the northeastern france accuse their belgian neighbors of illegally dumping rubbish across the border our correspondent charles devinsky investigates. being described as being on the scale and you can see why. also this hour of venezuela slams u.s. sanctions as a weapon of mass destruction and a mass form of warfare with president donald trump threatening to impose further restrictions on the country's oil sector. and u.k. athletics officials come under fire after a b.b.c. documentary claims they took part in a dopping scandal involving a limp dick champion mo farah.

good morning and welcome to the program this is our 2 international coming to you live from the russian capital let's get started with your live news update. and they say that good fences make good neighbors but that proverb seems not to apply to france whose north eastern border is suffering from illegally dumped waste apparently originating from belgium charlotte devinsky reports. this may look like part of a landfill site but it's not all of this waste has been dumped here illegally we're just a few miles from the border with belgium and luxembourg and the french town of all core mu 9 is one of many struggling to cope with what you can see mountains and to mountains of garbage that have appeared since october in nearby red it's a similar story trash both household and commercial has been dumped under the cover

of darkness city. at 1st we thought it was a regular waste but it turns out people are illegally dumping their washing machines. they're throwing everything away. yes but here we see it's far more serious we estimate around 200 tons of waste it's enormous as far as the pollution we don't know what's inside it could be tons of who knows what type of products. chemicals. we don't know we see cleaning products plastics but more could be hidden it didn't take long before calls track down where the waste was coming from what if we did i was looking through the trench piles and piles of it it all had signs of being from the same place and all know it was from turnip. and that if there is an invoice is it and.

there. have been so of s. . when the company was contacted it didn't need any knowledge of illegal waste dumping but the local resident jessica told me that since that statement the fly tipping has continued it's been described as dumping on an industrial scale and you can see why back in the local fisherman's association is also concerned. on the water source or close to this pollution so there can be a problem because it could affect our pond this is the 21st century there are designated places to put waste like this on it's an acceptable people are doing this and regulating the mayor's office says the cost of cleaning this up is beyond its means you know and you will feel so on a financial level for us this is impossible to solve we have

a small community of $1000.00 people it would cost the equivalent of the whole annual budget to get rid of this. a criminal investigation into this problem with cross border dumping has we know you didn't and customs agents have stepped up their patrols now in 2017 they reported that 7 metric tons of waste like this was illegally trafficked into france in 2018 that shot up to 130000000 metric . tuns now although there are new think is yet available for $29000.00 it is clear that this issue is escalating the communities here off fed up of being a dumping ground for of the people's waste they want more regulation and a calling on the e.u. to step in to solve a problem that some believe europe's open borders are helping to facilitate show that you can ski for. the u.s.

president donald trump has threatened further sanctions on venezuela's oil sector progress has branded american restrictions a weapon of mass destruction accusing washington of waging a massed form of warfare it's now been a year since the u.s. formally recognized venezuela's opposition leader 1.0 as the country's interim president showing the door to the legitimate government of nicolas maduro the u.n. meanwhile has raised the alarm over devastating food shortages in the country artist kilmartin looks at america's role and venezuela's continuing political upheaval. when it comes to venezuela the trumpet ministration lives in a kind of alternate universe for example when the country faces a food crisis donald trump says there can be only one cause venezuela's president nicolas maduro people are starving here's a case worker who was wealthy 15 years ago and very wealthy 20 years ago very very well when you look today they don't have water they're on

a basic food they have no medicine it's incredible what's happened it is we're no we're watching very closely we don't like it we don't like it not at all he fails to mention that u.s. sanctions have been wreaking havoc on venezuela for years or that opposition groups have actually been caught torching food warehouses in the narrative of the u.s. government these things simply don't exist that inaccessible most of the men using the blockade of food medicine and weapons to politically coercion were private entire country. their own means to sustain and develop themselves are actually there are completely criminal these unilateral curse or criminal actions are equivalent in scope and effectiveness to weapons of mass destruction but it gets better the venezuelan embassy in washington d.c. has been reopened after diplomatic relations are cut off you'll recall how the actual venezuelan officials were ordered to leave the country so with no diplomatic relations what exactly is this new so-called embassy. somebody who is in there.

