1. Farage 

Well well well. Look who just visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. 

Former UKIP Leader Nigel Farage  - and supporter of Donald Trump - was spotted going in and out of the embassy on Thursday, but told journalists he couldn't remember what he had been doing for the 40 minutes he spent inside. [Marie Le Conte/Buzzfeed UK]

He would not say whether he met with the embassy's famous resident - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Although The Independent said it had confirmed Farage was there for Assange. [Jon Stone]

Before the US election, Assange published hacked emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and its chair John Podesta which damaged Hillary Clinton's campaign and aided Trump's. Farage and Trump have spent time together several times since the US president won the election.

Trump's connections to Russia have already cost him a National Security Advisor and are being investigated by Congress.

2. Assange gives FB Live

Julian Assange has given a media conference via Facebook Live after his initial attempt to do so was thwarted by an outage. 

He says he will make the CIA's hacking tools publicly available but will send the tech companies the codes first so they can write defences first. [Andy Griffin/The Independent]

This leak is not suspected to be the work of Russia but that of a disaffected insider. [The New York Times]

3. US/Middle East policy

Fighters from the Islamic State group marching in Raqqa, Syria. Photo: Darbs Darby

Trump is set to hold a major summit in Washington later this month for the 68-nation members fighting Islamic State. [Bloomberg]

This comes as US marines arrived in Syria to fight Islamic State in Raqqa. [Reuters]

And the US says more troops will be needed in Afghanistan. [Reuters]

4. Aust politics

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Treasurer Scott Morrison during question time. Photo: Andrew Meares

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is sidelining his floundering Treasurer Scott Morrison ahead of a reshuffle after the budget, Andrew Probyn reports. [ABC]

A very interesting policy idea from Morrison who wants to establish a finance corporation to fund low interest rate loans for the community sector providing affordable housing. [James Massola/Fairfax]

This is also covered by the Financial Review. [Philip Coorey]

Laura Tingle takes a comprehensive look at the factors driving the "energy crisis" and the complications in trying to resolve it. [Financial Review]

The bipartisan pledge to ban foreign donations has somehow morphed into one about banning contributions from domestic left-wing activists and so negotiations have broken down. [Tom McIlroy/Fairfax]

And a really good primer for Saturday's WA election from Michelle Grattan. [The Conversation]

5. China 

China has carried out more naval drills in Australia's maritime backyard, this time close to Christmas Island. [David Wroe/Fairfax]

6. Sturgeon pushes for 2018 referendum

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Photo: Rob Stothard

Nicola Sturgeon says it would be commonsense that if there is to be a second Scottish independence referendum it should he held in the autumn of 2018. [BBC]

By then Britain would have a clear idea of what its future relationship with the EU would look like given it wants to Brexit by March 2019. Prime Minister Theresa May is due to trigger article 50, the formal process of leaving, within the fortnight. That gives Britain a two-year window to negotiate it's exit. 

If Sturgeon does push for a second referendum it will set up a contest between two strong women leaders and competing nationalism. [Alex Bell/The Guardian]

And that's it from me for this week, you can follow me on Facebook for more. I'm off to Rome for the weekend.