they have people suffering from many things. ciccu i think. so i think it has a. ninety percent of the people be happy. that action. the crisis in venezuela. with new elections for the opposition held. us. is no time for dialogue this is time for. all options are on the.

cold war era nuclear. violations also the. twelfth consecutive. highlighting the top stories of the week. welcome to the. start off in venezuela. in a speech at

a pro-government rally the country's president nicolas maduro announced plans for fresh elections to the opposition controlled national assembly he and his rival the assembly's president want to who proclaimed himself venezuela's leader last week both addressed big crowds in the capital. the u.n. is not but is your national assembly do you agree with that i agree and i stand by that decision do you want to mention as well if you want. let's have parliamentary elections now. soldiers the hour has come the moment has come to declare your support for the constitution humanitarian aid and for change for your family people are gathered here to protest against an equal as my dear and to demand free elections the sky was made by one white oh you know there are parts of this city there's also protests to subordinate class my dear as president and also to celebrate the twenty years of the revolutionary socialists and there were some very strong those words from the u.s. is no time for dialogue this is time for. all options are on the table.

i. need to loosen the euro would do well not to test the resolve of the united states. i wish him a long quiet retirement on a pretty beach far from venezuela and the sooner he takes advantage of that the center is likely to have a nice quiet retirement on a pretty beach rather than being in some other beach area like one. asked venice one. on a true. venice do you feel that already tense political climate in the country a military high rank today a general bad and one white no us president. and recognized. president in charge of all of the real republican. i mean by the

congress in arms i ask you not to turn you're not i can look at. the way. the economic measures against with talk of the country's key source of revenue and naturedly freezing seven billion dollars in assets it is a move likely to phone. with the drive up the cost of basic goods like food and certainly keep protesters out on the streets it's estimated that the sanctions will cost venezuela eleven billion dollars in lost oil exports just this year washington said that it would actually lift all the science if control is immediately transferred to mr one quite though and as the oil sanctions were being announced the u.s. national security advisers notepad called the eye of reporters on it was written five thousand troops to colombia of course colombia shares a border with venezuela with them a daughter then accused washington of assassination plans. there's no doubt that trump gave an order to kill me he told the colombian government the colombian

massiah to kill me if something happens to me one day donald trump and the colombian president will be responsible at the forefront of america's attempts to undermine them a total government three of washington's most hawkish figures. but now looks at the team that's taking on the authorities in caracas. i think united nations mike pompei o drew a line in the sand now it's time for every other nation to pick a side no more delays no more games either you stand with the forces of freedom or you're in league with his may sound familiar either you're with us. if you love freedom and we're nations which embrace freedom or you are the enemy yes their ideas are not new but now they're linking arms in the global spotlight some call them the axis of evil or the troika of tyranny meet mike pompei oh elliott abrams and john bolton the three amigos of imperialism john bolton was a big supporter of the iraq war and he represented the united states in the united

nations an organization he really didn't care for very much the united states makes the u.n. work work and that is exactly the way it should be because the. united states is legendary like pompei o is the new kid on the block without very much experience as head of the cia he tried to get the authority to conduct drone strikes in afghanistan without the pentagon's oversight and he worked day and night to rip up the iran nuclear deal at the center of it is not interested in campaign of economic pressure or injective is to starve the iranian regime of the revenue it uses to fund vital interest it was actually for these throughout the middle east and indeed around the world now back in the spotlight after years of obscurity meet convicted criminal elliott abrams he was tied to massacres in el salvador any help to funnel weapons to the contras. at nicaragua he was convicted for his role in

covering it all up and he received a presidential pardon now he's a special envoy for venezuela it seems that his record in latin america has really impressed certain people america's new dream team is now taking aim at venezuela why because they just care so much for those poor old pressed venezuelans they want them to have a chance at freedom and democracy right or is it something else will make a big difference to the united states economically if we could have american oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in venezuela be good for the people of venezuela good for the people of the united states we both have a lot at stake here yes honesty is always appreciated the u.s. is once again talking about basically another war for oil so that it introduces these moral complications and gives rise to some serious questions about the u.s. motivations here and it's very frustrating from an american point of view it's one

