stepping up the pressure the united states rules out the possibility of talks with venezuela's embattled socialist government and revokes the. president. also headlining this hour iran's foreign minister tells us that he hopes trade with

the e.u. will soon resume but also says washington is doing its best to enforce its sanctions against iran. the mechanism is just a preliminary phase before a connection between the trade representatives both parties and are stored trade relations between iran and europe. becomes the latest fashion giant face claims of racism after it releases a sweater that many say resembles a black face we get reaction. it doesn't matter if they had people. if there was a white t. shirt with a black person i wouldn't say it was ridiculing me for being white. nine

am here in the russian capital i'm calling bright and are here is your world news this hour the venezuelan president nicolas maduro is continuing to resist america's calls to resign and has launched a petition calling on washington to stop meddling in his country's affairs. will march in great numbers from washington will even go to the white house to deliver more than ten million signatures asking for respect. and demanding peace i just signed it it's serious. we need zillah should be respected nonetheless the united states is continuing to dial up the pressure on venezuela's crisis stricken government washington's now revoke the visas of numerous officials working for president maduro the administration america's special envoy for venezuela's also repeated calls for the international community to deal with the leader of the opposition instead in washington here's rachel blevins. special envoy to venezuela elliott abrams is speaking out today and he's saying that he's actually calling for

president maduro to prevent us we are all together and he's making a really strong statement on a day when a number of countries all came together in europe way to talk about political solutions to the crisis and been a spoiler those countries were made up of both nations that support. and nations that support opposition leader and. really interesting thing abrams speaking out specifically and calling for matured to leave the country now he didn't say exactly where he expects me to go but he did make a very bold statement and here is his comment about materials specifically instead of trying to accommodate the group through contact groups for dialogue we urge countries to recognize one why do always interim president and join us the time for dialogue with the girl has long. don't fall into a trap the girl has said many times before where there's

a fully dialogue rather than a strong message to him it's time to go so this comes after the european union's foreign policy chief called for nations to recognize venezuela's national assembly which also comes after the parliament voted to recognize one god oh in order for the country to overcome the current crisis it is crucial to restore full democracy in all its the mentions including rule of low separation of powers and respect for the constitutional mandate of the country's institutions notably the democratically elected to national assembly now why joe is claiming that he has met with european officials and as we know the united states is very much on his side the united states has said that all options are on the table regarding their support for and they wish. for ousting the we've also seen countries like russia and i know that in fact they're out and said that he should stay as the president

and so on top of that now the united states is claiming that they are not able to get humanitarian aid into venice wave and venezuela has also made the claim that they found some cargo that included weapons and ammunition that were made in the usa so there's a lot of different statements going on here but at the end of the day we really have to ask the question about what the people in caracas i actually believe that are actually seeing the u.s. special envoy for that that's why there has also said the president but there i should leave the country to allow for a smooth transition to democracy political analyst under king told us washington's actions amount to a brazen attempt what we're seeing from abrams is just shameless deplorable one behalf of us interventionism you with imperialism that i mean there's really no debate here it's immoral it's illegal in the u.s.

government in the trump administration is using including humanitarianism humanitarian intervention spreading democracy. but you don't have to be a left socialist to understand what you know what us in prior is doing here we saw how they spread democracy forty five years ago to chile to iraq to afghanistan to panama to grenada the list goes on the venezuelan people have the right to determine their own path be they have the right to make their own mistakes or to tangent to this the u.s. secretary of state tweeted a map showing all of the countries that are throwing their weight behind venezuela self declared leader one quite oh they didn't take long for sharp eyed social media users to realize that something was amiss.

you need a basic geography education mr bob i believe you've made a ridiculous mistake on turkish republic mapping the us people with such politicians they have no future. this is a shame the maps for both congo's are wrong to put this together they needed your goofy class.

