US President Donald Trump's chief strategist Stephen Bannon says mainstream media should feel "humiliated" for their coverage of Trump during the election and therefore "shut up and listen." A CNN news anchor publicly responded with a "no."

"The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for awhile," Bannon, who's the former head of conservative right-leaning news website Breitbart, said in an interview with New York Times on Wednesday.

"I want you to quote this. The media here is the opposition party. They don't understand this country. They still do not understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States," Bannon added.

Labeling the media the "opposition" to the new US administration, Bannon referred to the media's "rigged" - in President Trump's own words - reporting on him in the run-up to last year's presidential election. The media's inability to accept Trump as president has been showing also in the most recent tensions with Trump's administration over the size of the crowd at his inauguration, which the White House said was intentionally diminished by the media in an attempt to "delegitimize" the president.

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh called the way US media have reported on the allegations that Russia somehow interfered in the 2016 US elections "outrageous." The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter said the "hectoring" press overlooked the real story.

"The way they behaved on the Russia stuff was outrageous," Hersh told The Intercept in an interview for Jeremy Scahill's inaugural podcast. "They were hectoring. They didn't do reporting."

Hersh, 79, was commenting on the mainstream media coverage of the accusations that the Russian government was behind the WikiLeaks' publication of emails and other documents from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign chair John Podesta. Clinton has blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin personally for her loss in the November 8 election to Donald Trump.

The market regulator in the Netherlands has accidentally published a list of companies in which George Soros held short positions.

Hedge funds take short positions on assets when they expect their price to fall, in effect betting against the stock.

Hundreds of the billionaire investor's short positions dating back to 2012 were made public on the regulator's website, due to "human error," according to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM).

Here's the real story -- Russians want less state (and theirs often isn't the greatest) in their families.

The Russians have really gone and done it this time. Having packed off gays to furnaces they've now gone and legalized some forms of wife beating.

What else did you expect from that chest-bare horse-riding chauvinist of theirs?

FOX: Russia to decriminalize some forms of domestic violence

ABC: Russia to Decriminalize Some Forms of Domestic Violence

The Telegraph: Russian MPs back plan to partially decriminalize domestic violence

The Independent: Russia to decriminalise domestic violence as Vladimir Putin bows to ultra-conservative pressure

Associated Press: Russia set to move closer to decriminalize domestic violence

AOL: Russia could make domestic violence legal

Sydney Morning Herald: Russian move to decriminalise domestic violence shows how easily women's rights are bargained away

CBC: Russian move to decriminalize domestic violence 'extremely misguided,' advocate says

Radio Free Europe: Russian Bill Decriminalizing Domestic Violence Advances In Duma

Now this is really bad! How can Russians lawmakers possibly justify this?

Well it turns out that last July Russia passed a tough law against domestic violence. A law so tough that it sparked a civil initiative against it. A conservative, pro-family group the All-Russia Parents Resistance gathered over 200,000 signatures to challenge the law.

The civil society activists protested that the law actually envisioned harsher penalties for domestic violence than for comparable violence against strangers. So that a stranger assaulting a child would be dealt with less severely than a parent disciplining their son or daughter.

The neoconservative Brookings Institute think tank authored a 2009 strategic publication about the most efficient way for the US to asymmetrically destabilize Iran, titling their blueprint "Which Path To Persia? Options For A New American Strategy Towards Iran". Eurasian geopolitics has been completely upended in the 7 years since that document was first published, and many (but crucially, not all) of the precepts mentioned within it are outdated and irrelevant to the contemporary international context. That said, the concept of trailblazing the best Path to Persia still remains attractive, though no longer just for the US and this time towards completely different ends than the original idea had planned for. The rise of China and the unveiling of the worldwide One Belt One Road strategic vision have led to the People's Republic taking a keen interest in directly connecting itself with the Islamic Republic, and herein lies the foundation for forging a different sort of Path to Persia.

