was. russia expels sixty u.s. diplomats and shuts the american consulate in st petersburg copying washington's move over the scriptural case and the state department says it reserves the right to respond further. sources close to wiki leaks say the ecuadorian embassy has brought julian assange has internet access to stop him tweeting about catalonia and designer vivienne westwood says you must get online. it's really important that he's got access to the world by all the exposure that she manages to do. and netflix news is threatening to boycott the online entertainment giant as it appoints former president obama's national security advisor to its board of directors.

is r.t. international coming to you live from moscow i'm kate partridge thank you for joining us. russia would expel sixty u.s. diplomats and close the american consulate in st petersburg emulating washington's move over the script poisoning case foreign minister sergei lavrov announced the retaliatory measures against the u.s. and pledged a mere response to other states that have deported moscow's diplomats. retaliatory measures include the expulsion of the same number of u.s. diplomats and withdrawal of our consent for the us consulate in some petersburg as far as other states are concerned we will always give amir a response as it promised russia has responded tit for tat for every russian diplomat kicked out from the two dozen or so countries one of their diplomats will

be kicked out of russia almost all of those countries by the way the nato members who hopefuls the united states though may have to charter a jet sixty evidence diplomats have been ordered to leave russia the same number kicked out by washington where the u.s. consulate in st petersburg is being closed down in response to the closure of russia's consulate in seattle and mirrors spawn's no more no less and again moscow has called on the united states to stop it is proposed to us south or ities inciting in fueling this merican pain against our country to rethink incurred their reckless actions destroying bilateral relations the sum up russia which denies any role in this poisoning says never before have we witness such mockery of international law it is also convened

a special meeting of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons would be c.w. has sent technical experts to examine the substance with which the former russian double agent and his daughter were poisoned but their best the geisha will be technical. o.p.c. w. experts have arrived in london to analyze the substance used in the alleged poisoning of surrogate and eula script this will only allow them to distinguish the chemical formula of the substance the o.p.c. w. technical secretariat doesn't have the mandate to verify. ukase allegations by the way the investigation into the case is still ongoing and the u.k. and its allies insist that russia was behind this russia the nies any such thing and says that this an affair is politically motivated there's been no investigation no trial no evidence only accusations which have taken

a turn for the literary rather like the beginning of crime and punishment really a crime. i know man he was a tree full of ours at this point. where all confident about the identity of the culprit the only question is whether he will first confess or be called a brisk ashworth us have you read crime and punishment to the end you know unlike you we have read the story you have specially for boris johnson the just j.f.k. quote translated in english from a hundred tributes you can not make a horse hundred suspicions don't make it proof boris johnson went on to cement his case by saying that unlike russia which makes deadly poisons britain manufacture is nonexistent imaginary fantasy weapons that don't work but you need to know.

about the difference between modern britain. and the government that emit duty. so i seriously they make novacek we make light statements one is a hideous weapon specifically designed for assassination the other is a implausible theatrical prep with a mysterious buys me wouldn't anybody opinion is divided on what exactly boyish johnson meant or how exactly he hoped this would help his case. however the diplomatic standoff threatens to continue escalating as washington says it may respond to moscow's moves reserve the right further to any russian retaliation against the united states and we are reading this we are reviewing it and will respond accordingly when state department spokesperson heather now claims russia is isolating itself through its response to the expulsion of russian

diplomats from the u.s. . conan has more well believe it or not the diplomatic spat between the u.s. and russia has escalated even further just after russia announced their tit for tat response the u.s. is now considering new options against russia and just to remind our viewers washington expelled sixty eight russian diplomats and closed russia's consulate in seattle just after london claimed without any evidence that russia was behind the alleged poisoning of a former double agent and his daughter on british soil and in retaliation moscow asked the same number of diplomats to leave now even though it was a tit for tat measure the state department or you that there is no justification for the russian response and russia supposedly isolating itself from the world and reporters seem puzzled as to why moscow's move wasn't justified and continued to push for more clarification i want to remind you that there is no justification for the russian response and i'm not sure understand you you guys through there are

people we don't see this as a diplomatic tit for tat american diplomats who are being expelled. spies under diplomatic cover i am saying that they work for the u.s. state department they are our colleagues who have served there with great distinction but you but you're saying that these are your your action was justified there is wasn't because these people aren't the equivalent legs i think we're forgetting what got us to this place well now are dodging questions about whether the expelled u.s. diplomats were spies or not and then reporters pushed again to understand why the state department considers moscow's actions to be wrong and it seems that washington is forcing moscow to take responsibility and humbly accept punishment for a crime that there is no evidence for essentially you're asking russia to just admit that they did it and take their punishment would not be the adult thing to do they're saying that they did it you are in fact asking them to you know admit to

