in the stories that shaped the week the first of a summit between vladimir putin and north korea's kim jong un boost bilateral relations with focus also on breaking the nuclear bomb the korean peninsula. russian national. jailed in the u.s. for failing to register as a foreign agent but on the way in says she's a victim of washington's current political climate. activities of the us were illegal. in and of themselves but she got caught up in this. hysteria. and saudi arabia comes under fire from the un and human rights groups for a mass execution with concerns that the charges against the thirty seven mostly

shia men with trumped up. here are not international with mean india which highlights from the last seven days and the latest up to date stories welcome to the program from a new free north korea to bilateral relations of vladimir putin and kim jong un met for the first time on thursday in russia's far eastern city of lot of vos talk after nearly two hours of face to face talks the leaders expressed their willingness to further develop relations and tackle the situation on the korean peninsula. you know it's just we just had a fairly thorough one two one conversation we managed to talk about the history of all bilateral relations and about the present day and the prospects of developing those relations of course we also talked about the situation on the korean

peninsula and exchanged views on what needs to be done to improve the situation in the audience mr president we have just had to authority exchange of opinions face to face on all of this of mutual importance and i think you for the great times we heard. and even then no agreement was signed it seems the need is had a productive time that exchange so what as a symbol of the mutual respect between the nations that wrapped up the talks with a lot of north korean state media reported that kim is ready for more talks next time. points from a lot of us stuck. literally

minutes after the north korean supreme leader got inside his limo we were given the opportunity to come closer to his armored train. so unfortunately i won't be able to show you or see for myself any of the extraordinary facilities inside that tray that was used by cam john owns father i was trying to look through the window but obviously no chances and. security guards or watch carefully to make sure that we don't touch it and i've already been told off by the inside there are high tech communication facilities several conference room as well as luxury living quarters in the middle of the train there's

a special room for him john wife and right next to it two separate carts for bodyguards there are two restaurants one is for the supreme leader himself and the second one is for the entire delegation there's even a special section for the leaders limo and they're the one that we saw on the station square that massive armored vehicles can actually fit into one of those. cars.

well it turns out that in a sense cam john is counting on vladimir putin as a kind of a middleman in delivering his messages to the rest of the world leadership it looks like chairman kim is hoping that his message will get all the way to washington through russia as well it's a. german king also be directly to tell the u.s. about his position and about the questions he has in connection with the situation on the korean peninsula we also found out that the russian leader as confident that pianka yang's essential desire is international security guarantees. guarantees for sovereignty and when it comes to dating cory's nation according to mr putin the only way forward is through these kind of guarantees i would like to remind you

that for years russia's peace road map was about mutual concessions from both sides that of north korea on the one hand and south korea and allies on the other and china is backing this plan to well the russian president believes that for years every step forward made by washington was followed by two steps backwards. we need some confidence building measures to be taken which could have been taken back in two thousand and five when the u.s. and north korea came to an agreement however later on for some reason the american partners thought this was no it's enough that they needed to add something to this agreement that's when north korea with drew from the treaty if you're making a step forward in two steps back you will never succeed. after what we heard on thursday it is definitely fair to say that there is a lot of potential in camp putin summit and by the way the president of south korea said that this summit in blood of all stock should act as

a springboard for further top ranked diplomacy between washington and pyongyang so chairman kim has been enjoying contacts with the most powerful politicians on this planet has two historic summits with the american president donald trump were followed by one with a lot of our putin and it looks like mr kim knows what he's doing when he's playing his geo political game and north korea at least has the summit it's a win win from a. or. it looks like now he tried to see someone else to help korea out in between a recent bilateral meeting that you know korea and the u.s. he was so sure that he can lead the meeting between the u.s. and north korea but now he is sick of some help for put inside here essentially

achieved a new election and also now he can have a spotlight from the international community by playing the role for the korea over the korean peninsula as a peacemaker so it would be. chips for today's summit currently now south korea having air exercises with the u.s. and south korea cannot be free from u.s. pressure because of that in a sense for south korea it could be a good to have russia if russia can play the right role as a mediator because for south korea itself it could be a little bit tricky to work in between the u.s. and north korea. russian national maria was sentenced to eighteen months in prison in the united states on friday is after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent essentially working as an undeclared lobbyist the third year old is said to have trying to influence the national rifle association

and other conservative groups in the u.s. several american political figures were suspected to be involved in court ms brooten a spoken mostly about the effect it's had on her family. my parents discovered my arrest on the morning news they watched in the rural hollows. i love them dearly but i harm the morally and financially they're suffering from all of that i destroyed my own life as well i came to the united states not under any orders but with who and now nothing remains but penitence. i have reasons to she's not the main goal of the circumstances she had to put it was to break her will and forces to really acknowledge something she might not have done.

