An occupational hazard of suggesting that the US, NATO or Ukraine's own government did things that made Russia's invasion of Ukraine more likely is that you will be accused of being a "Putin apologist" or "stooge of the Kremlin".

This is clearly an attempt to win the argument through name-calling (like claiming it's "racist" to criticise Black Lives Matter). But that hasn't stopped it becoming a standard debating tactic. Of course, there may be commentators who genuinely support Putin, in which case "Putin apologist" would be an accurate descriptor. But most do not.

The latest example of the 'compare your opponent to Putin' tactic is a list of individuals who "promote narratives consonant with Russian propaganda", compiled by the Ukraine Government's "Centre for Countering Disinformation".

This has been described as a "blacklist" by some critics, although so far as I'm aware, it does not call for any sanctions against the individuals listed. It really is just name-calling. Specific quotes written in Ukrainian are listed next to each speaker, but no refutations or counter-arguments are provided.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy's office asked residents and businesses to conserve water amid a persistent heatwave, where some metro areas cracked over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for five consecutive days through Sunday.

"Now is the time for New Jersey to be especially mindful of water usage and proactively moderate our consumption," said Commissioner of Environmental Protection Shawn M. LaTourette.

"Although our reservoirs and other indicators are healthy, persistent hot and dry weather coupled with the high water demands of summer can quickly impact water supply. Simple steps, like reducing lawn and landscape watering, go a long way in preserving our water supplies and avoiding the necessity of significant restrictive measures," LaTourette continued.

For the last three months, rainfall has been 11% to 25% below average in the state's south and north -- the combination of below-average precipitation plus excessive temperatures paints an ominous outlook.

The NCAA has announced a biological woman as their choice to represent the Ivy League to compete for the "Woman of the Year" title over Lia Thomas, the transgender athlete who made headlines after leaving men's swimming to compete against women.

Columbia University fencer, Sylvie Binder, will be the Ivy League's pick. The award is meant to honor women student-athletes who have "distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college career." Binder, a senior from Armonk, New York, won the NCAA Fencing Championship in 2019.

Retired ice hockey star Dominik Hasek says his fellow Czech players should be prohibited from appearing for Russian-based clubs in the KHL, claiming that doing so offers complicit support for Russia's actions in Ukraine and that a 15-year prison term would serve as a deterrent.

Hasek, 57, is one of his country's most successful hockey exports, being crowned a two-time Stanley Cup champion in the NHL before retiring after a single season spent with HC Spartak Moscow in the 2010-11 season.

However, Hasek has recently been a critic of the decision made by Czech international (and Russian-born) player Dmitrij Jaskin, who is returning to the KHL with SKA Saint Petersburg after a year playing in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes.

The railways will again grind to a halt on Wednesday as workers strike over pay, job security and working conditions.

The latest talks to avert the action failed last week, a month since three days of industrial action in June. The strikes involve more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail, 14 train companies, and members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT).

Transport for London services will be affected by the disruption as it uses sections of track that comes under Network Rail's jurisdiction. There will also be a stoppage by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA), who work for the Avanti West Coast firm.

"Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the train companies have not offered us anything new," said the RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch. "The government need to stop their interference in this dispute so the rail employers can come to a negotiated settlement with us."

The US has one of the most deeply-ingrained nationalistic ideologies of any nation. Accompanying the grand mass hysterias of patriotism and freedom, one of the most pervasive links in the ideological chain that creates the American sense of identity is a belief in "The American Dream", an imaginary ideal that offers a rags-to-riches path to prosperity. In this mythical universe, all opportunity is equally available to every citizen, in a land where even those with no credentials, education or experience can accumulate untold riches and even rise to become the president of the country. In this context, America is a fantastic utopian myth promoted by the propaganda machine as an idealistic Shangri-la concept of opportunity and hope, where even the most disadvantaged have a fair chance at wealth and fame.

