The Washington Post and other big media are hailing a new journalistic "golden age" as they punish President Trump for disparaging them, but is this media bias a sign of good journalism or itself a scandal.

The mainstream U.S. media is congratulating itself on its courageous defiance of President Trump and its hard-hitting condemnations of Russia, but the press seems to have forgotten that its proper role within the U.S. democratic structure is not to slant stories one way or another but to provide objective information for the American people.

By that standard - of respecting that the people are the nation's true sovereigns - the mainstream media is failing again. Indeed, the chasm between what America's elites are thinking these days and what many working-class Americans are feeling is underscored by the high-fiving that's going on inside the elite mainstream news media, which is celebrating its Trump- and Russia-bashing as the "new golden age of American journalism."

The New York Times and The Washington Post, in particular, view themselves as embattled victims of a tyrannical abuser. The Times presents itself as the brave guardian of "truth" and the Post added a new slogan: "Democracy dies in darkness." In doing so, they have moved beyond the normal constraints of professional, objective journalism into political advocacy - and they are deeply proud of themselves.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday that Moscow knows which terrorists in Syria possess chemical weapons.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has information about which terrorists of ISIL and Al-Nusra Front have components of chemical weapons, and where they are being kept, Sputnik reported.

"There is information that Daesh [ISIL] and Al-Nusra terrorists have components of chemical weapons. Who can give assurances that chemical weapons won't appear in other countries tomorrow," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said speaking at the Russia's Federation Council.

The minister added that the world needs joint work to fight those terrorists who possess chemical weapons,

Speaking at a so-called government hour session at the Russia's Federation Council, Sergei Shoigu also stressed that "we are absolutely convinced today that most of the films and reports are staged."

China's foreign minister has warned that no one has the right to bring war or chaos to the Korean Peninsula, and that anyone who does will bear responsibility. It comes just one day after Seoul fired warning shots at a suspected drone from North Korea.

"No matter which party it is, no one has the right to bring war and chaos upon the peninsula," Wang Yi told reporters on Wednesday, following a meeting with his German counterpart, Sigmar Gabriel.

Wang added that anyone who brings such chaos will bear "historical responsibility."

The Chinese foreign minister also said that Beijing hopes to help bring the situation on the peninsula to the track of dialogue, adding that China already fully implements its UN Security Council sanction commitments towards North Korea, Reuters reported.

With America's sale of $350 billion of its weapons to Saudi Arabia during the next ten years, which side will dominate, if the royal family of Saudi Arabia — the owners of Saudi Arabia, which is to say the Saud family — again finance, and participate in directing, an attack against the U.S., such as 9/11?

The last time around, the U.S. government hid for fifteen years the damning evidence (the 'missing 28 pages' that were actually 29 pages) in the 9/11 report that documented from the testimony to the congressional panel by FBI agents, that Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud and his wife had personally financed the apartment rentals and flight training of at least some of the 15 Saudi members of the 19-member team that carried out the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government also hid from the public the U.S. court testimony by Osama bin Laden's captured bagman who had personally collected each one of the million-dollar-plus cash donations to Al Qaeda before 9/11, most of which mega-donations were from members of the Saud family — and Prince Bandar was among those, too — and so, it was more than just the tens of thousands of dollars which the FBI had found and had been reporting.

Then, when the 9/11 victim families pursued in U.S. courts a civil case against the Saudi government (which is 100% owned by the Saud family), U.S. President Barack Obama vetoed the bill that Congress had passed to allow the case to proceed. That was the U.S. victims, seeking court investigations into possible massive criminality against them and against the United States of America, by members of Saudi Arabia's royal family and their agents (perhaps including George W. Bush himself) working on their behalf — and U.S. President Barack Obama did everything he could to block even the investigations. He was George W. Bush #2, but with prettier rhetoric (designed specifically to fool liberals; not, like Bush's, to fool outright conservatives).

Amid the chaos of James Comey's firing, new questions about the timeline of his fateful investigation

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appeared on This Week Sunday, and said some head-scratching things.

In one of the most anticipated congressional hearings in years, James Comey and Mike Rogers took turns saying nothing

Clapper back in March told Meet the Press that when he issued a January 6th multiagency intelligence community assessment about Russian interference in the election, the report didn't include evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, essentially saying he hadn't been aware of any such evidence up through January 20th, his last day in office.

On Sunday, he said that didn't necessarily mean there was no such evidence, because sometimes he left it up to agency chiefs like former FBI Director James Comey to inform him about certain things.

"I left it to the judgment [of] Director Comey," Clapper said, "to decide whether, when and what to tell me about counter-intelligence investigations."

