accounts and they're all in debt and what exactly did society. the whatever the government tried to do. the. work this is goes. wrong. this is breaking news moscow tells the u.s. diplomatic staff in russia after the senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new round of sanctions. human rights watch claims an iraqi army division previously trained by the u.s. has carried out extrajudicial killings in mosul. attacks of the cia's post nine eleven torture program could be set to go on trial in the u.s. we speak exclusively to a former colleague of one of the men. are

there for me in the team here at the new center in moscow my name's called embrace how three pm friday afternoon keeping in touch with the biggest stories from around the world first for you russia's told the u.s. to cut the number of diplomatic staff that it has in the country by the first of september the move follows the approval of a new russian anti russian sanctions bill by the senate it was overwhelmingly voted for for more details we can talk to a. strongly worded statement what else did it say hi there colleen yes it's a really hot day here in moscow and it said be hotting up in diplomatic circles as well as you are saying this is all about cutting diplomatic and technical stuff what they russians have said is that they want the americans to cut their staff down to four hundred fifty five people and that's not just in moscow either. that's

all the way across russia and as you say it comes it comes in response to all the sanctions that we have been hearing about yesterday but also what they want to do is limits what the u.s. does in terms of its movements and when it comes to warehouses and also a diplomatic compound that it has here in moscow so this is very much a sort of tit for tat measure what they're trying to do is mirror what the americans are doing to the russians over an american i also say they will continue to do that if america unilaterally decides to cut back on the diplomatic stuff what they're also saying is that under the circumstances with the new sanctions coming in but the russians have tried to normalize bilateral relations but they also feel that this new move comes in response to what they feel is a particularly new aggressive u.s. foreign policy as we can hear both sides of the aisle these sanctions once again show how aggressive the u.s. is in conducting its foreign policy using exceptionalism as an excuse the u.s. arrogance league news the interests of other countries well as we heard they call in the key word is exceptionalism and russia has taken exception to it

and will not force what lies behind all this well as you said before calling this comes less than a day after the u.s. senate had voted on a new set of anti russian sanctions that only needs president trump signature to make sure that it goes through its also in the sense that there's a feeling that this particular bill is punitive towards those doing business with russia and in particular the energy companies as well or we've heard from president putin before saying that russia has been patient over particular moves against them but they feel that a response should come and it becoming say. like this one to the news of these sanctions are completely illegal they go against international law and the rules of the world trade organization we're being very patient and very reserved but at some point we will have to respond we can't endlessly tolerate aggressive behavior towards our country these actions can be perceived as aggravation and i would even say exceptional cynicism. well in the meantime we had a response from the u.s.

ambassador to russia john tester you said that he's deeply disappointed about the move and has protested against them or i caved in our thanks for bringing us up to speed on all that in our moscow studio thanks a lot right we're getting lots of reaction throughout the coming hours until now to thomas fassbender who is from the dialogue of civilizations research institute mr fassbender welcome to r.t. international what do you make of russia's response to the potential threat of yet more u.s. sanctions. he has got a call and it was to be expected keeping in mind that the expelling of thirty five diplomats by the u.s. towards the end of last year was not answered at the time by russia so the question was rather more what russia today or yesterday after yesterday's decision by the u.s. what russia reverted to or even economical measures that was why did discussed also

in u.s. business or if it's in moscow there is of course a fear that russia might to some to some extent sanction the presence of u.s. companies the activities of u.s. companies in russia who employ or from my knowledge more than one hundred thirty five around one hundred thirty five thousand people there that this did not happen signal is there from the russian point of view reason prevail but of course the diplomatic measures met as are harsh what is more discussed here in germany and europe is to what extent european interests are hit by the same chance and on the other side also there is a certain feeling of shock among german politicians that the law that was. that was voted for explicitly mentions u.s. energy interests and economic interests. in

a way not only dollar trump now but also the both parties in the american in the american congress and senate vote for opt for america first which comes forth for many politicians who are used to the close partnership alliance between the two countries germany and the u.s. which comes as a sort of shock and as we've been reporting about twenty four hours now europe feels very much caught in the middle of all this but where is the the biggest frustration for europe then that america is acting alone unilaterally on this or that it hasn't discussed it with with europe powerhouses. the fact that the measures where not discussed reveal the extent to all what to which europe lost seriousness and standing in the eyes of the u.s. and europe suddenly realize us that it does not count to the extent that