something that they say that they don't you know what there's nothing wrong with admitting it meeting wrong doing well now or went on to make some very incendiary comments to justify quote expressing solidarity with the u.k. calling these spelt diplomats russian spies saying that the u.s. is better off without russian spies when there's no evidence that they were spies either so now we're just going to have to wait and see where this all goes from here. to discuss where it all goes from here we can cross live now to former u.s. diplomat john graham john thank you very much indeed for joining us well as we were saying that i mean how will these retaliatory measures affect relations between washington and moscow going round in circles here and the processing of visas to russian citizens maybe wanting to visit the u.s. how one of the the what's the impact here. well first of all i think my sympathies go out to the poor woman on the state department being put up in front and having to say those things. second i live near seattle and i'm not particularly being

offended or sorry i'm not being hurt the next time i have to go to russia i can get a visa someplace else but i think it's important i think for everyone to. understand the realities of all the smoke screens and well the reality is there is a lot of those certainly the so-called diplomats on both sides were in fact spies that's what. does what nations do russia has fives in this country we have spies in your country i suspect even they people from a lot where you have spies in this country whatever is just part of state craft so the first thing you do when you're going to tit for tat if you through the other fellows by. so that's one thing the second thing is is the who done it aspect of all this now i keep looking at all this and go on the web and look at the formulas for. the nerve agent it's very unstable it's very dangerous to handle you have to be an expert to handle it or you kill yourself so the question

here is why on earth do you want to assassinate mr spear paul and his daughter why would you use a dangerous weapon he's sitting on a park bench when i just grew up behind him and shoot him in the back of the head. so i came to the conclusion that basically the nerve agent we use because the person that did it knew it would be traced back to the crime because the stuff actually was. invented made in weaponize your originally by the russians i don't hear what the p.c. w. that international organizations is in two weeks is pretty obvious because the stuff new things all have a fingerprint on the stuff was. but that doesn't mean the russians did it it is. visited by the russians so many ways if it was not done by criminals and by whom who was done by the russian state why on earth with the russians do you want to do that unless mr putin drastically miscalculated and he's

a very good just player but if he drastically miscalculated and underestimated the west's response well that's one explanation or perhaps it was some otro nationalist in the soviet union or brett in a story in russia who are or perhaps he knew some false flag operation by someone who just wanted to increase the chaos between the united states and russia i don't know how things are now and i'm not particular point than as a site that's about to hear about in terms of the response here there are state problems quick to react says it was as a result right to respond when one measures could it could this escalate or deescalate what measures could the us take. well i think we have one more one we have one more consulate in russia you have one more consulate here i think it's in dallas of the stake in we could close that we could send your ambassador home

persona non grata if you could close our remaining consulate where is it you're correct and berg i think i'm mispronouncing name i'm sorry. and you could declare our ambassador person on reddit and it goes on and on and as i said i think just two days ago on this save show. what i find most alarming both in terms of the politicians and the spokespeople on both sides and a whole lot of the media is that nobody seems to understand the danger of the steady steady steady escalation. and that's the real danger. we're looking now at six months now of steady escalations a deteriorating relationship between the u.s. and russia to begin with the threats of ever getting the intermediate range missile treaty for europe two weeks ago mr putin announces the tremendous new weapons that the russians have the same time drop a note has a new defense budget with

a lot more money for modernizing america's nuclear weapons and so on and so on and now it's even scarier because mr putin has run an election which means that there's very little opposition to him in russia and that's always dangerous and on our side in our side of the water mr cook was under investigation for possible collusion between his people and the russians were tampering the u.s. so i'm going to get they're out of office and they and i always have a friend of a fire going to have to leave it as a running out of time junk graham former u.s. diplomat frank about washing day ankle. has called the expulsion of russian diplomats a baseless sign of the u.k.'s allegations of russian involvement in the script poisoning have been deemed a highly likely assumption rather than proof. now

we can be expanded julian assange has been denied internet access since monday and isn't being allowed visitors at the ecuadorian embassy in london where he's been

