no that seems a little crazy but you've got to start somewhere. this is day w.'s line from linda trump to tighten the screws on russia the u.s. president says he will impose fresh sanctions in response to allegations that moscow battled in the twenty sixteen presidential election the u.s. has also joined other countries supporting britain in its standoff with russia. and its wings is a freezing with knights of seem to go on for ever and it has one of the world's

highest suicide rates in the u.s. says it is the happiest place on which countries are to stay with us and find. i'm full go welcome to the program. u.s. president donald trump is to impose new sanctions on russia in response to allegations that it meddled in the twenty sixth us presidential election his latest move targets five organizations and nineteen individuals united states is also signed a joint declaration with france and germany in support of britain's standoff with russia over the attempted murder of a russian former spy in britain mr trump was asked if he thought russia was responsible. who was behind this mr president it looks like it i spoke with the prime minister and we are in deep discussions

a very sad situation it certainly looks like the russians will be hided something that should never ever happen and would take an adverse seriously as i think are many others. of the british government is expecting twenty three russian diplomats over the poisoning of their cell phone russian double agent and his daughter in a quiet english city moscow denies any involvement and deciding it's a retaliation. british prime minister theresa may paid a visit to salisbury the medieval city in the west of england shaken by a nerve agent attack on former russian double agent sergei streep and his daughter yulia. may visited the restaurant where the poisoning took place and has put the blame squarely on moscow. well i'm pleased to be able to come down here to souls for you to speak to people who responded to this terrible incident that took place and as you know announced in the house of commons yesterday the action that we're

taking we do hold russia culpable for this brazen brazen acts and despicable acts that's taking place on the streets of was is such a remarkable city where people come and visit and enjoy it often thank you verily or nato secretary general. excuse me ask out of trying to destabilize the west and issued a warning we do not want a new cold war and we do not want to be dragged into a new on straits but let there be no doubt made the will defend all our allies against any fat. mase international allies are standing by her the u.s. france and germany joining britain in blaming russia calling the attack the first offensive use of a nerve agent in europe since the second world war russia has responded by saying

it would be absurd to carry out an attack on foreign soil ahead of the presidential elections and the fifa world cup moscow accuses britain of dishonesty and withholding information. in which i can't tell you the motives of our british colleagues but i don't think they are on us. if they were britain would answer the questions we've been asking and would follow the procedures of the chemical weapons convention to. moscow promised swift retaliation to britain's decision to expel russian diplomats. well it's all starting to feel very cold war this isn't it let's get more from the chief political correspondent. and only showing and moscow and cost and fall down and no washington welcome all cost and phenomena that start with you president trump seems

pharma now in his support for britain's position against russia why the turnaround . well it seems that british prime minister to reason may has managed to impress on president trump the importance of this matter for the u.k. and showed so has been able apparently to convince the u.s. president that the evidence that russia was behind this poison attack on former double agent in england on british soil was very convincing and you're right the president trump in the past has often been rather cautious or even reluctant to blame russia and president putin for anything made be meddling in the u.s. elections or other misdeeds that seems to have changed on as we've seen he now says it looks like russia was behind this and he is taking it very seriously and indeed will come to those charges regarding the u.s.

elections shortly. that let's come to let's talk about this joint statement that who was saying what was a joint statement in front of the u.s. and britain and it quite clearly states that they see a violation of the chemical weapons convention and a breach of international law we also take from this statement that this is seen really as pretty much of a watershed moment because it marks the use of chemical weapons for the first time on european soil since the end of the second world war i'd say this is the second watershed moment that we've experienced we saw german chancellor angela merkel come out with very strong language also putting in this into historical perspective when we saw the accession of crimea by russia and this is also something where the democrats particularly well here in europe by pretty much holding this up together and maintaining those sanctions towards russia this is a pretty strong statement it comes very close to these nato allies actually

declaring that there has been some kind of attack that stops delivery stop sort of that nobody has an interest of further escalation and the big question is how will rush certain. now react and how will be the e.u. reaction come next week when we see foreign ministers meet and also a summit. in the summit coming up i was it was interesting that the e.u. reaction because france and germany in the u.k. there but no e.u. response to should we should necessarily read anything into the well this technical reasons because simply there are twenty seven member states they're also a lot of member states who don't really want to see their country on the state and really these countries here are the core of the west let's just recognize this the western bloc is back really in terms of stating their common position at the same time you have countries particularly greece. and hungary who have very close ties with russia and who are kind of playing a game between the e.u. and the potential they see in russia they have no interest of having the signatures

on this paper and getting all sides that this is been the problem of the european union since day one really getting everybody behind any kind of foreign policy statement is always really pushing it but let's go to moscow then and really show russia making enemies of all over the world tell us about the latest russian response. well we don't even know what what russia's response will be to may's measure as we've been kind of waiting for a clear response on that all day in the morning the foreign ministry spokes woman said that it wouldn't take long for there to be a response the kremlin spokesperson miti of his golf said that putin would be the one to make the final decision on what the response would be but there have been very sharp words from russia we've been hearing that this is all a political show that these accusations against russia are crazy and also city lover off today accused the u.k.

