Veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the man who exposed the Mai Lai massacre during the Vietnam War and the US military's abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib in 2004, is probably the most influential journalist of the modern era, with the possible exception of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the pair who exposed Watergate.

For decades, Hersh has drawn on his extensive contacts within the US security establishment to bring us the story behind the official story, and to disclose facts that have often proved deeply discomfiting to those in power and exploded the self-serving, fairy-tale narratives the public were expected to passively accept as news. His stature among journalists was such that, in a sea of corporate media misinformation, he enjoyed a small island of freedom at the elite, and influential, outlet of the New Yorker.

Paradoxically, over the past decade, as social media has created a more democratic platform for information dissemination, the corporate media has grown ever more fearful of a truly independent figure like Hersh. The potential reach of his stories could now be enormously magnified by social media. As a result, he has been increasingly marginalised and his work denigrated. By denying him the credibility of a "respectable" mainstream platform, he can be dismissed for the first time in his career as a crank and charlatan. A purveyor of fake news.

I want to share with readers my impressions and experiences on a recent trip through several parts of the Peoples' Republic of China. I made the journey this June as part of my research for a forthcoming book on the Eurasian Century, my term for what is emerging as an alternative to a war-crazed West.

Today's China is far more complex than simply being the world's great economic colossus, the so-called "workshop to the world." Yet despite serious problems with the development path the country's Communist Party leadership took beginning in 1979, when Deng Xiaoping opened China to foreign investment and a global market with a pragmatic market economy whose slogan was "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," China today is the key to any future positive world economic growth in a peaceful context. Unlike Trump's demagogic slogan, "Making America Great Again," China's OBOR infrastructure undertaking is no demagoguery. It's very richly real.

Following a series of private discussions with Chinese experts at leading universities and think tanks in Beijing regarding the vast and changing complexity of the now Six Corridors of the One Belt, One Road port and land infrastructure complex under construction, my journey took me to the "origin" of the ancient silk route.

Israeli media reports confirm the construction of a new high tech 65 km security and surveillance wall equipped with cameras and sensors "to separate Gaza from Israel" thereby reinforcing the enclosure of Gaza as a de facto "prison territory" with a population of more than 1.85 million.

This initiative constitutes the latest stage of a process started in 1994 with the establishment of the so-called Israel Gaza security barrier. As we recall the barrier was in part torn down during the Second Intifada in 2000 and was then rebuilt.

There has been virtually no coverage or analysis of this latest project.

"The ambitious project, budgeted to cost 3 billion shekhels ($850 million), will see an integrated wire fence, 6 to eight metres high, equipped with sensors and cameras built above the ground, over the 65-kilometre Gazan border, while heavy concrete slabs strengthened with iron rods will be built dozens of metres underground."

China has floated out a new domestically-built guided missile destroyer which boasts advanced weapons. The Chinese military says it marks a new step in the development of the country's navy.

The 10,000-ton new generation destroyer was presented during a ceremony at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai on Wednesday morning.

The new warship is the first of its type and is a "milestone" in the development of Chinese military equipment, according according to the official Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) newspaper, China Military online.


Built by one of the two largest shipbuilding companies in the country, China State Shipbuilding Corporation, the warship has "new types of air defense, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapon systems," China Military online reports. The news outlet adds that the vessel has strong air and missile defenses, as well as advanced maritime target attacking.

At least 40 civilians have been killed in airstrikes conducted by the US-Led Coalition on a community in Syria's Deir ez-Zor on Wednesday, SANA news agency reports citing local sources.

The airstrike hit the village of al-Dablan located in Deir ez-Zor governorate, SANA reported. The majority of victims were women and children.

"The [US-led] coalition carried out airstrikes on the civilians' homes in al-Dablan village in the area of Mayadin," the report said. "[The strikes] led to the deaths of more than 40 civilians, the majority of which were women and children, as well as to dozens of people sustaining injuries."

The houses were also damaged in the airstrikes, according to SANA. Local sources told the news agency that the terrified villagers were forced to leave their homes and flee for the desert in an attempt to escape further strikes.

The US-led coalition of 69 members is conducting airstrikes, ground-based and rocket-propelled artillery fire against Daesh in Syria and Iraq. The strikes in Iraq are conducted in support of the Iraqi government, but those in Syria are not authorized by the UN Security Council or the government of President Bashar Assad.

On Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed 42 prisoners of Daesh (banned in Russia) died along with 15 militants in a coalition strike in the Syrian city of Mayadin on June 25. SANA reported that at least 42 people had died in the strike. Operation Inherent Resolve spokesperson subsequently told Sputnik that a civilian team within the US-led coalition against Daesh would assess reports of civilian casualties.

