Here is more of whats ahead. A potential breakthrough the Australian Government released these satellite images. They spotted two objects off the coast of Perth Australia that could from the missing aircraft. This is a lead. It is probably the best lead we have right now. The crisis in ukraine has now evolved into a global war of sanctions and counter sanctions. We are today sanctioning a number of other individuals who provide material support. Russia is not backing down. Russia responded exactly the same way. In venezuela, arrested have been made. The mayor of san chris to balance has been detained. The government trying to crack down on antigovernment protest. Another mayor jailed for 10 months. We begin with what malaysian officials are calling a credible lead in the search for flight 370. Missing with 239 people on board since march 8th. Search planes are returning to a remote part of the indian ocean where an Australian Air crew dropped buoys on thursday. A satellite showed two large objects south of Perth Australia. While the objects could be debris from flight 370, an australian response manager cautioned that the area where objects were spotted often has large pieces of floating debris, including containers washed off the decks of merchant ships. 14,000 square miles were scoured until extremely bad weather forced them to turn back. A norie january car carrier is in the area and british and australian vessels are on the way. For more, im joined from austin texas by robert goyer. Editor in chief of flying magazine and david gallow director of special projects at the institution that helped lead the effort to find air france 447. He joins us from newton massachusetts. The larger of the two objects is said to be seven 59 feet long. Flight 370 disappeared on march 8. Could a piece of a jetliner that big stay afloat for two weeks . Absolutely it could. There are parts of the tail that contain a lot of different boo ant sections to it. And the outer wing panels on the triple 7 as well. Especially because the plane would have been out of fuel it would have been very boo ant and water tight as well. It is very conceivable that it could. Based on the size of it if it is part of the wreckage of flight 370 i would guess it is part of the wing panel. The investigation started in all sorts of ways. We saw the data buoys being put into the water. What kind of information could they give us . How useful will it be to find 370 if this debris does come from the plane . The big trick is you hear many days later, 12, 13, 14 days later to be able to backtrack the items. The big pieces, understanding how they move through the water being mushed by the winds and currents and then to hopefully backtrack them and end up on the same spot at the sea surface anded that would represent where to begin the under sea search. Which i want to get to in a moment. Air crews have been covering 14,000 square miles of ocean. They have not found anything of any significance to report. Now this is one of the most remote parts of the planet so it is a very rough situation they are facing. Now, if they can find debris, what do they do next . The logistics thinned recovery operation, search operation are just daunting. You are dealing with a flight for this aircraft from the coast of australia that is nearly a maximum duration flight round trip. And they have to also once they get there spend some time over the site searching. You have crews working very long hours. The seas are very rough. The weather is terrible. And as david said, the logistics of trying to backtrack this wreckage, if it is indeed the wreckage and some hoy dom up with some site where you can start the search, it is just something that is statistically very improbable that this is going to be over in anything other than a very long period of time, if it indeed can ever be found at all. What about the black boxes. Before they confirmed the debris is from 370. Do you think they will start listening to hear any pinging from the black box . I hope so. But you know, you have got to at least be in the right haystack or right ballpark with the black boxes. You cant just go out in the middle of nowhere. So that is one thing they can start doing if they start to get some idea. But we still have to cut this area down one way or another into something more manageable. Air france 447 search was a circle about 40 miles in radius. 5,000 square miles. Something like that. And that was at the edge of manageable. This is many times the size of that right now. That took two years. And as you said, it was more manageable. Now robert, much of the investigation has focused on the pilots and what role they might have had. If the plane did go down, this far away from where the plane was supposed to have last been or where we last knew it was initially when the trans ponder went off. What does this suggest to you about what caused this . The cause is really a mystery at this point. I think that just based on the length of time that the airplane flew before we lost contact it with and the length of time it would have taken for it to arrive at the crash site, we are talking about the max endurance of the airplane as it was fueled for that Mission Mission to beijing. You have to consider you are looking at the possibility. The very ereal possibility that it was an autopilot. If there was some sort of catastrophic vent how could an airplane have changed course in the way that it did because it took all sorts of turns. No, those turns had to be initiated by the crew. When i say a mystery, it really is a mystery. We have never seen anything like this before. Looking at the Human Factors involved. When we have seen a pilot intentionally crash the airplane. They simply crash it and it is over quickly. In this case we had complex changes, some shutting down of the electronics and it seems as though it was done in order to mask the identity of the flight. If that were the case, it is just really hard to explain why they would have