in this week's top stories president trump signs the new russia sanctions bill it's angered america's. describes it is declaring a full scale trade war. but the sanction screws on north korea as well over its missile tests as a u.s. drafted resolution is unanimously backed by the u.n. security council. a dictator dictator the venezuelan president is also targeted by u.s. restrictions over his constitutional reform referendum that's infuriated the opposition. and italy and aid groups argue in the week over how best to

conduct migrant search and rescue operations suspicion growth of humanitarian boats occluding with. good afternoon one pm here in moscow my name is kevin zero in this hour bringing you the weekly roundup of the big stories of the last seven days for the next thirty minutes or so you can stay with me first that 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 america's allies in europe who say their economic interests are being ignored now because of it even president trump himself was reluctant to sign the law 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. it 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 these sideshows are out of he playing 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 us congress and accepted by the us president mean that we have abandoned the concept of units foreign policy issues or other deadly connected to american economic interests to say we want to limit russian gas in the european market so that we can sell american gas there instead this 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 gets worse

revelations taken further 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 could 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 he went ahead and signed it i think it was more like a political thing but there are some those who coca-cola fire to be per 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 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 the new sanctions low gives congress the power to block the president from easing sanctions on mosco and as we mentioned doesn't get done will trump branded the legislation comes to chew tional in the trying to break necks what's happening in washington. i guess no president would like to be. 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 true party teaming up against the president and giving him quite a month after month we kept her 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 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. meantime new sanctions on north korea were agreed late on

saturday after a u.s. drafted resolution was unanimously agreed by the un security council it bans north korean exports of coal metals and seafood reducing export revenue but a further not equates to roughly a billion dollars a year foreign investments also been blocked this in response to north korea's continued missile tests russia believes that sanctions should be the starting point for at least future dialogue with north korea the un members agree but there are signs that washington is nonetheless still mulling a military option every military expert says there is no good military option there are wrong there is an option to destroy north korea's program in north korea itself he's not going to president the ability of this madman to have a missile that hit america if there is going to be awarded stop and it will be over there. they're going to die over there and they're not going to die here in these told me that in my face that may be provocative but now really however america's

top diplomat rex tillerson says his country would like with pyongyang at some point although one expert told us the chances of that happening are a decreasing. you're thinking in terms of dialogue no if anything with most dire law giver and less likely than before but if you mean a factor of a for the. collective a party some are not going to tire north korean population and bring about the economic collapse of north korea may be a factor of unfortunately your thanks to the thought recalling. the only increase the likelihood of a conflict or increase of tensions at the very least. north korea's expected discussions at today's association of south east asian nations gathering in the philippines twenty seven foreign ministers of the security talks but all eyes are on a meeting underway between the top russian and u.s. diplomats who were also there it's going to be their first face to face since new american sanctions cause relations to dip further as we've been reporting all right

well across the story they do it not of the philippines though i say but in central moscow still glamorous the focus should be on southeast asian affairs but as i just said it is going to be the russia u.s. communications that the likely the top the talking at the talks it certainly is kevin i mean it's only been a day since new sanctions have been imposed on north korea and now we have a raft of foreign ministers from various countries meeting in min and in the philippines a number of topics are expected to be up for discussion including the situation in the korean peninsula syria ukraine and there's no doubt because it's deemed that u.s. russia relations russian all time low that all eyes are going to be on often to listen and what's going to happen there the areas of discussion that i mentioned earlier will obviously require a global cooperation and two key players are the u.s. and russia so that cooperation will have to be extended between them interestingly

to listen has been very vocal about his discontent of the new russia sanctions and it hasn't helped in escalating the tensions between the two. so there are actually bothered by the congress to put these sanctions employees from the way they do i know the president nor 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 was a good. russian's foreign minister sergey lavrov has also been very open about his eagerness in wanting dialogue between the two nations and we're just going to have to see how productive this next meeting is going to be that press conference is imminent at the moment so i'll keep you updated as to what's going on in towns like other our towns a lot told there will be going straight to maybe if it happens within the next hour if not take of you through that thanks for about a day or appreciate it. seems some is definitely sanctions season this year with

venezuela also joining the strictures club in the week the u.s. treasuries imposed tough measures against president of their victory in a controversial referendum to create a new legislative body regarded by critics is a tool to weaken the opposition though 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 and will have the power to dissolve the current parliament the opposition defied the public protests and went out the streets on the less they denounced the election as a poet grab by president material police in the capital deployed to gas and rubber bullets in clashes with theorists opposition supporters.

