top stories of the week. president putin orders hundreds of american diplomatic staff to leave russia in response to u.s. sanctions. is expected to approve those sanctions against russia. must vote in the senate look at why europe is warning of countermeasures. working with. killed by mortar fire from islamic state extremists in syria. i. position.

thanks for joining us here live from moscow watching the weekly rundown of this week's top stories starting with russia president vladimir putin has ordered the states to cut the number of its diplomatic staff in the country by several hundred in response to sanctions from the united states. i think that 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 was. a consequence that up america has taken a step to jeopardize u.s. russia relations and the important thing is that that step wasn't triggered by anything goes 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 real was. going down long. 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 it is time for us to show you we will not leave anything unanswered here is when there will be a political was. of course we have more to say they're all spheres that we can restrict which would be painful for the united states but i think we shouldn't do that it's only going to harm us russian relations as they are but it's also going to affect. the senate poss the sanctions but they and the white house has said president trump will give his approval washings and claims the measures of

a response to alleged the russian meddling in the u.s. election a scalable open fought out but there are plenty of other factors also play the sanctions bill that was passed it targets many parts of russia's economy it targets mining targets finance and russia metal 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 vital 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 that impact the e.u.'s 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. ok let's take a look at some of the consequences now one of the key projects affected by the sanctions will be the nord stream to pipeline e.u. leaders of warn that they could be forced to retaliate against washington firms from germany austria france and the netherlands have all agreed to invest almost five billion euros that's around half of the project's total cost once completed it will substantially boost the russian gas supplies the mainland europe via the baltic sea now oil and gas majors including exxon and b.p. have allegedly been lobbying against the new sanctions in congress so if you have money fracture is like boeing and ford is peace all over this report all of the potential impact that the sanctions could have on both the the business and energy sectors here in europe that has. hot under the collar there are potentially huge

fines for 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 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. it does not affect our own interests but right now it really affects our own interest negatively impact of the planet so anxious know is a very negative form. especially for the energy sector because under 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 i mean while the us secretary of state has explained the thinking

behind the anti russian bill the near unanimous vote for the sanctions legislation in congress represent the strong will of the american people to see russia take steps to improve relations with the united states we hope that there will be cooperation between our two countries on major global issues and these sanctions will no longer be necessary of the russian embassy in washington responded to rex tillerson statement calling it puzzling the embassy said the u.s. government has failed to understand russia doesn't work with russia and sanctions cannot improve relations we've been speaking to some former diplomats and a political analyst for their views. it's not the most logical thing to say we want to improve relations therefore we are imposing sanctions to listen to his statement was trying to be diplomatic and less from the impact and be less insulting to russia than the he might otherwise have been for that i think that's why you have a logical statement explaining these sanctions to which was not really any sensible

justification at all we think about american foreign policy from like one nine hundred forty five forward it's tough to find many great examples of what we've accomplished so what the american force and foreign policy it's stablish meant expected what they're trying to do you know i think it's time for a total and complete overhaul of how we conduct our international business. journalist working with artie's arabic channel has been killed by islamic state in syria. i was covering a syrian army operation in homs province when his convoy came under mortar fire a syrian soldier also died in the attack three other people were injured including a cameraman khaled started working with r.t. back in april reporting on the plight of families caught up in the war he was twenty five years old.

and the head of our because express the channel's condolences to collins family and friends said in a statement we will support them in any way possible we found credit for his courage and bravery we can take a look now at some of khalid's last reports from russia. those who use the u.s. led coalition planes and those who give the orders to travel long think about the consequences of their actions civilians have been killed or 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. and how much of the houses were. destroyed but there was no more water for irrigation and all the land is burned in record profits and there is no harvest and if any cross did remain we were not allowed to use. the head of one of them there 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 so now before going hellish jets bombed ourselves so we started going there lots of civilians were killed in that airstrike as they were sheltering in fear at the time.

at least thirteen people have been killed in a weekend of rioting in venezuela opposition activists flooded the streets as voting got underway in the election. on sunday an explosion on a street in caracas left several people injured including police officers in another incident six people were wounded when a grenade was thrown into a polling station one candidate was shot dead in his own home the opposition is this find a ban on public protests and denounce the election as a power grab by president. is a look at how the situation has been unfolding. president

nicolas maduro has called on what as well as to throw their support behind the new assembly which will be created off to sunday's vote it's got quite a big task a rewriting the constitution a lot of power also to dissolve the current paula but the opposition has boycotts of the vote they've accused the president of turning the country into a dictatorship and we can hear now live from isabelle frenzy she's international

attorney at. caracas right now thanks for joining us isabel naughty international we've seen these images coming out of venezuela over the last weeks and months seems things boiling point what's the situation actually like there now when the man is a violent capital. right now everything is quite quite good and. in venezuela you know we passed every nice day. election day. the people go to exercise their vote there and with a very. human good sense of humor in the capital you know nothing. can stop the will of the venezuelan people to go and to exercise their wards and to apply the democracy that it

is the maximum sense of. a way of life that they aim that the venezuelan people aim to do it and the other side we showed in the morning a few groups in specific sites where the opposition has mainly his. voters and. you know followers with a lot of. violence. way to stop this. historical day in which right now venezuela is trying to celebrate and the government is celebrating successful day. in caracas or in venezuela which is the result it's really very nice and very successful. the opposition view this very very differently don't leave

a situation they're not backing down the protests are increasing in violence as well i mean do you think this new assembly will actually help in this crisis or could it make matters even worse. you know when the president and asked to go to a referendum and to go to to. to make. another. redact another constitution. it was it was the goal was to get the most brace most voices to redact and all parts in venezuela and members and you know all saw. sectors in the shady and venezuela that will

be involved to redact the constitution new constitution which is reflect. the call reflect the desperation of venezuelan people. you know the opposition to choose to be out and to accept to be out of this of this procedure it's really not a good thing for for them i think that is the people most of the people right now we are speaking you know. through exit poll that is more than fifty percent of the voter register in the see any with. the electorate. venezuela and means that mostly those voters are the voices are you know.

