venezuela recuses the us backed opposition of sabotaging the country's power supply as washington threatens more sanctions against the maturer government. the u.s. army intelligence whistleblower chelsea manning is back behind bars after refusing to testify to a u.s. grand jury in a case against wiki leaks. the u.s. house of representatives passes a bill to counter the influence of so-called dark money from donors in the election process. with headline news twenty four seven this is r.t. international from moscow and welcome to the program first off for you this saturday the venezuelan foreign ministry is accusing the united states of orchestrating and celebrating an ongoing power outage in the country said to be the

worst in decades while in venezuela people calmly handled the consequence is electrical sabotage the entourage of donald trump was celebrating and enjoying with guilty perversion the suffering of the venezuelan people a few weeks ago the mature regime blamed for causing a large electric grid blackout we have now received the first video of what caused tonight's unprecedented nationwide blackout in venezuela where there is poses bring nothing but darkness. electricity stations across venezuela shut down during the thursday evening rush hour bringing public transport to a standstill the power supply is gradually being restored in some parts of the capital what you're seeing here is the simon bolivar international airport in caracas where all flights have been suspended opposition leader and self declared interim president says the maturer government's to blame all the u.s. pointed the finger at years of corruption and under-investment that as well as defense ministries called the outage an act of sabotage by the united states.

after all we have seen after the statements from the spokesperson of the north american empire and those who support them here no one can be so naive to believe this is a random event it is an attack on our homeland. it cannot be normal that fifty percent of the hospitals do not have electric generators and the other fifty operate during an emergency the government is inefficient and corrupt and we know that the end of darkness comes when the usurpers leave power in venezuela meanwhile the u.s. special envoy to venezuela says countries could be sanctioned for refusing to recognize one as the interim president and abrams also threatened new measures against president maduro we are losing sanctions and diplomatic actions to pressure the madeira regime hopeful that other countries will use these and other tools at their disposal to very sanctions you know it's always it's out there it's always a possibility we have not done it yet. and i wouldn't want to speculate as to

whether the real or what would lead us to make that additional decision. and the battle over the venezuelan presidency which has dragged on since january appears stuck in stalemate president maduro still in power and it seems washington has no benbow vice president pence how much longer do you have a timeline but there is no timeline parents the same mike pence announcing venezuela was on washington's laundry list in spanish. i'm mike pence the vice president of the united states the united states supports the courageous decision by one god or the president of your national assembly to assert the body's constitutional powers declare madeira or your syrup or and call for the establishment of a transitional government that was the moment washington put itself into regime change gear since then the us heavily invested itself in the crisis so how did it

come to this a thinly veiled admission of failure after all it looked so bright at the start in me a week's washington projected a no name mob cheerleader into the international frame one why dole became the poster boy of the social upheaval has his presidential ambition was quickly backed by america's allies brazil has just issued a note recognizing one we're going to go as venezuela's president one way door one . go door one in europe where you go you know. since then though america's plans started to go into a frantic nosedive my duro wasn't going anywhere hadn't still has the army on his side and his supporters showed the opposition didn't own the streets of caracas then a big ruckus with aid the us tried getting into venezuela and which material didn't allow concerned washington was using its old trick to smuggle guns to arm the mob

which clearly showed just who's still boss in venezuela the scandal and the brawling on the board eventually did absolutely nothing to move america's regime change train forward everything the u.s. brings to the border piles up there why do is a post a president with no real power in the country he himself is shuttling to and from venezuela with little effect washington seems to have resist. the temptation to go for the favorite tactic of sending a few thousand soldiers to a score to the undesirable leader out of office at least for now and when confronted with the what's next question resorts to the same boilerplate platitude over and over again all options are on the table all options are on the table all options are on the table all options are on the table which all things considered

sounds more like no options are on the table and actually things didn't go much further than ola in the first place where there has been unable to deliver on his promise to allow humanitarian aid in the military has not left the side of president maduro they continue to support him and wedo is looking like a shrinking power and expanding one so this crusade to appeal them watching that means the united states will try other attempts are not going to give up as the u.s. talks about more terrorism colombia saying no brazil saying no european governments are saying no people do not want to see that kind of escalation its coalition is the way those so the united states is really in a small box that's shrinking and washington says it will not use force to arrived at the colombian venezuelan border in defiance of an official ban self declared leader why does promise to get those supplies into the country but president duros refusing to allow the u.s.