nothing to do with they make by mistake this is a map of wishful thinking so the plan is to guard the focus for the ration into pieces. you will never be able to divide turkey every time you try to part us will come back must strong here as one whole strong and united nation. i think be their mistake but you know you are going to kidnap from saddam part. i think this is a technical mistake also americans are right though i don't know see i think. not you know proper for a country supporter of a democratic country like america superpower turkish people are going to be have some of the reasons your side of the common it but when we speak about the homeland then we can all fall. at this impossible at this kind of things. turkish people caracas comment years and more sort of draw more you know coordinated. u.s. secretary of state call for tougher sanctions against iran on thursday claiming the

terror and is continuing to vel of its ballistic missile capabilities and washington already imposed a swinging set of financial penalties on to iran in november after pulled out of the landmark iran nuclear deal and the u.s. officials becoming increasingly hostile toward iran we spoke exclusively to the foreign minister zarif explain to us how his government plans to deal with the increasing pressure. there was a need for a special mechanism to get round us sanctions or neutralize the negative effect on our european partners believe that they would be able to announce the creation of such mechanism within a few months however this issue required much more time than expected perhaps the reason for the belated announcement was us pressure or perhaps the europeans themselves delayed the solution of this issue the mechanism is just a preliminary phase before established connection between the trade representatives of both parties and restore trade relations between iran and europe according to

the plans the scope of this mechanism will later expand for example nonny use states and numerous categories of goods including those under sanctions will be included we will see how the mechanism works in practice but in theory it seems quite effective i believe that it provides us with a good way around the sanctions. will be unfair on a little boy i hope it was the united states that withdrew from the nuclear agreement and the europeans failed to implement it the purpose of the agreement was the renewal of economic relations with iran and the return of relations to their natural state however all european countries left iran therefore before we start talking about other issues europeans should fulfill their commitments. which have not been fulfilled so far as for ballistic missiles europeans and americans should not blame iran let's look at what is happening in the region american european weapons are being pumped into the middle east killing people in countries such as

yemen the bombs the full daily on the yemeni people killing so many and not locally made this weapon he was produced in the u.s. france the u.k. and also in other european countries and they should take responsibility for this. our position is absolutely clear we believe that the best way to uphold peace and security in syria and the rest of the region is restore the syrian government's control and sovereignty over the country's entire territory with regard to the withdrawal of american troops in syria their presence there is illegal and they should never have been in those areas from the outset that they should urgently withdraw this would benefit the entire region in the presence of u.s. troops in the region is against the interests of this country as the us is self is now realize that its presence there does not serve its own interests so american troops need to urgently leave the region. the democratic party and the u.s. state of virginia has been plunged into crisis over claims of racism and sexual

harassment against its top three officials as a result some say that the republicans could be poised to retake control of the state don't quarter has the details it wasn't so long ago that virginia was a republican party stronghold but these days the democrats are running the show. that's going to be a good day for democrats but now all three of the men on stage are sinking in scandals in the middle is democratic governor ralph northam out of the blue a picture from his nine hundred eighty four med school yearbook surfaced featuring people in black face and k.k.k. robes first he apologized and confirmed that that was. him in the photo and then he said well no he wasn't it is definitely not me i did participate in a dance. in san antonio in which i darken my face as part of a michael jackson fellow democrats were baying for nor thems resignation and to

right the wrong here's the alternative for the job justin fairfax who could become virginia's second black governor in its history except now he's being accused of sexual assault what began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault mr fairfax put his hand behind my neck and forcefully pushed my head towards his crotch fairfax's and as willing to apologize as northern is though he says the accusation is a cry for attention. is a political. manipulation is. guilty until proven innocent right well not always how we deal with survivors who come forward right now is unacceptable we should listen to women. and i think we should be focusing on what's right now happening with the governor and this is an epidemic type of behavior is unacceptable to. us and there's

a belief that. fairfax is accuser first went to the washington post and twenty seventeen but the paper didn't run with it due to lack of evidence which didn't stop the post from going headline happy a year later when brett kavanaugh his accuser came forward all the parker see aside though if fairfax resigns there's always democratic attorney general mark herring to take his place surely he's never done anything offensive in one thousand eight hundred one i was a nineteen year old time to graduated from college some friends suggested we have time to party dressed like rappers we dressed up and put on a week some brown makeup but of course the democratic leadership takes a firm stance against. such and moral behavior we must hold everyone from the highest offices to our own families kunal for racist words and beat high standards but if those three are ruled out the next guy in line for the top job in

