In late June and early July, NBC News, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal published stories that appeared at first glance to shed a lurid light on Donald Trump's flirtation with Kim Jong-un. They contained satellite imagery showing that North Korea was making rapid upgrades to its nuclear weapons complex at Yongbyon and expanding its missile production program just as Trump and Kim were getting chummy at their Singapore summit.

In fact, those media outlets were selling journalistic snake oil. By misrepresenting the diplomatic context of the images they were hyping, the press launched a false narrative around the Trump-Kim summit and the negotiations therein.

The headline of the June 27 NBC News story revealed the network's political agenda on the Trump-Kim negotiations. "If North Korea is denuclearizing," it asked, "why is it expanding a nuclear research center?" The piece warned that North Korea "continues to make improvements to a major nuclear facility, raising questions about President Donald Trump's claim that Kim Jong Un has agreed to disarm, independent experts tell NBC News."

CNN's coverage of the same story was even more sensationalist, declaring that there were "troubling signs" that North Korea was making "improvements" to its nuclear facilities, some of which it said had been carried out after the Trump-Kim summit. It pointed to a facility that had produced plutonium in the past and recently undergone an upgrade, despite Kim's alleged promise to Trump to draw down his nuclear arsenal. CNN commentator Max Boot cleverly spelled out the supposed implication: "If you were about to demolish your house, would you be remodeling the kitchen?"

But in their determination to push hardline opposition to the negotiations, these stories either ignored or sought to discredit the careful caveat accompanying the original source on which they were based-the analysis of satellite images published on the website 38 North on June 21. The three analysts who had written that the satellite images "indicated that improvements to the infrastructure at North Korea's Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center are continuing at a rapid pace" also cautioned that this work "should not be seen as having any relationship to North Korea's pledge to denuclearize."

Israel is frustrated over the failure of its plan to set up a buffer zone near the occupied Golan Heights, a Lebanese political analyst has told Sputnik.

Nidal Said al Sabaa said that in the past few years, Israel has been lending help to militants who call themselves the Syrian armed opposition.

"Special attention has been paid to militant units fighting along the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where the Israelis want to set up a buffer zone to separate them from the South Lebanese Army," Nidal Said al Sabaa told Sputnik.

He added that in order to win members of the Syrian opposition over to its side, Israel invited them to various conferences held at the US embassy in Jordan.

When asked what the Kremlin thinks about Donald Trump calling Vladimir Putin a 'competitor,' the Russian president's adviser said that Moscow considers the US president to be a 'partner.'

Yury Ushakov told journalists ahead of the forthcoming summit in Helsinki that having the meeting itself is important for establishing "the chemistry of relations" between the two leaders.

"The goal of this meeting, as we see it, is to finally start changing the negative situation in relations between the US and Russia for the better," Ushakov said, adding that it should involve "some concrete steps aimed at ... bringing mutual trust to some acceptable level."

The Russian president's top aide for international relations also told journalists that Moscow and Washington actually have no compelling reasons for confrontation at the moment.

The House on Thursday passed a bipartisan bill reauthorizing policies and spending for the nation's intelligence community for two years.

The bill passed without much opposition and made no major changes to the surveillance law, even though the issue has led to more heated debate in recent years. It passed easily, 363-54; most of the "no" votes came from Democrats.

But it does include a provision aimed at making it harder for foreign operators to interfere with U.S. election, by requiring the Director of National Intelligence to provide an advisory report on cyberthreats to candidates running for federal offices. And it adds accountability measures that will require the 17 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community to report to Congress about leaks of classified information.

Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for oil shipments from the Middle East. The warning comes in response to the US, which is trying to cut off Iranian crude exports.

After pulling out of a landmark international deal curtailing Tehran's nuclear program, Washington has ordered countries to cease buying oil from Iran by November 4 or face secondary US sanctions. Major European energy corporations like France's Total have already pulled out of Iran.

Iran's supreme leader's senior adviser for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati said his country will retaliate.

"The most transparent, complete and prompt response was given by Mr [Hassan] Rouhani, the Iranian president, in his last trip to Europe. The response was clear: if Iran cannot export oil through the Persian Gulf, no-one will do this," Velayati said, speaking at the Valdai discussion club in Russia. "Either everyone will export, or no-one," he added.

Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passageway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

It's also the route for nearly all the liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from the world's largest exporter, Qatar. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have sought to find ways to bypass the strait, but there is no real alternative for it.

Anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with Lisa Page were expressions of "deep patriotism" and not bias, FBI agent Peter Strzok told US Congress. He also claimed the hearing was a victory for Russian efforts to destroy America.

Strzok, the former deputy assistant director for counterintelligence of the FBI, faced the House Judiciary and Oversight committees on Thursday, to answer questions about his conduct during the 2016 investigations of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He was a key member of both probes and even served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team, until he was reassigned following the discovery of text messages between him and Page, a FBI attorney who has since resigned.

Strzok maintained that the text messages between him and Page were rooted in "deep patriotism" and "not indicative of bias." In his opening remarks, he said he was "particularly proud" of his work on the Clinton email investigation.

"I have the utmost respect for Congress's oversight role, but I strongly believe today's hearing is just another victory notch in Putin's belt and another milestone in our enemies' campaign to tear America apart," he said. "As someone who loves this country and cherishes its ideals, it's profoundly painful to watch and even worse to play a part in."

This sentiment was echoed by numerous Democrats. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois) at one point declared that "they've got to be overjoyed at the Kremlin."

Trump's recent attacks criticizing a gas pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany, which he made ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, are a matter of concern, the Kremlin's spokesman told RT.

Nord Stream 2 is an international project and any threat against it is a concern - Kremlin

Trump's recent attacks criticizing a gas pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany, which he made ahead of his meeting with Vladimir Putin, are a matter of concern, the Kremlin's spokesman told RT.

Donald Trump's policy of pressuring European countries on issues like defense spending, Russia cooperation or trade will ultimately end NATO, Willy Wimmer, Germany's former State Secretary for Defense, told RT.

Commenting on the outcome of this week's NATO summit in Brussels, during which the US president criticized European members of the alliance of spending too little on defense and berated Germany for buying natural gas from Russia, Wimmer said Trump was going too far.

"If any Western European government would follow these ideas of Washington, they would be kicked out of office by their own population," he predicted. "There is no feeling among Western Europeans that there is a military, economic or political threat by the Russian Federation, which would justify the behavior of President Trump in Brussels. The only response to the US approach would be an end of NATO," he warned, adding that such an outcome is not what European governments want.

FBI agent Peter Strzok testified Thursday before the U.S. House that the Office of the Inspector General allowed him to decide which of his text messages with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page he would turn over to investigators - and which he would withhold.

The text messages are central to the question over whether the FBI was motivated by political bias in recommending against the prosecution of Hillary Clinton, and pursuing as-yet-unproven claims of Russian collusion with President Donald Trump.

In one text message, Strzok vowed to Page that the FBI would "stop" Trump from becoming president. Other text messages discussed impeaching Trump. On several occasions, Strzok disparaged Trump supporters.

Yet there may have been other texts.

Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday he is willing to hold former FBI attorney Lisa Page in contempt of Congress if she continues defying a congressional subpoena to answer questions about anti-Donald Trump text message exchanges.

"I am very disturbed by this," Ryan told reporters at a news conference. "Congressional subpoenas for testimony are not optional. ... She was a part of a mess that they have uncovered over at DOJ. She has an obligation to come testify." Ryan later added: "If she wants to come plead the Fifth, that's her choice. But a subpoena to testify before Congress is not optional. It's mandatory. She needs to comply."

Ryan's comments backed up House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who issued the subpoena for Page's testimony on Saturday and blasted Page's decision to skip a Wednesday morning deposition. It's unclear when the House might move to hold Page in contempt - or whether an agreement can be reached to bring in Page in later this month.

Ryan's remarks are sure to fuel a growing confrontation between GOP lawmakers and top FBI officials who have been at the center of the president's claims that the FBI's Russia investigation is a "witch hunt" led by biased FBI personnel. Page's texts with FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok - unearthed by an internal Justice Department watchdog - revealed deep animus toward Trump. But there's also no evidence to show their personal views were translated into action.