aid to get in calling it a trojan horse and a pretext for intervention he is the accepting help from the red cross and the u.n. we also want to call from the red cross about the agency's work in venezuela. the situation. in mind all this war in. the last more than two years if he even if he's going to be and will be communities you're going to let you know what. the role. or is the lack of resources that we. need to know more. about the. road and it is let us through we are there to serve the human beings regardless any . idea if you live. there or you know where all that is necessary to serve you the people there is so very. aware there is

going to be. the rules of our. lives. on to our other headline news former us army intelligence whistleblower chelsea manning has been jailed for refusing to testify in front of a grand jury in a case against the wiki leaks co-founder julian assange and one exhaust says they'll find her in contempt in court was certainly a typical for this kind of proceeding as everybody knows chelsea has tremendous courage our primary concern at this plane is her how well she is confined to chelsea manning first came to fame in two thousand and ten after handing over classified sensitive military data to wiki leaks she was sentenced to thirty five years in prison and spent seven of them there before being commuted by then president obama the whistleblower was aware that she could be taken back into

custody. have a history of having to deal with secrecy and a lot of these secret proceedings they tend to favor the government they tend to allow things going to happen so i am in general opposition of that kind of this kind of proceeding taking place believe in a grand jury process i don't believe in a sick secrecy of this i have no problem explaining what happened and i've done it before prosecutor no lawyer. and this all stems back to when manning leaks more than seven hundred thousand confidential documents and videos because she had profound questions about u.s. foreign policy his son before she revealed. right. now the father. was the man was was.

butter and human rights campaign and peter tatchell says it's suspicious that the hearing was being conducted in secrecy. what does the us government and reduces the system have to hide why can't they conduct these hearings and these charges in open court in this case it's all being done in secret which flies against the fundamental democratic traditional principle but just the should be open and transparent and i think chelsea manning is quite right to shine a spotlight on the secrecy of the grand jury system and the way in which is weighted towards the prosecution and against defendants during assigned himself has been subject to secret grand jury hearings since two thousand and ten he's never been allowed to know the charges against him or the evidence is not being contrary

to the basic fundamental principle of justice that it should be open transparent and accountable. measures to fight corruption and the influence of so-called a dark money on the u.s. election process have been passed by the house of representatives with a bill backed by the democrat. h.r. one is designed to do that to restore ethics and accountability to fight back against the interests of big money in our politics are one. we stories that people state that government works for the public interest the people in chest not this special interests perhaps unsurprisingly the bill was criticized by the republicans who accuse the democrats of a power grab claiming the legislation will not solve the problem and i'm open takes up the story. wherever you go in america you can see a widespread feeling that much of the government can be bought off that's why trump

got so much applause with this slogan we are going to dream of you that's why you are trying to get three wafts why we are going through. this one if you swap out. the. whole show that a pretty solid majority of americans want new laws to restrict the amount of money that can be contributed to political candidates that's why the democrats have decided to sound the alarm about a new sinister force in american politics dark money special interest dark money from the campaign the permission is influence of dark money in our politics money there's no disclosure about who's been growing the center for the executive branch is drowning in big money corruption so for dealing and lawlessness dark soft money coming into the election process so what exactly is dark money well it's money contributed by non-profits social welfare organizations labor unions and trade

associations all of which are not required to disclose who their donors are so essentially it's dark money because it's off the books nancy pelosi has voiced her concerns this is that instilling the confidence of the american people in the political process in what happens in government it is the people's interests that are being served not the darkness interest of that special interest money but here's the thing in the congressional midterm elections the democrats actually received more dark money than the republicans did the group majority forward closely tied to democratic senator chuck schumer spent forty six million dollars in ten different senate races and even money out of politics socialist because you cortez has actually been facing some recent harsh questions about dark money that she received we decided to talk to new yorkers and see how they feel. dark money in politics it should be happening and it's a deeply complicated flaw of the united states. and its legal leo. i think

