we are the americans the senate approved the latest round of sanctions against iran north korea and russia with an overwhelming vote of ninety eight to two. and the day after sanctions are passed north korea launches yet another intercontinental ballistic missile more than seventy five hundred feet into the sky. and the skinny bill failed to pass the senate with john mccain casting a decisive vote against it. good afternoon it's friday july twenty eighth four pm in washington d.c. i'm an election and you're watching r t america we start today with sanctions

russia's not ruling out additional countermeasures of it faces more pressure on restrictions from the united states that's according to the country's deputy foreign minister it follows moscow's decision to cut the number of u.s. diplomatic staff in russia after the senate's approval of new anti russian sanctions bills are patridge has the details let's look at the context of where this all started this actually began back in december when the u.s. expelled some russian diplomats and confiscated some diplomatic buildings basically some compounds and what's happened is that russia has effectively responded in kind it's saying that the same number of diplomatic stoical so technical stuff that the that they have in america must be responded in kind with the americans across the whole of russia this is not just mosco so we're looking at four hundred fifty five people by the first of september well they've also said just that they want to stop the americans having access to certain warehouses and all. so what they call

a diplomatic compounds now that's not an embassy or anything like that it's effectively a leisure complex. in the forests near the city well let's look at the breakdown of those four hundred fifty five people back in december the americans expelled thirty five russian diplomats but to even up the numbers to make sure they are exactly the same in the two countries the americans would have to take out over two hundred fifty of their own diplomats this is all come about i mean less than a day as we said over the fact that the the senate had voted on these new. sanctions and then you need donald trump's signature to make a go ahead for president putin said that russia had been patient for long enough and if he felt that it was about time that there would be a response and the response would become pretty slim to none you see sanctions are completely illegal for if they go against international law and the rules of the world trade organization are going to be that we're being very patient and very reserved in that at some point we will have to respond if we can endlessly tolerate aggressive behavior towards our country and what you're actions can be perceived as

aggravation and i would even say exceptional cynicism meanwhile there's been a response from the u.s. ambassador to russia john test who said that he was deeply disappointed about the new measures after meeting with russia's deputy foreign minister said get up cough but rob says this might not be the end of it if he doesn't see what he calls the end of russophobia mayhem on capitol hill we. are not ruling out any steps so to say to bring those presumptious russophone to their senses who are setting the tone on capitol hill today however russia is not rejecting you will do us where possible we don't let our emotions run high and we'll continue to fight for interests and search for solutions. and the senate and nearly unanimous vote has slapped new sanctions on russia over alleged election interference by russian hackers the bill will also prevent president trump from easing existing sanctions on the russian federation the. bill which also imposes sanctions on iran and north

korea will now be sent to president trump in a veto proof that ship to discuss this we're now being joined by paul craig roberts he's a former assistant secretary of the u.s. treasury and chairman of the institute for political economy paul great to see you thanks for joining us today. in your new article the new russian sanctions bill is washington's monument to its criminality can you explain why you wrote that quote congress would rather destroy the president of the united states and increase the risk of nuclear war than avoid conflict with russia by normalizing relations talk to me about that. it will reach greatly dacres for too many reasons why and it prevents presidential from ever normalizing relations with russia and as we all know the tensions now are very high marks they are higher than they are who are doing the cold war the other reason you will is extremely dangerous is the economic

pressure is good so russia will close its desire and to replace russian sales of natural gas to europe with emerging sales so it harms the ruble harms the russian economy and so earlier isolates russia from europe well this is the end of economic pressure leads to war and you also argue that these sanctions will alienate europe and especially germany where the pipeline is supposed to end up what does congress have to gain then by passing these sanctions is it strictly to increase their to force their dependency on american nat gas. well that's part of it congress gains political contributions from the american in his energy industry and it gains local

contributions from the military security complex would cause this bill is constructed to serve both interests of both extremely powerful interest groups and the military security complex whens by preventing the normalization of relations which is a threat to the budget and the power of the military security complex and needy energy companies when by having a new market for their natural gas the liquefied natural gas that they're getting from the fracking operations that are doing so much environmental damage in the united states and so this benefits both groups and therefore congress or as you saw all the votes i think are almost unanimous only two sentences out of ongar good guest and i think only three u.s. representatives out of four five hundred voted against it so you can see the power

of these interest groups and they put their interests ahead of normalizing relations between nuclear powers when you have bad relations between nuclear powers like russia united states. chance of something going wrong as extremely hot and today we saw that russia has now taken retaliatory measures by cutting the u.s. embassy staff there in the federation in your view how should russian leadership and term these new sanctions. take the russian leadership now has to finally abandon its cherished illusion that it can reach commendation with washington. well as i have made clear for a long time now the only way russia can reach an accommodation with washington is to surrender and to accept american hegemony now if the russian

