in this week's top stories president trump signs the new russia sanctions bill angering america's allies described it as declaring a full scale trade war. sanctions north korea's missile tests u.s. draft resolution is unanimously backed by the u.n. security council. a dictator dictator. and the venezuelan president is also targeted by u.s. destructions over his constitutional reform referendum which has infuriated the opposition. but it's really an aid agency groups argue over how to conduct search

and rescue operations a suspicion growth of humanitarian posts of colluding with people traffickers. morning for me kevin when you're in moscow just eight am here now this is the weekly a round of all the big news stories the last seven days of the next thirty minutes we started with this the relations soured further between russia and the united states on wednesday as donald trump put his signature to a new sanctions bill it's a move that sang that america's allies in europe who say that their economic interests are being ignored even president trump himself was reluctant to sign the last saying it limits his power to shape foreign policy. while i favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by north korea and russia this legislation is significantly flawed and its haste to pass this legislation the congress included

a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions those provisions purport to displace the president's exclusive constitutional authority and those comments live a lot of questions and the way 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 thanks to this bill so it courses it is a terrible bill. benefits the people of no contrary not the united states not germany not all three or in a way not russia not syria not 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 not totally unexpected but i do believe that the 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 in theory being america's partners in europe those who work with moscow and those areas. the sanctions passed by the u.s. congress and accepted by the us president mean that we have abandoned the concept of unity foreign policy issues are evidently connected to american economic interests to say we want to limit russian gas in the european market so that we can sell american gas here instead is something that we cannot accept so these sanctions seem to be leaving her. anyone happy trumps being forced to go against its constitutional beliefs america's closest european allies go on the defensive to counter what they see as a matter is potentially in violation of international law and us worship elations taken for their head 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 the trumpet ministration has demonstrated complete impotence and the good of all executive power to congress in the most humiliating way when these statements from trump and it with the president claiming that he can make far better deals with foreign countries than congress but with measures such as these being passed to maybe prevent it from doing just that the deep state the need. and the media are very very powerful and they can put a lot of pressure on the president so they ganged up on him 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 on 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 even when russia and the soviet union existed we actually were quite willing you know when necessary to talk and work out some problems but now we're moving in the other direction in a tweet president trump blame congress for the current state of u.s. russia relations describing them as a low but the u.s. state department pointed the finger at moscow in a lengthy exchange with reporters over the russian prime minister's reaction he announces the end of any hope for improvement is it. is that what the entrance is at the end we are two nuclear superpowers. an economic declaration of war against the russian federation is it is it an economic declaration of war. was it an economic declaration of war i blush and federation if that is what russia is saying you know russia certainly entitled to say that the russians hate these sanctions the president as you first did you know this president agrees with them

that it's bad piece of legislation well people argue that also hold on one second the president signed a bill after all this are you saying that russia is to blame for the low in relations right now. russia's been involved in a lot of activities a whole host of things to host of things so why did the president say you can think congress and it would i would have to refer you to the president on that if you understand anything else again on russia you know russia alone ok no if you're right hold on everybody take it down a notch and so the conversation went on well the new sanctions low gives congress the power to block the president from easing sanctions all moscow and as you mentioned that's angered donald trump branded the legislation unconstitutional by the way going to try and broker was happening in washington. i guess no president would like to be and 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 time we 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 signed it in the interest of national unity 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 and a ludicrous pretend for his hate 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. made towm new sanctions on north korea were agreed late on saturday after a u.s. draft resolution was unanimously agreed by the u.n. security council north korean exports of coal metals and seafood producing export revenue by about a third which is roughly a billion dollars a year foreign investments have also been blocked this in response to north korea's continued missile tests russia believes sanctions should be a starting point for a future dialogue with north korea other un members agree but there are signs that washington is still mulling a military option. 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 and north korea itself he's not going to president 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 face 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 all 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. well had a little career 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. unclear whether he himself believes that's possible breakthrough now when it hasn't happened in decades but donald trump is on a 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 if. someone is definitely sanctioned season it seems this year with

venezuela also joining the restrictions club the u.s. treasury is imposing tough measures against president would do or of his victory in a controversial referendum to create a new legislative body regarded by critics as a tool to weaken the opposition as a result of today's sanctions all assets of the door subject to u.s. jurisdiction are frozen and u.s. persons are prohibited from dealing with him. a new assembly will be tasked with rewriting the constitution will have the power to dissolve the parliament the opposition divide the fight about on public protests and denounce the election as a power grab by a president with police in the capital deployed tear gas and rubber bullets and clashes with furious opposition supporters.

