US President Donald Trump has been accusing OPEC of propping up oil prices. However, it is the Trump administration that triggered the crude rally, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We had a very good meeting with President Trump in Helsinki," said Putin at the Russian Energy Week Forum on Wednesday.

"But if we had talked about [oil], I would tell him that if he wants to find the culprit for the surge in prices, 'Donald, then you need to look in the mirror.'"

Putin said the growth of oil prices to $85 per barrel for the first time since 2014 has happened due to external political factors.

"This includes market expectations about sanctions on Iran, which are, by the way, absolutely illegal and harmful to the world economy. There is also a decline in production in North Africa due to a number of political circumstances (civil war, etc.).

"The decline in production in Venezuela happened also because of internal political reasons and the restrictions imposed there. Look at what happens in Libya - the state is destroyed, this is the result of irresponsible politics," said the Russian leader.

The Russian President said there was no way of knowing if Russia had benefited from Donald Trump's presidency, but promised to work with the current administration no matter what. Politics knows no 'what ifs,' he added.

"The United States is a great power, and leads the world in many respects," said the Russian leader, who had been asked repeatedly about relations between Moscow and Washington during the Russian Energy Week International Forum.

"We consider it our natural partner on a whole range of issues, including security, non-proliferation, anti-terrorism and environmental solutions. I don't know if it would have been better or worse if Trump hadn't won the election - there are no 'what ifs' in politics, and we will work with what we have."

Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed a historic $38bn US military aid package, negotiated by the previous US administration and released just in time to help the Jewish state withstand the 'complex' threat posed by its arch-enemy Iran.

Two years after President Barack Obama and the Israeli Prime Minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding, the 10-year military funding deal went into effect on Monday, with the start of the new fiscal year. Netanyahu welcomed the deal as the means to tackle the threat from the Islamic Republic, after the State Department noted that the package is aimed to protect Israel against "all potential regional adversaries", but foremost from the "Iranian regime's sponsorship of terrorist groups".

"Israel and the world face complex security challenges, first and foremost the Iranian aggression," Netanyahu tweeted in Hebrew on Tuesday. "The unwavering support of the United States for Israel's right to defend itself is one of the pillars of the strong relationship between the two countries."

Under the terms of the deal, outlined in the US-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018, Israel will receive an annual funding of $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing and $500 million for cooperative programs for missile defense. Specifically, the US has authorized the transfer of precision-guided munitions from reserve stocks, which are "necessary for Israel to counter the threat of rockets in a timely fashion." The act also expands a stockpile of weapons the US stores in Israel, which the country may access in wartime.

The trade deal signed by Canada with the U.S. on Sunday night is called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). If approved by the U.S. Congress, it will replace NAFTA.

The late Mel Hurtig, a foremost publisher, authored his first book about the 1988 Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the trade deal that NAFTA replaced. The Betrayal of Canada was a number 1 bestseller. The USMCA deal awaits a sequel: The Further Betrayal of Canada.

The outrageous 25 per cent U.S. steel and 10 per cent U.S. aluminum tariffs remain in place, choking Canadian industry. Maybe that is why there is no pretext this time of pretending that a continental economic integration project cooked up in Washington for its benefit should be called a "free trade" agreement.

The U.S. tariffs were applied to protect national security. Canada is a NORAD security partner with the U.S. in joint continental defence and a NATO security partner of the U.S. as well. Despite being inside the joint security perimeter, Canada did not get exempted from the application of these Section 232 national security tariffs. Worse, whenever the U.S. decides to play the national security card, it can do it again. Why sign a trade deal with a country that makes up bogus excuses to move jobs from your country to their country?

ACORN's tactics live on in the senator's elevator confrontation with activists from a Soros-backed group.

On Friday morning, two women raced past reporters and security officers and blocked a senators-only elevator in the U.S. Capitol. They cornered Arizona senator Jeff Flake, who had just announced he was going to vote yes on moving Brett Kavanaugh's nomination out of the Judiciary Committee and onto the Senate floor for a full debate. The women wouldn't let Flake leave until they had yelled at him, face to face, for several minutes. Anyone who thinks the two left-wing activists acted without a well-thought-out plan hasn't read The Intimidation Game by Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal.

