lol. two years behind bars for the russian punk band pussy riot it triggers an avalanche of reaction both at home and abroad but russia defends the sentence pointing out it's a less than they would have received in europe. in the u.s. the occupy protesters taken to a new level of demonstrators stormed barack obama's campaign office demanding the release of jailed whistleblower bradley manning and by the end of the day though several arrests were made. and even with this multibillion dollar defense budget u.s. troops still can't counter the devastating effects of the enemy's cheap homemade explosives.

a very warm welcome to you from all of us here at. the three members of the russian punk band pussy riot who performed a protest stunt in russia's main cathedral has been met with a vocal and polarized reaction from the russian public i. think. now the two year jail sentence handed down to the trio for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred drew crowds of people outside the court a rallying both in support and against the banned more than fifty were arrested from both sides of the fence for violating public order and the ban has also been backed by supporters outside of russia some resorting to a rather extreme measures of protest foreign governments have also had their say with the us calling on the authorities to review the case. reports from new york.

there's been both political and public reaction over the pussy riot verdict now i around the globe there has been several protests on friday in support of the three russian band members that were convicted of hooliganism paris brussels london and tell of eve are among the cities where demonstrators gathered to denounce the trial and the two year sentencing those that are in support of these three women and members of the pussy riot say that the decision that was made by moscow's court was emblematic of russia's intolerance of dissent on the more political front the u.s. embassy in russia has called the verdict unfair hershon it there was also reaction coming from amnesty international which said that the decision was a bitter blow to freedom of expression in rochelle also political figures in europe

have begun to weigh in on this developing story we heard from the high representative of the european union catherine ashton who has said she is deeply disappointed by this verdict calling it disproportionate a similar sentiment has also been echoed by germany's foreign minister so clearly this story taking place in russia has ignited a wave of reaction around the globe. for let's talk more now about the international reaction to the pussy riot so let's speak to robert naiman policy director of just foreign policy joining me live now from washington good to see you today thanks for coming on the program it seems the seams of the pussy riot sentence has left no one in the west indifferent how do you assess the abundant criticism that's been unleashed given that in relation to cases like oh i know not be a lot about jobs rain or britain's refusal to observe. them right so the response with those was nowhere nearly as vocal. that's right i mean he viewed in isolation i

think most people in the us would see the pussy riot for it it is extreme two years for this protest but as you say if you put it in the context of these other incidents. specially the us government reaction it's very different i watched the press conference where we tory knew in the state department spokesman was asked about the. job sense in bahrain she did criticize the case but her words were very careful and measured and she refused to call for his release or to specifically criticize the verdict and the sentence was so so obviously as you say and the state department responds that it was a very calculated and cool response that it will put you out is about music well mitigation of the british embassy threat on the the the british government threat

in the embassy in ecuador the the u.s. first refused to comment and now has come out with a statement saying that they do not accept their respect the diplomatic community essentially giving the green light to the british threat and threats you. actually attack the the vienna convention of ninety six you were saying to them because they're there i mean there are many there are many saying that never before in diplomatic channels have such a abouts of blackmailing and threats ever been used and it certainly does undermine many aspects of of basic diplomatic channel standards and if i may the u.s. state department when it comes for the whole pussy riot case the u.s. state department has all stood all stories in russia review the case did you think the u.s. state department is right in its position to be calling on moscow authorities to review the case. well i would say i don't think there's actually anything wrong

with you know i think it's important when one makes the charge of a park or c. and i do this clear case of double standards that apparently this important thing which side you come down on it's not for me it's not that i want us to mind its own business with respect to it was your right to use or other issues of the marquis he writes in russian so i want to see the seems to apply in the case of bahrain and repression of the. non-violent protest movement he d. the standard should be higher because the us has more influence in. its army marini itself in weapons to bahrain it's got a military base in bahrain it's seen as a key ally of the partner in go so the same words the scene for us in the case of bahrain we have more impact nobody you know i mean as you say as you say it's awfully easy it's awfully easy for any country or particularly america as you say

that has a lot of influence in bahrain it's very easy for them to make a distant judgment to say well you know what will stick our nose in this from a distance but do you think when it comes to the whole pussy riot case you think in any way that it might have been sensationalized a little bit by mainstream media because you know some of the girls are considered to be attractive and perhaps i mean one of them even allegedly was being has been offered to get her own spread in playboy. that doesn't surprise me i mean look because they're young because they're women because they're rock musicians these me the case more appealing i think to western public opinion so it's not surprising. that this really case and of course the western media which is really i think the center of the story here you know you miss your national criticize the verdict but you can't accuse the amnesty international partners who expected. you know just israel more critical in the case of bahrain but the reason

