even people. who are new to me i mean come on. jane need to hold. germany and france reach a compromise on a joint russian german pipeline project challenge bipartisan not posed by washington. by the us ramping up the pressure in recent weeks.

of the coming up on the program this hour chinese telecoms judge weiwei russia's on at the west calling espionage accusations against them senseless the united states first in the firing line for lobbying e.u. governments around the firm also coming up. the march in greek numbers squashed even go to the white house to deliver more than ten million signatures asking for respect for. stepping up the pressure washing tennis rules on the possibility of talks with venice wheeler's embattled socialist governments. around the clock across the world this is r.t. international from the team and myself you know neal hello and welcome our top story. germany and france have reached

a compromise on the joint russian german gas pipeline project known as nord stream two commenting on the deal german chancellor angela merkel lauded franco german cooperation the softer it was previously suggested parlous will seeking to to relate charlotte dubin ski takes us through an amended e.u. order on gas up the enterprise back on track. the directive is now a compromise between frogs between germany which means the project or will be still going ahead though it looked like it was set to be derailed off to france announced on thursday that it was actually can just support an e.u. directive that could have complete east scuppered this entire pipeline this is a pipeline that would bring gas directly from russia roy the way through germany it even had gone to the point that suggested that there was a diplomatic tensions between the two countries over this project what had caused president might go on to pull out of the munich security conference where he was

due to be holding a joint press conference with anglo merkel frogs had raised concerns about the project saying that it would mean that europe would be far too dependent on russia when it comes to energy and it could also have a conflict of interest for other countries particularly eastern europe to countries such as poland and slovakia but anglo merkel said this in response it wouldn't. become dependent on russia because of this second gas pipeline and i'd say no not if we diversify the same time germany will expand his guest or liquified gas this means that under no circumstances do we want to become dependent solely on russia but russia was already a source of gas in the cold war and will remain one without us for an end to one sided dependency. this isn't the first time that this multi-billion euro project has come under attack particularly from the united states with the united states

saying at one point that german companies to continue with the construction of this quite by could actually face sanctions as a result of doing that and last year when president trump was at a nato conference he made this declaration we're protecting germany we're protecting french we're perfect for these crises and numerous of the countries go out and make a play. well india was right within. hours of the coffers of russia germany is totally controlled by russia because they were getting from sixty to seventy percent of their energy from russia and a new pipeline well the united states concern there about the money tree influence of germany paying russia for this energy when in fact the usa would like to be selling its. gas to europe and being one of the major supplies over energy to europe in the future not so with this project going ahead not only that but u.s.

ambassadors to germany to denmark and to the e.u. are said to have been pushing pressure on nations to actually oppose this project but so far that hasn't wook as we know there's been a compromise and stream to project will be going ahead it seems like the pressure from the us has resulted in one thing only and that go. well r.t. sophie and co program has been discussing what washington has been pushing its german partners to do regards the nord stream to project you can watch the interview in full on this channel throughout friday or n r t dot com. mr mass recently said that questions of european energy policy must be decided and europe not in the united states i mean i can agree with him war but can really really stop washington imposing all handless on whoever they choose. we have never been succeeding in this in the last years we had

a series of cases we've you americans where we complain the extent. of american lives was late for us it's not acceptable to all and the thing where we'll come we really come to a point where we have to discuss fear is frankly with the americans. cannot take it on an ongoing saga nar chinese telecoms china while away house head back out its critics in the west flatly dismissing claims that it's a pawn being used for beijing spying purposes. recently who always been under constant attack by some countries and politicians with shocks will sometimes feel amused by those ungrounded and senseless allegations chinese telecom from slam the united states after receiving another blow in the five g. race they feel shocked and amused of how the united states is lobbying here governments against the firms the united states envoy to the european union has

threatened its western allies that if the huge chinese equipment in their infrastructure projects they will face consequences and they will be in the disadvantage side when dealing with the united states the chinese firm has been receiving a lot of pressure from western regulators and law makers of it and its involvement in the next generation network with officials blindly accusing the company of spying someone from the politburo in beijing picks up the phone and says i want to listen in on the following conversation i want to run a certain car off the road that's on the five g. network and killed a person who's in it there's nothing that the company legally can do today in china to prevent the chinese government from making that request successfully just last month the united states government filed criminal charges against kwok we accusing them of stealing trade secrets from timor bille scored in the u.s. on sanctions on iran but i didn't know proof when they were actually asked directly

of where is the proof the us response was simply it's actually one party one state and it seems that the us cannot choose in a better time to actually do this european countries are actually looking and weighing in of new introductions of sanctions against companies and countries when it's coming to cyber espionage and gathering intellectual property theft but as all this is happening there's a government officials in germany which are saying that calls government right now is ruling out the ban of the. using chinese equipment supply for building it's five g. network as germany is currently walking into the net and into building itself five g. network europe is actually second largest market we has invested billions and billions into digital sector they've been working closely with major telecom companies are

