by the r.t. new center at nine military will supply bradley manning says he wanted americans to know the true costs of war as he faces two decades behind bars for the biggest ever leak of u.s. state secrets. bruising for britain's prime minister voters kick his conservatives into third place in a key election beaten by a surging anti e.u. party. and america's eighty five billion dollar battle republicans and democrats wrestle about how best to avoid massive budget cuts stoking fears of the financial deadlock impact of around the world. over again even if just joined us for a viewer watching around the world is kevin owen here at r.t. tonight and first u.s.

army was a blow a bradley manning could get twenty years in prison for what he describes as an attempt to reveal quote the blood lust and disregard for human life in the american military manning pleaded guilty to ten lesser charges out of twenty two years facing for the biggest leak of state secrets in u.s. history it could help him escape the most serious charge there were aiding the enemy which carries a life sentence america's andrew blake was in the courtroom. it's been over one thousand days of detainment since he was first picked up in may two thousand and ten and charged with releasing all this material and since then he's had to undergo so much just completely agree just treatment nonetheless yesterday there he was is a small man only five foot two you know one hundred and some odd pounds sitting very calm very collectively very cool right in front of the judge and read a thirty five page statement pretty much owning up to every single fact that the government has accused him of for the last three years and it was people expected

him to go ahead and plead guilty but the way in which he actually honored what he did himself in the way that he actually still to this day is ok with with releasing information and is aware of the significance i think really shows this was someone who had committed to doing something and was aware aware of the repercussions and is ok with that in the press room there was a couple dozen of us gathered yesterday just after around noon local time when p.f.c. manning finished reading his thirty five page statement he turned his microphone off done testifying and a handful of members of the press gallery actually journalists began applauding it was something that people had waited for a long time to give him and the only other time we've ever heard p.f.c. manning speak at length is when he spent hours discussing the treatment that he injured in a military brig in quantico something that the united nations special rabbit or on torture completely completely condemned so i guess today though here he was

actually speaking speaking very truthfully and with power about what he did and why he did it and i think that resonated with a lot of people it became something not just a trial about someone who is convicted of the of spot accused of spying and subjected to torture but the trial of someone who was actually aware that things needed to change and he thought he might be able to actually do that by blowing the whistle. who's going to be closely following bradley manning's case since his arrest she says to the do whether the hosken dishes of his detention driven him to plead guilty. it sure has been a rough ride since bradley manning was arrested in may two thousand and ten for the first ten months of his incarceration the former army intelligence analyst was held in solitary confinement for twenty three hours a day in a six by eight foot cell windowless cell forced to sleep naked without bed sheets and kept on suicide watch during that time hundreds of scholars experts human

rights advocates as well were signing petitions and letters to have him released from what was dubbed draconian conditions essentially called torture many critics would argue that manning was essentially forced into pleading guilty on ten charges because of the conditions he has been held in by the u.s. government but at the end of the day when manning stood up and owned up to what he did he still made no apologies for it and some of the comments he said was that he wanted his intention was to start a. within the u.s. about america's foreign policy how the u.s. was behaving that was his intention are releasing classified information he said he believed the u.s. reputation would not be damaged by the u.s. but it said in essence be embarrassed he also believed that americans had the right to know true cost of war and he went on and on and made lots of comments as you mentioned thirty five page statement he read but at the end of the day he did

explain what he did why he did it and from what i've been told and read about his manos apologies for his behavior and for his actions. and brother manning's plea contained some pretty powerful woods would show being picked up by many around the world here are some of the most striking what he said look he says look for me it was like torture and. we've also seen video of my right. scene showing journalists and children as well attacked by an american helicopter crew he said he was sickened by their bloodlust he said that they are acting like children torturing ants their money also believes that revealing all this to the american public could spark debate on the u.s. military and foreign policy in general he said he was trying to push society to reconsider counterterrorism operations which neglect the human aspect as we describe the actions of the u.s. military says we're obsessed with capturing and killing human targets on lists and

ignoring goals and missions. where someone who knows what it's like to take on a government by blowing the whistle on wrongdoing is former m i five m i five agent and masha and she says manning has done the people a great service she thinks at least of those who struggle to reveal the truth behind the u.s. helicopter attacks in iraq. for years the families of the victims both the morrises journalists and the traumatized iraqi families pushed the pentagon to find out what has happened in must attack and then can live for years saying that there was no video they couldn't answer they didn't know what had happened so by exposing this bradley manning gave close associate gave peace gave answers to these traumatized families that's been lied to repeatedly by the pentagon i think it's also interesting one other aspect around this is that he tried to give information to other mainstream media outlets begin with the washington post the new york times and the politico web site and he was dismissed and in fact then the washington post said that if this was if they were going to follow this information that would need

