美国有线新闻 CNN 美大选黑客门加剧美俄紧张关系 联合国决议使美以关系恶化（在线收听）

And we are starting today by explaining the latest rift in the strain relations between the U.S. and Russia.

For months, the Obama administration has accused Russia of interfering in last year's U.S. presidential election. More recently, it said Russia did this to help incoming President Donald Trump get elected.

So, over the holidays, the U.S. government sanctioned, it penalized some Russian intelligence services, some officers that work for them and three companies that helped support Russian intelligence. America also closed two Russian compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats from the U.S.

So, how did Russia respond? Its president, Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly denied interfering in the American election. He said he would not, quote, "stoop to the level of irresponsible diplomacy" that he'd allow American diplomats to stay in Russia and that he'd be working to rebuild relations with the U.S. after President-elect Trump is inaugurated.

A lot of different perspectives on all this. The head of WikiLeaks, which published millions of hacked U.S. documents, said they did not come from the Russian government. Critics, including President-elect Trump, have said there's not enough proof the Russian government was behind the hacks.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan called the U.S. sanctions on Russia overdue but said they were an appropriate way to end eight years of failed policy with Russia. And Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham said the sanctions don't punish Russia enough.

There's also trouble in the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, an American ally in the Middle East. On December 23rd, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution. It says that Israel is breaking the law by building settlements on land it captured and claimed as its own during a war in 1967.

The U.S. usually vetoes resolutions like this because it sees them as overly critical of Israel. But in this case, the U.S. abstained. It didn't vote. That allowed the U.N. resolution to pass when 14 other

members of the council voted for it.

The resolution itself is mostly symbolic. It doesn't penalized international trade or cooperation with Israel. But it makes a statement that infuriated Israel, which has accuses the Obama administration of secretly supporting the resolution. The U.S. government denies, but all this has deepened the divide between America and Israel.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As a rule, settlements are Jewish-only communities that are on Israel occupied land that the Palestinians had hoped to use as a future state. And one of the sticking points here is that the Palestinians feel like their land as been stolen and also that it stops them from having a contiguous or continuous area to call their own state.

The Israelis say, "Look, some of this land is historically ours. Some of this land is politically ours." And also, they're using some of the land for security purposes.

All in all, this is one of the sticking points in the process and one of the things that Secretary Kerry has tried to undo. But now, the gloves are off. Because of this U.N. resolution in particular, the Security Council resolution 2334, you are seeing the reaction from Israel, especially Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was furious over this resolution and basically slapped Israel's hand and said that they are breaking international law by putting those settlements in place.

And then we heard from Secretary John Kerry who talked about the fact that he believes that this is a real sticking point, a real problem in trying to go forward in a peace process.