All the news that is fit to ignore - Venezuela to Hawaii

• Anti-government protests in Venezuela that seek regime change have been led by several individuals and organizations with close ties to the U.S. government. Leopoldo Lopez and Maria Corina Machado - two of the public leaders behind the violent protests that started in February (2014) – have long histories as collaborators, grantees and agents of Washington. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have channeled multi-million dollar funding to Lopez’s political parties Primero Justicia and Voluntad Popular, and Machado’s NGO Sumate and her electoral campaigns.
• Self-proclaimed Venezuelan interim president Juan Guaido has praised the Bank of England's reported refusal to allow Caracas to repatriate $1.2 billion worth of gold bullion, branding the move a "protection of assets." Caracas has been waging a losing battle to get its gold back from the UK since late last year, with the Bank of England repeatedly refusing its repatriation requests, according to media reports. Last week, British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt joined Britain's US allies in backing Juan Guaido, calling him "the right person to take Venezuela forward" and making the return of Venezuela's gold all the more unlikely. Over the weekend, as if on cue, Guaido praised London's decision not to return the gold.

• The Israeli foreign ministry has reprimanded Ireland's ambassador Alison Kelly after the lower house of Irish parliament voted in favour of a bill that will ban the purchase of goods and services from the illegal Israeli settlements.  The bill, put forward by independent Irish Senator Frances Black, seeks to ban the import or sale of goods produced by settlements in the occupied West Bank.  In the aftermath, Senator Black tweeted, "Ireland will always stand for international law + human rights, & we're one step closer to making history. Onwards!" The bill would still go through several more stages of review and amendment before it is signed into law, but it is backed by all of Ireland's opposition groups, including the Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, Labour, the Green Party, the independents and the Socialist Democrats.

• The US has helped 40 ISIS commanders escape from a Taliban prison in Badghis, in northwestern Afghanistan, the Iranian news agency Tasnim reported. The 40 inmates, all foreigners, were taken by helicopter to an unspecified location after US troops attacked the prison and killed all security guards two weeks ago. The agency, which plans to disclose more details of this operation soon, said the deputy head of the Badghis provincial council, Abdullah Afzali, confirmed the facts. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry....the US has links with ISIS. The Foreign Ministry also reported that US special forces may have participated in the seizure of prison documents to prevent leakage of information about the sponsors of the terrorists.

• The Alaska Aerospace Corporation (AAC) wants to develop a Pacific Spaceport Complex-Hawaii, and is currently assessing land in Hawaii as a possible location.  The corporation told a private meeting of selected residents in Hawaii that it does not plan on doing military contract work at the potential launch site. Instead, the focus will be on commercial satellite launches. This is the same thing that the AAC told people on Kodiak Island, Alaska some years ago when they built a launch site there.  In fact, every launch from Kodiak Island has been a military Star Wars test.  Folks in Hawaii had better watch out for the AAC's forked tongue.