to be vetted there's a senior level i.e. suppressed so what we're seeing is the old model did not respond to this amazingly brave push toward transparency to inform the american people what he's done in the name so he went to wiki leaks and i think that shows very clearly the role that we can replace it is a publisher of sensitive information and i publishing such sensitive information it allows the citizens of the globe to realize what is done by government and to hold their government to account and to try and push for justice just as the valve the families of the dead iraqis and reuters journalists have been pushing for justice so this is an amazing service he's done to people. while human rights activists proclaim bradley manning a hero prosecutors are going all out to prove that al qaeda benefited from access to the league data we don't know what you think though as always the big stories of the day this is what we've been telling us in our web poll tonight we're asking who you think bradley manning is and what you think of him and this hour almost half of

the respondents think that you've made a scapegoat in the war against will suppliers thirty five percent they see him as a martyr to the cause of free speech nine percent it's gone up a tad from last think is just a naive idealist that said one percent more than the last hour and it's gone down a bit guilty of treason eight percent of the last seven think he's guilty of treason r.t. dot com is the place where you can have your say. britain's voters have dealt to prime minister david cameron

a serious blow his governing coalition conservative party has been shunted back to a poor third in a key by election the u.k. independence party surged into second place meantime while the beleaguered liberal democrats held on to their seats spite of becoming vacant because one of their former cabinet ministers had to quit over driving offense scandal now as for ukip it's the third time they've come second in a by election the main parties dismiss it as protest votes but analysts say the group started some quitting the e.u. and immigration have some genuine traction with voters they did nigel farage told us you keeps increasing popularity means you'll soon be able to influence mainstream politics. i think there is a feeling i share it that we now are run by a political class of people they all go to the same schools they all go to the same oxford colleges they all take the same degrees they all marry each other sisters i think it unlikely that we're going to be the biggest party in westminster in twenty fifteen but what we could well do is we could well catalyze some sort of realignment of british politics while as we draw our votes from across the spectrum

it is pretty clear to me that the conservative party is now going through i think just just about its deepest crisis in history there are two distinct wings of the conservative party they don't agree with each other on virtually anything and i think if you get gets much stronger than it is today we could see something really new and really quite exciting. still ahead few another debt drama for obama the president appeals to french politicians on both sides eighty five billion dollars of imminent cuts which just hours away from kicking in we're following that look at whether it's likely not in a few minutes also to access denied the court rules that u.s. prosecutors don't have to share their evidence with online entrepreneur kim dotcom who i just close it with for dition for internet piracy requests that story to.

speak your language. programs and documentaries in arabic it's all here on. reporting from the world talks about six of v.i.p.'s interviews intriguing stories for you. then try. to find out more visit our big. mission free cretaceous free transport judges free. range month free. three stooges free. old free broadcast quality video for your media projects for free media on the r.t. dot com.

on capitol hill the still no deal in the. site to avert the eighty five billion dollars worth of cuts which are set to kick in later friday it's known in washington as the sequester and would see significant reductions of military in domestic spending but republicans and democrats just can't agree on what to do go to church accounting explains why this could prove world wide headache. let me begin with where the sequester comes from for a long time congress has been in gridlock over what to cut paralyzed but everybody knows spending cuts are absolutely necessary to balance the budget at some point washington came to conclusion that only internet and sphere of crisis they can solve something so they manufactured the crisis not the first time by the way

they're actually getting into the habit of doing that the previous one was the fiscal cliff two months ago now it's the sequester let's see who may soon pay for washington's self scaring tactics nationwide seven hundred fifty thousand jobs are on the line the thing about automatic cuts is that agencies in the parkman's don't get to decide what to put on the cutting board it's supposed to cut the defense funding by ten percent now a lot of people think that the pentagon's humongous budget does need some serious trimming until now congress has been generally reluctant to do that and the pentagon's budget only grew but the sequester doesn't care what to cut so it's going to cut better and support programs and other things that are going to hurt thousands of people in the military the cuts could also lead to the closing of hundreds of air control towers making it harder for planes to take off and land and reduce the number of border patrol agents would lead to delays at the ports of entry among other things also six hundred thousand women will lose assistance from the government's women infants and children program as

