in there if you have the week's main. signature away and you. need. to come in to. well in response president putin say seven hundred fifty. russia being an equal number of. journalist working with all of. the shelling from islamic states. human rights watch claims war. extrajudicial killing

suspected. with the top stories from the past seven days and right up to the moment developments as well this is the weekly international a welcome our top story. russia sanctions is just a signature away as congress waits for president trump to put pen to paper the senate passed the bill on thursday washington say they're in response to what they call russian aggression in syria and ukraine for alleged meddling in the u.s. election but. there might be much more behind. the sanctions bill that was passed it targets many parts of russia's economy it targets mining targets finance and russia. addle manufacturing but one part of the bill that was

specifically singled out was the energy sector of russia's economy the bill penalizes any company that cooperates with russia's pipeline projects it's about sending a message to russia to hold mr putin accountable for his actions we will take tough action against russia the bill is targeting the construction of a key natural gas pipeline into europe citing what it calls detrimental impact on european energy security furthermore in the same paragraph the bill talks about exporting more of america's resources in order to create american jobs strengthen u.s. allies and strengthen u.s. foreign policy now that all agrees with a key component of u.s. energy strategy america's global dominance in energy policy. is not just a vital element of u.s. economic policy but it's also a viable element of u.s.

foreign policy and one of the most important actions we can take is to use our massive shale gas resources to begin shipping liquefied natural gas overseas so there you have it but what does selling gas to europe have to do with protecting the sanctity of america's voting machines the point is it hasn't got to do anything with the geo political sphere with the frozen conflict in the ukraine though with syria and it actually hasn't got anything to do also with an interference of russia into the us elections this has to do with the approach of the us administration to make deals to get their economy going and so this is very commitment rather than political u.s. leaders say that they don't like russia for all kinds of reasons but one thing they don't mention is that russia is a key exporter of oil and natural gas competing with the big monopolists america's european allies are now crying foul saying that the usa is interfering with their energy policies with these sanctions the us bill could have unintended unilateral

effects the impact the e.u. use energy security interests america first kind of mean that europe's interests come last at this point russia counts for thirty eight percent of the european union's natural gas while the usa only accounts for two percent of the e.u. is natural gas imports you can bet some slick wall street syndicates would like to reverse that lineup so when you hear this explanation of the sanctions the mere fact that russia tried to affect our elections this stunning breach of our right as a sovereign nation decades of unchecked russian aggression whether it be in the ukraine in the crimea in syria don't forget about this one we must continue to focus on how we get our gas here in the united states our natural gas to europe to our allies so they're not so dependent on russia. e.u. leaders have reacted angrily to washington's proposed new sanctions on the

so-called free europe from reliance on russian gas they say their economic interests are being ignored germany has even warned the u.s. of country measures here's one reason why europe's leaders are unhappy the sanctions could impact on the nord stream to pipeline a major project between european companies on russia's energy sector firms from germany austria from the netherlands have agreed to invest almost five billion euro in it around half of the project's total cost once completed it should provide northern europe with russian gas according to reports a multinational businesses in the energy sector like b.p. exxon mobil been lobbying against the new measures in congress so too. like boeing and ford peter all of her brings us more. well it's the potential impact that these sanctions could have on both the the business and energy sectors here in europe

that has e.u. officials hot under the collar there are potentially huge fines for e.u. businesses that would enter into energy projects with russia many of those blue chip european companies of course are heavily involved there what we've heard from the german foreign ministry is them saying that it can't be accepted that the industrial policy of another nation be passed off as sanctions while the german government spokesperson also came out saying that e.u. industry can't be targeted and if there will be a response if the sanctions or when the sanctions go through it's not just the germans though the french foreign ministry issued a statement saying that well they believe that the sanctions impacted upon the rights of private individuals as well as corporate entities to an extent that they believe may go beyond international law the austrian chancellor christine care he posted online he said that politics and

a business should not be mixing when it comes to making decisions like this it's not excluded that they also follow that they also follow their economic interests. we don't complain about that unless it does not affect our own interests but right now it really affects our own interest negatively impact of the plan sanctions notice a very negative form of especially for the energy sector because of the sanctions under the threat of sanctions especially energy pipeline exports from russia so what options remain for the european union when the sanctions or if these sanctions come into being the european union could decide to impose sanctions of their own on the united states now this could take the form of e.u. bank suspending u.s. companies ability to take out short term loans but let's be realistic this would be

a nuclear option. responding to the new russia sanctions vladimir putin say's america will have to cut its diplomatic stuff in russia by more than seven hundred fifty personnel by september. i think more than a thousand people both diplomatic and technical staff are currently working in russia which seven hundred fifty five of them will have to stop their activities and that's painful. because that is that america has taken a step to jeopardize u.s. russia relations and the important thing is that that step wasn't triggered by anything because this is a move to impose a legal restrictions to attempt to influence other countries including us allies with cuba which are interested in developing ties with russia but on the us. and on longer. we've been waiting for quite a long time so that maybe something would change for the better we had hoped that

