Spicer Pressed on Why Flynn Was Appointed by Trump Despite ‘Red Flags’

WikiLeaks said in a lengthy statement that the files mysteriously dubbed' Vault 7, are the most comprehensive release of U.S. spying files ever made public Writing for the Huffington Post , David L. Phillips, a Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights, noted that Flynn had "violated US law" if he knew about Alptekin's ties to the Turkish government but failed to register FIG's work for Inovo under the FARA act. Flynn's firm was paid more than $500,000 by Inovo for public relations and research work, including looking into exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who resides in Pennsylvania.

U.S. Gave Hundreds of Millions in Financing to Supplier of Mines Accused of Slave Labor

Over the past decade, the U.S. supplied an industrial chain said to involve slave labor, human rights violations and environmental destruction in Africa with $315 million in taxpayer-supported credit . Between 2007 and 2015, the US Export-Import Bank provided 48 insurance policies to the New Jersey-headquartered Connell Company to pursue deals with at least 17 mining companies in seven sub-Saharan countries.

President Trump, don’t deport me

I am one of an estimated 750,000 Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children, now facing possible deportation by President Donald Trump. I worry that the President - whose grandfather, mother and wife all immigrated to America - will turn my dream into a nightmare and throw me out of the land where I grew up.

Trump State Department in cone of silence for lack of staff

U.S. allies and adversaries looking for clarity on President Donald Trump's foreign policy will have to wait a bit longer to get that guidance from Rex Tillerson's State Department. For the third consecutive week since Trump took office, State Department press briefings normally held every workday haven't been scheduled, no chief of staff has been named and many of the most senior posts at the department remain vacant.

Who is Monica Crowley, conservative pundit, Trump appointee and alleged plagiarist?

Monica Crowley, a national security adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, was accused by CNN Saturday of plagiarizing passages in her 2012 book. Crowley got her start as a research assistant on foreign policy to former President Richard Nixon , helping the politician - who had already been impeached for his role in the Watergate break-in at the Democratic National Campaign headquarters and the subsequent cover-up - in the final few years of his life by editing his books, arranging his speaking engagements and coordinating his travel.

Russia: the uninvited guest in US election New York (AFP) – Many…

Many unorthodox things have taken place in the 2016 race for the White House, but Russia is perhaps the most unlikely guest at the US political dinner table. From US accusations that Moscow hacked emails of Democratic Party leaders to hurt Hillary Clinton, to her charge that opponent Donald Trump is a "puppet" of Russia's Vladimir Putin, one might be forgiven for thinking it's 1960, not 2016.

Trying, and Mostly Failing, to Study the Life of New York City’s Rats

Our hope was to catch rats in various iconic locations around New York-a park, a subway station, midtown-and fit them with tracking collars that could capture the rhythms of city life from the rats' perspective. We dreamed of eventually giving them tiny GoPros and microphones, of visualizing days lived near the third rail or under the watch of a red-tailed hawk.

Universities boost stipends ahead of ruling on grad unions

Several private universities are boosting stipends and benefits ahead of a federal ruling that could clear the way for graduate students to form unions. To some grad students, it's an attempt to persuade them that they don't need collective bargaining to get a raise.

Libertarian: Trump has ‘a screw loose’

Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson and his running mate, Bill Weld, came out swinging Wednesday against their major party rivals: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. At a CNN town hall hosted by Anderson Cooper, Weld outright mocked Trump - saying he has "a screw loose" - while Johnson shed his typical reluctance to attack Clinton by questioning her integrity.

ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer to direct Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University

Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger today announced his appointment of Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director at the ACLU, as founding director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. Last month, Columbia and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced the creation of the new institute which will work-through litigation, research and public advocacy-to preserve and expand the freedoms of expression and the press in the digital age.

The Wages of Neoliberalism: Poverty, Exile and Early Death

Economist Michael Hudson says neoliberal policy will pressure U.S. citizens to emigrate, just as it caused millions to leave Russia, the Baltic States, and now Greece in search of a better life. A research team from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York estimates 875,000 deaths in the United States in year 2000 could be attributed to social factors related to poverty and income inequality.