equipment. the officials say russians were seen removing the equipment. what these individuals were doing was collecting intelligence. they were intelligence officers operating here and using these compounds, one in new york, one in maryland, for intelligence collection purposes. russia accused the u.s. of illegally seizing diplomatic property. now with a new president in office, russia wants the compounds back and says its patience is running out. translator: it is best to immediately return our property. the foreign min stre spokesperson said. otherwise can come up for a it for tat response. i want to confirm that the measures are in the work. the administration is weighing the possibility of softening sanctions and returning the mansions. though, there has been no final decision. my counsel to the president would be again it is difficult to imagine a circumstance where that would be useful to u.s.
this case are no longer able to speak publicly about any of this. the information we ve been getting is going to slow to more of a trickle as the hearings go on. people here got a bit of a surprise when christian bale, the actor who plays batman showed up here. it was a surprise to just about everybody. he visited patients in the hospital at the bedside. after that he came to this make shift memorial here and joined a prayer circle and prayed with people. it was all unannounced, they had no cameras with him and didn t want media coverage. our affiliate happened to be there and caught him. and it exploded on twitter and facebook, people pretty excited he took the time to come and visit. i ll bet that helped folks trying to recoup rate in the hospital. thanks, jim. the rest of the day s top stories, let s get right to christine romans. good morning. good morning, soledad, syrian forces stepping up attacks to regain control of aleppo, targeting rebel strong holds in syria s