Melania Trump has filed a blockbuster $150 million lawsuit against the The Daily Mail and a US-based blog claiming they defamed her when they reported that she worked for an escort service, multiple reports said Thursday.

And the British newspaper blinked just hours later, retracting its story and apologizing to the wife of GOP nominee Donald Trump. Charles Harder, Melania Trump’s lawyer, hammered the news outlets. “These defendants made several statements about Mrs. Trump that are 100 percent false and tremendously damaging to her personal and professional reputation,” he said in a statement.(nypost.com)…[+]

Vice President Joe Biden invoked the memory of his son to silence a protester at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton. “My friends died, my American friends,” an audience member heckled, interrupting the vice president at a campaign rally Thursday night in Cleveland. The crowd tried to silence the protester with chants of “U-S-A!” and “Hillary! Hillary!” The heckler, referring to the US policy in Syria and the fight against ISIS, continued, “My friend died.” “Will you listen?” Biden answered. “So did my son, OK?”

The VP proceeded to invite the heckler back stage after the campaign event. “Come back after here and talk to me about this. You have my permission,” Biden said. The vice president’s son, Beau Biden, died of a brain tumor last year. He was the former attorney general of Delaware and served in the Delaware Army National Guard. Beau Biden served in Iraq as a major in the Judge Advocate General Corps from 2008 to 2009.(nypost.com)…[+]

Hurricane Hermine weakened into a tropical storm after making landfall in Florida’s Big Bend area early Friday — bringing soaking rain, high winds and thousands of power outages.

The US National Hurricane Center said the storm’s maximum sustained winds decreased from 80 mph to near 70 mph with additional weakening forecast as the system moves north-northeast at almost 14 mph. Hermine, the first hurricane to hit Florida in more than a decade, is expected to move into the Carolinas and up the East Coast with the potential for drenching rain and major flooding. Tropical storm warnings remained for parts of the Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia and up through North Carolina. “This motion is expected to continue today and Saturday,” the National Hurricane Center said.(nypost.com)…[+]

This 17-year-old didn’t need to take an SAT to get into college — or even a high school diploma. Malvika Raj Joshi of Mumbai, who long abandoned formal schooling, landed a scholarship to Massachusetts Institute of Technology after her outstanding performance at an annual computer programming competition, according to First Post.Joshi medaled her way to MIT after receiving two silver and one bronze in International Olympiad of Informatics, which caught the eye of the Boston university — despite her not being enrolled in a high school.

The decision to leave the traditional education system was made by her mother Supriya, who believed her daughter’s so-called merit was more significant than her grades. “Malvika was doing well in school but somehow I felt that my children need to be happy. Happiness is more important than conventional knowledge,” Supriya said. Others applauded the Cambridge school for recognizing Joshi’s skills.(nypost.com)…[+]

EL CAJON, Calif. — On Sunday, Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh participated in a ceremony in Amman, Jordan, to mark the United States hitting its target of taking in 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year-old resettlement program. On Wednesday, the 47-year-old former construction worker and his family were walking grocery aisles, stocking up on roasted chicken, milk and lemons for their new home outside San Diego. It didn’t take long for Jouriyeh, his 42-year-old wife and four children, ages 8 to 14, to feel welcome.It didn’t take long for Jouriyeh, his 42-year-old wife and four children, ages 8 to 14, to feel welcome.“America is a beautiful country,” he said through an Arabic translator at the office of the International Rescue Committee in El Cajon, a San Diego suburb that has been a magnet for Iraqis and, more recently, Syrians who are fleeing war. “The way they treat people and the people of America are very nice … When you go down the streets, everyone smiles at you. Even if they don’t know you, they just smile at you.”(nypost.com)…[+]

Mexico’s president rebuked Donald Trump as a threat to his country just hours after painting a positive picture of talks the two held on Wednesday to try to defuse tensions over the U.S. presidential hopeful’s anti-Mexican campaign rhetoric.

President Enrique Pena Nieto had on Wednesday afternoon hailed as “open and constructive” the impromptu meeting he held with Trump, who later referred to the Mexican leader as his friend and a “wonderful” president. But in a late evening television interview, an angry-looking Pena Nieto sought to defend himself against a broad swathe of criticism for his decision to invite the Republican candidate despite his repeated verbal attacks on Mexico.(nypost.com)…[+]