the seven year solitude of wiki leaks founder julian assange came to an abrupt end today british police officers hauled him out of the ecuadorian embassy and extradition to the united states on conspiracy charges seems almost certain and with that the stakes just got higher for press and internet freedom and what about the u.s. president now when he ran for the white house donald trump said he loved wiki leaks today he said i knew nothing about wiki leaks. this is the day. that. no one is above that all julian assange is no hero that is asylum is unsustainable

and. i'm pleased that president moreno has taken this decision and i extend the you case thanks to him for resolving this situation he's hidden from the truthful he is and he is. still like situation you said. to his belief in freedom of speech mr soft will now house people preaching to you to contest the ciancia case to him in open court he wants to thank all of his supporters today ongoing support and he said i told you so. also coming up tonight the biggest act of democracy at the ballot box in human history is now under way nine hundred million people are eligible to vote in the first time for the first time and this is a very good experience my life and i'm very excited to get there is that yeah i'm voting since. they go to. every day

because it is made i. am happy to be a part of this democracy and they want that it should continue yet after the. viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin the day asking what will tomorrow bring for julian a songe and the rest of us today in london the wiki leaks founder was hauled out of the ecuadorian embassy the small piece of real estate that had been his home for seven years his future is unclear tonight but we know he is wanted in the u.s. on conspiracy charges and could be extradited but the fate of a song's could have a chilling impact on journalism freedom and on internet freedom as we know them today just try to answer these questions with a simple yes or no is wiki leaks a media outlet is julian a songe a publisher and what about the trump administration's view when secretary of state

was head of the cia he said wiki leaks was a non-state hostile intelligence service aided by russia president trump has often praised wiki leaks today he told reporters he doesn't know really what we. are coverage begins tonight in london. though weary looking a songe finally leaves the embassy where he's been holed up for the past seven years this video shot by ruptly part of the broadcaster russia today. is the standoff began in twenty ten when assad was accused of rape and molestation by two women after a conference in sweden that same year his wiki leaks website a whistleblowing platform became a household name after it circulated footage of an american air strike in baghdad the attack killed two journalists the video appeared to show troops firing an

unarmed man and washington was investigating the leaks when sweden issued an arrest warrant for the alleged sex crimes a songe surrendered to police in london and was granted bail. the following year a british court ruled he should be extradited to sweden but a songe feared this would be used as a pretext to extradite him to the us. i have not been charged with any crime in any country. despite the european arrest for its third restrictive that it prevents u.k. courts from considering the facts of a case in two thousand and twelve he applied for and was granted political asylum at the ecuadorian embassy in london on human rights grounds. i think president correia for the carriage is showing in considering ending granting political

asylum fast forward three years later when swedish prosecutors were forced to drop the molestation charge after running out of time to question him in two thousand and sixteen a united nations panel ruled that assad was being arbitrarily detained but britain refused to budge on its stance the next year swedish authorities also dropped their rape investigation but vowed to reopen it if they got access to a staunch meanwhile his relationship with ecuadorian officials in london was deteriorating in twenty eighteen of the accused to songe of violating the terms of their agreement and cut his internet access assad's retaliated by threatening legal action against the embassy saying his fundamental rights and freedoms were being violated on thursday afternoon british authorities were able to enter the building and arrest him assad is now facing extradition to the u.s. he calls the situation a witch hunt. but this is truly extraordinary development what continues to be an

extraordinary story but the most important chapter will be written if and when julian assange is extradited to the united states what happens to a staunch there will impact journalism freedom not only in the u.s. my first guest. knight is author of wiki leaks news in the networked era one of the first books to lay out the changing nexus of geopolitics the internet and the media he's also the founding director of the london school of economics international journalism think tank polis i'm happy to welcome to the day this evening charlie beckett's mr beckett joins me tonight from austin texas it's good to have you on the show mr beck and i want to pull up a tweet that you have seen on earlier today you said that the most serious issue here is a songe being extradited to the u.s. and facing prosecution there why. well because i think that it's not so much the fate of that particular individual i think it's as you mention