virginia is a republican the democrats like to be the party with a moral high ground when people take notice but when it's in their people on the chopping block well that appears to be a different story the moral clarity is not really clear what it is saying to them it is is not clear as far as it being consistent but it's clear that it going to be inconsistent is clearly going to pretty much say if you're a republican a conservative or anything like they were going to choose you much worse and which we are soo debts pretty much we do they're clearly hypocritical they're not clearly fair and i think that is very unfair to people who they happen to have different points of view than they do the governor of north them he's on record talk or no ball people being raised being racist but you use doing the exact same thing that he would condemn him so so by his own standards by their own sort they're going to be over with in a it's their fault nobody else's because they set the standards by which they're

now being judged without scandal snowballing the republicans haven't quite escaped unscathed either the republican senate majority leader in virginia tommy norman has been accused of racism as well he was the managing editor of the virginia military institute in one nine hundred sixty eight good book it included racial slurs about a student from thailand and contains an image of a man wearing blackface norman's denied that he was responsible saying that he was one of seven people who worked on that yearbook. more racism claims this time in high end italian fashion gucci has found itself embroiled in controversy over this polo neck sweater quite a few people were quick to point out that the eight hundred ninety dollars garment resembles a blackface costume. balaklava knit top by gucci happy black history month you'll. want to hear from the brains behind this design and from the people who approved it for production this is raw you need a diverse workforce for a company of your stature it's really shocking gucci has since apologized and

removed the polo neck sweater from its website it also says that the item will be withdrawn from its stores the company also issued a statement stressing its commitment to diversity gucci isn't the only big name italian brand to be called out recently though with claims of racism in december prada withdrew a line of monkey key chains after consumers complained they resembled caricature as races caricature of black people we got the thoughts of political commentator andrea walker and body confidence activist joanne morales. i think the fact that it was released during black history month in america shows that it's very intentional toward something i mean this isn't the first major brand to do something so silly so i think they didn't learn from prada what they feel is actually we can use that as a marketing strategy will apologize it doesn't matter if we have people speeding's it doesn't matter if it's racist and i think that they they planned every step of the way completely well you would have to see the backlash if you didn't have the

idea that this looked like a black person which of course it did not just explodes those your viewers who haven't seen it it's effectively a black turtleneck that goes up just to around here and then has a an opening for your mouth it doesn't look like any black person i've ever seen in my life i cannot see any connection firstly with black history month as we were just talking about a second but also ridiculing black people in any way you can say is not something that would offend someone because we're not the people that have been offended in history with something so similar it does look like that phrase again from the minstrel show it's a huge resemblance and with prada getting it so wrong and causing such backlash why would you then bring our product that's so similar i mean firstly can i just point out that not being formally that black people are not black in the same way that white people like me are not fully white if that was a white t. shirt that a black person were to work i would say it was ridiculing me for being white i mean

what is that racist look the problem. is that we're in the international jihad in a great sense of genuine problems with discrimination a dog about. just reopened if we had suffered to make ricin back in back in history back in history how how black people did we would also be offended we can't stand here and say that's not offensive when you're when you're not the one suffering from it is actually in fact black people that find it offensive and they have every right to feel offended they were the ones that suffered racism they were ones that went for the ok ok ok how many people are offended by this will use the. outrage or was it just a few members of what i call the racism industry people whose job it is to be affected by this so they can talk about it and let me go through most of the professional d.'s race it's an industry that's a fact that it's not real people let me ask you a question do you think if there was a black past in the production team in the management team in the marketing team they would have said yeah no that's fine go ahead of it especially after what happened with product did you see what happened with product do you agree with prod

out and let me ask you another question why did it bring out in every other color why black with red on the board i don't know what you are in i'm not right in pink why black or white why black or red what why better we're going to read and post one orange primer going why do these garments always block because the most ubiquitous color of the most popular colors for garments a black or white why are people offended well actually in truth i think you've offered no evidence to suggest that most people are fed i think very few people are affected but i think the racism industry of course i'm going to say that if i did it in reality it's a bag you pull over your face and that happens to come in black goodness me it's a ghetto life. it's a black face clinic. this is a after the break with donald trump taking aim at socialism we take a look at what might be driving something of a revival of left wing ideas in the u.s. .

