breaking news donald trump signs his approval of new sanctions against russia despite claiming that it's significantly florida good clearly unconstitutional provisions. the u.s. condemned the sanctions and it's certain economic retaliation against washington fearing europe's economic interests will be. destroyed north korea's program and north korea itself told me that my place in the united states is preparing for war with north korea that's according to a senator it comes amid rising tensions between washington and pyongyang.

good evening to you my name's neil harvey you're watching international. with our breaking news story which is that president donald trump has signed a new sanctions bill against russia or it comes in response to alleged meddling by moscow in the u.s. presidential election auntie's jaclyn the details. president trump has rather reluctantly signed this bill into law police a statement saying that while he favors tough measures to deter aggressive behavior by foreign powers the bill is seriously flawed and he only signed it for the sake of national unity the president noted that he expressed concerns from the beginning about a number of points within the legislation but congress included a number of quote clearly unconstitutional provisions and its haste to pass the bill but due to the landslide votes that came out of both the house and the senate

last week the president didn't really have a choice but to sign off on the same sions on tuesday secretary of state rex tillerson also commented on his and the president's dislike of the new measures but seemed hopeful that russia and the u.s. could move forward despite them so they're actually bothered by the congress to put these sanctions in place in the way they do i know the president nor i are very happy about that we were clear that we didn't think it was going to be helpful to our efforts but that's the decision they made that made it a very overwhelming way. to accept. these new measures hit russia's energy and defense sector and also affect iran and north korea russia has already reacted imposing counter segued and reducing america's diplomatic presence in russia by over seven hundred fifty members and seizing two diplomatic properties today a statement from trump ended with the president noting that he can make far better deals with foreign countries than congress but if measures such as these continue

to be enacted he may be prevented from doing just that. and i can bring in a guest virginia state senator richard black to discuss this story in a bit more detail rich should donald trump called the bill significantly flawed he's not a man who usually goes against his own instincts but he has signed it why do you think. well he had no choice to sign it he could have left it unsigned and it could have taken effect notwithstanding his lack of signature there's no way that he could override. a veto he couldn't get a veto sustained so what he did he decided that he would sign it and he would issue a signing statement and a signing statement sort of expresses his displeasure with the measure itself there's no doubt that donald trump and the secretary were adamantly

opposed to this it was it was a very very bad bill in it would seem ridiculous it was confrontational it interfered with foreign relations in unprecedented way but he really had no choice he was he was stuck with it there's a diff you know this versus prime minister has commented saying that this is the united states declaring a total trade will see a reaction to the. well you know the irony of this is that throughout the election. donald trump was criticized with the idea that if he might go out and create a trade war by reading goshi ating treaties with other countries the irony is here is congress which criticized him so much in the campaign and yet they

are the ones who are an initiator thing a trade war what they're doing i think at the heart of this whole thing is the desire to stop the nord stream to gas project which provides natural grass from from russia going into germany and from there to other places. this is to provide some redundancy for the gas that's already going into europe. russia has provided gas to europe with no problems whatsoever for decades and now they just want to increase their volume and i think you know the united states at this point is is becoming a real power in liquefied natural gas and i think to some extent it was designed to block. the additional russian gas from getting in there partly to benefit american manufacturers nah i'm

a great supporter of american liquefied natural gas but it needs to be done in an open market and so the irony is that it is congress that is starting a trade war it is not the president the president opposes a trade war and yet he is forced into one sanctions a used as a weapon to to the countries who do you think is going to be hurt the most because you've got russia are involved iran china but maybe even the u.s. itself could could suffer especially if you it takes action. well a lot of people are being are being hurt very badly by these germany is probably the principal one but the french the austrians the tower yens obviously the russians but american companies such as exxon mobil and shell which have been involved in in very large. oil projects together with

russia they're being hurt i don't think this benefits anybody except perhaps the you know group of people who make amends profits from selling arms and creating needless tensions and that sort of thing i think it was a terrible bill and it's it's disturbing that it was passed by such a large majority of the congress and many of them just seem to walk in lockstep with some of the most foolish things that that are proposed and at the same time not honestly i can hardly tell you anything positive that that the congress has managed to accomplish but now i can i can identify something that was very negative and very substantial also is this going to be the tone for the next three years congress and the president disagreeing fundamentally ot think they will

find common ground on issues. i hope that they'll find common ground the president is making a great deal of progress domestically the economy has picked up a substantial way since he became president he is chopping back on regulations he is he is doing many many good stying says but in foreign policy unfortunately you have this this deep state and of course primarily it's in new york it's in washington but also there are foreign actors or people like george soros and they make enormous sums of money on the arms market and by by creating chaos in different countries and then they will buy out different industries at a nickel on the dollar. this is not what donald trump wanted to do it's not

