Faked Pelosi videos, slowed to make her appear drunk, spread across social media  —  Distorted videos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), altered to make her sound as if she's drunkenly slurring her words, are spreading rapidly across social media, highlighting how political disinformation …

Assange Indicted Under Espionage Act, Raising First Amendment Issues  —  WASHINGTON — Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks leader, has been indicted on 17 new counts of violating the Espionage Act for his role in publishing classified military and diplomatic documents in 2010 …

Bank CEO Stephen M. Calk Charged With Corruptly Soliciting A Presidential Administration Position In Exchange For Approving $16 Million In Loans  —  Ms. Strauss said: “As alleged, Stephen M. Calk abused the power entrusted to him as the top official of a federally insured bank by approving millions …

Women Rise in Dem 2020 Field  —  Biden maintains lead, but it's not as large among early state voters  —  West Long Branch, NJ - Former Vice President Joe Biden maintains his front-runner status among Democratic voters nationwide, but some female candidates - namely Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren …

Are More Moderate Democrats More Electable?  —  I have a dilemma for you, dear reader.  I have a righteous little bulletpoint-sized rant to make about ill-informed media coverage of polling in the recent Australian election.  But this column, Silver Bulletpoints, promises to give you three items …

How Trump Broke the Freedom Caucus  —  Back in February 2018, I sat down with two leaders of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss, among other things, whether fiscal conservatism had gone extinct.  —  A few days earlier, with encouragement from his budget director, Mick Mulvaney …

Democrats ramp up pressure on Trump for answers on ‘outrageous’ $64M bailout to meatpacker controlled by Brazilian crooks  —  Sen. Tammy Baldwin called on President Trump Thursday to explain why more than $64 million meant for struggling American farmers ended up in the hands …

My Rapist Apologized  —  I still needed an abortion.  —  My 12-year-old daughter recently asked me what I think about abortion.  She walked into the kitchen, poked around the refrigerator, then spun around and blurted it out: “I can't decide what I think about abortion.  I want to know what you think.”

Report reveals new details about DOJ's seizing of AP phone records  —  With its latest leak indictment last week, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump is now on pace to break the previous record for prosecutions of journalists' sources, just two and a half years into its administration.

What Rod Rosenstein Knew When He Helped Trump Fire Comey  —  In May 2017, then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein agreed to assist President Trump in an effort to fire James Comey as FBI director despite Rosenstein's knowing beforehand that the president had devised a false cover story …

Syria: Sky News witnesses horrors of Idlib as crew shelled by regime  —  Sky's Alex Crawford says the crew was attacked with tank shells, as an activist they were travelling with was hit by shrapnel.  —  Created with Sketch.  —  Sky News has gained exclusive access to the bombardment of Idlib …

American voters don't care about the economy  —  If you're a Republican, it looks great—and vice versa  —  James carville, who worked for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, hung a sign in his Arkansas headquarters in 1992.  Designed to keep the candidate on-message, it read: “Change vs. more of the same.

FBI has seen significant rise in white supremacist domestic terrorism in recent months  —  (CNN)The FBI has seen a significant rise in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases in recent months, a senior FBI counterterrorism official said Thursday.

TurboTax Uses A “Military Discount” to Trick Troops Into Paying to File Their Taxes  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom based in New York.  Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.

Here Are the GOP's Secret Talking Points Defending Alabama's Abortion Law  —  WASHINGTON — In the days since Alabama's passage of the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, national Republicans have tried to distance themselves from its most controversial provisions that would outlaw abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

The Truth Behind Trump Tower Moscow: How Trump Risked Everything For A (Relatively) Tiny Deal  —  It's getting late, and Felix Sater—a onetime Trump partner, two-time convicted felon and longtime federal informant—sits in the back of a New York City restaurant, ready for a drink.

IR Theory and ‘Game of Thrones’ Are Both Fantasies  —  They draw on the same narrow slice of European history—and get it wrong anyway.  —  Since the start of the series, Game of Thrones has been catnip for scholars of world politics and foreign policy.  —  They eagerly applied their talents …

New China Tariffs Increase Costs to U.S. Households  —  Tariffs on $200 billion of U.S. imports from China subject to earlier 10 percent levies increased to 25 percent beginning May 10, 2019, after a breakdown in trade negotiations.  In this post, we consider the cost of these higher tariffs to the typical U.S. household.

Geoffrey Rush Awarded $1.9 Million in #MeToo Defamation Case  —  Geoffrey Rush has been awarded $1.9 million after winning a defamation case against Australia's Nationwide News over a story published in the company's Daily Telegraph, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday.

Pro-Gun Parkland Teen Kyle Kashuv Apologizes for ‘Inflammatory’ Racial Comments  —  Kyle Kashuv, an ex-Turning Point USA star, says he's sorry for ‘idiotic comments’ he made in text messages circulating among right-wing activists and Parkland students this week.

‘100%’ of illegal immigrant families released into U.S.: DHS  —  Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said Thursday that “100%” of illegal immigrant families in the new border surge are being released into communities, rather than being held and deported.