overriding anti russian sentiment in the u.s. congress that's the view of russia's foreign minister who met his american counterpart on the sidelines of a major security forum on sunday. also in the week's top stories president trump signs a new russia sanctions bill angering several of america's key e.u. allies moscow says as a declaration of a full scale trade war. the pressure is stepped up against north korea to the u.n. security council votes unanimously for tougher sanctions against pyongyang over its missile tests and. new kid dictator the venezuelan president is

also talkative by u.s. for strict over his formation of a controversial new legislative body that will rewrite the constitution. armors on a low chord with a round up of the biggest news stories from the last seven days it's the weekly here on r.t. international. moscow's top diplomat says strong anti russian sentiments in the u.s. congress has led to the latest downturn in relations between the two countries so again after i've made the comment at a meeting with his american counterpart rex tillerson on sunday the day or two takes a closer look at the story. it was a very lengthy meeting it seemed like a very friendly meeting the two gentlemen seem like they were getting on very well lots of laughing and joking and i also need to point out it was the first face to face meeting after new russia sanctions have been imposed so what did they talk

about first well surprise surprise sanctions lover of explained why russia decided to take the action that it did following the imposing of those sanctions. he was interested in our response to the empty russia's sanctions bill that was passed in the u.s. congress we explained to him what was behind the actions that we took after long expecting that the u.s. would not choose the path of confrontation but unfortunately the resupply back to treat of american lawmakers prevented that what's interesting about this is that prior to this meeting in manila to listen has been very vocal publicly about his discontent about the new russia sanctions that take a listen to their action by the. congress to put these structures implosion the way that i know the president nor i are very happy about that we were clear that we didn't think it was going to be helpful to our approach but that's the decision that i made that made it

a very overwhelming good as the. one of the areas that they talked about was syria they agreed that they would continue dialogue about how they can go forward with the peace process they also talked about north korea both sides opposed the missile testing and the military exercises and again they agreed to keep the dialogue open between the two countries now we can't ignore the fact that the u.s. russia relations are at an all time low as is seen by the international community at the moment so the question is will the actions come to fruition following this what seems to be a very positive meeting. journalist martin summers told off the talks between labs of until a certain are a good sign considering the tensions between moscow and washington. the fact that meetings taking place at all given the rhetoric that's been coming out of the united states over the past week or so is a positive development and there's many things about which obviously there is no

agreement and the situation has become much more tense as a result of these votes in the congress and the senate's. actions of russia that doesn't mean that some business can't be done and as we saw in the u.n. security council there was a unanimous position on north korea. which the american soil wants that sort of cooperation to continue it's very disappointing that the political class in the u.s. seems have collectively lost his marbles in this way i mean they've toyed the hands of their own negotiators which you know you don't usually do that if you've got any common sense so we're now stuck in a bit of a bit of a norm pass so we've been hearing relations between russia and the united states took another hit on wednesday as donald trump but his signature to the new sanctions bill the measures that angered a number of america's allies in europe to say they're all konami interests of being ignored president trump himself was reluctant to find a 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 in their way the president 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 thanks that this bill course is it is a terrible bill. benefits the people of no contrary not the united states not germany not three or in a way not russia 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 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 and 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 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 here instead is something that we cannot accept so these

sanctions seem to be leaving hot. anyone happy trumps being forced to go against his constitutional beliefs america's closest european allies go on the defensive to counter what they see as a matter of potentially in violation of international law and u.s. 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 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 he may be prevented 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 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 the russian 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 locates congress the power to block the president from easing sanctions on donald trump has branded the legislation unconstitutional breaking down what is happening in washington his savior for trying. 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 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 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 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. sweeping new sanctions against north korea set out in a u.s. drafted resolution well unanimously agreed on by the u.n. security council late on saturday now banned all the asian nations exports of coal metals and seafood meaning its export revenue will be cut by about a third amounting to roughly a billion dollars a year foreign investment has also been blocked the move comes in response to pyongyang has continued missile tests russia believe sanctions should be the starting point for a future dialogue with north korea all the un members agree but they're all signs that washington is still considering a more direct response every military expert says there is no good military option they're wrong. to destroy north korea's program in north korea itself

he's not going to well president trump the ability of this madman to have a missile that hit america if there's going to be a ward of stop and it will be over there if thousands die they're going to die over there and they're not going to die here and he's told me that to my face that may be provocative but not really however america's top diplomat rex tillerson says his country would like dialogue with pyongyang at some point although one expert told us the chances of that happening are diminishing. if you're thinking in terms of dialogue no if anything from expire logs even less likely than before but if you're being a factor of authority imposing a collective punishment on the tire north korean population and bring your boat the economic collapse of north korea then i may be a factor unfortunately the un sanctions are thought to recall and made sure that the only increase the likelihood of a conflict or increase of tensions at the very least. venice when his

