donald trump signs an executive order to counter foreign interference in america's elections while insisting there's never been any in the past. the russian defense ministry claims militants in syria's italy province of film to stage chemical attack and sent it to the un as well as circulating it online. and hungary is censured by fellow e.u. members for breaching the blocks of values over migrants look at other nations also blocking the e.u.'s rule book.

there is midday in moscow wherever you're watching this thursday welcome to r.t. international before we get on to our headline stories first the news that we brought you last hour that the two suspects that the u.k. has named in the poisoning of russian agents and his daughter back in march in salzburg have given an interview to artie's editor in chief margarita simonyan says that the two people shown in the security camera pictures from the u.k. contacted her and i've rejected giving interviews to any other news outlet alexander patrol. identified by britain earlier this month to claim the both work for russia's foreign military intelligence service the g.r.u. president putin however said on wednesday that there civilians and that there was quote nothing criminal about them i will show you that interview here on r.t. when it's ready and that'll be in the next couple of hours or so. donald trump signed off on moves to tackle foreign interference in the us elections which he

describes as a national emergency the president issued an executive order which refers to any attempt by individuals or countries to influence or alter vote results now the reason he's so concerned about all this is because a lot rides on the crucial midterm elections which are coming up in november now in the event that any meddling is proven sanctions will be imposed targeting sectors of strategic significance like finance defense through to attack and transport our washington correspondents americans been taking a closer look. the order will authorize sanctions against the entities charged with election meddling this applies to a companies organizations and even individuals the term entity means a partnership association trust a joint venture corporation group sub group or other organization now if they impose these sanctions will block assets limit access to the us financial system and ban people from entering the country in the order trump admitted that no foreign power has ever successfully influence

a us election but he signed the order anyway although there has been no evidence of a foreign power old to ring the outcome or vote lation in any united states election foreign powers have historically sought to exploit america's free and open political system now it's also important to note that the order did not specify any country in particular the term foreign government mince any national state provincial or other governing authority and any political party or any official of any governing authority or political party in each keys of a country other than the united states these sanctions will also be imposed on anyone accused of spreading propaganda and this information and the authority determine who's been meddling has been granted to the director of national intelligence the state department the treasury department homeland security and the justice department with forty five days to do so legal and media analyst lionel believes the executive order is vague unlike previous documents of its kind. but

a couple of things i want to bring up using the canons of of american law away which i know a little bit about and whenever we look at any statute any statute law or regulation executive order p.t.d. you name it anything that is written one of the tenets that we always look to is are the behaviors are the prohibited actions are those intended. activities spelled out accurately enough and with specificity enough so that you were able to read that particular executive order read the statute and comport accordingly meaning may i read this and say oh i know what to do now the next thing is sometimes we have terms void for vagueness vagueness ambiguity what is enter ferentz and i don't want to do this the air quotes but imagine i'm doing it

what is interference what is propaganda what is one team to if fact have a good effect and i can come up with a lot of terms interpretations new ones if i tweak and leave the veritie veracity what does this mean i don't even understand how you would even apply this because normally when you look at the statute says interference shall mean this it means it does not mean this the dissemination of an idea discussion debate what is that what when any country has any discussion i think there is an effect so it's very concerning it concerns me for vagueness in ambiguity what it is is the u.s. presidency responding to the domestic media and any doubts that people might hear of foreign interference in the election the substance of it really is not material

because. there are not going to be any measure of all indications of foreign interference in the election certainly not with a vote rigging or go tearing it in any event so basically this is a public relations exercise from the white house. the russian military claims that extremists in syria's italy province have staged and filmed a chemical attack which they intend to blame on president assad's forces moscow says that the fighters will send some of the footage to the united nations and circulate the rest online following the filming on the evening of the same day at a joint meeting between representatives of the white helmets and terrorists. out of the nine videos from the two were approved to be sent to the us and the or b c w the rest of the material was suggested for social media because of low quality now according to the russian reconciliation center the preparations were made there the syrian town of qom shaken where an alleged chemical attack took place on the fourth of april last year a claim that filming took place in