that people know more people know what amnesty said about the visit because the case is because the higher western media scrutiny people in united states don't know what amnesty said about bahrain because we're. not focusing. on the kids so it's really the western media that's giving this emphasis and of course the western media loves to play the role of the. kind of attack dog you know we're the rest a friend of human rights when the u.s. policy is limited but when you know bahrain well that's part of the empire so then the us media response tends to be rather muted absolutely and once again it all comes back out of the fact of the simple issue of that of double standards robert naiman the policy director of the independent organization called i just foreign policy live in washington i'm so sorry i wish i had more time but i died thanks so much for coming on today good to be. well in response to the criticism from abroad

over the pussy riot case russia's foreign ministry has highlighted the fact that in countries like austria and germany similar stunts inside a church would land even big jail terms now the mark prayer the pussy riot has performed in the christ the savior cathedral wasn't the first time the group has tried to court controversy as part of the group of one of the convicted women participated in an orgy in moscow's biology museum just four days before she gave birth in another state on the activists try to provoke reactions from police officers by kissing them on the metro mccauley a russian specialist at the university of london believes there's simply motivated by ability and not by politics. but they did something very very daring it all but produced the they wanted to make themselves famous if you like and therefore therefore decided to go into the main

cathedral. huge their goal of being becoming really world famous by doing what they did. and when they are released they will in fact travel the world to become famous there with their goal they're really world famous well understandably we've been getting a mountain of feedback from all around the world while we've been covering the pussy riot case here on our public opinion to the story has been well diverse to say the least here are some of the examples of the opinions we've received on our website www dot com this ridiculous case makes me think of the middle ages what would the punishment have been had this happened in saudi arabia i'm sure it would have been a call for death. for once i actually agree with russia take this joke of a band and look them up longer what they do is immoral and unacceptable god bless christianity disgusting and here i was thinking russia was getting more progressive

this has put a big dent in my respect for russian british m p that went to russia to support it why didn't she use her time to free young black youths in her prison for some silly crime if she's so concerned about justice system in russia i think the us should get even with russia by arresting justin bieber. these are the images. from the streets of canada. operation. that rights are not only russia that's been seeing protests against internal criminal proceedings in america at least six people were arrested as a hundred strong group of war veterans and activists occupied barack obama's campaign office in oakland. a.

well there have been protests in the office chanting slogans in support of bradley manning soldier jailed for allegedly leaking classified information to wiki leaks a pretrial hearings are currently underway if found guilty the private could face the death penalty. on one girl in the reports from california with the latest protest we saw several arrests happen there in oakland there are actually several arrests in portland as well as a group of supporters conducted several protests up and down the west coast now in oakland where dozens of people showed up supporters of manning there were trying to deliver a couple of demands to president obama first of all they want president obama to apologize to bradley manning remember last year president obama during a fundraiser said that. many had committed

a crime now in the eyes of many of his supporters this really creates an environment where bradley manning won't be able to get a fair trial given the fact that the commander in chief has already pretty much rendered him guilty in this trial saying that he has committed no crime and second of all the supporters of bradley manning also want president obama to step in it in to guarantee that many another u.s. soldiers are not punished before they go to trial now there's been a lot of world rights worldwide criticism over the treatment of bradley manning while incarceration by the u.s. government in fact the u.n. torture chief called his degrading so definitely still a lot of anger over the way that manning is being treated so far and these protests are a new sign that bradley manning supporters are really stepping up their pressure on the obama administration but definitely this coincides with the. granted to julian assange now

a lot of. supporters of bradley manning believe that the work week and even even though there is no proof so far that bradley manning was in fact the person who leaked these documents to wiki leaks they know that the principle of free speech and the fact that all these secrets were exposed about the iraq war about the afghanistan war i mean they definitely think that there is a coordinated attack about against both the leaks and in the prosecution of bradley manning that this is an assault on free speech and really an assault on peace. and another well known whistle blower julian assigns where he remains trapped inside the ecuadorian embassy in london or the verse aims to be some progress in the diplomatic impostor rounding the situation ecuador in the u.k. have reportedly agreed to resume talks over the whistleblowers fate a breakthrough following a bitter row over britain's earlier threat to storm the embassy and take a stand by force foreign ministers from across south america and the u.s.

