coming up on our t.v. congress says that even more sanctions on russia how will that affect the u.s. russia relations pressure on president vladimir putin way then. and the united states a lot same trends on members of enduros government and business away lead but if they back fire for the u.s. economy. then it was a blow as they gather in washington d.c. is celebrating their achievements in the current political climate. it's thursday july twenty seventh five pm here in washington d.c. i'm ashley banks and you're watching our team america we start with

a new round of sanctions that congress is set to oppose on russia this time the bill targets russia's major mining energy and defense industries moscow has called the movie extremely cynical and a legal art is a roman cossar op has more following the latest bilateral trade and cooperation updates between finland and or russia the journalists quickly switch to the latest news coming out of four washington where the u.s. senate has been discussing another round of sanctions against a russia now those according to russian president vladimir putin are not only extremely cynical but they're also illegal from the point of view of international law let's have a sense that. these sanctions are completely illegal but it's what they go against international law and the rules of the world trade organization is that we're being very very good at some point we will have to respond with them and you can always put on. with such an attitude toward you. now the russian leader also expressed

regrets that russian u.s. relations have been sacrificed in serial politics and quarrels with then the american establishments and here's what he said about that which insurance through it's very disappointing that russia u.s. relations are sacrificed internal american issues on your question whether we are sorry about it i can say we are because if we had acted together we would so very pressing issues effectively and which concern both russian and american people. let amir putin's counterpart the president's all finland's also echoed the sentiments of their russian leader and cold on the u.s. to have a dialogue and not to have a unilateral decisions made against russia and that that is also the sentiments of with other european leaders as well as our teaser roman casa robert reporting

joining me now to continue this conversation as ivan eland senior fellow and director of the center on peace and liberty at the end of penguin institution and city and ivan thank you so much for joining us now ever think sions bill is passed through the senate and what do several things including this short less shorten the duration of loans to russia banks and russian oil and gas companies and allies firms that contribute to russian energy development and stop trump from being able to singlehandedly ease the think chips now ivan what are your thoughts on these new sanctions imposed on russia. well normally i don't support economic sanctions i also would like to see u.s. and russian mullard term improved relations because i think they have some common interest however this is more than russia this is an attack on our election system and i am afraid i have to support the sanctions in this case. because there's no

other way to deter russia and other countries from doing this again obama didn't do enough and trump has no intention of doing anything so the congress has taken this this. step and i and this is a bigger issue than us russian relations this goes to the heart of our system are the heart of our elections and it also goes to the fact that congress is reasserting its power v.f.p. donald trump because he has taken too much power on himself ivan you say that you support these sanctions so also that liao what is the u.s. looking to gain from imposing these sanctions on russia well i think they're aiming to gain deterrence from there trying to at least increase the cost of. another country russia or some other country meddling in u.s. elections again you know packing data and spreading it out to influence one candidate in the election and the other the next time it could be the republicans

realize the next time a good date russia helping democrats at that or some other country helping democrats if that happens again and this goes to the heart of our democratic process and this is a big deal here and russia should really russia needs to know that now russian president vladimir putin he has responded to the same can saying he will be forced to retaliate if the u.s. passes these sanctions so what do you think he means by retaliate. well i'm sure you know russia will find some lever to to retaliate they have been holding off i think because they hope true a better outcome under trump than they had under obama but you know it will be interesting to see what that retaliation takes if it does but that's the process we have to bear here to try to deter future behavior and show the world that.