as for the american sanctions there does seem to be ones fear though that's off limits. but sanctions against oil are i'm not going to comment on that what i will say is we will monitor all of our options it seems we all knew about this talks that relationship. is a dictator who disregard the will of the venezuelan people but i think any such only to me a little bit troubling assault on a part of theater that neuer out of the main part of the the that but it come into it probably that the government. is violating its own constitution. and. not a little bit ahead on pump oil into the equation and politics is brushed straight under the carpet his facts of how black gold unites them. for decades south

american states being the third largest exporter of crude to the u.s. a numbers of growing up seven percent to around six hundred seventy thousand barrels a day but when it stopped that absolutely know the citgo petroleum corporation based in texas belongs to wait for it venezuela's state owned oil company which means the country has access to these refineries the total capacity of about seven hundred forty nine thousand barrels per day so far the sanctions that have been a mention have been against refined venezuelan oil products and against individuals in the venezuelan government they have not been for the importation of crude the fact that they're not including crude speaks to that interdependence and the fact that us all producers and export are don't want to up in the market and potentially that ten percent extraction of venice on oil could spike us gasoline prices as well

so i think that that is the concern. the u.s. state department branded last sunday's vote illegitimate it also describes the president during his leadership as a dictatorship but as well an attorney an investigative journalist of god and jesus as anyone acting against u.s. interests these days is now labeled a dictator. u.s. foreign policy is entirely hypocritical i mean they only characterize government says dictatorial or also a tarion when they're not favorable to u.s. interests again u.s. maintains close ties and supports the monarchy in saudi arabia that's one of the biggest abusers of human rights in the world yet we don't see them calling out the saudi arabian kingdom as dictatorial and sanctioning the king and all the princes there is differing degrees of democracy in the world and how they are seen but when it comes to putting labels on governments and other nations it all depends on who's a friend or a foe of the united states it's at least trying to stop people traffickers in the

but it's radio but cohn rescue charities on board to that hope will tell you more about the break you can to.

seem. just don't. get to see. the activity. and in detroit equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. again several a groups of carrying out migrant rescue missions in the mediterranean are refusing to sign up to a so-called code of conduct has been drafted by italy first it obliges rescue missions to allow police officers on board it also prevents aid boats from transferring refugees to other vessels insisting they take migrants to ports themselves and it bans phone calls or flares from n.g.o.s ills in case they're

being used to warn people smugglers when it's safe to send another boat it'll insist the migrant rescue code is mandatory and anyone refusing to sign it will face consequences but the medical charity doctors without borders believes it could be putting people in peril. goes against our mission which is to save lives it goes against this really goes against our hearts what we are as a medical and humanitarian organisation and it's not something that. the code's been partially drawn up after some n.g.o.s were accused of acting as a taxi service basically working alongside people traffickers to get migrants into europe it's a concern that's been repeatedly voiced by a group known as defend europe to the end to my group movement even crowd funded a mediterranean mission to monitor the work of n.g.o.s. because we are against mess immigration to europe we beat wants to stop this madness this n.g. all madness. and because everybody's just talking in the what is acting feeling

you're stepping in what you're doing you're going to do is you're going to all watch the and you also and i think what they're doing there is nothing good because they're actually a support factor and basically they are the reason for this mess immigration get a reason people drowning and it's the up making a fortune for this human trafficking rings in libya destabilizing the country i think that a future for africa can't lie and europe the future of europe cannot be to become a second africa. also this last week italy seized a german groups migrant rescue boat which would suspect the take of migrants from smugglers the first time italy then the seized a humanitarian boat and it's part of a government initiative agreed this week to send military vessels to libyan shores to stop people traffickers it's an issue the still firing of promotions across europe. in the moment europe is responsible for the destructions in africa a lot and look at that it's necessary to open legal ways for refugees but europe