of not following the the correct diplomatic protocol he said that the u.k. was not responding in a very gentlemanly way as it as it might be expected from the u.k. so kind of strong words all around from the russia they're definitely escalating this war of words that's that's taking that's taking place at the moment. burn your money and leave the russian house elections on sunday. i think it's hard to directly connect the two of course the rhetoric that we're seeing. is part of an ongoing rhetoric that we've seen from russia russia has has been timed of peddling this this narrative all along that everyone is against russia that all these measures are part of a russophobe campaign i can't tell you how many times i've heard that word in the last few days from various politicians various media outlets and of course that

might unite people behind putin but in a way it's strange because putin doesn't really need the extra support polls were showing that he would have taken seventy percent of the vote anyway and that turnout was probably going to be fairly high as well so this is kind of strange but it does fit in with the overall russian narrative that we've seen ahead of the elections because the phenomenon in washington the latest news out of washington is that the u.s. is now imposing a separate sanctions on russia because of its meddling in u.s. domestic affairs. among other things yes the u.s. has in fact slapped new sanctions on five russian entities and nineteen individuals most of them connected to the russian intelligence community for a number of attacks on u.s. interests the treasury secretary the finance minister of the us even the new chin

mentioned in particular russian meddling in the us elections but also destructive cyber attacks on u.s. computer systems and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure which means control systems that run american factories and the country's electricity grid so of course the russians interfering with the electricity grid in particular is something that worries the americans about as much as russian interference in the u.s. elections the authorities say they have have affected companies to kick the russians out of their systems but that of course only applies to those systems where russian interference has been detected the sanctions are focusing on financial matters so those entities and individuals will be denied access to the u.s. financial system that might hurt some of them who have international interest but if it is enough to deter the russians from further interference and further attacks

is an open question well let's put that to emily show and moscow state what response from the kremlin if any to this set of sanctions. well there has been a response from the deputy foreign minister city gate of course he said that russia is calm about these new sanctions and that they are preparing their response to these new sanctions as well we don't know what that response will be interesting lee russian state t.v. kind of has kept calm so perhaps russia is a little bit rattled by the timing of this but it does in a way play into this this whole narrative that i mentioned before the fact that all these accusations against russia are being grouped into one by the u.s. certainly fits in with this idea of an overall western anti russian campaign going to show it in moscow sign q cost involved in washington thank you. here with me

betty thank you as well. every year the u.n. runs the world's happiest countries nordic countries continue to dominate finland is now officially the world's happiest nation up from fifth last from fifty last year the study looks at factors like life expectancy income social support and corruption things beat neighbors like norway and denmark who are also in the top five germany was fifteen. you see days long winter nights and the wide social safety net isn't the stuff of happiness the finn seemed to have at least some of the answers. well our party said economics i think we have basic stuff he's quite good in finland so it makes a great like base why why we're doing so good here. that sounds strange are we friends really that happy running on the list you want to be able to

follow we have all the services that we need here daycare is nearby and the parks as well we can play and slide down hills if we want just like here. the study also says being happy seems to be contagious it found a high correlation between the happiness of citizens and that of immigrant newcomers. but what explains those countries with less fortunate rankings like the us which fell for places to number eighteen. i think it's the general uncertainty and political unpredictability people don't know what to expect in their future i don't know that's my guess. for now the finns and their nordic neighbors know what their future likely holds more sterling scores on quality of life indexes even if their heat indexes don't always play along. finland not just terms the world's happiest people also home to some of the

planet's most breathtaking skies nor the lights they were seen dancing over the arctic circle last night visible from the northern finnish city of rover near me if you wondered what causes them as collisions between electrically charged particles and the sun that. is fair watching t.w. still to come brazil's seesawing a colony a mixed picture of life in south america's biggest country as the world economic forum governs in south paula this week. what it does we'll have that for you shortly i'll be back at the top of the. d.w. true diversity place. where the world of science is at home in many languages. thought of programming going there it will be. our innovations magazine for in asia the us from every week and always looking to the future on t w dot com for science

and research for asia.