what he said he intended to do when he was running for president i don't think it's what's in his heart but i think that it's being forced upon him by by this deep state the oligarchs who who rule the world and they control the drugs they control the oil they control the war profits and these things do nothing for ordinary people whether they're americans or germans or russians or syrians they just create suffering for the people and i i i believe that trump will do whatever he is able to do to turn things around but this deep state is a very very powerful and it takes and it controls a lot of votes in congress. which is fascinating to get u.v. sweepy shit coming on ok internationally saving richard black virginia state

senator thanks again. thank you. now the e.u. has been voicing is this approval with washington's anti russia sanctions claiming that they could harm the blogs economic interests our correspondent peter oliver has details these were never anticipated to be populist sanctions and well the bill being signed has proved exactly that extremely unpopular amongst the upper echelons here in europe because the simple thing is if you target russia's energy sector then ultimately you're going to end up targeting those businesses that deal with the russian energy sector and supply an important some cases a lot of that energy from russia here to the european union and we purge from senior figures in the e.u. saying that if this happens in the interests are targeted there will be repercussions we will defend ourselves against an american first industrial policy masquerading as sanctions in any case the law stipulates the u.s.

holding preliminary consultations with us europeans before this can happen we understand that the sanctions were softened somewhat before they went through congress but they haven't been softened and nuff for senior opinion figures young claude younger the e.u. commission president saying that it's if there was any any impact on european businesses that there would be a response within days now what type of response is still unknown at the nuclear option could be the one not many people would want to go down would be the implementation of sanctions by the european union on the united states or on u.s. interests but a lot of this comes down to gas and energy supply and the amount that europe relies on russia for that of course it's also raised questions over the reasoning behind these particular sanctions because one of the alternate main supply is could of course be imports of u.s. gas. e.u.

business leaders and officials have also voiced serious disapproval with what's being perceived as washington ignoring europe's economic interests 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 planet so interesting though is a very negative form. especially for the energy sector because of the sanctions under the threat of strings and especially energy pipeline exports from russia. meanwhile the united states has carried out another successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile and pacific it's the second in less than a week and it comes amid rising tensions with north korea or the secretary of state says that washington wants dialogue there are signs that a military option could be in the offing. we do not seek an excuse to send our

military north of the thirty eighth parallel we're trying to convey to the north koreans we are not your enemy we're not your threat every military expert says there is no good military option they're wrong. to destroy north korea's program in north korea itself he's not going to president try the ability of this madman to have a missile that hit america if there's going to be a war to stop and it will be over there thousands die they're going to die over there and they're not going to die here and he's told me that my place may be provocative but i really don't judge politicians by what they say judge them by what they do and by all appearances donald trump is ready for war he's seen the pentagon's plans for north korea and in the likelihood they've already selected a battle plan is are in motion and what senator lindsey graham has said only goes

to reinforce that if millions have to die then so be it are you saying it's ok to use a military option that immediately endangers the lives of millions of people in that region. north korea changes if you have any doubts that the u.s. is preparing for war take a look at what's happening on the ground on the korean peninsula u.s. troops ships jets forces are arriving there in a ceaseless stream and see me sell shields up blanketing the airspace there are endless simulations war games exercises this isn't about scaring north korea no this is about putting all the pieces in place so when the final go order comes they're ready to move trump the rule promised to deal with north korea he just didn't say how. here we're going to be able to handle it will be it will

be handled we handle everything oh they aren't barbarians they won't rush into a war where potentially millions of people are going to die in the first few days alone. you have rex tillotson the secretary of state running around talking about diplomacy negotiations talks and sanctions a diplomatic effort to dissuade north korea and to stop its nuclear program was unclear whether he himself believes that it's possible breakthrough now when it hasn't happened in decades but donald trump is on the different path and the white house is much more blunt and they're happy to tell you nothing the president obviously has been very outspoken about how he feels about north korea weighing all options keeping all options on the table and as we've said many times before we're

not going to broadcast what we're going to do and tell that happens. former u.s. congressman ron paul believes that the only option the u.s. should be considering he's leaving north and south korea to do with their own problems you have our ships over there and we have these military exercises and all they have to do is have one american ship and song or something and then it would be all out war no and never ask question who did what but there are some people who would you know literally do that in order to provoke this type of activity the options on the table is just threat and intimidation when we went into korea and i consider illegally because it wasn't a declared war and we kill a lot of people killed koreans kill a lot of americans are killed but we stayed there so the option that we ought to put on the table when we just get out of there let the koreans deal with it we're hearing this same type of war propaganda and that feeds into the people who make