government in ten years with this illusion that it can reach an accommodation well i think it's guilty of very dangerous dealers. so i think this should be a wake up call for russia that the united states congress has no may be the principal goal of american foreign policy conflict with russia well these are these are just the beginning of measures taken by russia how do you see this playing out moving forward especially when we have president trump who is looking against the wishes apparently of congress looking to normalize these relations how do you foresee russia playing this out well the top no longer can normalize relations the bill for him it's. and he has no real alternative to

signing it because the speech of. the truck doesn't sign and the media will use that as proof that he is working in favor of russia and that would probably lead to peaceful so what russia does i don't know depends on how much they wake up how much to give up this. illusion this delusion actually reach an accommodation. it's a serious situation for russia to have united states committed. to the consulate was russia and that is precisely where the united states is. all of this bill and that is the change of one of the two main sponsors all the bill is to sure conflict to raise tensions to say this is

essential to our budget the military security complex certainly looks like the trajectory were headed and thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us paul craig roberts former assistant secretary of the u.s. treasury. north korea launched yet another ballistic missile test today that's according to officials from japan south korea and the pentagon in washington pentagon spokesman navy captain jeff davis also confirmed the launch of the i.c.b.m. adding that the missile reportedly traveled a thousand kilometers before landing in the sea of japan japanese prime minister shinzo ave says north korea appears to have fired into japan's exclusive economic zone ave called the launch quote a serious and real threat to the security of japan and said japan would cooperate closely with the u.s. south korea and other nations to further step up pressure on north korea. and

a stabbing attack in a supermarket in the german city of hamburg has left one person dead and four injured artie's peter oliver has the report the suspect who carried out this attack is in police custody however as of yet police haven't spoken about any motive behind the they have said that they're investigating all possible motives including now some eyewitnesses at the scene said that the man shouted akbar god is great in our big before carrying out his attack however the police spokesperson didn't comment further on what we are seeing those around the area where this took place it's cordoned off by police very heavily armed police presence at the scene there we also understand. a units of the german police force on the scene as well this attack on friday evening in hamburg leaving one person dead four others have

been wounded in a knife attack at a supermarket the police have confirmed now. the annual whistleblower summit for civil and human rights is in full swing here in washington d.c. the event is tackling the growing problem of businesses and governments preventing whistleblowers from getting their message out to the public joining me now is retired chief deputy u.s. marshal matthew fogg who presented a panel on criminal justice reform matthew good to see you my friend it's been a while yes it has been good to see you out of so you hosted this panel what was the purpose of this this annual whistleblower summit what about the whole purpose of the summit is awareness is to make people aware that there are rights and things that we can do to make certain that when people vote it was so they should have protection so the government is one of the ways that i know me as a u.s. marshal mean we had a witness protection program the only way we were a lot of times we had to cover for witnesses who were going to come forward and tell us the bad things the bad guys was going we had to get protection

whistleblower protections and whistleblower laws that they create scenarios where a lot of people are afraid to come forward and only way we can really get good government services and get things going right is point out the bad sections of the government anything that's wrong and it should be corrected and you got people to come forward and speak about it and your role in the summit can can you can you sort of walk us through some particular cases where it's important to perhaps blow the whistle inside the rank and file especially within. within like you said law enforcement yet it's i mean it's really important there because of the fact that we see a lot of things that we're seeing on television the day these cameras where we see people being excessive force all the things that occur and certainly everybody says well is not all law enforcement but it really doesn't matter whether it's all law enforcement is are we still people people don't know who the bad cops are so if you don't know what a bad person is you've got to identify the people who can do that a lot of times our law enforcement officers working in the rank and file people

like myself we know to bag as on what we know we speak out against it and there's a chance that there's going to be. repercussions and it's not just one law enforcement we had a guardianship panel we had panels of people that were speaking on different different things in life that when it comes down to government services anytime you speak out any time you open your mouth there's a chance that there's going to be repercussions so that's what's so important about this the summit sure and i know your background obviously you were a whistleblower yourself what were the circumstances around that did you feel that your own life was in danger when that happened oh no question about it one leg in law enforcement very easy to meet friendly fire we called it but the bottom line is i've had situation in my in my case where the officers left me on the stakeout we were taking down some of the some dangerous fugitives and and i looked them one day and the people who were supposed to be the i was in command they had left so we

