hundreds of gathered in venezuela both for and against the current government this made the us president decision to recognize the non-elected opposition leader to be the interim president of venezuela. another news a french t.v. shows tried to teach children how to spot fake news while also pointing the finger at certain country's leaders and news agencies. it is the police association of children i think you should be open eyed i'm astonished that they teach our country that other countries are. also an american journalist who was arrested and held in the us is able to deal with this is set to

appear in court today to hear the latest from one of our close friends. watching r.t. to national very good evening to you are you ready it's a busy news hour. to start with our breaking news story which is the president donald trump has officially recognized the venezuelan opposition leader one as being the country's interim president discuss live to new york and get an update from our correspondent there. bring us the latest on the. u.s. response from donald trump what's been said. well we've got a statement now from the white house in which u.s. president donald trump is declaring that he recognizes the leader of venezuela's national assembly and an opposition figure in venezuela he's recognizing him as the

interim president of venezuela and withdrawing any u.s. recognition of nicholas and der who is the elected president of venezuela who was just just inaugurated for his second term as president now at this point people are reflecting on the fact that the statement comes on the back of a video statement from u.s. vice president mike pence this is mike pence speaking about venezuela a message directed to folks in venezuela rallying around wedo this is mike pence. mike pence the vice president of the united states the united states supports the courageous decision by one. the president of your national assembly to assert that body's constitutional powers declare madeira or your sir nicolas maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power now in addition to conferring recognition as president onto wedo statement goes on to actually support what wedo

in efforts to quote restore constitutional legitimacy and many observateur are looking on and saying this is essentially a call for the venezuelan government to be overthrown for the elected leader nicolas maduro to be removed by the usa recognizing kwaito who has not been elected recognizing him as the interim president this is seen by many as essentially the united states calling for nicolas maduro to be removed now there have been a number of statements from the white house from both the trumpet ministration and previous administrations condemning the venezuelan government condemning the united socialist party and nicolas in the dural however this is a pretty strong escalation on at this point we have the united states withdrawing any recognition of nicolas maduro and conferring its recognition onto an opposition figure who has not been elected. my thanks to our correspondent in new york.

assessing the u.s. response to the latest events in venezuela. now the terms fake news and propaganda they have become all too common when it comes to discussions about journalism but now one the french t.v. channel is teaching children how to spot a photo is a stage and is telling them which news outlets that telling the truth. let's go live to france our correspondent in europe show the dubin skewes been following this story shall just bring us the background to this first of all please. well this is billed as being an educational program for children aged around eleven to fifteen in the idea is that when they go on this program they participate in things like topical quizzes about things that are happening in the news at the time also they go on hunts for clues and then try and piece together the information so all signs very tame and very innocent but is it now in reality in its

latest program escaping news has focused on one thing in particular and that is russia and most importantly on the president of russia president putin and also on our channel r.t. now it seems to be a fairly one sided view of those two subject matters when it comes to russia just to give you an example close to the start of the program a young boy is brought in on a video and he is of ukrainian heritage and he's asked to describe who he thinks president putin is and what president putin is actually like this is what he says there were no. words in the words and. his door to the with their logos through of aldrin both of them on the phone. well throughout the program president putin is described many times as being thora tarion he's described as being

somebody that suppresses any opposition in russia somebody who controls the media and somebody who controls his image what evidence is presented for that well there are lots of lovely images of president putin riding horseback with the naked torso out fishing and also being in military vehicles. such as a helicopter showing they say that this is how he controls his image and fine tunes what he wants people to see about him then the program moves on to see and it targets the channel by suggesting it's propaganda and the evidence again that it provides for that is saying that r.t. is financed by the russian state well there's no secret about that but it's pretty rich given that escape news is broadcast on france four which is a channel funded by the french state then finally it goes on to the fact that the children are asked to compare and contrast or to calls from two different types of

newspapers one is a lot more under french newspaper and the other one is from the website of our sister station here in france r.t. france now they given two extremely small excerpts from those newspapers with a few little details and they're asked to compare and contrast with the result being that r.t. france didn't actually covered the story properly which was a story about protests in russia and why well it's because the wooding wasn't identical. your finger pointing and accusations of propaganda from a program that might be propaganda it's a head scratcher the program press freedom than that in russia in france what was the assessment was made. well it says that their press freedom in russia is difficult well let me tell you i'm a journalist in france and it is very difficult here to be a journalist particularly if you're a journalist who works for r.t.