sooner or later they are trying to save face but we grabbed her seized to put her behind bars richard but there is nothing they can charge or wish and to avoid looking ridiculous they sentenced her to eighteen months to just the shoulder she is guilty of something. maria's father exclusively told r.t. that he and the rest of his family had been expecting a very different outcome. but we weren't prepared for such a rough and unjust court decision maria is a russian citizen and given all these investigations she's been caught up in it all

even though the investigation had nothing to do with her nevertheless the u.s. has found a culprit over the past few months she didn't have any complaints about the condition of her confinement unlike before when she was badly treated discriminated against all of them or all in solitary confinement with walks only allowed for two hours a night with a real lawyers we all expected a different outcome a fair verdict but it's hard to say how life will be for maria now the most important thing for us is that she returns home taking into account this new jail term of. ram but and his lawyer told us he thinks a dangerous precedent may have been set. i think it's impossible to separate from from the politics and i think that there is a an underlying crime that he pled guilty to which you can make out under u.s. law but i think the notion of this would have been investigated or an arrest would

have been made for a typical foreign national who wasn't russian and wasn't in the car environment where in the us i think it's almost impossible to believe that southern politics has a lot to do with the atmosphere of the case and it's one of those things where if the elements of the crime are there they were selectively enforced in this instance i think it's hard to argue. the charges unregistered agent it's not foreign it's not secret agent it's not intelligence agent it literally is just doing something for someone else as being their agent not of maria maria's activities in the u.s. were illegal in and of themselves so there's no classified information there's no political sensitive kind of information given she was not paid by by the russian federation she's in her shoes supported by americans while she was here financially but she got caught up in this and she rushes hysteria.

i would fear that other countries will start applying the same standards and saying that any american who went abroad to another country and it was involved in civil society organizations and social and met people and networks that's really all we're talking about doing are anything more serious than that and reported back on those activities somewhere in the u.s. so i think it's very dangerous because i think if other countries adopt the same as you're going to get a tit for tat situation with countries grabbing civilians of other countries as leverage or for other reasons i think it's a bad idea. with a vote counting almost complete in spain's general election the ruling socialist workers party looks set to win the most seats in parliament is predicted to fall well short of a majority and would have to secure the support of other left wing groups the election has also seen

a major breakthrough for the far right the anti michael and vox party is projected to win twenty four seats in the three hundred fifty seat lower house it'll be the first time since the one nine hundred seventy s. and the end of military rule in the country that a far right party has been presented in parliament tensions over catalan independence vox's hardline approach towards the regions nationalists as a key try to the party success in the election. folks is also strongly opposed to feminism and same sex marriages that lead to fox claims that all of his party's policies are designed to protect the interests of spain. but just finished a bit look at what is mainstream in that works it is the instrument that makes the population move forward and it is the only one capable of guaranteeing the unity of the nation and the little bit it's like by socialists communists and separatists across the country everything to spain longleaf spain we've got reaction to the results from jodie para international relations expert at princeton university.

people are beginning to vote for a pirate one of more than four can use. a national crisis the fog does not belong in a prize to be conned around and last year you have to go. made many people who should be doing to mingle that there was a lack of song the friend who climbed and therefore i'm not sure is really what it's created for those of my party to grow back in our issues who are also in theory lean and mean if you are. capturing the imagination of man and your food and bark is just a local chapter on the great global movement towards world so it's really an obvious you. as global condemnation after saudi arabia executes dozens of men or another story animal after this break.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race off and spearing dramatic development only. i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. american politics its own. terms and then somebody playing games at the margins of the election. believe it or influence the old guy is frankly. sure.

russia was you know the stage to notice stage has been. influencing the domestic politics of other countries. welcome back to the program the shooting at a synagogue near san diego in california has left one woman dead and three others wounded including a rabbi police have detained a nineteen year old man in connection with the incident which took place during a service on saturday to mark the jewish holiday of passover the suspect reportedly posted an anti semitic message online before the attack authorities are investigating whether the incident was a hate crime this all came exactly six months after the most devastating attack on the jewish community in recent u.s. history eleven people were killed in that to transfer to. the synagogue where that

shooting took place has responded to to the latest incident saying the violence must end. the israeli prime minister has also expressed his condolences to the victims and announced plans for a summit to look at the rising number of anti semitic attacks around the world human rights lawyer daniel coverlet believes it's a dangerous time to be a member of a minority group in the us. from pittsburgh i'm in pittsburgh now i was here when the synagogue was attacked here in pittsburgh this looks like a very similar incident and it's very clear that these people were attacked because they were jewish and so i believe this is. racism in general which includes antisemitism. has a very large presence in america i think you know it's something america has struggled with for you know a long time it's a very dangerous time in this country to be in any racial mon or to i mean that's

just a bad i mean you see a world that's very much on fire at the moment in which racial religious and ethnic tensions are high. international human rights groups have condemned a series of executions in saudi arabia this week thirty seven men mostly reportedly from the muslim shia minority were killed on quote terror and violence related charges one party was even strung up in public following his execution human rights watch states the killings mark an alarming escalation in the use of the death penalty in the country it also described the punishment as grotesque and expressed concern that those punished might not have received a fair trial here's our senior correspondent mark gasnier. few things so was much fear into the hearts of your own people as mass executions the men were executed for adopting terrorists and extremists thinking

