to risk being killed for a war surely we can risk some just come for an easy way for. the former first minister of scotland alex charged by police and expected to appear in court later on thursday it does remain unclear exactly what the charges are also to come. without considering everything but all options are on the table donald trump recognizes venezuela's opposition leader as the country's interim president prompting elected president nicolas maduro to break diplomatic relations with the u.s. excusing washington attempting a coke. and anti-government demonstrations have erupted across with opposition supporters and

police collection. microsoft includes a fake news detector in its latest browser in the form of an app that ranks sites for their trustworthiness though there are fears of bias. though the welcome just gone four pm here in moscow you're watching r.t. international i will start with breaking news because scotland's former first minister alex salmond has been charged and is expected to appear in court later on thursday so let's get more details now from martin. who joins us from the u.k. poly at this stage what more do we know. well look alex salmond he's the former first minister of scotland he was the first s.n.p. first minute or minister of scotland in fact from two thousand and seven to two thousand and fourteen he was the figurehead of the scottish independence campaign

he led the yes campaign and he's also the host of his very own program here on r.t.e. and it is we've heard now the news that he has been arrested and charged by police in scotland and the police in scotland have confirmed this they've said that he is expected in court later on today he's currently in a hotel what we don't know is what charges he could be facing we've got to be careful about what we report in order not to influence the legal proceedings in any way but in terms of what happened it appears that alex salmond went to talk to police and to provide a statement himself and it was while he was providing that statement that he was arrested this all comes off the back of a civil lawsuit which alec salmon one recently against his own former scottish government after it mishandled claims and complaints of sexual

misconduct against him relating to his time as first minister these allegations first came to light last year but they relate back to when he was working as first minister in two thousand and thirteen and it's got to be said that throughout. the scottish government's investigation throughout all the legal processes alex salmond has always strenuously denied any allegations against him and any allegations and accusations of any criminality whatsoever. ok thank you paula that was out there force in the you can. now the u.s. president is not proving out possible military action over the political crisis in venezuela donald trump has recognized the opposition leader as the country's interim president that venezuela's elected president nicolas maduro says it is an

attempt to. the citizens of venezuela have suffered for too long at the hands of the illegitimate regime today i have officially recognized the president of the venezuelan national assembly quite go as the interim president of venezuela i've decided to break diplomatic and political ties with the imperialist government of the united states i will sign a diplomatic note giving all diplomatic and consular personnel of the united states in venezuela seventy two hours to leave the country to bring closure for the world would like a shooting anything but all options are on the table that he wishes all options always all options were. ok let's get more then on reaction from i don't quarter he joins us in the studio. international opinion divided on this one. yeah definitely the venezuelan situation has really heated up in the past two weeks and

specifically after one wydow declared himself interim president wednesday the international community really took notice many of the us as traditional allies immediately jumped on the bandwagon calling for democracy in venezuela and french president emmanuel macron was one of why those most ardent supporters. after the illegal election of nicolas maduro in may twenty team europe support of the restoration of democracy i salute the courage of the hundreds of thousands something new zealots who are marching for their freedom but ironically it was just two days ago when the french government denounced statements made by the italian interior minister when he expressed the hope that the french people would free themselves from macron and the french government told italy to sweep their own doorstep but it seems like they themselves have the yellow vests on their own doorstep so the france and venezuela situation certainly have their parallels now

there were international reactions calling for stability and caution in venezuela and so let's take a listen to what russian foreign minister sergei lavrov had to say about it at a press conference earlier today. is that. we can see another intrusions into a sovereign country's politics as you know there have been several attempts to oust nicolas maduro the fact that the u.s. and a number of other countries particularly in the region immediately recognized the self-proclaimed president means they had a hand in the creation of competing leaderships this could lead to chaos and a serious destabilization in the internal political situation. that china also took a stand on stability at an earlier press conference today let's take a listen to what the chinese foreign ministry spokesperson had to say about it. well china always been tales of the principle of noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries opposing external intervention in venezuelan domestic

