donald trump signs into law a new sanctions targeting russia but says the bill is significantly floors and contains clearly unconstitutional provisions. the new sanctions not only hinder us russian relations but also pose a threat to washington's ties to europe where some regard them as detrimental to e.u. businesses. and a new deescalation zone has come into effect in syria with the moderate rebels committing to me telling is one mixtape and algos for terrorists.

you're watching aussie international broadcasting live from the russian capital thank you for joining us i'm kate partridge. donald trump has signed a new set of sanctions in a bill targeting russia however the american president brand of the restrictions is force and indicated that he was reluctant to approve them while my favorite tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and the stimulating behavior by iran north korea and russia this legislation significantly. its haste to pass the legislation the congress included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions. a number of provisions to displace the president's exclusive constitutional authority and those comments live a lot of questions in their way the president states that even though he seems the legislation is unconstitutional he signed off on it as president trump swore an

oath to preserve protect and defend the constitution of the united states but he seems to be openly doing the opposite upon approving the sanction this bill of course is it is a terrible bill. it benefits the people of no contrary not the united states not germany or italy not russia syria not any of the people is the constitutional crisis our government has set up to where there are three branches that constantly struggle one against the other. so that in itself is totally unexpected but i do believe that these side shows are out of heaping with the traditions of the united states and how our government functions but what looks like a constitutional crisis brewing in the us is not the only problem trump is facing sanctions that hit russia's energy and defense sector are infuriating america's

partners in europe those who work with moscow and those areas so these things can seem to be leaving hardly anyone happy trumps being forced to go against his constitutional beliefs yes worse revelations take a further hit and america's closest european allies go on the defensive to counter what they see as measures potentially in violation of international law when these statements from trump and with the president claiming that he can make far better deals with foreign countries than congress but with measures such as these being passed could be prevented from doing just that. washington d.c. . well one way congress can now check trump steelmaking potential is by stopping him from lifting russia sanctions should say restrictions the new law requires the president to obtain congressional approval for any such move moscow says the new sanctions detail any possible progress in already poor relations between the u.s. and russia. first there is no hope for any improvement of our relations with the new american administration second

a total trade war has been declared on russia third the trumpet ministration has demonstrated complete impotence handing over all executive power to congress in the most humiliating way this changes the political balance of power in the us what does that mean for them the american establishment has definitively beaten trump want to discuss why these sanctions are part of a greater headache fortran and he joins me live in the studio hi there they are so well i mean on them with president child well i guess no president would like to be in donald trump's shoes right now or really tough times for mr trump in the white house you know being america's top man in charge but not being able if you think of it to really exercise the powers that he's got right now and even worse as we're seeing being cornered into making the decisions that he doesn't want to make and doing that just to keep order as we heard from the white house spokesperson this is

how she explained that very donald trump signature. president signed that countering america's adversaries through sanctions act congress has encroached on the power of the presidency and he signed it in the interest of national unity. one of his congress really that much against him well you can just look at the latest votes in the congress the crucial bill the sanctions one we're talking about here landslide votes in both the house and also the senate but of course that doesn't end there. much cherished health care bill we realize of course that this was the pillar of his white house campaign now it's been destroyed in the congress as well and again if you think of it obviously it is the democrats which is kind of obvious but also the republicans technically his party they're teaming up and really giving him a drubbing month after month week after week and the criticism it's just keeps building

up what's proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for i worry about the president's understanding of some of these issues. these are race baiting zina phobic religious bigots and i am not going to get it done. not in the future. while in these kind of circumstances under. pressure it's really a little surprised that donald trump is giving in to the congress and some might argue that this kind of situation really puts the u.s. on the brink of a constitutional crisis constitutional process interesting times and efficient thank you very much indeed thank you. well former u.s. congressman ron paul believes the new sanctions are a big mistake and hurt all play as. the deep state. and the media are very very powerful and they can put a lot of pressure on the president so they ganged up on him and i thought he had

sort of a mediocre position on this i was strongly opposed to it and i volunteered my advice which was totally ignored but he went ahead and signed it i think it was more like a political thing but i don't think in the long run this benefits i don't think it benefits america it certainly doesn't benefit you know peace in the world between europe and russia so i think it's a terrible thing to have a house but there are some those who coached qualified to be participants in the deep state they are determined they are determined almost obsessed with making sure that there is no friendship between the united states and russia between putin and trump i think that is tragic you know even when russia and the soviet union existed we actually were quite willing you know when necessary to talk and work out some problem but now we're moving in the other direction. well one projects that the new

sanctions time this is the north stream to pipeline assist you to stop pumping gas from russia to europe in twenty nineteen if we got it by your epis key to its energy needs and european firms have invested five billion euros in the project. well the new sanctions are regarded by some in europe as an intrusion into their internal affairs germany said the sanctions could be in breach of international law if european businesses are hurt while spain has also spoken out declaring that it shares its e.u. colleagues concerns over the sanctions artie's peter oliver has more on the european reaction is we never anticipated to be populist sanctions and well the bill being signed is 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 in important some cases

