the mountains of. the us in order to guarantee. by the population well. that's clearly on the march and the population is ready for it they were. getting ready to get ready to be controlled. the crisis in venezuela intensifies with new elections for the opposition held national assembly. also being imposed and even threats being. there's no time for dialogue this is time for. all options are on

the table. cold war nuclear treaty. violation. of yellow vests protest in. between demonstrators. during. police violence. it has been a busy week. for your news headlines let's highlight some of them here on the sunday we. standoff in venezuela is escalating in a speech at

a pro-government rally the country's president nicolas maduro announced plans for fresh elections for the opposition controlled national assembly he and his rival the assembly's president one who proclaimed himself venezuela's leader last week of both addressed large crowds in the capital. the youngest member of the three national assembly do you agree with that i agree and i stand by that decision do you want to mention is going to do you want our early elections 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 last might do or end to demand free elections the sky was made by one way you know in other parts of the city there's also protests to suborn equal as much as president and also to celebrate the twenty years of the revolutionary socialists and there were some very

strong his 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 guantanamo. venice one. hundred true. venice or do you feel that already tense political climate in the country a military high rank today a general back and one white as president. of poor. and recognized where you are mr president in charge of. very unreal how do we go

and i mean by the congress in arms i ask you not to tour you're not going to sort of. i the economic measures against target the country's key source of revenue immediately freezing seven billion dollars in assets a move likely to further 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 of as well eleven billion dollars in lost oil exports this year alone washington said that it would actually lift all the signs if indeed but the auto handed over control immediately to mr quiet though now 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 iran as well a window 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 mafia 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 and go to a government three of washington's most hawkish figures. and now look at the team taking on the authorities in caracas. i think united nations like 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 with your bridge 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 interior. 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 ninety eight make the u.n. work work and that is exactly the way it should be because the. united states is. now mike 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 a campaign of economic pressure or injective it's to starve the regime of the revenue it uses to fund voting just 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 in 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 oh 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 be good for the people of the united states we both have a lot at stake here yes honesty is always appreciated the u.s. has 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 to themselves i think we have. the viewing us. well in the tribal border but on the economy of the country which is having very real humanitarian consequences for the people there it's a question oh you know washington and. elsewhere want their cake and they want to have their cake and eat it up i mean it's very they're a double disc here. this week saw the suspension of a key international nuclear pact the intermediate range nuclear forces treaty which was signed over thirty years ago on friday washington and also 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. and based ballistic and

cruise missiles and launchers with a short to intermediate rangers r.t. correspondent igor standoff now takes a closer look at what's behind the dispute. it's not like the u.s. withdrawal from the i.m.f. deal cored 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 size 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 the time for talk was over you can skip or you know you from our american partners said they were suspending their participation in the i.n.f. treaty and we will suspend hours also they announced 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 shamelessly violated the russians are in violation of the agreement now officially in the u.s. 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 at 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 and all actually it says the u.s. is no saint q since twenty fourteen the u.s. has deployed in europe is a 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 rumania 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 us 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 of 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 any missiles in europe first but if the us chooses to set this in motion well the two can play that game. the suspension of the i.n.f. treaty has provoked a reaction worldwide with some e.u. politicians voicing their concern that europe could now become a battleground for rival powers we definitely don't want to see our continent william back to being about those fields or a place where. other superpowers confront themselves so we must prepare for a world without the un if there is a need for dialogue with russia for all part of the german foreign minister and i will do everything to pave the way for talks within the six month period apart from that made to will thoroughly assess what the u.s.

withdrawal would mean 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 or 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 gaining military superiority over russia over china as well and that these treaties simply get in the way. and francais yellow vest modest announcing police violence so clashes as thousands of protesters across the country took to the streets for a twelfth consecutive weekend of rallies were dedicated to those enjoyed at previous demonstrations by police using a controversial crowd control weapon one that a french court recently ruled however is acceptable to use.

i. think. police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the crowds the country's interior minister has defended the use of special weapons against the rioters however he also stressed that any abuse that would be according to official figures over two thousand people plus about a thousand police officers have been hurt at yellow vest demonstrations since mid november our sister channel r.t. france spoke to some of the protestors. would you like to do during your two on november twenty fourth that 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 and full time grenade hit my legs and exploded whitehaven sank injured twenty five to thirty people injured to name and mostly yellow vests to make the rounds of those who were wounded before the sockets from the same weapons that are suffering so united artists for us it was obvious no difference. 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 who's 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 die on a yellow vest under certain conditions a political analyst a nickel a markovitch told us the president 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 year of this i think. the people in his entourage just don't understand what's going on there so much disconnected with what the french are leaving on a daily basis that they don't know what type of answer to bring cannot come back he is over as the french president he can only get back his image he's hated by more than half the population today i'm not saying he's dislike 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 few weeks i have seen personally and this is a man being shot in the face just fifty centimeters away from me for doing nothing letting it out. seven people were killed including four children when a bus overturned in the kaluga region that's in central russia

a twenty four further children out of one adult were hospitalized though none in a critical condition that's according to local authorities we've talked to as a result of the accident though passengers were left trapped inside the bus but we understand now that rescuers have extracted all of those on board a human error on the part of the driver is the suspected cause of the crash but we understand the bus was carrying a group of children who were heading to a music competition. as we are highlighting the top headlines of the week here on r.t. international your weekly program continues in about one minute. join me every thursday on the alex simon sure and i'll be speaking to us from the world

of politics small business i'm show business i'll see if. he's gone into a nihilistic fever. i think we've got to hit the road and get out the traveling across america to find what makes america the charlotte the genie's place the south american hero this is a point which element is done so we always are on the bridge of some. culture. we're starting west with is going to headed east into the swamp we're going into the belly of the beast i think i want to leave now doesn't get any more. you may be completely different in this.

