We're in the final countdown to British Home Secretary Priti Patel's decision on the fate of Julian Assange, with the WikiLeaks founder's extradition to the United States due to be approved or rejected by the end of the month. Joe Lauria has a new article out with Consortium News on the various pressures that Patel is being faced with from both sides of this history-making issue at this crucial time.

And I can't stop thinking, as this situation comes to a boil, about how absurd it is that the US empire is working to set a precedent which essentially outlaws information-sharing that the US doesn't like at the same time western news media are full of hand-wringing headlines about the dangerous threat of "disinformation".

Reading by Tim Foley.