for its part the u.s. state department branded last sunday's vote as illegitimate it also describes president there as leadership as a dictatorship but when it comes to sanctions that does seem to be one sphere that's off limits but stations against oil i'm not sure how that what i will say is we will monitor all of our options it seems we all knew about this toxic relationship. is a dictator who disregards the will of the venezuelan people but are they going to be such only to me that they don't literally destroy don't know how to deal with that lawyer or do they mean. to put a time into it probably did the government. is violating its own constitution. but pump oil into the equation and politics is brushed straight under the carpet

his facts of how black gold unites them. protect a discount american states being the third largest exporter of crude to the us the numbers are growing seven percent to around six hundred seventy thousand barrels a day but will it stop that absolutely no the citgo petroleum corporation based in texas belongs to wait for its 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 don't want to up the market and potentially that ten percent extraction of venezuelan oil could spike us gasoline prices as

well so i think that that is the concern. is coming up ahead still it's at least trying to stop people traffickers in the mediterranean put can't get migrant charities rescue charities their own border help we'll tell you why as and a lot more to whether we can continue.

in case you're new to the game this is how it works not the economy is built around corporate cooperation from washington to washington control the media the media. and voters elect the businessman to run this country business because. you must it's not business as usual it's business like it's never been done before. i again this is alarming a new studies found that online searches for methods of suicide have risen sharply following the release of the hit netflix series thirteen reasons why.

a task. can be current. settling because i'm about to tell you the story of my life . my specifically why am i right and. if you're listening to this tape. you're one of the reasons why the controversial series tells the story of a girl who takes her own life and points the finger who's to blame but is generated huge concern among parents and psychologists in new zealand the show was given an hour though only eighteen certificate while in austria to school girls tried to kill themselves but the teachers managed to stop with time reports suggest that the pupils were inspired by thirteen reasons why makes them colored mopin go to the streets of new york to try and get a handle on the impact of the netflix series there. nineteen days after the program was released google searches for suicide related topics increased by more than twenty percent that means roughly nine hundred thousand to one point five million more than usual from phrases like suicide hotline or teen suicide or more worrying

phrases like how to kill yourself all of them are on the rise i've seen multiple psychiatric admission knows that it detailed the presenting problem of why the teen is is there being one a couple of times them saying that they wanted to kill themselves in the way that the girl from thirteen reasons why did suicide prevention experts are warning that the show is kind of romanticizing suicide and unhealthy relationships all of which could lead to copycat behavior among teenagers or teenagers who in general are still developing the ability to regulate their emotions and their desires for those teens and especially those who have already perhaps contemplated suicide a series like thirteen reasons why can be problematic let's ask people how concerned they are are you a parent i am a part now would you allow your son or daughter to watch this this new program with a company of apartments where you know if you put something to somebody's head and

they already had that thought it might be encouraging but you can't control what people are going to do they might hear it on the street they might hear it in school you know that you never know i mean just because they hear from you doesn't mean it's your fault if you were a parent would you allow your child your children to watch that show louie i would absolutely because i want them to experience well life is all about the ups the downs the ugly the good all records should show that i reckon that people should be able to handle those types of the space to be honest ok are you a parent. now if you were a parent do you think you would allow your son or daughter to watch that show or have a different view if i was a parent the producers of these shows need to be socially and ethically responsible for what they're putting out and. bare minimum that means that for if it's netflix for example before and after each episode in the series they need to put in places for where they can get help such as the suicide prevention lifeline they need to be doing that at a bare minimum so that if