thing for trump to announce oh i support this other guy and that's great but but but these sanctions are kind of an act of violence in themselves i think we have to put this in the back of the cave uing us out of and as well in the stranglehold it but on the economy of the country which is having very real humanitarian consequences for the people there it is a question of you know washington and. and elsewhere want their cake and they want to have their cake and eat it i mean it's very they're double distorting we're seeing here. this week the suspension of a key international nuclear pact the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty which was signed over thirteen years ago on friday washington announced it was pulling out of the treaty for six months citing alleged violations on the russian side so moscow reciprocated withdrawing the very next day the agreement between the two countries was signed in one nine hundred eighty seven it banned old land based

ballistic on cruise missiles and launchers with short to intermediate range as a correspondent on off now looks at what's really behind this dispute. it's not like the u.s. withdrawal from the iron of deal chord anyone by surprise washington's been looking for the exit for a long time russia has repeatedly tried to steer this titanic of a relationship away from its burke. for many years we have proposed disarmament talks with our initiatives have not found the support of our partners in fact they always find a pretext for dismantling the global security system but this week everything crashed and burned and went to kingdom come but time for talk was over. you know you don't own our american partners said they were suspending their participation in the i.n.f. treaty and we will suspend ours also they announce they were conducting research and development and we will do the same i've asked our foreign and defense

ministries to keep the doors open for dialogue but also not to initiate any talks on the issue why well one last time america's top diplomat threw a barrage of accusations at russia for violating the iron of deal without a shred of proof russia has violated russia's violation russia's shamelessly violated the russians are in violation of the agreement now officially in the us has a problem with this message nato classified as s c eight russia says that it in full compliance with the i.n.f. treaty but washington chuck russia's arguments out of the window the united states and most of our nato allies did not attend this briefing as we all saw it for water was another and tam to a few ski the violation and give the appearance our transparency was like a bottomless cup as the allegations kept pouring culminating in america's

withdrawal so now more schools done with being cooperative in all actually it says the u.s. is no saint to the twenty four team the u.s. has deployed. in europe is forty one missile launchers which is suitable for american tomahawk missiles which is a direct violation of the treaty these missile launchers are based in and already to be constructed in poland russia's defense ministry says in the past two years the us expanded its key missile factory in tucson across the board it swelled in size and hired some two thousand new employees moreover the pentagon's defense budget for this year by asked last spring and drawn up even earlier had already calculated the scenario currently being played out and this week donald trump revealed the chapters to come we will move forward with developing our own military response options and will work with nato and other allies and partners to deny

russia any military advantage from its unlawful conduct russia though has an ace or two apart sleeve like the brand new miss as it unveiled last year including hypersonic weapons and even the u.s. admitted it has no counter form and defense minister sergei show who says there's more where that came from we suggest starting work on adapting russia's caliber missile launch systems from time to land based ones we also suggest beginning work on a new land based type of velocity ballistic missile or short to medium range yet at the same time moscow says it's never been driven by the offensive potential of its weapons it's all about parity essentially russia points to the fact that america's somehow been defending against the iran and north korea threats by marching missiles on russia's border and no one likes to be surrounded by the military of a state that openly calls you an adversary and still moscow leaves the door ajar

despite everything the new arms race doesn't have to begin it says russia has promised not to deploy enemy. and you're up first but if the u.s. chooses to set this in motion well two can play that game. the suspension of the i.n.f. treaty has provoked a reaction worldwide with some politicians voicing their concern that europe could now become a battleground for rival powers we definitely don't want to see our continent to being about those fields or a place where. other superpowers come from themselves so we must prepare for a world without the un if there is a need for dialogue with russia for all part the german foreign minister and i will do everything to pave the way for tulips within the six month period apart from that nato will thoroughly assess what the u.s. withdrawal will any and it is important to keep the window for dialogue open i

don't think the united states really engage in diplomacy anymore and we really haven't for several decades said they this year union went out of business in one thousand nine hundred one and we thought it was our right to establish our dominion over the entire planet i don't think they really care what the russians have to say i think what they're really interested in is dating military superiority over russia over china as well and that these treaties simply get in the way. in france a yellow vest marched announcing police violence so clashes as thousands of protesters across the country took to the streets for a twelfth consecutive weekend the rallies were dedicated to those injured at previous demonstrations by police using a controversial crowd control weapon one that a french court recently ruled however is acceptable to use.

