US President Donald Trump stuck his executive privilege in the face of CBS anchor Lesley Stahl during a tug-of-war moment in his interview with CBS, reminding her who was in charge and refusing to make a pledge she demanded.

Trump's big interview to the CBS' Lesley Stahl, aired in full on Sunday evening, saw a lot of verbal wrestling. The veteran anchor constantly interrupted the commander-in-chief, who was eager to delve deeper into his favorite topic - the dishonesty of mainstream media - while Stahl was pressing him for a "yes" or "no" answer on the fate of the Russia probe, the migrant family separation policy and the chances for any more cabinet reshuffles.

Ahead of the new wave of anti-Iranian sanctions, bound to come in force in November and impact the Islamic Republic's oil exports, the Israeli outlet Maco has reported about an alleged secret agreement between Moscow and Teheran. Russia is reportedly planning to aid Iran to prevent economic damage with tacit support from Europe.

Russia, Iran, and Turkey struck an agreement which would minimize the impact of US anti-Iranian punitive measures targeting Teheran's oil trade, the website Marco reports, citing a secret document obtained from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

To subvert the US economic blockade, Iran is expected to transport its crude to Russia's refineries on the Caspian Sea, which would later sell it as Russian oil and reimburse Iran.

The presidents of the three countries, Russia's Vladimir Putin, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iran's Hassan Rouhani, are said to have secretly agreed on this move, aimed to help the economy of the Islamic Republic, during their summit meeting in early September.

Additionally, the cited Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs document allegedly states that Washington's European allies would silently allow Iran to continue to sell its oil to Asian countries. According to the report, published by journalist Dana Weiss, Europe hopes to keep Teheran in the nuclear deal by making this concession.

Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared from the Saudi embassy in Istanbul 2 weeks ago and is presumed dead, is (or was) a Saudi journalist and author. His grandfather (of Turkish origin) married a Saudi woman and served as the personal physician to King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He is the nephew of the late, high-profile Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his part in the Iran-Contra scandal, and his cousin was Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana's paramour when the two were likely assassinated in a deliberate car crash in a Paris tunnel in 1997.

Khashoggi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation that he praised in his recent columns in The Washington Post, along with the 'moderate rebels' in Syria. The Muslim Brotherhood exists to rid the Muslim world of Western influence and its adherents aspire to instil the Quran and the Sunnah as the "sole reference point for ordering the life of the Muslim family, individual, community and state". The only difference between Muslim Brotherhood members and radical Islamic Wahhabists is that the former is willing to accept some form of democracy in their political system.

During the late 1980s and 1990s Khashoggi was employed by the Saudi intelligence services (and allegedly US forces) in Afghanistan. It is claimed that he was an advisor to the former head of Saudi intelligence Prince Turki Al Faisal, who resigned from that position just ten days before the 9/11 attacks. Khashoggi befriended Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and Sudan and supported his jihad against the Soviets in newspaper articles he wrote at the time. He interviewed bin Laden several times and met with him in Tora Bora, and Sudan in 1995. Khashoggi was, therefore, the only non-royal Saudi who knew of the royals' intimate dealings with al-Qaeda in the lead-up to the 9/11 terror attacks. But no one should think that Khashoggi was a mere disinterested journalist. Below is a picture of him (top left with RPG on shoulder) with the Afghani Mujahedin, in a newspaper article he wrote himself.

Jamal Khashoggi may have gleaned highly sensitive inside information on what actually happened on 9/11.

The macabre case of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi raises the question: did Saudi rulers fear him revealing highly damaging information on their secret dealings? In particular, possible involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks on New York in 2001.

Even more intriguing are US media reports now emerging that American intelligence had snooped on and were aware of Saudi officials making plans to capture Khashoggi prior to his apparent disappearance at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last week. If the Americans knew the journalist's life was in danger, why didn't they tip him off to avoid his doom?

Jamal Khashoggi (59) had gone rogue, from the Saudi elite's point of view. Formerly a senior editor in Saudi state media and an advisor to the royal court, he was imminently connected and versed in House of Saud affairs. As one commentator cryptically put it: "He knew where all the bodies were buried."

The European Union urges the sides to the recent Israeli-Palestinian clashes in the Gaza Strip to investigate collateral murders of civilians and to bring the perpetrators to justice, the spokeswoman for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said on Sunday.