have agreed to meet next friday to discuss the standoff the us was one of three members to oppose the gathering arguing that diplomatic asylum is not a matter of international law is legal team clearly disagrees with the we can leak spokesman saying if britain doesn't grant safe passage to the political refugee they will go to the international court of justice. let's hope that the the british government will come to its senses and give him safe passage a country it's the only right thing to do but if they are on to him in this hard line position which is absolutely absurd given the circumstances by the end of the legal team of julian then we killing these families just a buzzer goes on as indicated that he will take the matter before the international court of justice. and force the government to give him say as it's clear you say that this is a threat by the u.k. authorities who take our extraordinary have called for

a. strong reaction especially in light of the american countries it is it is beyond my understanding why the stuff of william hague will take such an extreme step especially when the negotiations were ongoing into that war is in the impulse period between two countries and this should could upset anybody nations all over the world and i'm pretty sure that the british diplomats will feel. very secure in voluntarily areas given the fact that their own government is ready to violate it to any of the convention out of the twenty two with this these threats i just won't believe it will carry. and you are more than welcome to share your opinion on what's next for julian assange so you can have your say in a poll dedicated to the issue find that on dot com. now just because you spend a lot doesn't mean you'll get a lot it's a lesson the u.s.

military is learning the hard way even with multi-billion dollar high tech weapons american troops in afghanistan and still falling victim to who made bombs made for pennies. reports. the ads for military hardware in the u.s. look like hollywood blockbuster trailers whether it's for a tactical armed drone which can fit into a backpack. or for a special robot like clothing for soldiers they sense what the user wants to do where the user wants to go and then explode we like to call these men thomas systems but many ask why with all the high tech gear the u.s. can't win against man of simple means from some remote afghan villages a u.s. marine general estimated that eighty percent if his troops casualties in afghanistan were caused by homemade bombs components of which often cost no more than a few dollars. jake still

a better served in afghanistan at the beginning of the war. and the armored humvees are cost millions of dollars and they're destroyed by something that costs the price of a pizza and we don't have any effective weapons to combat that animosity that rage against american presidents there's no such thing it's sort of like if the chinese moved into you know wyoming or you somehow that why oh why oh it's going to be happy now not at all there's no way that they just simply want them to leave the u.s. investment military gear more than the world's ten other biggest military spenders combined the pentagon resists cuts in their gigantic budget arguing that they need to fight terror. in other places we continue to face very sleek serious security challenges in the world of today we are still at war in afghanistan we still confront terrorism even though there's been significant damage to the leadership of

al qaida the reality is we confront terrorism in somalia yemen in north africa. the u.s. is extensively using drones to go after who they identify as terrorists but will there ever be enough weapons to kill terrorists in this look at anwar locky before he was assassinated by a drone did we stop al qaeda on the arabian peninsula we stop al qaeda us march on yemen no we did not we actually in many ways made it worse by the fact that others besides a lot more targeted and killed in that same campaign so being we invest in the military hardware destruction which obviously is perpetuates the cycle of killing kill five ten come back you've got to have more hardware to kill that ten. retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer says the pentagon's obsession with military resources hasn't changed since the time when their enemy was the soviet

union it was all about the numbers it was all very accountable regarding hardware hardware purchases how much how many missiles can you have how many can you defeat it was all very binary this or that this or that it was always it was a match force on force. and the current today's war it's not like that there's no force on force equation there's no way of measuring the number of tanks that will take care of the taliban because the taliban doesn't use tanks they don't need them and so this is where our current paradigm the us paradigm on war is completely outdated all those fancy weapons certainly project power but in real warfare in afghanistan for example all that advanced gadgetry still hasn't delivered victory some argue it's because while spending tremendous amounts of money on military gear the u.s. has failed to fully understand their enemy and what motivates them to fight i'm going to down in washington our team so i thought we were coming to life in the