a lot of money off a war. not only the people who sell weapons but also the people who gather up the oil and the natural resources so it's a bad strivers very dangerous but i think we could have a foreign policy if it were designed more for nonintervention that we could contribute to a more peaceful world. does mean confusion and outrage in the audience of the top british classical music festival after they were asked to put either you flags away organizers of the annual problems event. needed for viewers safety and comfort let's discuss this issue now with george bodys an activist and social justice campaigner and adrian yolland leader of the single market justice political campaign welcome to you both. i don't know how big a founds you are of the problems the two of you but i ask you first george do you think it was a legitimate reason this claim that the flags were disrupting the performance call just an excuse. i mean i gather there's

a certain amount of confusion in this issue in the hall who released a press statement saying we didn't ban the flags there were just there were a couple at the front that we're seeing specifically to be disruptive but then there also seems to be a claim from somebody who just had a small one on my lap saying i was told that we weren't allowed to have these flags but so the al gore has come out and said no no no and you know you can't have any flags and through the flags so any sense of the specifics of the issue i think are in question and certainly the arbuckle doesn't want to be seen as having bandy you flags but i guess the you know the wider question is whether it's legitimate despite the referendum campaign having gone one way or the other for people still to be making this point in public and i would say absolutely people have every right and if they still believe in what that flag symbolizes then why not you know why not use that i've been event which is most famous for growing. and what do you

think just to mention that earlier on in the problems going back a while we had one of the conductors start your barenboim he basically interrupted proceedings to make what was perceived as being a political speech calling for european unity so it seems that. politics. has made itself present the problems is that acceptable or not i think it's a shame i think it's also probably inevitable because the manner of being pursued is a very divisive breck's it is a needlessly divisive press and i say that as somebody who campaigned for and voted for leaving the european union but i do think that all the time that forty eight percent of the population that voted remained in the european union feel ignored and feel that they're not being consulted and that their wishes are being i've ridden the politicization of events such as the season all.

the national weather service in sterling virginia has issued a special memory warning for chesapeake bay from pools island to sandy but maryland chesapeake bay north of pools island merriment until four forty five pm its three seventeen pm severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from six not a good miles north of gunpowder river to near middle river moving east at five knots answered we've got thirty four knots or greater and large scale source radar indicated impact boaters and small craft could be thrown overboard by certainly higher winds and waves capsizing their vessel he'll be damage or vessel locations impacted include pools and gunpowder river and bush river move to safe harbor until hazardous weather passes. and i

learned which has unusual rules where you don't have to declare things that but leaving that aside i think what is very clear is that you know voting to leave the e.u. in some sense or other doesn't end the way to establish what the relationship going forward with close neighbors and trading partners is going to be so i think you know it's really this issue is very much up in the air to mention briefly daniel barenboim you know he is somebody that is campaigned tirelessly for decades against rising conflict he's done amazing work in israel and palestine and of course made enemies on both sides as anyone who tries to sort of make friends between and does and i think the call for european unity whichever way you know however this plays out the call for your community is very very important and i think from my point of view as a social justice campaign i think much as i see many problems with the e.u. i think nonetheless it does represent more socially just dispensation than any

other place in the world and that's why the terms of this well then other billionaires want a kind of a face as an example from from the map so i think whatever our relationship with europe it is very important that we push for european unity whether or not we are in the european union or not. course we won't be but yeah the far right is on the rise in many countries and it's very important the sort of economic divisions don't play out in the way that they have in the past leading to political divisions and eventually war and bear in mind where you know europe is the most wall to you know historically most walked on part of the wealth in history so we should at all peril devalue the peace that has reigned in europe over the last sixty years what do you think they're waging this is the platform to have this kind of discussion a big public events like this are we going to see more of this people kind of hijacking this stage a major events and making what tantamount to political speeches as they try to affect the shaping of bragg's. i think that's inevitable. and actually that is

that is a healthy thing it's a healthy part of our democracy democracy isn't limited to one vote on one particular day and i think the. future is best off within the european union do have a right to make that point what i don't think is the g eight summit is an attempt to derail bricks at all to stop it because that makes the referendum pointless it makes democracy pointless what should happen is that the remain campaign should accept that a majority of the electorate on a particular day in a referendum expressed a desire to leave the european union they should now seek to shape the way that we believe the european you know i agree with george that we decided to leave your opinion but we didn't decide how we were going to leave the european union that's for parliament to decide whether we remain inside for example the european economic area is not something that we decided in that referendum that's something for parliament to decide and i think the that that wants to keep a sense of the european union need to buy time they need to make the case over