now since president machen was elected almost two years ago r.t. have been pretty much banned from being accredited to almost every major event that involves the french government but even before president was elected during that campaign time r.t.e. journalists who were accredited for events. we're actually told when they turned up to events no you can't come in your art see so let's talk about that freedom of the friends here because really from our perspective from our experience that doesn't exist when you decide to not allow one section of the media into press conferences to cover what's happening in the news here in france so the question now remains in what r.t. is done is we've actually reached out to the program makers of escape news to say to them to ask them why they felt that they needed to put side across a one sided biased point of view when it came to r.t.

and president putin and russia in generally and also r.t. has reached out to press groups to ask them what they think of this as well as humanitarian groups because the question really is now is this program being used as a tool of propaganda against the russian state against russian media and if that's the case are they not politicizing children and potentially brainwashing the next generation or the france. or do the giving of the first month of this controversial program of thanks charlotte. we took a bit further we went to the streets of paris to find out what people there had to say about the. semitone the extra inch and i'm astonished that they teach in our country that other countries are bad here we talk about manipulations by the media on the internet we would be better explaining twenty kids not to trust what is on the internet or to trust only verified information the same should be done to adults as well as i don't think the world is black or white it is more difficult

than this it is important to build awareness and to develop critical thinking not to tell them what's good or bad it's for them to decide is in the past that's as well i don't think it is good to tell kids other countries are bad it is up to kids to shape their own opinion yes it is a politicize ation of children we should not influence children we should give them basic education but not to influence them about other countries they don't know. an american iranian journalist who's been held in detention in the u.s. for more than a week is said to be released marzia hashimi was detained by authorities that was on a material witness arrest warrant she is the expected to be free to go once she's given testimony in a criminal case today but applied to spot a lot of controversial reaction he was arrested january thirteenth she was visiting family in the state of missouri according to u.s. officials she's being held as a material witness in an unspecified criminal case she hasn't been charged with any

crime the court says she will be released after she's given evidence it is standard practice under u.s. law and we spoke to a friend and former colleague of the journalist who's in contact with her family. mass is being detained under a controversial law yes it is a law but the material witness law has been deemed unconstitutional by new york appeals court and it where the court has said it's been misused the a.c.l.u. and human rights watch of talks about how since nine eleven this law has basically been used to detain ms muslims indefinitely without trial in essence on a fishing expedition and i think that whilst we hope there is no indication that he is going to be released today but we hope she will because the courts have said the dorothy's the government has said that once she's finished being a witness she should be released. and why were her civil and religious rights

violated her job stripped of her had a mug shot taken without her her job and she was refused her lalan vegetarian field effectively denying have food in the initial days of detention no one has been able to speak to apart from to the telephone conversations with her family she does have legal counsel but we don't know what this this case that she's a material witness for is about we don't know why the children have been subpoenaed there's been chief phone calls with the children in the fast the children are very worried because as i said she explained no civil and religious rights violations and the second call she said that those had now been regrets and masses oldest son believes that is because of the media coverage and because of this outpouring of activism around the world in support of mass. and against her arrest . live now to rick sterling and discuss more of

our top story which is the u.s. president donald trump. recognizing the leader of the opposition in venezuela being the interim leader. would. what do you make of donald trump's decision we surprised at this. well it's not that much of a surprise because most president was saying the same thing. just days ago and the u.s. has been explicitly calling for the military and then as we look to do something now what circumstances to eat is this acceptable because other countries would say hang on this looks a lot like interference they've got a democratically elected leader and you're saying we'd like the other guy more that's have him in charge. no this is this is a blatant violation of international law the un charter of course it's interference in the extreme they have had something like twenty two. elections in

venezuela and the during the polar bear it revolution which began first when was it nine hundred ninety nine since then there's been a major election in venezuela every year for the last up until now and some years they had two elections. some years ago jimmy carter said that the carter center had reviewed up the seventy on the lecture that they had. been part of that they had examined and that the venezuelan was the best that's what they said i have my show their elections are very efficient they have paper they have a paper trail so they can do a real audit of the election results and the fact is that president nicolas maduro was the elected in an election that was held under the rules of their of their own constitution and the claims are coming out of washington or without any foundation

