TAKE DICTATION: Following a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called his country’s relationship with Russia his top priority and pledged full support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.  Sitting on opposite sides of a small table with flowers on it at a remote Russian spaceport, they toasted the Kremlin’s “sacred struggle” against a “band of evil,” otherwise known as the West.

  “Russia has risen to a sacred fight to protect its sovereignty and security… against the hegemonic forces,” Kim told Putin through a translator. “We will always support the decisions of President Putin and the Russian leadership… and we will be together in the fight against imperialism.”

  Sanctions imposed on Russia because of the Ukraine war have pushed Putin into the arms of Kim as he seeks a new source of artillery shells. Once a supporter of sanctions against North Korea, Putin is looking for a way around them. “There are certain restrictions, Russia abides by those restrictions,” Putin said. “But there are things we of course can talk about. We are discussing and thinking about it. There is also promise here.”

THE FUGITIVE: Police in Pennsylvania overnight Tuesday captured the escaped murderer who had been on the run for two weeks. In the end, Danelo Cavalcante was grabbed and held in the brush by a police dog until officers reached him. A photo taken immediately after showed his face covered with blood.

  In the days of his run, Cavalcante managed to travel for miles, shave, get a change of clothes, steal a van, and steal a rifle all before he was caught. He told the cops after his capture that searchers at times came so close they almost stepped on him. He said he planned to hijack a car and get to Canada. In the end, an aircraft with heat seeking technology was able to locate him and the cops closed in.

  Cavalcante was convicted of stabbing his former girlfriend 38 times in front of her children. He’s also believed to have murdered a man in Brazil in 2017.

  In an odd ending to the whole affair, about 30 cops armed and dressed in full combat gear and camo had their picture taken with Cavalcante standing at their center — like a family reunion photo. A state police Lt. Colonel said, “I’m not bothered at all by the fact that they took a photograph with him in custody.” 

POLTICAL INSTABILITY: President Biden’s strategy so far dealing with Republican moves to impeach him is simply to ignore it. So far the Republicans have failed to produce any evidence that the President did anything wrong or was involved with the business dealings of his son, Hunter.

  House Speaker Kevin McCarthy appears to have ordered an impeachment investigation to appease the right wing extremists in his party, and to avoid being removed from the speakership. The extremists want their way, or else. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said to reporters, “If we have to begin every single day in Congress with the prayer, the pledge and the motion to vacate, then so be it.”

EARLY RETIREMENT: Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a leading voice of reason in the Republican party, announced yesterday that he will not run for another term, saying he would be in his 80s and that’s too old.

  Strongly suggesting that Donald Trump at 77, and President Joe Biden, 80, should also step aside for younger candidates, “At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-80s. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders,” the 76-year-old Romney said in a video statement. “They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in.”

  An old-school Republican, Romney has worked with Democrats on infrastructure bills, gun safety and overhauling the Electoral Count Act. He is not a fan of Donald Trump and voted twice to convict him in the Senate after he was impeached by the House.

THE WAR ROOM: Russia says that it thwarted an attack by maritime drones targeting one of its navy ships in Crimea. This comes a day after Ukraine’s military struck two ships that under repair at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet.

THE SPIN RACK: The United Auto Workers say they are nowhere near getting a satisfactory new contract and are prepared to start a limited strike tomorrow at some but not all factories. — Fire in anine-story residential tower in Hanoi, Vietnam killed 56 people. — The cost of car insurance is up 19 percent over a year ago, according to the August Consumer Price Index. It’s the biggest annual increase since 1976, caused by the insurance company losses sustained in recent natural disasters.  — Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican presidential candidate trying to out-Trump Donald Trump says he would fire 75 percent of the federal workforce and close several major agencies. The 38-year-old who has never held public office said he would shutter the Department of Education, the FBI, the Food and Nutrition Service, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He says he would not need to consult Congress to make these changes. — A federal judge yesterday issued a temporary block on the order by New Mexico Gov.Michelle Lujan Grisham to ban public carrying of firearms after the policy met fierce backlash and lawsuits from gun rights advocates.  

BELOW THE FOLD:  This past Sunday the streets of the small town of São Lourenço do Bairro, Portugal were flooded. It wasn’t water. Two tanks holding 580,000 gallons of wine burst, letting loose a river of red. 

  No one was hurt, but the wine did flood the basement of one building, which immediately became a wine cellar.

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