police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds the country's interior minister has defended the use of special weapons against quote rioters however he also stressed that any of us would be punished according to a local official because over two hundred thousand people plus about a thousand police officers have all been a yellow vest demonstrations since the middle of november and our sister channel r.t. france spoke to some of the protesters. like to do to prevent the during their two on november twenty fourth they came with friends to paris to peacefully participate in a demonstration express my concerns with the usual slogans michael resigned at sixty two thirty one of the riot police cauldrons attacked the moving crowd and the g a

lie if grenade hit my legs and exploded. it injured twenty five to thirty people injured and maimed and mostly yellow vests those who were wounded before the sockets from the same weapons that are suffering so united artists for us it was obvious no difference much made up or top us this is important because i became part of a new family the family of the wounded i'm not the only one wounded like this i became part of a large group who were injured there are many seventeen hundred people i'm the twentieth a person whose i was injured so it was important to come today in order to at least to support the speaker's. meanwhile president surprised many by claiming he too would dawn a yellow vest under certain conditions a political analyst a nickel about coverage told us that president about your background would do better to come down from his ivory tower. if where you live this means being for higher paid work and a more efficient parliament than i am

a yellow vest i think. the people in his entourage just don't understand what's going on there. so much disconnected with one of the french are needed on a daily basis that they have they don't know what type of answer to bring cannot come back he is over as the french president he can only give back his image he's hated by more than half the population today i'm not saying he's dislike of people disapprove of some of his actions i'm talking about hatred sometimes people don't realize how tough the police are in france how they how violent they have been these past two weeks i have seen personally an innocent man being shot in the face just maybe fifty centimeters away from me for doing nothing nothing at all. four people were killed including a child when a bus overturned in the kaluga region in central russia eighteen of the children

out of one adult were hospitalized that's according to the local traffic police as a result of the accident passengers were actually left trapped inside the bus a rescuer so far have managed to free forty two of the forty eight on board they're still working at the scene we understand for now the human error on the part of the driver is suspected as the cause of the crash. are we running down the top highlights of this past week of your worldwide news here on r.t. international the weekly continues and just i'm. in a world of big partisan movies lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting

past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the troops. the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have. let it be an arms race. here in dramatic. only. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical.

joining us here on this sunday as part of a drive to empower women the united arab emirates held an awards ceremony on sunday to recognize government departments trying to address gender imbalances but for one thing wasn't quite right all three recipients of the wards which were presented by the u.a.e. vice president on the ruler of dubai all three of the recipients. some of the online reaction. i'm sorry i have to be the one to tell you that you forgot to invite women. really nailed the diversity there one of those gray you've achieved an excellent balance of men with facial and men with. my congratulations. by the prime minister has stressed in a statement online that iraqi women are playing a central role in shaping the country's future he also says that getting more women

into positions of power is a priority for the government despite the women's rights saw still severely restricted in the country women require the permission of a male guardian to get married. for instance they also can't get a job without their husbands consent and divorce is rarely granted so we spoke with the political analyst catherine shock about the award ceremony she told us that it's easy to pay lip service to equality however concrete steps have to be taken. i think that the. leadership should have actually be you know made good and actually present at least in a what you want women i mean to at least pretend pretend that you for which in gender equality is not even trying they're not even doing good p.r. for one thing that can they also another question what was the point of the exercise that's all it was new at the effort to actually you know replace the women represented that what he's made them visible somehow but nothing was actually done other than one particular woman was dated for her efforts 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 to give you a it's much much better than the rest of the board for one reason is that it has. foreigners about therefore changes had to be done. you can catch up with the rest of the world i don't think it's new we know. the organization behind the initiative has responded to the story the u.s. gender balance council says that women of the u.a.e. hold important roles in society from firefighters. that women will continue to be a driving force in establishing the nation as a global role model for. a long running row between greece and the u.k. is back in the headlines now it's over who owns the ancient artifacts known as the parthenon marbles the director of the british museum where they're on display has