and performing terrorists else to corrupt and destabilize security allegedly among their crimes was this respect towards authority some of them can you believe that like the king protested against them so serious with their crimes that one of those executed was also crucified yes crucified and two thousand and ninety his body strung up for all to see for all the fear. today's mess execution is a chilling demonstration of the saudi arabia authorities callous disregard for human life it is also yet another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent from within the country's shia minority in fact almost half of those killed were executed after taking part in pro-democracy

protests see the arab spring didn't skirt saudi arabia the shia minority rose up they wanted change better fairer life the king obviously thought they wanted too much. one of those executed by the way was sixteen years old at the time of his arrest attending a protest apparently he was still a kid now is an example you wouldn't believe how creative the saudis are when it comes to killing prisoners in fact the current king began his reign by staging a massive execution forty seven people behaved it shot for crimes that

included disobey and saudi rulers biggest blood show since the nine hundred eighty s. who said fictions and common peaked in two thousand and twelve when five people were strung up paralysis reportedly is also in a judge's arsenal seriously they can sentence a person to be paralyzed as punishment roots back to a four thousand year old law that someone wrote on a stone pillar to throw a tooth. and literally in this case a knife or an eye saudis took that stone very seriously in two thousand and five accordant saudi arabia ordered a migrants i gagged out as punishment for getting into a fight and putin also a favorite especially for theft chopping off people's arms and feet stealing

and of course stoning reserved for crimes like being too friendly with the opposite sex or can you say you want to cherry on top saudi arabia's on the un human rights council what a world. in response to the widespread condemnation riyadh says they will not hesitate to punish anyone threatening the security and stability of the kingdom but the gulf institute for democracy and human rights claims society justice system often fabricates charges. the first time which so very be you that if you know t. took punish prisoners of conscience who hold dared to spoke out about the human rights violations in the country we've not just there and i think around five of the of the executive people who where really charged by terrorists didn't read them tried it we don't trust. i really enjoyed your system we don't trust how did it how did the saudi authorities handled the imagine especially against the british

there's a whole talk to the streets to demand rights and freedoms and who spoke out about what was happening in the country. as most of the big gulf kingdoms saudi arabia is to did you show the system to fabricated charges against their dissidents especially against the activists who spoke out or who lose their social media outlets or rules participated in demonstrations there is a taboo in the gulf kingdom especially in saudi arabia no one is a low just about what's happening in the country. news for now is shown thomas will take over the top of the next hour with more updates in the meantime they do say to the four worlds apart which is next here on r.t. international.

when lawmakers manufactured them sentenced to public wells. when the ruling classes project themselves. with the final clearing go round to be the one percent. time to ignore middle of the room signals. from the real news is. after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next the ball different clubs on one hand it is logical to sit in the home field where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and a fresh perspective i'm used to surprising people and i saw one on t.v. . i'm going to talk about

football not or else you can think i was going to go. by the way ways of the slide here. be neat a politically false needs to come. from. but ideally to normandy for him to pass the house been. giving political guidance to the process so basically what i'm waiting for he's an alter politically. ideally stemming from the moment you feel.

welcome to worlds apart from twenty two months five hundred search warrants over twenty five million dollars and their worst relationship to nuclear power has had in decades that's what it used to produce a report confirming that the american president after all is not awaiting russian top but it didn't seem that the russians did not try to pull the strings if the deed was nearing if not the legal and moral right to do so well to discuss that i'm now joined by michael brown and professor emeritus of international affairs at the university of pittsburgh professor brennan that's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time those a pleasure to be with well it's been almost

a week since the miller report was made public so i'm sure you've had the pleasure of plowing through these truly historic document is there anything in it that surprised you know we've been pretty. directions on this from all those investigations. was taking what everyone was looking forward to in terms of it he was his conclusions in dimension. i think we can examine the three perspectives one a legal perspective you know did the president commit any crimes or offenses the congress mud interpreted as an impeachable. true there's a political impact looking forward to next year's presidential election and

third is what effect in mind on relations between washington and moscow well i would actually stick to the third one and offer one more line of inquiry which is. what exactly russians did or did not do because while the democrats and the republicans are still arguing over the legal definition of obstruction they are absolutely unanimous that the russian interference did occur on the roof of the airport in fact feeds that the russian government interference in the two thousand and sixteen election in a quote sweeping and systematic fashion is that the impression that you drew from it sweeping and systematic or further i must sort of disagree. with the judgment or conclusion reached by. mr amala if one sort or looks at the evidence as presented first of all very little if anything to what's already been known and pub and published. second there is almost

no concrete evidence to suggest that it was the russian government itself much was the sort of from a. design that was implementing a comprehensive strategy designed to who determine the outcome of the presidential election the evidence of some from. most of it is some or based upon the assumption that any russian. citizen of consequence awol some oh is close to mr putin bugged out is not substantiated but was presented in the report well i would also take issue with sweeping we know that the miller probe indicted thirteen russian nationals on conspiracy charges that's in relation to social.