u.s. vice president mike pence meets venezuela's self-proclaimed president in colombia where he arrived to announce washington's plans to resolve the crisis and this comes after a weekend of violence triggered by america's attempts to deliver aid something that's been rejected by corrupt. foreign minister mohammad javad zarif announces his resignation he made the statement on social media on monday the reason for the resignation remains as yet unclear. in the referendum sees the people of okinawa reject the plans to relocate a u.s. military base from one part of the japanese island to another locals though fear it will happen anyway. the japanese government is pushing through that construction by

force there are many people protesting in every day. and prepares for a second meeting with north korean leader kim jong un we'll look at how the host nation vietnam is getting ready for the summer. have you with us this hour this is alt. number of western hemisphere countries are sending an appeal to the international criminal court asking it to consider the humanitarian situation in venezuela the lima group consists of fourteen countries including peru argentina brazil chile colombia mexico all of them except mexico recognize the opposition leader who is venezuela's president let's cross live now to our correspondent in morpeth who's in new york for us take us through the latest please. well the lima group at this point is making an appeal

to the international criminal court for an assessment regarding the situation in venezuela now this comes on the heels of a speech we just heard from mike pence the vice president of united states who addressed the lima group earlier and in his remarks he gave one hundred percent backing on behalf of donald trump and the u.s. government to juan guede oh the individual who calls himself the president of venezuela he calls himself the interim president after taking an oath and self proclaiming himself to be leaving as wayland president furthermore mike pence made an appeal to venezuela's military saying it wouldn't offer amnesty to forces that switch sides and began supporting wedo and furthermore mike pence offered a kind of a financial incentive for countries throughout the region to join with washington's efforts to topple the venezuelan government this is some of what we heard from mike pence speaking to the lima group today also it's my privilege to announce that the

united states will provide an additional fifty six million dollars to support our partners in the region as you come to the aid of the venezuelan people fleeing from the deprivation and oppression of the material regime it's good people of venezuela she sure freedom we will go with you you go would go my own country you. now the turmoil in venezuela recently laid around the issue of u.s. a the united states has attempted to send aid over the border from brazil and the border from colombia there have been clashes at the border the venezuelans are concerned that aid could contain weapons as elliott abrams currently the u.s. special representative for venezuela has a history of in places like nicaragua using humanitarian aid as a cover to send weapons into the country and at this point of venezuela is not interested in taking this aid now opposition activists who oppose material and

supporters of have been clashing near the border we understand at this point four people are dead hundreds have been injured and when an aid truck did catch on fire in the aftermath of that we saw a kind of a diplomatic war of words with different parties blaming each other for the incident let's take a listen. we denounce refusal to let humanitarian assistance reach venezuela what kind of a sick tolerance drops food from getting to hungry people the images of burning trucks filled with sickening. sick with the ripple specialist in full fire go permissions believe he fools the world with a truck burnt in colombia by his own agents now u.s. media and western media seem to be echoing and repeating that it was made during who is responsible for this aid truck catching on fire they blame it squarely on maduro and say he lit these trucks on fire his supporters went out and burned an

aid convoy however video has surfaced seeming to show another another interpretation of events we've got video at this point that seems to indicate that it was opposition activists who burned the aid convoy they took you know flaming objects threw them at the convoy catching it on fire let's look at some of this video that has surfaced that seems to tell a different story than what american media is saying. i mean if you think. now recently marco rubio a u.s. senator from florida tweeted out images of the former leader of libya moammar gadhafi and images of him prior to being killed folks will recall the united states was involved in the overthrow of gadhafi he was then killed by opposition forces

this was interpreted widely as a threat against both madeira and venezuela and basically threatening to repeat what was done to libya to venezuela in the aftermath of the overthrow the government the situation in libya has been quite dire now at this point we're hearing more and more of a war of words this point you know the leaders of the lima group and the leaders of the united states are widely condemning that as whale of blaming them for the crisis saying that they are blocking humanitarian aid on the other hand of venezuela says they are accepting aid from other countries and that this is a provocation from the united states and tended to try and overthrow the government of the dural the united states is recognizing the one guede zero as the interim president whereas there are many countries that are recognizing the doura as the elected leader of venezuela so clear disagreement in the international community as tensions on the ground in venezuela are increasing. many thanks of course one of the new york with the latest venezuela killem open was kind of just mentioned to us

senator marco rubio tweeted images of the late libyan leader gadhafi as he was about to be brutally murdered it would have warning even if on this image coming up disturbing the tweets not caption but with the president to do a favorite theme previews recent messages many interpret this is a warning to mature. because nothing says human rights like gloating over a human being getting sodomized to death with a buy and that marco rubio just posted photos of gadhafi being lynched in an open death threat to madeira libya is now a slave state thanks to us you mark or you had the reste piece of who should immediately resign marco rubio's feet has become like a manic paranoid regime change demanding boss account would probably be investigated for suspicious activity by the twitter authorities if he was not a u.s. senator but reaction to the post has not been limited to twitter alone this now petition demanding the senate his resignation with accusations reverse promoting