it used to believe this is a process that we have been following for several years but now it is clearly out in the open that europe does metter much less than she would like to the tone is becoming increasingly angry on both sides a strongly worded statement from the russian foreign ministry and we know what people in congress think about all this as well is there a way back from any of this. way back from any of this will be difficult because. once the sanctions are signed into law you remember that to this to this moment many sanctions that were decided during the cold war period are still part of the us law so a way back it's very difficult to imagine russia's force to retaliate she did not retaliate after the expert explanation of the thirty five diplomats as already mentioned so russia is forced to take measures harsh measures and the u.s.

have demonstrated. the level of sea of seriousness that they attach to this process so both are on the confrontation course europe is as you rightly said europe is caught in the middle europe i think that europe is the big loser here because european businesses are curtailed in their possibilities if not as people hope at presently president donald trump makes exceptions for some which the law provides for of for some european activities but for example it is clear that the sanctions that the sanctions law is a direct hit against the north stream to project the project of doubling the capacity of the baltic sea pipeline gas pipeline between russia and germany which is a project supported by the european gas industries and very much by the government of germany. so we have to leave it there at

a time we're still yet to find out what president trump himself going to do about any of this of course we'll find out in the coming hours i guess but other times fassbender from the dialogue of civilizations research institute really appreciate your time on r.t. . well many now see president trump as being in a tough position right now either he must take a hard line on the kremlin all let down his party and try and go against the will of congress political commentator john bosnich told us he thinks trump should veto the bill in order to exercise his authority but you know in my estimation of donald trump i don't think he cares that much about what an opposing senator in opposing congress thinks about him his votes came from the american people he is the head of the executive branch of the u.s. government the executive branch leaves in foreign policy under the supervision of congress and what's happening here is congress is attempting to take over presidential powers and as the president the president must veto this if he wants

to retain his full powers it's possible that somebody might be advising trump to let them play their game a little bit but i am relatively optimistic although as we heard from our guest just a few minutes ago there are also fears in the e.u. that the proposed sanctions would hit european companies germany's economy ministers criticize the u.s. over the plans she says that washington's abandoned shed position on the anti russia sanctions and even suggested counter measures. been asking people in new york how they'd feel about having sanctions imposed on them. the economic minister of germany is saying you want to put sanctions counter sanctions on a country in coordination with the world trade organization. russia maybe us through the us then its way and i probably in the states on the united states all you know well and how do you feel about that i faked that our trade policies under

the present current administration has got it right i can't believe it because the president they are trying to protect themselves with trouble being president you got to expect a lot of crazy things not good but we have to stand out it's not good for us and it's not good for the world we think that we can exist by ourselves we can the world is a much bigger place now with becoming less and less important it's a trade war a trade war between us and the jar and the germans us and the rest of the world it saves a lot of people i think voted for mr trump. because he was hoping not to keep our continual adventures in foreign countries to reduce the wars and what we're having here is just we're creating more of a worse situation in were and we're needing our european partners as well and we're basically we've got a congress imposing their own foreign policy without regard to the impact on europe

nor really the considerations on the ultimate objectives of of mr president trump as well. to other news now it's claimed that iraqi soldiers have executed dozens of prisoners in the city of mosul according to a report from human rights watch rights group says those killed were suspected members of his logic states that hadn't faced trial international observers cited in the report described what they saw in the city. a group of iraqi soldiers the naked men down an alleyway to which the hood multiple gunshots. through the doorway of a damaged house the bodies of a number of naked men lying in the doorway they said one of the dead men was lying with his hands behind his back and appeared to have been handcuffed and there was a rooper around his legs two sixteenth division soldiers a school should one observe and shoot the seven head of the soldiers said was an american female isis sniper the hard to care protected it was not clear whether the

decapitated you're alive. this is one of a series of reports that human rights watch has issued on the final weeks of the battle in mosul against isis and in these reports what we have seen is numerous extrajudicial killings by iraqi forces of men that they say were linked to isis without any judge without any file simply executing them on the battlefield really all the iraqi forces that are involved in this fight against isis have been committing rampant abuses including war crimes we have yet to see a single incident be properly x. investigated by the iraqis or any commanders to be held accountable the report claims the executions were carried out by one iraqi unit that played a significant role in the liberation of mosul that unit had received american training and assistance while fighting i still in twenty fifteen but his field from human rights watch again says it's unclear whether the iraqi troops are still being

