donald trump blames congress for derailing relations with moscow accusing representatives of forcing him to sign a flawed sanctions bill under raising concerns of a constitutional crisis in the u.s. . criticism man's over the u.k. government's reluctance to publish archive documents with the opposition calling the secrecy an affront to democratic ideals. and a new deescalation zone has come into effect in syria with the moderate rebels committing to repel an islamic state and al nusra terrorists.

thank you for watching r.t. international with the global news at the top of the hour i'm kate partridge. donald trump has accused congress of bringing u.s. russia relations to an all time low in the tweets the u.s. president said it's thanks to the people on capitol hill who forced him to sign the anti russia signed a bill he said he had to abide by the decision of the lawmakers after their landslide vote last week gave him no other choice for one way congress can now check trump's deal making potential is by stopping him from lifting russia restrictions the new nor require the president to obtain congressional approval for any such move well let's talk about this then with the trunk of that what's behind trump's rhetoric. it's only a. kate well hi again i guess no president would like to be donald trump's shoes

right now times really are getting tough as they can get for the president you know being america's top man in charge but at the same tommy think of it not being able to exercise his power and even worse being cornered into making the decisions he doesn't want to make just to keep order and as we've been hearing from the white house spokesperson who's been explaining that very signature under that sanctions bill president signed that countering america's adversaries through sanctions act congress has encroached on the power of the presidency and he signs it in the interest of national unity and strong was that i mean is congress they really that much against him well you can really just look at the latest votes first of all the crucial bill that very one on the sanctions that was landslide votes in the house that was a landslide vote in the senate but then also trumps much cherished healthcare bill

you know that was the pillar of his white house campaign yet it has been destroyed by the american lawmakers and as we have been seeing both the democrats will that is kind of obvious but also of course the republican party which is technically trumps party teaming up against the president and giving him quite a drubbing month after month week after week and the criticism and the pressure has been building up what was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for i worry about the president's understanding of some of these issues. it's a race baiting zina phobic religious bigot and a ludicrous pretends for his hateful campaign this president does not care about the united states of america so in these kind of circumstances under so much pressure it is little surprise that donald trump is giving in to the congress and you might argue that this really puts america on the brink of

a constitutional crisis and constitutional process interesting times we have. thank you very much indeed for joining me. well on wednesday donald trump reluctantly put his signature to the anti russia sanctions bill despite claiming it's flawed and contains unconstitutional provisions why favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and the stabilizing 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 wake the president states that even though he sees the legislation as 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. 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 is 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 keeping 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 u.s. russia relations 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 measure such as these being passed may be prevented from doing just that. washington d.c. . well former u.s. congressman ron paul believes the new sanctions are a big mistake and it's 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 benefit 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 happen but there are some those who cote 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 target is the north stream two pipeline well this is due to start pumping gas from russia to europe in twenty nineteen it's regarded by europe as key to its energy needs while european firms have invested five billion euros in the project 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 business is the hurt and spain has also spoken out declaring that it shares its e.u. colleagues concerns over the sanctions auntie's peter all of the has more on the european reaction 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 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 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 the nuclear option could be the one and not many people would want to go down would be the implementation of sanctions by the european union on the united states all. u.s. interests but a lot of this comes down to gas and energy supply and the amount that you. call that of course it's also raised questions over the reason behind these particular sanctions because one of the main supply is could of course be imports of u.s.

gas. and then the american businessman paul gonchar of joined my colleague rory sushi to discuss the new bill by its europe so one happy with these and russia sanctions. again the americas the bandleader was good for america it's do it our way or take the high way trump himself called this bill significantly flawed if that's the case why did he sign it good question i'm sure you have his reasons you have his hands tied probably you did if you do need it if you don't some of it is something he was catering to the american public that they want they want 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 out 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 u.s. the sounds i have been tied to these sanctions the most they're 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's a demonization out there. intolerance as an american i find that to be incredibly. it's a tragic state of affairs. well meanwhile a new study into which country people fear the most has produced an answer some might find surprising researchers surveyed forty two thousand people across thirty eight countries were i guess day of the story. the world is a frightening place disasters wars terror and paul the team 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. it's doesn't seem that stable at the moment to us if it's a word words for the eye to 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 are 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. 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. the british government's facing cover up claim software it was revealed it's refusing to make public a record number of documents well let's find out more from playboy in london about

