this hour's headlines story donald trump postpones a second summit with president putin while the u.s. secretary of state is grilled. dealings with. stomachs they claim responsibility for a wave of terror in southern syria at least two hundred fifteen people have been killed according to local reports also in the program. but there is still some fear it's possible for groups of militants to go into houses and. terror campaign in iraq as well as a government security adviser admits the media. violence to prevent.

the french president launches a tirade against the media over its handling of a scandal involving his top security. just a few moments into a brand new day here in moscow thursday july the twenty sixth this is r.t. international thanks for joining us our top story the u.s. secretary of state mike pump aoe is currently being grilled by senators over president trump's recent summit with. here some of the more intense moments so far . has the president told you what he and president putin discuss in their two hour closed door meeting in helsinki did you did he tell you did the president at this

meeting call upon president putin to withdraw from crimea and eastern ukraine where did the president say we're going to change our force structure in syria could do what took place you speak to the translator do you seen any of her notes that the president discussed relaxed relaxing u.s. sanctions on russia including cats or sanctions i understand senator i understand the game that you're playing now and you know mr secretary with all due respect i don't appreciate you characterizing my questions but. there were a number of hours now into the grilling does not look as if it's ending any time soon so let's go to some you were a kid who's been following developments and we were tell us more about the exchanges and how mike pump aoe responded well mike pompei i was faced with some tough questioning from the senate foreign relations committee and including a lot of grilling and he was essentially forced into revealing

a secret deal made between a trump and putin last week in his helsinki but in general he held his ground occasionally snapping back once or twice but providing and assurances that trump did not show any weakness. but let's check out what else happened our approach has been the same to steadily raise the cost of aggression with aggression until vladimir putin chooses a less confrontational foreign policy otherwise the administration will continue imposing tough actions against russia in response to its malign activities and i personally make clear to the russians that will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes in helsinki we sought to explore whether russia was interesting in reproving our relationship but made clear that the ball is in russia's court. my pompei also confirmed that trump agrees with the intel communities assessment that russia did in fact a medal in the twenty six thousand election a one hundred eighty degree shift from last week i have president putin

he just said it's not russian i will say this i don't see any reason why it would be there was no collusion at all everybody knows that people are being brought out to the fore. so far that i know virtually none of it related to the campaign it was a clean campaign i beat hillary clinton easily and frankly and it's a shame that they could even be a little bit of a cloud over it. the summit resulted in a total hysteria here in the u.s. with the accusations thrown around of treason and a name calling from a traitor to kremlin stooge to a putin's puppet you name it but let's look at what politicians have to say donald trump's press conference performance in helsinki rises to exceed the threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors it was nothing short of treason this not

only would trump common symbols silly his hole in the pocket of republican patriots where you instead of standing up for our democracy and democratic principles president trump cowered in the presence of putin it was a ho sale betrayal of the values and interests of this country president sided with the enemy and with the perpetrator of the election interference treacherous act is unable to confront russia. after that trump invited putin to d.c. for another summit and then another wave of hysteria ensued but just this morning bolton announced that the summit would be postponed for twenty nineteen that means after midterm elections which apparently will definitely be influenced by the russians and trumpet joined in as well i'm very concerned that russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming election

based on the fight the new president has been tough from russia to me they will be pushing very hard for the democrats they definitely don't want trump well it's difficult to say whether trump means it or not but it definitely seems like some sort of a way. to calm down his domestic critics so we'll just have to see how this plays out and what happens after this. thanks for taking us through the same your account live from washington d c well let's delve deeper into this bring in investigative journalist rick sterling rick you're very welcome to the program first and foremost i'm just looking at the screen might pompei it was still in auction still taking those questions over the trump putin summit seemingly about soul being spoken about hard normal is it for a secretary of state to be questioned in this way over a summit with another world leader. well professor stephen cohen said the

response to the summit in helsinki is is basically totally unheard of nothing like it has happened before what's going on in the united states is a battle over u.s. foreign policy in a demand that trump. rescind any any effort stop any efforts he's making to to change the u.s. foreign policy of supremacy and essentially a new conservative policy where the united states. dictates what goes on in other countries the statements of the media and the foreign policy establishment or no hearing secretary of state pompei oh echoing the claims that russia is occupying crimea they're just factually wrong crimea was part of russia for two centuries and was only administratively put within the administration of ukraine when it was all part of the soviet union and if they can have

