Well, not exactly like that, but in a way, yes. Now, finally, 'the gloves are off'. The U.S. is openly threatening the historically timid ICC (International Criminal Court) and its judges. And unexpectedly, the ICC is hitting back. It refuses to shut up, to kneel, and to beg for mercy.

Suddenly, even the Western mass media outlets cannot conceal the aggressive mafia-style outbursts of the U.S. government officials. On March 15, Reuters reported:

"The United States will withdraw or deny visas to any International Criminal Court personnel investigating possible war crimes by U.S. forces or allies in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

The court, which sits in The Hague, responded that it was an independent and impartial institution and would continue to do its work "undeterred" by Washington's actions. The Trump administration threatened in September to ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the United States and sanction funds they have there if the court launched a probe of war crimes in Afghanistan.

Washington took the first step on Friday with Pompeo's announcement.

"I'm announcing a policy of U.S. visa restrictions on those individuals directly responsible for any ICC investigation of U.S. personnel," Pompeo told a news conference in Washington. "These visa restrictions may also be used to deter ICC efforts to pursue allied personnel, including Israelis, without allies' consent."

And so it goes... Mike Pompeo's arrogant facial expression appeared above countless reports and it said it all: the world has to listen to the U.S. dictates, or else! Naturally, there is logic (even if twisted) behind the U.S. threats. This is an extremely dangerous slope!

No country in the post-WWII era has committed so many crimes against humanity, and supported so many genocides, as the United States of America. And in summary, no other part of the world has murdered more people on our planet, than Europe. And most North Americans are descendants of the Europeans. The 'foreign policy' of the U.S. is directly derived from colonialist policies of the former European powers. Therefore, crimes against humanity committed by the West have never stopped; never stopped for centuries.

Netizens were up in arms this week grilling CNN boss Jeff Zucker who awkwardly defended his network's coverage of the Mueller probe, saying their job was to report facts "as we know them," rather than, you know, investigating.

"We are not investigators. We are journalists, and our role is to report the facts as we know them, which is exactly what we did," Zucker said in light of the fact that the Robert Mueller investigation which CNN had harped on for the last two years found no evidence that Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

"A sitting president's own Justice Department investigated his campaign for collusion with a hostile nation," Zucker added in an apparent reference to Moscow. "That's not enormous because the media says so. That's enormous because it's unprecedented," he continued, seemingly moving back the network's goalposts with any hope of an actual conviction smashed.

Twitter users were relentless in commenting on Zucker's remark, mocking the company's lack of journalistic integrity along with their less than convincing excuse for it.

There needs to be a lot of soul-searching among many leading members of the media, says Fox News senior judicial analyst Brit Hume.

"It is the worst journalistic debacle of my lifetime and I've been in this business about 50 years," Hume said. "I've never seen anything quite this bad last this long. It was a terrible thing. There needs to be a lot of soul-searching among many leading members of the media today and going forward."

Hume said reporters, politicians and the public should "welcome any effort to go back and find out exactly how this debacle was launched.

The leader of a self-described dissident group that attacked the staff of the North Korean Embassy in Madrid, stealing troves of documents, fled to the US and offered the files to the FBI, court papers say.

A group of 10 men raided the North Korean Embassy in Madrid on February 22. The intruders bound and gagged staff, placed hoods over their heads and interrogated the chief of the mission before escaping with hard drives, flash drives and documents.

A 14-page summary of the case, which is being investigated by Spanish police, sheds light on details of the brazen attack and on the identity of the perpetrators. The document, seen by El Pais and a number of other outlets, identifies the leader of the gang as Adrian Hong Chang, a US resident and Mexican national.

The court documents suggest that the crime was carefully plotted by Hong Chang, who had stocked up on combat knives, mock pistols, tactical flashlights, balaclavas, and handcuffs in preparation for the assault. Moreover, Hong Chang got to know the head of the North Korean mission, So Yun Sok, before the attack. The gang leader posed as a potential investor in the North Korean economy during their previous encounter, El Pais reported, citing court documents.