a child vulnerable child gets triggered during the episode that they know where they can go to turn for help now netflix says they welcome more research as they prepare the next season but parents are asking themselves is there really enough of a reason that we wouldn't want our children to be exposed to such shows. r.t. new york in the us we time to families blame the series for driving their children to take their own lives we spoke to the father of a girl who. just before his sixteenth birthday he says his daughter had depression and the next flick show pushed her over the edge. the show acted. like there's a word in psychology it's called a trigger that means that you react to. it and it triggers a response with you it left my daughter. feeling worse than she had

before this is not the way it's supposed to be my daughter should be alive today i should be able to hold her in my arms should be able to care for her i should be able to hear her laugh but now i can't she's just gone she's gone from me forever. folks of the migrant crisis in europe several aid groups who occurring migrant rescue missions in the med are refusing to sign a so-called code of conduct that was drafted by italy first to the bludgers rescue missions to allow police officers on board it also prevents aid boats from transferring refugees to other vessels insisting it migrants to ports themselves and further it bans phone calls or flares from n.g.o.s vessels in case they're being used to warn people smugglers when it's safe or not to send another boat it's in the for its part insisting the rescue code is mandatory and says anyone refusing to sign it will face consequences the medical charity doctors without borders though believes it could put people's lives. big risk. goes

against our mission which is to save lives and it goes against this really goes against our hearts what we are as a medical and humanitarian organization and it's not something that. is code's been partially drawn up after some n.g.o.s were accused of acting as a taxi service 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 anti migrant movement even crowd funded the mediterranean mission to monitor the work of some of these n.g.o.s because we are gainst mess immigration to europe we beat wants to stop this madness this n.g. all madness in the military 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 t.v. and you also and i think what they're doing there is it's nothing to it because they're actually a support factor and basically they are the reason for this mess migration yet the

recent people drowning and the up making a fortune for this human trafficking rings in libya destabilizing the country i think the future for africa and europe the future for europe cannot be to become second africa. you know the news from the week syria 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 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 to worth bearing that in mind that's according to the operation inherent result own data but there's more the u.k. based transparency group air wars 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 were inevitable. 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 seeing development get in when she visited the liberated city of mosul the political analyst patrick henry said he says americans only see military success but it's. 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 united

states and it has nothing to do with what's going on the ground. in lebanon the week has been as managed to recapture l. newsroom militants final stronghold in the country and the case in is the us since in the east of lebanon is right next to the syrian border both countries have conducted a joint offensive to drive a loser from that mountainous area. but. that's not so and that 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 made

a shocking discovery what appeared to be prison cells it's unclear why exactly elements were needed prison cells in this isolated area. of punishment 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 all tillery 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 fights is received instructions and they take their seats and listen to the commanders ninety militants were killed in that battle and those who survived many of them fled to infighting continues between different rebel groups but some of them remained just

a few kilometers away behind these mountains behind us more ominous lee 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 out of eastern lebanon thanks so much in the weekly as mentioned just keep an eye. you know that meeting the philippines may be. going to be speaking there to listen. if it happens we'll go to it programs continue right after this break. up and. in the. midst of this week we're talking to.

you. but not a lot of anything about comedy is good but i'm about the same as our. money into. making money. on. so. much of you meet. other people whose life was on the. lookout.

dropping bombs brings peace talks forcing you to fight the battles that don't. produce offspring to tell you the gossip the public by itself. doesn't tell you the pool and. the hawks that we all. want.

bluebell going to worlds apart as russia and the united states are turning increasingly confrontational in syria another war torn country may become a mini theater for the old rivalry afghanistan has been the geopolitical chess board for so long is there even a chance for a peaceful resolution to discuss that and now i'm joined by the country's former president hamid karzai mr president it's great to see you in moscow well. now you've long been arguing that the current american approach to afghanistan is not working that it's time for the americans to assess the strategy and perhaps adjust the course and it strikes me as a little bit too naive it's almost like asking the taliban or ourselves for that matter to lay down arms don't you think that you are perhaps in gauging in the wishful thinking i mean what we need to afghanistan we need peace of. and do we need success against terrorism in afghanistan the u.s. came to afghanistan in the name of fighting extremism and to.