the 2nd impeachment trial of donald trump kicks off in the u.s. senate with a vote that is constitutional to try a former president trumps the defense team though says the proceeding will only serve to further divide the country. dozens of european parliament members call on the e.u. foreign policy chief to resign claiming he was too friendly with moscow on his recent trip the motion sparks a fiery exchange between lawmakers. moscow's abuse the visit of high representative to you mediate and the friends of the european union. the double standard of. undermines. as a defender of freedom. and protests break out across france calling for tougher

laws protecting children as the country's top court hears the case of a 13 year old girl who was allegedly raped by 28 firefighter. by broadcasting live coverage from our studios in moscow this is r.t. international i'm sean thomas certainly glad to have you with us. all right now the 2nd impeachment trial of donald trump has adjourned until wednesday in the u.s. senate democrats have charged the former president with inciting an insurrection but republicans are saying there's no chance of a conviction on the 1st day the senate voted yes to the question of whether trying a former president was constitutional there is a heavy security presence around the capitol building where the hearings are taking place the area is sealed off by a 2.5 meter fence and national guard troops are on patrol this part of

a major security operation that has been running since the storming of the capitol hill by supporters on january 6th the pentagon says that the troops will stay there at least until mid march and the entire operation will cost almost half a $1000000000.00. then we can now cross to our correspondent in new york who's been following this all day long and keeping us apprised of the twists and turns so kaleb what did we see on the 1st day and what more can we expect well it's a very serious situation on capitol hill you've got an impeachment proceeding carried out in the halls of the u.s. senate now the defense is arguing that it is unconstitutional and absurd the prosecution is arguing that this is donald trump's comeuppance for his treacherous behavior and the backdrop for all of this is

a heavily divided country americans seem pretty split when it comes to the previous administration let's take a listen. they tell us that we have to have this impeachment trial such as it is to bring about unity but they don't want unity and they know this so-called trial will tear the country in half leaving tens of millions of americans really left out of the nation's agenda. as dictated by one political party that now holds the power in the white house and in our national legislature this trial will tear this country apart perhaps like we have only seen once before in our history. now the impeachment charges they stem from the events that took place on january 6th on capitol hill when there were clashes and trump supporters penetrated the u.s. capitol there was another lot of property destruction 5 people died in the event many congressional staffers said they feared for their lives it's been called

a national tragedy and a disaster for america's standing in the world and those arguing that donald trump should be convicted of having incited this event have very much been appealing to the emotions of the entire country in the aftermath of the january 6th. you ask with a high crime and misdemeanor is under our constitution that's a high crime and misdemeanor if that's not an impeachable offense then there is no such thing he wants you to decide that the senate he's powerless they created a constitution within those written into it didn't binds the president from his very 1st day in office until his very last day in office and every day in between and now it's a very serious proceeding that's taking place on capitol hill right now as the senate hears arguments and prepares to vote on whether or not donald trump will indeed be convicted however the performance from both sides has been rather

colorful we've had poetry recited we've had witnesses crying we have had out say tongues little red book from china waved around to make a political point accusations are flying heated words are being exchanged the whole country seems to be watching on their television sets meanwhile americans throughout the country are. this point very divided about what's taking place and arms sales are up this is what we've heard from some americans. if it keeps heading down the same way. they're going to push people into another civil war i'm very worried about this country where it's going bad thing it's a bad thing he's out of office we'll be for peaceful use force to remove him from office he's already been removed it could get worse and it seems like every day it does good work that's not good for. half the country the size the start going on and democrats oh you know. i don't want to be the victim you know and then like

honestly i've never thought about that happening and so on and so so i just. now the senate did take a vote on whether or not it was constitutional to impeach a president or to convict a president to convene an impeachment trial after the president has already left office now that vote came to $56.00 to $44.00 with all the democrats and 6 republicans voting that it was constitutional to continue these proceedings and now it has not yet been voted on whether or not donald trump will be convicted now if in order for donald trump to be convicted 11 more republicans would have to join with the democrats in their voting you'd have to have a total of 17 republicans who would switch sides cross the aisle and vote in favor of convicting donald trump of donald trump's last impeachment proceeding you'll recall that only one republican mitt romney voted to convict donald trump so it's highly unlikely that the democrats will have the 17 republican votes they need in

order to convict donald trump however these are still historic proceedings donald trump is now the only president in u.s. history to have been impeached twice and he's long left office but the proceedings of his impeachment are continuing it's quite a dramatic moment the country is heavily divided quite dramatic displays and performances from various figures as the proceedings continue the congressional proceedings have adjourned for the day but are set to resume on wednesday and on wednesday once again arguments will proceed and it looks like there will be a vote soon on whether or not donald trump who's already left office will be convicted of inciting insurrection the charge against him brought by democrats. there for us in new york we know it's been a big day for you you've been sitting across us and we know that it's going to be more brigades for you ahead so each your wheaties and get some rest all right.

