The BBC reports: Turnout in the Republic of Ireland’s referendum on abortion laws is higher, so far, than in recent votes. Voting will continue until 22:00 local time on Friday. The turnout at mid afternoon on Friday was higher than at the same stage of the country’s referendum on same-sex marriage and its most recent general election. Polls opened at …

The New York Times reports: Eleven days before the presidential inauguration last year, a billionaire Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin visited Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet with Donald J. Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, according to video footage and another person who attended the meeting. In Mr. Cohen’s office on the 26th floor, he …

NBC News reports: Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., says the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., may have provided “false testimony” to the Senate Judiciary Committee when he was asked about the Trump campaign’s involvement with foreign governments and foreign nationals. In a two-page letter Thursday to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the panel, Coons said that information in recent …

RNC spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany today confirmed that Michael Cohen is still their Deputy Finance Chairman despite weeks of revelations about Cohen’s lucrative attempts to sell access to the White House. Mediaite reports: The RNC spokesman confirmed the news today while speaking to Cheddar correspondent and Mediaite alum J.D. Durkin. McEnany also brushed off the fact that Cohen has been raided …

The Hill reports: The FBI on Friday issued a formal warning that a sophisticated Russia-linked hacking campaign is compromising hundreds of thousands of home network devices worldwide and it is advising owners to reboot these devices in an attempt to disrupt the malicious software. The law enforcement agency said foreign cyber actors are targeting routers in small or home offices …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Don’t hold your breath for the show’s famous nudity to make its way to broadcast television, but NBC has chosen Hair as its next live musical. The network on Thursday announced that the 50-year-old Broadway hit of the hippie generation will be its latest live staging, with plans for a spring 2019 telecast. That fills the …

The Washington Post reports: The night before Trump delivered his first speech to Congress in February 2017, he huddled with Jared Kushner and [Stephen] Miller in the Oval Office to talk immigration. The president reluctantly agreed with suggestions he strike a gentler tone on immigration in the speech. Trump reminded them the crowds loved his rhetoric on immigrants along the …

Alex Kaplan reports at Media Matters: An American-born man who has defended the white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, VA, runs a website that has repeatedly spread fake news and linked to fake news websites. The site, called Jews News, was founded and is run by a man named Eliyokim Cohen, who grew up in Boston, MA, before moving to Israel. …

ABC News reports: While departing the White House on Friday, President Trump told pool reporters that his administration is still speaking with North Korea, and indicated that the peace summit he canceled yesterday could still take place. Trump canceled the summit, originally scheduled for June 12, in a letter addressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Unm yesterday. Trump even …

Democratic Florida state Rep. Kim Daniels, an exorcist preacher whose bill requiring all public schools to display “In God We Trust” goes into effect this summer, has some thoughts about dolls in her new book on witchcraft. “Most idolatry is rooted in fetishism,” Daniels writes. “Simply put, a fetish is an object with a spirit attached to it. If we’re …

The Hill reports: President Trump raised once again on Friday the claim that the FBI improperly spied on his presidential campaign, suggesting that the bureau used a top-secret informant to surveil his team long before it began investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The tweets were Trump’s latest suggesting that the FBI planted a mole within his campaign to …

CNN reports: Julian Assange’s nearly six-year refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London is in danger, opening the WikiLeaks founder to arrest by British authorities and potential extradition to the US, multiple sources with knowledge tell CNN. While Assange has in the past claimed his position in the embassy was under threat, sources say his current situation is “unusually bad” …

The Toronto Star reports: An explosion police say was caused by an improvised explosive device injured 15 people inside a Mississauga restaurant Thursday night. Fire crews and paramedics arrived at Bombay Bhel, an Indian restaurant at 5035 Hurontario St. near Eglinton Ave., around 10:30 p.m. “There were two individuals seen entering and detonating the device and two individuals that were …

Reuters reports: Film producer Harvey Weinstein on Friday surrendered to authorities at a New York City police station on sex crime charges, months after he was toppled from Hollywood’s most powerful ranks by scores of women accusing him of misconduct. Weinstein arrived at the station house shortly at about 7:25 a.m. EDT wearing a dark jacket over a blue sweater …

The New York Post reports: As this year’s best-seller list continues to be crammed with books on the Trump administration, Page Six has learned that Donald Trump Jr. wants to add his name to the list. Publishing insiders tell Page Six that Trump Jr. is shopping a tome, and is being repped by top agent David Vigliano’s literary firm, AGI …

The Orange County Register reports: U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher told a group of Realtors last week that homeowners should be able to refuse to sell their property to gays and lesbians, a statement that cost him the support of a key national Realtor group. “Every homeowner should be able to make a decision not to sell their home to someone …

CNBC reports: Former first lady Michelle Obama has just unveiled the cover of her memoir “Becoming,” which will be hitting bookstores around the world on Tuesday, November 13. Leading up to the big reveal, Obama has been posting previously unpublished family photos on her Instagram, offering a never-before-seen look at her personal life. “The process of writing this book has …

Just in from hate group leader Tony Perkins: The NFL season hasn’t started, but the league is doing its best to make sure they still have fans when it does! After a year-long controversy that cost him fans, advertisers, and ratings, Commissioner Roger Goodell finally decided to step in and stop the bleeding. A new anthem policy will take effect …

NBC News reports: The families of two students killed in the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, are filing lawsuits against the gun manufacturer and seller of the weapon used in the massacre. The parents of Jaime Guttenberg and Max Schacter say that American Outdoor Brands, the company that makes the AR-15 assault rifle used by the suspected shooter Nikolas Cruz, …

The New York Times reports: When Jared Kushner hosted a high-profile summit meeting on federal prison reform at the White House last Friday, some in attendance noticed that the man who was ostensibly in charge of the federal prison system, Mark S. Inch, a retired Army major general, was nowhere in sight. Only Mr. Kushner and a few others knew …