supported by washington. the u.s. has publicly for a long time publicized the work that it done training the iraqi military sixteen division that it calls on its own website has press releases up highlighting the training and support that the u.s. has given to this is a big division you know we as human rights watch do not know if support through the sixteenth division is ongoing but we have not seen anything thing to suggest that that support ended in the recent torturing killing allegedly carried out by the iraqi army had previously been documented by a camera man embedded with one of the units he claims to have filmed abuse and extra judicial executions some of which he said also recorded by the officers themselves. spoke to the camera back in june we must warn you there are some disturbing scenes coming. in the dark background is intended to conceal where you

are how serious is the threat to your life after you made these revelations about all this torture and wrongdoing in iraq. my family received many threats from the especially from canton mourns our she wrote to my father on facebook he said they would come and night and kill them they can contact me because i was in hiding of course i understand that my life is in danger and you spend a lot of time embedded with iraqi forces and i know i spent some time in mosul i know how hard it was to you know get in touch and embed yourself with the rocket forces and especially difficult to gain their trust but what was your position with the emergency response division that you have been helping him and the work together every day we all slept together i spent more time with them than with my family i thought they were heroes we were so brave fighting on the frontlines every day but then i saw the other side the torture the raping the killing first they

didn't want me to film the torture and other bad. but eventually they relented and gave me permission how did you feel when you first with this these two which is seen said how did you feel as time went on and as they got more brutal and violent didn't fatal. i know at first it didn't register during the second week i went home and my relatives asked me what was wrong with me after that it all changed it affected me my psychology and i kept thinking about the torture of those people and their suffering it got worse and worse and after five weeks it became so horrible that i decided to publish everything. i know it was unbearable but i made myself continue to film because i knew it was important to torture people and kill them over and over. as i remember it happened on december twelfth katz an insurgent hider came back and started to show us the video we saw how sergeant hyder started to shoot he shot

a man six nine times then we heard the voice of fire stop this and i want to talk to him then he shot the man three times themselves. only side in jerusalem could again be the flash point of violence between palestinians and the authorities in israel it's among all stories still ahead here on r.t. . the feeling of. every. critics. and you get it. according to josh. come along for the. if we take for instance the size large enough to destroy

a city say forty meters or so of the million or so asteroids out there we have discovered perhaps a percent or so of that ten thousand of them. so in other words that means that ninety nine percent of them are undiscovered so you should expect that the great majority of asteroids it's come very close to the earth to come as a surprise. back to military psychologists for god it is the architects of the cia's enhanced interrogation program will discover some point on friday whether they'll stand trial over their participation in acts of torture bruce jessen and james mitchell created and personally tested torture methods forming

a company that profited from the program that techniques were used on suspected terrorists held at secret cia prisons following nine eleven but a twenty fourteen torture report released by a senate select committee found that some of those who were subjected to the brutal interrogations had not even been involved with extremist activities. michael kens who works with one of the psychologists a devised a program to help us servicemen withstand torture he says his work on c.n.n. as it's known was used by one of the men to develop new imo brutal torture techniques. the resistance to interrogation program we don't actually use the word torture in the training however there are torture techniques that are used to

certain levels during the training this is all part of a program that's called sere s e r e survival evasion resistance to interrogation and escape so what we were doing were protecting those operators those people on strategic reconnaissance flights doing operational work of around the world to collect intelligence and also those that were operational and working in counter terrorism how to resist enemy interrogation and those techniques were educated to fill a very precise and were not used to hurt or harm the students and every student had a stop code a code that they could use at any time to have all activity stopped so again torture in the mind of a student is different from being tortured for days and days and weeks which is what we're hearing about the bush she torture program all of the activities that one on by the cia were grossly beyond anything at the circe school standards for my

opinion please understand that i retired from the u.s. air force in one nine hundred ninety one only in two thousand and six or two thousand and seven did i even have an inkling that these people that i haven't seen for dozens of years were doing this roger aldridge bruce jessen and jim mitchell were the people behind the torture program it was the people that i worked with for several years that had taken and reverse engineer. the harsh part. and turned it into the e i t s the enhanced interrogation program. brutal techniques the lawyers for the two psychologists in question say their client's innocence and should be viewed like these supplies of poison gas to the nazis were but is simply doing business in line with a contractual agreement one former cia analyst and whistleblower told us that the men received eighty one million dollars for their work. the reason why mitchell and jessen were put in charge of this this terrible this important program was because