most people think just stand out in this business you need to be the first one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice so the biggest raid in truth to stand down the news business is just the dance the right questions demand the right answer. question. when you look back truth hazel's problems between the last kovi i lift you to meet it's clear about this treaty is coming to an end. because of the lack of interest over both sides. in washington.

welcome back to his highly anticipated state of the union address donald trump outlined some of the threats he believes america's facing among them would legal immigration terrorism and socialism and with income inequality continuing to grow in the us leftwing ideas do seem to be on the rebound kind of opens been taking a look at those who watched state of the union address but have a hard time missing one particular moment the topic of socialism america will never be a socialist country. not mild words at all and it's not the first time

a trump has raised the specter of socialism all nations of the world should resist socialism. and the misery that it brings to everyone but the socialists they say that he was just afraid of their rising popularity i thought it was fabulous because it shows that we've gotten under his skin he has no vision for this country everything is about what he doesn't want everything is about the boogie man and they've got a point after all bernie sanders is one of the most popular politicians in the country but. it's not only republicans that are fearing the rise of socialism you've also got the establishment in the blue corner concerned as now at this point a majority of democrats say that socialism is the way forward for america where we can say one of the things is to ensure is that democratic socialism is the say in the party or be ready now. that is unity perhaps.

i would. say should that party presented by the republicans trump media going as far as printing guidelines on how to inoculate your children against the rising ideological danger in a socialist country vegetarians would be required to be part owners in the slaughter house so we decided to go out to the district here in new york that elected alexandria kazuo cortez the rising star of democratic socialism and we decided to see how people here feel about the ideology that went pretty far in defining the twentieth century and why do you think people here voted for her i think i voted for her because she was pretty. girls manage to i think they also voted for because of the change from the guy that was in it before who's very much liked embedded a lot of people are afraid to show up so i mean anything to veer away from what trump is doing i think the fool people feel more confident about what's going on

you know trump recently said the usa will never be a socialist country do you agree with him. i guess so yeah i think he's right. i don't see that happening in states being great now we know anything that comes out of his mouth is the complete opposite he's from brazil world so if he says america will never be so it was going through i feel very good nor going to miracle will become a socialist country are you afraid of socialism. will. to some extent year i don't think it will be appropriate for this country a lot of little too much pot its size and i don't know if i can be afraid of it though no we also got a chance to speak with journalist dan was there dan can you tell me is socialism no longer a dirty word in american politics well it's a dirty word still in certain quarters but it's more acceptable now in other quarters and it was a few years ago now as to bernie sanders and alexandria ocasio cortez now do you think it is possible that bernie sanders might run against trump there saying he's the most likely to be trump is it possible that we could get

a trump versus sanders ticket in the upcoming election i think it's very possible i don't watch for that predictions but i think it's very possible yes and is that something the democratic party leadership is afraid of the thing they're at they're terrified of that i think that if that happens every democratic politician in the country would running for cover. as a member of sanders is not a democrat just as trump is not really a republican so we'll have to have a non-democratic versus not republican and everyone in between just just hiding their head in the sand and trying to forget your what's going on for a long time it seemed like the s. word was almost profanity and we see the establishment trying to stoke up the same old fears once again however it seems like in twenty nineteen socialism is back on the table for debate caleb mop and r.t. new york. journalist for us broadcast to n.b.c. has you know asking twitter which media outlet is more believable and the same or

a tape of the question was posed after sham reports suggested the democrat was under the kremlin's wing and the n.b.c. reporter who was in for something of a surprise. here is on the scene news x. one tree lighting up the russian machine that now appears to be boosting tools of gathering. here is the debunking all damning to see news reports from the russian state media you tell me what you think is more credible. k.c. you forgot to mention that the experts in which n.b.c. relied puts mccarthyite smearing just got caught fabricating russia data on the hop and democrats. don't you think it's extremely dubious to use new knowledge as

a source on russian bots six weeks after it was revealed they ran the fake russian bots in alabama. and this report is a total embarrassment and disgrace and so are you interviewing the really. excellent reporting there live on totally discredited expert opinion from. n.b.c. are no longer errant liability as a source of. archie. ok that should news for now next with syria's war perhaps drawing to a slow close what lies ahead for the children who were forced to fight a soldier as their stories are next on r.t. international.

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