United States

Via Dilber Creator Scott Adams' blog,

I have some spare time this morning so I thought I would solve the North Korean nuclear threat problem.

The current frame on how all sides are approaching the problem is a win-lose setup. Either North Korea wins – and develops nukes that can reach the mainland USA – or the United States wins, and North Korea abandons its nuclear plans, loses face, loses leverage, and loses security. Our current framing of the situation doesn’t have a path to success. 

With Presidents Trump and Putin having spoken for over two hours on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, well over the 30 minutes initially scheduled, the US press was going berserk with speculation what the two asre discussing for so long - surely CNN's anonymous sources had already disclosed that Trump was about to announce some tax-efficient handover of the US to Moscow...

... there was a surprise announcement, because as AP reported, the US and Russia did announce a cease-fire agreement in southwest Syria. 

Following their first ever, 2+ hour meeting which was originally supposed to last only 30-40 minutes, the question on everyone's mind was what did the two discuss.

So, in addition to the previously discussed ceasefire agreement in Southwest Syria unexpectedly announced by the two nations, speaking at the beginning of his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Vladimir Putin said that during his first meeting with US President Donald Trump, the two discussed Syria, Ukraine, counterterrorism, and drumroll, the "fight against cyber crime."

After falling for the first time this year last week, Baker Hughes reports US oil rig count rose once again (as perhaps Cindy impacted drilling last week) for the 23rd week in the last 24.

• *U.S. TOTAL RIG COUNT UP 12 TO 952 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US
• *U.S. OIL RIG COUNT UP 7 TO 763 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US
• *U.S. GAS RIG COUNT UP 5 TO 189 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US

Update: The meeting seemed more cordial than many had hoped for:

#BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump speaks with President Putin pic.twitter.com/tr0hV1XQO1

— WSVN 7 News (@wsvn) July 7, 2017