Hope Hicks quitte également la Maison Blanche

La Directrice des communications de la Maison Blanche annonce son départ une journée après avoir témoigné devant un comité du Congrès. Interrogée sur le dossier de l'ingérence de la Russie, elle a refusé de répondre à plusieurs questions. Elle a également été la petite-amie de Rob Porter, l'ancien conseiller qui a quitté plus tôt cette année après des allégations de violences conjugales. On a prétendu que Mme Hicks avait protégé Porter pendant un certain temps.

 "Hicks was one of the first people to join Trump's 2016 presidential bid, and she was nearly always at his side on the campaign trail and in the White House. But her decision to exit came after she drew scrutiny amid several minefields facing the administration.

On Tuesday, she declined to answer many questions during an appearance before House investigators looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Earlier this month, she was drawn into the controversy surrounding former staff secretary Rob Porter, who she had been dating and who resigned amid claims of physical and verbal abuse from two ex-wives."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/28/hope-hicks-to-resignation-from-white-house-430821

Caricature Jared Kushner toujours indispensable

Caricature de Kevin Siers, The Charlotte Observer, NC

Caricature Emmanuel Macron et l'Europe

Caricature d'Arcadio Esquivel, Costa Rica

Caricature Trump 2020

Caricature de Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle, GA

Caricature Jared Kushner perd son habilitation de sécurité

Caricature de Dave Granlund, Minnesota

Confrontation Kushner vs Kelly à la Maison Blanche

Depuis hier les mauvaises nouvelles s'accumulent pour le gendre et conseiller de Donald Trump. On lui a retiré sa cote de sécurité, le Washington Post a révélé que des pays discutaient de la possibilité de tirer profit de la situation financière de ses compagnies et de son inexpérience puis, finalement, nous apprenions que Robert Mueller s'intéresse de plus en plus à son cas. Si le président refuse de discréditer Jared Kushner, il ne fait rien pour forcer John Kelly à le réhabiliter. On croit que le général considère que Kushner représente un risque pour l'administration et qu'il a décidé de l'éloigner. Un autre drame qui se déroule dans la célèbre "West Wing".  Donald Trump devra-t-il éventuellement se séparer d'un des deux hommes?

 "Kushner also feels that he has come under fire from his own West Wing colleagues recently, with the notion that "everyone is out to get him," a source said. This person noted that Kushner remains exasperated by Kelly's decision to overhaul the security clearance process, feeling that it is mainly directed at him. He has been asking others, "Why is John Kelly doing this?"

 But he's not intending to leave his position in the near-term. And Kelly has told colleagues that be believes Kushner should continue in his job for now, and thinks he'll be able to manage his portfolio even without the top-level clearance."

 https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/politics/john-kelly-jared-kushner-security/index.html

Caricature le Congrès joue à l'autruche

Caricature de Bill Day, Tallahassee, FL

Récolte de médailles décevante pour les Américains?

Les États-Unis envoyaient aux Jeux Olympiques leur plus forte délégation d'athlètes de l'histoire pour les jeux d'hiver. Pourtant leur récolte de médailles est la plus faible de vingt dernières années. Des pays comme la Norvège et les Pays-Bas obtiennent de très bons résultats avec des délégations beaucoup moins importantes. Retour sur les performances et analyse des coûts sur le le site de "The Atlantic".

 "Still, when you look strictly at the numbers, it’s been a disappointing 2018 Winter Olympics for the United States. America sent 242 Olympians to Pyeongchang but will take home just 23 medals, ending up in fourth place overall. Compare this to Norway, which has an Olympic delegation less than half the size of Team USA’s, with 109 team members, and won 39 medals.