when they will express. aspiration of all the people. the opposition we can say that they make a mistake to not be involved in this constitution and constitutional. way. to express themselves this is what i can say to you it can be a maybe it can be you as you say to answer your question if it can be a solution to establish. the calm in that as well and people say so yes so what we have to what we have to wait. agenda of the opposition if then we they will accept the result or not this is the issue right now indeed and so it will be a key time for present material a need for the opposition as well as the results. will start isabelle frenzy

international attorney at law joining us from caracas thanks for joining us on r.t. today. over to the middle east where rights groups and international observers have accused the rocky soldiers of executing dozens of suspected terrorists without trial or the claims come just weeks after a lengthy battle to drive islamic state out of the city of mosul. to international observers who are a group of iraqi soldiers who don't find themselves as members of the sixteenth division the true naked men down an alleyway to which they had multiple gunshots through the door of it 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 have been handcuffed and there was a rope around his links. 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 were alive or after her death all the iraqi forces that are involved in this fight against

isis has been committing rampant abuses including war crime and unfortunately in the face of all of these abuses by many different units and many different elements of the iraqi military structure we had yet to see a thing the incident be properly at investigated by the iraqis or any commanders to be held accountable. for human rights watch report circle aims the executions were carried out by the sixth division of the iraqi army now that you know played a significant role in the liberation of mosul it's been trained by the u.s. military for the last two years international observers say there's no indication that this support stop off numerous calls from international organizations the u.s. led coalition is now urging iraq to investigate claims of war crimes committed by its own military. there have been consistent reporting of alleged laws 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 now we've heard from journalists who've been covering the story they appeared to be somewhat 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 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. in bag ram 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 puts the americans in under a very poor lights in iraq generally and we've you know what are they doing there exactly i mean this sort of euphemistic term advisor i think the the mrs been busted on one exactly what those devices do in iraq. towards the i'm killings allegedly carried out by the iraqi army have previously been documented by cameraman he was embedded with one of those units we should warn you the scenes of graphic violence in this report. card he claims to filmed abuse and even extradition executions some of which you also said were recorded by the officers themselves last month ortiz what does if spoke to him again there were some disturbing images in the interview. i understand 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 captain morningstar she wrote to my father on facebook he said they would come in the night and kill them of course i understand that my life is in danger what was your position with the emergency response division of men 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 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 they decided to publish everything.

it was unbearable but i made myself continue to film because they knew it was important he tortured people and killed them over and over. staying in the middle east jerusalem on the west bank have seen two weeks of clashes over access to a holy site palestinians have been confronting israeli police over security measures at temple mount that's also known as how. israel restricted access the barrier after two police officers were killed by a gunman is in jerusalem. i'm standing here in front of the dome of the rock which has been the scene of violent clashes for the past two weeks 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 israeli police reinforcements particularly around the old city many of the arab east jerusalem neighborhoods were closed off and at the same time grow plants in and out of the west bank will

reinforce we're hearing from the israeli security officials that they will a harsh response to anyone who throws rocks or stones at the israeli police israel says it will remove metal detectors put up after two security guards were killed two fridays ago but the palestinian president mahmoud abbas says this is not enough and he insists it is well returns to the way the status quo was before that incident but outside the temple mount compound the mood is jubilant people have been throwing sweets and chocolate saying that this battle for access has been won by the palestinians r.t. jerusalem. this week the italian interior minister admitted that his country is struggling to find a way out of the moderate crisis he was speaking at a gathering of european officials into museo on monday where he called on the e.u. to find a common strategy there is no magic solution no nation can alone deal with the migrate reflux a new nation is sheltered from it. become more vocal on the refugee issue recently

has been receiving the majority of newcomers from africa just this year almost one hundred thousand people have reached the italian coastline. travel to some parts of italy where the crisis is impacting people's lives. a small town in the mountains which after a government decision was forced to accommodate dozens of migrants. i hope the mayor of this town mr cheever talk explain the system to me. on jordan no. the prefecture didn't tell us in advance that migrants were coming and i thought everything would work out so the government told us that it would help us to cope with the migrants there are already many problems like unemployment issues with infrastructure health etc that's why some people around here are angry because the government chose to invest money into the

relocation of migrants instead of providing time with additional funds. this looks like the hotel we're looking for they entered through the gates but stayed outside because there was no electricity the hotel hasn't been used for years to host tourists my next step was to try and talk to the migrants inside but they wouldn't let me behind a locked gate was a dodgy looking man he claimed to be from a cooperative that had been put in charge by the authorities filming he said the mayor said that a very low percentage of people who are here are actually refugees most of them are economic migrants is not true no that's not true the migrants are well integrated the mayor has never even contacted me he is lying i went on to ask where the migrants were from the man claimed they were all refugees out of. nigeria niger guinea became a fast food just as i was negotiating we saw a couple with a tray of sweets turns out some locals were indeed glad to have the new neighbors

finally he let me and without the camera the refugees said they'd only got warm welcomes from locals and were ready to become sicilians i can tell you that the migrants and refugees have everything to live a normal life there the question though remains whether they will be able to integrate into the local society and whether all the locals will be ready to accept that number of refugees our journey continued to another small community where migrants haven't arrived yet but the government's intentions. i have already caused quite a debate in the usually quiet neighborhood. very small abandoned school local government wanted to place sixty in that small building i think we have a chance to talk to the lawyer who is representing the local community. to meet you don't.