With Republicans blocking Democrat calls to release Robert Mueller's full report, former Congressman Ron Paul told RT that the Democratic party needs to own up to peddling the 'Russian collusion' lie and move on.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report cleared Trump of colluding with Russia to win the 2016 election and found insufficient evidence to accuse him of obstructing almost two-year probe. In the days since the report's release, top Democrats have called for the public release of the full report, and for the underlying evidence, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said "may be even more important to the truth than the report itself"

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) blocked a measure by Schumer to release the report on Monday, arguing that the Justice Department needs more time to work out what can and cannot be released. Attorney General William Barr stated that he will release as much of the report as possible, "consistent with applicable law, regulations, and Departmental policies."

Paul told RT:

"[Democrats have] been caught red-handed, lying through their teeth, and now they're just going on and on. You think that they would just have a little bit of common sense..but they just march on. They've been lying for two and a half years and they're going to continue to lie."

The China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will complement the growth of Africa's continental free trade and link Africa's huge market to the rest of the world, a Djibouti official said Monday.

On the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, chairman of Djibouti Ports and Free Zone Authority, Aboubaker Omar Hadi, said:

"I am expecting more movements of goods, infrastructure development from the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation slated for April in Beijing, as well as stronger interconnection between Africa and the rest of the world,"

Projects involving cooperation with China that include the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and the Doraleh Multi-Purpose Port and international free trade zone are helping the East African country promote trade in Africa as well as distribution across the East African region, said Hadi.

Israel will be working to triple the population of the Golan Heights in the coming years in order to form a Jewish majority in the region, Dimi Apartsev, the mayor of the local town of Qatsrin, told Sputnik on Tuesday. Speaking about Israel's demographic plans in the region for the coming 10-15 years, Apartsev said:

"The population of the Golan Heights will increase to about 150,000 people. This means that the Jewish population is likely to increase to 100,000 people, while the Druze population will rise to 50,000... Of course, the recognition of Israel's sovereignty [over the Golan] will open up new prospects in terms of foreign investment."

The Qatsrin mayor added that he expected to bring the population of his city alone to 50,000 people from the current 8,500 inhabitants.

The mayor added that he hoped that the US decision would help dispel the doubts of the foreign business community regarding projects in the Golan Heights and help fight against international boycott campaigns, urging investors to refrain from dealing with the occupied territories.

U.S. President Donald Trump has called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Venezuela and warned that "all options" were open to achieve that.

"Russia has to get out," Trump told reporters on March 27 in the Oval Office, where he met with Fabiana Rosales, the wife of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, recognized by the United States and more than 50 other countries as the South American country's interim president.

Two Russian military planes landed outside Venezuela's capital, Caracas, on March 23, carrying nearly 100 Russian military personnel.

A car escorting Venezuela's self-proclaimed president was ambushed by a group of displeased citizens, a short clip appears to show. Washington has rushed to blame Nicolas Maduro for the attack.

The 10-second video, published by a local television channel, shows a car belonging to Juan Guaido's retinue sitting at a traffic light, when suddenly a man rushes the automobile and attempts to open the driver-side door. The door was locked, but there was more in store for Guaido's convoy: a group of bystanders began to pelt the car with projectiles.

A seventh batch of Integrity Initiative leaks has been dumped by hackers, revealing British government plans to build an umbrella network of organizations across Europe focused exclusively on countering 'Russian disinformation.'

Hackers, claiming to be linked to the Anonymous collective, have been dumping batches of Integrity Initiative (II) documents online since November 2018, gradually uncovering a major UK government-funded project which secretly conducted Europe-wide anti-Russia influence campaigns while posing as a simple disinformation-fighting charity. Earlier leaks led the II to make their public Twitter account temporarily private and to completely wipe their website pending an "investigation" into the situation.

NGOs under umbrella of government grants

The latest batch reveals a UK-funded program called the EXPOSE Network, which aimed to "upskill" existing "counter-disinformation" organizations by offering grants and training, while their activities would then be coordinated with the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to "ensure effectiveness."

Organizations named in the proposal for the project included the UK-based Bellingcat, the Prague-based European Values think tank, and the Digital Forensic Research Lab (a project of the arms-manufacturer-funded Atlantic Council). The hackers claim it was these groups and a couple of others which were among the "most eager" to receive nearly £10 million ($13.2 million) in potential government funding, which would be dished out over three years between the summer of 2018 and March 2021.