Below, we have organized the medals earned by each nation into categories. First, we counted the sheer number of medals earned, and then we weighted them by type of medal. Through calculations by Charlotta Mellander, my colleague at the Martin Prosperity Institute, we also controlled for population size, economic output, and team size."

  https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/america-winter-olympics-worst-2018/554438/

Caricature Donald Trump inspiré par Xi Xinping

Caricature de Patrick Chappatte, The International New York Times

Caricature vente d'armes semi-atomatiques

Caricature de Patrick Chappatte, The New York Times

Caricature Little Marco

Caricature de RJ Matson, Portland, ME 

 Matson associe la position de du Sénateur Marco Rubio concernant la NRA au surnom que lui donnait Donald Trump lors des primaires républicaines de 2016.

L'Obama Presidential Center de Chicago ne fait pas l'unanimité

Une opposition qui provient de l'endroit où tout a commencé au plan politique pour Barack Obama. Une situation paradoxale...

 “The library is a great idea, but what about a community benefits agreement?” Taylor asked, referring to a contract between a developer and community organizations that requires investments in, or hiring from, a neighborhood where a project is built. “The first time investment comes to black communities, the first to get kicked out is low-income and working-class people. Why wouldn’t you sign a CBA to protect us?”

Measured as always, Obama began by telling Taylor, “I was a community organizer.” Then he said, “I know the neighborhood. I know that the minute you start saying, ‘Well, we’re thinking about signing something that will determine who’s getting jobs and contracts and this and that’ … next thing I know, I’ve got 20 organizations coming out of the woodwork.”

The answer infuriated Taylor, who pays $1,000 a month for the Woodlawn apartment she shares with her mother and two children, and is worried that the Obama Center’s cachet will drive up neighborhood rents. Months later, she is still furious at the former president.

“He got a lot of nerve saying that,” Taylor told me. “He forgotten who he is. He forgot the community got him where he is.”

  https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/28/barack-obama-library-chicago-217093

Retour en classe émouvant à l'école Marjory Stoneman Douglas de Parkland

Le campus est maintenant protégé comme forteresse, mais les étudiants et le personnel pourront difficilement se concentrer alors qu'on retourne dans les classes où les souvenirs de la tuerie seront omniprésents...

 "“I’m scared to go back,” Madison Lackey, 14, said.

Even to get onto the vast school campus again, students and their parents had to thread their way past heavily armed police officers and television cameras and pass through an exterior fence that is now decorated with banners of grief and condolence and garlanded with fading memorial flowers.

As they approached the school, the students walked past a phalanx of police officers from nearby cities and teachers from their old middle and elementary schools who waved signs of support."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/us/stoneman-douglas-parkland-shooting.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

La chaîne Dick’s Sporting Goods ne vendra plus de fusils d'assault

Une décision majeure de la part d'un important vendeur d'armes aux États-Unis.

 "“When we saw what happened in Parkland, we were so disturbed and upset,” Mr. Stack said in an interview Tuesday evening. “We love these kids and their rallying cry, ‘enough is enough.’ It got to us.”

He added, “We’re going to take a stand and step up and tell people our view and, hopefully, bring people along into the conversation.”

Mr. Stack said he hoped that conversation would include politicians. As part of its stance, Dick’s is calling on elected officials to enact what it called “common sense gun reform’’ by passing laws to raise the minimum age to purchase guns to 21, to ban assault-type weapons and so-called bump stocks, and to conduct broader universal background checks that include mental-health information and previous interactions with law enforcement."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/business/dicks-major-gun-retailer-will-stop-selling-assault-style-rifles.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Caricature armes en classe: facteur de réussite

Caricature de Nate Beeler, The Columbus Dispatch, OH

Caricature Donald Trump à la rescousse!

Caricature de Kevin Siers, The Charlotte Observer, NC

Caricature Donald Trump super-héros

Caricature RJ Matson, Portland, ME

Jared Kushner perdrait son habilitation de sécurité

Le gendre et conseiller du président Trump a perdu son habilitation de sécurité un peu plus tôt aujourd'hui. Si le président peut lui permettre de la retrouver, il a plutôt indiqué qu'il laisserait cette décision à John Kelly.

 "The SCI acronym stands for sensitive compartmented information, a category of information that comes from sensitive intelligence sources and must be walled off.