Moscow has warned the US against taking unilateral action in Syria, as there is no threat from the Syrian military, Russia's Foreign Ministry said. The statement comes after the US accused Syria of preparing for a chemical attack, without giving any evidence.

Asked if Russia had warned the US administration against any unilateral action in Syria, Russia's deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, replied that Russian officials have "always spoken about that, including in relation to their [US] latest strikes on Syrian armed forces."

"We believe that it's unacceptable and breaches Syria's sovereignty, isn't caused by any military need, and there is no threat to the US specialists from the Syrian Army. So it's incendiary, provocative action," Gatilov said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

On Monday evening, the White House claimed that Syrian President Bashar Assad was preparing a chemical attack and warned that the Syrian government would "pay a heavy price" if the attack was carried out, as cited by AP.

The International Monetary Fund has released its US economic growth forecasts. Uncertainty in President Donald Trump's fiscal plans has erased previous predictions of a faster growing economy.

On Tuesday, the IMF cut its 2017 and 2018 growth forecasts for the US down to 2.1 percent, according to the IMF Mission concluding statement report. The IMF's April 2.3 percent prediction for 2017 and 2.5 percent US growth forecast for 2018 have now been changed, according to Bloomberg.

Following a review of US economic policy, the IMF has said that it is unlikely that the Trump administration's fiscal plans and tax cuts will meet its GDP growth goal of 3 percent over a sustained period due to the lack of details concerning the $3.6 trillion in spending cuts for the government proposed in May, according to Reuters.

Alejandro Werner, director of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department, said at a press briefing in Washington that "we have removed the assumed fiscal stimulus from our forecast."

The IMF cites that the US is experiencing "its third largest expansion since 1850." And that "the US is effectively at full employment." "For policy changes to be successful in achieving sustained, higher growth, they would need to raise the US potential growth path," the IMF report said. Growth is projected to drop to 1.9 percent in 2019 and 1.8 percent in 2020, according to the IMF.

Russia's Defense Ministry has refuted the BBC reports on the alleged capture of "Russian serviceman" Viktor Ageev in the Lugansk Region.

"Viktor Ageev has never served in Russia's Armed Forces under contract. According to the records of the Russian Defense Ministry, Ageev conducted compulsory military service in the Russian Armed Forces, which he left in accordance with the established procedure in May 2016. Information that Viktor Ageev rejoined the Russian Armed Forces under contract was made up by Ukrainian agitators," the ministry reported.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the second page of Ageev's military card contains a note that he left service in May 2016. "The military card could also contain a note that Ageev rejoined the Russian Armed Forces under contract, but Ukrainian intelligence agencies failed to write it there out of ignorance," the ministry stressed.

Earlier, the Russian BBC service reported, quoting the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 93rd separate mechanized brigade, that Russian Viktor Ageev, who, allegedly, was conscripted in the Altay Region and served under contract, had been captured in the Lugansk Region.

Tillerson secretly warned the Russians, and Kushner and Bannon were consulted before the White House rattled its saber. But the commander in chief was consumed with 'fake news.'

Hours before the White House issued an ominous warning to Syria's dictator against launching another chemical assault, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave the same message to Bashar Assad's patron in Moscow, The Daily Beast has learned.

According to a knowledgeable senior administration official, Tillerson warned his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov: the U.S. sees that Russia and Syria may be prepping for another chemical weapons attack; and that there will be consequences if Assad follows through with it.

All this occurred this week as President Donald Trump displayed what two White House officials characterized as relative indifference and passivity towards the subject, instead opting to focus his public and private energies towards fuming at his domestic enemies in the Democratic Party and the "fake news."

"The president cares more about CNN and the Russia story than [Syria] at the moment," one official observed.

The Russian parliamentary task group established to prevent foreign interference in Russian politics has met for the first time, with members proposing that all foreign meddling be recorded in a 'black book' and that potential retaliatory measures be developed.

The proposal to start collecting evidence of foreign meddling in Russian internal politics was made by the deputy head of the Federation Council's Committee for International Relations, Senator Andrey Klimov. He also said that all those working to undermine Russian sovereignty should be included in a so-called 'black book.'

"By launching such a document we will be able to study the tools of our opponents and develop more reliable methods [of countering them]" Klimov said in comments with RBC news site.

He also said that the task group planned to establish the criteria for foreign interference in Russia's domestic political affairs at one a future session.