i. think. the trumpet ministration new sanctions against venezuela targeting the state oil company and freezing billions. of. our struggle continues as venezuela's president urges his troops to stay loyal the country's self-proclaimed leader reveals he's working with sympathetic elements in the military to incite revolt. also the.

escalating standoff both countries cool for the others leadership to get better get out. the united arab emirates holds an awards ceremony for those supporting gender equality but all the recipients are male. thanks for joining us here on r.t. international live from moscow. wherever you are today you're very welcome with us on the program this l. . has announced a set of new sanctions against venezuela this time targeting the state oil company the restrictions will block seven billion dollars of the company's assets and let's go live now to caleb moore got more information on this. perhaps to be expected these sanctions one of the latest we know. well the usa has

already put a large amount of sanctions against the bowl of varian republic of venezuela however we've got an announcement today from john bolton and steve minutia in representing the u.s. treasury that is taking sanctions to yet a higher level let's take note of what was said. we're going to announce sanctions against patro is to venezuela associate the name we're paid a vase as it's known by its spend shakra new in the state owned oil monopoly we have continued to expose the corruption of madeira and his cronies and today's action ensures they can no longer loot the assets of the venezuelan people and the total seven billion dollars in assets clocked today plus over eleven billion dollars in lost export proceeds over the next year we will continue to use all of our diplomatic and economic tools to support interim president quite oh the national assembly and the venezuelans people efforts to restore their democracy.

now as you just heard the new sanctions are targeting the state run oil company that has been vital to venezuela's economy that state run oil company is being targeted seven billion dollars worth of assets are being frozen and u.s. firms will be prevented from doing business at any point in the future with the state run oil company of venezuela now they said that if one is allowed to take in leadership that at that point these sanctions will and the path to relief of these sanctions is through the handing control of the state run oil company over to one grade zero the individual the opposition figure who was declared to be president of venezuela by trump and number of other countries followed suit when the usa withdrew recognition from nicolas and the der now grade zero has issued a statement saying that he does feel that the state run oil company should be operated differently and called for a change of management now it's also important to note that john bolton has

previously commented on the fact that the u.s. interest in venezuela and the current crisis there and u.s. involvement does seem to be linked to the fact that there's a large amount of oil there we've actually had john bolton say quote it will make a big difference to the united states. comically if we could have american oil companies invest in and produce the oil capabilities in venezuela that is a direct quote from john bolton so at this point john bolton is saying that if any action is taken against one grade of the person that the united states or other countries are recognizing as venezuela's president not recognizing nicolas maduro the elected leader who was just inaugurated they said if any action is taken against hand there will be further penalties against venezuela right now with the latest on those venezuelan sanctions on that ongoing political crisis in the south american state. or of course venezuela's political infighting continue spoke to the

government and the opposition are appealing to the armed forces for support one who proclaimed himself interim leader on wednesday so it has been holding talks with military officials to push for the overthrow of the president nicolas maduro meanwhile paid a visit to troops overseeing drills sort of calling on them to stay loyal. if they don't want the soldiers of venezuela we're waiting for you to be on our side are you. soldiers of venezuela we're waiting for you to be on the side of the constitution are you proven theory and. we have made our position very clear about the tour your nature of this regime and so we want to take power never creates an. install a transitional government and free elections. that's how it has to be. who want to go to a multiple is to force

a new vote as he and his supporters refused to recognize the legitimacy of venezuela's twenty eight presidential election it was done of take us now through those rise from obscurity international recognition and a new grand social status dropped on one y. door like a brick wall i mean just look at this from no name to total fame judging by this the life of the new poster boy for the venezuelan opposition leapt into another dimension overnight the point of no return was this all or. i'm mike pence the united states supports the courageous decision by one god all united states probably recognize a national symbol president one is the constitutional interim president of venezuela he's the most evil now mog by the media and been trusted to not fail by the united states and countries making up with retinue and apparently the latter

could be waiting hard on venezuela's newest a democratic symbol where you do said that there was nothing he could do that he couldn't handle the pressure from the americans. we not only when i was at the meeting where we said he was being pressured by everyone now this is the claim made by people but when journalists confronted what you do with a yes or no question he struggled to answer well to be fair he did it twice in fact but each time differently can you confirm that the meeting took place and what did you talk about all venezuelans know this person or i would repeat my question to you have a match was do is that ok you are not i've already answered i haven't of course not so what if we spoke with officials of course we did circumstantial evidence also hits that the room of why do it being overwhelmed by washington's a mission could be true look at the person appointed by the white house to oversee

