US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he does not believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vows to annex the West Bank will hurt the US-led Mideast peace process.

"I don't, I think that the vision we'll lay out is going to represent a significant change from the model that's been used", Pompeo said on Friday when asked by CNN if he has any concerns that Netanyahu's statement may potentially hurt US efforts to propose a two-state solution.

Earlier on Friday, US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Congressmen Ted Deutch, Brad Schneider, and Nita Lowey said in a joint press release that they are concerned Netanyahu's statement could be detrimental to achieving peace in the Middle East.

Venezuela will strongly retaliate against Brazil, the nation's leader Nicolas Maduro has said, calling on the Brazilian Army to resist President Jair Bolsonaro's attempts to intervene in its neighbor's affairs.

The people of Venezuela stand united against the "threats of war and military intervention" voiced by the Brazilian right-wing leader, Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday. He blasted Bolsonaro as "a fascist rookie" and "a Hitler imitator," and warned that Caracas will find ways to retaliate against any attacks coming from its neighbors.

Maduro also called on the Brazilian Army to "stop the madness" and thwart the attempts to create a conflict in the region.

A former army captain, Bolsonaro has never hidden his deep animosity towards the socialist government of Venezuela. Under his tenure, Brazil was among the first nations to openly back the opposition leader Juan Guaido as the 'interim president' during his standoff with Maduro.

In 2011, an evil scheme was hatched by agents of the Western Order, aka New world Order: the manufactured color revolution known as the "Arab Spring". One of the targets of this scheme was the destruction of sovereign Libya. The motives for this were manifold, but it was primarily done because Libyan leader Muammar Ghadafi had set in motion a gold-backed currency for selling Middle Eastern and African resources on the world markets called the gold dinar, a financial project which all Arab countries and most African countries had signed up to by 2011. Needless to say, the full implementation of this dinar would have heralded meant The End for the toilet-paper bankers who control most of the world with their American petrodollar.

The premise of "humanitarian intervention" used by spokesmen of the Western Order in 2011 was "the need to protect innocent Libyan civilians from an oppressive regime." It was a complete and utter lie, used to foment the invasion and destruction of Libya so that "the head of the snake" of the gold dinar was cut off and pan-African and pan-Arab economic integration would be set back a generation or more. In the meantime, "ISIS Caliphate" goons made a mockery of Gaddafi's realistic gold-backed currency plan by attempting to mass produce 'gold dinars' in the style of early Islamic coins (while really only accepting US dollars as payment).

Let's put this in perspective:

A huge invasion force professing to protect the Libyan people causes one sixth of their population of 6.5 million to become dead or missing, while another two million Libyans must live in exile to preserve their lives. Their entire infrastructure - which was highly developed, by Western standards - is destroyed, with hundreds of thousands of bombs dropped on the country. Power plants, water treatment plants, hospitals, universities, roads, agricultural areas, homes, etc. were all wiped off the face of the Earth. Financially, the destruction in Libya runs into the trillion-dollar range. The occupation force of some - by our estimates - 250,000 terrorist mercenaries that were brought into Libya in 2011 by the CIA, Mossad, MI6, and lackeys, was left behind in Libya by Western 'military specialists' to enjoy the spoils of rape and pillage, thus maintaining the destabilization of the country for a decade. These occupying forces have enjoyed the full support of weapons delivery, money and training over the past 8 years, courtesy of the US, UN, NATO, the UK, Italy, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel.

Fair-minded people across the world have rightly condemned the US-ordered arrest of Julian Assange. However, few have noted how it fits part of a pattern of American hypocrisy when it comes to the treatment of journalists.

Only six months ago, Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and hacked to pieces by Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. He was a columnist at the Washington Post and editor-in-chief of the Al-Arab News Channel, known for his sharp criticism of the illegal US-backed Saudi war on Yemen.

Despite a CIA conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome assassination, President Donald Trump stood by his ally and no meaningful sanctions or penalties were directed towards Riyadh.

Turkey itself remains a NATO member, and close US partner, despite holding more journalists behind bars than any other nation on earth. This figure stood at 68, at the end of last year, around one-quarter of the global total of 251.

Now we have the indictment of Assange, which seeks to criminalize basic functions of journalism. For instance, keeping sources anonymous or deleting records of conversations. Indeed, it also appears to be a breach of America's own First Amendment.