children people on the countries like italy like spain like portugal with a problem but all european countries should take responsibility and so the people who are. members on this ship and on other refugee had boats as well they just want to save lives because of the last ten years there was more than forty thousand people dying in the mediterranean sea and they just don't want to see the people joy i see very clearly that this is not a humanitarian help it's not a military or an s.o.s. but it's helping those people arriving in italy and the refugees that are coming in are paying huge sums to human traffickers this is immoral and i would say that true that. the destruction of libya was a mistake of historical mistake but i don't see why contra single country like italy should pay the price for it so it's a huge problem neatly and finally the government decided to take some action to

stop this kind of keep this. in lebanon hezbollah fighters managed to recapture militants final stronghold in the country earlier this week the location is in the ass the eastern lebanon right next to the syrian border and check it on the map there both countries have conducted a joint offensive to drive on those from that mountainous area in a week rarely visited a cave there where jihadists have been living for years. so ended just a few days ago and you can still see the remnants of that with bullets and shells all strewn across the floor and we've seen burnt out vehicles on the way up here and got victory against hezbollah managed to capture this cave which was used by terrorists as a base so we can go inside and have a look around. inside the cave we make the shocking discovery what

appeared to be prison cells it's unclear why exactly al masri needed prison cells in this isolated area. of punishment or perhaps to prevent their own fighters fleeing in the middle of the night these are some of the weapons which was captured from japan and we've got these. rockets lots of tactical vests. and there are rocket launches. guns and all sorts of artillery which were abandoned by now so when they were defeated and they left this cave there's even a room where battle plans are drawn up where fighters receive instructions and they take this seat here and listen to the commanders ninety militants were killed in that battle and those who survived many of them fled to italy where in fighting

continues between different rebel groups but some of them remained and just a few kilometers away behind these mountains behind us perhaps more ominous to me many more of them decided to defect to the so-called islamic state and some of the hezbollah commanders here tell me that they're only four kilometers away from where we are now a sally r.t. in eastern lebanon. syria has called on the u.n. to end what it calls washington's massacres against its civilians. the u.s. led international coalition continues to commit massacres against innocent syrian civilians but conducting systematic asterix those attacks contributed to the spread of chaos killing and destruction over six hundred people have been killed in the u.s. led coalition airstrikes in syria and iraq over the course of three years although more than four hundred reports of possible civilian casualties are yet to be examined that's according to operation inherent results own dates are in fact

however the u.k. based transparency group was calculates that almost five thousand people have died in coalition air bombardment since the start of the operation in may the u.s. defense secretary said such losses was inevitable two billion casualties are a fact of life in this sort of situation in syria thousands are still fleeing the ravages of war plus in neighboring iraq one british aid worker describes scenes of armageddon when she visited the liberated city of mosul the gym political analyst patrick henningsen says americans only see been achieved success is only the no surprise the coalition is going to want to under play any of the sort of casualty numbers for civilians from the operations in mosul and in iraq as well because it's political you know the whole operation against isis is political if you're in the united states it's all about the theater of what the u.s. is achieving whether it's under president obama or whether it's under president

trump and everything's kind of viewed through that weird kaleidoscope in the in the united states and it has nothing to do with what's going on the ground. well sweetly for now make the date if you can with us every sunday at any hour to catch up on the recap of the big stories of the last seven days keep in touch with us as well of course twenty four seventh's. manufacture consent to public well. when the closest protect themselves. with the flaming. lips. we can all middle of the room sick.

here's what people have been saying about rejected in the senate just pull on. the only show i go out of my way to find you know what it is that really packs a punch. is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than. see people you've never heard of love back to the night president of the world bank so take. me seriously send us an e-mail.

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much so that. he. was before this was useful to you but the law to be sure he doesn't feel that. they've been released and until we don't find sentencing we don't want to do with it if you are moving the body yes we're off to just obviously i told you. i learned what had. the bottle in which market had to sit up yes it's b.s. and. the bomb but don't tell except that i wish i had that that would be when i say that i love the idea i came i thought the whole miniature outlet hobby and with an a ha. i don't mean for shock that occurs but there's a little how do you have the thought has he has the phantom of the head of the

something like that i don't fuckin alamy oh well i know how that the jets are looking to us and i'm going to feel will soon. set itself can was off with the land for the betterment of the whole to. be the full measure of the law another bit of concealment of. the. of us of all your love. of your core left us a little on the slow. a sortie and with other. families i. can hear and also he was a he had the whole movie multiple injuries in montana who have to sell them to keep sophie home.