that this may have great residence for journalists of freedom will generate because what's own trial if you like was that moment in two thousand and ten when there were those extraordinary revelations about. american military policy in afghanistan in iraq and everyone thought. times the step the guardian another very respectable. because aisha's this was in the public interest to not it was in a sense a classic acts of journalism owners. now if that becomes fodder in the future and that sets a terrible precedent osa think that it sends out a very very bad signal we did in a world where there are all fair terry and leaders from china it's that pizza rusher and beyond who are it's hacking at the news media trying to use.

time to handle three of the expressions so it's a terrible message to cross where you speak of you know authoritarianism the trumpet ministration and it's justice department with the attorney general where your bar i mean they are not some people would say first in line when it comes to protecting the first amendment of the u.s. constitution do you see the the rights of a free press being threatened if and when assad goes on trial in the u.s. . i think it's one aspect of it i mean in the american context where i am at the moment there is this whole debate about what donald trump is delayed by attacking the media in general and i think this i don't see this is donald trump trying to attract some anger we can leaks directly because at one point it was terribly convenient and this is the problem this is why it is so cool that we look at all

excess and blind in america the first amendment is respected and because that's the defense it's not whether the president should be allowed to succeed you know to your journalism it's the journalists and and the right it's really important to write the journalists sometimes to break the rules even separate law or if it's in the wider public interest and that's kind of a paradox which you know the course is there to try and tussle out president trump was asked today about the arrest of julian a songe i'd like for you to take a listen to what he said and also to the statements that he gave about wiki leaks when he was running for the white house take a listen it's been amazing which coming out on wiki leaks and by the way wiki leaks just came out with a lots of really unbelievable things so we kill each document showing. how the

media conspires and collaborates i almost delayed this speech by about two hours it's so interesting i know nothing about where he leaks it's not my thing. mr but when you when you hear that how do you interpret that all of a sudden the u.s. president knows nothing about wiki leaks. well i think all politicians. love journalistic freedom till it's turned on on them. so i don't think it's entirely surprising and i think donald trump is quite clear he does have a strategy of sometimes cozying up to media minutes to his advantage and sold out continually with fox news and overseas well even to attack and the whole thing with this songe case at the moment you may well not like him he may well disagree with some of those revelations in the political impact or only at the democrats

were very or liberals in america were very happy when silence was exposing authoritarian regimes of the stakes in the iraq war they didn't like it when he was exposing what hillary clinton was doing and i think and that's obvious and just problems well now that even in the last few years become a kind of political act you know he's cozied up city slightly shadowy people and that has come back. to haunt would you agree with me that reporting on this story particularly if the extradition takes place that this is going to be a test for journalists. indeed i think there's a lot of shock in florida going on here and perhaps envy you saw that when we keep leaks that made the original revelations there was a lot of jealousy a lot of competitiveness jealousy around germicidal so we could takes you know when

it worked well is a challenge to mainstream journalists said look why you guys not revealing these things why you guys not challenging paragraphs. i think that a combination of sunshine is very unattractive egocentric martyr complex is distasteful and it's easy to extract that but i think this is a moment when journalists have to think about what is really at stake and i'm not saying they should blindly defend somchai but i think they should think seriously about what's at risk here professor charlie beckett joining us tonight from austin texas talking about the stakes involved in the next chapter of the julian a songe saga mr becker we appreciate your insights tonight thank you.

