we know what is. crunch time a deadline to let us aid shipments into venezuela are imposed by its opposition leader expires on saturday country's president today just delivering could contain weapons also to come mass demonstrations in the balkan countries albania are rallying against government corruption there although some western governments condemn the protests is undemocratic and we speak to a german pensioner who is being evicted from the flat he's lived in for a quarter of a century to make room for migrants. i cannot believe that i seventy

four year old pensioner must move out and suffer all these troubles even the one paying my rent while asylum seekers are getting it for free. so they're welcome to watching r.t. international this saturday afternoon she's counting piano in moscow. now the political standoff in venezuela is escalating a deadline to let us aid into the country imposed by the self-proclaimed interim leader expires on saturday deliveries have been amassing at the border with colombia but the trucks are being blocked by venezuela's elected president nicolas maduro. they may contain hidden weapons the venezuelan foreign minister says that external forces are trying to push his country towards violence. in brief the country is at peace and is calm but there are those directly from the united states who want to force

a situation such as the one of the venezuelan border with colombia and generate violence in venezuela violating venezuelan sovereignty. the venezuela colombia border has really become a flashpoint in the ongoing power struggle in venezuela what we have here is a situation whereby hundreds of tons of u.s. aid has piled up at the border leading to increasing pressure and condemnation not just from the u.s. but dozens of nations who have sided with the self-proclaimed leader one so it's easy to paint a picture of president nicolas maduro as an evil desk part you know denying his country this vital aid given we're led to believe that his nation are on the brink of starvation however on the flip side material is insisting that there is no crisis this is all a u.s. orchestrated show today is the deadline set by one kwaito to let that aid into the country although it's not entirely clear what will come next it's looking very likely that it will not be letting that aid into the country wedo has vowed to

rally his supporters on mass to go and physically bring that aid into the country but on the other hand there's also the looming possibility that these hostilities could lead to armed conflict donald trump has previously said that all options are on the table including a military one and one kwaito has shared those sentiments that i don't know we would do everything possible once again this is obviously a very very controversial subject making use of our sovereignty and within our jurisdiction we would do what's necessary nikki recently the european union offered to send to venezuela which the elected president nicolas maduro said was most welcome but why of the deliveries from the united states not so welcome or concerns are that these trucks carrying u.s. aid could contain hidden weapons which does sound overly paranoid but it wouldn't be the first times. the thing had happened the u.s. insists that is mission is peaceful calling such claims preposterous now what is

seems it's the world versus majeure oh here there are those who are calling for more balance the south african ambassador to the u.n. for instance is that no deliveries should be made into the country without their president's permission and then there's russia he concerns of a possible u.s. alterio motive the speckle group the delivery of the weapons to venezuela is planned for the beginning of march of this year in several stages by the neighboring country using the cargo planes over international companies so it's all eyes on venezuela now to see what will come next whether we will see one rally his supporters to defy the president and bring this aid into the country really does rely heavily on whether they can sway the military which are currently loyal to president nicolas maduro by the way what we have here is a highly combustible situation with venezuela teacher and on the brink of civil war . there will be also got reaction to the standoff from the historian kevin you.

what's very clear is that what washington is trying to do and what the opposition led by the way bill in venezuela is trying to do is to provoke the venezuelan government into violence into repression into extreme action trying to provoke it to do something which could be used as a justification for. a u.s. military action the stations against the economy. illegal under international law of course have cost venezuela six billion dollars so when you compare that him out to the amount of so-called humanitarian aid that's being pledged from the u.s. and from richard branson in this crass political spectacle it's very apparent that not only is that money a drop of a drop in the bucket comparatively speaking but the motives behind it are nothing but cynical it's you know if the united states or or richard branson or the

venezuelan opposition had any interest in helping the people of venezuela in helping the cause of economic recovery in venezuela they would pressure for an end an immediate end to u.s. sanctions which are causing so much damage when the billionaire richard branson did organize a benefit concert for the people of venezuela that was held across the border in colombia and cohen was there. don't be forward by this be festive atmosphere all around me where we see a music going on and this is actually one of the most geopolitically hot spots in the world right now behind me on my right you can see the t.n.t. does a bridge crossing between colombia and venezuela i'm on the colombian side where this concert is happening it was organized by richard branson the british billionaire let's take a look at what he had to say. i then saw. an interview with one greedo who was asking for the well to help. i decided to pick up the phone and speak with him.

