America

    Donald Trump was so eager to have Vladimir Putin attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow that he wrote a personal letter to the Russian president inviting him to the event, according to multiple people familiar with the document. At the bottom of the typed letter, Trump scrawled a postscript adding that he looked forward to seeing ‘‘beautiful’’ women during his trip. Trump’s letter to Putin, which was described by people with knowledge of its contents, shows how interested he was in attracting the personal attention of the Russian president. The real estate magnate, who owned the Miss Universe pageant, wrote the note at a time when he was looking to expand his brand to Russia. John Dowd, an attorney for President Trump, said he was not familiar with the let...

    Inside the White House, aides over the past week have described an air of anxiety and volatility with an uncontrollable commander in chief at its center. These are the darkest days in at least half a year, they say, and they worry just how much farther President Trump and his administration may plunge into unrest and malaise before they start to recover. As one official put it: We haven’t bottomed out. Trump is now a president in transition, at times angry and increasingly isolated. He fumes in private that just about every time he looks up at a television screen, the cable news headlines are trumpeting yet another scandal. He voices frustration that son-in-law Jared Kushner has few on-air defenders. He revives old grudges. And he confides to friends that he is unce...

    The first lady, Melania Trump, has parted ways with an adviser after news about the adviser’s firm reaping $26 million in payments to help plan President Trump’s inauguration. Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who has been friends with Mrs. Trump for years, had been working on a contract basis as an unpaid senior adviser to the office of the first lady. Stephanie Grisham, Mrs. Trump’s spokeswoman, said the office had severed the gratuitous services contract with Ms. Wolkoff, who Ms. Grisham said had been employed as a special government employee” to work on specific projects. “We thank her for her hard work and wish her all the best. The contract was terminated last week, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation. They said the move was prompted by d...

    Several readers asked about the immigration status of Melania Trump’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, after spotting social media posts such as this one: With congressional debate beginning on overhauling immigration laws, it’s certainly an interesting question. President Trump has favored bills that would severely restrict so-called chain migration, including the granting of immigration visas to the parents of U.S. citizens. So naturally, readers have wondered whether the president is being hypocritical. Let’s see what we can find out. First of all, we should note that this particular tweet falsely claims that Melania Trump, who is a native of Slovenia and married Donald Trump in 2005, stayed in the United States illegally after her visa expired and that she ma...

    Jocelyn Morffi and Natasha Hass had booked the Key Largo Lighthouse estate for three days starting Feb. 2, turning their wedding day into a wedding weekend. They had a welcome bash at the Florida wedding venue on Friday, a goodbye barbecue on Sunday and their seaside nuptials in between. The women relayed important messages to their loved ones through their wedding website: Wear semiformal attire, contribute to the honeymoon fund instead of buying gifts and, of course, use the hashtag #MorffiHassTheKeys. Morffi’s messages were more somber a few days later. On Instagram, she explained to family, friends and anyone else who wondered why she hadn’t shown up at Miami’s Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School, where she had been a first-grade teacher for seven years. “This...

    Joseph Lopez, 22, claims he didn’t know Natalie Bollinger before the Broomfield, Colorado teenager allegedly wrote a disturbing Craigslist post. I want to put a hit on myself, Bollinger allegedly wrote on her local Craiglist’s women seeking men section in late December, according to an affidavit first reported . Lopez claims he answered the post posing as a hitman. Then, cops say, his make-believe profession became real. Police found Bollinger’s body in a wooded area on a dairy farm on December 29. Her boyfriend had reported her missing the previous day. The boyfriend’s was also missing from his home, he told police, according to the affidavit. The teenager’s murder was a mystery from the start. An autopsy report revealed her cause of death as a single gunshot wound...

    A member of the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in October inside a prison built by Islamic State fighters in Raqqa, Syria. The group is said to have detained two Britons infamous for their role in. Syrian Kurdish fighters have detained two British men infamous for their role in the Islamic State’s imprisonment, torture and killing of Western hostages, according to American officials. All four had lived in West London. Mr. Kotey, born in London, is of Ghanaian and Greek Cypriot background, while Mr. Elsheikh’s family fled Sudan in the 1990s. Both men have been designated foreign terrorists by the United States. The British extremists were known for their brutality. They repeatedly beat the hostages they kept imprisoned in Raqqa, Syria, formerly the Islamic...

    Many have wondered, but nobody knows what exactly is going on with Trump's hair. We're now closer to the truth than ever, thanks to a new video. The video captures the president going up the steps to Air Force One on February 2, about to head to his Mar a Lago resort for the weekend. It's a windy day, and Trump was positively buffeted by a cross wind that dislodged a flap of hair covering the rear of his head. The flap is pushed forward, revealing a curiously bare section of Trump's head. Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine said it reveals the "absurd efforts" Trump has taken to conceal his hair loss. The video — which some assumed was fake or doctored due to the severity of its contents seems to have been taken by Reuters TV, and was reposted on YouTube in part b...

    The sizzling pictures of Ivanka Trump, the model and one of the hottest first daughters in US history.    The daughter of business tycoon Donald Trump got her start in modelling when she appeared on the cover of Seventeen magazine and has since appeared on the runway for Versace, Marc Bowman, and Thierry Mugler as well as appearing in campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger, and Sassoon Jeans. In addition to being beautiful (it's been reported that hers is one of most requested noses by those seeking plastic surgery), Ivanka is whip smart and holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of Business. There's no denying the spawn of The Donald is as hot as she is smart, reports the Radass.com. After spending 10 years as an Executive Vice President of the Trump Organiza...

    Did Melania Trump avoid holding her husband’s hand again? Let’s go to the tape. On Monday, as President Trump and the first lady walked before a phalanx of cameras on their way to a tax reform rally in Ohio, the president seemed to reach for and then fumble to find his wife’s right hand. After what appeared to be a botched attempt, Trump momentarily stopped and repositioned himself on his wife’s opposite side. There, he gestured briefly at the press before the couple continued across the South Lawn of the White House toward Marine One. As she frequently does, the first lady was wearing her overcoat a bright lemon-yellow one paired with a matching turtleneck hanging loosely on her shoulders, her arms at her sides beneath it. She carried her handbag in her left han...