Changing Paths

The US was working to achieve unipolar zero-sum destabilization in order to weaken Iran, but China wants to build multipolar win-win connectivity in order to strengthen its partner, thereby making Washington and Beijing's Paths To Persia fundamentally different from one another. The American strategy has long been discussed and was often referenced in many analytical commentaries all throughout the years, especially among the alternative media community, but comparatively less has been said about the Chinese one. The most obvious reason for this is that it was only until fairly recently that the US and Iran were at serious loggerheads with one another, but the nuclear deal and the progressive lessening of the anti-Iranian sanctions played a large role in bring the two erstwhile enemies together for an historic rapprochement. Furthermore, the Western-friendly influence of President Rouhani and his "moderate" followers - especially among the more than half of the population under 35 years of age - played a pivotal role in bringing this about, though it must be said that this would have been impossible had the "conservative" Ayatollah not (belatedly) given it his blessing.

They write a letter to the CDC chief of staff ... And I write a letter to them

There is a group of anonymous scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control—they call themselves the Spider Group—Scientists Preserving Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research. They have penned a letter to the CDC's chief of staff, Carmen S. Villar:

Here is the explosive accusation they make:

"We are a group of scientists at CDC that are very concerned about the current state of ethics at our agency. It appears that our mission is being influenced and shaped by outside parties and rogue interests. It seems that our mission and Congressional intent for our agency is being circumvented by some of our leaders. What concerns us most, is that it is becoming the norm and not the rare exception."

"Some senior management officials at CDC are clearly aware and even condone these behaviors. Others see it and turn the other way. Some staff are intimidated and pressed to do things they know are not right."

"We have representatives from across the agency that witness this unacceptable behavior. It occurs at all levels and in all of our respective units. These questionable and unethical practices threaten to undermine our credibility and reputation as a trusted leader in public health."

President Donald Trump's openness to waterboarding and torture of terrorist suspects could lead to the review and ultimate reopening of CIA interrogation programs used in secret "black sites" worldwide, if a leaked executive order draft is any indication.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that a copy of a draft executive order distributed to major media outlets including the New York Times and Associated Press on Wednesday "is not a White House document."

There are conflicting reports on the draft's merit. Reuters cited two US officials who said Trump would sign a similar executive order in the coming days, while Fox News cited "White House sources" downplaying the draft, saying it was just one of many written during the transition.

"I have no idea where it came from," Spicer told reporters Wednesday.

After signing an executive order to build a wall on the US southern border, President Donald Trump has said that Mexico will pay for the costs of the construction "one way or another." The White House has hinted that would be with an import tax.

In the past, Trump has said that the initial funds for the wall would come from US taxpayers, and later be reimbursed by Mexico; however, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says that Mexico will not pay for any wall.

"I regret and reject the decision of the United States to continue building a wall that, that for years, far from uniting us, divides us," Peña Nieto said in a taped message on Twitter.

"Mexico does not believe in walls. I've said time again; Mexico will not pay for any wall," Peña Nieto said.

US Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan has left the agency only seven months after he was appointed. His departure was announced after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to build a massive wall on the Mexican border and hire 5,000 more agents.

In a brief video conference with senior Border Patrol agents on Thursday, Mark Morgan said he was asked to leave and he decided to resign rather than fight the request, according to an official who was on the call, AP reported.

Morgan was not at work Wednesday, and did not attend a gathering at the Homeland Security Department with Trump and newly appointed Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May urged the Republican US lawmakers to continue the "special relationship" that has shaped the world affairs for decades, calling it "one of the greatest forces for progress this world has ever known."

May was addressing the Republican members of the US Congress at their working retreat in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday, following an earlier speech by President Donald Trump. She is supposed to meet with Trump on Friday in Washington, DC.

"It has been America's destiny to bear the leadership of the Free World," May told the cheering GOP lawmakers, adding that it has been a privilege of the UK "to share that burden and to walk alongside you at every stage."