top stories of the week here on the international president putin says actions against russia will not go on all the. hundreds of american diplomatic staff to leave the country that's in response to u.s. sanctions. is expected to approve the sanctions against russia are off for a near unanimous vote in the senate why europe is warning of countermeasures. just working with our teams are but shuttle is killed by mortar fire from islamic state extremists in syria. the deadly opposition riots overshadow election day in venezuela with one candidate

in his home. good morning to you from moscow. live with me. welcome to the program president vladimir putin has ordered the united states to cut the number of its diplomatic staff and russia by several hundred in response to sanctions. it was. more than a thousand people both diplomatic and technical staff currently working in russia russia seven hundred fifty five of them will have to stop their activities and that's painful i was. going to guess 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 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 was. going on longer than 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. going usenet 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 betty the u.s. senate passed that sanctions bill thursday and the white house has said president trump will give his approval was in some claims the measure response to alleged

russian meddling in the u.s. election but a scale of warp and found out there are plenty of other factors at 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 energy policy. is not just a vital element of u.s. economic policy but it's also a bottle element of us 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 come up with 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. use 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. one of the key projects affected of course by the sanctions will be the nord stream to pipeline and e.u. leaders of warn that they could be forced to retaliate against washington firms from germany austria france and the netherlands of all agreed to invest almost five billion euros that's half the project's total cost once completed it will substantially boost russian gas supplies to mainland europe the baltic sea oil and gas giants including x. and b.p. have reportedly been lobbying against the new sanctions in congress so if you have money factor is like boeing and ford's piece all over has 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 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 do you plan sanctions notice 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 these 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. banks suspending u.s. companies ability to take out short term loans but let's be realistic this would be a nuclear option. meanwhile the u.s. secretary of state has explained the thinking behind the anti russia 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 the russian embassy in washington has responded to those comments from rex tillerson they've said it's puzzling at the u.s. embassy rather said the u.s. government has failed to understand. without russia russia does not work with russia and sanctions cannot improve relations we spoke to 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 next 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 r.t. is arabic channel has been killed by islamic state in syria and i'll cut out was covering a syrian army operation in homs province when his convoy came under mortar fire a syrian soldier also died in that attack as well as three other people being 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. the

the. the head of a c.r. but has expressed the channel's condolences to condit's family and friends my mana said in a statement we will support them in any way possible we thank god for his courage and bravery we can now take a look at called its final report from the city of iraq. 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 all 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 crush did remain we were not allowed to use. the head of one of the dead of 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 we are going hellish jets bombed ourselves so we struck on lots of civilians were killed in an airstrike

as they were sheltering in fear at the time. of the south american hour at least sixteen people have been killed and almost one hundred arrested during a weekend of rising in venezuela opposition supporters took to the streets as the election got on the way. suddenly an explosion on a street in caracas injured several people. video

you can see was shot after an explosion in the caracas in which several people were injured among them seven police officers and at least twenty officers have been wounded in street clashes throughout the day six people were wounded one a grenade was thrown into a polling station and one candidate was shot dead in his own home. or the president nicolas maduro housecall of men as well as the throw their support behind the new assembly which will be created after sunday's vote it's got a lot of work ahead rewriting the constitution and will also have the power to dissolve the current parliament the opposition has defied a ban on public protests and denounce the election as a power grab by president maduro let's have a look at how the situation began. i

. rossi sat down with president for an exclusive interview he told us that your position is that alienating many ordinary venezuelans. europe we should do that he should join europe if you know the opposition has been saying the same thing for eighteen years you used to say about hugo chavez you know about me for the last few use you thought for a moment really is no more the way to resolve a conflict in our country rather than through democratic means. you were three and

a half weeks starting in the opposition to engage in a direct dialogue and join the national constitutional assembly but they refused but since then the only thing the opposition has been doing is taking new steps backward. right you know the situation is dire. political isolation they're leaning towards the far right and they've trapped themselves 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 i spoke earlier to isabel frenzy a lawyer in caracas she told us the opposition only has itself to blame for failing to take part in the election the past every nice day. election day. the people go to exercise their more nothing. can stop the will of the venezuelan people to go and to exercise their warts and to