Syrian forces took control of Al Jarah Airport and a number of surrounding towns and villages, following intense clashes with ISIS terrorists, during which more than 3000 of them, top emirs including, were killed in the eastern countryside of Aleppo province.

According to the military sources, army units managed to restore security and stability over Al Jarah Airport, the villages of Al Mahdoum, Al Bailouneh, Jirah Sagheir, Tel Hassan, Um Nesourah, Wajab Ali, Bani Zeid, Kherbet Hassan, Al Khaldieh, Ateireh, Jirah Kabeir, the cattle ranches, Droubieh, Sekarieh, Maziunet Al Jabiri, Al Hamra, Qawwass, Al Reihanieh, Al Samerieh, the third station, the town of Al Naserieh, Al Naserieh train station, Al Ajouzieh, Tel Feddah, Al Mazran, Al Kenawieh, Mohsent Al Khafseih, Rasm Al Hamam Gharbi, Rasm Al Kiwan, and Al Masoudieh.

Military sources also confirmed that operations resulted in annihilation of more than 3000 ISIS terrorists, in addition to destruction of 19 tanks, 5 BMP vehicles, 11 booby-trapped vehicles, 6 cannons, 9 ammunition depots and 61 command centers.

Among the killed terrorists were Abu Mosaab Al Masri, ISIS' Minister of War, Abu Ahmed Al Kafir Al Abaji, an ISIS emir in charge of security, Abu Odai Al Iraqi, the so-called emir of the eastern Aleppo countryside, Saudi terrorist Abu Abdelleh Mohammed Sameih Al Kisri who was the emir of finances in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, Mahmoud Abdul-Jabbar bin Hassan aka "Abu al-Walid al-Tounsi" who was the emir of Debsi Faraj town, Mohammed Al Hussein Al Jaloud, the emir of Hittin, Obadah Salim Al Daaboul, three Saudi terrorists named Abdelrahman Mitawea Al Dakheil, Abu Muhammad Al Najdi, Sultan Abdullah Al Ghallab aka "Abu Remh Al Saudi" and two Iraqi terrorists named Ali Nazal Qarah Bash and Sufian Mohammed Abboush.

The Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte arrived in Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin to expand partnership and ask for assistance in arms procurement. Sputnik Radio spoke with expert Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky in an interview about how Russia should react to such a request.

According to Duterte, the Philippines needs modern weaponry to fight Daesh and expressed hope that Moscow would assist his country in obtaining arms.

"Our country needs modern weapons, we had certain orders in the US, but currently the situation is not very smooth and in order to fight Daesh divisions and its individual factions, we need modern weapons. I have come to gain your support and ask for your help," Duterte said.


In addition, the leader of the Philippines said that the two countries should develop trade relations. "We need to develop trade exchange," he said.

The terror attack threat level in the UK has shifted from severe to critical, Prime Minister Theresa May said following a second emergency Cobra committee meeting. She added that armed forces will be dispatched to assist the police.

"It is now concluded on the basis of today's investigations that the threat level should be increased for the time being from severe to critical," she said in a televised statement. "It is a possibility we can't ignore that there are a wider group of individuals linked to this attack."

May said that she does not want the public to be unduly alarmed and called her move "a proportionate and appropriate response."

Washington's most entertaining diplomat probably doesn't even know that she works for Washington

Most Americans have rewarding careers sitting behind computer desks or McDonald's drive-thru windows—and usually these tenure-track professions end with an OxyContin overdose, a hernia, death, or all three at the exact same time.

But not everyone is so fortunate. Some people have extremely tedious, soul-crushing jobs.

Take, as a tragic example, Nikki Haley. As the US ambassador to the United Nations, Haley's only responsibility is to transmit State Department policy to her colleagues at the United Nations. Sometimes she's allowed to transmit State Department policy to a television news host. But that's it. A major, boring bummer.

Talk about a dead-end job. It's no wonder Nikki Haley consistently breaks ranks with the Trump administration and US foreign policy—you expect her to mindlessly parrot the policies of the country that she represents as a diplomat? Ambassadors are people too, and Ambassador Lives Matter.

At least five people were killed and hundreds arrested in Bahrain on May 23 after police stormed a sit-in by protesters supporting the Sunni-ruled kingdom's top Shi'ite cleric, Bahrain's Interior Ministry said.

Police said they arrested nearly 300 people at the protest in Diraz, near the capital, Manama, as they demonstrated outside the home of cleric Isa Qassim, the spiritual leader of Bahrain's majority Shi'ite community.

The ministry said that fugitives who had escaped from the Jau prison were among the 286 people arrested at the protest and asserted that several of the "outlaws" were carrying hand grenades and knives.

"A large number of them were hiding in the residence of Isa Qassim," the ministry said, adding that several members of the security force were injured.