how well are they able to provide consular services. you see. ok i see. very interesting because i hear that there is an empathy you see this pretend the embassy has a pretend ambassador working out of it it cannot grant visas or do any of the normal functions that a normal embassy does for one simple reason no one would be allowed into venezuela with those visas because the embassy doesn't represent the actual venezuelan government this pretend embassy is just a big facade representing a president not elected by the venezuelan people but by american officials duras grip and tyranny will be smashed and broken. here this evening so a very brave man. who carries with him the hopes dreams and aspirations of all venezuelans joining us in the gallery is the true and illegitimate president of

venezuela juan why do you eat now the u.s. government insists this is the true leader of the venezuelan people but when he arrived at venezuela's airport the venezuelan people had a pretty different opinion. back home the one great 0 is not popular polls show that roughly 10 percent of them as whalen support him however vice president mike pence likes to brag about the fact that over 60 countries have recognized him as president this president has led now a coalition of more than 60 countries around the world that have recognize one of the legitimate president of venezuela but over $100.00 countries have not

recognized one way to go and still seem as the legitimate president furthermore in the countries where dueto is recognized it's far from unanimous do you not agree that the recognition of glial is an absolute am paris months to anyone that has occupied this chamber and this is this chris on and up out of the member states of europe a some of them have recognized and i like to washington had very high hopes for one grade 0 hoping that he would go ahead and topple the dural but it didn't happen so it seems that now washington has adopted a strategy of pretending that it did and hoping that others will play along the u.s. is totally broken international law by taking over the embassy in the name of the. government is the official government of venezuela whenever the u.s. says. most people in venezuela know. that it's a joke. you can't just declare that somebody is the elected president when he isn't

the elected. so the the us is making this this farce of a person into the government and then saying that the embassy doesn't belong to venezuela we now have a coalition of the willing who are saying that quite 0 is the government it doesn't have any other option i mean he hasn't been able to push that mud euro out. a new a b.b.c. documentary claims that u.k. athletics officials are implicated and i don't think controversy involving britain's 4 time olympic champion and top and durrance runner mo farah alexy are chefs he has more. this summer the whole of great britain will be glued to their screens rooting for the nation's prize athlete 4 time olympic champion runner more or will they and you panorama documentary by the b.b.c. has cost further doubt on whether more farah success was cleanly won the don't fall back to salazar who could serve more to. what to do when at all costs the

main sticking point is the role of former coach alberto salazar who was banned in october 29000 from any sports activities he was the head of the controversial nike oregon project until the u.s. anti-doping agency suspected he may have banned the doping rules one of those substances he used was l. carney team designed to speed up muscle and heart recovery for athletes it's considered legal indows this which do not exceed 50 millimeters over 6 hours salazar however reportedly invented a new method of administering l. carnitine through intravenous injections which itself sparked questions from u.s. anti-doping authorities it has not been a secret that more have had injections of the substance prior to the law on the marathon in 2014 but the new documentary opens a fresh can of worms namely about the relationship between salazar and u.k. athletics meet barry fudge head of long distance running at you get led takes still working at the organization in 2014 he reportedly flew to switzerland to obtain the

el carnitine in a form which could not have been acquired in the u.k. he did not document this trip even though he had to he's calling u.k. athletics dr rob chakravarty reportedly administered the injections to more and yet he didn't report it either even though it is against the rules to prevent he later said he simply forgot to do that over working and travelling even unusual occurrence that this very specific medicine was required source to great difficulty given against the initial advice of the don't know he said he records of it and there were dishonest question answers but the eve. and more bizarre case of forgetfulness occurred with more himself when you saw the investigators came to question him 1st he staunchly denied that he was. left the interrogation but then came back and changed his account having spoken to barry fudge i have never taken ill carnitine injections at all i just wanted to come clean sorry guys and i did

take it at the time and i thought i did it all comes back to me but at the time i don't remember more farrah's lawyer says the athlete just didn't get the question now having seen the documentary the u.k. anti-doping agency's c.e.o. nicole sapp said said she the agency was ready to cooperate and even called usada is investigation robust we thank the panorama team for their efforts the program is another example of the importance of investigative journalism regards in integrity matters in sports u.k. and to doping agency support of the u.s. anti duping agency with their investigation into the nike oregon project we believe us and to do in agencies investigation was extensive and robust but just a month ago the u.k. openly refused to hand over more all to doping probes to usada for retesting now there's no word whether this these new revelations would lead to the much sought retesting of ferrous probes because who knows what kind of further controversies