on the continent such as the way to telecom orange and bt and many others and as the u.s. is now trying to impose a blanket ban on chinese firms when it comes to the five g. market europe is actually on the horns of a dilemma. the united states is continuing to dial up the pressure on venice we list crisis stricken government calling on the international community to deal with the leader of the opposition instead and not the embattled president however nicolas maduro isn't stepping back either in resisting america's calls to resign. instead of trying to accommodate woodrow through country groups or dialogue we urge countries to recognize one why do always interim president and join us the time for dialogue with majority has long passed don't fall into a trap the girl has said many times before where there's

a phony dialogue rather than a strong message to him it's time to go but i you know not will march in great numbers to washington we will even go to the white house to deliver more than ten million signatures asking for respect for we need to out and demanding peace i just signed it it says hands off. we should be respect it's quite simple all the countries that do not recognize majority as the the democratically elected rightful president of venezuela because he won the elections he won the elections fair and square all the questions. all the countries that do not recognize him including the united states are supporters of imperialism and some say former fashion so even though they may not be. you know. conducting imperialism the same way the united states is they are they are supporters of imperialism so that countries like italy and so many other countries that have made

a stance to recognize the door because the bigger one the election they are sitting around on the side of peace they are sitting on the on the side of justice. you know the same way that they would want free and fair elections to be recognized in their country and the elections in venezuela by all accounts were free well washington is now all to revoke the visas of numerous officials working for president maduro as the administration we discussed the u.s. backing of the opposition figure one with host of artie's worlds apart earlier. presumably the united states always knows what's best for people in other countries and you know what's astounding in this whole debacle for me is that it is not only that every successive american administration of falls for the same regime change operation irrespective of its ideological persuasions but also that it always does it in exactly the same way by pushing a very stark and very misguided choice on the people it supposedly wants to benefit

because. it is a very legitimate conversation of whether president to do or has been good or bad in handling or mishandling the economy in his country there are many critics of his economic policies within israel and outside the country but this very vocal and very unapologetic backing off by the americans really frames the conversation from the substance of his economic policies into who has the right of appointing a leader in venezuela and venezuela has a very very proud population they're very. out of their independence and this backing of why i adore i think. a major disservice to go i go himself because he's now a c. is seen not as a legitimate grassroots figure out position figure but as a figurehead for them eric and ministration they're always third and fourth and fifth options and you know just today for my program i interviewed rafael ramirez

who is who used to be. chavez right hand man and he is also sometimes referred to as the new zealous former oil czar because he ran the oil industry for many many years and he's extremely extremely critical of maduro he believes that betrayed the legacy of who could chavez and and did pretty much all the chairman's of his government but he is just as harshly critical of who i adore because he sees him as the representative of the american interest well let's see exactly what he had to say against. three games of the. illegal we we have to go to the book. with mother with any turn still to go to the book neither. because.

it is the. old. war from the u.s. that man has very strong connections within the venezuelan military as well as among international partners such as russia and china and he's now trying to portray himself as the third option a consensus candidate he hopes to run for president if the elections are indeed called and you can watch this interview in full on worlds apart this coming sunday there are many many interesting moments and it's a very interesting look at the country out. either or framing that the united states is trying to push on the venezuelan story. another aspect to this to us secretary of state has been explaining an only expected risk arising from the venezuelan crisis but it's nowhere near caracas.

it could be the sham election the clarity of so president of. the cubans a bit this way like russia is there today as well as active cells the iranians are impacting the people of venezuela. duly elected the interim president mr morsi though. the evidence presumably very easy to get because if his ball were to come to

venezuela they would have to fly from beirut to damascus and have to take shit from the big one of course and of course that area is under constant surveillance by the americans and others they would immediately notice that the idea of his ball which is it's not a government it's not a state would be sending large numbers of trained fighters to venezuela is preposterous i mean if they knew it they would have been hit this would be the headline news if you had any evidence of this around hasn't got a history of intervention outside its borders particular despite how it's painted and again any flight from tehran which arrived in caracas food soldiers or deliver a nuclear missile was wearing white that the americans if they have the evidence would be pumping that out left right and center so i take all this with an immense spencer pinch of salt. the international part of the pic committee has announced it will reinstate russia's membership more than two years after the country was banned over widespread topping it say's though that the decision comes with certain

conditions. pc's only conditionally lifting the r.p.c. substantially by no later than fifteen march the i.p.c.c. will publish post-race ten been criteria identifying the core high level requirements that the r.p.c. must continue to meet two months it's conditional statement of membership of the i.p.c. . well all of russia's paralympians missed out on the rio games back in twenty sixteen due to a blanket ban they did however return for the winter olympics in south korea two years after that but had to compete under a neutral flag so today's announcement no means that the upcoming tokyo and beijing games will see the russian national at flag return if those requirements are met just going through some of those include the russian paralympic committee allowing all the relevant doping bodies to carry out their activities and progress

reports must be submitted every six months for at least the next three years will the scandal all begin with the world anti-doping agency publishing the so-called mclaren report back in twenty sixteen into allegations of state sponsored doping in russia the paralympic committee was among the federations causing a lot of fury as they felt of a systematic doping system were proven here's how some of the athletes responded upon hearing of their exclusion from real twenty. divert from the word due to the united states and the. warming of the. world to. know. my. bites to pull most. of those from. now but i'll let you know when