the story out of that place so why all the secrecy what is it now trying to hide. well look the way the system in britain works is that once a government document turns thirty it's then supposed to be made public it goes into the national archives unless government departments specifically apply to withhold or to redact a particular document from the national archives this government has been applying to basically make secret an increasing number of documents over the past few years and the types of files that the government is censoring for example last year related to arm sales to india and to saudi arabia as well as to trips to the middle east by prince charles and princess diana back in the eighty's so campaigners for transparency say that they're concerned about this because there is still a culture of passage see they say in many government departments and if that sort

of claim sounds familiar it's because the government has been accused of censoring much newer documents as well many viewers will recall that very recently the home secretary. she withheld quite an important report that many people have been waiting for into terrorist funding take a listen to how she explained that at the time i have decided against publishing the classified report produced in the review in full this is because of the volume of personal information it contains and for national security reasons. that decision made a lot of opposition politicians very angry in the u.k. and a lot of them voiced suspicions that the reason the government was so reluctant to publish that report into terrifying day was because the information within it could embarrass a very close ally of london's and that is saudi arabia and the point that the analysis from the national archives is making is that transparency is very

important when it comes to ensuring public trust and they want to see that public trust eroded through this creeping censorship of government documents. that's interesting artie's playboy thank you very much indeed. a new deescalation zone has just come into effect north of the syrian city of homs the details of the short break. here's what people have been saying about rejected in the us is it actually useful along. with the only show i go out of my way to launch you know what it is that really packs a punch oh yeah it is the john oliver of our three americas do the same we are apparently better than nothing. to see people you've never heard of low or down to the next. president of the world bank so very. seriously send us an

e-mail. you can. import healthcare from china it's all very local. cases of price gouging by monopolists in america and as a result people selfless to climbing life expectancy is falling childbirth increasing because of these with pleas and a lack of competition. welcome back there are renewed hopes today that peace efforts have taken a significant step forward in syria after a new deescalation zone came into force in the country the news was confirmed by

russia's defense ministry a little bit of 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 another capital and also incorrigible for deescalation zones discussed in total two are 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 ceasefire 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 general kardashian cough said let's take a listen. what is this doing to go to 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 is a 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. of 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 the homes of our 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 deescalation zones when the fourth one comes into play there will be even more so very much substantial progress here in facilitating a ceasefire and what's been some very difficult negotiations on these opposing sides. the pentagon's denied allegations it knew about torture and killings carried out by elite cameroonian forces the troops were conducting the atrocities at the same base where u.s. soldiers were carrying out training. and 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 ease 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 we knew american soldiers stuck material in so long. usa has over three hundred military personnel in the country to help in the fight against the bulk of around terrorist groups 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 are 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 arm smugglers in order not to die so that's what we did the guards 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 restrained 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 tool show 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's a vital interests for the u.s. military in a particular country there's a tendency not to. human rights violations and those particular states common room

does have oil and it is willing to work with the us for various joint military operations so in that regard the us does have a interest in developments in terms of 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 seems to look the other way but r.t. new york. for more news please go to our website don't call me otherwise i'll be back at the top of the hour.

seemed wrong. wrong just don't call. me. yet to shape out this day become active. and engaged because betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. you can't import healthcare from china it's all very local you have

a case of doubting and price gouging by monopolists in america and as a result people's health is to climbing life expectancy is falling childbirth increasing because of these monopolies and the lack of competition. my. goal. was some bit of cut a lot of b.s. to study well at the kind of mushy finality and i don't want to let the your talk about how much more i'd let her be honest and the half of the fish emily i shall get a letter i learned to whom i had that that's not to be

a story. so it's all so much money so it. was before this was useful to you my with be sure he doesn't feel that. they've been released and until we don't find sentence in we don't want to do with it if you are moving the body is for your friend just obviously i told you. about that one had the army get. the popular niche market had to sit up yes it's b.s. and. the bomb but don't tell except that i don't know how that would be when i say that i love the idea i came i thought the human is more out of that hobby and with an a ha. i don't mean. but these are

a little how do you have. thought have these of the five have a better to come theme of the i don't fucking let me off well i know how that the jets are looking to us and i'm going to feel will sort it out then said. can was off. for the better good of the whole to. be the measure of the law another bit of concealment of. the worst of all you out of. a. little on the slow. a saudi and. a little.

tiny and also he was a he had the whole movie multiple injuries along kind of an episode them to yourself you. will hear mars on that. if you will be a political football so this is a year also. with them just. before the be the end of the if you have with. so how and where did this room to host them. you can hear him dive. in and want to know what happens when the stuff first. you know as in a complex one and that one that she needs to tell she's not going to be something that you have you know our story you will see not only the people in the room with mostly what.