surrounding the pride of britain sport such a move would uncover after this latest panorama bombshell where theologist and former sports lecturer alice cashmore and swimming coach marco hendricks for their thoughts on the scandal. i'm sorry i just don't buy the fact that some will or some people could be so forgetful if someone injects a substance into you you don't forget you can just walk away and say no they didn't do it and there sometime later say oh i forgot it happened ok to say now this is all through pleated over the last 24 hours we did nothing that wasn't compliant with wider protocols you know if this our connotate is ok if administered in the right dosage yes but they're also saying it may not be within the spirit of sport what does that mean you know this to me is it is so of they are it's illegal or is

it there's no 2 ways about it and it has been a violation of a wider code then i'm afraid u.k. as ethics has to be brought to justice so i sing that's all a little bit funny what happened now and this time in the. city as a social at 1st more far set i don't take a look at and t. and suddenly it seems he has he taken it and the u.k. as leading us to say should chief medical officer say as it was legal and nothing was documented it's for me all a big lie sometimes i wonder if. it's or a doctor saying that people are stupid imagine the same thing happened in the russian this time would be blocked again for the next or another 4 for us but the same like knowledge in the u.k. is a small city. telecom remarks about castro saw us democratic front runner

bernie sanders rounded on by his rivals in the last t.v. debate before super tuesday details after this short break. in the united states presidential candidates debate the future of the u.s. and the world. max kaiser and stacy herbert's dig into the burning questions of this election cycle one self every week. tax student debt trade was corporate money universal basic. and more catch up with what's front running this sunday exclusively on. what politicians do. they put themselves on the line they get accepted or rejected

. so when you want to be president and you. wanted. to go right to the press this is what the full story of the more people. interested in the why. welcome back to the program the us democratic 2020 hopefuls have clashed again and another t.v. debates last before south carolina and super tuesday which is seen as decisive for the party's presidential nomination front runner bernie sanders face more attacks

from his rivals for his earlier remarks defending literacy programs and fidel castro's cuba he again stressed that he opposed authoritarianism all over the world self-styled socialist words were initially made an ac b.s. interview and his opponents were quick to pounce. we're very opposed to believe or thorough peer in the chair of cuba but you know it's unfair to simply say everything is but you know when fidel castro came into office you know what he did he had a massive literacy program result a bad think after 4 years of looking on in horror as trump cozied up to dictators we need a president who will be extremely clear in standing against regimes that violate human rights abroad we can't risk nominating someone who doesn't recognize this fidel castro left a dark legacy of forced labor camps religious repression widespread poverty firing squads and the murder of thousands of his own people but sure bernie let's talk about his literacy program. during the debate centers also noted that his views on

cuba were the same as barack obama as. president castro in cuba and said look you've made great progress in educating. young people every child in cuba it's a basic education that's that's a huge improvement from where once earlier my colleague daniel hawkins discussed the potential impact of standards remarks on the race at the peril of guests. but he saw into saying this thing at a time when the democratic party's already split it's the vibe that it's going through perhaps a bit of a p.r. it means here across this i mean this is a really bad decision isn't it sanders to me shows his integrity here look he's been saying this for years that there's videotapes of him saying these things about cuba and fidel castro in the soviet union i mean how can he backtrack on those things honestly you know he's just you know reaffirming ideas that he has had for

many years the concern is not him saying good things about the literacy program it's i said it thing that mussolini got the trains to run on time that was not what it is that people associated with what mussolini did it happened to be the case but he was a murderous dictator as was castro spineless democratic stablish men shows their true colors it's like a litmus test every time you can say one positive word about cuba or the one word in defense of venezuelan sovereignty they want to make sure there's no critique and so imperialist critique of the u.s. foreign policy establishment so this is a very sophisticated form of censorship to try to narrow the perimeter is as we have more and more debates within the democratic party coming out of that anyone can all get literacy is a bad thing literacy programs that's probably we could all agree on that but isn't this an era of judgment on bunny sourness paul given there are lots of countries

with good literacy programs with social programs and robust human rights records i mean this is surely shooting oneself in the foot before a important electoral race we have a democratic nominee who is tipping is hat to castro the murderer for having a literacy program so it's not just a question of stature ship or narrowing things it's making 100 percent sure we have a nominee who is electable and the concern is once the public realizes what bernie sanders. in the past he's an unreconstructed socialist and the united states that generally not a calling card the unofficial religion of the united states is in its eye communism and we just have to listen to richard's previous comments boy to hear some of the communism but the truth is that the youth of this country in the multi-national working class who supported bernie in nevada 46 percent of the votes that he won in nevada they're not socialists they understand who the true enemy is the enemy is not venezuela or cuba or china it's the 1000000000 is right here in the pentagon in