no one should be allowed to meddle in our elections ivan you said earlier that we should be looking to improve relations so without russia but how can these sanctions further weaken the u.s. is relationship with russia well they won't they're not going to improve relations relations in the short term but i think the said this act by russia has to be handled i'm not over overly fond of punishing russia or any other country with economic sanctions because i think they have an economic effect but they don't necessarily have the political effect and that's their ultimate goal so i'm not a big sanctions person i'm not a big sanctions person for russia behavior and syria or ukraine but i think when you start talking about the american election that that's a different story and the alternative to sanctions is cyber attacks and the u.s. has. retaliatory cyber attacks and the us had the greatest capability in the world so you know i think the sanctions are probably better than that for the

relationship in the long term this is a short term penalty and i think in the long term perhaps the countries will get closer together simply because there's a rising china and usually in world history when there's a power rising other powers cooperate against that all right ivan we have about a minute left now earlier you said that others a bigger issue at hand i'll be side you know the russia i add u.s. relations now that you as also warned the u.s. over russia sanctions saying quote if. our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days america first cannot mean that europe's interests come a lot so i've been in your opinion why is the e.u. so upset with the us about these sanctions well the europeans are going to hypocritical they want you know the us they don't want to pay anything. for the defense against russia but on the other hand they don't really want their interests

are gored in this case that their energy companies working with russian on the nord stream to pipeline they don't want the u.s. sanctions the extraterritorial aspects of those sanctions to affect type one because that's their in their economic interest but on the other hand they certainly don't want nato to go away and they certainly don't want to have to pay for more of their defense and they are scared of russia they they are they do support sanctions against russia over ukraine but when it comes to you know their own economic interests they would rather have the sanctions go elsewhere which is kind of a hypocritical stand and like you said ivan their biggest point is over the pipeline and how that can affect the pipeline thank you so much for that insight that was ivan eland senior fellow and director of the center on peace and liberty at the independent institute thank you so much thank you another nation the u.s. just announced sanctions against as venice away last washington has called on the

government of the south american nation to cancel this weekend's constitutional reform process which they claim to turf the democratic order well sunday's vote for an assembly and been a swale of drawing closer president nicolas maduro sat down for an exclusive enter view with r.t. spanish in the capital caracas r.t. correspondent on the apparent bell brings us what you need to know about the election and materials comments as a vote approaches washington hasn't wavered from its interference and venezuela's internal political process this week the trumpet ministration announced new. sanctions against thirteen top government officials as a warning to the country to not continue with its constitutional procedure speaking to our team president nicolas maduro stood up to that escalation but the problem is way is ready for any scenario i think is insane for the extreme right in the us to be talking of a blockade against venezuela in fact they've already started an indirect blockade against the financial system this was the cause of the crisis over the past three

years that we have economic strength in venezuela always pays what the owners and fulfills its responsibilities in two thousand and seventeen two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen our country will continue to fill them. meanwhile three people have died after the opposition called for a forty eight hour strike in protest of sunday's vote during which they blocked streets and set up barricades and blocking venezuelans from going to work even if they wanted to the death to bring the toll since this round of violent demonstrations began to one hundred six dead in four months that number includes some killed by state forces as well as several people lynched by the opposition for supporting the government and others killed as a result of chaos in the streets according to president maduro the nature of these demonstrations is nothing new in fact violence has been the opposition's strategy for years but i think the opposition has been doing this eighteen years first against hugo chavez and for the past four years against me there's no other way to resolve conflicts in the country than through democracy and elections in may for

three and a half weeks i tried to establish direct dialogue with the opposition i wanted to include them in parliament but they refused it's a period of political isolation and they drifted into right wing radicalism they were imprisoned by a strategy of violence and ignoring those who voted for them. sunday's election will mark the first time venezuela has held a constituent assembly vote since one thousand nine hundred nine when former president who votes chavez called for one following his democratic takeover of the government and the bowl of aryan revolution and while western media would have you believe a duro. launched a dictatorial power grab the fact is venezuela's constitution grants the president authority to call for elections to select the assembly which is tasked with updating the constitution and judicial system but their own himself will not rewrite the constitution in fact all assembly candidates are independent rather than appointed by parties half of the members will be elected locally here is how our us sanctioned by the trumpet ministration this week in fact broke down how the