affairs so this is a venezuelan situation it's really developing very rapidly probably with new developments every couple hours so we're definitely going to see more international reactions as it continues to your bring it straight to you ok thanks don that is artist on quarter thank you. ok let's get more reaction now because we're joined by boat from the beijing university of international business and economics and you're very welcome thanks for giving us your time this afternoon let's just talk about the international divide of opinion we're seeing here why do you think we've seen russia and china say look we don't think this is correct and yet we see the u.s. france canada are all saying no no we're in favor of interference here. well. from the past experience for decades there has been military interference there has been democratic and traced to many of those countries from our. left in

america and they are not really popular receive and they're not come turn out to be . sometimes of these austerity so therefore are simply interfering into a very comfortable issues through a linear type of approach may really ignite another crisis you cannot really diffuse a crisis by creating another crisis which has a long term consequence so it doesn't mean that out well you know people can really exercise a free hand to such a situation so by providing human and caring a by taking care of the refugees and also by giving advice it is some building called lation is our own international platform instead of thought a single country operation so this is really more advisable pro-choice so i definitely. and then kate and ain't possible military operation

before all the humanitarian. options are really exhausted. why do you think donald trump put that money trail on the table quite clearly. well. his trying to. be exercising his cryos to the whole world and also his also showing a tough face of the mystically. so i would say that he is not ready and he had better use this money to build the war instead of supporting the military exercise that activity cannot really identify a clear enemy so moderate moderates to be won you know what is next so it's likely all for a show in the arab countries that are once you break it you do not have the

capacity you do not have the patience and you do not have the role to get it to build a democratic and prosperous society so before you are ready to do that why you know you attempt to do another risk on the mic in another crisis so i think he is no bluffing he's not ready is it the feeling that i haven't learned that lesson from the past is it seems hard to think that they couldn't reflect what's happened before but giving the example of libya for example where we've seen them back opposition groups that before in ukraine it's always it's always lead to a desperate situation why would they think that perhaps threatening military intervention to getting rid of the do or i would actually help and while. well it is very sad they. they have us very strong ego. they wanted to have very quick without without you know pondering over all the cons in

questions without really you know having all the preparation to big into all the spyder wow you know you know the situation is so complex that it the any surface surgical operation carolyn producer do that astros result. so of course you know the must of politics in the united states play a very important role the pentagon the military is called they would like to show that all you know we are the police of the entire america on. you know by getting engaged in that as we can to show that horny mortal we are we can really know how legitimacy to alice for her blog it's essentially a center i think it's more of a roof reflection of the must in politics so it was all the money it was all of the heart of the house you know why don't you ask for more rest. why don't you just

you know take care of see. the human factor you start off doing the minutes we're all. kinds of making that we're going to leave it there but it's a really good to tilt his thanking the from beijing university of international business and economics thank you. well caracas has been swarms with both antigovernment protests and rallies in support of president during and some of the demonstrations there have been there have been we're told explosions gunfire and clashes. the protestors in venezuela have decided to take things a little bit further siddur just blasting the president with violence and rioting

they've decided to declare themselves to be the government and oppositionist and leader of the national assembly has declared himself to be the interim president what about the people but opposition is not one any election and there's clearly not a consensus among the people on any of these issues now at this point it's starting to look like a civil war is a real possibility it's been preceded this coup attempt by the united states by several years of economic sanctions and by several chimes militarily by small groups of national guard or army individuals inside of the venezuelan government to try to assassinate president mahmoud it was elected twice there were other opposition parties that were allowed to run some chose not to and there are. contending forces in the country it's a polarized situation the usa is singing a song of democracy when it comes to venezuela but it's starting to look like

they're marching the country toward civil war and r.t. new york. city's microsoft says that its latest browser will have a name built for assessing the reliability of media outlets however the system in question called news guard has been criticised by some journalists were trying to spin taking a closer to it who may stand to benefit from the feature proceed with caution just a regular sign of a blind corner an overhead crane area wild animals crossing and news you should be careful with while reading proceed with caution this website general it fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and to count ability there you have it we've already told you about news guard an online tool masterminded by folks like the former head of the cia that flags good news websites as green and

