The New York Times reports: Toys “R” Us is planning to close as many as 182 of its stores as it struggles to reorganize in bankruptcy. The toy chain, which filed for bankruptcy last September, said in a court filing late Tuesday that the stores selected for closing have failed to meet “performance standards.” The planned closings represent about 20 …

The Guardian reports: Julian Assange’s long stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London is having a “dangerous” impact on his physical and mental health, according to clinicians who carried out the most recent assessments of him. The pair renewed calls for the WikiLeaks publisher to be granted safe passage to a London hospital. Sondra Crosby, a doctor and associate professor …

The Chronicle Of Philanthropy reports: GuideStar, the charity-information site, scored a major victory as a federal court ruled it was in legal bounds to put a hate label on a nonprofit’s profile. A federal judge in Virginia dismissed a lawsuit against GuideStar pursued by the conservative Christian legal-defense group Liberty Counsel. Judge Raymond Jackson of the Federal District Court in …

CBS News provides likely topics: DACA deadline: Congress has its eyes set on finding a fix for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients. President Trump ended the program in September 2017 and has since wavered on what should be done about the status of DACA recipients; Andrew McCabe: Mr. Trump reportedly asked then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe whom he …

The Associated Press reports: For the first time, researchers have used the cloning method that produced Dolly the sheep to create two healthy monkeys, bringing science an important step closer to being able to do the same with humans. Since Dolly’s birth in 1996, scientists have cloned nearly two dozen kinds of mammals, including dogs, cats, pigs, cows and polo …

The Associated Press reports: The former sports doctor who admitted molesting some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years was sentenced Wednesday to 40 to 175 years in prison as the judge declared: “I just signed your death warrant.” “It is my honor and privilege to sentence you. You do not deserve to walk outside a prison ever again. You …

CBS News reports: The Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to do away with special elections for the state’s two U.S. Senate seats and instead let the governor’s appointee serve for up to two years. Instead of calling a special election, the governor’s would appoint an interim replacement who would serve in the U.S. Senate until the next statewide …

Business Insider reports: After being knocked out from the Australian Open in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, American breakout tennis star Tennys Sandgren blasted the media for its coverage of him in recent days. Sandgren, 26, made a surprise run through the Australian Open, but faced scrutiny over past Twitter use that seemed to support the alt-right movement. Previous tweets and …

Politico reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is embracing newly-released FBI statistics as evidence that America has turned the tide in its battle against violent crime — a shift he credits in large part to the policies of President Donald Trump. The FBI numbers, covering the first six months of 2017, show overall violent crime declined by 0.8 percent, with rape …

Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: Yesterday, disgraced former FBI agent and current anti-Islam activist John Guandolo appeared on TheDove TV’s “Focus Today” program, where he declared that the people behind Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election are guilty of treason and should be executed. “That’s criminal and everyone involved should go …

NBC News reports: Fake news led to Adam and Eve’s original sin, Pope Francis said Wednesday. Disinformation and “manipulative use of social networks” can have “dire consequences” and the world must embark on a “profound and careful process of discernment,” he added in a speech marking World Communications Day. Fake news — a term popularized by President Donald Trump — …

ABC News reports: Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” is well on its way to becoming one of the top- selling nonfiction books in recent years. The tell-all about the Trump administration has sold more than 1.7 million copies in the combined formats of hardcover, e-books and audio, publisher Henry Holt and Co. told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Published less …

“I have very simple admonition: just shut the hell up and don’t preach to me about anything ever again. I don’t want to hear it, because after telling me who to love, what to believe, what to do and what not to do and now you sit back and the prostitutes don’t matter, the grabbing the you-know-what doesn’t matter, the …

Switzerland’s The Local reports: More than a thousand people protested in central Zurich on Tuesday against the planned arrival of US President Donald Trump in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF). Trump is due to make a speech at the gathering of international business and political leaders in Davos on Friday. The demonstrators marched through the Swiss city chanting …

The Week reports: Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, explained to Politico that evangelicals gave Trump “a mulligan” and “a do-over.” On CNN Tuesday night, Erin Burnett asked him why, especially after porn star Stormy Daniels’ detailed account of an extramarital affair she says she had with Trump in 2006. “If this behavior were occurring today, right now, …

NBC News reports: A year ago today, Donald Trump’s newly sworn–in national security adviser, Michael Flynn, met privately in his West Wing office with FBI investigators interested in his communications with Russia’s ambassador, without a lawyer or the knowledge of the president and other top White House officials, according to people familiar with the matter. Flynn’s FBI interview on Jan. …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump is a “changed person” amid recent reports of an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, said the president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. “These alleged affairs, they’re alleged with Trump, didn’t happen while he was in office,” Franklin Graham told CNN’s Don Lemon on “CNN Tonight” on Tuesday. Lemon questioned why …

The Hill reports: President Trump appeared to call out Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung for a missing trove of text messages between two senior FBI officials that was not retained by the agency. The text messages between the two FBI employees, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, are among a larger trove of messages that were not saved by the FBI because …

Stormy fallout? CBS reports: First Lady Melania Trump will not be accompanying President Trump when he flies to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, although the trip had earlier been on her schedule. Melania Trump’s press office said that there were “too many scheduling and logistical issues,” so she would not be traveling to Davos. Monday was the couple’s …

The Washington Post reports: Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is seeking to question President Trump in the coming weeks about his decisions to oust national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James B. Comey, according to two people familiar with his plans. Mueller’s interest in the events that led Trump to push out Flynn and Comey indicates that …