a vote to in scotland to succeed from the u.k. or for croatia to succeed secede from yugoslavia what's wrong with crimea or what's so different about crimea. reunifying with russia eighty percent voted ninety six percent of the people who voted there voted to reunify with russia so the claims in that regard are just factually wrong pump aoe repeatedly stressed that america remains tough on rochelle never i-t. of issues as you've been saying and from syria to ukraine on sanctions why do senators seem on convinced by the end. well there they are there are basically noting the reality that trump does seem to want to shift away from the aggressive u.s. stance towards towards russia they want to see trump basically follow the new foreign policy that hillary clinton was advocating of escalating increasing confrontation

with russia it's extremely it's extremely dangerous right now we've got a collapse of diplomacy you had the the russian embassy in san francisco removed. some time ago you've got fewer and fewer diplomats and it seems when it seems that the neoconservatives running u.s. foreign policy i just want to have confrontation behind the scenes of course is the is the conflict in syria and and and the fact that russia has supported syria in compliance with international law and that it's actually the u.s. which is violating the u.n. charter by its its occupation in eastern syria. don't trouble also make kim jong un of course not curry long ago but senator is one that got the chance to speak to the secretary of state that don't seem particularly interested in hearing about thought at all your thoughts on not aspect. well that's another that's another issue where

we've got the potential reality of a total breakthrough an ending of sixty five year state of war you know sixty odd your state of war between the united states and the democratic people's republic of korea and yet people are denouncing it is if this is something bad so there's kind of a a very bizarre set of circumstances going on in the united states where would be liberals are not supporting efforts toward peace it's a very strange. development that we've got going wrong on right now rick thanks for coming in the program giving us your thoughts on a situation developing method a hearing still ongoing rick sterling investigative journalist. riffing on a series of islamic state attacks in south west syria have killed a police two hundred fifteen people. from r.t.r.

epic reports. but i learned that the security has been strengthened in some way to province after a series of terror attacks that currently were on the square near the market where in the morning as you said bomber blew himself up in a crowd of people there are stalls all around people who are shopping we can still see the puddles of blood and the body parts not far from here there's a square and a residential area where two of the suicide bombers tried to blow themselves up at small to iceland carried out a massive offensive in the northeastern part of this way to prominence that they managed to take control of several villages but the syrian army that managed to free the territories with support from the locals but not before is still had killed and taken several people hostage as well as light two houses in the area the two suicide bombers of the marketplace were shot dead by security forces a third was arrested before they could detonate their explosive devices while the string of attacks comes as president assad's forces advance against that's an

psuedo province near the frontier with the israeli control golan heights the mosque based correspondent mohammed ali has been. if we look at the reasons behind such an attack at this time it's because the syrian army is launching an offensive against and particularly in the southern part of syria particularly inside the country side of this where there and also in any valley northwest of that are there the army has been carrying out military operations against us and recently there have been advances significant advances for the syrian government forces over there backed by russian air force all of the province is now secured except for about less than six percent which is are now under the control of the action the army is aiming to secure there are also some areas some small towns and villages that the army is working on securing whether militarily or via reconciliation the of. them happy to say we can get the thoughts knob them are what director of notice a u.k.

based think tank focusing on syria you're very welcome to the program in light of these deadly bombings are we seeing a resurgence of islam mixtape in syria. more good evening no we can see it's a resurgence this is probably one of the last the last chapters that we are going to see of die. this is not new the tactic isn't new we think this happened to pressure. the last including southern syria which is the. base southwest of dar southwest of syria the southwest to most corner of syria. this happened the same tactic was used before about a year ago you know last year when the syrian army was advancing in the day it is sort of area against. a group of militants that is you know through

the syrian desert wind to a teen south east of homs they took over the town apparently they wanted to alleviate pressure on the forces there because the idea is that the syrian. army would have put all the resources it had on to that front now apparently they saw that the syrian army had to take reinforcements and. mobilize a lot of forces in order to gain advantage in that province and they saw some. you know places where they could infiltrate and they infiltrated so the point of the matter is alleviate pressure on the forces of die in the ways yet just a few years ago islamic state we know control a large amount of serious territory almost all of that has been lost you talked about it briefly there but some of how the group tactics have changed since then. he has had the very beginning they were sweeping places they imposed terror on