a nearby village where there's also a chemical stockpile of washington's ignored warnings from russia that the self-styled syrian rescue group the white helmet to directly involved in staging the attack saying there's no evidence to support that claim and as the battle for italy province looms the u.s. is pouring troops into syria saying that if there is a chemical attack there will be a much stronger response than before jacqueline vogel looks into how washington's approach in syria has evolved over recent years. the deeper the u.s. gets sucked into the syrian conflict the more the continuity of time seems to change when it comes to decision making in washington back in two thousand and thirteen when allegations of chemical attacks arose barack obama was still in the hot seat and time still seemed minear we intend to investigate thoroughly exactly what happened. obviously in syria right now you've got a war zone we have to make sure that we know exactly what happened what was the nature of the incident what can we document what can we prove our commonsense

review the evidence and attack if justified later the idea that investigations require time those were the good old days but two thousand and seventeen came and times changed syrian dictator bashar. launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians less than seventy two hours later the u.s. fired fifty nine cruise missiles at the airbase they suspected chemical weapons were launched from before any investigation took place. only months later did a un report come out placing the blame at the feet of the syrian government something they still do not i thought when the controversial white how much group released a video claiming to be proof of a chemical attack in april this year trope was able to pinpoint the culprit in hours many dead including women and children in mindless chemical attack in syria

area atrocities in lockdown and encircled by syrian army making it completely inaccessible to outside world president putin russia and iran are responsible for backing animal assad big price. so the area's inaccessible and yet those responsible have been found out already no ifs ands or buts how does the guy do it the u.k. and france also joined the ranks of the striking government sites in syria after an investigation you ask well three months later the o.p.c. w did put out a report saying chlorine may have been found but on nerve agents and the case is still open so all proof of the last attack hasn't been found the us is again using its crystal ball to determine what no one else can and is ready to act at least according to wall street journal sources brazil and bush are on the son of syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country's last

major rebel stronghold u.s. officials said so if and when a chemical attack takes place during ellipse liberation the guilty party is already known if there are chemical weapons that are used we know exactly who's going to use them that russia is warning of stage attacks is irrelevant that it would lead to exactly what the terrorists want also irrelevant but why look at every scenario when you have everyone else and time on your side. russia is at it again this time the media is pointing the finger following a spate of mysterious instance that the u.s. says has damaged the health of some of its diplomats in cuba and china. teligent agency is investigating attacks on u.s. diplomats in cuba and china now strongly suspect that russia is to blame that there is some place of blame or at least. looking seriously at russia news reports that u.s. officials consider russia the prime suspect in their investigation into mysterious attacks on u.s.

diplomats in cuba there's a new trend and it's been a buzz since march the american medical association published its findings about twenty one workers that the u.s. embassy in cuba will fall victim to mysterious symptoms they experienced headaches vertigo had trouble sleeping and apparently suffered from auditory hallucinations the head of the team that compiled the report later said the likely culprit was a microwave weapon now multiple reports suggest that the u.s. intelligence suspects russia orchestrating the attack but apparently journalists got their hands on new details before the state department there is no known cause no known individual or group believed to be responsible at this time we are looking into it our position has not changed the investigation is ongoing we have not assigned any blame and we continue to look into this i want to be very clear about this in fact the initial scare over weaponized energy in cuba is being waved out of

the window the f.b.i. investigated the mystery but found no trace of a malicious applaud both the u.s. and then u.s.s.r. are known to have pursued the type of weapon described in the initial reports but as of now though by car we have device capable of deep frying the brain is known to exist for many scientists actually talk like this is akin to flat earth the. aries that kind of effect that has been talked about with the embassy is really a theory it's only conjecture that microwaves are involved at all no one has measured microwaves in the embassy as far as i know and the only suggestion that this might be due to microwaves involves a low level sound effect which people speculate might be due to my crew is that it's just purely speculation that there is anything at all gotten my who is this case i can't conceive of the microwave weapon as it's been thought about in this case and it's not clear yet the symptoms are real i'm familiar with when paper it

was published by a group that examined these subjects and the results were very inconclusive but who cares for scientific evidence right now at this republican senator for sure kaura gardening is so scared by this fantasy weapon i urge the senate to pass my legislation requiring the state department to consider the designation of russia as a state sponsor of terrorism well mr gardiner if europe still unfair i've heard this helps. you know without say next hungary's been dealt a dose of discipline from the e.u. over how it treats migrants the details when we come back. you know world of big. law and conspiracy it's time to wake up

to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bad and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy. let it be an arms race. dramatic to follow can only. exist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit. in.