. it's it's a it's a messy situation it's hard to understand what's really going on that if you look at the news reports u.s. media in particular they've been to trying mature in a very negative light it's pretty clear that there's a problem there with inflation and the there's a lack of food supply. and that millions of people have left the country because he trashed inside bad if you look at the numbers on the streets the protesters the figures i say a few hundred thousand and some of them the for the durand and it's a festival very small percentage tiny of the population if things were that bad want more people on the streets what do you think is really going on. i think i think a lot of the people there realize that they are under an economic assault. the the the mature government and the preceding charges government to. basically improve their standard of living and reduce poverty immensely in the last ten years they

actually built up so well to want to have really in houses to to pamela's in venezuela so the conditions are very bad that is is very true because they're under a an economic blockade they're under intense sink sions their. currency in venezuela has been under assault. for many years now so it's like it's like richard nixon said to regarding chile when they wanted to make a coup there he said he wanted to make the economy scream prior to the one hundred seventy three who issued live which overthrew the democratically elected government what we've got going on in venezuela is comparable so we've had comments from the vice president now the president of the united states of america i think a pretty safe in saying that the usa is declared war on venezuela not military war but political war and the dirt oh he's clearly going to fight back from his latest

comments what can he do what do you anticipate into the next. well the they need to go to the united nations they need to you know buster all our lives they can in the recent elections bringing right wing governments to power and it will colombia and brazil doesn't help on the other hand the election lopez obrador in mexico a country with one hundred twenty million people of major country having no progress to government there is very important in resisting and. speaking out against the demands of the united states and the right wing governments to interfere you know venezuela it's a it's thanks you're obviously coming to a head there now i think it's really important that people around the world. basically this is the reason we need international law why we need countries to respect the charter of the united nations there should be no interference the end bit as well it should be for the venezuelan people to make changes to implement

changes and make their own government is seeking a negotiation with the opposition and by the way the election where material which you're left with moderate one did have opposition well some of the opposition promoted by the united states boycotted that election there was a very credible alternative piano to. go with our local and so it's not true that there was there was no opposition in that election it was a an election that was monitored and found to be free and fair whether the prophet ministration likes it or not. i gain it's my personal opinion i'd say it's a very worrying situation if you look on now you've got reportedly hundreds of thousands of people on the streets at the taking place sides those for those against the come the president you know the u.s. acknowledging a different leader now how do you think this is going to play out i worry that we might see violence but how do you think it will pan out well that is that that is

the big danger and in peru. sitting years there were there were outburst of violence they call them were imposed where young people some of whom or there were connections they were being promoted by forces from the u.s. set up blockades and there were a number of deaths on account of that and some of the people who promoted that ended up in prison those are political prisoners those are prisoners who were convicted of promoting violence so that is the danger now on the was upside there. and regarding the u.s. interference if we think back to the the short lived coup in two thousand and two where president hugo trouble is was kidnapped and taken out of the country very briefly until there was a mass protest in support of him the u.s. and the new york times that rushed to endorse that coup so the u.s.

has been meddling in venezuela for a long time going back to that point it's getting very clear that now and it's a clear violation of international law i think we really need to. it's up to the the people of latin america to make clear that the old days of gunboat both diplomacy and the u.s. managing and promoting coups throat latin america those days need to be need to be gone we don't need to see a repeat of that rick appreciate your time and i guess our extending investigative jenison q thank you and thank you guys at home i know the things you could be doing a ton appreciating into all taint a national database the news out of stay with us more news after this short break.

another russia gave bombshell fizzles this time it was puzzled this prompted the intercept to write beyond buzz feed the ten worst most embarrassing us media failures on the trump russia story his hatred for trump destroyed the profession of journalism. we stepped off the face of years from feedback and. these islands off the air but the reality is the may still be a shit and. have it in this fine lair of micro plastics. very. the biggest thing that shocked me is that we've never had an empty chair. like the contents of the something of an albatross. people obviously come in they

just throw them into the water as disposal it may not be harmful for that little fish that eats one fragment a classic but once it makes its way up to us in the food chain it's getting to levels that are harmful. to make us manufacture consent to consume to the public well. when the roman closes and protect themselves. when the final merry go round lifts only the one percent so. we can all middle of the room six. million real news.