but tonight the army in sudan is in control of the country earlier today they ousted and arrested president omar al bashir dramatic developments which bring to an end thirty years of all the credit rule in a televised statement the country's defense minister announced a two year long transitional government run by the army he also declared a three month long state of emergency and said that bashir is being held at a secure place the capital khartoum has seen months of public anti-government protest it remains unclear what protesters will do now that the military has imposed a curfew. to talk about that and more i'm joined here at the big table by netta weber's she's an expert on east africa at the german institute for international and security affairs it's good to have you back on the show omar al bashir is gone but this is not the real regime change that protesters were hoping for is it no it's not the protests of a clearly hoping for a civilian government not

a military government but the backing of the military and what they see right now is basically the same same old people the old structure and being in play it's minus bashir gone so nothing really substantially has changed and i think this is what we will see for the next couple of days they want to stay and continue whether it's just strict curfew that's now in effect i'm wondering are we likely to see more protests if we have you to the authorities right now clamping down the way they are i think they will test the authorities some i think they will continue the the protests for sure and then see if they really either the army and the government forces. will enforce the fourth year or if they will be pushed for it's opening up this transitional government for the next two years what about the way you. the world sees this the european union have given him money the united states

has done business with them in terms of fighting terror. what are they thinking tonight i was sure that nobody is really crying tears for bashir. and i think what they saw and what they still see in sudan is of course you know a country that is placed in the middle of africa between the sale and also the red sea is so very strategically located and of course it's a very important country. to keep you know to keep on doing business with sudan will continue and of course those who they called for it is on with on counterterrorism and it was basically more the intelligence service rather than him . his departure will not impact that you think no actually i think it makes things more easy because you know he had the arrest warrant of the i.c.c. on his it and dealing with him of course is you know was was critical and impossible for the west in countries because they couldn't is he an example though

of leaders you know there were lots of reports recently about abuses of human rights in sudan and yet the european union the u.s. government you know they have worked with them to see an example of the west's critics would say hypocrisy we preach one thing but we do business with leaders to do something very different well i think it's much more well they would say because of course there is the arrest warrant and of course you know there is there's a lot of critique and a lot of well known dealings with them for example germany had no development corporation so it's not like that there was a lot of money flowing into these properties from from germany from germany are from western countries but of course one would have wished that upholding the rule of law and human rights or is more strictly you would have would have set the tone early on and of course that's also some. thing that i think is necessary now would be the transitional government with the military to to keep to keep pushing on you

know human rights and the rule of law rather than having stability as what is going to happen to president bashir now. well a couple of scenarios he could just stay there if the military stays in power he could to stay there he could go to a friendly country. as well the gulf states there are a couple of countries of places where not signatories to their own statute. you know offer him refuge. but i think it's early too early because we still don't know how things are transforming if there's a clampdown on the demonstrations that could escalate massively sudan and then this would eventually also determine his fate so i don't see him and linger in prison and you don't you don't send him you don't see him getting up you know on trial in the hague. not now it really depends on who will be in the government in sudan and

you know if it's the military they don't seem to find this important to him to push him around and do you see after all that has happened do you really see all of this leading up to real change in sudan is there a reason to think that things will get better yes i think because the masses the huge huge number of young people of women of everybody who is on the street and who will not stop demanding for real change and also i think in terms of the capacity that's in the it's now you know civil society is strong they do have good people who could take over as i am still hopeful and that's a favor it's always we appreciate your insights thank you thank you very much. in india voting is underway in the biggest parliamentary election the world has ever seen nearly nine hundred million indians are eligible to cast their ballots voting will take place in seven phases across different regions from now until the

nineteenth of may a mammoth one million polling stations are being set up to reach even the most remote areas of the election is said to be closely contested the party of the incumbent prime minister narendra modi versus the opposition party which until landslide win five years ago had governed india since independence the former maybe in india the elections are of referendum on this man prime minister narendra modi. modi came to power in two thousand and fourteen after a landslide victory but this time around things might not be as clear cut. although polls suggest the fiercely nationalist modi will hold on to the premiership the main opposition party led by rahul gandhi is in the ascendancy. after a disastrous general election result five years ago gandhi's congress party was

