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Donald Trump holds press conference to announce pick to replace Andy Puzder after vowing government leakers  'will pay' 

Andy Puzder, a fast food executive, faced opposition from Democrats over employment practises at CKE foods, the parent company of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.

It was when Republicans began to express reservations that Mr Puzder’s nomination became untenable. A primary concern was that he had employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper.

The pressure on Mr Puzder grew after a 1990 video was published by Politico of his ex-wife appearing in disguise on the Oprah Winfrey show and accusing him of abuse. 

Mr Puzder denied the accusations and his ex-wife, Lisa Fierstein, later revoked them.

Six Republican senators reportedly asked the White House to delay a confirmation vote for Mr Puzder because they could not see themselves supporting him.

We know that Donald Trump is about to unveil Alexander Acosta as his pick to be the next secretary of labour. 

But will he take any questions? If so, he'll likely be asked about links between his campaign and Russia, and his vow to punish leakers in the US government.

And will he comment on reports that billionaire Stephen A Feinberg will oversee a review of the US intelligence agencies?

Donald Trump is about to unveil Alexander Acosta as his nominee for secretary of labour after Andy Puzder dropped out last night.

• Veteran of George W Bush administration
• Former member of national labour relations board
• Would be first Hispanic to join Mr Trump's cabinet

The Speaker of the House is on board with Donald Trump's plan to track down the intelligence sources who are leaking information about links between Donald Trump's allies and Russia, along with other sensitive information, and punish them.

Mr Trump took one question at the end of his meeting with members of Congress, on his war with the intelligence community.

"We're going to find the leakers, and they'll pay a big price for leaking,"  he said.

Mr Trump is now meetings with the Congressional "Trump caucus", Republicans in Congress who endorsed him early and have remained firm supporters. He alluded to his upcoming announcement in the meeting:

We're going to have a press conference, I think in the East Room if the press wants to show up.... Historically they didn't care about these sorts of things, for me they show up....

The man I'll be announcing for labour is a star.

The Kremlin has ordered Russian state media to scale back its coverage of US President Donald Trump,  Nadia Beard reports.

 According to a Russian  political commentator , the editorial team at the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) has received orders from management that "could be reduced to a short sentence: there will be no more of Trump".

He said the broadcasters had been told to stop running fawning coverage of the President. 

The order adds to mounting evidence of skepticism in the Kremlin that the new administration in Washington might not be as friendly to Putin's government as they initially thought.

The move comes on the heels of a tweet posted by Trump earlier this week in which he wrote that "Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?"

Washington has also been increasingly hostile towards Russia, with Trump's defense secretary Jim Mattis telling reporters today that the United States is "not in a position right now to collaborate on a military level [with Russia]".

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that the United States was ready to work with Russia if it found common areas for cooperation, but said Moscow had to adhere to commitments made over Ukraine.

"As we search for new common ground we expect Russia to honour its commitment to the Minsk agreements and work to de-escalate violence in Ukraine," Tillerson told reporters after meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Tillerson said he had a productive meeting with Lavrov and the two men discussed a range of issues of mutual concern. He gave no details aside from his comments on Ukraine and answered no questions.

His comments on the Ukraine crisis came two days before a four-way meeting of the German, French, Russian and Ukrainian ministers that is due to take place on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Tillerson said Washington was ready to work with Russia, but would stand up for its interests in areas where there were differences.

Lithuania's defense minister said Thursday he is confident that all NATO allies will help protect his country from Russia despite recent concern over the U.S. commitment to European security.

Raimundas Karoblis told The Associated Press that he had no doubts about "the solidarity from any NATO country, including the United States."

U.S. President Donald Trump sparked anxiety at NATO with his election campaign suggestion that he might not help defend countries that don't pay their fair share.

Karoblis said the deployment of NATO troops to Lithuania, which borders Russia's Kaliningrad territory, is "a really powerful measure of the deterrence" the allies are providing.

He said that any "potential invader" of Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors Estonia and Latvia is now "calculating the consequences."

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned NATO allies this week to boost defense spending to 2 percent of economic output or Washington could "moderate its commitment" to the alliance.

 Mattis declined on Thursday to say exactly what that meant. Only five countries - the United States, Britain, Estonia, Poland and Greece - are meeting the target, according to NATO figures.

US intelligence agencies have already accused Vladimir Putin of launching an "influence campaign" to damage Hillary Clinton in a new report, writes David Lawler in Washington. 

Some  sources said British intelligence provided the tip about Russia's hacking of the Democratic Party.

Russia showed a "clear preference" for Donald Trump, the president-elect, according to sources, and carried out cyber attacks and issued propaganda both to boost his chances and to undermine confidence in American democracy. 

Mr Trump later insisted that foreign meddling had "absolutely no effect" on the outcome of the election, and declined to say whether he believed Russia was behind the hacks.

Mr Trump was up early this morning and fired off a tweet aimed at those leaking sensitive information to the media. 

The president is waging war on his own intelligence agencies over “un-American” leaks that revealed that his campaign aides had been in regular contact with Russian intelligence officials and led to the resignation of his national security adviser.

Mr Trump has claimed intelligence agents with a political vendetta against him are responsible for “criminal leaks” aimed at undermining his presidency.