Trump says Germany ‘is captive to Russia’ in fiery opening salvo against NATO  —  BRUSSELS — President Trump unleashed a blistering attack Wednesday on Germany and other NATO allies, wasting no time to take the offensive before a week of high-stakes diplomacy on both sides of the former Cold War divide.

Rosenstein Asks Prosecutors to Help With Kavanaugh Papers in Unusual Request  —  WASHINGTON — Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, has asked federal prosecutors to help review the government documents of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump's Supreme Court nominee …

EXCLUSIVE: Ocasio-Cortez with another surprise election win - in a district she wasn't even running in … Things are going so well for insurgent Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that she's winning primaries she didn't even enter.  —  In addition to recently …

Border Protection says NYC mayor crossed border illegally  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his security detail violated both Mexican and U.S. immigration laws by crossing the border on foot during a visit near El Paso, Texas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection alleges …

Battling Fake Accounts, Twitter to Slash Millions of Followers  —  Twitter will begin removing tens of millions of suspicious accounts from users' followers on Thursday, signaling a major new effort to restore trust on the popular but embattled platform.  —  The reform takes aim at a pervasive form of social media fraud.

Once partners, ‘Game Change’ authors feuding over their shattered franchise  —  Until their split last year, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann were the golden boys of American political journalism.  Their collaboration led to a best-selling book about the 2008 presidential campaign, “Game Change …

Former Obama Officials Are Riding Out The Trump Years By Cashing In  —  The revolving door takes a spin.  —  The last 18 months have been difficult for former members of the Obama administration.  They've been replaced by a regime, which, in the words of former Domestic Policy Council …

The only good online fandom left is Dune  —  As corporations take control of nerd culture, science fiction's most esoteric epic remains gloriously untamed.  —  Escapism in the year 2018 is a strange thing.  If you want to refresh a brain beshitted by weeks and months of workaday corruption and brutality …

Rick Scott and family made $550M in one transaction.  How ‘blind’ is his blind trust?  —  TALLAHASSEE  —  The reason Gov. Rick Scott's net income rose 55 percent in 2017 has to do with electric cars, China partnerships, a company turnaround, and a single transaction that resulted …

Pence launches Midwest damage control mission  —  With anxiety rising over Trump's trade policies, the vice president is stumping for endangered incumbents and reassuring big GOP donors.  —  CHICAGO — Vice President Mike Pence begins a campaign swing through the Midwest on Wednesday designed …

Obama Tops Public's List of Best President in Their Lifetime, Followed by Clinton, Reagan  —  Reagan is top choice among Boomers, Silents  —  When asked which president has done the best job in their lifetimes, more Americans name Barack Obama than any other president.

Yup - we were duped.  Ya' got me, Sacha.  Feel better now?  —  I join a long list of American public personalities who have fallen victim to the evil, exploitive, sick “humor” of the British “comedian” Sacha Baron Cohen, enabled and sponsored by CBS/Showtime.

CIVITAS POLL: McCready Leads in NC-09 Congressional Race  —  RALEIGH, N.C. - In the latest Civitas Poll, Democrat congressional candidate Dan McCready leads Republican Mark Harris by 7 points.  —  The poll, conducted July 5-8, 2018, surveyed 543 likely voters in North Carolina's 9thcongressional district …

Papa John's Founder Allegedly Used N-Word On Conference Call  —  Papa John's founder and CEO John Schnatter at the Indy 500 in Indianapolis, Indiana in May 2015.  (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)  —  John Schnatter—the founder, chairman and public face of pizza chain Papa John's …

Michael Cohen has made ‘a declaration of independence’ from President Trump, lawyer says  —  Michael Cohen's new attorney says his client has made a “declaration of independence” from Donald Trump  —  and no longer would take a bullet for the president in any investigation.

Pompeo's North Korea meeting went ‘as badly as it could have gone’  —  Kim Jong Un snubbed Mike Pompeo, source says  —  (CNN)It began with great expectations, an eagerly-anticipated meeting with a reclusive leader, and a gift bag that included an Elton John CD.

A taste of Chipotle's new menu items proves: It's no Taco Bell  —  Americans' love for Taco Bell, the nation's large Tex-Mex fast-food chain, must be vexing for Chipotle Mexican Grill, which has long prided itself on its whole and responsibly sourced ingredients.

Tribune editorial: Our treatment of refugee children is a national disgrace  —  In Thailand, 12 children and their soccer coach made a wrong turn, got themselves trapped in a cave and quickly became the target of an all-hands-on-deck rescue effort mounted by national and provincial officials and eager volunteers from all over the world.

Woman calls cops on black 12-year-old boy delivering newspapers in Ohio neighborhood  —  A fledgling paperboy working alongside his mother in suburban Columbus, Ohio, came face-to-face with a cop after a neighbor thought he was up to no good.  —  The nosy neighbor spied the 12-year-old boy …

Here Is the Column That Business Insider Spiked  —  Defending an actress for being hired to do a job is apparently beyond the pale these days. … Scarlett Johansson is the latest target of the social-justice warrior mob.  The actress is being chastised for, well, acting.