The scandals surrounding Supreme Court Judge nominee Brett Kavanaugh have shown that a "scary time" has come for young men in the US, where they no longer have the privilege of the presumption of innocence, Donald Trump said.

Stressing that US lawmakers are demonstrating double standards in the scandal-ridden confirmation process of his protégé, Trump on Tuesday noted a drastic departure from the core American and basic legal principle of 'innocent until proven guilty'.

"In this realm, you are truly guilty until proven innocent, that's one of the very, very bad things that is taking place right now," Trump said. "It's a very scary time for young men in America, when you can be guilty of something that you may not be guilty of."

The presumption of innocence, Trump noted, seems to erode at a moment's notice once somebody brings sexual assault allegations against an individual, as in the case of Judge Kavanaugh, who is being accused of misconduct that allegedly occurred over three decades ago.

Israel is using the United States as a shield in its policy on Syria, and will not confront Russia directly, Mohammed Baraka, chairman of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee in Israel, told Sputnik, commenting on the US reaction to Russia's delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Syria following an Il-20 jet crash.

"The situation has been very tense after the Russian Il-20 plane was hit. The Israelis did not expect such a reaction from Russia. Russia is a powerful country, proud of its soldiers and the history of its people, and responded worthily. Israeli media wrote that Americans warned Russia against providing S-300s to Syria, which means that the Israelis are hiding behind the Americans' backs... I think that Israel would not be able to enter an open conflict with Russia, especially in Syria. The political leadership is more extreme than the security forces and military."

Addressing the situation in Syria, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said earlier on Wednesday that Israel was unhappy about Russia's delivery of S-300s to Syria, but had no choice in the matter and would continue military operations in the country.

On Tuesday, Russia completed its delivery of new S-300 systems to Syria. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russian experts have already begun teaching Syrian troops to operate the systems, and the training is expected to finish within three months. The deliveries are intended to boost the security of Russian troops in Syria.

A Tory MP has filed a letter of no confidence against his leader, Theresa May, in a shocking blow to her leadership minutes before her Conservative Party conference speech on Brexit.

Tory MP James Duddridge has handed in a letter of no confidence against May, citing the prime minister's refusal to "rip up" her controversial Chequers agreement, and her rival Boris Johnson's "inspirational" speech, as his reasons behind the decision.

The letter, which was handed to Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee, also cites a "disaster" of a Conservative Party conference.

In his letter to Brady, Duddridge said that he is normally a loyalist, and has never voted against the government until now.

"There comes a point that blind loyalty is not the right way forward," he said, adding that the Tory party needs "a strong leader, someone who believes in Brexit and someone to deliver what the electorate voted for. The prime minister seems incapable of doing this."

A total of 48 letters from Conservative MPs need to be issued to trigger a vote of no confidence.

Boris Johnson took over the sidelines of the Tory conference in Birmingham outshining the main event, savaging Theresa May's Brexit plan in a speech some are framing as his bid to take the PM's job.

While the main hall of the Conference has been at best half-full through for most of the time, there wasn't a free seat at Boris's so-called fringe meeting. In fact, journalists reported a three hour queue snaking outside.

The speech, which was high on rhetoric low on new ideas, started off by taking aim at Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. Johnson dubbed Labour a "Tony Benn tribute act," referencing the Jeremy Corbyn's mentor who was prominent in the party in the 1980s.

Terrorists are preparing to destabilize the political situation in Central Asia, Russian Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said on Monday.

According to data from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) quoted by the diplomat, some 2,500 fighters from the extremist ISIS terrorist group were leaving Syria and Iraq bound for Afghanistan.

"Those who migrate are generally those from Central Asia. They send these people to prepare and destabilize the internal political situation in Central Asia, not to combat foreign troops in Afghanistan," the Kremlin envoy said.

Afghanistan is undergoing a long period of political, social and security instability as a result of numerous attacks linked to the activities of the Taliban movement and also to ISIS actions since 2015 despite the strong military presence of the United States and other allied countries since their invasion of the country in 2001.

The US Defense Department believes that Russia's recent statements about ISIS' threats in Central Asia are just "propaganda," Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said back in May.