now for more on this we go to karen join a republican strategist and former 2016 trump campaign senior adviser karen thanks for being with us here on our to international. truly an historic day democrats kicked off their case with a video showing trump calling on people to go to the capital followed by violent clashes at the building where you saw a lot of red hats in that sea of people the video did not show that he told them to quote go peacefully and patriot. what does this say about how the bar is being set for evidence in the trial so far. yeah it's really it's an extraordinary period in time. if you look at it through an historic lens as well as a political lens and for someone like me who's been in this business over 3 decades . i'm watching it very carefully because i think it really does set. very

dangerous precedent. in how. the legislative branch of our government is going to behave in up with me moving forward there's a lot to unpack here and so well i love these talking points and i know that the democrats would love to set the stage to make it very very dramatic who saw them start with a visual which i thought was actually quite brilliant to to to put out there for the world to see in especially in the senators the unfolding of the days and then. i'm generally 6 through video and and then a narrative. that's kind of leading to a conclusion where we don't have all the facts in front of us however. the. the only folks that are really. going to be paying attention to this in our are

that i'm here or are the members of the senate and so this is really a lot of political theater because. the likelihood of donald trump being impeached . through this trial is very low democrats know that republicans know that yet here we are and so i just would say it's a cautionary tale it's about. more than just whether or not the president is guilty of the charges which. all would. are part of what i view. the president probably was an artful and should probably not have said some things instead doesn't really rise. to the incitement of violence the democrats are claiming and

a good majority would say no one thing that we should point out is that so far the trial itself hasn't actually taken place this was a hearing to determine if it was actually constitutional to move forward with the trial so given that perspective it hasn't actually presented any significant new evidence a lot of emotional wreck rhetoric as you mentioned do you think that this is being driven by facts or political grandstanding you mentioned that it's political theater telling more a little bit about your thoughts on that. well i think it's also important. and which i think most americans really want is that it is a little theater it's a political trial it's not a criminal trial and so this is this is about the politics of the individual they have in front of them which is happens to be the former president of united 60 jay truong if you go back $268.00 when there was the impeachment trial of

president andrew johnson and this is during reconstruction after we actually had a civil war. he was impeached over. a law that. did not enable him to remove a cabinet member and his actual cabinet member which was a secretary were stanton without the consent of the congress the interesting facts here is that. to tell me 1928 sure congress me for the supreme court ruled that. that law was unconstitutional and the president johnson was well within his rights to remove a member of his cabinet his own cabinet this is this is all about whether or not the majority party which has never really liked donald trump as we can all admit to that i mean there's not any democrat that's going to come out and say i liked trump in the ministration and i have one question though. of course democrats are not

going to say that they like democrats that they like donald trump you know it is political clashing if you will but do the democrats actually have a point when they allege that trump bears responsibility for the violence because of his publicly contesting the election result publicly saying that it wasn't going to be valid unless he won even suggesting former vice president pence could block acceptance of some of the electoral votes he has some responsibility. well again i think i think we're looking at this probably through the wrong lens and while it's it's we're here because the lens is clearly political which is we don't like donald trump. and we don't like what he did we don't like what he said and as a result of his rhetoric they are are leading this ringback to the charge of insurrection and motivating people to go on the capitol building. i'm not sure that

they're going to be able to curve their point that that even the time i mean if you look at the video today very compelling i mean certainly dramatic and those who were able to sit and watch through. the length of that video it's heart wrenching i mean there's no american that's going to say that that was a perp or it behavior. but we're not going to lay that behavior right at the feet of donald trump i'm not sure that's that's accurate if you look at the timeline and i think this is going to be very interesting to see what. caster in show do is whether or not they really do use the 1st amendment here or to to say the president has a right to talk about whatever he wants to talk about under the protection of the 1st amendment whether or not. the individuals that that storm the capital it was

premeditated which we're now beginning just to learn that it possibly was. would suggest that they didn't even listening to the president. but they were there are ready and they have pre-planned it so there's a lot that they need to. pack through this this hearing but i do think it might actually lead to a try all only because they've spent this much time. energy and effort and bliss. and propaganda so if we're going to go to a trial. of this one we already know the outcome is going to be that he doesn't get impeached indeed. giorno i hope that we can bring you back as this trial continues it could take weeks republican strategist and former 2016 trump campaign senior adviser interesting to hear your perspective here on our 2 international.