Americans almost universally believe they are unique in this regard, the US virtually defining itself as the land of opportunity, but this has always been a delusion. While it may be true that the US has accumulated comparatively more wealthy individuals than other nations, and which status has been broadcast to the world as evidence of virtue, this is much more an indictment of the predatory and anti-social nature of American-style capitalism than of equity and opportunity. It is true that the uniquely predatory form of American capitalism will create some kinds of opportunities that do not exist in other countries, but we can develop a very strong argument that those kinds should not be permitted to exist. Let's not erase 2008 from our memories too soon. Moreover, there have been precious few large personal fortunes created in the US that were not accompanied by the commitment of even greater crimes, and the executives of a great many US multinationals from the Rockefeller's United Fruit Company and Standard Oil to Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart should have faced trial and been executed for crimes against humanity.

The US does indeed have a large number of billionaires, but this is directly offset by the vast decline of the middle class and the huge and increasing number of impoverished. The elite 1%, the bankers and industrialists who control the government, forced legislation that freed them from taxes and regulation to permit that free accumulation of wealth. The fact that other Western nations have fewer of the extreme rich is also directly offset by their corresponding lack of poverty. One need only examine the data on income inequality to realise that opportunity in America is increasingly reserved for the privileged few and that the masses are not only excluded by design but are being plundered by that same privileged few.

Doctor Maja Marinkovic is the co-director of the Center for Gender-Affirming Care at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego and has received compensation from a company that is under investigation for advertising one of their products for off-label use as a puberty blocker.

A site that tracks public records related to the pharmaceutical industry called Caredash reports that Marinkovic has received $4,824 from Endo Pharmaceuticals in payments that were directly related to Supprelin and Supprelin LA, drugs that are used off-label as puberty blockers.

ProPublica even found that in 2018 Marinkovic received the ninth most amount of money of any physician in America for Supprelin LA. In total, Marinkovic has received $9,571 from pharmaceutical companies between 2015 and 2021, which is more than 96% of pediatricians in the U.S.

Google - one of the largest and most influential organizations in the modern world - is filled with ex-CIA agents. Studying employment websites and databases, MintPress has ascertained that the Silicon Valley giant has recently hired dozens of professionals from the Central Intelligence Agency in recent years. Moreover, an inordinate number of these recruits work in highly politically sensitive fields, wielding considerable control over how its products work and what the world sees on its screens and in its search results.

Chief amongst these is the trust and safety department, whose staff, in the words of then Google trust and safety vice president Kristie Canegallo, "[d]ecide what content is allowed on our platform" - in other words, setting the rules of the internet, determining what billions see and what they do not see. Before Google, Canegallo had been President Obama's Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Implementation and is currently Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security.

"We lied, we cheated, we stole"

Many of the team helping Canegallo make calls on what content should be allowed in Google searches and on platforms like YouTube were former CIA employees. For example:

The average person in the First World receives more information than he would if he lived in a Second or Third World country. In many countries of the world, the very idea of twenty-four hour television news coverage would be unthinkable, yet many Westerners feel that, without this constant input, they would be woefully uninformed.

Not surprising, then, that the average First Worlder feels that he understands current events better than those elsewhere in the world. But, as in other things, quality and quantity are not the same.

The average news programme features a commentator who provides "the news," or at least that portion of events that the network deems worthy to be presented. In addition, it is presented from the political slant of the controllers of the network. But we are reassured that the reporting is "balanced," in a portion of the programme that features a panel of "experts."

Customarily, the panel consists of the moderator plus two pundits who share his political slant and a pundit who has an opposing slant. All are paid by the network for their contributions. The moderator will ask a question on a current issue, and an argument will ensue for a few minutes. Generally, no real conclusion is reached — neither side accedes to the other. The moderator then moves on to another question.

So, the network has aired the issues of the day, and we have received a balanced view that may inform our own opinions.

Or have we?

The latest Tory leadership debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss has been cancelled after the presenter fainted on air.

The Sun and TalkTV debate, hosted by journalist Kate McCann, abruptly halted around halfway through after a loud crash was heard.

TalkTV said McCann was "fine" but the channel had been given medical advice not to continue.