a result of cuts to federal spending on local education ten thousand teachers and eight thousand other staff could lose their job again nationwide and this will affect each and every state no except in no exception excuse me just a few examples where i don't know a state kentucky eleven thousand civilians working for the pentagon are facing possible unpaid leave there the state of illinois can take would see half a billion dollars in cuts to spending for law enforcement and crime prevention. in virginia ninety thousand civilian defense the department employees would also be for a lie. and it's not just the states it's not breaking news that we now live in a very interconnected world and that this manufactured storm created on capitol hill will most certainly cause ripples across the globe the i.m.f. confirms that they're saying there will be an impact on global growth economy start

talking about how vulnerable european markets are one economist is writing this could further delay the european recovery recovery just long enough for something to go wrong in one country and send europe into a severe contraction and that would have a backlash in the us pretty powerful for an artificial crisis the sequester maybe a manufactured crisis but of erica's deficit problem is not it is very real the country is running a huge deficit washington keeps spending and borrowing but fails to balance the budget and economists say that could have serious long term effects on the global economy in washington i'm going to check out first of the u.s. will get through this deep budget cuts if it has to come we will get even worse economist richard wolfe told me the american people should prepare for the worst. republicans and democrats alike are committed to an austerity policy as we do and see it in europe their only disagreement is exactly who gets cut whose axes get

raised and i'm very pessimistic as are most observers in washington that we are about to do what britain italy greece have done with the same dire consequences looming in our future if you cut government spending as we're about to do if you raise taxes on average people which we did on january first with the rise in the payroll tax those are a double whammy two hits on our economy major press the economy they lose people jobs they make people cut back in their spending with less jobs and less bending government tax revenues go down and that you races whatever benefit you might have imagined would calm down the government's budget the irony is the economy gets worse and the government budgets get worse until they wake up and realize that this is an inappropriate way to go at a time of economic crisis let's remember the budget deficit of the government took

off in two thousand and seven and eight which is because we had a crisis if you solve the deficit without dealing with the under lying prices it will not work russia's taking over the month long presidency of the u.n. security council the country's envoy to the world body told me about moscow's plans for its time in charge. it's looking like a very crowded month of march the highlight of our presidency is going to be a ministerial debate on afghanistan the mandate of the u.n. mission in afghanistan is going to be extended for another year and that of course is going to be very important for afghanistan with the upcoming presidential elections in april of two thousand and fourteen also of course the big important decision or talks to be had about what to do with syria next a big schism amongst a very she remembers about what is the best thing to do how is russia going to try and bring people together than over the next month our position is very simple we believe that the violence must stop and for that dialogue must be established

without precondition and the government to saying that they have outlined their negotiating team their outline their proposals for dialogue unfortunately in the past few days the opposition seems to have been backtracking from the original statement which was made by the leader of the national coalition as the country about readiness to go into dialogue with the with the syrian government this is the key issue without dialogue i'm afraid and without the political will on the part of all syrians all the main stakeholders in that country the international community can do much of course the syrian opposition very much in the news again today they've been promised more lethal help from the u.s. if that's the case where is the lethal support coming from do you think was russia's view on the united states for a number of reasons chooses not to sally its hands with direct supply of weapons to to the armed groups because among them there are some terrorists and others with

whom the united states would prefer not to be associated but at the same time they they give a wink and a nod to those who provide direct military aid to. rebel armed groups ambassador i'd like to talk for a moment about the latest in iran no still certain no significant breakthrough of course in those talks in kazakstan iran said they were. in some ways positive but the general consensus was not a lot was done the talks further talks were agreed what are your thoughts about six brought new proposals to the table with active participation of russia in that process with anything radically new in those that we know in kazakhstan. well. not really radical new but there are some new important elements which should make it more attractive for the iranians to finally enter into negotiations on the core of the matter. a full interview with u.n. envoy vitaly churkin other website r.t.