a group of european lawmakers a voicing their support for hungary after the european parliament voted to slap in the past with the blocks most severe disciplinary action for breaching the union's core values of a migrants such populist leader good builders called the decision a shame while the outspoken british army paid. for a tarion grip but as peter reports hungary's not the us. the country bucking the e.u. rule book. the european parliament has voted to put hungary on its official naughty list by starting article seven measures against budapest will you let it happen that a government that violates the values upon which this union was built with out consequences or will you ensure that the values of this union are more than just which is this

daniel for the elections this year were held in an atmosphere of aggression and intimidation article seven of the lisbon treaty is the biggest stick member nations have with which to beat members of the club not upholding. values if seeing through to its fullest and we are still some way away from that happening just yet it could result in a member nation having their voting rights to spend it in the e.u. institutions essentially taking away their right to have a say hungary is charged with breaking a wide array of e.u. laws but when you look at them as a group there are many member states that aren't in breach of some of the same things being levelled at budapest individuals into government have envisaged themselves their family member staff rents from public funding from utopian taxpayers money bulgaria is also down there at the wrong end of the table when it comes to corruption and conflicts of interest transparency international puts them

bottom of the list when it comes to e.u. member states but also down there at the wrong end of the table a countries like rumania greece italy and croatia m e p's reserved a real tongue lashing for the bonds government when it came to the rights for minorities the council of europe's commissioner for human rights indicated that he was concerned about the deterioration of the situation as regards racism and intolerance in hungary when it comes to discrimination against vulnerable group. let's say for example here most of the migrants from north africa it's a far worse picture in the netherlands where almost half say they've been the victim of discrimination italy and france don't fare well here either another area where hungry has crossed the line for e.u. parliament teria is arguably the biggest issue many had with viktor orban is the collision course the garion prime minister has been on with brussels over migrants

we need more europe you know. i would like to raise the voice of the people all over in europe that they are full of fear we need more union in our refugee problem is not the european problem you need a fair and just distribution the problem is the german problem it is not a problem you create a new legal situation at the borders for you to be even more strict than it was but now we're hearing similar messages coming out of italy. it's over we welcome those who deserve to be welcomed receive lives we save women men and children but italy will no longer be the european refugee camp hungary taked to many of the boxes too many times when it came to breaches of the e.u. core values and that is why any piece of voted to start article seven but what it may also serve as a reminder and a wake up call to some of those nations who also find themselves not exactly whiter

than white that they could well be next peter all of a r.t. . government denounced the vote as a fraud and called it the revenge of pro migrant politicians journalists who told us that certain political forces believe it's their last chance to stop populism advancing in europe. the leftists furious israeli aggressive to an incredible point as well as the liberals the globalists because they know it is their last chance to obtain that populist sop punished somehow the list grows longer you have the austrians you have the italians it didn't work it won't work and all day do is fit to mind old bon bon will be reelected certainly one time comes with a big majority because he's a victim of europe the worst that europe can produce we heard yesterday and today today it was less important vote happened and that was it but the report produced

by mrs sargent teenie who was a green party activists from holland is israeli a piece of work and it's really incredibly aggressive in its content and she didn't even go to hungary to make this report this bullying will go nowhere you know article seven will never be applied italy austria poland will refuse of course that this be applied at council level if not at the parliament level so they are afraid of the next parliament after the may elections that's the thing. well troubles also brewing for europe's internet uses. viral content online such as maimed and even news articles it's after the european parliament voted to back new copyright rules .

don't let them take away what we love and our creativity this people know nothing about what they're doing the internet can move more people than eat it scanned. article thirteen will be put into practice use an automated content filtering systems good or bad to use in copyright protected material for commentary parody this is madness. this legislation is no better balance answering many of the concerns of journalists publishers and musicians whose work has been shared though it stifling innovation or fundamentally change the.