the transformation of venezuela lift this building thirty years ago this week from our work here so it's very nice to be back this is america's main battle tank in the regime change core parts of the reagan administration he funneled the long way around federal weapons through iran soon he was right wing anti government extremists both thing illegal under u.s. law he tried to pressure congress into giving the weapons to the regime of reassessment in guatemala who was later charged with. aside and crimes against humanity is just a couple of confirmed achievements by earlier albums from when he held the position and i'm not kidding the position of assistant secretary of state for humanitarian affairs but perhaps most importantly our brahms allegedly was the architect of the two thousand and two coup in venezuela back then it failed in days so perhaps now

adams is being given a chance to redeem himself after all it's all for a good cause democracy never needs to be imposed it is tyranny that has to be imposed you heard the man so you better say cut mr wide or the u.s. is about to spread its regime of democracy to venezuela this time around and you are going to carry it on your shoulders. the french president taking italy's coalition government head on after dismissing rome's criticism of his handling of the anti-government yellow vest protests michael micron even suggests that italy should find itself different leaders the italian people are friends and deserve leaders worthy of their history so good luck to them enjoy the education enjoy the ride as far as i'm concerned i speak to president conti of the feud between the two e.u. allies was triggered a year ago when italy started to push back against micron's immigration policies it was hit hard by the moderate influx and refused to back tougher rules on settling

refugees the tensions there have now gone a step further both paris and rome accuse each other of mismanagement crises italy's interior minister mottos salvini has even urged the french public to oust president my corn from power. in the i hope the french can free themselves from a terrible president and the opportunity will come or may the twenty sixth when finally the french people will be able to take back control of their future destiny and pride which are poorly represented by character like macro get when the market on the chair macro and said we are relevant we are relevant at the next european council. we will tell you that you have to start the colonizing those states you are exploiting mccrum says that salvini and i are not up to it let the italian people decide about that we've heard from a former deputy speaker of the belgian parliament who told us the very public bust up could be down to the upcoming european parliamentary elections. although i would

say that a micro is a bit more blige it's not up to him to give such commands about the who it be book of another country suit should choose as their leaders you just don't do that of course and i would say what the italian leaders are saying here are much worse than what macro missing but both are wrong in doing in acting like this but is perfectly dead as a prison microphone and the italian political leaders are doing this is just as a preparation for the elections upcoming elections in may for the european parliament so basically wealthy people want to do is is to get people behind them to vote for them and use dad as a sort of lever and say look how the temperature was in the election meanwhile we want even more impulse on a national level our policy this is politics on a very very little level. part of

a drive to empower women the united arab emirates held an awards ceremony on sunday to recognize the government departments doing the most to address gender imbalance is that many though one thing didn't just sit quite right all three recipients of the awards presented by the u.s. vice president and the ruler of the by one man that led to a outpouring of ridicule on social media. i'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you that you forgot to. really nail the diversity they're one of those do with grey you've achieved an excellent balance of men with. men with. graduate. one gender into by. the u.a.e. as prime ministers stressed in a statement on line that morality women are playing a central role in shaping the country's future he also said that getting more women into positions of power is a priority for the government despite the women's rights are still severely

restricted in the country women require the permission of a male guardian to get married for example they also cannot get a job without their husbands consents divorce is also rarely granted we spoke to political analyst catherine schachter of about the award ceremony told us that it's easy to pay lip service to equality but concrete steps need to be taken. i think that the leadership should have actually. made good and actually present at least you know what you want i mean to at least pretend pretend that you from which in gender equality is not even trying they're not even doing good p.r. for one thing they're going to. question what was the point of the exercise that's all it was no attempt by forever to actually you know. what to make them visible somehow nothing was actually done other than one particular woman with no great today did it she didn't even receive you know would you imagine anything like

that it's one thing to speak before with another to actually not and i think that still even though you did you read much much better than the rest of the board for one reason is that it has. a lot of foreigners and that therefore changes had to be done. you can catch up with the rest of the world and the thing you knew we know. on sunday events were held across the globe to mark international holocaust remembrance day it marks seventy four years since soviet troops liberated auschwitz the nazi death camp in poland former prisoners of the camp visited the site where a holocaust museum is now situated they shared their memories expressing the importance for people today to remember the atrocities that were carried out. during the nazi purge in the second world war seventeen million people were killed six million of them were jews more than half of europe's jewish population was murdered in systematic attacks many were starved to death killed in gas chambers and burned and furnaces in concentration camps despite the evidence from the time

