i've invested over $5000000000.00 to assist ukraine in these an article that will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. russia as envoy to the un accuses the global chemical weapons watchdog of becoming a highly politicized after leaked document appears to can contradict the o.p.c. w. probe into a chemical attack in syria. french intelligence chiefs question 3 journalists over a leaked dossier detail in the use of french weapons in the saudi bombing of yemen . and an austrian province sparks controversy by introducing some strict rules of conduct for refugees supposedly to help them integrate. the latest on these stories you can head to our t.v. dot com stay with us now for the big picture. on this week's show with thousands of

lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars against weed killer round up for causing cancer we hear that seeds are now altered to be roundup resistant so you might feel safe buying so-called organic foods don't an expert will explain why also this half hour wal-mart the world's biggest retailer accused of racial discrimination and hiring for reasons every job applicant should understand but 1st the very latest on flashpoints we have been watching very closely venezuela china cuba and iran holland cook in washington this is the big picture on our to america .

this past week the district of columbia government shut off power and water to a foreign embassy and metropolitan police broke in arrested occupants and a lot the door now guarded by a heavy police presence with what legal standing let's ask veteran diplomat jim john trysts and columnist and university lecturer jeremy the author of among other books the russians are coming again the 1st cold war as tragedy the 2nd as far as jeremy joins us from tulsa gentlemen welcome thank you. jim when iraq invaded our embassy and $980.00 the shoe was on the other foot is not an embassy anywhere deemed foreign soil sacrosanct yes it is when of course the 2 countries are still engaged in diplomatic relations now under the vienna conventions you can break diplomatic relations and close an embassy for example the iranian embassy

here in washington has been shuttered since 1900 and the state department protects the integrity of that property basically in trust for the iran for one relations may be established at some point in the future what you're not allowed to do is far as i can tell is to say all right we're going to break ties with the government we previously recognize recognize somebody else and that lets somebody else come in and take over that embassy on their behalf even though the government of that country doesn't authorize that in the 1st place so as far as i can tell they made a complete hash of this thing and one of the things i think is is most problematic is the idea that what amounts to a mob can be surrounding the embassy and empowered by the authorities to harass other people that are supporters of the government and that's what's been going on here on the streets of d.c. jeremy as this venue as well a plot thickened this past week the united states government banned all air transport passing. sure and cargo to and from venezuela citing security concerns is

this fake news the next stanza in administration warhawks drumbeat or are things there is substantially worse than a week or a month ago. but i think we have to look at the current policy busy in the broader context of the united states' efforts to try and undermine the bowl of our own revolution hugo chavez initiated starting in 1908 which has tried to assert more local control over natural resources and to put in power a lot of america these of the united states and the united states has been trying to undermine the government from the time hugo chavez has been in office to in the durand took over for a long period now insists intensified on the dollar trump with the intensified sanctions and the backing of the coup under one why those so we're just seeing a kind of continuation of that intensified effort to undermine the socialist government of venezuela and there's

a lot of propaganda there's an information propaganda war that's going on right now while this travel ban certainly adds to that pile jim we've learned that representatives of elected president nicolas maduro and opposition leader won go i don't know matt in norway to hash out the crisis what are your expectations my expectations are low but let's always be helpful look it's always look one of the things that bothers me most about american policy over the years is this notion that the venezuelan people want this the ukrainian people want that the syrian people want that and in fact in all of these countries people are divided that's why there's a conflict and a people on both sides of a country can come together and work out their problems without outside interference and pressure on fortunately that pressure is there that would be the best thing but the united states is not really lending itself to that effort it seems to me that we've decided we like these guys not these guys we want regime change and frankly that's not what people voted for in 2016 trump said. no more

regime changes and here we are back in regime change business yeah we're talking with veteran u.s. diplomat and author and professor jeremy kumar of dateline cuba where life is getting complicated by what's happening in venezuela these 2 countries are close allies on the trumpet ministration which had already chilled relations that had begun to thaw in the obama years is imposing new sanctions and food rationing has become in cuba jeremy historically sanctions tend to hurt citizens more than they tend to influence regimes correct. absolutely and the regime can use that to validate it's the judge in the sea by claiming that an outside power is out to get it and that it needs to mobilize the population on its behalf and that doesn't in the case of cuba there doesn't appear to be any real purpose for those sanctions this is having a cruel impact on the local population and that's true in other cases like iran as

well the iranian population has suffered from us ancients as is the venezuelan population there was a report saying as many as 40000 as wayland's of the in the last year and that's in large part a consequence of the same things you know let the record show fidel castro died of old age flashpoint in iran or is it while national security advisor john bolton and secretary of state mike pompei oh seem spoiling for a fight in iran president trump is again contradicting subordinates in public saying he doesn't want a war there this week marks the 40th anniversary of the islamic resolution and national security advisor john bolton sent this message to the ayatollah. perhaps worst of all the people of iran have suffered grievously right now unemployment is at record levels inflation is that all time highs the iranian currency has gone through the flu. so ayatollah khomeini for all your boasts for

