Europe has been weakened by a "leftist utopia" which promotes the idea of mass migration and tries to turn Europeans into "dependent clients," former Czech President Vaclav Klaus wrote in his new Eurosceptic book.

The migrant influx "is comparable to the 'barbarian' invasions of the ancient world that caused large-scale regression in the development of Europe which it took several centuries to overcome," Klaus, who served as the president of the Czech Republic from 2003 till 2013, wrote in an introduction to his book 'Europe All Inclusive', released earlier in March.

Some of the main culprits behind Europe's crisis are none other than left-wing parties, according to Klaus. "Europe is weakened by the leftist utopia of trying to transform a continent that was once proud of its past into an inefficient solidaristic state, turning its inhabitants from citizens into dependent clients," the former top official stated.

A wide-ranging three-part series by Whitney Webb explores the past of soon-to-be National Security Adviser John Bolton and what his recent appointment will mean for U.S. foreign policy, with a focus on the Middle East, Latin America, and the Koreas .

Part 1:

Bolton's Past Advocacy for Israel at US Expense Heralds Dangerous New Era in Geopolitics

Notorious war hawk John Bolton - who has long been vying for a position in Trump's administration - has been especially eager to work with a president with minimal foreign policy knowledge or experience, allowing him maximum effect in achieving his policy goals.

Last Thursday, President Trump announced that former UN ambassador John Bolton, once called the "most dangerous man" in the entire George W. Bush administration, would replace H.R. McMaster as national security adviser, making him the man in charge of what the President sees and hears regarding issues of national security. Bolton will officially take over McMaster's post on April 9.

The appointment was not surprising. Indeed, earlier this month, MintPress reported that McMaster was soon to be replaced - largely at the behest of billionaire Republican donor and militant Zionist Sheldon Adelson - and that Bolton was a top contender for that position, largely due to Bolton's reputation as a "stalwart friend of Israel" and his frequent calls for military action against Iran, Israel's regional arch-rival.

The UK government's presentation on the Salisbury incident, which was repeatedly cited in recent days as an "ultimate proof" of Russia's involvement into Skripal's assassination attempt, was made public earlier today.

This 6-paged PDF is a powerful evidence of another intellectual low of British propaganda machine. Open it and you can tell that substantially it makes only two assertions on the Skripal case, and both are false:

First. Novichok is a group of agents developed only by Russia and not declared under the CWC" - a false statement. Novichok was originally developed in the USSR (Nukus Lab, today in Uzbekistan, site completely decommissioned according to the US-Uzbekistan agreement by 2002). One of its key developers, Vil Mirzayanov, defected to the United States in 1990s, its chemical formula and technology were openly published in a number of chemical journals outside Russia. Former top-ranking British foreign service officer Craig Murray specifically noted this point on March 17:

I have now been sent the vital information that in late 2016, Iranian scientists set out to study whether novichoks really could be produced from commercially available ingredients. Iran succeeded in synthesising a number of novichoks. Iran did this in full cooperation with the OPCW and immediately reported the results to the OPCW so they could be added to the chemical weapons database.

This makes complete nonsense of the Theresa May's "of a type developed by Russia" line, used to parliament and the UN Security Council. This explains why Porton Down has refused to cave in to governmental pressure to say the nerve agent was Russian. If Iran can make a novichok, so can a significant number of states.

The online Oxford dictionary defines the word 'siege' as a "military operation in which enemy forces surround a town or building, cutting off essential supplies, with the aim of compelling those inside to surrender."

The strategy dates back to medieval times after the proliferation of the castle, where a defending force could hole itself up inside an easily defended fortress against an invading enemy who would be at a major disadvantage in a direct attack. To get around this, an army who wanted to depose the leadership within a castle or other impregnable construct would simply surround it and refuse to allow any food or supplies to be brought in. With enough patience, those inside would be forced to either starve or surrender.

This is precisely the strategy that is being employed against Julian Assange. If you try to talk about Assange being in a state of functional house arrest on any online forum you will be swiftly inundated by accounts asserting in fascinatingly uniform language that Assange is free to leave the Ecuadorian embassy whenever he wants, which just so happens to be the desire of the empire which currently has him under siege.

Russia has sent a list of 13 questions to the UN's chemical weapons watchdog, the OPCW, demanding answers on its involvement in the British probe into the poisoning by a nerve agent of former double agent Sergei Skripal.

The letter was published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Sunday, a day after similar questionnaires were forwarded to the foreign departments of the UK and France. In a statement on its website, the ministry again stressed that the whole Skripal case was "fabricated against Russia." The 13 questions, sent by Russia's permanent mission at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to the watchdog's Technical Secretariat, can be divided into broader groups that address three important aspects of the ongoing investigation: the UK's dealings with the OPCW, the OPCW's procedure and France's involvement in the investigation.

What does Britain want from the OPCW?

The first several questions deal with the assistance that the OPCW provided to the British in the investigation.

"What exactly is Britain asking the OPCW Technical Secretariat to confirm: only the fact that a nerve agent was used or that it belongs to the 'Novichok' type under Western classification?" one of the questions reads.