violence against the head of state political analyst chris bambery believe the tweets part of a larger u.s. propaganda plan. well i think it's all part of a strategy of tension as the americans are building up what the americans are trying to do is put pressure on the military in venezuela to shift to the doura so far that hasn't happened the weakness in the durance position is is that unlike his predecessor hugo chavez face of the coupe twenty years ago which as you call a mass movement that was brutal insurrection in crackers which saved to save them. no more do is grow on almost entirely on the army and the reason that kind of thus far we haven't seen this kind of mass movement coming to his aid so the thousand of those in one job all question is is what attitude of the venezuelan military will take is he going to continue in support with the us and if that's the case the potential for civil war personally i'm cynical about the americans intervening

directly because i believe the stomach for it in the united states of america post the right course to libya and also the sight of american troops in any white american country brings back memories of america's record on that continent. so at the weekend a benefit concert for venice weather was held in colombia near the border it was organized by the billionaire richard branson and it was initially billed as being a huge event an article by the washington post first published said two hundred thousand attendees an updated version of the article gave no attendance figures but said simply the concept was massive in the third verse and removed all reference to the concept some people have analyzed satellite imagery with one bloke's just a nobleman twenty thousand people attended we discussed this with legal and media analyst ron. is not an innocent mistake especially when there is no mention as to why something is scrubbed we don't normally there's a mistake if we said we misspoke we misnamed the president of whatever normally one

there is in there rat home or some type of a mistake that is noted they make reference to what. my bad not at all this was part parcel of the story you know by the way historically crowd sizes has always been the subject of shall we say fanatically in one thousand nine hundred five in this country when louis farrakhan had his million man march that term million one from an actual number to an expression to something like zillion so historically crowd sizes and the number this is true and dare i say what does not be sir knew. if this indeed was not true because when you itemized and specifically cite the number of people in attendance that is part and parcel of the actual story so one could reasonably submit this is fake news.

our breaking news story this hour rome's foreign minister mohammad javad zarif has announced that he is stepping down trees correspondent paul asli has details. on how much of a announced his resignation on instagram he was very very apologize for any kind of shortcomings during his tenure as foreign minister he has as of yet given any reason as to why he resigned i know that this resignation needs to be accepted by president harding but certainly would be a blow to the president because the foreign minister was a close ally particularly in his dealings with the west he became zarif the foreign minister back in august two thousand and thirteen he is a career diplomat he's well known for being a good orator for being fluent in english and he has over the years held a significant number of diplomatic and cabinet posts including being iran's permanent representative to the united nations two years after he was appointed

foreign minister in two thousand and fifteen he led the iranian negotiators team for the landmark nuclear deal and when he spoke to journalists in vienna he was clearly emotion or he spoke extremely well and at that stage he did say that negotiations were making progress but that as of yet a deal had not been reached now when the deal finally was reached its success largely did rest on his shoulders and his reputation was tied up with the fact that the americans later withdrew from the deal the fact that american president donald trump we impose sanctions the fact that the economy in ukraine is struggling a lot of that is being blamed both on him and on the president in recent months and has appeared visibly strained and he's normally collected composure has been noticed by observers to be a little bit visibly flustered and not so smooth a politician as we've come to expect him to be but as i say as of yet no reason

given as. his resignation we're waiting to hear. the people of okinawa in a referendum have rejected moving a u.s. military base from one part of the japanese island to another it's one of thirty two u.s. sites on the island construction work at the planned new location for the base in question has actually begun and despite the referendum results prime minister shinzo lobby looks set to push ahead with the new. we cannot avoid the necessity of moving food said to be the most dangerous place in the world we cannot put this off any longer the base in question is in the city of give no one and is surrounded by schools hospitals and shops hundred deal with the us it's being moved to a less populated part of uk in our in the north called norco residents there are unhappy they say the old should simply be shut down not replaced. your i've heard that this referendum has no legal basis but there are many people protesting in

every day i hope this referendum will be a show of support to them. and i recall meeting has already begun the japanese government is pushing through that construction by force so i'm against the construction of a new base because the base is manned for war that's why i'm against the. u.s. service personnel stationed in japan where reportedly involved in almost ten thousand crimes and accidents in the decade leading up to twenty thirteen around half the incidents one lock in our of the most notorious cases was in one thousand nine hundred five when three u.s. sailors kidnapped and raped a twelve year old girl we spoke to katherine jane fisher rights activist who says she herself was raped in two thousand and two near a u.s. base near tokyo. most of the american bases are situated on ok no island seventy percent of the bases are on okinawa and the island is so small so you can imagine we have a lot of united states military servicemen there when they drink too much of

