Combating mistrust - not terrorism - may be the top item on the agenda for NATO when it meets in Brussels this week. Usually a scripted snooze-fest, this year's summit has been billed as a showdown between deeply-divided allies.

Member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will assemble at their new headquarters in Brussels from July 11-12, amid growing unease between Washington and its European allies on issues ranging from defense spending to Donald Trump's tariffs. NATO members have also expressed concern over reports that Trump is considering withdrawing some of the US troops currently stationed in Germany.

In the run-up to the summit, EU officials have questioned whether the transatlantic alliance can be preserved, with even NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg conceding that "it is not written in stone that the transatlantic bond will survive forever."

Britain has been playing the 'Russian threat' card to boost unity among its allies, with some German and US officials already fretting over the Trump-Putin summit on July 16. With the image of the perennial Russian 'boogeyman' losing its potency, the alliance may find itself doing a bit a soul-searching in Brussels.

Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald was accused of being a Russian agent after appearing at a conference in Moscow and giving an interview to RT. Attacks on him reflect the growing anger and cynicism in the US, journalists said.

"This is outright slander, potentially legally actionable libel, that is being committed by an employee of MSNBC, which has pushed this frame of anything connected to Russia being a form of treason, whether it's diplomacy or person-to-person engagement," journalist Max Blumenthal told RT.

MSNBC intelligence analyst Malcolm Nance called Greenwald "an agent of Trump & Moscow," who "helped Snowden defect" and "covers for Wikileaks attacks on Democracy."

Nance "has absolutely no expertise on Russia at all," Blumenthal pointed out. "If you look at Nance's own record of wild statements - including that 'the US as a constitutional republic is about to be destroyed by Vladimir Putin' - it's pretty clear that he is to intelligence what Harvey Weinstein is to feminism. That really is a stain on MSNBC and their claim to represent anything related to facts."

As President Donald Trump arrived at the meeting with NATO representatives in Brussels, it already proved contentious, with the US criticizing Europe's dependence on Russia over energy sources.

Trump, who is an outsider in comparison with establishment presidents of the past, is the first to really confront NATO on its spending, or lack thereof, to meet its commitment of two percent of GDP. This confrontation has become so contentious that there is mounting concern over the future of NATO altogether.

President Trump believes the lack of financial commitment from other NATO members puts an even greater burden on the United States to shore up NATO's new defense plan to counter any Russian attacks, referred to as the 30-30-30-30 approach - 30 land battalions, 30 ships, 30 aircraft squadrons, with deployment within 30 days. The question is whose troops would be in the lead.

Trump's tug-of-war with NATO members also reflects a deeper suspicion of Trump and his outlook for NATO's very existence. Trump has said that if the members were to dedicate more money to their own defense, it would lessen the burden on the US, which has serious financial burdens apart from shoring up NATO. He also believes that NATO countries need the US more than the US needs NATO, since the US isn't fearful of a Russian attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is working to get closer to countries in Central and Eastern Europe. In so doing the Israeli prime minister is seeking to form a pro-Israel alternative to the European Union, which includes countries that traditionally supported Israel but criticized its settlement policy in Palestinian occupied territories.

Netanyahu officially launched his plan a year ago, last July, when he was speaking at a meeting in Budapest, which included the Prime Ministers of Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. At the time, it was not clear whether it was intended or deliberate that the microphone remained open in the presence of journalists before cutting it off, according to a report published by Haaretz on Sunday.

Netanyahu told the leaders of the four countries meeting in Budapest that,

"In order to provide Israel with technology, the European Union is the only international organization that requires political considerations. We have special relations with China apart from the interference of any political issue. Indian Prime Minister, Narendura, told me that the interests of India are top priority to him. Also, Russia and Africa do not set any political conditions, only the EU does. This is irrational and contradicts the European interests".

The United States may consider granting relief to some countries from economic sanctions that will be imposed on Iran's oil exports in November, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said on Tuesday.

"There will be a handful of countries that come to the United States and ask for relief from that. We'll consider it," Pompeo told Sky News Arabia.

At the same time, the top US diplomat warned against misinterpreting such an approach.

"Make no mistake about it, we are determined to convince the Iranian leadership that this malign behavior will not be rewarded and that the economic situation in their country will not be permitted to be rectified until such time as they become a more normal nation," he said.

Any oil deals with Iran will violate US sanctions on Tehran when they come into force on November 4, Pompeo explained.

