First Run News

Russia’s Parliament approved legislation on Wednesday that could require foreign media organizations operating in Russia to label news they produce the work of a “foreign agent,” the latest step in the unraveling of relations since the United States accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The measure will become law if passed by the Russian Senate and signed by President Vladimir V. Putin. Over the weekend, however, Mr.

LONDON — Scientists across Europe have been puzzling about a phenomenon that seemed laden with mystery and menace in somewhat uneven proportions — a concentration of radioactive pollution caused by a nuclide called ruthenium 106. Official monitors in France and Germany concluded that, based on weather patterns, the contamination detected since late September had emanated from southern Russia or from Kazakhstan. “The most plausible zone of release lies between the Volga and the Urals,” the French Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safe

The death toll in a Northern California shooting rampage rose to five on Wednesday after the authorities said they found the body of the gunman’s wife hidden under the floor of the couple’s house. The death toll, the authorities say, could have been much worse had an elementary school not ordered an immediate lockdown. The gunman, identified by the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office as Kevin Janson Neal, killed his wife, shot neighbors, attacked an elementary school and drove through the small rural community, firing at motorists early on Tuesday morning.

Top sports and government officials of the World Anti-Doping Agency have rejected the appeals of Russia’s sports minister and refused to recognize the nation as compliant with the global antidoping code, imperiling Russia’s participation in major competitions just three months before the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. At a meeting in Seoul on Thursday — late Wednesday night Eastern Time — the regulator’s 38-member foundation board chose not to restore Russia’s antidoping agency to good standing.

Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ owner, was told by his fellow owners that his “antics” were damaging the N.F.L.

LONDON — More than 150,000 Russian-language Twitter accounts posted tens of thousands of messages in English urging Britain to leave the European Union in the days before last year’s referendum on the issue, a team of researchers disclosed on Wednesday. More than 400 of the accounts that Twitter has already identified to congressional investigators as tools of the Kremlin, other researchers said, also posted divisive messages about Britain’s decision on withdrawing from the bloc, or Brexit, both before and after the vote. Most of the messages sought to inflame fears about Muslims and immigrant

Earlier this month, a former hedge fund employee was flown from Hong Kong to London for a job interview. Around the same time, a current employee of the same Toronto hedge fund was also flown to London for interviews. The company courting them was fake. Its website was fake. There were no jobs to be had, and the woman who set up the interviews was not a recruiter but an agent working for an Israeli private investigative firm. This was not an episode of “Homeland” or the latest “Mission: Impossible” installment.

WASHINGTON — Sometimes, you just get thirsty. Never mind that you’re on national television, having hyped a midafternoon speech. Or that you’re the president of the United States, delivering the remarks from the Diplomatic Room in the White House. And just set aside for a moment your past, snarky criticism of other politicians for sneaking a sip during a speech. Whether any of that went through President Trump’s mind or not during an address to the nation on Wednesday afternoon, he clearly was parched.

WASHINGTON — President Trump boasted on Wednesday that nearly 10 months of his “America First” foreign policy had restored strength and respect to the United States on the world stage after years of what he called failed leadership under his predecessors. Hours after returning home from a 12-day, five-country excursion to Asia with few concrete achievements, Mr. Trump made no significant announcements in a speech that he had hyped on Twitter as “a major statement” to be delivered upon his return. Mr.

The director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Wednesday that he would leave the federal agency this month, removing a major opponent to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle business regulations and unfetter Wall Street. As the bureau’s first director, Richard Cordray, a Democrat appointed by President Barack Obama, has been an active watchdog whose role took on outsize significance in an increasingly partisan Washington.