and see what we could do to help the wonderful free call on the border to illustrate. through music the importance of letting letting relief into the country for the better as well and government is holding its own concert on the other side of the border and that is why the president nicolas maduro has said that he will actually x. years except in humanitarian aid through the european union through the united nations now that humanitarian aid that the u.s. has in a warehouse just off to my right is said to be worth twenty million dollars now that sounds like a lot of money to you would be but that's a drop in the bucket when you look at libya if there were a billion dollars but u.s. sanctions have cost venezuela the red cross and many other major international humanitarian organizations have refused to participate in this saying it is in the

words of the red cross that it tarion aid. so. the dave also joined the mercy corps and who is who said this actually violates the principles of humanitarian aid in terms of parsing impartiality. cohen reporting their will to another venezuelan border now the one with brazil where two people were reportedly killed and over a dozen injured in clashes between the venezuelan military and protesters the incident comes amid confusion over the status of the border there president do it i had close the frontier is part of the standoff over aid but his rival why they ordered it to be reopened and why they deny its soldiers opened fire on opposition protesters. and with the venezuelan opposition blaming the government forces the food shortages one investigative journalist in caracas says not everything is as it seems full went to a supermarket and this is what he found. i feel lost in the supermarket in this

cheese as there's a lot of cheeses and meats here fish heads fish heads rolie polie fish heads ok we got like congealed me we got like so much me over twenty dollars and that's the problem here the problem is a scarcity the problem is inflation and speculation brought on by the capitalist class is the fruit section and i learned this and can't. find it on my shampoo and conditioner took me like a while to do that because there are so many varieties. anyway duro. my video was a response to u.s. media which is embedded with that that it's way that opposition and with the usa i d right now on the colombian border and and doing this humanitarian intervention propaganda show where they're actually claiming that there is no there are no basic goods in venezuela at all and i was showing that in a fairly upscale neighborhood in caracas the supermarket looks just like the

supermarkets in my hometown of washington d.c. i can also tell you that i was out today in some of the poorer areas of caracas and i actually encountered the vice president of venezuela del cielo rodriguez and the mayor of caracas erica at open air food markets around the city where food is being distributed basically for free to the poor and working class communities the problem here is with speculation there are high prices on foods and random situation that has to do with actually the kind of capitalist class here that supports the opposition the u.s. sanctions are actually allowing them to hoard goods and to make maximum profit and those so that's the irony here is that many of the supporters of the opposition and the big business forces behind the opposition are actually cashing in on the economic crisis. not take gas has been fired and barbed wire pushed

up in the capital of the small balkan country of albania which is in the grip of intense anti-government protests to people want to get rid of the current cabinets alleging corruption and links to organized crime opposition m.p.'s have a writ of resigned on mass demanding new elections he was. into the story. the it. was. the it was. albania is on fire the small book a nation has been engulfed in a massive anti government protests which literally left a stain on the face of the country's prime minister. start us out of. the country's opposition decided to destroy their parliamentary

mandates you know kick the system out of order so what is going on well the allegation the authorities face is no joke a lot of people are certain the government is working hand in hand with the drug lords the parliament that is not the product of the vote of the people but is a product that has been exposed by a judicial wire tapes published by the international media. organized crime cooperating openly with the current government alleged leaked phone calls of one of the country's most notorious cartels revealed dozens of albanian m.p.'s were happy to use the gang's influence and well persuasion skills to buy votes in the general election which the ruling party won by a landslide wiretaps also led to the official investigation into albania's former interior minister he stands accused of passive corruption drug trafficking and of

being an active gang member and here comes the twist the prosecutors can't really do anything but prowl around him since albania's prime minister has refused to revoke his diplomatic immunity shielding him from the law there fishel position was to deny everything we do every allegation of corruption you know they were to do. demented evidence in there is allegations and but in this instance there are significant documented in evidence links between the current government organized crime money laundering and the trafficking of drugs and i think it needs to be ascertained as to whether the two thousand and seventeen elections were free and fair or whether there was buying and vote rigging going on and i think that is why people are that sort of the cherry on the cake you know why people feel they need to be said action taken and it could be a case of just a few bad apples but the opposition says it is not the sheer scale really of the