 The memo was not signed by chief of staff John Kelly, but it comes as the retired Marine general and other top White House aides are grappling with the fallout of a scandal involving former White House staff secretary Rob Porter, which revealed that dozens of White House aides had yet to receive permanent clearances but nonetheless had access to some of the country’s deepest secrets."

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/27/jared-kushner-security-clearance-downgrade-427178

Caricature Trump le courageux!

Caricature de John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Contrôle des armes et législation: Paul Ryan freine les ardeurs

Pour ceux et celles qui espèrent depuis la tuerie de Parkland que le Congrès américain pourrait éventuellement légiférer, les déclaration du Speaker républicain Paul Ryan ont eu l'effet d'une douche froide.

 "Ryan also emphasized that sentiment: “There was a colossal breakdown in the system locally… and we need to get to the bottom of this to [find out] how these breakdowns occurred, from … the armed officer who was in the school at that time, to the FBI who failed to follow up on a glaring tip that this young man wanted to shoot up a school.”"

  https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/27/paul-ryan-gun-control-426711

Caricature Facebook, Google et les "fake news"

Caricature de Stephane Peray, Thailand

Donald Trump peut-il être inculpé pendant sa présidence?

J'ai déjà relayé quelques articles sur le même thème. Cette fois c'est le professeur Jonathan Turley de George Washington University qui se prononce et il croit qu'il est possible d'inculper Donald Trump dans l'exercice de ses fonctions. Au-delà de son opinion, Turley rappelle principaux arguments des opposants sur cette question et mentionne quelques cas dont celui de Bill Clinton.

 "There are times when a criminal prosecution may be the only answer for a criminal chief executive. In the case of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, years of alleged special dealing produced no impeachment. Only after he was charged in office did the Illinois legislature vote to remove him. But is a president inherently different from a governor? When he was solicitor general of the United States, Robert Bork wrote a brief saying that a vice president (like Spiro Agnew) could be indicted in office but not a sitting president. Leon Jaworski, the Watergate special prosecutor, disagreed and suggested that such an indictment might be possible. Recently released material related to the Clinton impeachment shows that the staff of independent counsel Kenneth Starr prepared a memo supporting the indictment of a president and drafted indictments for Bill Clinton.

The Justice Department itself concluded during the Clinton administration that “[n]either the text nor the history of the Constitution” is “dispositive” on this question but has rendered an internal opinion against indictments of a sitting president as a matter of “considerations of constitutional structure.” Mueller (who is supposed to follow the “rules, regulations, procedures, practices and policies” of the Department) may consider himself bound to this guidance and put evidence of any crime in a report to Congress for possible impeachment."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/02/27/can-donald-trump-be-indicted-while-serving-as-president/?utm_term=.8d34fb76b1cd

Des gouverneurs américains s'opposent à Trump: pas d'armes pour les enseignants

L'idée lancée par Donald Trump à la suite de la tuerie de Parkland est loin de faire l'unanimité. Les échanges rapportés ici vont dans plusieurs directions et les arguments invoqués méritent réflexion. Devant la complexité du dossier le président à préférer s'en remettre aux états pour la suite.

 "As the hour-long discussion wore on, Trump seemed more and more inclined to leave all the specifics and complexities of arming teachers to others. He said the federal government “will help monetarily,” possibly with grants to cover $1,000-a-year bonuses for teachers who pack heat, but that the governors and local districts can tackle everything else. “Just go and do it yourself,” the president said at the end of the meeting. “We will be there to help you no matter what your solution is. But this is largely a state issue.” "

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2018/02/27/daily-202-trump-gets-a-seminar-on-federalism-as-governors-push-back-on-arming-teachers/5a94c2b830fb047655a06963/?utm_term=.e42a61d9e121

La Corée du Nord liée aux atrocités en Syrie?

Selon des experts des Nations Unies la Corée du Nord aidé la Syrie dans la fabrication d'armes chimiques, déjouant aisément l'embargo sur les armes et les services de renseignement occidentaux.

 "The report highlights the potential danger posed by any such trade between Syria and North Korea, which could allow Syria to maintain its chemical weapons while also providing North Korea with cash for its nuclear and missile programs.