those it sees as dodgy ones as read it's been up to you if you want to install the plug in or not unless you are a user of the microsoft edge web browser from now on the features built into the app at least you can switch it off after launch in the u.s. news current will expand to serve the billions of people globally who get news online so perhaps a little contract with microsoft could be one of the first steps of that expansion readers of any of that red colored carousel caution please by the way this is what we've heard from one of you case most read outlets rated one out of five for credibility. we have in the very recently become the last a nice constant and are in discussions with them to have disagree just near a nice classification resolved as soon as possible with these guys most or all the criteria fine grain like you're good to go oh bus speeds there in the green zone

too because perhaps it never spews out anything unconfirmed or unreliable even the teen green bench in the u.k. has realized something sprog badly wrong here but once i remind you who's behind news guard things will start to make sense i mean do you really expect the brainchild of a board of advisors that's comprised of all kinds of former american security and foreign affairs officials to flag weiqi leaks anything but read anyway nothing to worry about since the golden or sorry green standards of journalism are sacred for these people i'm not against propaganda every country does it and they have to do it to their own population and i don't necessarily think it's that awful i'm speaking of standards in the count's ability one of news guards investors has chosen not to do anything about its contract with saudi arabia they don't have

a problem taking care of saudi officials p.r. even after the shameless murder of journalist jamal khashoggi anyway microsoft ok with these people being in charge of which color goes where as long as the tech giants get to avoid more awkward questions like why aren't you dealing with all that fake news they can blame us and we're happy to be blamed unlike the platform's we're happy to be accountable everyone chooses their own way to proceed with caution and a prank that will political commentator writes if the new york observer andre will just think that the microsoft two could be exploited. well i think we all have a bottle to prevent fake news i mean you look through the newspapers talking about bragg states in the past couple of weeks and it's obscene crazy some of the things they've come out with so i think we all have a duty to try and prevent that fake names from getting out but look you know there is also an issue with it being used against minority outlets i think it's important

for every customer to read the terms and conditions of any of these if the systems to understand where they're happy with them what may be what may be acceptable from one person's point of view is all the acceptable from another and i think this is an issue that we need to address we are seeing are going to take a quick break we're back in two minutes. the value because it is that it is a store of value it is hard money and it is predominately useful for the poorest among the poor or you are the greater the need you have for sound money. i don't know president personally to tell you if he's

a sociopath who enjoys brutality i can't tell you that he's probably not that he probably thinks that he's doing the right thing but this is a necessary evil that he needs to eliminate. other differing political points of view and that he needs to crack down on people for having thinks that he's doing it for the best interests of egypt he thinks that he's doing your for the best interest of egyptians but it's definitely not the case. the terms news and propaganda have become more prevalent in discussions about journalism one program from french t.v. he's teaching children to support it photos are staged which news outlets to

telling the truth with a recent episode was about russia's vladimir putin and also this very channel as. well this is billed as being an educational game show for children around the ages of eleven to fifteen the idea is they go on the show and they participate in things like quizzes about. picks of the day and they're also asked to hunt for clues and then to try and piece those clues together to find the result of a question and it's broadcast on france for that's a channel here in the country and it's called news now its most recent program centered on russia particularly the russian president vladimir putin and ourselves here at r.t. offering what appeared to be a fairly one sided opinion of the two topics now close to the start of the program a young boy who says he's of ukrainian heritage is asked to describe who he thinks

vladimir putin is and what he's like this is what he said so when the. wording of chords and both grew close enough pretty soon the door to the with their lawsuit aldrin above them on the floor. of the primroses well throughout the program putin is regularly described as being all thora tarion somebody who likes to oppress the opposition parties in russia somebody who likes to control the press in his country somebody who likes to control his own image well what evidence is given of that well there are a lot of pictures of like me a putin in different guises form writing with a naked torso horseback to fishing to appearing in military vehicles the evidence of course to show that vladimir putin is somebody who likes to control his image and there is only one image that's being broadcast then the

program goes on to target us here at r.t. suggesting that the channel is nothing more than propaganda the evidence of that well r.t. it says is funded by the russian state no secret there but pretty rich form a program that's been broadcast on a channel in france. also being funded by the french state well it's pretty difficult to be a journalist here in france so let's talk about that since president matt korn has been elected r.t. journalists have been regularly denied access to events and even during the presidential elections before he was elected r.t. journalists should have been accredited for offense we're told when they arrived that they simply couldn't go in now arts he has gone to the program escape news we've asked them for comment on their program and whether they feel that it was one sided that it was biased in its views and altie has also gone to press