were able to effect the arrest and still with no shots fired but it was it was a very dangerous situation when you talking about law enforcement officers around the country again i say law enforcement people whistleblowers they know who the bad cops ah you know the national rifle association always says only way you deal with a bad guy with again gun is a good guy with a gun i always say the only way you deal with a bad cop is what a good cop but when those good cops come forward they have to have protection the same thing with the environmental protection agency when people speak out there anywhere and there's always a chance that there's going to be somebody in that agency that's wanted to come out well what are some of the security solutions for these people if their lives are in danger well the again the bottom line is it's not supposed to be happening so that's a component that hasn't been an. effective way to yet i mean that's a that's a component that's still out there that we trying to figure out how do we provide protection spoke folks who come forward because a lot of times the system will say oh you're going to be ok or or there's and you

know there's the we had investigated for. we've got to look at it first we've got to see determine if that what you're saying is happening is really happening in the meantime you were exposed one of the movies that we screen was circa co's latest screening is got a documentary coming out but you know circle was the framed office in new york that blew the whistle on a new york n.y.p.d. the corruption involvement so any time anyone comes forward the whistleblower network is to say this is a civil and human rights and bottom line is any time you come forward on any of those issues there's a chance right something they you know somebody may be targeting you right and it sounds like there isn't much infrastructure in place within businesses and and within law enforcement to protect whistleblowers just yet and now you touched on circle can you can you tell us more about the case of the former undercover n.y.p.d.

detective who reported that wrongdoing and his life was in danger and that's exactly right there was a movie done around him called circle and what he's doing now is another screening a documentary to gonna go a little more into in depth to talk about some of the challenges that he had when he blew the whistle so pretty much i mean his life was placed in danger he was actually there was going to be made to take his life. this is what this is the danger of anytime you deal with people bad as in guns there's always a chance that you know again it's easy we have unfettered discretion out there on the street a lot of times and so it's very important i understand for people to understand that now whistleblower protections is some of the things that we're working on in congress they passed a law whistleblower protection but still there's not enough i mean there are things that still needs to be. done to enhance the protections that make certain that just like we have an eye witness protection program where we protect people that come forward who. blow the whistle on our going to scram they have to have

protection and certainly people like you advocating for such things to be put in place thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us former dea agent and u.s. marshal matthew fogg thank you. united nations investigators are accusing the saudi led coalition of conducting a lethal raid on a somali refugee boat off the coast of war torn yemen in march the attack left forty two dead and thirty four injured along a dangerous migrant route that leads to libya the u.n. said quote this civilian vessel was almost certainly attacked using a seven point six two millimeter caliber weapon from an armed utility helicopter investor but investigators wrote in eight hundred eighty five page report to the u.n. security council just monday quote the saudi arabia led coalition forces are the only parties to the conflict that have the capability to operate armed utility helicopters in that area and a two year u.s.

backed saudi led campaign in yemen has now left more than ten thousand civilians dead displaced more than three million people and has pushed the country to the brink of famine. after seven years in the making just over night senator john mccain scuttled the g.o.p.'s chance at repealing obamacare with their so-called skinny repeal in a shocking move the veteran legislator took to the floor after one am and submitted a defiant no vote that stunned his senate colleagues here to talk more about that my colleague ed schultz all right ed what a wild ride last night i don't think anyone saw that coming what do you make of john mccain surprise no vote well he gave a thumbs down in the senate but he gave the finger to the president politically there's no question about that look this is this is much deeper than just a repeal bill the friction between mccain and the president goes back let's play the piece of tape if we can this was president then campaigner donald trump

talking about john mccain. supported for president i raised a million dollars from so a lot of money i supported him he lost let us down but you know he lost so i never liked it was much after that because i don't like it. but right franklin to get what he had already he's not a war hero or hero he is a war i or our peers he's a war hero because he was captured i like people that weren't captured ok i hate that. that was just a cheap shot and i don't think john mccain has ever forgotten that this is a guy who's paid his dues in the senate paid his dues in the military he was in north vietnamese captivity for five years and he certainly didn't deserve that i thought it was one of the low moments in the entire campaign season and i think mccain was in a position last night to make sure that this president what wasn't going to get any of the credit because he didn't deserve it all this talk about how the white house is involved with the white house is so involved in health care how come it didn't

get done when they have the majority in the senate and the majority in the house and so the blame has to go somewhere and mccain is not going to shoulder the blame because it did not do what they wanted it to do he certainly stock it to him there and there are winds for it for the white house really before the august recess it's about to begin now that they're that the recess where do republicans go from here when they come back from their summer break where will this leave them on health care who i think they'd be making a mistake to move away from it if it's such a big problem if it's a sixth of our economy of millions of americans are affected and we all know that's true why would you turn away from it that's almost worse than losing the vote to say it's time to move on wolf it's time to move all in what is the problem just going to go away i couldn't believe that that was the attitude of the republicans i think that's going to hurt them as much as anything else if i'm a democrat and running a campaign the republicans have proven to you that they don't care about this