then flown for six hours to the south in order to let the plane crash into the ocean. None of it makes any sense. And mechanical failure doesnt really make any sense either because how can you imagine a mechanical failure that could take out a couple of systems that would keep us from having contact with little airplane but allow it to fly the entire length of time afterwards. It is an incredible mystery. Good point. You know as much as anybody anybody in the world, david, about about the ocean and looking for something in the ocean. This area here. More than two miles deep. You can stack 14 empire state buildings. One on top of the other. How does this this search if it is there, how will it compare other than the area you mentioned earlier with the search for air france 447 . They both came down, if this is indeed the area. They both ended up on top of an underwater Mountain Range called the mid ocean ridge. But the ridge so it is a Mountain Range. And the Mountain Range where air france 447 is much more rugged than this particular area. But, then again the water above the ability to survey is not just about the depth and the terrains but about being able to be out there on a boat. I have been out there mapping to the west of this some distance and it was horrible. There were days when we are headed into the wind and waves if we were lucky if we went one mile. Meantime just getting battered 24 hours a day by the current. So, this they both have their own difficulties. This will be easier but not easy. So the to biography at the bottom of the sea is easier. How do you go about finding it . Do you have to use a submersible . Sure. Well, yeah. I believe so. The water depth at the top of that Mountain Range is about a mile and a half and then it rapidly gets down to two, three, four miles. And there is a couple of ways of doing that. You can tow a system behind the boat, which is the traditional way. For air photographs 447 we used three autonomous underwater vehicles. Robots. Similar to drones. But these are underwater drones. And they did a miraculous job be in being able to navigate underwater terrain. It is initially done with sonar. Then you follow it up with High Resolution cameras to do a detailed study of the site. Incredibly complicated. Appreciate you joining us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. President obama announced another round of sanctions against russia thursday targeting a russian bank and 20 of the richest men in the country, some close to vladimir putin. President obama threatened to do more if russia does not act to deescalate the situation in ukraine. Nined a new executive order that gives us the authority to impose sanctions not just on individuals but on key secretariors of the russian economy. This is not on our preferred outcome. The sanctions would not only have a Significant Impact on the russian economy but could be disruptive to the global economy. In a game of tit for tat, russia shot back with its own sanctions and threatened more. One of the nine u. S. Officials sanctions senator john mccain joked that his planned trip to siberia for spring break was now off. Joining us now from washington, d. C. Is ambassador taylor. He served as u. S. Ambassador from ukraine and is currently the Vice President for the middle east and africa for the United States institute for peace. It is good to have you back on consider this. At this point, the Russian Parliament passing a first vote on thursday to admit crimea into the Russian Federation does that mean that crimea is lost as part of ukraine . I would say no. We dont recognize the illegitimate referendum. We dont recognize the acts of the Russian Parliament. I hope the rest of the world doesnt recognize it. These clearly sham actions that have no legal effect, so i dont think it is lost. It is de facto, of course and the russians have offrun crimea and their soldiers have surrounded and have taken possession of a lot of the bases. Most of the bases on crimea. So in fact they are controlling crimea but i think i would note say that crimea is lost. Pro Russian Forces seized three ukranian warships on thursday. On these new sanctions. This round does seem to pack more of a punch because they are going after some big allies of vladimir putin. These are kremlin players. Who may well be stung because they are being cut off from the rest of the world, certainly the international economy. Do you think it will have more of an effect . I certainly think it will have more of an effect. They have moved some of their liquid assets back home. But it is hard for them to move their properties. Their mentions in london or their town houses in new york or miami. Is the bigger punch the sanctions on the russian bank. That will have real effect on russians and their economy. The bank roza handles accounts of top officials is owned in part by putins personal banker. If it frozen out of the dollar and some terminated it will have real issues operating. It will have real issues operating. It cant operate in dollars, if reserve currency of the world, it will have a great difficulty getting loans, financing trade making investments. Have seen the Credit Ratings affected. The ruling is falling. The stock market yeah, this is beginning to have an effect on russians where they really feel it. And the president is threatening some bigger sanctions. So far he is not sanctioning the head of the natural of russias gas company. He is not sanctioning putin himself. But if little United States does go broader as the president suggested it could with sanctions on other sectors. He raised the issue that this cot not just hurt russias economy it could hurt the world economy. Well, that is certainly true. Sanctions are not good for economic transactions. Economic transations benefit both sides. If you cut off economic transactions like sanctions do, you will affect both sides. It turns out, of course, that these sanctions affect the russian side much more than they do the United