transparency when it comes to money the dark art of dark money is not divided along party lines but there are plenty of questionable contributions in american politics that are right out in the open from big oil companies banks and defense contractors it seems that yes dark money sounds scary but it may not be the biggest problem in america the money seems to find other ways to influence politics so they know trying to expose dark money is they're really going to change anything they've had their own major problems for the democrats really while they have a change in the conversation and clearly that's what they're pushing here this entire bill is nothing but a flagrant attempt to hang on to their thin grasp on power. the six year old boy from southern russia has become something of a local hero he's rescued more than one hundred homeless animals and helped many of

them find a new the national problem has been telling us about his volunteer experience. another animal is more go to take them and give them a show to inform them good homes. are simply cannot let them live on the streets in freezing cold weather during the winter it's very cold and hard for them to form through but we still rescue them in the summer to. i just want to take care of animals and become a special forces officer. among

our stories after the break we'll take a trip around the world to show you some of the international women's day rallies live from moscow this is r.t. . it's a really interesting duel between two dystopian nightmares brave new world in a few before they say you know you're in heaven there and that's the brave new world of the soma is essentially you're clicking on discrediting yourself and then re crediting your soft through video. that would be more like i think brave new world the soma. digital. and then the us has more of a ninety four with a click to an actual cellphone national google ad with surrounded by t.v.

. it was noted in the original nafta fifty five years ago those were kicked out because relations were more punitive but now the religion is very very close intertwined saw i think it's ok to have a new treaty and you negotiation. and here's what else we're across this saturday c.n.n. is facing questions over diversity within its top brass it's off to several groups representing the black community in the united states pointed at the absence of minorities in the company's executive board diversity on has been something of a running theme of the broke asta. what people in europe in america or to be proud of what they should be celebrating all the remarkable achievements of diversity

diversity in the workplace diversity inclusion respect integrity diversity and inclusion and it is core to our culture that diversity and inclusion is the path forward to ensuring that your bottom line is great despite featuring several black news anchors and correspondents c.n.n. seems to lack such representation in the top ranks that includes executive producers vice presidents and other senior positions as well the national association of black journalists which first raised this issue has blasted c.n.n. for failing to meet its delegation to discuss the diversity gap members of the group had requested a sit down with c.n.n. president jeff zucker the trying to explain why it declined the meeting pointing at the dispute with the associations vice president and we spoke to a member of the national association of black journalists about why the whole issue has become so problematic. we have been monitoring c.n.n. for several years along with the other broadcast and cable networks here and we

have noticed that there were no people of color no african-americans in pathak decision rank making positions this is where the decisions are made not only about coverage but who will cover it how it will be covered what resources they are able to use to do that quite often this is the decision level where a lot of stories are either elevated or just pushed to the side and quite often we haven't learned through experience that stories about people of color or concerns of the african-american community in the united states don't often get the attention that they deserve this is a major concern to african-american journalists and should be to them since they serve the entire community in the united states not just one particular group. setting out in the thousands women around the world much for their rights on international women's day on friday with some of the largest rallies in germany from spain turkey and argentina.

we were. i. was. in turkey however the women's day demonstration escalated into a standoff with police looking for storage is disclosed a crowd of several thousand officers in gathered in istanbul's taksim square. a book promoting the conspiracy theory q and on its head the top seventy five best sellers on amazon q. and on is best known for its eccentric allegations against the so-called the us and

deep state and its support for president trump his outies don't quote. you've seen the trails in the sky heard about how reptiles and chemicals in the water are making the earth flat but now there's q. and a conspiracy theory claiming democrats are murdering children in the deep state is creating diseases and this one is getting rave reviews on amazon great read it exposes things that are going on that the mainstream will not report thank you very much for spreading truth in the end justice will be served and freedom for all will prevail truth shall set us free a theory once lurking in the darkest corners of read it and four chan is now under the spotlight and thanks to who the mainstream talking heads who decided to trash on it probably played a part q. and a on conspiracy theory group called q anon he went on which essentially leaves the entirety of the democratic party are conspiring and running an underground

