Foreign news items:
1) Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman appears to be moving forward with a proposed 10 - 20 year alliance with Putin's Russia governing OPEC and Russian oil production which would cut oil production when prices fall. Until now, agreements between the big oil producers have been on a year-to-year basis. The move is seen in part as a response to increased U.S. shale oil production. Recently, unfit would-be autocrat Donald "Rump" Trump boasted about billions in arms sales to the Saudis, the announcement of which was bungled by Rump in an embarrassing White (Supremacist) House meeting with Salman. Here's oil in your face, Sal.
2) Alan Duncan, a British foreign affairs ministry official, when asked in the House of Commons about the status of Julian "Little Worm" Assange, the founder of the Russian cut-out WikiLeaks and also Rump's bestie, replied,
“It’s of great regret that Julian Assange remains in the Ecuador embassy. It’s about time that this miserable little worm walked out of the embassy and gave himself up to British justice.” (emphasis added)Assange has been holed up in the embassy since 2012, a fugitive from Swedish police who wanted to question him about sex crimes and from British authorities for jumping bail before entering the embassy. Assange claims to fear extradition to the U.S. for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic secrets if he leaves the embassy, but given his friend in the Oval Office, he may end up in a private suite at Mar-A-Lago.