a hole or if they commit crimes they can easily escape justice as in my case you know the man who raped me i had to look for him myself in ten years because the japanese government and the american military would not help so the more bases that are going to be in okinawa we need to work out ways that they can rally kate these crimes so it's now time for the voices to be heard about how they do not want any more rapes in crimes you know murders against their people we have had to seven over seventy years seven decades of these crimes happening and what is being done to stop that you know we just had another woman who was murdered you know over a year or so ago doesn't matter where they're going to put the base there's always going to be some kind of crime that they will need to tackle and how are they going to do when someone else is murdered when someone else is killed.

britain must rapidly give the colonised shall go silent spring to moorish is the un's high school tis ruled. the united. nations to bring. it to the sheen of the jungle side could be a local rugby league both people of the international court of justice from the u.k. illegally split the islands from riches before granting the island this independence in the sixty's thousands of charges citizens were also deported from the indian ocean territory so britain could let the u.s. build a huge military base on the biggest island diego garcia u.k. foreign office insists the u.n. was just giving an advisory opinion not a judgment that the chair of the u.k. chugger support association for muslim guha lucy shouldn't take a un ruling for the u.k. militias the better respect the rights of the charges people. is the one case

for it being an advisory opinion and i would assume the government will make a full statement tomorrow on how they intend to respond to the opinion i think it be quite difficult for the u.k. to just fly in the face of it they don't really have a charge on the i.c.j. and if they're seen to be flying in the face of this core i think that might find some difficulty in getting that judge back on the panel that even if the u.k. does comply with the ruling there's we don't really have an impression of how significant this will be for the people i think. the question of sovereignty has no bearing on the on the right of return and the imperative that both ministers and the u.k. government should already be treating the people from the silence with their human rights and the respect that they deserve. us the north korean leaders donald trump kim jong il not meeting in vietnam this week commenting on the upcoming summit russia's foreign minister express cautious optimism saying he hopes for a breakthrough regarding denuclearization but also warned that ultimatums would not

work. someone actually we are certain that u.s. ultimatums will lead to what the u.s. demands that north korea completely eliminate everything related to nuclear weapons and only then will discuss lifting sanctions. it will be trump and came second summit last summer they course met in singapore in a recent tweet trump promised economic prosperity north korea if young young abandons its nuclear program and the added that kim will make a wise decision trump insisted that he would not lift sanctions if young doesn't denuclearize. the reports from vietnam. perhaps it's still a bit too early to see a trump kim get together in washington or pyongyang so once again the organizers opted for somewhere neutral.

just by looking at the flag of communist vietnam it's immediately clear why chairman kim would certainly feel at home here. as we know the americans have their own special connection but the leaders got it installed with the vietnamese authorities before they even arrived or rather their almost famous lookalike. anyway with the hot i wrote spinning spruced up for the big event the real kim has already hit the road he chose to get to vietnam to fight your brains were gone and his people looked thrilled to see him no wonder kim has given himself a nice long head start crossing all of china takes time when the leaders met for the first time just saying this. was enough to make the summit

a real bombshell but no written or signed agreements came out of it how's that for a preemptive social media trick to break the stalemate chairman kim realizes perhaps better than anyone else that without nuclear weapons his country could fast become one of the greatest economic power was anywhere in the world because of its location and people and him it has more potential for rapid growth than any other nation making the second summit work is a matter of pristiq for donald trump but will it work the mega man might have to. give something up to could that mean less pentagon involvement in south korea mr kim knows how to play on family guy trumps emotions too it's just been revealed he once said this to america's top diplomat mike compare i'm a father and a house band and i have children and i don't want my children to care with

a nuclear weapon on their back their whole life this week it's time for donald trump and kim john to do a bit more than just pose for the cameras or send each other romantic letters i've received two letters from chairman personal correspondence magnificent very strong letter form incredible letters it's time to agree on and cement something real which makes the vietnam chapter of the camp trump relationship even more unpredictable than when they first met you can surf the kinzer moon look alike that any event that is really good bass since being deported from vietnam in person to said that hanoi didn't have a sense of humor although from stop of a house being allowed to stay. and it's not just officials busy preparing for the summit there's a bar in hanoi that's rolled out a new cocktail featuring a mix of american korean spirits is said to represent the fiery characters of the two leaders the drink is called appropriately rock it's man obviously

a play on one of trumped insoles star trek to that came not too long ago and there's also a ball of the shop this offering hackers mimicking those of trump in the services being provided free of charge is quote a way to promote case on a more serious note we've spoken to eric surat can founder of lawyers for demilitarization and peace in korea who told us that the choice of host country for the talks is telling. why i think it's really interesting that they're meeting in vietnam a country that we killed millions of people and had a horrific more after the korean war and a country in which we have formal diplomatic relations now a lot of trade and that the u.s. president is comfortable going there for a summit vietnam i think was something very perhaps symbolic to the koreans it would provide