all your threats to the life of the american president you are responsible for terrorizing your own people and terrorizing the world as a whole i don't think you'll have many more anniversaries to enjoy jim given all of that would the iranian people not want regime change and isn't intervention the only way that's going to happen that's where it tends to lead look let's be honest this kind of sanctions is a modern form of siege warfare and it always hurts the most vulnerable i remember a battle and albright saying it was worth it that half a 1000000 iraqi children died from our sanctions and we just talked about cuba venezuela now iran these things always end up hurting the most vulnerable parts of the population they don't do anything to destabilize the regime but we do it over and over again and usually then it ends up as a prelude to some kind of military action i think it's really sickening anti-human

to be doing this to other people just because we have various political differences well it's a dicey situation with u.s. intel reckoning that iran was behind the weekend attack on those 2 saudi oil tankers near the straits of hormuz and closing the strait would whack world markets jeremy and then jim if they do close the strait would that spell war and would they be committing economic suicide. i think so i mean i think it's a very dangerous situation right now we see almost replays of the iraq war where there's unsubstantiated claims being thrown about you know are very dangerous and could be used to justify military strikes or intensification of this economic warfare on iran. had a devastating effect within iran and could have a huge impact on the global economy if it's expanded so this would be. suicidal

this policy is continued further and we know of no bull seems like the kind of mania you how about a jam well you're right we've seen this movie before which is changing the queue in iraq to the end in iran and it's pretty much the same script and in the end in case of bolton one of the one of the primary people responsible for both i mean the thing is is i don't know who who hurt those saudi tankers maybe was the iranians firing a shot across the bow of those countries your baby was the israelis or the saudis or maybe some of our boys who were doing it if you're going to start a war let's be honest a war of aggression you want the other guy to fire the 1st shot so if you can back them in to doing something dumb provoke them into an incident we can say ah now we have a justification act that could be very well part of the script china is in the news doubly as wal-mart shoppers brace for a tariff induced price increases president trump has issued an executive order which bars american companies from using telecommunications equipment from sources

the administration deems a national security threat based on fears the chinese 5 g. technology will spy on us translation weiwei go home jeremy no shots are being fired but are we at war with china. well the obama administration issued an asia pivot policy which is very provocative towards the chinese when the premier as easy in pain had been promoting a win win strategy in which the united states and china should come together and i think trump is just intensify what obama is doing and he's also intensify the military buildup it's not getting all the headlines but the u.s. has increased the number of naval ships in the south 1 china sea it's increased the number of drones in the region and that's very threatening from a chinese viewpoint and it escalates the risk of confrontation and war so we see that risk in numerous areas from iran venezuela to china and it's a very day. the world situation and i think the united states has been very

provocative in its policy and the shoot at peace and diplomacy jim got about 30 seconds so i need the quick answer the chinese seem more patient than we do who do you think whose side is time on as we arm wrestle them over trade etc i think i think the short term ours in the long term there's and that's that think the really the bigger problem globally is that we have the united states fearing china as a rising power look i think our trade relation courtship with china does need to be rebalance but that the quid pro quo for that would be we get out of their face strategically right in the south china sea of korea and change on and so forth and we're not doing that where we're feel doing is full full of press confrontation across the board that's not in our interest i don't believe jim chatteris and jeremy thank you for stepping into the big picture comment out to dia feel safer eating organic food don't miss our next segment this is the big picture on our team

america. is donald trump national security advisor john bolton a clear and present danger to america and the world is saber rattling in the middle east particularly against iran should concern us we are forced to ask the fundamental question is bolton the primary architect of comps. in 24 to you know bloody revolution to the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be increasingly violent revolution is

always spontaneous or is it you still will hear it but i mean you know i live with to do it with the blues that i knew pulling me to the full the ukrainian president recalls the events of 2014. those who took part in this today over 5000000000 dollars to assist ukraine in these and i think it will ensure a secure and prosperous and democratic. for the 7th straight year walmart is number one on the recently announced fortune 500 list it's the world's largest company by revenue some half a trillion a year and defending aggressively against number 5 on the list amazon like amazon wal-mart has

a labor issues its elwood illinois distribution center had to outsource staffing to a 3rd party contractor which brought in help from temp agencies now as wal-mart is insourcing several of these facilities those employees need to speak come applicants for their own jobs and some are charging discrimination what's going on there let's ask we're birdo clack associate director of warehouse workers for justice worker centered dedication fighting for stable family supporting jobs in chicago land where houses repaired a welcome. thank you for having me it's great to be on hey as i understand what's happening there the aggrieved are preexisting african-american employees with criminal backgrounds who lost their jobs while white workers with criminal backgrounds kept their jobs is that correct that's that's right hundreds of workers were affected predominantly african americans who worked at wal-mart's largest