drug operations in colombia of europe is mind blowing this tiny nation has become one of the biggest transit hubs for heroin cannabis and cocaine smuggling racketeering a server police force in the pocket of crime lords politicians enabling the drug trade instead of fighting it this is what albanian protesters say drives them to the street yet so far they've mostly been told to shut up and know their place for the democratic party the socialist movement for integration and of the opposition parties to abandon their mandates in parliament undermine the basic principles of democracy yeah a political protest is apparently a violation of democracy in the us rulebook the same us by the way that suffers from a severe drug problem of its own europe but albania as mafia have turned into a dirty money cash cow doesn't seem to mind of backing the elites to the lawmakers

go against the democratic two as a full band citizens and undermine the progress the country has made on the european union path yes the e.u. seems eager to overlook the opposition's cry for help and set the nato nation and europe to the drug den on the course of integrating into the union. what they're doing is provided for in the electoral college and the constitution of this country therefore what they are doing is completely one hundred percent democratic yes it's causing a political crisis but this political crisis is only happening because there are serious allegations of election rigging. i think that the e.u. and the us i don't know whether it's ignorance or whether they have some other agenda but there is i mean people are shocked at the way that they're behaving and they've systematically failed to address any of the protests in albania over the

last year the protesters are angry about this civil society is angry about this me as a journalist i'm angry about this because the fact two to three opposition m.p.'s resigning is democratic it's the pinnacle of democracy has to come over the next few minutes the taiwanese opposition leader has promised to sign a peace deal with china if he wins the next presidential election some of the stories to come just after the break. the country has gone into a nihilistic fever that's why i thank god it hit the road and get out the traveling across america to find what makes america the charlatans the genius of this place especially american hero this is it we've come a point around which element is gone so we always are on the margins something.

called the culture has meaning for you. oh. we're starting last 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 know any more of them it may be completely different but the end of this journey. join me every thursday on the alex salmond short and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see you then. again you with us here now jim and pensioners being told he has to move that the

high c. be living in full most a quarter of a century to make room for migrant arrivals. woodworth. i cannot believe that i seventy four year old pensioner must move out and suffer all these troubles even though i'm paying my rent while asylum seekers are getting it for free it's wrong for class roth was given a nine month fiction notice of promise though to find him a smaller alternative flat his old place one hundred fifty square metres in size and this will now go to six migrants the local community does boast a population of almost four thousand and is home to fifty five migrants roth says he used to work with refugees helping them to integrate. i was involved in refugee work myself three years i attended meetings with asylum seekers at the cafe international to help them integrate into our society because i

was actively involved and nobody told me back then that they needed my apartment. and other news the breaks a deadline is just over a month away with the u.k. preparing for life outside the. now it takes an alternative look at some of the tactics employed by british politicians during the process is the latest episode of in case you missed it. in case you missed it british diplomacy is going through a golden age the world can only look on and tremble with. britain is innovating changing the very definition of relations with other countries it's cold and see diplomacy in recent months and weeks it's been like watching an aston martin practice in slow motion and then. pressure again. and then river and crash again and then again so fast sign of the new i won't claude approach to international relations was when boris johnson

was put in charge of the foreign office for two years and amazingly he resigned but so he was sacked then he was replaced as foreign secretary by a man named jeremy hunt did you know that johnson is a flying time for a mound. and hunt rides with the incident i think this centuries old fancy rhetoric is still in place although the empire isn't as they stand on its own mouth and prime minister to resign may's brags that tactic of going over to brussels and making the same desperate to manzoni to get the same angry rejection from the e.u. doesn't quite work but it brings the desperation was also spotted in japan last week britain's trade and foreign secretaries told trapattoni tokyo to hurry up and make a person breaks that trade deal he japan reportedly last counseled the troll accusing britain of being high handed and. put the matter to browse to no

one is defense secretary gavin williams said an experiment have gotten very diplomacy without the guns a colonial mindset without the colonies gabs picked a fight with russia from day one telling it to shut up and go away part of that and see diplomacy i was talking about and now you. candy with his new aircraft carrier he threatened china with lethal force forgetting that the nineteenth century was in the nineteenth century so what did china do in response cancel gregg's it crazy i'm told britain to get over is every client. that's a real diplomatic power lies in the twenty first century it is something to threaten the world's largest nuclear power the world's largest population with just one protected warship i'm sure everything will be fine after brags that there are these british politicians seem to know what they're doing.