heart of moscow and still to come for you in this program i hope a prayer and a whole host of gods a palestinian bush opposed during ramadan devotion tested all of this while trying to cross the border into jerusalem as they face what they call invasive and degrading security checks. so just after twenty past a moscow time britain may not use the single currency but that doesn't stop it feeling the shock waves over the eurozone debt crisis and that one city in the u.k. has decided to distance itself from the troubled euro even more by launching its own currency the bristol pound is set to be launched in september and local businesses are already queuing up to join the scheme thousands of also being offered the chance to have the salaries paid in bristol it's just another symptom of the u.k. as wide a struggle to overcome tough times as max keiser and states you have a repeal of it right here on alt. one thousand suicides linked to hard economic

times in britain the only thing that contributes to g.d.p. in the u.k. in the us in the g twenty countries is suicide if you commit suicide fast like they do in india the farmers are committing thousands of suicide a month because of monsanto that's considered a growth story the emerging market it's a happening contrary they're committing suicide really fast there's the u.k. people are committing suicide at a more leisurely british pace like oh darling i think i'll tell myself. a report bit later today here on i would say for now there were but the holy month of ramadan drawing to a close muslims around the world are flocking to mosques to celebrate but in palestine that often means standing for hours or security checkpoints only to be denied permission to pray. as the story. people here want to pray that soldiers stand in a way it's

a painful game of control and every day it is played out at checkpoints throughout the palestinian whisper and at this time of year when the holy month of ramadan it's at its most brutal. the threat is like dogs been here since half past five in the morning and i was twelve thirteen seven hours i'm here and they won't let me cross. with a nod of the head or the wave of an arm and israeli soldiers who can pray and who cannot it is a distressing scene for those who wait palestinian worshippers desperate to get to jerusalem have been standing pushing and shoving here for hours many have already been through several checkpoints does of course then in order to retain order order is very important. control over the palestinians is important because that's how you can. take control over their lives the al aqsa mosque is the third holiest place in islam on fridays the holy day hundreds of

thousands of worshippers from across the west bank in east jerusalem make their way here human rights groups say the checkpoints have eased up this year but in the past as ready soldiers would ride on horseback into the crowds and use tear gas on fasting worshippers. the hardest element we have found that people who are considered dangerous during the rest of the year are suddenly allowed to cross during ramadan because they're about forty years old it means they still being a terrorist for a short while it's absolute and it shows there is no security problem but israel says its checkpoints are here for just that the army says it wants to avoid trouble by making sure men between the ages of twelve and forty don't pass unless they have special commission that sometimes takes weeks to organize the influx of hundreds of thousands of palestinians into jerusalem sends an unmistakable message to the israelis and that is that your wisdom is and no matter. the grand mufti of

jerusalem accuses israel of having and i'll tarry a motive when it comes to the al aqsa compound. the. radical jewish groups say they want to demolish and take control of al aksa they claim it is a part of israel and if not the mosque itself then the yards they want to show our mouths proving once again there is no democracy in israel there are those who make it through the israeli barriers it's a small victory the other store just told me pass this suspect that i'm going without gets me from behind and started to talk bad things about why well you do do do that you must quit and i started to shout let me go because i have that mission and so i just said no we have to take you i said that subject me you don't have the . you're going to have to kick me again those who don't make it through simply bow their heads in prayer and silent defiance they know another degrading struggle lies

ahead next week was paulus the r.t. jerusalem. and into the r.t. world update we go now with will start in yemen where suspected al-qaeda militants of killed at least nine hundred soldiers in an attack targeting an intelligence office in the south of the country officials also say nine officers and three civilians were wounded and the gunman used rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons when they forced their way into the building's courtyard al qaeda though it does remain highly active in southern yemen where separatists are continuing to seek independence from the north. at least five militants have been killed in a u.s. drone attack in pakistan a small town near the afghan border was targeted as muslims held a festival marking the end of ramadan the number of attacks in pakistan by american unmanned aircraft has drastically increased this year certain regions are considered to be supported by al-qaeda and the taliban are the strikes are

criticized throughout the republic for violating the country's sovereignty. all right i'll be back in just a moment with the headlines. to be found by.

going to. school started. before going global and now pulling the fire. in. the right to. choose your place to take your stand. to. make your statement. some of the words. she points to the money. my name

is richard davis. i'm an architectural photographer from london and i've been traveling in russia for the last ten years on a project fed rough wooden chair choose obviously i fell in love with the tragedies they are extraordinary ok it's a beautiful opiates and the church is is a religious monumental obviously but it's also an object of wonder you know it's something that people can look towns and it opens their eyes that their chairs what can be achieved by using your imagination. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are old today.