people and the types of the more graffiti they were advancing they were talking about liberation from. heinous regime and infidel regime people some of the people believe them and open their houses you know these are a little bit extremist islamic let's see what happens obviously we know what happened in iraq and they resort to other places they soon realized this was their worst nightmare. but in other places like for example in psuedo they know that these are people that are categorized already as infidels what happened as we understand them these are unconfirmed reports by the way but it makes sense. in the very early hours of the morning some of the advanced. group fighters went into villages without apparent armors and said can we please take refuge because the dice forces are following us and people gave them refuge

you know people were hospitable and apparently you know some time later they opened the houses and start killing people so. it's a. tactic now it's more of a they're trying to be clever and so on but again we're probably seeing the last chapters of this particular group just before we let you go just to get your thoughts on more on the syrian armed forces are they able to get the situation under control without foreign support right now. where they are still for the reason why syria needed allies was that there is a huge there was a huge from the very beginning from the against it that was formed by for example one hundred plus countries that gathered in morocco in two thousand and twelve now this is clearly not something the syrian state it's in its own right would be able to repel and obviously those people are armed with a lot of money there was

a lot of propaganda still there is a lot of propaganda. or to sway people against the central government in damascus so at the end of the day this offered some opportunity for some players to uphold international law again some geopolitical influence and for other players to defend themselves because they saw a fall of the government in syria to be the first step towards attacking them so there was a group of alliances that had to come together and fight this and obviously because there is significant support of the syrian government within syria this coalition is gaining and hopefully you know and this suffering there is some brilliant insight as always great to have your take on the program director of nurses a u.k. based think tank focusing on syria. thank you. meanwhile over in neighboring iraq islamic state is waging

a guerrilla campaign of kidnapping and killing seven months after the iraqi prime minister declared victory over the group a security advisor to the government told us that the number of terror attacks in the country doubled from may to two and. in june the i saw militants stepped up their activity according to government data there were eighty three cases where the doctors and killed civilians that's twice the number in may when i still had been devastated by the government military crackdown or we asked the iraqi interior ministry for comment and are waiting to hear back from them rutgers the it looks at the changing nature of the terror threat in iraq. it took very neatly the entire world united to defeat isis caliphate didn't syria and iraq they did it they destroyed the caliph it albeit at a huge cost and proclaim victory some did more proclaiming than others

coalition to defeat isis has liberated very close to one hundred percent of the territory will do a great job with those as we have just absolutely decimated i was just absolutely obliterated isis in iraq a case of celebrating a little early isis was never beaten and they lost the battles but the war's far from over they've gone back to basics hidden run raids assassinations insurgency terror but. there is still some fear it's possible for groups of militants to go into houses and slaughter entire families if you were there you probably know want to stay if i were to go back who would protect me or my family they would just come over and slaughter us and forces in the camp to protect their lives in iraq isis has gone underground this area of iraq has

colloquially become known as the triangle of death because of this new insurgency. they operate in small groups half a dozen jarvis the most making it incredibly difficult to track them down. because remember there are still a few i saw sleeper cells hidden in places such as the desert the forests on the islands of the river and among civilians few sleeper cells doesn't do it justice kidnappings killings have sawed as much as ten fold in just a few months in iraq a government advisor told us they target officials plan. bombs set up fake roadblocks and murder will then vanish sometimes with prisoners. the families children of these soldiers that were kidnapped by isis begged the

government for help to find whoever kidnapped them to secure their release anything they got nothing. i mean those are the men who protected the prime minister the minister of health and many other things source this is their reward for this service been dumped here on the floor. some of the hostages were found dead and their bodies mutilated likely tortured before death and their corpses rigged with explosives and the government's afraid that freed of people finding out how bad it's becoming. iraqi state media is staying silent about the kidnapping also says not to spread panic can hinder the government's rescue the number of ice or kidnapping says surge since many another special forces do not have enough resources to hunt the militants down is their hiding out in remote mountainous areas i still have managed to find sources of funding in the so-called triangle of