States side or even the western side. So, it is certainly true that there is a cost to sanctions. That is why no one likes to do them. What is why it is a real mistake for the russians to continue these actions against ukraine. Talking about that cost. European union put 12 more russians on their sanction list on thursday. Russias counter sanctions so far have been mild. But they are threatening what they have called asim metrical sanctions, making noises about the Nuclear Negotiations with iran. If this escalates, it could really be a geo political issue, not just an economic problem for the west. It could. But the russians are not doing favors for us by negotiating to get the Iranian Nuclear weapon put away. They are doing this because it matters to them. They dont want irianians with a nuclear threat. They are closer to russia than they are to us. So they are not doing us any favors. We are not doing them any favors. We are operating in our best interest. They are operating in their best interest and the interest of both sides, both the americans and the russians is to get rid of Nuclear Weapons in iran. Or remove the capacity to make a Nuclear Weapon by iranians. So the russians would be cutting off their noses to spite their face if they were to pursue that action. Into the sanctions that russia has imposed on the u. S. Are creating a social media firestorm. Antonio, you mentioned that john mccain responded to being sanctioned by russia. He is not the only one. House Speaker Boehner tweeted proud to be included on a list willing to stand up against putins aggression. If standing up for democracy and sovereignty in ukraine means im sanctioned by putin, ill take it. And senator called it being a badge of honor. Had is just one big joke on twitter. Obviously these sanctions dont mean anything. But are there any sanctions that are you russia can put on u. S. Officials that would actually hurt . You know, it is hard to think of things that the russians have that we want. There are not many people who want to visit moscow. Some businesses do work there. It is hard to think of any product that we care a lot about. It is also true, however, that big u. S. Companies have investments in russia, and those could well be affected. But in terms of the sanctions that are put on officials and Congress People and senators and officials at the nfc, i cant see those being very painful at all. You know, a final question for you. I want to bring up eastern ukraine, which has been a big worry as we saw russia go into crimea. Eastern ukraine. Of course, bordering with russia. Secretary of defense hagel said he was assured by russias defense minister they had no plans to go into eastern ukraine. But defense Officials Say rushs forces on the border could easily mount an invasion of the ukranian main line without any warning. How concerned are you about that . Very concerned. We should be ready for the worst. I hear what the Russian Defense minister says to secretary hagel. But, we should be prepared. The ukranians are clearly concerned as they should be. I believe there are some things we could do to help the ukranians get ready for that kind of scenario. There are military things that dont involve u. S. Forces moving to or into ukraine. That would still help the ukranians make their preparations. Well, lets hope it doesnt come to that. Ambassador taylor, always great to have you on the show. Coming up, more reported deaths in venezuela as continuing to roundup opposition political figures. Twitter turns eight years old today and the company is thinking about making some dramatic changes to attract more users. Ill tell you more coming up. And while you are watching, let us know what you think. Tweet us at a. J. Consider this or give our face book page a like and post your comments there. After threatening to imprison on Opposition Leader wednesday. The regime turned on two opposition mayors thursday. Intelligence agents arrested the mayor on charges including inciting violence and civil rebellion. The Supreme Court has ordered the jailing of san diego mayor for more than 10 months for failing to comply with a court order to have street barricades torn down. Meanwhile, student protesters clashed with police in the capital caracas. 31 people have died since protests began last month. For more, lets go to caracas and lucia newman. Good of you to join us. The maduro government followed a move to try another opposition for inciting civil war. Are more arrests coming and what has been the response on the street to this crackdown . Hello, antonio. Actually machado is being investigated and the National Assembly wants to charge her with treason. Not quite civil war but gets pretty close. The students came out on the streets in fact today. They were saying that government thugs had invaded their campus, had beaten up at least 20 students and that they are promising to continue to go out and demonstrate is Huge National demonstration has been called by the opposition in response to this latest i would say if not crackdown certainly the government is becoming far more hard nosed about this making sure it will not tolerate terrorism from socalled facist opposition members. We saw two more deaths and protests on wednesday. As you said, there is a big student protest in caracas on thursday. They are focusing against the often violent motorcycle gangs. Where is the violence mostly coming from . Is it the government and these thugs . It is hard to say. The people who are carrying out the vialenence most cases are covering their faces. You cant see who they are. But you can get an idea who they are according to who they are attacking. There has been violence on boats sides. People have died and more than 30 of them on both the government side and the opposition side. National guardsmen have been killed. Ordinary citizens have been shot trying to remove barricades and of course also protesters who want the government out. So, there has been violence on all sides. The thing