government says it's foiled an assault on a military base close to the capital of or at least they're calling it an act of terror it comes off to a group of men in military uniforms released a video of themselves announcing an uprising against president nicolas maduro witnesses reported hearing gunshots during the night and according to me twenty ohm two men stormed the base and two of them were killed during the ensuing battle the instant follows the inauguration of a controversial new legislative body on friday its formation which critics say will strip the opposition of power has led the u.s. to place sanctions on the president 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 the new assembly will be tasked with a rewriting the constitution and will have the power to disown the current poll the moment the opposition has defined a public protests and denounced the election as

a power grab by a mature police in the capital deployed take us and rubber bullets in clashes with furious opposition activists during the week and people have been gathering to rally against the government outside the gates of the compound which was attacked over night. the u.s. state department branded last weekend's vote in a just a minute it also describes nicolas maduro as leadership as a dictatorship however when it comes the sanctions there does seem to be once fear that's off limits. but stations 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 material is a dictator who disregards the will of the venezuelan people not what are they going

to such only to me that they do they determine a short on a deal that neuer out of their main part of the the visit but if the mental is totally that the government. is violating its own constitution. limits. but pump oil into the equation and politics is brushed straight under the carpet his facts of how black gold unites them. to take a discount american states being the third largest exporter of crude to the us and numbers of growing up seven percent to around six hundred seventy thousand barrels a day when it stopped that absolutely no 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 are 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. french police have opened a terror investigation after an incident up the eiffel tower where a man attempted to force his way paul security with a knife. the suspect reportedly shouted god is greatest in arabic as he looked to part his way into the landmark in paris on saturday night while no one was injured the eiffel tower was evacuated initially the instant wasn't being treated as

terrorism but now french prosecutors have begun an investigation due to the suspects reported links to radical groups france has been in a state of emergency for more than a year and a half now following the nov twenty fifth terror attacks in the capital political analyst nickel america which told us the issue of security isn't just affecting big cities in france i think well it's impossible with today's reduced circumstances and tyranny to say that the capital is safe so what can you do against a lone wolf that's not the first time that we have along with attack type and terrorist don't forget a couple of months ago after moving out of the same type of attack somebody who attacked military men in the mover and we've had other cases maybe the international media is not aware in smaller towns of which the most attention i know usual and in the south of france to definitely see where people can ask themselves what has happened since the terrible attacks they're going to the

vatican on standard. time so that for now i wouldn't say it's the same process but again i would say that it's not easy to fight against these long rules artie's ruptly video agency has shot exclusive video from inside the syrian town of al so often it's liberation from eisel by the syrian army. the operation to clear the last remaining terrorists is still ongoing and is the last islamic state stronghold in homs province on saturday reports emerged that syrian government forces have surrendered surrounded islamic state on three sides the retaken town is about fifty kilometers from the border with their ads or province which is still mostly under ice or control. the syrian government has called on the un 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 as strikes those attacks contributed to the spread of chaos killing and destruction six hundred people have been killed in u.s. led coalition airstrikes in syria and iraq over the past three years although four hundred reports of possible civilian casualties are still yet to be examined but that's all according to operation inherent results data mean all the u.k. based transparency group air was estimates instead 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 two billion carol 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 described the scenes of armageddon when she visited the liberated city of mosul shia political analyst

patrick henningsen says americans only see military successes on their t.v.'s not the full picture. no surprise the coalition's going to want to under play any of those 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. there have been violent clashes in the u.s. state of oregon where anti-fascist process does face off with a nationalist rally in the city of portland the initial rally was a sell sell freedom out organized by a group called patriot. fascist activists staged

a nearby counter protest and clashes followed some use pepper spray in the fighting three people have been arrested. the trumpet administration announced a crackdown on friday on federal government leaks which have left the white house in turmoil the culprits of being want to stop now all face legal consequences. leaks are incredibly damaging to our intelligence mission and capabilities simply put these leaks hurt our country if you improperly disclose classified information we will find you we will investigate you we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law and you will not be happy with the result of the move followed yet another scandal over in the north arise disclosure of the transcripts of donald trump's phone calls with foreign leaders were leaked to the media they show that he

asked his mexican counterpart to stop publicly saying his country won't pay for the proposed wall almost shared border on the also revealed trump's reluctance to accept a refugee resettlement deal with australia which he said would quote make him look terrible the leaks even provoked outrage among the president's critics who say a line has been crossed. this is not fair to this president. in terms of the leaks with the prison term or not no president can do business with their phone calls from the lead to the washington post terribly damaging to our country not just a dollar from political you know i don't support but to our country does is it crimps conversations with foreign leaders all the way down the chain the severe trust issues in the white house come amid major shake ups in trump's top team with the president increasingly turning to family members for support and bringing in military style management. we could use some more loyalty i will tell you.

