using our powerful range of authorities and that we will not hesitate to do so if its conduct does not demonstrably and significantly change now while the sanctions are effective that's what the us claims they come at a pretty steep price not only do they impact the us but they also impact europe and the european commission had a few words of course u.s. policies are impacting on german foreign trade individual companies are grinding their teeth and are severely affected german companies fear a short term loss of ongoing business operations worth hundreds of millions of euros furthermore the short term terminations of contracts with suppliers for example could lead to production losses along the entire production chain since a replacement of equal quality has to be found first. america first cannot mean that europe's interests come last. the fear is that american policy will restrict

the behavior of european companies and impact in their view policymaking with the in the. europe's energy supply is a matter for you or not the united states of america even though trump says that he wants to improve relations with russia it seems that out washington doesn't really want that to happen. and the pennant journalist and former wall street journal correspondent joe lauria joins us live now for more on this what do you think is there any limit to how far the western powers will go to put pressure on russia. it doesn't seem to be so they keep finding new people and new companies or new things to sanction despite those nice words we heard the europeans are going along with that for the most part germany is really hard to understand why germany has a buying of americans gone along with this since it's her german interests more than anyone else is very convenient that the u.s. and the u.k. for example have very little trade with russia or business compared to germany and

german businessmen have been against us from the beginning and of course merkel is trying to be a good u.s. . what can i say a good u.s. follower and a member of nato her we know that the n.s.a. has been bugging her so she wants to do what the americans want and this is really hurting her i think frankly but you know over all the reasons that were given by the surgery department for this round of sanctions we've heard them all before but it's worth tearing them picking them apart once more that russia is subverting us democracy no american plutocrats have bought the american political system a long time ago it's not russia that's undermining us democracy or bringing racial and economic divisions thirty years of neoliberal economic policies have caused it to collapse of a middle class in the united states american people first finally waking up to that and that is what the reason i think blaming russia is for that the american people on the right in the left in the last twenty sixteen election created an insurgency that spooked the establishment so there's

a bipartisan consensus to blame russia to for the problems that they themselves have created all of these policies they also said that the russia has enabled assad the assad regime well the united states and its allies enable jihadists in syria to try to overthrow the assad regime regime and russia intervened in order to stop them from winning and we know that from john kerry a week conversation with syrian exiles in new york and twenty fifteen and i'm paraphrasing him but he said russia into the war in syria to stop the isis from taking over in damascus i mean the americans know this and we heard it on that leaked tape. that's the reason russia entered assad for whatever you want to say about him he's not a great democrat but he never threatened the west never even threatened israel but the jihad as have bombed many european countries right now so russia has intervened to help west and help america actually and the said to be him blamed the idea of adventurism russian adventurism that being the examples absurd when you look at the

american invasion of iraq just that on its own that two thousand and three invasion without u.n. authorization an absolute disaster which helped lead to the creation of isis that is the definition of adventurism this is pure projection by the us on to russia for its own political in geo political aims and apart from the measures announced on tuesday there's another wave of sanctions due to hit in november is there anything to the timing given that it's the same month of the midterm elections. well it could be me i don't know why the republicans will go along with that except that because the democrats have made still making russia their main issue which is not a winning formula or it didn't help hillary clinton forget she started blaming russia for hacking the d.n.c. computer is right after it happened right after those leaks emails were released she blamed russia all along she called trump a putin puppet none of that worked they tried then to turn the electoral college voters against trump that didn't work and we continually hear the rusher is behind

this without any real evidence even though the media has dispense with the word alleged they are trying and convicting russians in their pages of the new york times for example even this morning what do we need courts for if we have the newspapers to do this job so i think we saw a recent poll too by gallup of the couple weeks ago would show the american people have don't care one way or the other about russia they don't feel threatened by russia the poll asked what were the major concerns of americans and it was at the very bottom it was statistically insignificant was less than one percent it was russia there were so many other issues and on top of that our economic concerns which were created by the american a stablish were in rulers not by russia so this is the again an example of why they blame russia to deflect from their own failings and their own on the rest that they're creating in their own population they can't face what they're doing so it's still russia russia russia all the time rather than making the adjustments in their own policy to try to win an election so yeah that could be time for that november election but i don't see how that strategy works very well now despite what the

actual concerns of. an actual americans we seem to be stuck in perpetual deja vu more accusations of meddling more sanctions coming forward is that all we have to look forward to in the future. i'm afraid that that's what it looks like right now but eventually there it will have to come to an end but this and i think it will be when they finally dawns on them that it's not working and that might not be until the two thousand and twenty presidential election when we'll see whether that insurgency on the right in the left that brought trump and brought standards to the to the door of the nomination and to the presidency if that starts up again in two thousand and twenty will they be able to still blame russia for this for this dissatisfaction inside the american population for issues that were created by american rules and american congress and american presidents and american corporations not by russia so i think american people get in that and this is a real problem they've got on their hands are going to try the play that russia card until they can until the end and we'll see if the democrats lose or do not do