the cia simply had no experience in this kind of thing nobody in the cia was trained in interrogation that's an f.b.i. job but the cia wanted to be the organization that did it themselves and it's because the cia blamed itself for the nine eleven attacks well because they had nobody internally who could do these interrogations they decided to hire mitchell and jessen at a cost of eighty one million dollars to come in and teach the cia how to torture people at the end of the day mitchell and jessen were the ones who flew out to the secret prison site overseas and actually carried out the torture themselves we know from the senate torture report for example that it was mitchell and jessen who were personally torturing these prisoners there was no discussion of ethics there was no discussion of morality and once the memo was signed by the president there was no discussion of legality it was it was as though the cia was just winging it they were taking it one day at

a time they didn't care if they were breaking rules they didn't care if they were violating the laws they didn't care about professional ethics when vice president dick cheney said that we were going to turn to the dark side they meant it they meant that the cia was going to go overseas and it was going to kill or capture everybody that it encountered and then just deal with the fallout later that's why guantanamo was created. police in jerusalem are preventing men under the age of fifty from entering temple mount also known as her reef and as polish slave reports it's a move likely to reignite the already tense situation of the holy site right now. the situation here in west hollywood a neighborhood of arab east jerusalem is extremely tense this has been a flashpoint of violence in the past and police have fought in additional reinforcements there are heavy security barriers they've closed a lot of the roads into the old city and also have secured their checkpoints between east jerusalem and the west bank even more now the police have also

threatened that they are expecting casualties today indeed if violence explodes and there has been violence here in the cost was. it was ok. thank god thank god the god was thank you thank you. thank god i thank you eileen o'connor thank you on a tuesday night dozens of palestinians were injured when clashes broke out at the last a mosque several were arrested by the israeli police particularly off to a group of youngsters climbed onto the mosque and flew the palestinian flag from there was. i

was. at the same time we are hearing that more than a hundred people have been injured the number of palestinians who've been killed in the last two weeks of violence has now climbed to six after a youngster who was shot in the head succumb to his wounds overnight there have been three israelis who have been killed so what we're looking at really is two weeks of violence and hope that the situation will come under control soon but certainly the mood on the ground extremely tense particularly today as many palestinian groups call for a day of rage. ok in a warmup for one of the world's largest gatherings of youngsters students have flocked to the town of little sold in cypress for an open air festival it comes ahead of the main event which is the nineteenth world festival of youth and students is going to be held later this year in the russian resort of sochi it's an event that gives aspiring artists

a showcase for that talents you can find more on the festival in sochi on our website dot com. forget you can get our news alerts as well on facebook and twitter join me again there in just over half an hour for more reaction to russia's diplomatic retaliation at the prospect of yet more u.s. sanctions this is art. for many particularly his critics a trumpet ministration is nothing less than chaos on steroids for some who know the

president this is merely business as usual for him is this a winning strategy for the president america and the world. this would make. the most get a little bit cooler than. it was but i guess we're kind of on this side of this you. just know she refused. to. wear the blue and go get a good area for immigrants it's this we never really know for sure but this is been a.

nephew so i. know. when i started no i didn't. call welcome to. the show ever not say chad asteroids like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs cross the earth pass. but smaller ones do all the time and while the boy did the danger so far our planet still unprepared for any possible collision. can we stop armageddon if it comes to it or is to earth defenseless against an asteroid strike what we ask former nasa astronaut asked

a physicist and space and children or. as our world becomes more familiar with what's beyond planet earth the potential dangers of space are becoming more apparent with the threat of asteroids able to wipe out entire civilizations scarily close to our atmosphere so can we count of these dangers forwards too late is humanity's existence simply a game of chance or is it in our own hands to define and protect. add lou physicists former astronaut c o b six twelve foundation welcome to the show it's really great to have you with us thank you very much for having me now of your foundation says there is around half a million asteroids and planet earth neighborhood as big as the one that struck. in one thousand no weight which flattened two thousand square kilometers of for.