Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Seymour Hersch has questioned the UK government's official line on the motives behind the Skripals' poisoning, saying there is an "instinctive dislike" of Russia within the UK.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The Media Show, Hersch was responding to a question about whether journalists often bring their own "baggage or views" to stories before they've found out about what's going on, and if this shaped how stories were reported.

He said there is "bias all the time" in the media, and that the UK is "riddled with bias" fueled by an "instinctive dislike" of Russia.

"There's bias all the time, this country's riddled with bias, there's a great dislike of Russia here, an instinctive dislike," he said.

I had to pick my jaw up off the ground when I saw this comment from a reader I know personally, and who is a political professional working with the Democratic Party. He almost always comments here to read me the riot act about my social and religious conservatism. But not this morning, not after reading the "Rosemary's Theyby" post about the next frontiers in gender madness. He writes:

The rot is even worse than you think. You have no idea how highly this has infected the low and middle levels of the Democratic Party. The mistake people make is on focusing on what the high elites in parties think, rather than what you could call the middle management. Elites are close to retirement, really, and while they do exert pull on the rest of the people, they can't pull too much.

Middle management, however, controls _everything_.

Not long ago, when my wife was pregnant, a coworker asked if we knew what we were having. I told this friend, and we were all excited.

Another coworker immediately started lecturing me in front of everyone about how this was grossly cis-heteronormative and that rather than forcing an identity on my child because of genitals, I should cultivate an environment in which the child would be able to flourish and explore the play of gender.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), which represents 1.5 million Americans, has voted overwhelmingly in support of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign (BDS).

Members took part in a vote last Friday on a slate of resolutions put forth by one of its member groups, the Israel Palestine Mission Network (IPMN).

The church opposed congressional and state anti-BDS legislation calling on Americans to "defend and advocate for the constitutional protection under the First Amendment for all United States citizens". It opposed "specific US legislation and efforts by agents of foreign governments to suppress" those freedoms. It insisted that the "The Israel Anti-Boycott Act", Senate Bill (S) 720 and House Resolution (H.R.) 1697, which seek to impose civil and criminal penalties for nonviolent BDS resistance against human rights violations in Israel and Palestine, was against the US constitution and a threat to free speech.

The resolutions won by a landslide following powerful testimonies from local and visiting Palestinians, Black Lives Matter leaders, Presbyterians and others. Most of the resolutions passed by 80 or 90 per cent or unanimously in committee and through the General Assembly, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) reported.

Just when we thought the over-used Bana al-Abed story was in the war propaganda dustbin, the wonder-child theme has again been re-hashed, this time by the Atlantic Council.

The so-called "think tank" recently highlighted the nine-year old at a conference that also included former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

Bana, the child presented to the world in late 2016 as tweeting from eastern Aleppo about wanting peace, Russia being bad, Assad being bad, etcetera, became colonial media's darling, the perfect cover for war propaganda. We are told that Bana al-Abed has written a memoir. She has attended galas, met the Turkish president, and hobnobbed with movie stars and UN officials. Now, the girl has been trotted out on stage to receive an award from the Atlantic Council.

I have read four studies of Hamas and have this evening begun to update my information by beginning my fifth, Hamas Contained : The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance by Tareq Baconi. So far I have only read the Preface and already I wish everyone could read it and follow up by speaking out and doing their little bits to spread light on a world that is too often lost behind distortions of reality.

Sections of the Preface that hit home with me:

The simplistic binaries that frame conversations of Palestinian armed struggle evoke the condescension expressed by colonial overlords toward the resistance of indigenous peoples. "Palestinians have a culture of hate," commentators blast on American TV screens. "They are a people who celebrate death." These familiar accusations, quick to roll off tongues, are both highly effective at framing public discourse and insulting as racist epithets.

Bolded emphasis in all quotations is my own.

I have often found discussions about Hamas very difficult so when I read the following I recognized something immediately:

The prevailing inability or unwillingness to talk about Hamas in a nuanced manner is deeply familiar. During the summer of 2014, when global news rooms were covering Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip, I watched Palestinian analysts being rudely silenced on the air for failing to condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization outright. This condemnation was demanded as a prerequisite for the right of these analysts to engage in any debate about the events on the ground. There was no other explanation, it seemed, for the loss of life in Gaza and Israel other than pure-and-simple Palestinian hatred and bloodlust, embodied by Hamas.

Totally absent from any discussion, it seems, is any serious consciousness of the "broader historical and political context of the Palestinian struggle".

Whether condemnation or support, it felt to me, many of the views I faced on Palestinian armed resistance were unburdened by moral angst or ambiguity. There was often a certainty or a conviction about resistance that was too easily forthcoming.

Oh yes. Black and white. Right and wrong. Good and evil. The simplistic paradigms that have always guaranteed the perpetuation of ignorance and suffering.

A knife-wielding man has attacked pupils at the entrance of a primary school, killing two children, and leaving two more people injured.

A 29-year-old male attacked three students and one female parent with a knife at the Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School around 11:30am local time on Thursday, according to police.

The victims were immediately taken to hospital, where two boys succumbed to their injuries and died. The third pupil and the parent have no life threatening injuries, according to local media.


The attacker, who was arrested at the site, was reportedly a jobless man, who vented his anger at society. A video purportedly showing the arrest emerged online.

Boosting the sanctioned economy of North Korea would not be easy or cheap, but there are geopolitical benefits for South Korea, according to research by Citibank analysts.

Citi estimated that $63.1 billion would be needed to rebuild transportation and infrastructure. Among the costs is an estimated $24.1 billion - needed for 28 railroad projects, $22.8 billion would be required for 33 road projects and 16 power plant projects would cost around $10 billion. The immediate building costs would require an estimated $11.6 billion.

The UK immigration system needs "roots and branch reform", a Labour MP has said, as it emerged that 850 people were wrongfully detained between 2012 and 2017, leading to a £21 million payout from the government.

According to figures released by the Home Affairs Select Committee this week, 171 people were wrongfully detained between 2015-16 and the government was compelled to pay a total of £4.1 million in compensation fees.

There were 143 cases registered in 2016-17, triggering a further £3.3 million payout. While between 2012 and 2015, £13.8 million was paid out to over 550 people after they were unjustly detained in immigration removal centers (IRC).

A left-wing writer warned Trump administration officials this week that the backlash against them will get much worse than being kicked out of restaurants.

Splinter's Hamilton Nolan wrote the essay on the progressive news site after White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders complained over the weekend about being asked to leave a Virginia restaurant by an owner who was critical of her work for the Trump administration.

Nolan said these types of incidents are 'only the beginning'.

The Pittsburgh-area police officer who shot and killed an unarmed teenager last week has been charged in his death, with prosecutors calling the killing an "intentional act."

The officer, identified by authorities as Michael Rosfeld of the East Pittsburgh Police Department, was arrested and arraigned on one count of criminal homicide Wednesday morning, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. He is scheduled to appear before a judge for a preliminary hearing July 6.

An attorney for Rosfeld told ABC News in an interview Wednesday that he's not surprised by the charge but his client is "devastated" by what happened and is seeking counseling. The officer, who has been placed on unpaid leave, was released from jail after posting bond Wednesday, his attorney said.