Don't  know what Xi Jinping, Premier of China, thinks about Putin wooing Kim Jung Un of North Korea, but he's bound to be a bit miffed, especially after Putin went to Vietnam after Korea and played up diplomatic agreements with that country, too. Dictators are paranoid anyway, and there is no love lost between China and Vietnam. In fact, the Vietnam people hate the Chinese for their aggressive business incursions into this southern neighbor. There is an on-going contention about control of some small islands in the South China Sea. BTW, Vietnamese maps have "East Vietnam Sea" for the South China Sea. That's just one of many examples of Vietnam telling China to drop dead.

I see that Putin visited Vietnam after a parasitic huddle with North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Vietnam will do anything to cultivate alliances with anyone that may be a bulwark in their continuous distrust of China. The Vietnamese hate the Chinese. It goes back thousands of years. China's aggressive business practices are not appreciated in Vietnam, as well as expansion overtures in the South China Sea. BTW, Vietnamese maps read "East Vietnamese Sea" where the rest of the world has "South China Sea." Vietnam readily adopted the Western alphabet by Jesuits in the 15th century because it wasn't Chinese characters. Many revolts finally won independence for VN in 1428. Kind of makes you wonder what US interventionin the '60s

Prayer:Dear God, Lord of hosts, I pray....
When day is done and night is come
I pray for those who suffer,
From climate stress
And willfulness
By those of evil bluster.

Be a comfort, I pray, dear Lord
For those in deep depression.
And may that justice be met somehow
On cruel, cold aggression.

I've been wont to pray lately given the state of the world: wanton incursion by Putin, evil genius of Trump with words to grab the uneducated masses, the weather extremes are telling, the psychopathy of Hamas, (what did they think would happen?), the corruption of Netanyahu, (although he has right to bomb the hell out of Gaza--the people allowed Hamas), universities providing venue for warped support of Hamas and antisemitic sentiments, Republicans kowtowing to that lying, immoral, idiot Trump.  .