First 100 days
A Maryland judge ruled Friday that First Lady Melania Trump's libel suit against a political blogger can go forward, rejecting the blogger's argument that her action was brought in bad faith as an effort to curb his right to free speech. The ruling paves the way for Trump to pursue defamation claims against Webster Griffin Tarpley in court. Tarpley, who publishes Tarpley.net from his townhouse in Gaithersburg, Md., wrote last summer that Melania Trump was "reportedly obsessed by fear" over possible revelations that she allegedly once worked as a high-end escort, according to court records. Soon afterward, he retracted the story and apologized for any duress the story may have caused.
President Donald Trump has had a lot to say about ISIL, vowing during his inauguration speech to eradicate the terrorist group and calling its fighters "sneaky, dirty rats" during an interview last week. But ISIL has been oddly quiet about Trump. The militant organization, known for flooding social media with elaborately produced messages and videos, has only made a few fleeting references so far to a president whose anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies would seem to represent a propaganda bonanza to Islamist groups. An ISIL video released last month includes footage of Trump ducking and being pulled from a podium in response to an unseen threat, images selected to show the president in a cowering pose. The absence of more material on Trump from ISIL has puzzled analysts, especially given that Al-Qaida has gone in the other direction and mocked the new U.S. leader in high-profile propaganda releases.
Thousands of leading academics, alarmed by an executive order instituting "extreme vetting" of refugees with a goal of keeping radical Islamic terrorists from entering the country, have signed a petition denouncing the action. At least 12 Nobel laureates and many well-known scholars, including members of the National Academy of Sciences, have signed.
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