'Fake news' and 'disinformation' gets a lot of attention nowadays. But the thing about propaganda is that it's best when it's true. Likewise, media bias doesn't normally consist of publishing identifiably false information. It more normally consists of slanted analysis and a confusion of fact and comment, combined with a highly selective choice of stories - it's not that the stories are untrue, it's just that one chooses only to publish those stories which support one's political line while ignoring others which don't.

Let's take the example of the Russian state and its alleged rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin. In June of this year, the Western press seized upon a statement by Vladimir Putin during an interview with film director Oliver Stone in which he said that Russia's enemies were using 'excessive demonization' of Stalin to attack Russia. The Times of London reported this, as did The Washington Post, the New York Times and, it goes without saying, RFE/RL. The story was in many cases combined with coverage of a Russian opinion poll which listed Stalin as the greatest person in Russian history to generate headlines like that of a photoessay in the Los Angeles Times, 'Russia's Reembrace of Josef Stalin.'

The Russians have been busy. They've hijacked the Black Lives Matter movement, hacked the US power grid, targeted US state voter systems, infiltrated Facebook and stoked the NFL anthem debate - all in an effort to destroy the fabric of American society.

What I mean is they "probably" did all those things, but we don't really know.

It's a sad year for Democrats and even sadder for mainstream American journalism. We're almost into October and US president Donald Trump still hasn't been impeached for collusion with the Russians - nor has any solid evidence emerged that the Russian government had any real influence over the outcome of the election at all. Perhaps that explains the recently ramped up efforts to pin all recent social discord on the Russians as well.

Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond used his speech at the Conservative Party Conference to attack Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his "Marxist" policies.

Despite party members - and the rest of the nation - hoping to hear about the financial state of Britain, and whether the well-worn Tory ax of austerity will finally be shelved, Hammond instead focused his address on Labour.

Opposition leader Corbyn was mentioned at least a dozen times.

Saudi Prince Turki Faisal Al Saud gave an interview to Sputnik and the Russian television channel NTV.

Q. Your King is going to Moscow. As far as we can see, Saudi Arabia has changed a lot. Do you think this could reflect on the upcoming talks now that Saudi Arabia differs so much from what it was a decade ago?

A. The king is going to Russia and I think there is much that can be negotiated with Mr. Putin and other leaders of the Russian Federation. It is not only the Kingdom that is changing but also the Russian Federation is changing, so we have much in common in trying to develop for the future. We have similar issues with energy production, for example. The oil market affects both Russia and Saudi Arabia, hence our effort to try to put stability into the oil market to bring Russia and Saudi Arabia together. We have shared interests also in the Middle East. We see Russia's growing influence in the Syrian situation. Saudi Arabia is equally interested in the Syrian situation and in bringing peace and stability to the Syrian people. And so, on that level as well, Russia and Saudi Arabia have a lot in common. If we go around a small geographic area in the Middle East, Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and situation with the Kurds in northern Iraq, I think that here too the king and President Putin will find common ground to cooperate on.

Q. You understand the process much clearer than I do...

A. Not necessarily! (laughs)

Less than two weeks into Donald Trump's presidency, a contentious raid on Al Qaeda in Yemen left a decorated US Navy SEAL and ten children under the age of 13 dead; America's NBC News asserts that the new President was entirely to blame. NBC News conducted an investigation into the mission that led to the death of SEAL Ryan Owens.

During his speech before Congress, the newly-elect President Trump praised the Navy special operations frogman who perished during a raid in Yemen. Owens's grieving widow was present during the speech. "Ryan's legacy is etched into eternity," President Trump said as he looked at Ms. Ryan.

NBC News, however, conducted an investigation and came to the conclusion that President Trump was to blame for the initiating the combat operation.

According to NBC, Owens died during a "black ops" raid - a super-secret operation in Yemen. The operation was part of a strategy developed by the Obama administration starting in early 2016.

