

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.

Metro will stay open later for Caps-Lightning Games 3 and 4 — thanks partly to ... Qatar? … Metro announced early Monday morning that it will extend service by one hour Tuesday night to accommodate fans attending Game 3 of the Stanley Cup playoffs' Eastern Conference finals between the Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning.

'That's not what we do': Republicans balk at confronting Trump over McCain smear  —  For six days straight, Republican senators had publicly rallied to the defense of their longtime colleague battling cancer, Sen. John McCain, who was the target of a crass joke by a White House aide calling him irrelevant because “he's dying anyway.”

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.

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 …

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 …

Federal judge rejects Manafort's bid to dismiss Mueller indictment  —  A federal judge on Tuesday rejected an attempt by Paul Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, to get an indictment against him dismissed by claiming that special counsel Robert Mueller's appointment was flawed.

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.

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 …

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” …

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 …

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 …

Why Democrats can't win the ‘respect’ of Trump voters … In the endless search for the magic key that Democrats can use to unlock the hearts of white people who vote Republican, the hot new candidate is “respect.”  If only they cast off their snooty liberal elitism and show respect to people …

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.

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.

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.

Fox Settles Workplace Claims from Nearly 20 Individuals  —  Douglas Wigdor, the attorney repesenting more individuals against 21st Century Fox than anyone else, makes a big deal, but two of his clients — Rod Wheeler and Scottie Hughes — aren't ready to drop claims.

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 …