U.S. president promises 'swift and vigorous response' to any attempt to charge Washington and its allies after court rejects investigation of possible American war crimes in Afghanistan

The International Criminal Court's unanimous rejection of a request to investigate U.S. forces for possible war crimes in Afghanistan is a "major international victory", U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday.

Trump however warned the court against trying to prosecute Israelis or Americans following a complaint by Palestinians, which have called for an ICC investigation of Israel.

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a "very important contribution" to the global economy, the Director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Changyong Rhee said.

The BRI has benefited the world in fostering infrastructure need in the low-income countries and also promoting regional cooperation and connectivity in trade investment, human mobility and finance, Rhee told Xinhua in a recent interview on the sidelines of the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.

Rhee said he looks forward to participating in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation together with IMF managing director Christine Lagarde in Beijing later this month. Representatives from over 100 countries, including about 40 leaders of governments, have confirmed their attendance.

"The IMF is in very close collaboration with the Chinese authorities on sharing the best international practices, especially regarding fiscal sustainability and capacity building," not only for Chinese officials, but also for officials from low-income countries that have joined in the BRI, the IMF official said.

Trump said the Border Patrol is apprehending thousands of people every day and because of current law they are only allowed to be held in custody for 20 days before being released into the U.S.

"But we could fix that so fast if the Democrats would agree," Trump said. "But if they don't agree, we might as well do what they always say they want. We will bring the illegals... to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it, whether it is a state or whatever it might be."

"California is certainly always saying they want more people, and if they want more people in their sanctuary cities, we will give them more people," Trump quipped. "We can give them an unlimited supply. And let's see if they are so happy."

"They always say they have open arms. Let's see if they have open arms."

Before WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gained asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2012, he and his British legal team asked me to fly to London to provide legal advice about United States law relating to espionage and press freedom. I cannot disclose what advice I gave them, but I can say that I believed then, and still believe now, that there is no constitutional difference between WikiLeaks and the New York Times.

If the New York Times, in 1971, could lawfully publish the Pentagon Papers knowing they included classified documents stolen by Rand Corporation military analyst Daniel Ellsberg from our federal government, then indeed WikiLeaks was entitled, under the First Amendment, to publish classified material that Assange knew was stolen by former United States Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning from our federal government.

So if prosecutors were to charge Assange with espionage or any other crime for merely publishing the Manning material, this would be another Pentagon Papers case with the same likely outcome. Many people have misunderstood the actual Supreme Court ruling in 1971. It did not say that the newspapers planning to publish the Pentagon Papers could not be prosecuted if they published classified material. It only said that they could not be restrained, or stopped in advance, from publishing them. Well, they did publish, and they were not prosecuted.

The Great Russia Deception all began with John Brennan. It was Brennan who reported "contacts... between Russian officials and persons in the Trump campaign", just as it was Brennan who first referred the case to former FBI Director James Comey. It was also Brennan who "hand-picked" the analysts who stitched together the dodgy Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) (which said that "Putin and the Russian government aspired to help...Trump's election chances.") And it was Brennan who persuaded Harry Reid to petition Comey to open an investigation. At every turn, Brennan was there. He got the ball rolling, he pulled all the right strings, he whipped up a mood of public hysteria, and he excoriated the president at every opportunity. For those who want to know where Russiagate began, look no further than John Brennan.

Here's a bit of what Brennan told the House Intelligence Committee during his testimony in 2017:

"We were uncovering information and intelligence about interactions and contacts between U.S. persons and the Russians. And as we came upon that, we would share it with the bureau."

Brennan's statement clarifies his role in the operation, he was providing the raw intelligence to Comey and Comey was reluctantly following up with surveillance, wiretaps, leaks to the media, and the placing of confidential informants in the Trump campaign. It was a tag-team combo, but Brennan was the primary instigator, there's no doubt about that.

Former and much loved Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has accused Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno of suspending the asylum of cyber-activist Julian Assange in order to obtain a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Correa said that there is evidence of the agreement and that Moreno, who Correa selected at his successor, has promised to "hand over" Assange in a 2017 meeting with Paul Manafort, former US campaign chief to Donald Trump.

Former President Correa, who broke with Moreno, also commented on visits to Ecuador by US Vice President Mike Pence.

At these times, Moreno would have promised to "help isolate Venezuela, leave the Chevron oil corporation, a company that destroyed half of the Amazon rainforest, unpunished, and to deliver Assange."