staying for almost six years now sources close to the whistleblower group told r.t. one of the ecuadorian officials took those decisions as honestly a chicken a report. according to sources close to wiki leaks we have learned that the ecuadorian government had police teluk tronic jammers inside the ecuadorian embassy right behind me where julian assange has been holed up for five and a half years now and the idea of this was to block him from being able to tweet as well as communicate with the outside world hold telephone conversations or have access to the internet generally speaking we also understand that he is but he's been banned from having visitors inside the embassy and apparently all of this comes following a publication in the equipe dorrian press about julian assange just tweets concerning the catalan issue specifically the detention of cattle on independence leader of carlist which demands in germany earlier this week and our understanding according to this source close to wiki leaks is that julian assange would have to

has to his team have been informed of having to delete a certain tweet that he had posted among others concerning the cattle an issue in one nine hundred forty the elected president of catalonia louis comparison was captured by the gestapo at the request of spain delivered to them and executed today german police have arrested the elected president of catalonia karla's put to much at the request of spain to be extradited now julian assange did not delete this tweet and it's our understanding again according to these sources that are close to julian assange and wiki leaks is that dorian government has informed him and his team about their discomfort with his expressing his opinions about the cattle an issue and following that information they did put those alec tronic jammers in place to have him stop communicating with the outside world and curiously all of this comes following a statement from a top official here in the u.k.

describing julian assange as quote a miserable little worm let's take a look at the speakers of great regret the judas on remains in the ecuador embassy it is beautiful even deeper regret that even. last night he was preaching against her majesty's government for their conduct in replying to the attack in seoul three it's about time that this miserable little word walked out of the embassy and gave himself up to british justice well earlier we know that claims were made by the ecuadorian government who said that julian assange had signed some kind of agreement saying that he wouldn't weed or say anything about politics of ecuador as well as other countries but again according to the source close to wiki leaks those claims have been false. the british fashion designer vivienne westwood is a friend of a soundman gave him her support from outside the embassy on thursday she says she's worried about his treatment we're very concerned about the fact that she can see our visitors in a moment and it's really important that he's got access to the world by all the

exposure the t.v. manages to do he's a reserve war hero where he exposed american war crimes they want to be concrete and you know is is just my friend a nice brilliant arm a fashion designer called vivienne westwood to see him quite regularly and a supporter whenever i can. more news after the break.

what politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and. want to grips with. it you'd like to be close to see what the full spectrum of more can people get. interested falls in the waters of our. first city. welcome back online entertainment giant netflix may pay dearly for a high profile new appointment customers are threatening to cancel their

subscriptions after president obama's national security adviser susan rice joined the board of directors auntie's jacqueline vinegar explains why the movie is facing such a backlash susan rice is a big name in washington she served under presidents clinton and obama and was a u.n. ambassador slowly but surely working her way up the white house ladder and during barack obama's second term in office it looked like rice would likely become his secretary of state until she was forced to withdraw her name following the ongoing controversy related to the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi rice had made inaccurate public claims that the attack wasn't premeditated. what our assessment is as of the present is in fact what began spontaneously in benghazi it spun from there into something much much more violent rice was later forced to eat her words and admit they were in fact planned causing a massive backlash against her so she stepped back settling instead for national

security adviser a tale as old as time really well if you're not slick fail secretary of state that's what i want to that's all i wanted that's what i was promised and here i am and now it looks like rice is ready to netflix and chill with the streaming giant who announced that rice is coming on board on wednesday netflix co-founder and c.e.o. reed hastings put out a statement welcoming rice to the team saying that the company will benefit from her years of tackling complex global issues now netflix is the world's leading entertainment service and according to their site they have around one hundred seventeen million users and over one hundred ninety countries are continuing to expand their reach which with prices help could have a more political spin to it and while it's not yet clear what a lifetime politician will bring to a media company the naysaying has begun already with many users calling for a boycott of the service he netflix i've been a customer since they won that's just changed you must be absolutely insane to

think that americans would you adding susan rice as a board member who priced your bonnets into liberals can keep you in business if anybody wants to boycott something because of an individual's actions i suggest boycotting netflix if a crew from netflix is filming and comes under attack what is she going to blame it on a film just cancelled my netflix membership reason susan rice they can have her but not me. this is where our family takes a hard basket we're canceling netflix altogether our kid will be better off instead of watching and chilling he'll be reading and waking up but perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that rice is making the jump from politics to entertainment we've already seen her former boss appear as a guest on the netflix show and rumors have been running rampant that the obama's may be in talks to produce a series starring the dynamic duo raising concerns over where the company is headed . the siberian city of camera has entered