thanks for sharing your sunday with us today as part of a drive to empower women in the united arab emirates held an awards ceremony on sunday to recognize the government departments trying to address imbalances but one thing wasn't quite right all three recipients wards which were presented by the u.a.e. vice president on the ruler of dubai all three recipients. so here's some of the online reaction to that. i'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you that you forgot to invite women wow you really nailed the diversity there one of those gray you've achieved an excellent balance of men with facial and. and with. my congratulations. by the prime minister has stressed in a statement online that he 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 women's rights are still severely restricted in the country and women require the permission of a male guardian to get married for instance they also can't get a job without their husband's consent and divorce is rarely granted we spoke to political analyst catherine shocked about the award ceremony she said it's all too easy to pay lip service to equality but concrete steps have to be taken i think that the u.a.e. leadership should have actually you know made good and actually present at least in a what you want women i mean to at least pretend pretend that you are promoting gender equality not even trying they're not even doing good p.r. all for one thing that gender equality you go also another question what was the point of the exercise that's all it was new at time of attraction the you know repairs done to how women represented what he's made them visible somehow but nothing was actually done other than one particular woman was congratulated for her

efforts she didn't even receive you know would you imagine anything like that it's one thing to speak reform it's another to actually knock them and i think that still fall even to the view it's much much better than the rest of the board for one reason is that it has opened up its. foreigners about their full changes had to be done. to kind of catch up with the rest of the world i don't think it's new we know. the organization by the initiative has responded to the story the u.a.e. gender balance council says that women in the u.a.e. hold important roles in society from m.p.'s to firefighters and adds that women will continue to be a driving force in establishing the nation as a global role model agenda balance. separation of church and state something paramount to the founding fathers of america without division is now being tested proposed by a bold literacy classes for public schools a sparking controversy in parts of the country secular activists warn that it would

set a dangerous precedent for donald trump has already endorsed the plan support which was quickly criticized online numerous states introducing bible literacy classes giving students the option of studying the bible starting to make it turn back great. bible literature classes in public schools really violate the first amendment which seeks to ensure our government does not support and will stop additional national religion i propose that we also have hindus and buddhists egyptian book of the debt and courses they predate the bible or in the historical significant there are already optional bible literacy classes offered around the country every weekend it's called sunday school whatever happened to the separation of church and state bills to allow bible classes have been introduced in several

states the proposed courses are optional and focus mainly on the historical importance of the text opponents say it violates the constitution is first amendment by lending government support to religion so we called the views of john lydon a former republican member of the missouri senate and firstly here kevin balding from the secular student alliance. 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 i don't want our public institutions teaching religion i think that's a great place for or for the religious community 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 that most of the founding fathers actually had pretty good statements supporting the separation of church and state we want our schools to teach we don't want them to preach 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 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 don't want my school teaching my children that 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 into a curriculum all across the country and there is very little controversy around that it's in but it's when the bibles broad and of a 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 that's can be rather difficult

for for elementary schools and high schools to do that here in los angeles and so we probably have the talent pool where we can find someone who has that background that educational background to properly be able to instruct that class or that's it for me in the news team here analogy international for this hour's edition of the weekly program but the team. my colleague andrew farmer returning at the top of the hour with more of the week's top highlights hope you can join us. i think syphilis the has a bigger chance to when election. day have election people know they are suffering from many things they're not. secure and i think say for some begin

to take that they can help the country and to make it to become secure and stable country so i think he has a big chance and they think the people they got a ninety percent of the people they got to be happy if the perception is that won that election. can. i turn around here knowing. that i will not. resign on the machine and not. all of them ok it. was not known to most of the it would lie about who they are

really going to have a good watch i don't know that to be. the one that having. people can keep it. going and neither you. know how do one on. one. you know no no you need. to go. why do what i wanted you to not in. countries gone into a nihilistic feed that's why i'm thinking we've got to hit the road and get out the traveling across america to find what makes america take the charlatans the genius american hero who says it we've come a point around which hollywood has gone inside where starting last with the myth is

we're going to head east into the swamp we're going into the belly of the beast i think i'm leaving out never getting more gondolas no we may be completely different but end of this journey. so i guess if we're heading out of vegas i mean the theory is that what happens in vegas especially stay in make s. bright they can keep it. till i am already completely blank i can remember a single thing that i think is good nothing leaves degassed because they do one of them your allies are on the exit where they just delete your brain they don't number. the really stinks that we had a hand in that convertible the missing and already the missing deeply literally because we have alex shaffer us painting in the back and oil fields are really. making me feel a little bit hunter s. thompson asked oh i visited all that oil to separate time it's got warming it's way

through my brain cavity right now. you know foxy the sound man how's the equipment it carries around knobs and buttons machines and he's recording stuff fairly people come up to him all the time and they say hey buddy are yo ghost hunter the thing. he's a ghost hunter looking for ghosts and that's funny that you have to be kind of an older pre-millennial that's like ghostbusters sort of days i guess you know there's a big there's a big market for ghost hunting apparently a lot of t.v. shows roaming around old shadows and mansions looking for ghosts actually in flagstaff we're going to be i think we're staying at a haunted haunted hotel when you say haunted i mean how on. not is haunted as the scary films he won't see yeah i'm not going to want to be scaled. back again i don't.