a lot of that energy from russia here to the european union and we purge from senior figures in the 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 us holding preliminary consultations with us europeans before this can happen or 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 well earlier american businessman paul gonchar of joining my colleague laura rory sushi a to discuss than you bill. by it's europe so i want to happy with these and see russia sanctions well it's again america's the band leader what's good for america it's do it our way or take the high way trump himself called this spill significantly flawed if that's the case why did he sign it good question i'm sure you have his reasons he had his hands tied probably you did if you do need it if you don't somewhere there's a saying he was catering to the american public that they want they wanted to see him sign these sanctions well if that's the case

a serious statement of affairs of what is america sort of underlines an intolerance and a lack of desire to get at what the truth is in fact look he was voted into someone different not to be a republican a democrat to be an american to safeguard american interests not necessarily our interests in the persian gulf or in iceland or whatever in the usa the sounds i have been tied to these sanctions. are going to affect russia iran china or even trump himself all of the above all of the above and more. we have left the era of even trying to trust there is a demonization of the. intolerance as an american i find that to be incredibly sad. it's a tragic state of affairs we woll a new study into which country people fear the most has produced and what find

surprising research has surveyed forty two thousand people across thirty eight countries and what i guess if as the story the world is a frightening place disasters war is terror and paul the t. make us a fearful people but fear can be measured who would you say people are most afraid of the usual suspects. who cheney but no none of the people in the thirty eight countries that polled feel most threatened by the united states this is pew research one of the most respected pollsters in the world doesn't seem to know it's doesn't seem that stable at the moment to us if it's so words to the i do understand why

they perceive the united states as a threat well i guess this has to do with the tone of our political change and that doesn't surprise me it's very disturbing it's concerning it's scary sort of our image now sort of a lot lot more anger towards us and within us i mean i guess that makes me feel better meaning that we have a strong military someone said it's better to be here than love so it's an old story big bad america big bad russia china we've heard it all before what's striking here is that it isn't america's enemies that increasingly view it as a chief threat it's washington's friends canadians for example now see the united states as more of a threat than either russia or china that is. outright animosity within nato and among allies turkey south korea japan spain greece and

germany view washington as the most threatening state in the world that's as many as seventy two percent of respondents how's that for friends in europe you have. at least some understanding of the united states behaves in the world that you do not have in the united states you have germany now of closing u.s. sanctions on russia you have the public you know this is not the german government this is the german public this is not the swedish government this is the swedish public so you have people who are opposed to war opposed to militarism opposed to nato expansion of those two u.s. bases in germany expressing their viewpoint and that's you know not typically in news in europe and especially not in the united states. you know you could say that over the last four years trump and obama helped make america great again

or at least a great threat. now the u.k. government is facing criticism for refusing to make public a record number of documents upon a boycott has more on this live from london. fully what is it that is so special about these documents. well look this system in britain is that government departments need to make documents public any documents that they have once those documents are over thirty years old unless government departments specifically request to withhold or to censor parts of those documents and according to the national archives here in the u.k. the number of requests coming from government departments requesting that documents are withheld or redacted is increasing every single year and these government requests are being made on the grounds of security every year government

departments are in marking more files as out of scope which in layman's terms is basically secret they're making more file secret and the sorts of files that were sent said last year for example they all relate to nine hundred eighty seven that was when margaret thatcher was prime minister because they're the documents that would have been thirty years old and would have been made public but they related to things like sales to india and to saudi arabia they also related to a visit to the middle east made by prince charles and princess diana and campaigners for transparency and say that they're concerned about this that there is still a culture of opacity within many government departments they say and it is something that doesn't necessarily have to relate to old documents a lot of our viewers will recall that just a couple of weeks ago the home secretary here. she withheld

a report about the funding of terrorism take a listen to how she explained that at the time. i have decided against publishing the classified report produced during the review in full this is because of the volume of personal information it contains and for national security reasons. now that report really angered a lot of opposition politicians hey or rather that withheld report really angered a lot of politicians and a number of them voiced suspicions that the government's reluctance to unveil that particular report was because it might embarrass britain's very close ally saudi arabia and the point that this new report from the national all clive's is making is that transparency is the very best way to ensure public trust and they don't want to see that public trust eroded through this increased censorship of

government documents. some fascinating implications that probably boycott thank you very much indeed well meanwhile a new deescalation zone has just come into effect north of the syrian city of homs for details on that story after the short break. the fear we go through. every. experience. that you get all the old. according to just. one else seemed wrong why don't we just don't call. me.