the situation would change but it looks like even if it does change then it won't be in the near future quarter i decided that it is time for us to show you we will not leave anything on answer here is one that will be a political one of. us you can use that and of course we have more to say here there are fears that we could restrict use here which would be painful for the united states but i think we shouldn't do that and it's only going to harm us russian relations as they are but it's also going to affect us as well. well just some background to all this on friday moscow and nine states kuntar measures to the sanctions seeing american diplomatic stuff in the country must speak up to four hundred fifty five the same number russia in the united states russia has also said that two diplomatic properties used by washington will be seized they are a warehouse in the south of moscow and a reverse treaty in one of the capitals parks it was used by staff members for

leisure activities on get togethers senior fellow at the council of foreign relations dr charles to list the cut would result in a significant loss of capability that is a sizable departure we've seen these kinds of tit for tat exchanges before they are unfortunate but i guess putin has decided that he wants to take the american staff down to roughly the equivalent of the russian staff here in the united states he had initially not responded to the obama administration's initial decision on that front is now catching up because of the sanctions bill that has been approved by congress well there's no question that if you're talking about seven hundred plus people in a six significant loss. of capability the overall staff is going to be is going to be dramatically cut but i do think that you know this is the this is the cost of doing business. a young journalist working with artie's are

a big channel in syria has been killed by shelling from islamic state or correspondent daniel hawkins explained earlier what up. it was a stringer working for r.t. in syria for those unfamiliar with the term that's effectively a local contracted journalist often working in dangerous environments in kind of case in homs province where the syrian army is trying to actually liberate the town of which is close to where the incident took place his group or his convoy came under shell fire from isis we understand that he was hit by an antitank missile that's what caused his death and indeed injuries to his cameraman who's also in hospital right now substandard working with r.t. towards the end of april he did many reports from homs province interviewing the families of victims of refugees affected by fighting from all sides during those months those months and those battles he was also active on social media especially

on facebook and we can have a look at one of his last posts in fact a very chilling poignant post just saying god just a few hours before he was tragically killed most sad of all khaled was only twenty five years of age he was studying at the university of damascus in the faculty of media and journalism. in the middle east. if suddenly.

now as we said before the camera and working with him at the time the motto was yaakov he was injured as well in that attack he's been evacuated to a hospital in the homs province. and we can also confirm that it is the first work or the first work apart of all these extended family ever to be killed in a conflict zone so very sad only for his family and friends but also of course for all of us here at all to as a tribute to the team's work in one of syria's most dangerous locations we want to share with you one of his most recent reports on the suffering of families in the city of rocca those who use the u.s. led coalition planes and those who give the orders of a long think about the consequences of their actions civilians have been killed all forced to flee because of them and the infrastructure has been destroyed the civilians claim that the pretext of fighting against terrorism and extremism is used to justify the actions of the coalition.

there is no more water for irrigation and the land is burned in record province and there is no harvest and if any crops did remain we were not allowed to use them. to hurt us one of them there's the coalition carries out and struck some schools so children don't study anymore many more civilians were injured when the coalition hit hospitals as well. and the just sign now is for it going hellish and jets bombed our school so we started going there lots of civilians were killed in that airstrike as they were sheltering here at the time.

around part of the week's top stories continues after this. manufacture consent to public wealth. when the ruling class is protect themselves.

we can all middle of the room sit. back with our t.v. rights groups international observers have accused iraqi soldiers of executed dozens of suspected terrorists without trial the same scum just weeks after a lengthy battle to drive islamic state out of the city of mosul. two international observers who were group of iraqi soldiers who identified themselves as members of the sixteenth division the true naked men down an alleyway to which they had multiple gunshots they saw through the doorway of the 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 on his back and appeared to be in handcuffed and there was a rope around his legs. to sixteenth division soldiers the school to one observer and showed the severed heads of what the soldiers said was an american female isis sniper whom they had to compensate it was not clear whether the captives who are alive or after her death all the iraqi forces that are involved in this fight against isis has been committing rampant abuses including war crimes and unfortunately in the face of all of these abuses by many different units and many different elements of the iraqi military structure we have yet to see a single incident be properly at investigated by the iraqis or any commanders to be held accountable. the human rights watch report claims the executions were carried on by the sixteenth the vision of the iraqi army a unit that played

a significant role in the liberation of mosul it's been trained by the u.s. military since twenty fifty international observers say there's no indication that this support stopped well after numerous calls from international organizations the u.s. led coalition is no urging iraq to investigate claims of war crimes committed by its military there and been consistent reporting of allegedly of armed conflict violations recently any violation of the law of armed conflict is unacceptable and should be in it investigated in a transparent parent manner we meet routinely with our partner forces to advise them on the expectations for throwing transparent investigations and accountability for anyone found responsible for abuses and public disclosure of findings and actions taken or we spoke to a number of experts who appeared to be very skeptical of america's calls for an investigation it's not even cynical to suggest that just because this division