freedom groups and human rights groups to ask them what they think of this program and to question whether a program like this is actually putting across a one sided view of the french state and essentially is brainwashing france's next generation in this instance real man approach and if you look at different episodes of this little game of course it's fun for the kids and they don't realise that they're being manipulated it is very strange to see the press which is a good look at all to shoots in most instances in the west or there is go far i mean this will not remain unpunished i think there will be a big debate in the ethics committee of the journalist association drops i'm sure challenged the reporting that we took to the streets of paris to see what people thought about the program. semitone league should mention i'm astonished that they

teach our country that other countries are here we talk about manipulations by the media on the internet we would be better explain to our kids not to trust what is on the internet or to trust only verified information the same should be done to adults as well but 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 prospects as well i don't think it is good to tell case 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. why russian athletes are suing the author of a twenty sixteen report on alleged state sponsored don't bring in a four and a half million dollar anti defamation lawsuit that after the swiss supreme court cleared the athletes of doping they had been banned from the twenty eighteen

olympics and also stripped of earlier medals over doping claims i discussed this with artie's alexi. so many of us remember the so-called mclaren report orchestrated and investigated by mr mclaren from canada the lead investigator of the world anti-doping agency essentially that report put rush into wilderness accused russia of state sponsored doping system and a lot of athletes were barred from twenty sixteen games in rio and twenty and in the n.b.a. champion john because of that report now this report had some inconsistences in it but equally the twenty eight athletes which were later. you know reinstated all the daubing allegations although they were named on that report they were cleared of those doping allegations and more and all these athletes on the report there were five members of the russian rowing team which were barred from the twenty sixteen games in rio now. now the federation of rowing of russia officially filed

a lawsuit against richard mclaren they actually brought the documents to his door and posted a video online that is something that the canadian legislation entails the people to do the lawsuit itself was filed back in july but now they had to bring it in in person which they did so now we expect the lawsuit to proceed in the next thirty days richard mcclary has thirty days to respond to this lawsuit just to remind i mentioned the twenty eight athletes who were cleared of these doping allegations despite being named on the report back in the days we spoke to that was last year and they had this to say about the about this event. because the story musical noise with the most news michael things presently was to appear to be changing lives close if it is going to be a very slow one. almost a. good business to your.

place to do it just. to shoot of that is to to choose to. be trite. but to most things in the one you want your absolute joy in the most of your thoughts are you close. to being the beauty of the bushies things of the opinion leadership in your work the facility with the machine which starts. it down which. didn't fit in that fashion and it's. if you. as an aside. to this we have the world anti-doping agency don't we and just

recently it decided not to further suspend restarted the russian anti-doping agency over a long saga about access to the moscow that decision didn't go down too well with everybody they did it yes and the usual suspects have been criticizing that decision indeed some members of the media were saying that russia should be banned again that it should be allowed back into sport and you know it begs for a question like you guys want clean sport in russia but at the same time you don't want the agency which is supposed to clean up the sport to to operate which is which is weird but there was this one person who went even further now we're talking about linda hello and she is the minister of children and equality in norway now you may ask yourself what the children and equality have to do with doping she also happens to be the vice president of the world anti-doping agency and the only person on the board of water to vote against a restart is reinstated back in september and this week as well now she said that russia needs to compensate all the expenses that water has suffered over the months

investigating russia's laborde stories and trying to see where the restart is worthy of reinstatement russia must be for those who city she in the involved in the cheated and wanted to move. to this night and day instead of trying to protect clean athletes that is despite russia has been paying around a million dollars annually to the waters budget that is despite russia's spate fifteen million dollars fine to the international olympic committee based on the mclaren report based on the state sponsored system doping allegations she wants more money for water despite all that she's not saying a concrete figure but the norwegian press is speculating that could be tens of millions of dollars but as far as we understand miss helen has not yet filed an official lawsuit and we'll see whether she does. in speaking to me there and that's how the news is looking safe here or not he will back again in thirty minutes.

when lawmakers manufacture consent to step into public wealth. when the running clubs assume protect themselves. with the financial merry go round listen to the one percent. that's not going to nor middle of the room sick. i mean real news. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.