The possible chemical weapons components were part of at least 40 previously unreported shipments by North Korea to Syria between 2012 and 2017 of prohibited ballistic missile parts and materials that could be used for both military and civilian purposes, according to the report, which has not been publicly released but which was reviewed by The New York Times."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/27/world/asia/north-korea-syria-chemical-weapons-sanctions.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Chronique dans "Québec aujourd'hui" sur les ondes de BLVD 102,1: trêve olympique, gestion des armes et quand la CIA s'associait avec la mafia

La chronique dans la section "Réécouter" du 27 février:
http://blvd.fm/emissions/3-quebec-aujourd-hui

Caricature la logique de la NRA

Caricature de Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT

Collaboration dans "Radio-Canada cet après-midi": suites de la tuerie de Parkland, enquête Mueller sondage difficile pour D. Trump et Corée du Nord

Nos échanges à compte de 17h44 sur l'audio fil du 26 février:
http://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/radio-canada-cet-apres-midi

Caricature les étudiants contre la NRA

Caricature de Daryl Cagle, CagleCartoons.com

Caricature avocat de Donald Trump et actrice de films pornos...

Caricature de Steve Sack, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, MN

Caricature redécoupage électoral en Pennsylvanie

Caricature de RJ Matson, CQ Roll Call

Caricature patriotes américains

Caricature d'Ed Wexler, CagleCartoons.com

Caricature Trump et son rêve américain

Caricature de Matt Wuerker/POLITICO 

 Non, Donald Trump n'a pas oublié son défilé militaire. Il a demandé au Pentagone de l'organiser pour le Veterans day (en novembre).

Les syndicats du secteur public sérieusement diminués par la Cour suprême?

C'est demain que les juges de la Cour suprême américaine entendront les arguments des deux parties dans une cause dont le jugement pourrait sérieusement limiter l'action des syndicats du secteur public. Les syndicats peuvent-ils prélever des cotisations d'employés qui refusent de s'affilier? Si le syndicats avancent qu'ils négocient au nom de tous et que tous les employés profitent des retombées des négociations, le plaignant invoque ici le non-respect du premier amendement. Plusieurs voient également dans cette cause une attaque contre le Parti démocrate que les syndicats appuient généralement au moment des élections. Moins d'argent pour les syndicats, moins d'argent pour les contributions électorales...

 "That would be a serious blow to Democrats in the midterm election campaign. Government unions account for about 6 percent of the money spent on Democratic candidates in federal elections — and that doesn't include significant in-kind contributions like phone banks and canvassing.

Unions “provide enormous resources to candidates who support workers, which tend to mostly be Democrats,” said Steve Rosenthal, a former political director of the AFL-CIO and Democratic Party strategist. The case, he said, is aimed largely at "limiting Democrats' ability to win."

AFSCME and its affiliates spent about $26 million on the 2016 election cycle, according to federal election records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, virtually all of it to elect Democrats."

 https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/25/supreme-court-public-unions-2018-midterms-423436

Caricature Donald Trump et les survivants de la tuerie de Parkland

Caricature de John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune, PA

Sondage Donald Trump: 35% d'approbation selon CNN/SSRS

Après une embellie en janvier, le président Donald Trump voit son taux d'approbation redescendre sous les 40%. Autre donnée significative, sa cote baisse également chez les électeurs républicains même si une large proportion de ceux-ci sont toujours en accord avec sa gestion du pays.

 "The findings follow several weeks of sharply negative news about the President's White House staff, including the revelation that several key staffers lacked permanent security clearance, the implementation of a new policy to handle interim security clearances, and news that multiple White House staffers had resigned following accusations of domestic abuse.

While the poll was in the field, much of the President's public agenda focused on gun laws, an area where the poll finds Trump earns mostly negative reviews. Just a third of Americans approve of his handling of gun policy, 54% disapprove and another 12% say they have yet to make up their minds. Those who live in gun-owning households give him higher ratings than others: 52% in gun households approve of his work on gun policy; it's 17% among all others."