iraqi division were trained by the u.s. military that they wouldn't have done this we have to remember the u.s. torture after the during the two thousand two thousand and three invasion and background and abu ghraib. and i think all of those techniques. taught to the standing army that was created after the after the u.s. invasion looking at what we know so far as can be very difficult to specifically accuse any of those american soldiers fool for training iraqi soldiers specifically in the craft of torture but i think it paints a very poor picture and puts the americans. under a very poor lights in iraq generally i mean you know what are they doing there exactly i mean this sort of euphemistic term advisor i think the the mrs been bus. when exactly what those devices do and who writes. killings allegedly carried out by the iraqi army have previously been documented by

a cameraman embedded with one of the units we should warn you scenes of profit violence are ahead. our county claims to have filmed the abuse an extrajudicial executions some of which he said were also recorded by the officers themselves last month. of spoke to him again there are some disturbing images. i understand the dark background is intended to conceal the way you walk 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 captain mourners are she wrote to my father on facebook he said they would come and night and kill them of course i understand that my life is in danger what was your position with the emergency response division and how to work together every day we all slept together i spent more time with them than with my family 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 stuff but eventually they relented and gave me permission . after that it all changed it affected me my psychology 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. it was unbearable but i made myself continue to film because they knew it was important to torture people and killed them over and over. a number of officials have been shot dead as venice whelan's cast their ballots in a key constitutional vote one which the opposition is calling a power grab by the country's president just hours before the polls opened a candidate was in his home local media report the three members of the opposition

also lost their lives. were this is your following an explosion in the capital caracas which saw a security officer caught up in the country has seen massive demonstrations with the opposition still calling for more protests this by the in the past week alone it's believed at least eight people were killed during the recent look at how the country's crisis has worsened in recent months. i. i. i. i. i.

i. with the country in the economic doldrums i'm experiencing a political deadlock president maduro has called on venezuelans to elect a new body its rule will be rewriting the current constitution over five hundred representatives will be chosen from various groups in society however the opposition believes the president is just trying to extend his powers and is undermining democracy or r t sound don with the venezuelan president for an exclusive interview he told us not the all positions tactics or anything many people. europe we should. be good not only the opposition has been saying the same thing for eighteen years they used to say about hugo chavez i know about me for the last four years you thought for a moment there is no other way to resolve

a conflict in our country than through democratic means as you do over three and a half weeks starting in may an. oppositional to engage in a direct dialogue and join the national constitutional assembly but they refused since then the only thing the opposition has been doing is taking new steps back with me right now the situation is dire and you think face political isolation sic i don't know they're leaning towards the far right and they've trapped yourselves in this strategy of local acts of violence restricting the movement of people in the very districts that voted for them the opposition is losing the support of the venezuelan people voted for them in the past. oh it's navy day here in russia and president putin us congratulated the fleet and the country's northern capital in petersburg thousands of spectators turned out to see the latest sea ferrying hardware that russia has to offer or monk austria is there for us.

i'm. going. to for fleets of the russian navy are celebrating the navy as a powerful surface ships and stealthy submarines will take part in the political as involving one hundred vessels all around the country st petersburg is how listing the biggest events with forty ships taken part in the parade right here on the. river battle cruiser and the ballistic missile carrying a nuclear submarine which are among the biggest nuclear propelled ships in the world have taken center stage and of course smaller cruisers destroyers submarines

and surface ships are on display here as well as navy war planes and helicopters some other russian port cities like several more successful austrian leave all stuck overseas are holding may day festivities as well but of course the biggest ones are right here in russia's northern capital of st petersburg cost for r.t. . yes some stunning images from north and i'll be back at the top of the hour with help dates on the diplomatic divisions being seen between the u.s. and russian twenty more besides they would r.t. .

all the feeling of. every the world should experience flieger and you'll get it on the open road. the old according to a gesture. welcome to my world come along for the ride. all the world's and all the news companies merely players but what kind of partners are into america playing r.t. america offers more artsy american personal. in many ways the news landscape is just like this you know real news big names good actors bad actor and in the end you could never tell your audience so much parking all the world's

a stage all the world's a stage all the world's a stage and we are definitely a player. the mission of newsworthy it is to go to the people tell their side of the story stories are well sourced we don't hide anything from the public and i don't think the mainstream media in this country can say that the average viewer knows that r.t. america has a different perspective so that we're not hearing one echo chamber that mainstream media is constantly spewing. i mean we're not beholden to any corporate sponsor no one tells us what the cover how long the conference or how to say it that's the beauty of archie america. we give both sides we hear from both sides and we question more that journalists are not letting anything get in your way to bring it

home to the american people. must. happen tonio this is america's lawyer it seems like corporations in the united states will stop at nothing in their quest for profits one of the most notorious actions is the stripping of american consumers of their constitutional right to hold corporations and.