Moscow is also asking what type of samples and other evidence was handed over to the OPWC by the British and whether the Technical Secretariat has plans to share its information on the Skripal case with the OPCW Executive Council, of which Russia is a member.

US President Donald Trump has suggested meeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Washington, DC. Trump made the offer during a phone call between the two leaders, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed.

"When the presidents talked on the phone, Trump suggested holding a meeting in Washington DC," Ushakov told reporters on Monday. He added that it was the US leader who had proposed the idea of the meeting. However, no preparations for a possible meeting have been discussed since the March 20 telephone call, Putin's aide said. The US and Russia have also been at loggerheads over the poisoning of ex-double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK, which has sparked tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.

Trump decided to expel 60 diplomats and close Russia's consulate in Seattle after London accused Moscow of poisoning Skripal and his daughter Yulia, although no evidence of Russia's role has been provided. Moscow responded by expelling the same number of US diplomatic staff from Russia and closing the consulate in St. Petersburg.

Ankara on Monday ordered the arrest of Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen along with seven members of his Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) over the killing of Russian Ambassador Andrey Karlov, who was assassinated in 2016, the Yeni Safak newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the FETO top figures Serif Ali Tekalan and Emre Uslu Gulen were also among those, sought to be arrested.

Russian former Ambassador to Turkey Andrei Karlov was shot by an off-duty Turkish police officer, Mevlut Mert Altintas, on December 19, 2016, at the opening of an art gallery exhibition "Russia from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka through the eyes of a traveler" in Ankara. The attacker was killed at the scene by the police.

Though the investigation is still ongoing, the Turkish side has repeatedly voiced suspicions that the Gulen movement, considered by Ankara to be a terrorist organization and accused by the authorities of masterminding the 2016 failed coup attempt in Turkey, is linked to the attack.

Besides the Karlov case, Turkey accuses Gulen of a coup attempt that occurred in July 2016. The coup was quickly suppressed by government forces, but over 240 people were killed and an estimated 2,000 were wounded.

While it took a while to pick up steam, the Skripal Salisbury poisoning incident has lately dominated Western media headlines. Daily we are treated to the smug and self-righteous faces who, in one breath, compare Putin to Hitler, Stalin, and Czar Nicholas II, before proceeding to compare Russia to Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire simultaneously. This would surely be the height of all evil, assuming it were true!

And of course we are supposed to assume it is true because this latest fake news is built on an edifice of an entire history of fake news. Simon Tisdall recently wrote in one of the largest purveyors of fake news, The Guardian:

It has taken a long time for western politicians to recognise the extent and depth of the threat represented by Vladimir Putin's Russia. Some in the Labour party still don't. It is also plain, as Theresa May embarks on an open-ended confrontation with Moscow, that the dispute provoked by the Salisbury outrage could take years to resolve.

Cold or hot, overt or covert, this is going to be a long war - and Britain will need all its friends and allies if it is to prevail against a ruthless opponent. Whether sincere, sufficient and timely support will be forthcoming is in serious doubt.

This article is Part III of a series exploring the past of soon-to-be National Security Adviser John Bolton and what his appointment will mean for U.S. foreign policy, with a focus on the Middle East, Latin America, and the Koreas. Part I examined Bolton's past advocacy for Israel, often at the U.S.' expense. Part II detailed how that same commitment to Israel has shaped his vision for the Middle East, a vision that calls for regime change in Iran, the division of both Syria and Iraq, and the creation of a new Sunni state. Part III explores Bolton's past and present policies in regards to Latin America, policies which threaten to return the region to bloody legacy of American-backed military coups.

While President Trump's appointment of John Bolton to the position of National Security Adviser has sent shockwaves throughout the country, most of the concern about his likely effect on U.S. policy has been focused on the Middle East as well as the Korean peninsula. Bolton's appointment has, however, also caused concern elsewhere, particularly in Latin America.

Though he is best known for promoting the invasion of Iraq on false claims of "weapons of mass destruction," Bolton has also made similar false claims against Cuba, stating that the island nation had a "developmental offensive biological warfare program" in order to include it among the "Axis of Evil" countries. Not only that, but Bolton has also conjured up false claims of Venezuela protecting Iranian "smugglers" in a bid to target its current government. More recently, he has called for "greater U.S. involvement" in the "critical" region of Latin America.

Bolton's past, along with his recent statements, have made many Latin Americans uneasy. As a former National Security Council member during the Obama administration told the Miami Herald,

He [Bolton] is a warmonger and Latin Americans get nervous when American presidents tend to lean toward military versus diplomatic solutions. It's a militaristic style that won't go down well in Latin America."

French President Emmanuel Macron entertained a Syrian Kurdish delegation last Thursday. He praised the Kurdish-dominated SDF militias for their role in fighting ISIS and promised continued support.

After the meeting Kurdish and French media outlets reported Macron had also promised to move French troops to Kurdish-held Manbij in northern Syria, and block the advance of the Turkish army, which for months now Ankara has threatened to use to take the northern Syrian city for the Syrian rebels in its employ.

This would not be outside the realm of possibility seeing French special forces were actually involved in helping take Manbij for the Kurds in 2016 and remain elsewhere in Kurdish-held Syria.