a longer period of time and perhaps in twenty or twenty five years time there may be a second referendum on rejoining the european union but right now at this point in history the british population through the referendum of last year decided to meet the european union that must be enacted or else that makes a mockery of democracy and it's beholden upon remain campaigners to accept that don't like that result but live with it that's democracy but to shape brics it bring about bret's it that is more common dating of needs and their wants and their desires that is less divisive and that we can hopefully see the united kingdom come together as a country and be more unified than it is at this moment it's very divided is dangerously divided in my view which is giving rise to speeches like bottom out speech. flag waving problems because people are feeling frustrated they're not feeling listened to the not feeling that is being demonstrated in the politicization of events that in my personal view shouldn't be politicized so what

. pick up on that and ask you george is it you think that the healthy expression in public events is a positive thing is it antagonizing people though. we sure are going to see people standing up but nonpolitical events making it an time denies in speeches that rub a lot of people up the wrong way. i mean i think the point that agent made is that just a minute political protest has always been about trying to find opportunities where normal people. find a way to express publicly what they believe bearing in mind that most of us you know unlike the australian billionaire press barons of this world don't have the means to force their message out to millions of people so i think it is absolutely just the things are raised in places like the problems which are you know not just musical events but very much cultural events that are associated with flag waving and for a lot of people it is very important that their identity is not just british but

it's part of part of the e.u. and i think absolutely this this conversation has to continue and i for one by the way was always fairly sympathetic to the argument that precisely because as both agree what was decided was to leave the e.u. not the way we do so then if we if we have a referendum as to whether we should leave the e.u. then there's a strong argument so we should have a referendum once a deal has been thrashed out by a particular group of politicians bearing in mind of course that in some people's votes for breaks it labor voters not conservative voters and may well the jitney have major concerns with the kind of corporate to crack tech bricks that we are very likely to get from the likes of liam fox the formally disgraced liam fox i should i should add i mean he was pushed out of his post five years ago for the dark money dealings and links with some of the most sort of far right corporate elements in the us so the way breaks it plays out is something that i think it's very legitimate that we retain some democratic engagement with going forward

whatever the final arrangement but just to just to repeat very briefly i do think there are very real questions about whether this was a legitimate referendum in the sense that democracy is always about choice by the people based on informed consent and there are very real questions on whether the information that people received in the main did inform them appropriately of what the actual situation. what was it of course except that there is uncertainty in terms of any projection going to just continue both wants to for one final response before we run out of time which is that given that people are feeling this need to have this public discourse and make these very open public statements does it suggest that the politicians aren't doing a good enough job of explaining what's happening with briggs it in and informing people properly first of all to see you. yeah i think that's absolutely the case i think that this government doesn't really understand and hasn't understood the complexities around there are people like myself who have campaigned for bracks it for twenty plus years who wanted it to happen but he issued

a warning coming up to the referendum saying this is not going to be as simple as you think it is there are things that we can do to make it less painful and to navigate our way through but you know our our it's all society our economy our legal system our finances of marriages or relationships have all been intertwined with european states and european for the last forty years you cannot separate great britain from the united kingdom in the simple way that many people were led to believe and i think that that's that the government has not really understood that which is why it seems almost every day the new complexity is being discovered by the government whereas people like me were warning them for ten years that we need to be the european union but you need to understand this is how complex it's going to be and yes i think that that is causing people to feel frustrated and georgia should take it at the politicians letting the people down here. i think the politicians have no idea what's going on really i think the reality of always was the obvious reason the e.u. has a very strong incentive to make sure that breaks it doesn't work out very well for

the u.k. you know if we do get a break where we seem to have our cake and eat it then why would anyone else not follow suit and of course if your interest is the integrity of the you then the chances are you'd have a fairly you know fairly strong incentive to make sure that it doesn't work out so well for the u.k. and as agent says there are. complexities to. this situation this is a forty year legal relationship that involves every single area of our society and you know go back to the referendum campaign there was a bus saying let's leave the e.u. we get three hundred fifty million critics of the n.h.s. you know and a lot of people made their decision on that basis and they still in you know on t.v. shows and stuff that you know they get the microphone they say well we've got to break so why don't we just do it the reality is that it's you know likening the most complex divorce of all time you can't you can't just split you know the nature of that ongoing relationship remains incredibly complex and things like the european court of justice and the importance of all those george talkies of terrorism being just.