right moving on twitter is stepping up its crackdown on right wing commentators accused of spreading false information on the u.s. electoral process 2 of the latest examples are jim hoffa founder of the website gateway pundit and radio host wayne allen root they have both been blocked by twitter for what it called repeated violations of civic integrity policy they fell foul of the platforms rules by promoting donald trump's claim that the november election was marred by fraud since the storming of the u.s. capitol last month twitter has banned over $70000.00 accounts for similar reasons including vat of the former president earlier my colleague collin bray spoke with wayne allen root who was one of the people blocked he thinks conservative voices are being silenced. this is a joe mccarthy which prides against conservative voices they try to eliminate dissent they try to eliminate diversity while they talk all day about diversity if you're black it's great if you're let's you know it's great if you're gay it's

great if you're a woman it's great if you're transsexual it's great god forbid in the united states of america you'd be a childless conservative they want to destroy your life and silence you censor you ban you burn your books this is the irony you know the hero liberals all the liberal activist esol in ski he wrote a book called rules for radicals and he always said look in the mirror whatever you see blame the other guy democrats have spent 50 years attacking joe mccarthy for which he wants now they're very good at i don't even know why i was suspended to be showed me the tweet i do will of bet you that 74000000 americans that voted for trump agree with every word of my tweet how do you ban someone's opinions when 74000000 people have waters agree with them and as you heard earlier the founder of gateway pundit has been banned by twitter that happened after his site posted this video jim hoffa claims it shows the delivery of absentee ballots to a polling station in detroit several hours after the deadline had passed gateway

pundit is promising to release more such videos in the coming days and u.s. election officials have all said there is no evidence of significant fraud in the 2020 presidential vote which they called the most secure in the country's history but jim hoffa thinks there is no justification for shutting out those who disagree . twitter does not want is to release any more of this information they're citing us as spreading and violating their ethics clause that they just put in where you cannot challenge anything about the 20 twentieth's action and yet there are still individuals who are challenging the 2016 election that still allowed on twitter there are so secure with their position why are they cracking down and eliminating eliminating. sites like myself from the social media platforms it doesn't make sense and this is what we've fought against for several months now. french

protesters call for a new law to protect the children of the case of a 13 year old girl who was allegedly raped by firefighters that is among our story still ahead when we come back this is art international. and when else to show this seems wrong. why don't we all just don't hold. anything we'll get to see palin does that come after. and in detroit because the trail. when something is find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. the world is driven by a dream shaped by one person. who

dares thinks. we dare to ask. welcome back this is our team international now euro m.p.'s have clashed over a motion backed by 50 lawmakers 'd to force out to use top diplomat they accuse joe said borro of being too soft on russia during his recent visit here as our europe

correspondent peter all of. dozens of m. e p's had signed a letter calling for high representative for foreign affairs basically the e.u.'s foreign minister yossi burrell to stand down from his post following this trip to moscow they accuse him of being too weak when it comes to dealing with russia. had gotten there with the intention of pressuring moscow for the release of alexei no vallone what we've ended up with was the current situation that we find ourselves in yes it burrell is said he's got no intention of quitting his post we've also heard from his boss as well as a fond ally in the e.u. commission president she said she's going to stand by her man and has no intention of sacking him saying the high representative has her full support now this plenary session that was held in the european parliament on tuesday was quite a heated affair there was a lot of voices calling for the head of mr burrell certainly some scathing

criticism of his trip to moscow and a lot of criticism for russia in general as well moscow to be used the visit of high representative bordello to you millie 8 and a friend the european union they just obviously can't help but shoot. towards western representatives if you are ill executed a visit you know not only a shame to european citizens you also helps putin and harms dressin people who are ill and the on the other hand made a fool of himself last week you must go by his actions he made a mockery of the ambition of the e.u. to play a major role in the world stage we could call that finally prompted you member states and yourself to to adopt a more realistic and principled russian foreign policy and to move toward sanctions finally among others. of human rights under sanctions least and to suspension