a recent poll suggests that one in twenty adults in the u.k. believes the holocaust never took place or some other notable findings over half of those surveyed did not know the number of victims another eight percent think the scale of the atrocity has been exaggerated renowned nazi hunter if. those statistics are. cause for concern. because denial is simply a new form of anti-semitism the holocaust is the most documented tragedy in human history there are millions i repeat millions of documents that prove the crimes of the holocaust there's no basis for this denial it's totally absurd so why do people do it it's in basically a new form of anti-semitism the leaders of the world the leading political leaders in every country have to make clear that this is a fact that this happened and this has very important consequences for their

country as well and then there's the question of the educational systems in other words this is subject that has to be taught in the school curriculum at the proper age and to be done effectively and with the best technological and other educational aids the basic idea behind holocaust education is that the tragedy that we call the holocaust has lessons for humanity. about the dangers of hatred the dangers of anti-semitism racism fascism and obviously we think that it's important that people study the holocaust to learn from that tragedy and to try that managed to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. after eleven consecutive weekends of street demonstrations it seems some in france have had enough of the unrest they've even launched their own movement to counter the increasingly violent yellow vest protests aunty charlotte devinsky has

more. fronts and protest the two go oh no i'm like to love a strewing around paris in fact the french seem to love protesting so much it's almost a national sport but it's a sport that has a very nasty streak the yellow vest protest group probably the best known they've been out in force since november seventeenth so that's now eleven weekends they say the government's not doing enough despite the concessions and a national debate that's taking place in the yellow vests are determined to stick it out they've already planned acts twelve before we even got to the twelfth weekend but their protests have often descended into violence that's been described as the worst in more than half a century. dogs

eat anything they want to structure the song. but in true french fashion there is now an anti protest protest meet the red skull that is so unhappy about the violence and the destruction that's taken place during the yellow vests protest that they've now formed their group and they're out in force. to groom religiousness originally why all the demonstrations today it's because.

many people have had enough of the pointless violence in this country. demonstrating i believe to defend the principle of nonviolence and to defend democracy it's very simple feel. to emphasize the importance of liberty in democracy we're facing a movement in france that's attempting to restrict our freedom. i have chosen to come here to defend democracy and freedom but peacefully without violence well if you thought this was just the right protest against the yellow protesters think again there is also now a team yes that's right the blue vests are also anti yellow vests they're anti violence so what you've got at the moment is the yellow vest protesters in the middle and on each side they're all the vests and you've got the red scarves remind you of something yes that's right it's almost like the treacle or the french flag

and it seems that just like the french moto liberte gallatin for eternity it's living on in the french spirit so the french were godless of what's always there on still have this opportunity with each other albeit in their ability to protest or to protest a protest of a protest or something like that. shows even ski r.t. paris. i was some clearly losing patience with a girl of s. particular brand of protests the movement itself is also face the strong clout dial for a more thorough tease at times leading to serious injuries. as a leading member of the movement was hit in the face by a flash ball projectile he says he may lose sight in his right eye.

look. i've had my eye balls stitched up because. as to whether i'm going to regain my sight also find out some. extremely angry because these are things i should not be happening today in front of what they're doing is totally unacceptable and i have to recover and i will return to the protest as soon as i can because the battlefield long and tough is what you have a goal for a better france and for a more humane world with. a major roads in madrid have been brought to a standstill as taxi drivers in spain rallying against the right hailing services such as. i. police had to use force to clear drivers and taxis in the capital's central streets with the strike now into its a day anger has grown over a popular ride hailing services that do not face the same regulations as regular

taxis in many countries cab drivers have promised to keep blockades and rallies going unless the authorities introduce new laws to control. companies. ok we're going to have a debate slightly later on in the program on a new proposal legislation in the states u.s. president donald trump and bracing the proposal of lawmakers in six states which allows optional bible literally classes literacy classes across public schools. new states introducing by i believe true c. class giving students the option of studying the bible starting to make it turn back greet bills to allow the bible classes have been introduced in several state legislature shows the proposed courses would be elective only and focus mainly on the historical importance of the text opponents of the idea claim that validates the constitution's first amendment by lending government support to religion they

also say it trumps advocacy of the proposal raises the line between church and state well we're now joined live by john loudon former republican member of the missouri senate and kevin bowling executive director of the secular student alliance gentlemen thank you both for joining us tonight on the program good to have you both on today cause a bit of control to see with these proposals haven't they john i mean why do you think why do you think this bubble look to see initiatives. the principle of separation of church and state in the u.s. it's quite clearly written in some of the country's oldest documents don't you think this is kind of controversial. well first of all there's a lot of misunderstanding about what the first amendment says it says specifically that congress shall make no law congress shall not make a law establishing religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof so congress can't create a church or block one it has to stay out here we're talking about what local school