infuriated athens by ruling out their return saying in fact that taking the marbles from greece was a creative act is our correspondent. the british museum is back in the headlines this time with the director has stirred up trouble by seeing removing the world famous twenty five hundred year old parthenon marbles from greece to be taken to britain in the nineteenth century could be seen as a creative act thanks to a new context you can. of course be saddened by the fact that the original environment has disappeared when you move a cultural heritage to a museum you move it outside however this shifting is also a creative act technically u.k. law prevents the return of such pieces but the problem is greece considers the costco marble sculptures stolen and wants them back seriously creative in the destruction of the temple and the looting in the pillaging of the nation's keys to its ancient history greece is culture minister described the museum directors

approach as narrow and cynical a mindset that downgrades cultural heritage to an exchange sale out but in fact it's not just greece that's pressuring the museum other artifacts perceived just snatched during the times of the british empire are being demanded back to so far to no avail the museum is only ready to loan saying the pieces are better off being displayed as part of a wider collection. you have to take it keep in view one hundred fifty years because it was so months and we can have. millions of people come to enjoy the british museum every year let's find out what some of them here make of this longstanding and how local see

a back injury i think that's being here is probably for the greater good i discarded degree in art history so i thought i'd better go back. and put. one in every museum in the world. why it is so generous i would keep them here it's a we're british arctic fox in greece i'm going to get would be viewed differently if i was greek. i would want the return of no i consider this the way i consider what l. needed to be since i'm doing so and i'm also in favor of returning to the elgin marbles i guess it's quite nice to have them kept a promise to go home for a period because the exhibition the story made i would want just to be some kind of sharing arrangement. if i build a house and someone in america mike said he cannot take it with him and say i will take good care of it i will keep it in america come see it whenever you like you

know all right so there are some of the highlights of your week of worldly news here on our two international there are many more highlights to bring you at the top of the hour your weekly returns in about twenty five minutes. for us in order to guarantee obeyed by the population will engage and soft to tell terry doesn't and that's clearly on the march and the population is ready for it you know they wear those hats to say ok they're getting ready for their get ready to be controlled. by the sand.

i know that i know are true but rather i thought i was. going to let them but i'm catching them. and keep an eye on what i have to lose each on a phone call not that i'm. living it up. below the then i was going on the show little side of. the one and law and the law and then lets out on the hey how nice a little. looney. and get this whole fool place choice i knew you had a mentality time in syria says the truth is she a zip a. mile farther then after that i will fuck around with mr hague to jim and

then the boy but i hope that our fight in the courts. it was in the one nine hundred fifty s. that our secretary of state john foster dulles proclaimed our policy is global. we started as a continental empire by clearing out the native peoples and other foreign forces then we became an overseas empire by taking islands in various parts of the world and then after the second world war we began

a global empire now we are playing on the whole bill your time. the united states has always had a variety of tools to use in its attacks on other countries. economic sanctions or are often just the beginning another thing you like to do is place some military pressure on the countries a true talking about and there has to be an effort to demonize that country and the

leader of that country particularly in our own press and in the press of that leader's own country. americans love to think there were intervening in other countries to overthrow evil people and if that's true you have to make the person look evil. and nineteen fifty one came to power in guatemala after being elected by the people. years ago i wrote a book about how the united states overthrew the government of guatemala in nineteen fifty four. the case of guatemala is a great example of american covert action during the period of the nineteen fifties when covert action was at a peak.