stream to. which is contrary to european and if you security policy it's certainly got spicier timeline but there were some voices in the european parliament saying that it would be written all you needed to change their attitude when it comes to dealing with russia imus happy as anybody else to stand up for anybody's rights including no foul nice but let's be honest if i was and he said fish is anti immigrant racist on maybe 4 percent of the supports and we wouldn't be discussing him us all if he'd been arrested anywhere else other than in russia and the country on leaders have been sentence from 9 to 13 years in prison for our nation our friend um we have a warning that the double standard applied by do you undermines its global credibility as a defender of freedoms do you cannot go around the world mending. that does not apply to chelsea while joseph burrell was in moscow for those talks he

held with sergey lavrov the russian foreign minister he described the atmosphere is a trusting war certainly our asians are on c.v.s. tree. and they have an e.k.g. lowballing canal operation. but. we are connected not only by geography. but put out wide range of the story cool called google have an economic times but as soon as he arrived back in brussels there was a different statement coming out says yes it said that as far as he was concerned moscow had no intention of trying to improve relations with the european union well that prompted the russian foreign ministry spokeswoman bertie as account of a to suggest that it had been an attempt for a public whipping of russia where do we stand after all of this certainly a lot of any peace deeply own happy with the high representative for foreign

affairs he says he's not going to quit his boss the new commission president on the line says she's not going to sack him so for now at least he's going nowhere. when former austrian foreign minister karen can isolate says efforts by some to ratchet up tensions with russia and serve no one's interest. pushed by such an action that will to put a dangerous president out and you never know whether there will be some changes inside the commission from what i cannot saw from the trial in wave. as there always will it is not true well in the commission but that has little to do with mr borroughs was it to moscow depth has much more to do with. their distribution of mexicans ever since 2014 for the past 7 years now we have seen a decrease of our relations. and there are many issues that have to be

tackled and sometimes you can disconnect the one issue from the other should you shouldn't. such a kind of walks all on on all the just friends topics and here i staked out. certain urgency to. rebuilt some sources of trust and and not go into confrontation. the case of a french girl who was allegedly raped by 20 firefighters has sparked protests across france with protesters demanding tougher laws on age of consent or to charge dubinsky as more. on wednesday this court is going to be center stage for a case that's provoked outrage here in france it involves a woman known as julie who says she was raped by 20 firefighters between the ages of 13 and 15. it all

began when julie real name had been assisted by a firefighter following a severe anxiety seizure 13 in 2008 which claimed she obtained her number for medical records and then. before asking her to undress via webcam then claimed he passed it details on to other firefighters who did the same now in 2009 it's alleged a firefighter then raped julie says she was later taken to an apartment where she was gang raped in 2010 julie disclosed what it happened to her mother and a complaint was filed 3 firefighters were placed under investigation but no action was taken against another 17 men also accused 2 of the men have admitted that they had sex with julie whilst on duty and whilst wearing their uniforms a 3rd admitted a sexual act in a toilet cubicle in

a parisian hospital where julie had been admitted in march 20th definite judge was appointed to investigate but after 8 years the rape charges were dropped instead replaced by consensual penetrative sex with a minor under 15 this means the maximum sentence that they could receive is 7 years compared with 20 for rape. who were $25.00 partners so the corrosion the sadness when we're talking about a 30 year old child just a sister unable to realise that we're not in a fair balance of power and that when julie was raised by 20 firefighters she was raped under duress and she couldn't she couldn't accept the weight since she was a child that outcome is said to julie. and she attempted to take her own life her family though is determined to keep fighting julie's mother is still gulps marked by that decision. the facts are simple julie was 1314 and 15 at the time she was in

a very vulnerable state taking medication and trying to kill herself and 20 firefighters came to her all of them admit that they performed a sexual act on her with penetration and yet in france in the 21st century the court decides that the innocent julie's case has caused consternation in france. for almost a decade we have trusted the justice system to make its ruling the court of appeals ruled the rapists were justified given the success they enjoy with women moreover they stated verbal and writing that the firefighters should be exonerated quote given the rampant sexual interest shown and. campaigners pose that they just say. this court will lou to an age of sexual consent being in troy and in french and all calls for a minimum age of consent have been cruising in recent years and in january the senate backed a bill to make the age of consent 13 but child protection associations say that

that is insufficient charlotte even ski r.t. paris alright that does it for me this hour but i'll be back in about 30 minutes with another for infrastructure news stay with us mrs argenter. and if free for underage prostitutes are controlled by a pimp these traffickers exploit on average $4.00 to $6.00 girls at any one time the investigators are going to try to find out you've done you know.