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/25/politics/cnn-poll-trump-approval-matches-low/index.html

Caricature statue de la liberté et autres monuments...

Caricature de Paresh Nath, The Khaleej Times, UAE

Caricature mentalité de cowboy

Caricature de Stephane Peray, Thailand 

 Peray est un caricaturiste français vivant à Bangkok. On publie ses dessins dans une soixantaine de journaux partout sur la planète. Je le découvre aujourd'hui.

"J'ai été un Marine, je ne veux pas d'arme dans ma classe" (Anthony Swofford)

L'ancien Marine et professeur de création littéraire Anthony Swofford explique pourquoi à son avis ce ne serait pas une bonne idée de permettre au personnel des écoles de porter une arme. Swofford est également l'auteur de “Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles.”

 "What if a history teacher had also been armed? And an English teacher, and a math teacher, and the janitorial staff members? In this National Rifle Association fever dream, a high school would concentrate so much firepower in the hands of its employees that no deranged individual with a weapon would dare enter the premises.

This sort of thinking also has no grounding in reality. People attack heavily armed institutions all too often, as with the mass shootings in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas and in 2013 at the Washington Navy Yard. Assailants in such cases aren’t typically worried about losing their lives in the process. Usually, losing their lives is part of the plan.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/opinion/sunday/marine-gun-classroom.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-top-region&region=opinion-c-col-top-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-top-region

Armer les enseignants: les Américains divisés sur la question (Pew Research Center)

Bien avant la tuerie de l'école Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school le Pew Research Center avait interrogé les Américains sur la possibilité d'armer du personnel scolaire. Le sondage de 2017 montre que la population est très divisée sur la question.

 "The recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida, has reignited a national debate about guns in America. In particular, as the conversation has focused on how to keep children safe in schools, the idea of arming some teachers has garnered attention. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that more than half of U.S. adults (55%) would oppose allowing teachers and officials to carry guns in K-12 schools, including 36% who said they would strongly oppose such a proposal. Still, a sizable minority (45%) said they favored allowing teachers to carry guns in schools."

  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/23/in-2017-americans-narrowly-opposed-allowing-teachers-and-school-officials-to-carry-guns/

Un Degas dérobé en 2009 retrouvé dans un autobus près de Paris

Cette histoire d'une toile du maître volée dans un musée de Marseille se retrouve aujourd'hui dans les pages du New York Times.

 "The discovery was timely, coming shortly after the 100th anniversary of Degas’s death and coinciding with an exhibit at the Musée d’Orsay, which ends this weekend, on the friendship between the painter and Paul Valéry, the French poet and thinker.

French customs officials seized more than 10,000 works of art in 2016, mostly ancient pieces of currency and archaeological artifacts, according to official statistics. In another high-profile case from 2015, customs agents seized a portrait by Picasso from a yacht in the Mediterranean."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/world/europe/degas-painting-bus.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

LA C.I.A. et le complot pour éliminer Fidel Castro

Il y a peu on dévoilait toute une série de documents entourant l'assassinat de John K. Kennedy. Si les conspirationnistes ont obtenu bien peu d'informations permettant d'étayer leurs nombreuses thèses, POLITICO rapporte aujourd'hui de nombreux renseignements concernant les plans visant à éliminer le leader cubain Fidel Castro. Mafia, sexe, gadgets, Ian Fleming n'aurait pas fait mieux pour son James Bond.

 "The unholy marriage of the CIA and the Mafia in the Castro plot first became public knowledge in the mid-1970s, amid congressional hearings into the agency’s misdeeds and a growing national paranoia about the JFK assassination. Not until 2007 did the agency finally admit that Allen Dulles, its legendary director a half-century earlier, had agreed to a sizable bounty for the two gangsters in exchange for Castro’s head. But for more than a decade, the plot was known to only a few.