a certain level to kim jong il to travel there to your more comfortable there it's an odd choice if we're not going to make a deal because i mean it took hundreds of meetings to have a deal in the end the vietnam war and people that they met they met again in paris over and over and over again until the paris accords finally ended that war but you know so it is an example of a long. durance race that we're facing that vietnam represents or is it really the idea that you can have economic success and be able to make peace with people who've been at least for so long it's a very powerful symbol. probably school children in the u.k. to be taught about gay and transgender relations it's part of a plan by the government to overhaul fix education in the country and the see a chicken has the details. what the department of education has been suggesting is

including new compulsory classes on sex ad for schools across england which would include things such as relationship education for primary school kids which would mean children as young as four years old and a sex and relationship classes for secondary school pupils as well as mental and physical health classes for all the children attending schools in england and this has been causing quite a stir not only is this the first attempt to put in place new regulation as long as twenty years but this is also been a very divisive issue so far in the sense that there's been lots of debate about the role parents play in this with some saying that while the government promises that the parents will be able to withdraw their children from any classes related to sex until those children reach the age of consent and then make those decisions

themselves many parents have been saying that is just not good enough they're describing til they don't want any such topics to be part of a mandatory curriculum and have been saying that it's up to the parents to educate their children on such issues we have grave concerns about the physical psychological and spiritual implications of teaching children about certain sexual and relational concepts proposed in c. and believe that they have no place within a mandatory school curriculum that's part of an online petition that was signed by over one hundred thousand people which in itself prompted a debate in parliament earlier today here in westminster where we're debating really the extent of this problem with questions about age appropriateness with questions about the school all of this will be taking as well as how it would all end up working in the end. but to have the. to.

all these clauses those the good was doing good for the region for example the religious schools i don't blame parents for saying they want to up their kids out because this is become so divisive and so polarizing that they cannot see a way out without any arbitration mechanism well the certain new curriculum is not set to roll out until september twenty twentieth's but with so many opinions and groups supporting the stadia and just as many people being against having these kinds of guidelines in schools across england it's quite clear that this is going to continue to be a very divisive issue here. a new report from the u.n. says that twenty eight thousand was the deadliest year in a decade for civilians in afghanistan some four thousand were killed the report says increased terrorist activity as well as afghan and u.s. military operations are to blame for the spike in civilian fatalities here while the fifth round of peace talks between the taliban and the u.s.

is being held in qatar on monday as the have reports. after almost two decades of war war stops being special it becomes normal like a habit and you know how hard it is to kick the habit same thing here fifth round of talks between the taliban and the us lots of hope and lots of pessimism that maybe peace but the peace will not hold for long if the taliban bypasses local commanders and fighters ideas and views it would be much better that the taliban include some important and effective local taliban commanders in the negotiating team there's history to these talks but then the doha meet she couldn't hush hush all the united states and the taliban they had gold and they bartered and apparently agreed on a u.s. troop withdrawal and then it all collapsed when the united states demanded that the

afghan government which the taliban despises also participate there's a discussion but this discussion needs to be shared back a discussion that does not involve the region we will not trust if we don't get all the pieces right one piece alone doesn't suffice russia which has a huge stake in ending this war also tried to help in early february the then head of the taliban's political faction came here to moscow to take part in another round table but all of them you know hold it after the foreign forces leave our country the afghans one have any reason to fight each other because we are a united fraternal people it was big eleven countries participated in these talks even the afghan opposition came taliban was there the u.s. remained aloof and surprisingly with observer status watching in paranoid suspicion

russia is again trying to model the u.s. backed peace process and the political situation. in the began it's done so here we are round five new talks the taliban's new political head freshly released from the pakistani jail is going to attend same topics really but she's for a u.s. troop withdrawal and again washington will try to get the afghan government involved just as problematic to see the taliban is fractured it has its own factions and centrists and extremists and they all want something different the peace or religious law for the crazies death to america and if they don't get what they want talks and negotiations. if we're not respected by our leadership and political leaders of the taliban maybe the footy will continue under

a different name or by joining islamic state the taliban spokesperson told us the key issues to be resolved at the talks. that these commanders that you've talked to a halt of on the edge of doing our political team talks with the americans regarding peace and other issues concerning our political team the representatives of every sector of the taliban and the logic in trust in our leadership and he was a baby the leader of the taliban. is riddled with rules america from afghanistan and guarantees afghanistan because countries. should work now and good and the americans leave. the important issue is the occupation of afghanistan by the americans and overcome . country with the us leaving their.