death they terrorize the locals hundreds of villages in that area have been depopulated but now the terrorists use them as military bases jails and commando units iraq is a crossroads it learned to level the cities to defeat isis caliph it but that doesn't work anymore isis is an idea of zealotry fanaticism it's also an outlet for desperation for violence for blood thirst and ideas of the hardest the wall to kill. and money will mccrone has lost started france's media over its handling of the scandal involving the president's top security aide that is after the french leader said he was taking responsibility for his bodyguard attacking a protester picking up the story in france charlatans. well in the last week french media has been in a complete frenzy over this scandal which emerged involving top security aide

alexander. well but now has since been sacked and on tuesday we heard for the first time what president much corn made of this he said to a group of his deputies of love of public amash that the buck stops with him that he and only he was to blame but then he turned around and then laid the blame at the press in the way that they covered this story essentially saying that the press in commentate is acting like the judiciary and we're not looking to seek out the truth so we have media that no longer seeks the truth the images are they showing with the designs on cover the truth to present facts in

a balanced manner. i see media power as he want to become judicial ones well we know that president mark on the present from the united states have been pretty chummy for a long time but it seems now that president michel might be taking a leaf out of don't from books in the way that he deals with the mainstream media we know that donald trump has been at war with the mainstream media since before he was even elected he enters fake news i don't take questions from i'm against the people that make up stories the level of dishonesty is out of control very fake the fake news those who want to talk about it buzz feed which is a failing pile of garbage writing it i think they're going to suffer the consequences i'm not going to give you a question you are fake well some may think it's not the best idea for a present to follow in the footsteps of. president trump we also know that president micron's approval ratings have dropped since this scandal emerged now the

russian media has long been familiar with criticism and being under fire from the president but it now seems that that by and not criticism is extending out to all media outlets in france. here to another story on a busy news day. the u.s. have agreed to work together to slash tara fs on avert a trade war european commission president announced the deal after talks at the white house with donald trump. in terms. to make a deal to do. the deed. which is to facilitate commercial exchanges and assess existing tariff measures and what we can do about that to the betterment of both well we are working on this we will.

from the u.s. does this also a little bit of a side issue there but it was quite complementary just going through the agreement the two sides will seek to cut or eliminate import taxes trade barriers and most subsidies let me just also go through in addition the e.u. will expand its imports of u.s. liquefied natural gas and certain food items not before the meeting trying to give a well pretty blunt assessment of america's trade with its allies tariffs to the greatest either a country which is the united states unfairly on trade negotiates a fair deal where he gets hit with tariffs it's as simple as that and everybody's talking remember we the people in this being rocked. well after the u.s. tariffs on steel and on a mini i'm coming from the e.u. that was around two months ago now europe responded with contra measures later trump went as far as calling the e.u. commission chief a brutal killer while describing europe as an economic folk or doesn't mince his

words either. trump told me last week. you were a brutal killer it is the first time that luxembourg has become a threat to the united states of america he meant that i think as a compliment even though i cannot be sure. we will also impose import tariffs this is basically a stupid process the fact that we have to do this but we have to do it we will not impose tariffs on motorcycles davidson's on blue jeans levis on bourbon we can also do stupid we also have to be this stupid while before meeting president trump it may well have done well to seek advice from other european leaders have met the u.s. president take a look at this. but the speaker can't just rely on the superpower of the united states what is natural

for many decades the states of america sees itself as a regular for the whole world. is no longer the truth in the future i. think the you know want to see if they can work something out and if we do work it out that will be positive and if we don't it will be positive also because you know what you think about those cars are already here and all those other.

well to discuss today's developments let's bring in wall st louis michael hudson to the program michael you're very welcome so the u.s. the e.u. agreed to set up a working group to move toward zero tariffs how much of a breakthrough is this i'm not sure what it means because it was all just

basically ideals about nice it would be not there terence but i don't understand how europe can change your truth about not wanting g.m.o. type crops and not wanting chlorinated shouldn't they have all sorts of restrictions that are environmental and it looks like they can abolish normal carrots but if they keep the restrictions trump is going to say that's not fair nobody can figure out what on earth is meant in the big picture scheme is a trade war off the table is for the time being yes nothing's going to be done until they finish talking and trying strategy is to make so many threats essentially we will bankrupt europe if you don't out by our liquefied natural gas at three times the normal price that they could get it from russia if you don't buy our soybeans instead of other people.