there's a. new book. well let's get some analysis of this latest announcement with ellis cashmore sports pundit and social g. professor the u.k.'s aston universe the you're welcome back alice are you surprised by the international paralympic committee lifting russia's suspension. i am a bit you know not usually surprised about anything in sport but the thing is that the international paralympic committee were very very punitive to bowl over two years ago the organization reacted quite violently to the criticism that was leveled at the international olympic committee as some of the most of us will remember the i.o.c. was to a degree quite lenient on russia and said we will leave it to each governing body

in each sport to determine whether or not to ban or allow russia into the olympic games and the media was very hostile towards this and said it should have been a blanket ban the international paralympic committee decided it would react in such a way as to satisfy the media demands and it did issue a blanket back i just held on to that do you think since. high justified was that blanket ban do you think back in twenty six that i don't think it was justified my own view is that it was overly punitive and a great many great great many an unknown number of paralympic athletes were excluded from the games without due process in other words we didn't know they may not have registered a negative or positive test we just don't know it because the ban was issued for russia as a country and so many individuals lost out now the peril of nickell in association

has maintained that ban until today and quite suddenly it's decided enough is enough and we are now almost satisfied as you said earlier that there are a number of conditions that have to be satisfied but there will really are that allow back in reinstate russia's paralympic teams into future games now there is one. one cabbie out there i want to mention sixty nine out of seventy conditions were said to have been met but russia has not relented on the repudiation of the state sponsored doping allegation the mclaren report as many of our viewers will remember it said there is state sponsored doping going on in russia russia responded by saying we know nothing of this we can't speak for every individual athlete but what we can say is that we have no knowledge of this systematic gopi

program the current talks about it and he hasn't relented on that so he's maintaining its innocence on a personal level i think we've spoken about this before for decades and decades of a limp explored it was done on the one athlete one punishment basis this this was spread out so you had parlin pins who never doped yet they were unable to compete probably what would have been the highlight of their career highs how do you compensate for something like that that were later proven clean for instance these people. you can't i mean it's simply impossible in practical terms there are athletes who had who had to give their training to competing in two thousand and sixteen and two thousand and seventeen. and that's gone you know they're really . athletes are very finely true and they they they determine their program of activity to coincide with peaking at the right time if they decided they

wanted to peak in two thousand and sixteen and then we just had the grant pool beneath them then it was over just can't compensate for that. there are many athletes paralympic athletes who are still young enough to recover and retune themselves and get back into competitive mode for the future but those games are gone and we can only state people. as if you know this might have happened in two thousand and six that it it what it wasn't in my opinion a justifiable band and there were gross instances of unfairness as far as i'm concerned but the paralympic organization has a totally different view and they're saying now that russia has served its sentence and we're now going to admit russia back into the fold subject to these conditions but i don't think that russia will you know as

a whole whether the olympic team or the paralympic team i don't think either one of them is going to say at this point yes there was state sponsored doping because that i genuinely now believe they had no knowledge of it and if indeed it exists ok so you know we have a large question mark looming over the maclaren report this idea of states else that don't pick up i often ask what has it mean does it you know what does it mean the state was painful doping or ministering it we don't know what it means yeah that's the next chapter as you say to be discussed ellis cashmore always good to get your expertise on the big knowledge of the day when it comes to sports and other such things media lecturer at aston university thank you so shallow excuse me professor there. i do believe. the us democratic party has been plunged into crisis after its top three officials in the state of virginia where accused of

racism sexual misconduct and having to the controversy the party's leadership is now facing claims of hypocrisy. it wasn't so long ago that virginia was a republican party stronghold but these days the democrats are running the show. it'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 now 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 just in 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 he is all the 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. if that type of behavior is unacceptable. listen. you believe that. no. fairfax's 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 packer 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 when 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 in weeks on 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 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 to going to pretty much say if you're a republican a conservative or anything like they were going to choose you much worse in which we are sue does pretty much what do you do they are clearly hypocritical when they're not clearly fair and i think it is very unfair to people who they happen to have different points of view than they do the governor of north them he's all records all cobol people being racism to be anti-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. well without scandal snowballing there are republicans on the

other side of the pew they haven't quite a skate to on scathed either the republican senate majority leader in virginia told me nor meant has been accused of racism as well he was they managing editor of their virginia military institute nineteen sixty eight your book it included racial slurs about a student from thailand and contains an image of a man wearing blackface norman thomas denied however he was responsible saying he was one of multiple people who worked on the europe. all right just coming up to nine thirty here in moscow that's how our friday night news runner up looks for us but do stay close for more great programs starting in moments.

donald trump second state of the union address was conspicuously light when it came to foreign policy why is this was his aim to avoid disappointing his base while at the same time wishing not to spar with the deep state what are these mixed signals all about is an elaborate strategy or an indication of indecisive. the nominee that's just not going in. and not out of any and internationally. on this i'm going to work on it this young but.