yet to see. this day come out to. end in detroit equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. welcome back in syria and you deescalation zone has come into force that's according to russia's defense ministry let's look at what it was according to the agreement today on the third of august starting from midday local time moderate opposition forces as well as government troops will cease fire from all types of

weapons. well this latest the escalation zone as a result of intensive talks in asked the other covers all also in car or for deescalation zones discussed in total two already in operation in southern syria this is the third one put in place it encompasses around eighty seven towns and villages in those areas of syria one hundred forty thousand people living there so very substantial progress in deed now while the cease fire covers effectively all sides and all weapons as we mentioned just there of course. exempt from both internationally recognized terrorist organizations and will be fair game for parties as always the rebels the moderate rebels in these areas they will be tossed with actually pushing them out as a general question cough said let's take a listen. what is this to go down this according to the agreement the moderate opposition assumes responsibility for pushing eisel and really it's out of the

areas it controls. not only has russia played a key role in the negotiating table bridging these very major differences between these opposing sides that are all on the ground russian military police will be observing the cease fire really closely they'll be separating the warring parties as well as controlling some crossings and checkpoints that also have a very important humanitarian role in making sure humanitarian aid medicine etc gets through to the areas where it's needed and facilitating the evacuation of wounded civilians they will also have the chance to be treated in russian field hospitals in the area to ensure they get the treatment they very much need now the opposition has also agreed to open a key road between homs and hama two major cities which was previously a stumbling block in those negotiations in total well there's over two thousand two thousand and ninety five in total to be precise towns and villages covered by these

the escalation zones when the fourth one comes into play there will be even more so very much substantial progress here in facilitating a cease fire in what's been some very difficult negotiations on these opposing sides. you know s.k. is director general has condemned the killing of a journalist working for r.t. arabic in syria in a statement to the network of added that the targeting of journalists in conflict zones is considered a war crime. died last week in an ai silk shelling near homs province off filming a story on the syrian army's operations against the terrorist group we now bring you his final report and the testimony of his dedication to highlighting the horrors of war as told by his camera man who was also caught in the crossfire. and you see this red dot on the left not the big one this round see it it means we're filming.

something we came to the eastern countryside of homes called back to libya with the army it was a place of direct confrontation with i still as we arrived the army was ordered to deal with the terrorist forces facing us the first show hit i still fight is then another one was fired shortly after the second show i'm not really sure whether i still fired a missile or a more tough but it was quite accurate hit a group of people khaled was there and the brigadier who was killed and the driver who was with us and is still in hospital was critically wounded we tried to do our best to help each other by all means and those who were not injured took us in pickup trucks to an ambulance on the road we didn't exactly know what happened that khaled was dead we were praying for him not to die hoping his injuries weren't serious and. i had known him for

a long time but it felt as if i knew him for more than ten years and his personality he was gallant and courageous he had many plans and aspirations for the future he want to do something for his country. the pentagon has denied allegations it knew about torture and killings carried out by elite cameroonian forces the group known as the rapid intervention battalion or b i.r. reportedly carried out these acts or to military base where u.s. troops were conducting training more pain reports according to amnesty international it's pretty clear that the african nation of cameroon is not a human rights paradise reports published in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen highlighted how cameroon's authours g.'s and security forces often fail to respect obligations committing human rights violations including with arbitrary arrests incommunicado detention torture and deaths in custody these atrocities are taking

place even at a military base that's being used by u.s. troops i saw many times and i heard them talking in english i think they were americans everyone said they were americans and when you american soldiers stop material insall ark usa has over three hundred military personnel in the country to help in the fight against the bokova terrorist group but it's what's going on at the military base where some of them are present that's raising alarm bells b.o.r. agents asked me to confess that i was noms smuggler but i denied it while still tied up my head was forced into a barrel of water while i was in this position they beat the soles of my feet one after the other they would hit me we were tortured like this for a week and we ended up understanding that we had to tell them that we were arms smugglers in order not to die so that's what we did. the guard came with be our soldiers to ask me questions about whether i knew book or arms members i said i didn't that beat me for five days tied up like

a goat my arms and feet restraint behind my back but the u.s. african command says it's never heard any such reports to date u.s. africa command has not received any reports of human rights abuses by cameroonian forces at either of these locations. perhaps she needs to have a chat with a certain state department. security forces committed numerous unlawful killings then gauged in torture beatings and other abuses particularly of detainees and prisoners. maybe the us african command just doesn't trust the big wigs back home when we're saying that we're talking specifically about a u.s. service member reporting up their chain of command not about external reports. if there is a vital interest for the u.s. military in a particular country there's a tendency not to. human rights violations in those particular states common room does have and it is willing to work with the u.s.

for various. military operations so in that regard the us does have a interests and development and. when information is inconvenient it often gets ignored so is it any surprise that when there are reports of u.s. allies who are violating human rights washington steams to look the other way. are to new york. i'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. oh there are already about me right.

social environment. right. chemical discoveries over the last century made every day life easier but at what cost this is cereal is exceptionally sick. no wonder it's confidential. says since the years old industrial giants reap the benefit ignoring the home cools by chemical production. you know as if these people. just experimental animals decades later the toxic environment continues to poison lives and we found these astronomically high levels of dioxin levels that my staff think maybe some of the highest levels ever in the united states for almost thirty years this very serious problem had not actually

been addressed what will that investigation into the chemical industry secrets revealed. or. if you take an economics course you're taught that markets are based on informed consumers making rational judgments for the suppose you turn on the television should. take a look at the. moment are they trying to create informed consumers making rational choices the country they're trying to create uninformed consumers who will act irrationally in the so huge industry one of the biggest industries in the country. thanks. michael.