First Run News

President Trump ordered a widening of American sanctions on North Korea on Thursday to further choke off its trade with the outside world, in what some experts described as perhaps the most sweeping set of punitive economic measures enacted by the United States in many years. A new executive order signed by Mr. Trump aimed to cut North Korea out of the international banking system while targeting its major industries and shipping.

President Trump ordered a widening of American sanctions on North Korea on Thursday to further choke off its trade with the outside world, in what some experts described as perhaps the most sweeping set of punitive economic measures enacted by the United States in many years. A new executive order signed by Mr. Trump aimed to cut North Korea out of the international banking system while targeting its major industries and shipping.

WASHINGTON — Five years ago, Paul Manafort arranged for a prominent New York-based law firm to draft a report that was used by allies of his client, Viktor Yanukovych, the Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, to justify the jailing of a political rival. And now the report is coming back to haunt it. The Justice Department, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, recently asked the firm, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, for information and documents related to its work on behalf of Mr.

WASHINGTON — Under growing pressure from Congress and the public to reveal more about the spread of covert Russian propaganda on Facebook, the company said on Thursday that it was turning over more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads to congressional committees investigating the Kremlin’s influence operation during the 2016 presidential campaign. “I care deeply about the democratic process and protecting its integrity,” Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said during an appearance on Facebook Live, the company’s video service.

WASHINGTON — Under growing pressure from Congress and the public to reveal more about the spread of covert Russian propaganda on Facebook, the company said on Thursday that it was turning over more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads to congressional committees investigating the Kremlin’s influence operation during the 2016 presidential campaign. “I care deeply about the democratic process and protecting its integrity,” Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said during an appearance on Facebook Live, the company’s video service.

Special counsel National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian diplomats, sources familiar with Mueller's investigation confirmed to ABC News. The letter, first reported by the New York Times and Washington Post, asked questions covering 13 specific categories, among them the Flynn and Comey dismissals and Russia meeting.

The inspector general's office at the Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing requests to investigate the private jet travel of the agency's chief, Tom Price, who reportedly chartered five flights last week, drawing widespread criticism from congressional Democrats. Price's travel, first reported by Politico Wednesday, comprised trips to Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania aboard private planes estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars per flight.

After months of stonewalling, Mark Zuckerberg agreed to turn over more than 3,000 Russian-linked political ads that ran during last year’s election campaign to Congress. In his remarks, made in a Facebook Live post from his personal account, Zuckerberg said the company “recently uncovered this activity” and began cooperating with investigators looking at Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election. “We are actively working with the US government on its ongoing investigations into Russian interfe

Sources with knowledge of the investigation surrounding former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort tell ABC News a key focus for congressional investigators is emails between Manafort and his longtime associate Konstantin Kilimnik. Kilimnik, often referred to in these emails as “KK,” has served as Manafort’s liaison overseas since the mid-2000s.

President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that China, North Korea's principal trading partner, has ordered its banks to stop doing business with the rogue regime. "I'm very proud to tell you that, as you may have just heard moments ago, China, their central bank has told their other banks — that's a massive banking system — to immediately stop doing business with North Korea," he said at the Shinzo Abe. Trump went on, "Again, I want to just say and than