Moscow has acted in full accordance with international law during the inquiry into the poisoning of the Skripals, the German parliament's service said. London's actions were seen as more questionable, though.

The German Bundestag's Research and Documentation Services have "found no clear violations of cooperation obligations under the [Chemical Weapons Convention] CWC [committed] by Russia," a report issued by the parliament's agency following a legal review of the actions of various actors during the investigation the former Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia.

During an emergency meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Russia expressed its readiness to investigate the incident together with the British authorities, "thus expressing its readiness for cooperation [required by the international norms], at least nominally," the report says, adding that it was the UK that rejected this offer. It also notes that "Russia complained that it had not been granted access to the results of the British investigation."

Islamic State still keeps its presence in Syria, but only in US-controlled areas while those liberated by Syrian government forces areas are slowly recovering after terrorists' defeat, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. "All the remaining pockets of resistance of ISIS terrorists in Syria are only in areas controlled by the United States," Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a defense ministry spokesman, said on Saturday.

Earlier, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a bold statement that pulling out of the Arab Republic "must avoid leaving a vacuum in Syria that can be exploited by the Assad regime or its supporters," in apparent reference to Iran and Russia.

Russia has been fighting terrorists in the country on the invitation of the Syrian government, while the US presence there has been deemed aggressive by Damascus.

Konashenkov pulled no punches on the US military official, reminding him that the Washington-led invasion in Iraq under a false pretext in fact led to the rise of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and eventually its expansion into war-ravaged Syria.

After summit's trade-heavy start, Trudeau shifts conversation to other global issues

After an opening day dominated by trade talk, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shifted the G7 conversation to other pressing global issues on Saturday - climate change and empowering women - but at least one leader opted to skip part of the day's meetings.

U.S. President Donald Trump left La Malbaie, Que., early, before G7 leaders were scheduled to have a working session on protecting the world's oceans and redoubling efforts to stave off catastrophic climate change.

But Trump caused a stir even before his early departure by arriving late for the gender-focused breakfast session, billed by Canadian officials as a chance for leaders to draft "concrete actions for the G7 to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.

Vermont is poised to require that all residents have health insurance.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott late last month quietly signed into law a bill that will include a penalty for those who don't have insurance. The mandate is scheduled to take effect in 2020.

A spokeswoman for the state's largest private health insurance provider said the mandate provides stability.

Nationally, many have rebelled against the idea the federal government could tell them what they needed to buy.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a similar law days later.

It remains to be seen if Congress will get its act together to pass a Farm Bill before year's end. But here's what we do know. If Congress succeeds in passing a 2018 Farm Bill, it will almost certainly be bad news for the organic industry.

We already know that the House version, H.R.2, includes potentially devastating attacks on organic and regenerative food and farming. Fortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives voted down H.R. 2 last week. But we're not out of the danger zone yet-the House is scheduled to vote on its bill again on June 22.

The Senate is about to drop its Farm Bill as early as June 6, according to Politico. We haven't seen that bill yet. But we do know that the leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee-Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) - aren't great friends of organic. We also know that the Senate Farm Bill will be bipartisan-which means it's sure to pass.

Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that his meeting with US President Donald Trump had not taken place yet because of the domestic political struggle in the United States.

"He [Trump] is a thoughtful man, he knows how to listen and responds to the arguments given by the interlocutor. This gives me the reason to believe that the dialogue can be constructive," Vladimir Putin said on the Rossiya 24 television channel.

Controversial billionaire George Soros is up in arms about Donald Trump again, claiming the US leader wants to "destroy the world" and needs to be kicked out of office.

Donald Trump is the "ultimate narcissist" who "is willing to destroy the world", Soros told the Washington Post on Saturday. He added that, if the Democratic Party wins the general election this November in a "landslide" and proceeds with an impeachment, he would support removing the president from office.

Chancellor Angela Merkel made a forceful pitch for Europe to play a more assertive role in global affairs as U.S. President Donald Trump dismantles the post-World War II order, setting the stage for a potential tense standoff at the Group of Seven summit this week.

The German leader again questioned the durability of trans-Atlantic relations by referring to eye-raising comments she made over a year ago in which she said that "the times when we could fully rely on others are to some extent over." Those words, spoken at a beer-tent election rally, were a reaction to Trump hectoring European leaders for not spending enough on defense at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels. Since then, more fuel has been added to the fire.

Big things are happening in the arena of global power politics. The USA under Trump fears that it will be unseated as global hegemon by the looming threat of Eurasian integration. To forestall such an unpleasant situation, Trump and Co. have decided to 'reset the clock' on the way the US does business in the world and how it runs its empire. The first order of business is kicking Europe and any other 'lackeys' to the kerb, cutting them off from the 'favorable' trade deals they have enjoyed with the USA. The Europeans, Canadians, Japanese etc. are understandably not happy with this flagrant attempt to, in their words, destroy the "global order" that was built by the US itself.

Will Trump prevail in his ham-fisted attempts to Make America Great Again at the expense of long term "partners"? Will America remain on top in the face of major moves by Russia and China to create a 'New World Order'? Will the EU survive it all? Find out on this week's show with Joe and Niall.


This show aired live Sunday 10th June, from 12-1.30pm EST / 6-7.30pm CET

Running Time: 01:23:57

Download: MP3

So far in this series of pieces, I have attempted to demonstrate why I believe the official story of the poisoning of the Skripals doesn't add up (Part 1). I have then pointed to some of the most significant pieces of the jigsaw, which have either been largely ignored or quietly forgotten (Part 2). And I then went on in Part 3 to show what I believe to be perhaps the key to the whole case; that Mr Skripal became agitated in Zizzis restaurant, not because he was physically unwell and suffering from the effects of poisoning hours earlier, but rather because he had an appointment to keep.

But before coming on to propose a theory of what may have happened, I need to first present a theory of why it might have happened. I emphasise the word theory, because that is all it is - neither more nor less. And of course, it could be well wide of the mark. Make of it what you will!

In a recent blog, Craig Murray, the former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan, linked to a very interesting piece by Paul Gregory that appeared in Forbes in January 2017. Mr Gregory is Professor of Economics at Houston University, and research fellow at both the Hoover Institution and the German Institute for Economic Research, and he also has extensive knowledge about Russia and the Soviet Union. Here's what he had to say about the so-called Trump Dossier, just a few days after it was published by Buzzfeed:

"As someone who has worked for more than a decade with the microfilm collection of Soviet documents in the Hoover Institution Archives, I can say that the dossier itself was compiled by a Russian, whose command of English is far from perfect and who follows the KGB (now FSB) practice of writing intelligence reports, in particular the practice of capitalizing all names for easy reference. It was written, in my opinion, not by an ex-British intelligence officer but by a Russian trained in the KGB tradition [my emphasis]."

Now, we know that there is a link between the apparent author of the Trump Dossier, Christopher Steele and Mr Skripal's MI6 recruiter and handler, Pablo Miller. And we know that Miller and Skripal met regularly. Not only this, but we also know that there is a direct link between Steele and Skripal dating back to the late 1990s, early 2000s. There is, then, a clear link between the man credited (if that be the right word) with writing the Dossier, and a certain ex-Russian intelligence officer, who would have been trained in the KGB tradition (he was actually in the GRU), living in Salisbury. In fact, the Daily Telegraph helpfully pointed out this connection a day before the Government slapped a D-notice on reporting on the issue.

But is there another clue? I think there is. By itself, it would mean nothing, but it is an interesting possibility in connection with what I have just stated.