welcome back the parliamentary assembly of the council of europe has expressed its grave concern over the use of sharia law in europe and its contradiction to basic human rights certain ceri our rules are clearly incompatible with the european convention on human rights we've been our second or third class citizens rape has to be proven by at least for male muslim witnesses violence mistreatment discrimination against women abandoning islam is punished by death i think it's fully unacceptable when human rights are concerned there should be no room for a cultural or religious exception of the resolution adopted at the session notes shari'a law goes against the right to life the right to fair trial the freedom of expression and other human rights the document also calls for the review of the cairo declaration on human rights in islam launched by the organization for islamic cooperation in one thousand nine hundred ninety ok let's have an in-depth

discussion on the issue i hope the spring and political commentator david vance i'm a how did you feel chief executive of the ramadan foundation given to you both gentlemen mohammed the accusation was was going is made there do you agree shari'a law is incompatible with european standards of human rights. what do you get a number of right wing politicians who of hijacked the council of europe to promote their prejudice and hatred no where i'm in the point in the clips that you just showed your viewers there was a focus on the worst aspects if you like of behavior in the rape and all them sort of scaremongering usual rhetoric from the far right but in reality the show you a lot i want to talk about is how to be better citizens how to you know look after the environment how to interact with your fellow citizens regardless of their racial or religious background how to be a better citizen how to take on terrorism and defeat

a narrative of extremism how to be back to citizens back to internationally stand all of that has been ignored in favor of prejudice based on target you want particular faith and what's interesting is if this so determined to target islam or muslims that we haven't seen a single focus towards the jewish community and the orthodox community who are their own customs and their own religious laws which have never faced the same sort of scrutiny and you know shining a light on those issues as well or do you think david incompatible with your general european standards or not. yes i mean absolutely right for the council to highlight this i mean it is a statement neal of the the obvious it's not just been today or yesterday that this is cause concern but i welcome the fact that essentially this council has has passed has passed this our resolution and you know country what we what we've just

heard from mohammed it's not extreme right or passing this it's a broad spectrum of european opinion stating that essentially shari'a law is incompatible to meto large degree with the laws that that we have a position that i've held for some time so so i welcome this but of course we need to do something about it it's not good enough for the u.k. to just acknowledge these criticisms of what happens here in the u.k. and why for example example many muslim women or treated so deplorably by these courts we need to take action and that basically from my point of view means we have to by shari'a courts the obvious accusation is from people who don't like shari'a lorries that you know if if muslims come to a country that traditionally was perceived as being a christian country they should observe the laws of that country not bring their

own religious laws or councils with their mommy how would you respond to that line of thought thinking. well absolutely clear that we are governed by one more that is the united kingdom law that has been insured by parliament why that's in westminster or in some of the devolve assemblies in wales scotland or northern ireland we are driven by that we're equal before the eyes of the law but actually in terms of inheritance in terms of marriage in terms of other aspects if muslims want to use their faith to you know determine what the result is in terms of their personal lives that through choice then that should be available to them you know again i go back to this point about the jewish community and other communities in this country you are using their religious scriptures and their you know you know laws to implement how they live their life but if there's a conflict between the religious law british law the british law takes precedent i

think it's a fair point is that you know mohammed saying you know you can take precedence there in priority is there any problem with having no kind of an alternative scenario with these councils that that muslims use just for you know advice or to guide them but they will always listen ultimately to british law. what will nail you might think it's a fair point but i don't and for example i if one looks at what the host of lords said on this topic almost eleven years ago but then the lord said that shari'ah and u.k. law were in the holy incompatible with human rights legislation and here's a second point which i'm sure i'd like to hear what mohammad has to say on back then back in two thousand and eight when the house of lords looked specifically at this issue. a prominent muslim took a view that he said at the time sharia courts rest entrenching entrenching on equal

in bargaining par between the sexes no his name was saddam can so i find myself neal i agree with that they can i agree with the house of lords i agree with this council of europe but fundamentally are all saying the same thing that there is no place in any regard for sharia courts in the u.k. as mohammad just said we've got the british law we should all all of us all faiths or no faiths be equal or under british law that's reasonable what do you think of surely a very long tradition to your stance well. just a correction there are no sharia courts in this country the sharia councils which are somewhat different i think that's a really important distinction to be hard david and not only the people on the far right will always people on the far much more and support this narrative been about equality they quote side they come when it suits their own arguments of their own

interests they quote the council of europe when it suits their agenda the agenda of the far right is to discriminate to hate towards a particular community david's court of well known record of targeting just muslims if you look at his twitter feed if you look at his record on the last ten fifteen years he deliberately inflames it's an invasion to against muslims i've never seen anything david said anything positive. ok we're going to be a little bit more personal here this one of the agenda of those who are right. or i'm sorry i'm sorry thanks for that neal unfortunately i'm not going to indulge in the sort of ad hominum abuse that you've just indulged and i'm not going to call names in any regard and as you're looking at the other thing is a visit you've got a well known record of you the reality is rationed towards minority communities such as get all your records you're here you're repeating a serious even if you're broken it's on you to feast on.