district local locally elected school board members wants to do if they want to have a class this language is permissive they may create a class that studies the bible they may create a class that studies the qur'an if they want but i think the heart of this issue is people just want to be left alone if a school wants to have a bible class let them have a bible class i don't know why so many people are afraid of a book i'm not afraid of the qur'an i'm more afraid of book burners than i am of people pushing their books out there you know haste. schools cool school is a place where you have ideas challenged and and ideas offered and they should be free and fair discussion and safe spaces if you will so you mention the koran or just briefly the schools were an elective choice in studies of hebrew original islam you would be ok with that in that case. i think if the local

elected to school board wants to offer up that kind of curriculum they can and don't forget in the united states most of our curriculum is pretty well governed by essential a by higher bodies whether it's university system or the federal government or the states establishing what you have to have for credit hours in in social sciences you have to have four credit hours in english and three in math etc so there are electives around that and even if this is a core course again i'm not afraid that kids are going to get bible instruction or qur'an instruction in high school and suddenly be. turned into terrible people as i think this. the other side of this debate is arguing. if i can put that question out to kevin i mean the bible is a religious text obviously but people are saying miss those focus on the historical aspects as opposed to actually trying to convert people get them to go to church etc convert them into religion they don't want to say can was such

a big deal if they were entirely voluntary. well i think if they are voluntary and it's part of a curriculum and we're actually looking at sort of the critique and historical documentation of the bible or any other religious document then yes i think that probably and i'm not a lawyer i'm not a politician that probably would be then permissible under the constitution and i think the american civil liberties union is looked at and has sort of voice their opinion on this and looking at you know is there and could be different legends and for you know is then there is also for a non religion which is a growing dramatically in the united states so now one of out of every three young people in the states adenoviruses non-religious so i think there's also a different issue with this in looking at and i think you know as john was sort of stating. you know is this something that we really want our government teaching and

then it does have to be a critique of this historical or take and a literary trick of the book it can't be about. you know preaching the bible it has to be about teaching about the bible and i think what's also important to look at this instance and the number of laws that are trying to been passed regarding this it's about christian bible study and it's not the other documents that john sort of refers to those have not been passed and so this is very specific and very directed sort of at the bible and about christianity and united states i mean kevin does raise an interesting point the bible of course being fundamentally a religious text how can you teach students without at the same time promoting religion. well first of all on the constitutionality it's hard to find a founding father that doesn't have a very clear statement that the bible out of be the foundation of education ed states there were constitutions i believe as virginia the commonwealth i believe

they required bible instruction the whole bible for all kids you know abraham lincoln studied out of the bible as part of his primary education so the idea that the founding fathers never meant to have christian education actually part of it is just just missing missing the ball up until the one nine hundred fifty s. pretty much every school in the country had some kind of bible study in it and whether it's historical or or you know some kind of secular education of the bible either way the whole reason that this law is necessary is that the bible is singled out for banning from schools the qur'an is is working its way in the curriculum all across the country and there is very little controversy around that if school districts one introduce that as part of religious studies elective class or even part of a social studies class no problem it's in but it's when the bibles broad and that people like the a.c.l.u. primarily the a.c.l.u.

but also mr bowling i believe is an atheist they single out the bible to be banned and so that necessitated laws like the ones that are being looked at that say hey you are so missing the founding fathers wanted the bible as part of our cricket expected the bible they just assumed it it was a standard across country for the first two hundred years and now i guess we have to pass a law to allow the bible to be brought into school seems pretty silly that we're at this point actually i can see you would have a response though kevin do go ahead. well i think most of you know john one of the founding fathers i think most of the founding fathers actually had pretty good stay. it's supporting the separation of church and state i think of one of the bottom lines and you know it comes down to is who do we want teaching religion i don't want my government teaching religion religion i don't want our public institutions teaching religion i think that's

a great place for or for the religious community and so in whatever paradigm of religion you practice and want to believe in that's what your religion should teach and so i think it's taking it out of the classroom and putting it in the churches and the supreme court but you know a while ago and i'm going to paraphrase a little bit but said you know the design of the constitution is really to teach religion and to have that be in the private sector and the private sector has the freedom to accomplish that mission so let's keep it there and i think if we look at you know if you really want to get into what the historical documents of the bible are i'm not sure that there were a lot of things a lot of christians would want to for school to be teaching the bible discusses a lot about sex and slavery and genocide and rape i'm not i don't want my school teaching my children that so my guess is john doesn't want his school teaching his children that either so let's keep religion the bible the qur'an.