United States

Just yesterday we noted that Julian Assange and his lawyers were seemingly shying away from an offer they previously made to the Obama administration whereby Assange agreed to U.S. extradition in return for clemency for Chelsea Manning (see "Assange's Lawyer Provides An "Out": Says Conditions Not Met For Extradition Deal").  While initial tweets from WikiLeaks implied that the extradition deal was still on, a follow-up from Assange's U.S. attorney seemed to declare a technical breach of "contract."

In a scathing Facebook post, Russia's former president and current Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev (who less than five years ago was assured by Obama that "he would have more flexibility") gave his final assessment of US-Russia relations during the Obama administration, and lashed out at the outgoing US president, accusing him of destroying relations "between the United States and Russia, which are at their lowest point in decades" and predicting that "this is its key foreign policy mistake which will be remembered by history."

The third time behind bars for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman may be the unlucky one: on Thursday, Mexico's most notorious cartel kingpin who twice brazenly escape from prison and spent years on the run as the country's most wanted man, was extradited to the U.S. on Thursday to face drug trafficking and other charges.

In Steven Mnuchin's nearly 6 hour confirmation hearing on Thursday, there was just one critical exchange lasting all of 90 or so seconds. It was Mnuchin's response to a question from Senator Pat Toomey how he feels about a strong dollar. The question was predicated by Trump's recent interview with the WSJ in which he voiced concern about the dollar’s recent appreciation, saying the currency was “too strong."

Three weeks after John Kerry's State Department was humiliated one last time when Russia, Turkey and Syria sat down alone, demonstratively without inviting the US, to discuss the terms of a proposed Syrian ceasefire, Russia has already offered a diplomatic fig leaf to the incoming Trump administration when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the press Russia has invited the United States to take part in the upcoming talks on Syria, 

"As I said yesterday, we have already invited the US," Lavrov told journalists in Moscow on Thursday.