as well as they hope in the november election having used rusher again as their as their main talking point they may have to readjust and realize that the progressive wing of the party is growing and that the american people don't give a damn about russia and that they have to finally address the real issues here and leave this russia issue alone and get back to normal relations with this country that is a that is imperative for now for world peace essentially for for better functioning of international system russia's free for all of it and we'll see i think maybe a bad showing of emma could bring them around certainly in twenty twenty if we see the same thing and russia doesn't work as a electoral strategy then this might come to an end that's the only way i could foresee it independent journalist and former wall street journal correspondent joe lauria thank you so much for joining us on the program. you're quite welcome you're quite welcome but. one of those malign activities you heard about earlier that's upsetting washington right now is supposedly russian hacking and microsoft claims

it's thwarted a fresh attack the tech giant says the targets were the u.s. senate and conservative think tanks but mainstream outlets reporting on microsoft's findings rushed to draw their usual conclusion about who might ultimately be behind it all attempts by russia to hack u.s. senate and conservative groups for hacking group affiliated with the russian government the russian military operation the intelligence operation the russian military intelligence unit r.t. as it goes down of takes us through microsoft's claims microsoft is ringing the alarm russians are at it again apparently how has set up a bunch of websites doppelganger of those belonging to prominent political groups and the u.s. senate this technique is known as phishing designed to lure unsuspecting users to pages that look just like the real thing and then basically steal their data according to microsoft if they recognize this tactic from a few years back we saw this during the united states general election in twenty

sixteen last major in the french presidential election and now in a broadening way as americans are preparing for the november midterm elections. midterms are a big deal in the states for those of you unfamiliar that's elections in congress with close to all seats up for grabs this november for russians to mess it up would be the second worst thing after rigging the presidential race except microsoft's panic post has raised doubts among the i.t. crowd one you don't have to be a hacker let alone a member of any organization to create a fake website or the senate or even the president all they need is an internet connection about thirty minutes of spare time and about fifty bucks job done to microsoft insists it's the in a tourist hacker group known as fancy bears behind their websites mimicking but those fifty bucks should have concealed the domain owner's identity so it's still

not entirely clear how microsoft is pinning the blame here still even if it is found let's just say their connection to the kremlin is still subject to debate it's not a hard fact three and probably the most important microsoft has written in black and white that they have no evidence the websites were actually used for any attacks moreover they couldn't pinpoint the target or targets for any planned attacks to summarize microsoft was driven by a gut feeling that something bad's going to happen when you see someone buying a knife and assuming they're going to use it as a weapon there is something russia pointed out in its official response again we have to state what was thought to be obvious despite our desire it's impossible to comment on statements made without any evidence and that are clearly created for public attention it's sad that a big international company that successfully worked for

a long time in the russian market and has to be a part of the witch hunt now has in the washington. but microsoft insists the threat is there and oh how convenient already has a solution on stand by microsoft account god will be provided for free to complains and candidates it will alert them of potential threats and educate how to keep the network secure so a threat of no threat microsoft has nothing to lose but this new product of theirs won't market itself. the syrian army is gearing up for an offensive on the last major rebel stronghold it live the battle for the enclave marks the final stage of the syrian war and if assad's forces manage to retake it it will bring almost the entire country back under government control however ahead of the campaign many western media outlets have been doubling down on the narrative against umask us with some saying the assad forces are certain to inflict heavy civilian casualties

the same media though fail to mention that over sixty percent of the enclave is under the control of hardline islamist groups that have been accused of war crimes illiterate go takes a closer look. of the syrian civil war has strong it's now pretty much about this part of the country the northwest basically here in and around it is where you'll find all the armed rebel groups the ones still putting up a real fight no wonder getting hold of this area would be the ultimate success for damascus five days after multiple airstrikes hit this once quiet neighborhood in profits killing dozens of people shattering whatever illusion of safety that may have existed if you listen to the c.n.n. piece and get the impression it looked province had been a peaceful oasis till showered by those bombs how about telling the viewers about the dicey melting pot it actually is the syrian army has been on

a mission to win back land those rebels or even internationally recognized terrorists who stood in their way were given two options take out the white flag or get a one way ticket to it no kidding some were moved there on buses and that's when the real mess began instead of teaming up various groups and went to war with each other and let's not forget some of the mightiest organizations running the show their moderates. h. t. s. or high yet to. arguably the most powerful and hair raising the very same people who used to be known as moose or syria's al qaida branch and if that name doesn't ring a bell just picture nine eleven or any other bloody carnage that took responsibility for. this is

quite a trio to those who've heard of nor aldin. likely associate them with the beheading of a palestinian boy on camera they've also been blamed for torturing journalists and aid workers jaish al islam paraded kate's hostages through the damascus suburbs they once controlled only to use them as human shields later this group along with . was firmly on the john kerry's terrorist list when he was in charge of the state department we've seen pictures we've heard testimony of shocking crimes committed by our by book by joshua. by al-shabaab it seems even in london a staunch ally of some rebel groups has lost patients britain won't send any more cash to fighters an adlib as it says in the times newspaper u.k.

diplomats have admitted the remaining rebel areas are falling into the grip of the hottest t.v. giant sky news came up with a teaser for their exclusive report from edward province on twitter but online many warned by the media's attempts to portray that place as just a rebel held clave so the question is if libya's mainly ruled by al qaida who gave sky news the exclusive access there are not rebels there. which rebels did you get access to perhaps they've seen this reporting tactic once before during the siege of syria's economic hub aleppo activists say close to one hundred children have been killed in the east in rebel held areas of aleppo mill your seat in the battle districts have.