US Department of State Director of Policy Planning Brian Hook said last week Washington is prepared to work with nations that are decreasing oil imports from Iran by case basis.

US President has undoubtedly challenged America's allies with his latest moves, including an ongoing trade war. As the NATO summit kicked off, Trump joked that the only one who really likes him in the bloc now is its chief.

"Because of me they've [NATO] raised about $40 billion over the last year," the US leader told journalists standing next to NATO Secretary General. "So I think the Secretary General likes Trump. He may be the only one but that's OK with me."

However, the NATO chief did not follow Trump's playful tone and continued to talk business, saying that the alliance member's defense spending is the main issue to be discussed. Washington has been stressing that it pays "too much" to the NATO budget, while others fail to follow suit. "This has been going on for decades. It's disproportionate and not fair to the taxpayers of the United States," Trump said, adding that he is eager to change the situation.

During the morning meeting with Stoltenberg, Trump also lambasted defense bloc allies and Germany in particular for giving billions of dollars to Russia, a country the members "should be defended against." He went as far as to call Germany "captive of Russia" because its alleged dependency on Russian gas supplies.

Iran is facing growing external pressure from its adversaries, who are seeking to sow dissent in the country and pit the people against the government, Iran's' Defense Minister has said, adding that they won't succeed in doing so.

"Today, the flimsy coalition of the arrogant, reactionary and hypocritical [countries] led by the US is seeking to portray the Islamic Republic of Iran's situation as critical," Iran's Defense Minister, Brigadier General Amir Hatami, said on Tuesday.

Iran has sustained increasing "pressure [from] outside the country with the aim of igniting protests inside," the official added, adding that the country's adversaries are seeking to drive a wedge between government and the people.

They would not succeed in doing so, however, since, Iran endured decades of external pressure and it's stronger and more unified than before. The country also enjoys reliable and "active deterrent power,"which allows it to effectively counter external threats, Hatami stated.

Russia and China are rigorously improving strategic ties to be better prepared for the challenges of today's world, as the US resorts to deception, hybrid wars, and controlled chaos, the Russian defense minister said.

In a frank interview with Italian magazine Il Giornale, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu explained Russia's strategy of keeping friends and deterring foes, and explained why Moscow has every reason to remain vigilant towards the US and its allies.

Russia & China: Strength through friendship

In an interview with Il Giornale newspaper, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu commented on the issues of US strategy in Iraq and Libya, the US violating the INF Treaty, Russia-US relations, the Ukrainian crisis and war in Syria.

The United States is violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) by deploying in Europe missile defense system, whose launchers might be used for firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at the European part of Russia's territory, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview released on Wednesday.

"We have repeatedly and publicly made it clear in all major international fora that it is the United States that is directly violating the INF Treaty, having installed, during the deployment of a missile shield in Europe, its MK-41 vertical launching systems, which might be used for the launch of Tomahawk cruise missiles. The destructive radius of these missiles covers almost all the European part of Russia's territory," Shoigu told Italy's Il Giornale newspaper.

Shoigu added that, at the same time, it was Russia that was accused of alleged violations of the treaty.

According to the Metropolitan Police investigation into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, here is a timeline of events on 4th March:

• 13:40: Sergei and Yulia arrived at the Sainsbury's upper level car park in The Maltings. The pair go to The Mill pub.
• Approximately 14:20: They eat at Zizzi restaurant on Castle Street
• 15:35: They leave the restaurant
• 16:15: Emergency services are called by a member of the public to the bench where Sergei and Yulia are slumped on a bench

So: car park, pub, restaurant, bench. Simples? Not so, as we shall see.

On 28th March, an article appeared in the Sun, which talked about a 12-year-old boy from Salisbury, Aiden Cooper, who was apparently in a park with his parents, when he saw the Skripals and went over to them to feed the ducks:

"A schoolboy told yesterday how he was caught up in the poison spy drama after assassination target Sergei Skripal gave him bread to feed ducks. Aiden Cooper, 12, was playing in a park with pals when they saw Skripal and daughter Yulia beside a stream. They were handed bread and are among the last people to have had contact with the retired ­Russian military intellig­ence colonel, now fighting for his life."

Of course, I would always want to have a large bucket of salt on standby when reading anything in The Sun, but in this case I see no reason why they, or the people quoted in the article, would make this up. In any case, the story was repeated in a number of other outlets (The Mirror, The Mail and Metro for instance), and it mentions that the parents only found out about the identity of the breadman when they were contacted by police.