pedophile sex trafficking ring it with already has watched this kind of thing there's no surprise these queuing on conspiracy folks are now showing up to troll brownlee's this is all insane and incoherent with how little americans trust the media these days the call outs are working more like promo q. and on rose to amazon's number one bestseller in censorship and politics it's even pushed aside classics like the dystopian novel fahrenheit four fifty one. coincidence i think not. if you're looking to expose the masses to some controversial content mainstream attack sometimes don't go far enough to censor it like when platforms banned info wars conspiracy theorist alex jones you tube facebook and apple all announcing their own moving his content from their platforms they only actually took action after weeks of media pressure after jones' popularity shot through the roof you tube users viewed his talk on joe rogan's

podcast about ten million times it was a perfect platform for all. android elves and drug crazed aliens they've got like astronaut level people taking super hardcore levels of drugs and going into meetings with these things and making interval act deals the nazis get the deep literature they believed they were being possessed by entities they were psychically connected to each other and would work like robots here's what he really believes. the elves are biological androids the great dissing theories on television clearly doesn't work but promoting conspiracy theories well that's a different story some people actually have some type of paranoid delusions or they have paranoid personality so they tend to see connections among things that other people don't see bans on social media only strengthen the conspiracy theorists because they say if it wasn't such a you know a terrible thing that we've discovered they wouldn't be hiding it they would be

suppressing us so a it given that belief that there is something being covered up and beat it makes them feel even more self-righteous saying that i am one of the few people left you know to promote the truth i have to do it and they're more motivated to find some way to promote whatever pet theory or conspiracy theory they have. and now you're up to date if you're out and about this we can grab hold of the aussie app on my ball good news and it's on the move i'll be back here to thank you again after we've checked and we've been bust. after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next that the ball different clubs on one hand it is logical to say i go home fields where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and a fresh perspective i'm used to surprising people and i saw one on t.v.

. i'm going to talk about football not for you or else you can think i was going to go. by the way what is the fence line here. my son there's doing drugs my nephews was still in drugs my sister just with doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one. in the united states is drug abuse is sort of one of the users in the prison population who are we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill i increasingly became convinced that the war on drugs was a mistake there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for conceivably long sentences for minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's

a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in ways you can save by day as you're walking out of this is just it doesn't get easier. is the fact that is that is why i'm like formally and also to make that they were perhaps stronger and condemning them or siding against them so with glee in the early stages of the war sell their tactically i mean to undermine the reconstruction process by the prolongation of sanctions i think that western countries would want as you ation where syria's we can start to buy the base you know ways in which he started by a third power not russia and iran not by the west and by the g.c.c. . countries.

it's the end of the week and this is boom bust broadcasting around the world and covering the world of business and finance and the impact on every one of us i'm bart chilton in washington d.c. and we're so pleased that you're on board with us today coming up the february jobs numbers are out for the u.s. and man oh man was there a surprise with less workers than anybody all the experts said there were a lot more not so much steve rashard standing by to lead us. hand and work through the interesting numbers plus the permian basin in the texas on the gulf coast their largest sovereign wealth fund on the planet shedding major oil interests bill hederman of the climate center for energy policy university of pennsylvania help us drill into the latest move and later is there a bubble forming in tech commodities trader randy joins us to talk about vulnerabilities in the tech sector she's a tech crusader all of that directly ahead but first with some headlines let's go.

a power outage in the midst of a fight over power leads our global report today as benno voile is hit by a massive blackout major portions of the oil rich south american nation were hit by a power outage on thursday afternoon and then on friday many schools or work places were officially shut down the minister responsible for electrical utilities luis motta domingo's blames sabotage of electoral hydroelectric facilities at the guru dam by the political opposition for the ongoing outage self-proclaimed interim president responded to the accusation inclined the outage occurs as a push to oust the elected president nicolas maduro seems to have stalled earlier this week there were reports that two hundred armed venezuelan soldiers were prepared to shoot their way across the colombian border to venezuela where the opposition and their u.s. supporters seem to be seeking to create a flashpoint. and we reported earlier in the week on the united states record trade

deficit but there's new news today that shows the trump trade war is continuing to harm other players official chinese to to six released earlier today show a steep twenty one percent drop twenty one percent in chinese exports for the month of february that's the sharpest drop in two years mr trump's national economic adviser larry kudlow speaking of the chinese said quote we have hurt them at the same time mr cupples scaled back the possibility for a summit between president trump and president g. jinping of china later this month who knows when that will happen and the endeavor talent agency is.