a third day of mourning after the shopping center fire that killed sixty four people including forty one children was more facts about the blaze emerging including allegations of criminal negligence there are also stories of incredible courage. i might and i were putting together pairs of shoes it is when i smelled smoke heard i'm a walkie talkie someone thing that people are running out of the stop people rushing down to stairs to see there is an alarm isn't much and we started to viju eight people are employees of versified the walk is the tour of the exit but i don't quite remember how i got out unless soon as i got outside i saw a man jumping out of the window from the third floor yeah. yeah i am. sad. all our coworkers had already stated when we looked at the escalator that it was full of people they started helping people to

get out of there we have a backyard at the end of the storage room just all just warning people to come to us and i knew there were disease to my day our guys lived out there will cheer and help them to go downstairs and everything i'm glad is that clouds of smoke surrounding yes we breeze that heavily but why is it so the ends just hoses to save someone else do some people run upstairs in earnings did you feel panic deep inside two of your swedish there was no way to escape i don't know what would have happened to me not them i'm a father a son and a brother too so i can understand those people i wish one son would grow up the same be useful to humankind we don't consider ourselves rescue as we'll old married people if you were in our place you would have done the same we had the loss of men who were burnt to death then you say heroes you know my mother was worried about me sure if it's a hospital and she says it was terrifying. we go to the mosque every day and leave

flowers and place candles. well meanwhile the investigation into what caused the fire is progressing the two main versions are the malfunction of the fire safety system and also arson five people have been arrested among them are two directors of the shopping center and the make a fire safety system the blazing camera or was one of the deadliest in russia in decades it took firefighters over seventeen hours to put it out one section of the complex was completely gus's and large sections of the roof collapsed if the sixty four people who died almost two thirds were children because the school holidays had just begun. cause a oz. was. back with the latest headlines in just over half an hour meanwhile for more on all

of our stories go to r.t. dot com. how does it feel to be a share of the greatest job in the world it's as close to being a king as any job there is what business model helps to run a prison now we just do it oh i guess there's no b.o.b. is the case and i don't no one comes anymore we don't have to serve them anymore it's cost effective that's what they want to do that at the moment they don't give a damn if you did so as a man there are actually paying us to put it back into the louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the u.s.n. breach what secret is behind such success.

the russians are coming for well over the last year and a half this is the message western audiences have been served up twenty four seven what is behind this hysteria what does this message aim to achieve always russia is supposed to react important are we facing a possible conflict. i . this is boom bust broadcasting around the world from washington d.c. i'm bart chilton coming up today there is an ongoing ransomware heist taking place like right now in atlanta georgia as well as cyber security expert todd shipley of vera software to give us the latest plus there's some new housing data and we'll

look at it with kathy that the real well network and we'll talk about how block chain and cryptocurrency is r d centralizing finance with just one lead the founder and c.e.o. of next change the financial settlement easiest site first let's get to some of the stories topping today's financial headlines the trumpet ministration is reportedly considering using a little known law to ban chinese investment in sensitive technologies including five g. wireless the administration is reportedly looking to the international emergency economic powers act of one thousand nine hundred seventy seven as a legal means to block chinese investment and perhaps even freeze assets in deals that seeks to stop the law has been used previously against iran and sudan the broad use of the one nine hundred ninety seven act would represent a significant increase in executive branch authority over these matters well beyond that of the interdepartmental committee on foreign investment in the united states

or c. for us regular boom bust viewers will recall that c.p.s. recently blocked the proposed merger of us five g. developer qualcomm by broadcom of singapore also as a note broadcom is now reportedly considering relocating its domicile to the united states will stay on all these stories. takeovers mergers and acquisitions have increased by sixty seven percent from a year ago according to the financial times in the first quarter of the year mergers and acquisition m. and a activity has boomed to a record breaking one point two trillion dollars the activity which is a full third more than the previous i reach back in two thousand and seven before the financial crisis has been fuel injected by a good global economy lower interest rates and in the us tax cuts proved late last year among the key mergers being discussed currently our us oil and gas producer concho which is buying r s p permian for nine point five billion dollars and the

largest exchange in the world the chicago mercantile exchange group or c m a group is buying u.k.'s any x. group for what is reported to be three point eight billion dollars plus japan's leading drugmaker to keda just confirmed it is considering a takeover bid of rival irish rival shire and while the data shows those large increases in mergers and acquisitions one large potential murder merger has actually been put on hold ascension the largest not for profit hospital system in knighted states and providence st joseph health also a large nonprofit hospital owner has said that they will put merger talks on hold for now the merger would have created the largest hospital owner in the nation profit or not for profit while not noted as a reason for idling any merger talks some say that and i trust issues as have been looming and as a concern and we've reported here on the program front and center in some larger merger.