other half would be selected in an interview with tele stores empire files you will sink with the boat to see and those who do them and that's a good it's of the tune that in which is the thought of those that are holding those to the and those in need in this little girl needle because. you have no goddess knowles but it's one of the couple. my daughter's company because. although we constantly hear in the media that venezuela is a dictatorship just over a year after this month's assembly voted elections for a new president will be held in october twenty eighth teen recall the words of former u.s. president jimmy carter who in two thousand and twelve declared of the ninety two elections that we've monitored i would say that the election process in venezuela is the best in the world with that in mind ask yourself why the opposition can't bring itself to participate in that process and run candidates for the assembly or

successfully pre-press for president or are they waiting for their defenders in the north while washington claims that want to protect venezuelan democracy just last week cia director mike pump a.o. trumpeted he was quote hopeful that there can be a transition in venezuela and the cia when the cia is doing its best to understand the dynamic there with the agency's history of overthrowing governments around the world one may wonder why the only program the opposition seems capable of offering venezuelans is destabilisation and washington on. parm kill r t it's victory day for north korea and loping young yang is celebrating washington is keeping an eye on another possible missile test july twenty seventh to mark the end of a three year long korean war giving north korean leader kim jong un's penchant for missile tests on national holidays the pentagon is keeping close watch on north korea's military movements for missile launches some experts said the country's latest enter continental ballistic missile tests show north korean missiles have

the range to hit why and alaska the south so why are you on the edge enough for the hawaii emergency management agency to start a public campaign readying people for a nuclear missile attack every mine civilians of time tested rules like staying away from windows and to avoid looking at the nuclear blast itself. as with the blowers like edward snowden and julian assange have made headlines around the world the debate remains on whether they're heroes and patriots or traitors are g.'s a talk of sweet satin on the national whistleblower appreciation day meeting today and has more. on today's conference was actually a celebration for the first whistleblower law that went into effect on july thirtieth of seventeen seventy eight and according to those at the meeting today including senator chuck grassley it was something very important to our forefathers senator grassley who's the chairman of the senate whistleblower protection caucus said because of whistleblowers more than fifty three billion in taxpayer dollars

has been recovered because of insiders it's now known that more than five hundred million was lost to corporate fraud senator grassley says whistleblowers are fire blacklisted and harassed when they're merely trying to do what's right he says because of those willing to speak up it was discovered that some bats were waiting up to two years to see a doctor and while many were the sacrifices whistleblowers me to do with they feel is their duty to serve their country senator grassley says they're punished and they retaliate or seem to walk free with the reward laws began in one thousand nine hundred one known as the lacy and initially encouraging the detection and reporting of illegal wildlife trafficking insiders with vital information were compensated many times according to grassley quite the opposite for today's whistleblowers he's seeking a protection for whistleblowers inside intelligence agencies and is now working to seek protection for whistleblowers within the iraq those with access to classified information are encouraged to work with the inspector general's office to release

information safely and honestly and cinder grassley says he still thinks there needs to be a rose garden ceremony for whistleblowers something that hasn't quite caught on money his colleagues in washington it's not just our. defense logistics agency heads another department of defense officials felt the heat from the fallout of a government office of accountability sting during a health arm sir. subcommittee hearing today or worse than it is on the committee after the fence officials how their agency of the allocated one point two million dollars or at the military weaponry to a fictitious police department the g eight over advocated in a thing earlier this year. more more red tape to open up a donut shop there is to get to see equipment or that there was and i'm puzzled as to how the rules and regulations could have been so loose that they were able to create this fictitious agency to receive this material obviously with so many holes

in it that it was possible for the g.a.o. to do this and who knows who else but you know dia officials testifying promise they will take the quote proper administrative disciplinary action on those under them who facilitated the weapons transfer through section ten thirty three of the one thousand nine hundred seven national defense authorization act. and the u.s. between eighty to one hundred thousand prisoners are held in some form of solitary confinement for up to twenty four hours a day without human contact for days weeks and sometimes decades a newly released report from the department of justice inspector general criticizes the lack of oversight in the bureau of prisons and overuse of solitary confinement the d.o.j. report also stated that the borough of prisons is housing that mentally ill and maids and making their illness much worse as a result to discuss this them i am now joined by mary boozer former assistant mental health chief on rikers island an altar of