"In Gaza on Friday again thousands of Palestinians have demonstrated, sometimes violently, near the fence ... In the occupied West Bank on Saturday a Palestinian woman was killed by stone throwing. Three Israeli civilians have also been killed in recent days and weeks. All such incidents need to be investigated and perpetrators brought to justice," the spokeswoman for EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Maja Kocijancic, said on Sunday in a statement.

The European Union also called on all parties concerned to exercise restraint to further killings. In addition, the bloc reiterated that it saw a political settlement as the only solution to the conflict.

Health authorities in Beijing will include illegal smoking behavior into citizens' credit record as part of the city's smoke-free Beijing campaign, reports the Beijing Youth Daily.

In addition to publicly naming and shaming offenders, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning will also share their record with the city's industry and commerce authorities, according to the report. Citizens in Beijing with a bad credit record may face difficulties in applying for commercial loans.

Beijing rolled out a blanket smoking ban on June 1, 2015 covering all indoor public places, workplaces and public transportation, the strictest of its kind in China.

"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit. Crime does not pay. The Shadow knows!"

Perhaps you're old enough to remember this tag line from the 1930s radio dramatization of The Shadow. Or perhaps, like me, you spent your childhood listening to "Those Old Radio Shows" on your local radio station before going to bed every night. Or perhaps you're only familiar with Woody Allen's retort that "I think crime pays. The hours are good, you travel a lot."

But however you encountered the "crime does not pay" formulation, you've doubtless heard it and internalized it. Of course it's true. Crime doesn't pay and the good guys always win in the end. Right?

Well, let's examine this old adage for a moment. Why is it necessary to point out the poor remuneration of crime in the first place? We generally don't go around pointing out things that are self-evidently true or just plain common sense, so there must be some reason people need to be reminded that crime is not a profitable endeavor. And that reason can only be that many people believe it to be a rewarding profession, financially or otherwise.

So why would they think that?

Sadly, one does not look very far to understand why people need to be constantly told that "crime does not pay." And that is because crime does, in fact, pay. Quite handsomely, even. . . . if you're in government.

Trump's Administration is putting its 'all' on red on the roulette wheel of a radically leveraged US trade and foreign policy. It is a bet that a ruthless 'no prisoners taken' pursuit of naked US commercial interest can restore American economic hegemony. But, as Vali Nasr has pointed out in The Atlantic, the radical, scorched-earth leverage now being pursued in Trump's companion foreign policy lunge is aimed, not just at returning the US to its status quo ante, but is aimed rather at forcing the capitulation of all resistance to US hegemony (whether it is coming from friends, such as Canada, or from the so-called 'revisionist' powers and the nuclear states):

"It's increasingly clear that what Trump hopes to achieve through a maximum-pressure campaign does not align with the vision of his national-security team: Judging by his behavior with Kim Jong Un and his statement on Iran, [Trump's] goal is to bring North Korea and Iran into diplomatic talks. Members of his team speak as if they'd rather force the countries' surrender. Pyongyang and Tehran understand this very well."

But the crux of it is that when you put 'all' on one colour or the other in roulette, you either win big, or lose all.

Tensions between the Chinese regime and the Trump administration, already taking the form of an escalating trade war, now appear to be intensifying in Central America and the Caribbean, creating a new wrinkle in a temperamental and volatile relationship.

At a moment of acutely strained relations with China, the United States sent strongly worded messages of discontent to three Central American nations that have recently normalized relations with China.

On the anniversary of the Torrijos-Carter Panama Canal Treaty, on Sept. 7, the State Department recalled Roxanne Cabral, the U.S. Charge d'Affaires in Panama. Also recalled for consultation in Washington were the U.S. ambassadors to the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, Robin Bernstein and Jean Manes, respectively. Each diplomat represents the United States in countries that have switched their diplomatic relations to China from Taiwan within the last year.

An apparently measured and philosophical answer from Donald Trump about the job prospects of his defense secretary incited a bout of media hysteria.

Lesley Stahl, who interviewed the US president for CBS 60 Minutes, which will air on Sunday night, kept repeatedly pressing her subject on persistent rumors Jim Mattis will leave his post, which have escalated following the announced departure of his colleague, Nicky Haley from her UN envoy post.

"I have a very good relationship with him. I had lunch with him two days ago. I have a very good relationship with him," replied Trump. "It could be that he is. I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth. But General Mattis is a good guy. We get along very well. He may leave. I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That's Washington."