 The story begins in the late 1950s, when America’s postwar confidence was suddenly rattled by the Soviet Union, which adopted Castro’s revolutionary government as a political satellite. By August 1960, the CIA’s top leaders had launched their plan to get rid of the pesky young Castro, according to a 1967 inspector general’s report stamped “Secret Eyes Only.” The policy to get rid of Castro had been initiated under President Dwight D. Eisenhower and was embraced by Kennedy when he took office in 1961. (Historians debate how much both presidents knew of the CIA’s precise plans). Reluctant to get blood on their own hands, CIA officials called for “a sensitive mission requiring gangster-type action.”"

  https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/24/fidel-castro-cia-mafia-plot-216977

Caricature deuxième amendement étudié en classe

Caricature de John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune, PA

Caricature trolls russes

Caricature de Steve Sack, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, MN

Armer le personnel enseignant: le Texas comme modèle

Donald Trump aurait été inspiré par un programme du Texas qui entraîne et arme du personnel dans les écoles pour en faire des “school marshals”.

 "Villalba said that he texted Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who, as Texas governor, signed the bill that created the school marshal program, and “congratulated him.” Perry did not respond.

 “I know he’s got the president’s ear. In Texas when we’ve got a good idea, we share it,” Villalba said. “We’re excited about expanding what we believe to be the model for the nation.” Perry aides did not respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Under the program, schools in districts that participate can designate marshals who undergo background checks and active-shooter training. “This is not some insignificant, go-to-a-weekend class and all of a sudden you’re Rambo,” Villalba said. “This is a serious requirement.”"

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/24/armed-teachers-texas-trump-362397

Caricature Marco Rubio et les tueries dans les écoles

Caricature de Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Caricature armes pour les profs...

Caricature de Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle, GA

Caricature dopage russe

Caricature de Nate Beeler, The Columbus Dispatch, OH

Frederick Douglass et le racisme scientifique

Les revues et journaux américains nous offrent beaux portraits de ce géant de l'histoire américaine qu'est Frederick Douglass. Pour ce deux centième anniversaire du grand penseur et activistem le New York Times pointe vers volet trop peu souvent abordé, ses pensées sur l'évolution scientifique de son époque et les retombées potentielles sur la question raciale.

 "Ethnology was not embraced by only proslavery Southerners. Its most important theorists lived in the North: one, Louis Agassiz, taught at Harvard; the other, Samuel George Morton, was president of one of the nation’s leading scientific societies, in Philadelphia. Agassiz and Morton rejected the 18th-century view of race, which held that all human beings descended from a single pair and that physical differences emerged because of changes in the natural environment. Instead, they contended that black and white people were created separately and that black people were inferior, a theory called polygenism. As Northerners, Agassiz and Morton went out of their way to say that polygenism in no way justified slavery. But they did not have to: Southern scientists eagerly used it to condone slavery, and even white Northerners opposed to slavery found it helpful. Some used it to promote Northern segregation, others to argue for emancipation coupled with colonization — removing black Americans once they were free."

  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/22/opinion/frederick-douglasss-scientific-racism.html

Donald Trump annonce de lourdes sanctions à l'endroit de la Corée du Nord

Ivanka Trump est arrivée en Corée du Sud au moment où l'administration de son père annonce de nouvelles sanctions contre le régime nord-coréen. Nous sommes déjà loin du rapprochement entre les deux Corées au début des Jeux Olympiques.

 "President Trump announced the “heaviest” set of U.S. sanctions against North Korea on Friday as his administration redoubles its efforts to starve Pyongyang of resources and force the isolated regime to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

 “We imposed today the heaviest sanctions ever imposed on a country before,” Trump said at the close of a wide-ranging address to a conservative political conference.

 The new measures target 56 vessels, shipping companies and other entities that Trump administration officials believe are used by North Korea to conduct trade prohibited under previous sanctions.

Significant advances in its missile and nuclear weapons programs have made North Korea the most pressing foreign threat facing the Trump administration."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-impose-largest-ever-set-of-sanctions-against-north-korea/2018/02/23/42e1afb8-18a8-11e8-92c9-376b4fe57ff7_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_nkorea-1005a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.47c649a10de5