a lockdown on rikers thank you so much for joining us mary now we know you were the assistant mental health chief and charge of a five hundred cells solitary confinement unit on rikers island prison now in your book lockdown on rikers you said you sold words you never imagined can you give us an idea of exactly what you mean. yes certainly thank you for having me on the show . as the head of the mental health department i was called to cell doors regularly to monitor the psychiatric condition of the people who were being held for as you said twenty three hours a day inside these cells and i never expected to see people so broken down so broken down so badly head bash ing arm slashing makeshift nooses anything to try and escape the torment of solitary confinement. when

i had first started to work there i was told that solitary was for the worst of the worst the baddest of the bad i was really shocked to discover that four out of five people behind those cells were there for nonviolent infractions such as walking out of a housing unit wearing a hat. the punishment is grueling it drives people to see. aside and virtually everyone in that five hundred cell unit was on psychiatric medication and i think that tells you something that you have to medicate people to endure this punishment it is far worse than anything that i could have imagined until i was was there and walked into these cells and spoke to these people and tried to keep them alive mary what you're describing there sounds horrible and now the u.n. has condemned the us of solitary confinement and the form of torture would you agree with this i absolutely would what i saw was absolutely torture as we would have the authority of the mental health department to take somebody out if

we only if we thought they were actually going to die and then take them out for a little while before they would be put back in again and it just reminded me of people drowning going under you pull about and then you throw them back in the numbers of people who were threatening suicide was just astounding and that's just so telling about just how extreme this punishment is i absolutely agree with the u.n. on this yes mary can you explain to us the connection between mental illness and the use of solitary confinement. well we have a saying in the mental health department on rikers island if they have no mental health issues before they entered solitary they do now the isolation breaks people down human beings are social creatures we need interaction the way we need our our bodies need food and water to be cut off from it over prolonged period induces

depression it induces psychosis people who were fine before they walked in are seeing things are babbling to themselves. the suicide rate goes up unbelievably when people go in there so again if they have no mental health issues before solitary confinement will induce it it will create this horrible state of being and we would just throw medication mountains of anti-psychotics. antidepressants sleeping pills to try to help these people to cope with with this punishment mary it's interesting that you say that because the inspector general report also found that and meets with mental illness they actually spent much longer time and solitary confinement than other inmates so what is your response to these findings in the need for greater oversight. well it's a tragedy it's a horror to think that people with an existing mental health condition would be

thrown into a situation that would that would worsen it i mean this is these people are living in a tormented state so it is the is the height of cruelty to put the mentally ill into solitary confinement units. i think there's no excuse for it as far as oversight goes it turns into kind of a management tool i hate to say it but we're all told the public is told that solitary is to treat the baddest of the bad the worst of the worst it's just not true it is more and more a de facto management tool people who are mentally ill can be unpredictable difficult it's easy to segregate them put them in a solitary box where where they're just i'm sorry way we're going to have to leave it there looks like we're running out of time thank you so much for coming on to where that insight there with their former assistant mental health chief on rikers island thank you once again thank you for having me. there's

a lot we don't know about the dark web but one thing's for certain and one of be where it is today without bit coin but will the dark webs of many black market scandals from silk road to alpha beta hinder cryptocurrency is for ray and to the mainstream boom bust bianca fishing he has more than that from black cat and las vegas despite the popularity of social media e-commerce on the surface with the dark web is the fastest growing part of the internet but there's no way it be growing so quickly without bitcoin the world's first crypto currency may have the same vulnerabilities that any other currency has on the market but the loyalty of its users on the dark web have kept it afloat i would say that the business and the transactions that are carried out over the dark web and off that are quite a by the way cyber transactions in general have gone through the roof where the availability of crypto currency was the coins the first one and probably the biggest in fact it be difficult to find a vendor that accepted anything other than bitcoin unless it's another crypto