who is it that tells him the hard truth almost everyone he surrounds someone. serving the president has been the honor and privilege of a lifetime. he was doing a spectacular job i have no doubt i think we were in pretty good shape the. president he has got to show the right people that he has crushed him to carry out his vision of a strategy. a

monument commemorating a russian army serviceman who sacrificed himself in a battle against islamic state in syria last year has been unveiled in the tuscany region of italy alexandrov proclaiming codeine while coordinating a strike zone so militants near the city of. the stand she was erected at the initiative over the italian town's mayor and they talk of heroes this is what the man had to say. we decided to pay tribute to the hero who sacrificed his life in the fights against the evil which is islamic states and see more towards his memory. while helping the russian air force hit extremist targets the twenty five year old soldier found himself surrounded by iso fighters realizing escape was impossible he ordered an airstrike on his own position alexander died along with the islamist militants as a result he was post you mostly awarded the title of hero of the russian federation

. italy's attempts to get a grip on the migrant crisis have hit another setback after aid groups carrying out rescue missions in the mediterranean sea refused to sign a so-called code of conduct the new rules state police must be allowed on board rescue ships boats would be prevented from transferring refugees to other vessels insisting norm governmental organizations take my currents to italian ports themselves and phone calls all flares would be banned alleging they used to signal to people smugglers when the coast is clear italy insists the migrant rescue code is mandatory and anyone refusing to sign it will face consequences however the medical charity doctors without borders believes it could hurt people in peril. goes against our mission which is to save lives and it goes against this really goes against parts of what we are as a medical and humanitarian. and it's not something that. the code was partially

drawn up off to some n.g.o.s who are 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 the anti micro movement even crowd funded a mediterranean mission to monitor the work of the ngos. because we are going to mess immigration to europe wants to stop this madness this n.g. all madness in the military and you know because everybody's just walking 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 it's nothing to it because they're actually your support factor and basically they are the reason for this mess migration the other recent people joining ends up making a fortune for this human trafficking rings in libya destabilizing the country i think the future for us for good and light and europe for europe to become

a second africa. a us democratic congresswoman has gone on t.v. calling on her party to pursue the impeachment of russia's president all's not what it seems though she actually got a lot of it puting confused with her own country's number two there's a chance i'll be better than trump if he were here when we're finished with trump we have to go and get booked and that he's next putting our pads pit that's california representative maxine waters who is known for her strict to anti russia stance you might also remember that she made a similar blunder involving president putin back in february. when is continuing to advance into korea and korea. now the news from this week calls for independence a growing in southern germany where a poll suggests that one in three people in the state to bavaria are in favor of breaking free from berlin supporters want a biggest say over their future

a way from the e.u.'s influence is our europe correspondent peter oliver. every country i came to your come from and all of a set of area michael is a thirty generation money maker but when it comes to the month of june many he'd rather have it redrawn he says very is too important not to be a nation in its own right and a recent poll shows that one in three bavarians share his view. holes in vice and forced an off the top of fest all strong images of germany but they're actually very very a is a brand it's a better brand than come from germany. tastes better a small spat. while most of the german states simply called the states all right. a lot mate but they were good three states vary it makes absolutely no

difference but it's a name it's a little different over the last couple of years but various political focus has shifted because of the ongoing refugee crisis hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed into germany through the state leading to politicians here to challenge chancellor merkel's open door policies it's called tour for olim in our culture everyone needs to learn german it's vital to ending a living and maintaining law and order and it should be our own law and order not that of the arab world. back to the berkeley salad you see very the first such you already against explicit fact there's only one full seat with an independent variable in their manifesto the body part time rule. we are ruled from. brussels on the other hand and these people decide a lot of the people. we have no influence on the so called in the european parliament we have only thirteen members and very little for example greece

which has less inhabitants has about twenty five something well there maybe some support for a breakaway varia the supreme court here in germany ruled earlier this year that any kind of referendum on the subject be against the german constitution so for the time being at least. they will continue to rule over the very unlike. that's the weekly kevin owen will be live from here our moscow studio with all the latest news in about half an hour's time stay with us. here's what people have been saying.