Julian Assange had just pulled off one of the biggest scoops in journalistic history, splaying the innards of American diplomacy across the web. But technology firms were cutting ties to his website, WikiLeaks, cable news pundits were calling for his head and a Swedish sex crime case was threatening to put him behind bars.

Caught in a vise, the silver-haired Australian wrote to the Russian Consulate in London.

“I, Julian Assange, hereby grant full authority to my friend, Israel Shamir, to both drop off and collect my passport, in order to get a visa,” said the letter, which was recently obtained by The Associated Press.

The Nov. 30, 2010 missive is part of a much larger trove of WikiLeaks emails, chat logs, financial records, secretly recorded footage and other documents leaked to The Associated Press.

The files provide both an intimate look at the radical transparency organization and an early hint of Assange’s budding relationship with Moscow.

The ex-hacker’s links to the Kremlin would become increasingly salient before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when the FBI says Russia’s military intelligence agency directly supplied WikiLeaks with stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and other Democratic figures.

Representatives for Assange, who has been barred from internet access at his refuge inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, didn’t return repeated messages seeking details about the visa bid. Kristinn Hrafnsson, a sometime-spokesman for the group, declined to comment, calling the AP’s story “rather uninteresting.” The Russian Embassy…

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Macedonia on Monday, condemning Russian efforts to use its money and influence to build opposition to an upcoming vote that could pave the way for the country to join NATO, a move Moscow opposes.

Mattis told reporters traveling with him to Skopje that there is “no doubt” that Moscow has been funding pro-Russian groups to defeat the referendum on a name change later this month.

“They have transferred money, and they’re also conducting broader influence campaigns,” Mattis said. “We ought to leave the Macedonian people to make up their own minds.”

Macedonians will vote Sept. 30 on whether to approve the new name of North Macedonia in an effort to placate Greece, which has for years blocked Macedonia’s path to NATO and the European Union. But any progress toward NATO membership by the Balkan nation is strongly opposed by Russia, which doesn’t want the alliance to expand to areas formerly under Moscow’s influence.

Speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Mattis made no mention of Russia but announced that the U.S. plans to expand its cybersecurity cooperation with Macedonia “to thwart malicious cyber activity that threatens our democracies.”

Zaev predicted that Macedonians will vote in favor of the name change and thus the move into NATO.

“There is no other alternative for the Republic of Macedonia than the integration into NATO and the EU,” he said.

Macedonia’s main conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party repeated its position on Monday that “the agreement with Greece is the worst deal signed in…

Global markets were mostly lower Monday following reports that President Donald Trump will place tariffs on $200 billion more in Chinese goods, despite a possible meeting to iron out tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

KEEPING SCORE: In Europe, France’s CAC 40 fell 0.4 percent to 5,331.94 while the DAX in Germany dropped 0.5 percent to 12,062.13. Britain’s FTSE 100 declined 0.3 percent to 7,283.65. Wall Street was set for a muted open. Dow futures fell less than 0.1 percent to 26,178.00. S&P 500 futures shed 0.1 percent to 2,910.00.

ASIA’S DAY: South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.7 percent to 2,303.01 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled 1.3 percent to 26,932.85. The Shanghai Composite index lost 1.1 percent to 2,651.79. But Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 percent to 6,185.00. Japanese markets were closed for a national holiday. Stocks fell in Taiwan and most of Southeast Asia.

US-CHINA TRADE: The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Trump was going ahead with plans to impose new tariffs on about $200 billion of Chinese imports. The report cited unnamed people familiar with the matter who said the tariff level will likely be set at about 10 percent, below the 25 percent announced earlier this year. At the same time, U.S. officials, led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, are preparing to hold new talks on the tariff dispute with Beijing. Envoys met last month in Washington but reported no progress. The two governments have already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of each other’s goods. Beijing has issued a list of another $60…

Vendors selling everything from car batteries to “kangaroo essence” health pills have descended on Pyongyang for an international trade fair.

Though North Korea continues to be one of the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world, this year’s trade fair, which opened in the North Korean capital on Monday, includes more than 320 companies and is making something of a comeback, with many Chinese entrepreneurs taking part.

Almost all of the companies with stalls at the fair are from North Korea or China. But several other countries are represented — a Russian medical technology company is selling heart-beat monitoring wrist watches, for example, and the kangaroo capsules, supposedly good for the health, are being sold by a New Zealand company. Businesses from a few more countries, such as Italy and Cuba, are there seeking business opportunities, but aren’t selling anything.

Benjamin Qi, of the Beijing-based Ex-Easy Network and Technology Co. Ltd., said the number of Chinese at the fair this year had doubled or even tripled from the last couple of years.

“Definitely they are looking for partners who can sell their products, that’s the most important because after they have their sales here in North Korea then they can start making some factories or some other investment,” said Qi, who helped make arrangements for Chinese participants. “But the first step is they should sell their products.”

O Ryong Chol, North Korea’s vice minister of external trade, said in an opening address that the political climate on the Korean Peninsula has been changing fundamentally…