currency and not just because of anonymity it's own and controlled by the users not a central authority like the government it is a form of currency that is built with kind of this idea of distributed non-trust that yet collectively builds trust in the way that the records are kept and so on so you can imagine if i am doing a large transaction with somebody that i don't trust naturally having a third party intermediary in that can somehow bring trust at the same time it's not exactly foolproof though bitcoin can protect your identity during a purchase it's recorded on the block chain which acts as a digital ledger for all transactions and that exact problem is leading users to get creative obviously with bitcoin it's still kind of difficult for them to make the consequently anonymous like you can determine who owns it but you can't really spend because it's track of that's the whole concept of the block. all the money is

completely traceable through the ledger so now they're starting to use bitcoin laundering services to try and hide where the money is going to but even that can actually ultimately be trucked as well so i think it's got similar problems to cash does when it comes to doing illicit good trade bitcoin might not be perfect but it's still the first and only choice for most web purchases and it's threatening the mainstream adoption of it government leaders around the world have proposed and in some cases fully inactive bans on bitcoin because of the criminal activity that happens on a dark web because not hard to argue against that if you're an expert you're a black hat tell me about it back in october and i didn't want to get out of the car when we were leaving if it coin another popular crypto currencies were to somehow be destroyed experts believe that new ones would simply pop up down the road and ultimately they say would only make them stronger we can fight these crypto currency they will arise and they will over time establish more value and

more legitimacy in other words the size of those economies are going to have a critical mass and they're going to exceed that and then when you're not to be able to track it you're not going to follow you're not going to know how this is done regardless of the currency used there will always be demand in the underground economy which is why many experts say we should focus on the root causes of the criminal activity instead reporting in las vegas. r.t. all that does it for now for more on the stories we cover and go to youtube dot com slash r t america and check out our website r.t. dot com slash america you can also follow me on twitter at actually banks underscore r t and don't forget to question more. on larry you're watching our. first years in the war.

if you don't see how everyone in the media is trying to be all cool and lefty politically right now then just listen to this cosmopolitan or because mo is a magazine that's been around in america since one thousand nine hundred six it started out as a family magazine but in the one nine hundred sixty s. it became a women's magazine it's largely focused on lighter information like celebrities beauty and fashion tips or relationship advice since the one nine hundred sixty s. cosmos has always had a young hot chick on their cover showing her cleavage like always every single cover has pretty much had boobs on it the magazine is also famous for its recent articles like how to be good at oral sex or how to make your boobs look great so you can score that made you want to the point where over the years cosmos received

a lot of criticism for its racy nature grocery stores have covered it up in their aisles because it's so sexually explicit and it's also received criticism for just bad reporting for instance in one thousand nine hundred eight they ran a feature article claiming women had no reason to worry about hiv meeting at the height of the aids crisis because the moment is in was giving out fake news so because no has made its brand all about being edgy and hot to sell magazines in lieu of presenting actual usable information so now what kind of articles are they writing well now they just read an article entitled sixty nonsexual beings that are one hundred times how they are than sex so edgy right so hot so cool and the very first item on their list of things that are hotter than sex is number one. rachel maddow telling me everything. going to be ok for real i don't

like u.t. seriously cosmopolitan magazine a publication that has built its reputation on being race the now says that rachel maddow saying everything's going to be all right is hotter then sex hotter than sex being reassured by a lefty t.v. host reading a teleprompter that everything is ok that's supposed to be hotter than sex so to me that's just the most ridiculous lee obvious proof of what's supposed to be cool and edgy these days and it's clearly being as lefty as possible the writer of this insanely stupid article is just trying to be cool that's what's trendy right now so that's what they'll do never mind if it's excruciating lee embarrassingly stupid as long as it's cool that's all that matters this article should have never made it past the editor's desk but the fact that it did it speaks volumes about how the little.