The Scottish independence debate is back with a vengeance after images of Spanish police brutality in Catalonia this weekend shocked the world. Catalans were attacked by the Spanish Civil Guard as they voted in an independence referendum ruled illegal by the Constitutional Court of Madrid.

The region declared independence on Sunday night after the results were in, but Spain is refusing to recognize the validity of the vote. Violent clashes between police and protesters were streamed on global news channels, leading to calls for the European Union to intervene and punish Spain.


But in Scotland, the debate took a different turn. The campaign for Catalan independence has reignited the desire for a Scotland separated from the rest of the UK.

A video of Houthi militants downing a US surveillance drone in Yemen has emerged in the internet. The footage, published by Yemen's Al-Masirah television network, shows an anti-aircraft missile launched by Houthi forces destroying the MQ-9 Reaper, an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

At the end of the video, a crowd of people is seen standing next to the burning wreckage of the drone.


China's Xinhua News Agency quoted a statement by the Houthi group which controls the Yemeni capital Sanaa as saying that "the drone, a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper, was shot down by a guided missile fired from our Rocketry Force." The drone was most likely doing a regular spy mission over the capital," the statement said.

On 5th September, at the 9th BRICS Summit in Xiamen, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin announced an initiative to establish a United Nations mission of support in protecting the Special Monitoring Mission Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (SMM OSCE) in the south-east of Ukraine.

According to the Russian UN Security Council draft resolution,

the UN Mission shall be a Mission equipped with small arms and light weapons mandated exclusively to ensure the security of the SMM OSCE observer groups exercising twenty-four-hour monitoring in the zones of disengagement of forces and equipment from the factual line of contact between the territory under the control of the armed forces of Ukraine and the territory of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. Their remit extends to the security of the SMM OSCE observer groups patrolling and monitoring the territories on both sides of the factual line of contact in accordance with their mandate to assist in implementation of the "Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements" signed in Minsk on 12 February 2015, and endorsed by the UNSC Resolution 2202 (2015).

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte says he won't cooperate with a special investigation into his alleged wealth by the national anti-corruption agency, accusing the body of "selective justice" and prioritizing him over more serious violations.

Last week the office of the Ombudsman confirmed it was investigating Duterte's financial dealings prior to his election as president in May last year.

"I will not submit jurisdiction to the ombudsman because it's a lousy thing," Duterte said in an expletive-laden speech in Davao City, according to Philippines news outlet Philstar.

The investigation was launched on the back of a complaint by Senator Antonio Trillanes who alleged that Duterte had amassed a personal fortune of 2.2 billion pesos ($43.1 million) between 2006 and 2015 and failed to disclose that money in his official assets declaration.

In the Autumn of 2013 and into the Winter of 2014, violent protesters, including well organised and armed neo-fascist militias descended on the Maidan in Kiev with one goal in mind: to overthrow the weak, imperfect but ultimately reasonable and moderate government and President of Ukraine.

In spite of a foreign funded insurgency descending on Kiev, the then President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych did not resort to lethal force against the militants. To put it in perspective, a duo of average policemen in the United States engaging in a traffic stop are more heavily armed than the Berkut officers of Ukraine were when taking on protesters who had already killed and injured police officers.

Ultimately, even when the militants pulled off a coup in Kiev, Yanukovych refused to use his legal option in calling in foreign allies to help preserve civil order. Where Syria's President Bashar al-Assad called in his allies to help fight terrorism and restore peace, Yanukovych literally ran away in the middle of the night. Some call Yanukovych's flight an act of cowardice and betrayal, others say that it was an act of preserving the life of his family.

The story today in Catalonia could not be more different. Whereas in Ukraine, latent fascist elements worked to overthrow a moderate government, in Spain peaceful voters have been brutalised by Spanish police in the heart of the European Union, a place which was supposed to have mechanisms in place to avoid such a disaster. These mechanisms have clearly failed.