apply the democracy the opposition and to choose to be out and to etc to be out of this of this procedure what we have to wait. agenda of the opposition if they leave they will accept the result or not this is the issue right now. rights groups and international observers have accused the rocky soldiers of executing dozens of suspected terrorists without any trial the claims come just weeks after a lengthy battle to drive islamic state out of the city of mosul. two 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 multiple gunshots through the door of 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 hand 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 head to the soldiers said was an american female isis sniper whom they had to compensate it was not clear whether the captives who 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 have yet to see a thing the incident be properly at investigated by the iraqi or any commanders to be held accountable human rights watch report claims the executions were carried out by the sixteenth division of the iraq army that's a unit the plate of significant role in the liberation of mosul itself it's been trained by the u.s. military since twenty fifteen an international observers say there's no indication

that this support stopped after 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 the legend 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 we heard from journalists who have been covering the story they appeared to be skeptical of america's calls for an investigation it's not even cynical to suggest that just because this division the rocky division 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 and 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. 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 miss has been busted and one exactly what those voices doing to the rights. of the u.s. military has conducted a missile interceptor test in response to the threat from north korea. thank you. according to the plans are going to

a medium range ballistic missile was fired from alaska over the pacific ocean on sunday it was then tracked and destroyed using the terminal high altitude area defense system known as bud which the u.s. has. supplied to south korea. this happened two days off to north korea's latest missile launch into the sea of japan the u.s. missile defense chief sam greaves said sunday's intercept a test will help the military stay ahead of the evolving threat of the u.s. congress recently approved a new round of sanctions against north korea over its nuclear program and missile tests but human rights attorney eric told us that washington has not figured out how to deal with pyongyang you know this is something that seems perplexing to the administration or sometimes to people around the world but really we have not tried anything new and we have been caught in this entire circle of militarism of one thread versus another and bolstering up what the u.s.

does not seem to get on an ongoing basis is the failure to engage talk it took hundreds of meetings to end the. korean i'm sorry to end the vietnam war it takes sitting and talking and a lot of effort to build a relationship and rebuild the trust. and through some of 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 miles that's also known as if israel restricted access to the area or off the two police officers were killed by a gunman is in jerusalem for aussie. 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 roadblocks in and out of the west bank will reinforce we're hearing from the israeli security officials that they will see a harsh response to anyone who throws rocks or stones at the israeli police israel says it will remove metal detectors that will 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 migrant crisis there is no magic solution no nation can alone deal

with the migrate reflux a new nation sheltered from italy has become more vocal recently on the refugee issue lately it's been receiving the majority of newcomers from africa in fact just this year almost one hundred thousand people have reached the italian coastline artie's either trunk or travel to some parts of italy where the crisis is impacting on local 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 giordano. the prefecture didn't tell us in advance that migrants were coming i thought everything would work out so the government told us that it would help us to cope with the migrants there 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 men 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 that 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 in 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 my gran's in that small building i think we have a chance to talk to the lawyer who is representing the local community. to meet you

not at all but it will be one of the best. putting migrants here into buildings like this is racism the risk is that the shelter could turn into a ghetto because the migrants will have nothing to do here having blasted the rest of the youth for betraying roman crisis italian officials seem to have taken up the strategy of a nationwide melting pot will be watching how it's put to the test ilya drink your tea in sicily like this using asteroid awards showing of the weekly on r.t. international you can get more stories on our website www dot com or join us again at the top of the next hour.

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times by a coach of mine i was mawson in a dark room and so you know every time i close my eyes or from sleep after many years of silence he speaks up and unites with other victims so you are going from toronto to ottawa to walk in and from now or walk into the victor walk to create awareness and promote healing around the subject child sexual abuse this type of behavior is absolutely use of the most because of the senses that are handed down through the justice system. the warhawks selling you on the idea that dropping bombs bring. nice to talk sports and you to fight the battles but don't believe the new sox credit tell you that it's not because of the public but it's also the most important news today. off the bat for telling me you are not cool enough and wants to buy their products please. these are the.