suite me. while under the proposed new rules tech giants would have to pay you for hosting and sharing content and what's being called the hyperlink tax while online platforms would also be required to filter unlicensed copyright material companies feel though that legal content may be brought in the process and during free speech a final vote on it is expected next year but concerns that the rules may already be adopted a widespread. the internet will change to a place where we consumers can enjoy sharing creations in a.t.s. to an environment that is restricted and controlled there's a lot of content which is designed to go viral and to be taken through means and through parody across the internet and also there are a great deal of initiative on the part of the regulators to try and create create

a sort of protection for means for the likes of parody and for justifiable use of content the difficulty is there is so much content out there that it's going to be impossible for it to be filtered manually and it's going to have to be done by a i by some political to nation you should never underestimate the creativity and the innovation out there across the internet and across all of the different users who are seeking to post content and to express themselves in great demand maybe they need to be less reliant on copyrighted content in doing so but hopefully they will find other ways of doing this who knows this may spawn a whole new set of platforms a whole new type of concept. russia's vostok twenty eight military exercises are now one of the white of the country's far east the largest drills in decades with hundreds of thousands of troops in combat vehicles being put through rigorous testing but the maneuvers are also proving to be rather irritating for the west with the pentagon saying it's watching very closely president putin met an address

troops at the drills earlier on thursday he also watched a joint to russia china parade of. aviation but i guess for us. we found ourselves in russia's far east with this is to a pitched battle if simulated on the one hand you have detachments of russian and the feds fending off a simulated determined and advanced enemy which is being represented on the battlefield by dummy missiles and they're throwing everything they've got with the russians cruise missiles jets as well as rockets artillery the russians offending them off.

and defense is a complicated business because lots of cooperation between various units because everything is happening so quickly projectile to travel to need to load with this second so everything has to happen quick. and in this day and age of rapidly evolving technology the technical requirements are severe you need different types of radar to detect different targets whose results are doing the rounds hit send. they could be operating over different frequencies or with different ranges in different weather conditions what's difficult is to get them moved to work together both spoke two thousand and eighteen war games for the biggest stress test of the russian military

a decades and decades this is about gives you can leave the various detachments of the russian military navy the army the air force to work together because it's one thing having and knowing how to use all these expensive toys it's entirely another actually using the. news for this hour i'll be back to update you off to max and stacy look at why patients are being priced out of that much needed medicines in the united states stand by feel latest kaiser report. my body told me that i belong with a board if my thoughts my mind with that along with the girls. under the surgery starts to be

a very popular. form of what's persons doctors. i was born a male had a sex change when i was thirty years old. i've now been living as a woman for twenty eight years and i fully regret this. problem should have gone away from by now but they hadn't so these surgeries are nothing more than plastic surgery i've had several female to male friends and you look at it and you just go oh god you paid for that it's horrible nobody can change genders is impossible. is delusional it's a mental illness. this is now one of my own flesh and. my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out from a. max

kaiser this is the kaiser report. yeah stacey i think we've got a lot to cover so let's get to it hey you know what we're heading up to d.c. for our next few episodes so i want to do a double header because there's been so many different sort of headlines out there in the world and you know we're heading into the midterm elections here in the united states we're still having this mental breakdown that you see happening on m s n b c and c.n.n. and other networks here in the united states and you know this kind of explains what i'm about what is dark i'm sure it looks like french it says i'm not complaining i'm just saying so all my headlines are basically i'm not complaining

i'm just saying what i see out there in the world is perhaps a little bit different than what you see on m.s.n. b.c. or c.n.n. heading into the midterms where apparently one hundred percent of the elections are controlled and about putin so i'm just saying like maybe there are other reasons that people in america vote as they do so i'm going to look at this headline first because this is something that you and i brought up in two thousand and sixteen before hillary lost in such a spectacular and humiliating way we did say that here in north carolina obamacare prices the actual premiums went up by forty four percent two weeks before the election and we thought you know stupidly that something like that would have an impact on what voters felt when they went to the voting booth of course it was much bigger than a forty four percent increase in your premiums but here is another story that could have something to do with how voters feel obviously there is some superman out in

the world that might be bigger than any you know kryptonite of of prices or or or predatory practices. so here's a tweet from john walker d.c. it is crazy how much our drug spending prices shot up only in the united states right after obama cut a deal with drug makers to drop all campaign promise about reining them in as part of a ca so of course you always know the top line zero is the one out of control whether it's you know it's certainly with health care prices that's the united states that's there are drug prices from two thousand they've really started to take off from the rest of the world and that's when obama did the deal with you know the drug the pharmaceutical companies said he would intervene on their prices you know what was credible at the time was that liberals progressives were saying this is a poison chalice this is a horrible deal but it's incremental.