NPR reports: President Trump welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the White House Friday, calling her “a very extraordinary woman.” At a photo op before a working lunch, Trump said the two leaders “will be working on a lot of different subjects,” including trade and NATO. Trump and Merkel will take questions from reporters after their discussions. Merkel’s visit does …

Mother Jones reports: Reverend Patrick Conroy, the chaplain for the US House of Representatives, surprised federal lawmakers when he announced his retirement earlier this month. As it turns out, his move wasn’t voluntary. New reports suggest that the chaplain, who is a Roman Catholic priest, was forced out by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.). The move raises questions from religious …

The Hill reports: An Indiana GOP lawmaker is actively working to nominate President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize as talks between North and South Korea progress. Rep. Luke Messer announced Friday that he is gathering support from his congressional colleagues to formally nominate Trump. “We are seeing unprecedented progress toward peace, and it’s a direct result of President Trump’s …

The New York Times reports: The Russian lawyer who met with Trump campaign officials in Trump Tower in June 2016 on the premise that she would deliver damaging information about Hillary Clinton has long insisted she is a private attorney, not a Kremlin operative trying to meddle in the presidential election. But newly released emails show that in at least …

The Wrap reports: President Donald Trump continued showing Kanye West love on Friday, tweeting out some fresh praise for the rapper who has vigorously embraced him in recent days. After a period of Twitter dormancy, Kanye has emerged in the last week as a vocal defender of Donald Trump, tweeting out increasingly brash statements of support for the president and …

The New York Times reports: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened Thursday on a six-acre site overlooking the Alabama State Capitol, is dedicated to the victims of American white supremacy. And it demands a reckoning with one of the nation’s least recognized atrocities: the lynching of thousands of black people in a decades-long campaign of racist terror. …

“What I was appalled and what we were offended by was you have these representatives sitting there as if we had no merit and no claim, and they were being very dismissive. My thing is, I thought they worked for the American people. Why are you questioning me about a FEC report? How much money did Mark Zuckerberg allegedly pay …

Business Insider reports: Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s embattled personal lawyer, once bragged that he was part of the Russian mob, The Wall Street Journal reported. Cohen is currently in the midst of a legal firestorm as the FBI investigates him for possible wire fraud, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations in connection to his work for Trump. Cohen is …

The Guardian reports: ABBA have announced that they have written and recorded their first new songs since they split in 1982. The Swedish four-piece, who had nine No 1 hits in the UK between 1974 and 1980, and who have sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide, announced on Instagram that they had recorded two new songs for a project …

The New Zealand Herald reports: The All Blacks and the Black Ferns have made a very public statement on where they stand on diversity and inclusiveness as they launched their “diversity is strength” campaign. Pairing up with AIG, the two teams released a two-minute video outlining their values. The next “battle” and “enemy” was devious and truly formidable, the video …

Via Breitbart: Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) had positioned himself as a champion of gay rights in his opposition to Mike Pompeo to become secretary of state, then on Thursday he voted against Richard Grenell, the Trump administration’s first prominent openly-gay nominee, for U.S. ambassador to Germany. Grenell’s nomination was confirmed by the Senate anyway, in a 56 to 42 vote, …

CBS News reports: With a single step over a weathered, cracked slab of concrete, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made history Friday by crossing over the world’s most heavily armed border to greet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for talks on North Korea’s nuclear weapons. Kim then invited Moon to cross briefly back into the north with him before …

USA Today reports: President Donald Trump waded into the campaign aimed at bringing the 2026 FIFA World Cup to the United States on Thursday, tweeting out a veiled threat to withdraw political support from nations who vote against the bid. In a wildly surprising development, Trump, who previously has shown little appetite for soccer, appeared to throw his full backing …

A warning shot to Trump today from the Senate: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday to give protections to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which senators said sent a message to President Donald Trump even if it has major hurdles to ever becoming law. Although the 14-7 vote on the measure split Republicans, the message from the …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump said Thursday that it would be a good idea to release the photographs of the meeting between then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders did just that on Thursday afternoon. “Mike Pompeo did go there, he wasn’t supposed to meet with Kim Jong Un, but …

“The rule of law — innocent until proven guilty, that’s not applying here. Trump is guilty. He’s guilty, he was guilty the moment he won the election. Trump is guilty of whatever allegation they want to make and it’s up to Trump to prove he didn’t do it. They don’t have to find evidence that Trump did it. In fact, …

This week marks the fourteenth blogiversary of this here website thingy. Counting this one, we’re at 75,285 posts over 14 years, the last ten of which have been without a day off. Whether I am insanely committed or am insane and should be committed – that is your call. The actual launch date anniversary comes this weekend, but since more …

The New York Daily News reports: Upset he hadn’t gotten tapped for a White House post and desperate to get President Trump’s attention, Michael Cohen had breakfast with billionaire Trump critic Mark Cuban in Manhattan last year, ostensibly knowing that it would upset the President and result in a phone call, according to a report. Turned out, Cohen was right, …

The Washington Blade reports: The U.S. Senate confirmed Richard Grenell on Thursday as U.S. ambassador to Germany, making him the most high-profile openly gay appointee in the Trump administration. Grenell — who has faced Democratic opposition for months over mean tweets he made about the appearance of women and other comments downplaying the significance of Russia’s influence in the 2016 …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge appointed an independent special master Thursday to make sure that no files seized by the FBI from embattled attorney Michael Cohen qualify for attorney-client privilege. The appointment of former federal judge Barbara Jones caps off weeks of wrangling between attorneys for President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, Cohen and federal prosecutors over how to …