taiwan's president announced her reelection bid this week amid who boost in her popularity following her rejection of a peace deal with china in contrast the time when he's opposition party leader has promised to sign a peace treaty with beijing if his party is able to regain the presidency in twenty twenty. now reports. for china this island is part of its own territory but for taiwan china is a threat if you believe the western media narrative that this free democratic led need to defend itself from the imperialist the bishan of changing things governments china's threats to forcefully retake the island not just engaging in belligerent rhetoric it's trying to cut taiwan off further from the business community making the redraw their maps that taiwan is part of china it has long refused to rule out the use of force to achieve that goal taiwan has looked to the west ever since it split from mainland china in the wake of the civil war in one

nine hundred forty nine but the vast majority of the year when members have never recognized that as an independent country and beijing in has always stuck to its one china policy. the taking responsibility for the nation and future generations both sides should pool our wisdom resolve the political rivalry and bring about sustainable peace across the taiwan straits with a long term vision for reunification of the motherland which is are. now taiwan's opposition kuomintang party is the chairman to finally resolve the dispute but it will have to wait until the presidential elections in two thousand and twenty assuming talks between the two sides a successful future cumin tang government would be within its rights to sign a cross street peace treaty to formally end the chinese civil war but taiwan's current leader has a more aggressive stance after announcing her reelection bid president china when made it clear that she still views china as

a menace. to china's ambitions and aggression are not just targeting taiwan but also other countries in the region or even worldwide chinese state media says she's playing a dangerous game the editor in chief of the global times a chinese state run news outlet called the taiwanese leader's reelection bid a quote crazy pro. escalating tensions and the public support for the local government seems to be slipping the ruling party suffered a significant loss last november in the midterm elections which forced chang ing when to step down as the party chair so maybe washington support is not going to be enough meanwhile in men when china people are optimistic with the next elections just around the corner this is a hole that these elections might bring a possibility of lasting peace they're friendly overtures are at that party. that's not surprising at all that's always been the way particularly in more recent

decades president's popularity is slipping they had been dreaming that the popularity as an opportunity to course for stronger relations with china contributed since about taiwan i think what they should recognize is that. time with these people have very a clear view of the. state if their economy about the fact that their economy is tied sharp so any sort of fear mongering around what it's trying to choose is not going to have much effect at all on how timely its people themselves feel about the situation. and that brings up tonight is saturday off the name of back again with more news here at the top of the. twenty four do you know bloody revolution to the demonstrations going from being

relatively peaceful political protests to be freezing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it you're still loyal. to a pretty good clue in the neighborhood is that an idea spilling into the former ukrainian president recalls the events of twenty four. those who took part in the studio here. five billion dollars to assist ukraine in these and other goals that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. norm a good manufacturer to sentence to public wealth. when the room in clusters and project themselves. in the final merry go round lifts only the one percent. who ignore middle room signals. real news.

as far right parties obsess about the danger is them presents to the western lifestyle some islamic scholars are concerned about the opposite are no advantage on argues the dead muslims don't step up their game within the next twenty to forty years islam may vanish from europe are those fears really justified. we came here where did you work before you came here when you lived. death row in many us states capital punishment is still practiced convicted prisoners can spend years waiting for execution but most of the time the victims' families they are very much in favor the death penalty there are some people because of what they did

they have given up the right to live among us some are even proven innocent after years on death row and how many more exonerations is it going to take before we as a society realize that this is not working and we actually do something about. it's going to. be you have them all out to america lobby. me and it made him about

a week without a holiday in the name of the so how can we and i mean pull out of a plane. who doesn't know what it was that i see in our little. snuggle how. many got him up on me the most of obeying the house all the. political interests there are those. who took the. policy. from no need. for this one single minute because of

a whole lot of will close up those to. sort of heart it with all of us cause when they take on an affair that i live in be a. model sort of qualifying and say well the flow out of the walls and i'm old school. and this little guy with the heart of the. and the soul of that there will. we don't come. up with. a lot of. the most often.