jubilant recently after winning back three key states from modi's b j p in regional elections. and they have promised to prioritise the single biggest issue for voters the lack of jobs there schmidt in this country and in every state young people are searching for jobs wherever you go and ask a young person what they're doing they reply i'm not doing anything that they'll get there quickly got there. it's a giant challenge while the indian economy has gathered strength under modi it has struggled to generate enough jobs especially for the country's young people. more than half of indians are aged twenty five or under and some twelve million entered the workforce each year. the recent spike in tensions between india and pakistan in kashmir however has put another issue on the agenda national security and that may well play into the hands of interim dramatic he and his hindu

nationalists. the prime minister has started himself as the watchman protecting his country by being strong on defense tough on tara in the army no longer to be bliss in the bridge got down on the seas on your india this is. that phrase returned the damage done by. rebuild theirs. if the pool of nationalism proves strong enough in the senate action supporters may well be celebrating come the twenty third of may. and for some analysis on this election i'm joined by or has worked with both the indian government and at the united nations he's currently an analyst's specializing in public private cooperation he joins us tonight from london port welcome to the day i have judged your age correctly you are part of the millennium goals much like

a significant number of india's population you're smiling i think i did a good job there eighty five million dollars first time voters are facing record unemployment in india how can this not hurt modi and his party at the ballot box. yeah i think you hit the nail right on the head i mean india is a very very young country and nine hundred million people who are eligible to vote this year almost the combined populations of america and europe about eighty five million people offer i'm full to sixteen million of us who are actually about eighteen to nineteen years old. but i think before we go into the unemployment like we need to ask who the indian voter young indian voter is and what they care about . the young indian voter is someone who is competent and progressive and what they care about most is is jobs and economic development you know unemployment has reached the highest in the past forty five years and when educating young people

off or to compromise promising career so what does that mean then for modi and his party in his election i mean what can they lay out on the table and say this is why you should vote for spite record unemployment. well that's why i see everything getting quite. everything going again because on the economic front the current government sort of five year performance on this issue is is inconsistent at best and incoherent at work you know the g.s.t. which is that which was meant to turn in the federal system into single pockets should a new era of business some certainty and to monetize ation kind of policies that he made a crack on that money and disrupted a home. it contributed to a slow growth. and sort of propaganda on this issue really high sixty didn't

hailing india as a right to get out a lot of people young people within the country still believe. writing on it means . the unemployment statistics speak for themselves and i think the government just . declaring employment statistics as what. it was about india's place in the world with the backdrop of this alleged and i mean that pakistan and china day good big song huge headaches for india how has the play how have this place in the world changed in just the last five years. i think sort of. to keep them balanced on modi has definitely put india on the sort of just his political stamina of meeting with world leaders and brokering deals across the was putting me on the map and it has changed our relations with pakistan and with china but i do think. india's place in the world has also become the main rhetorical of

this election. and this is a real threat to this election you know sadly social economic realities of the nation have taken a complete back under the eclipse of national security and the impact of polarizing rhetorical. reverie and its threat they have been completely shunned for national security discourse. which which i even doubt and may even be entirely concocted. out of time but we appreciate you joining us tonight and giving us your insights valuable insights as this election gets underway a poor group in london thank you. thank you well the day is nearly done the conversation continues online you'll find us on twitter either at news you can follow me aboard go off t.v. and don't forget to use our hash tag day and remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day see even difficult.

because. entering the conflict zone confronting the powerful. the situation in venezuela could hardly be mo come come our guest this week here in brussels is cloudy some cocoa who is made his way those ambassador to the european union could record a cloning human rights abuses but mr montoro desire to stay in office.

conflicts so far. on. small projects can inspire big changes. people making it possible for eco africa. fantastic right. that as they set out to safety environment. to learn from one another. and work together for the future. the south. africa. and. south. extravagant didn't. really know their stuff.

and definitional. party and chatted with visions from around the world. groups every week doubling. the situation in venezuela could hardly be more complex the united states along with some two dozen countries is backing the new interim leader one way to russia and china support the incumbent nicolas maduro how's it going to play out my guess this week here in brussels is bad yes i let him know that i always venezuela's ambassador to the european union with the record of appalling human rights abuses

does mr mugg duro deserve to stay in office.