warehouse in the entire country on this is a sprawling facility 3400000 square feet long. there's 2 buildings in hundreds of workers were affected disproportionately african-american because of criminal background issues where lawsuits there in illinois and elsewhere have accused staffing agencies of discriminating against black workers by requiring them to submit to criminal background checks while the other workers are not so required to companies like wal-mart use these 3rd party workers to keep it at arm's length from discrimination actions that that's right you know one of the absurd things about this particular situation is these workers had worked there for in many instances several years 3 or 4 years they were told that they were going to be able to maintain their employment once wal-mart took over the warehouse on april 4th but

they were told that they could work for a staffing agency doing a similar are even the same job and that they could work for the staffing agency for less money and no benefits but not for wal-mart for more money and benefits so one of the ways that staffing agencies really work in the warehousing industry. is they create the 2nd tier of employment and instead of really helping out people with criminal records they take advantage of them and keep this in perk areas are working conditions so that's. that's definitely something that happens throughout the industry and wal-mart's guilty of it here as well the obviously this is not just a wal-mart issue nor an illinois phenomenon 12 states of already enacted so-called ban the box laws explain how that works yes so that's you know that's the protection in for workers and for housing that. you know gives you the

option not to. disclose all your complete history so there there have been basic protections that have been developed in places like al annoyed by you know as this situation shows and now it it's with its limitations and now hundreds of workers are out on the streets are non employment office unfortunately yeah as we said this is not just a wal-mart thing amazon has gotten a lot of bad press for employer relations any of this going on there. yes definitely you know an amazon has overtaken at least in our situation in the largest inland port in the country and amazon's surpassed. wal-mart in terms of employment and we're seeing a lot of different issues you know we've had pregnancy discrimination claims that people are making people feel that you know without rhythms in the way that

people are surveyed and you know forced busy to you know work harder and harder and harder all the time we definitely see a lot of labor issues with amazon as well thank you roberto clack warehouse workers for justice thank you for having me on you bet with all the horrifying news stories about pesticides sales of so-called organic food are up but is that ambiguous label false comfort let's ask the author of green enough eat better live cleaner be happier all without driving your family crazy food and consumer health activists list segovia's founder of mom of a sion a community of women empowered to live differently by avoiding hormone disrupting chemicals lia welcome. thank you so much for having me and so happy to be here hey as i see product labels in the supermarket organic seems to be marketing term is there a strict definition. you know actually there is

a strict definition but it's important for the consumer to understand that organic is more about a process and a plan than it is a test and so what happens is the farmer and the certifier agree on a plan and this avoids g.m.o. is it avoids toxics authentic pesticides but it's really a process to create better health better soil health and for the ecosystem now americans really want no pesticides in their products and organic also does that as well so but what we found is it's not so much the farmers when there is a problem it more has to do with the global organic supply chain or it has to do with the manufacturers for instance like in china so i kind of look at the organic industry as a junior high school kid they've now just entered $50000000000.00 a year so they're big enough to say they've graduated to junior high but now they're going to a little rambunctious some things are happening so now it's time to implement some additional strategies to make sure that you know they grow in

a better way it's not that organic is bad it's that you know he's a good kid sometimes he just ends up in the principal's office interesting analogy we have stayed on top of this glasgow seat story thousands of lawsuits by cancer victims against barrier for their monsanto roundup we kill or progress and your organization working with the detox project spotted a problem with regan protein products being sold on amazon talk about that. well mom of the nation in the detox project commissioned a study and we lab tested 5 of the top p.p. protein or conventional inorganic brands and so what we found was a little shocking and i was a little upset about it myself but we found that the organic p. protein brands had about the same amount of life to say 2 or more than the conventional brands so we don't really think this is happening again at the farming we think that this is actually happening more in the manufacturing and what we're dealing with right now is europe has actually clamped down on organic and so the

adulterated ingredients so to speak can't really go there anymore so where they're coming is guess what they're ending up here so we did some research on what happened and we're finding that there's 2 big issues right now one of them is called swapping out and one of them is called desiccation so let me tell you what those are about swapping out is when in the manufacturer so this is probably happening likely we're seeing a lot of this in china the manufacturer will swap out a conventional ingredient for an organic ingredients because it saves him money and then what is supposed to happen in what should be happening is a lot of testing to be able to find that if you are gannett industry in the united states doesn't have as much testing protocols as europe now has so this is becoming a big issue the other thing we're finding that's a problem is desiccation and desiccation is actually affecting everybody not just organic eaters but people that don't eat organic food and it's when a farming practice when the farmer sprays the field with life the state at the end