problem because they're ready to move on because they couldn't get their caucus together we've also i don't know what a better commercial could be out there. but ed you've also got the president tweeting that he wants it to fall apart now well he wants it to fall apart so he doesn't take the blame and that's why he's doing the seven years you guys have been doing this i've only been on the political scene for a couple of years look this president campaigned on it he talked about day one what he was going to do he's find out that the white house is a little bit different than what he thought it was going to be and you just can't be in the executive wing and not get involved legislatively and about how many dinners he has or no matter how many meetings he has he doesn't know this issue how many times have we heard both republicans and democrats say that the president pretty much clueless when it comes to health care he doesn't get what they're trying to accomplish complicated issue it is and so. i think the republicans will be back in a state to move away from it i think the country needs to have it done we need a better health care plan obamacare has done some good things it's got some flaws

and there are six of them were made had seven years add they've had seven years to work on it won't know there's also the obama legacy they don't want obama's name on any of this they don't want him getting any of the generational credit whatsoever they're trying to steal the moment with the majority and come up with something better whatever happened everybody was going to have health care and no one was going to die in the street we're going to make it affordable for everybody they not only have failed on this vote they failed on every facet of trying to deliver something better the american people so if this boils down to a party issue is this the signal that perhaps mcconnell needs to step aside from being the majority whip and let's not even go into the democratic side where nancy pelosi should step and well there are some republican house members who are stepping up. brooks of from alabama has said that you know maybe mcconnell ought to

take a look at what he's doing in the senate maybe he should resign you know who knows. it's a it's a for turning order inside those caucuses seniority plays a carries a big stick within the senate maybe they will come up somebody is going to have to challenge mitch mcconnell but mcconnell i think is making a leadership mistake and saying it's time to move away from it it's never time to move away from a problem this big because they're there to help people and beast public servants they're not being public servants by doing this i think mcconnell probably won't be moved out and i certainly don't see him stepping aside like you said it is a big huge problem that's here now and it will be here at the end of august when they come back thanks so much for sharing they're going to get an earful they're going to get an earful there and they august recess if they have the guts to hold town hall meetings what we will see about that and i will certainly be talking about ed schultz host of news of actuals right here on r.t. america. all right that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we just

covered go to youtube dot com forward slash r t america and check out our website r.t. dot com over class america you can also follow me on twitter right there at the military and remember it's a question we're asking about here at five. for decades the american middle class so it's been railroaded by washington politics. big body for years has grown a lot of voice that's how we use the culture in this country. that's where our economy. i would still. argue america i'll make sure you don't get railroaded you'll get a break in the break. john

gabriel is the editor for an outlet called ricochet and he just did some media analysis that i found really compelling in an article entitled what americans care about versus what the media cares about for the article gabriel first takes a look at part of a recent bloomberg poll which asked americans what they think is the top issue facing the country right now by far easily the top issue for americans in the poll was health care thirty five percent of those polled said that's the most important issue which is not surprising because this is the nation that actually affects people's lives unemployment and jobs came in second followed by terrorism and gratian and climate change all of those seem like reasonable items to top the list and then after all those way down at the bottom was america's relationship with russia only six percent of those polled cared about that as their issue then after reviewing the poll gabriel shifts to information from another recent survey in which the media research center calculates the amount of time network news.

uncovering issues in that survey the m.r.c. found that over the course of about a month network news spent over three hundred fifty minutes of time covering the whole russia investigation story but when it came to health care the way they covered it of course was talking about the repeal and replace of obama care only and they only spent seventeen minutes covering that then gave real compares the two he looked at what americans care about and what the media cares about and saw the ridiculous difference between the two even though only six percent of americans think russia is a big issue in the news seventy five percent of their time talking about it ad nauseum contrast that with the fact that health care is the biggest concern for americans and the news only spend four percent of their time talking about it seriously how insane is that the difference is beyond striking between what americans care about and what the media cares about it is such a difference that there is no way to think that the news doesn't have some sort of

ulterior motive here and then talking about what americans care about i mean it's clear that americans care mostly about health care and the news ignores that because ask yourself why why does the mainstream news harp on something americans don't rank high in importance it all adds up to one thing the media has a whole other agenda with their coverage and there's nothing how the about it. it's. what you have for breakfast yesterday why would you put those to the face if your wife or two dogs like you named that what your biggest fear was in the bin on the hay ride when so let's talk a little bit more you say if you have

a man who's the best sport about. exploring the topic that doesn't belong on the piece now i did did you change question more. you know what monique spiegel street looks like the real trick would be analyzed to keep the bottom. line with me like you know i'm not i got. a pretty. cool off.