the white house the former. mayor of new york city michael bloomberg and on wall street i will quote george w. bush who said we judge other countries by the worst of their actions we judge our own country by the best of our intentions and i think that's true you can look at a country like cuba and yes you can learn about literacy programs that work health care programs that work and we should be able to do that in a rational way again especially when you look at the fact that people like president trump and president obama before him and numerous presidents before them partnered with murderous regimes like saudi arabia which now is being funded by the u.s. in its war against yemen which is threatening to kill millions of people and yet that is something that isn't being discussed. violence broke out between riot police and hundreds of residents on the greek islands of lesbos in kiev as people

there are furious over the stories plans to build new migrant detention centers officers resorted to tear gas to disperse the crowd which is set fire to trash bins and tried to blockade the local port. this is democracy and for this is democracy is that if this is democracy then i don't know what to say i don't know it's a shame shame on the government shame on everyone it's disgusting it's betrayed and acceptable for what the way the government has acted towards us and they would be treating us like we're enemy it's ireland is on it's attack is it belongs to the islanders this country was based on democracy and the only they have done is create inhumanity for all for the refugees and for the residents of the island earlier

greece's foreign minister announced a new policy aimed at protecting refugees stressing also that the country it was on the frontline of the migrant crisis greece continues to deal with the largest flows of migrants and refugees since the 2nd world war we are among the 4 e.u. member states with the highest number of asylum applications despite the disproportionate burden we have saved thousands of lives in the sea newcomers are living in makeshift camps which are overcrowded for example the morea camp on lesbos was originally designed to accommodate around 3000 refugees but now the number is almost 7 times higher last year alone 74000 refugees arrived in greece with more than half that number still living in camps and this year the country estimates some 100000 asylum seekers or reach its soil political analysts petra's our group says that this iteration could get much worse without more support. regarding the present situation as it is i want to go we're going to have classes

between. the local people and the migrants the islanders do not want to be expelled from where on an island so they're staying so far and just protest that . things can get pretty worse in this some of the silence of the competition is a dreadful so it's only logical the crime will increase if he doesn't. and we're on the phone same thing i. do with programs like there's a program in greece as a european union program and i'm just it's a program of just one gun free will be in big big trouble. that's a breakdown of today's top headlines for now but if you're looking for more you can always had to our website r.t. dot com thanks for tuning in this hour.

nuclear power become a battleground in the u.s. in vermont people are demanding the shut down of a local plant from my yankee is right now my focus because it's a very dangerous oh no care power plant the owner is attempting to run the reactor beyond its operational limit this case just sort of puts a magnifying glass on where's the power in this country where's it going is it moving more towards corporate interests or is it more in the idea of a traditional participatory democracy is for power live with the people this case demonstrates that struggle in the very real ways our struggle on o.t. .

tax rises financial survival guide stacey let's learn about fill out let's say i'm the troika and here i'm greece on face of the fight 'd wall street fraud thank you for helping. destroy that's true. that's slavery. the only. system must. be there. and there's no bomb. you know. if the.

last 9 enemies think that you will be like that do they have any. kind of eyes that i'm not that into. them and that having. given focus on people. who give their name not even come on what the how do we. assume. they need the whole gone. let out he said and i think just my. greetings and sal you take it as well the 2020 years are upon us and as we

venture into the unknown of the next decade the human race is facing some pretty brutal challenges not only that we have brand new threats like climate change but we are also still haunted by many of society's oldest problems like war famine pestilence and now all dressed up in the 21st century technology and speed wardrobe and one of mankind's most ancient of scars slavery and the trafficking of human beings has truly truly found a new home here in the dawning of the 2020 psychology today is now reporting that currently across the globe there are over 40000000 people in slavery and that never before in human history have this many people but in slaved and well yes never before in human history there has also never been 7000000000 of us that shouldn't lessen the impact of these numbers because tragically my friends the big. is miss of buying and selling human beings for sex labor and servitude is booming in fact

according to the international labor organization even back in 2014 forced labor in the private economy generates 150000000000 in u.s. dollars in illegal profits per year about 3 times more than was previously estimated $150000000000.00 industry and that's numbers from 6 years ago but the industry of human servitude is not just limited to the violent extremes of human trafficking no no no if this new millennium has taught us anything it's that indentured servitude and slavery can take many different forms just as the 45000000 u.s. citizens suffering under the crippling 1.5 trillion in student loan debt or the millions upon millions who are working more than one job just to make ends meet put food on the table keep put a roof over their heads so today my friends let's break down.