of the harvest to dry it out quicker so that you can save money in time but what ends up happening is if you're harvesting it right after you sprayed it the amount of glasses rises and so we're seeing a lot of life to sate in a lot of products that have wheat oats lagoons like pea protein and some spices like cinnamon so this is an issue for everybody and desiccation is a problem but again i feel like organic needs somewhat of a band-aid to deal with these 2 issues we made a point of no longer blind dog treats with the package has made in china something that humans auto abide as well. well you know i wouldn't i've actually lived in china before i taught english there long long time ago and so the chinese people are amazing people but you know systems like government those kind of things sometimes break down i wouldn't say that all chinese manufacturing is bad i would say it's neutral i would say some people are not as honest i would say and some

people are not that's what i would say gotcha when sam doesn't get the job done citizens will and your group mamas they should come has launched a campaign to crowd fund testing baby food breakfast cereal and other foods talk about the project and tell our viewers how they can. now mom of nation in the detox product really believes that the only way to solve this problem part of the things that we have to do is do more testing and so we started testing the food supply and we started testing with those p. protein plant brands but we want to go up beyond that we want to test baby food and pasta and cereals and all of those things but we need your help so i'm hoping that everybody will go to mom of a sion dot com slash fund food testing and and give us some money for go fund me page if everybody chipped in $25.00 to $100.00 we could literally test the entire food supply and let you know what brands have higher levels of life estate and other pesticides and what doesn't and we want to be able to do that for you so

we're hoping that we can all right now nice and slow say that again what's the website address to pitch in. so it's mom of basin dot com slash fund su nday foods f o o d testing t e s t i n g fine food testing based on all you know what do you personally void eating period lately. well i haven't been eating a lot of people voting but i'm not a vegan so this isn't as problematic to me as it would be to someone who is eating more plant piece foods so there are some major crops that if you're eating conventional food that are higher and life to save those are both wheat. lagoons and some spices so if you're eating conventional those are things you could just kind of avoid a little bit because they have higher rates of life estate for instance but you know i don't really avoid a lot of things per se i just try to eat organic most of the time but again you

know when you leave the house you know you're eating you're eating out you have no control over that so what we do in my home is we control as much of those ingredients as possible and i cook most of my food and if you cook most of your food you're getting rid of a lot of those contaminants that you're going to find you know in the processing and the like you know the food packaging and those types of things so you know cooking from home is a great strategy to avoid a lot of this stuff thank you lisa segue of the mom ovation dot com. and thank so much for having you press and thank you for watching the big picture if you see us somewhere else you can now also watch r t america live at youtube dot com slash r t america and we're also live on direct t.v. channel 321 on the super cool pluto t.v. 132 dish 280 and you can find all of our shows anytime anywhere on any device at youtube dot com slash the big picture r t m holland cook

in washington and i'm back here same time next week and in the meantime i am at holland cook on twitter where we'd like to hear your suggestions for stories and topics and guests you'd like to see in the big picture and where if you follow me i'll follow you a question for. the ceiling is a new name for you. or anyone who knows a little bit. more which is. because we will give it to you they go to. those who know people who see a posting that's when they would see that it was food. that's the ticket. if. that's the minute that you get.

what is calling the coin is magic the new type of digital currency the centralized digital scarcity chancellor brain. 2nd for a bank that's called the genesis block for a reason to calling it civil disobedience a source of optimism because i can't control my own financial death any it's just a new way of coming to consensus it's a game changer in the human history and this is columbus discovering a new world this paradigm shifting technology that transforms economics and finance in a heartbeat the apollo 11 landing on to the moon with max and stacey. this

is a story about what happens auster a stray bullet kills a young girl in the streets. what happens to her family and daughters in florida you know the mother daughter is buried in a cement terry kneeling messes with your head what happens to the community the public was screaming for a scapegoat the police needed a scapegoat so why not choose a 19 year old black kid with a criminal record who better to pin this on him and what happens in court he. shot shot as far as the side we feel. we don't know chills just for the. end of this trial unfortunately you. will still not know childress.

max kaiser this is the kaiser report now a lot of people are confused by so many people like klein but look at a story today coming out of wall street from morgan stanley they got really great and they mispriced the initial public offering or i.p.o. to grab a lot of money but then the stock start of the fall and usually there is a reserve bank like morgan stanley has called the green show to help to manage the initial public offering as the price goes up and down but the price was crashing so morgan stanley decided to instantaneously on the spot start counterfeiting shares out of nowhere they call it naked short selling but they just started to counterfeit shares in the hope that they could buy those counterfeit shares at a cheaper price and book a profit.