the most of all of it if you get a minute you can check these stories get a lot of interest not cancer concern for japan when he saw it coming now the world health organization says the fukushima nuclear disaster could see a seventy percent increase in young girls developing story complications a sad story and check it out tonight we've got the latest on also there as well the investigations wrapped up into whether former french leader nicolas sarkozy was illegally bankrolled by libya's moammar gadhafi before being part of the push to oust him out r.t. dot com. talking of online matters online entrepreneur kim dotcom is a step closer to being extradited to the united states tonight from new zealand that appeals court has overturned the ruling that would have allowed him and three co-defendants brought access to the evidence against the four accused of massive copyright fraud through dot coms mega upload filing sharing site with the extradition hearing set for august dot com says he can't be held accountable for other people using a site to illegally download songs and films his lawyers plan to appeal to do

zealand supreme court which could further perspire in the extradition hearing earlier dot com told r.t. that online freedom is completely at the mercy of governments. it's what i have learned since i got dragged into this case is a lot about privacy abuses about the government spying on people they're not spying on individuals based on a warrant anymore they just spy on everybody permanently all the time and what that means for you and anybody is if you are ever the target of an kind of investigation or someone has a political agenda against you or prosecutor doesn't like you or put the police wants to interpret something in a way to get you in trouble they can use all that data go through it with the with the comb and find the things even though we think of nothing to hide and done nothing wrong right now we are living very close to this vision of george abo and i

think it's not the right way you know it's a wrong path that the government's on thinking that they can spy on everybody. more world news in brief first to iraq two deadly blasts have struck a crowded livestock market five people have died in the bombings which happened in the shia dominated city in the south no would have noted the attacks yet a day of violence on thursday so a series of explosions targeting shiite neighborhoods killing at least twenty two people there's been a worrying rise in sectarian violence in iraq in recent weeks and there are fears it could descend into the civil conflict witnessed a decade ago of the u.s. led invasion. angry crowds of all the outside the new delhi hospital where a seven year old girl was treated after she was raped at school a threw stones at police vehicles were demanding the suspects face justice two teachers of the security guard being questioned over attacking the child intense protests of a sexual violence against women and girls has grown since the deadly gang rape of

a student last december. south korean peace protesters have gathered in front of the u.s. embassy in seoul they're demanding an end to the country's joint military exercises which started friday the war games always stir deep anger in north korea which is called the drills proof of american missile ety it's also vowing quote measurable destruction and quote if the two countries go ahead although the threats of never yet been active. and israel is ailing leader still has the backing of most people according to a poll three in five charges will return to power despite his uphill struggle against cancer and the respiratory infection he's currently tackling he's unlikely to return to the public in the near future but it's reported that he does continue to be cabinet ministers and military hospital where he's being treated. because saakashvili is presidency in georgia ends in october and as the clock ticks to his departure thoughts turning to his legacy on the plus side is being hailed by some for revitalizing the look of the capitol but as

a lecturer reports next not everyone sold him suckers philly's big money spending spree. over the past five years georgia's outlook has changed dramatically of president mikheil saakashvili is architectural programs but not everyone is in the mood to admire these architectural novelties and his family lost their home and believe several years ago after falling on hard times they had been promised a new flat by the city's authorities but the promise hasn't been kept and now there are a moment group of several others who are homeless forced to find shelter in an abandoned school. this city is building and being painted but we have nothing it is supposed to be built for the people but we are the people and we have nothing if there is no us then there's no need for all this beauty we have small children here and we live in a house with this building with no heating or electricity improving george's

outlook was made a priority by saakashvili believes his old town has seen more than building spring up including this huge government justice department said to be the world's biggest and this gloss and steel bridge and while the public's response to the modernization has generally been positive there's been some notable criticism as well this peculiar building is probably the biggest example of his architectural failings millions will poured into what was meant to become a major entertainment center now the speculation is rife that the new government is planning to scrap its construction and even dismantle the unfinished building. finding the original and that could be the fate awaiting another high profile project which saakashvili is government described as the city of dreams a brand new port was to be built on georgia's black sea coast with its overall cost estimated at nine billion dollars saakashvili wanted to turn into a major regional center but a call just say the whole idea was doomed to fail from the start.

that area wasn't suitable for constructing buildings they call he'd area is basically a swamp in this region is protected by an international convention and has always been protected we said all along this would be an enormously expensive project because it's difficult to build a skyscraper on unstable soil or the first hotel spilled there immediately had problems basements were flooded. the logical plan was eventually scrapped by the new government and the same goes for many other investment plans which economists say have seen huge sums simply squander it. really is not. so. is a quality of the new development project. where he made. huge mistakes the price. of. their methods. to.

our changed hands in georgia after his party lost the parliamentary election it then became clear some fundamental issues like daunting poverty with almost a third of the country's three million population living below the poverty line have largely been left unaddressed the new government hasn't yet made its economic policy clear but the gorge and his family say they could be forced to leave the temporary home at any minute and they're only left to hope that the new political elite takes notice and action of their plight. ski r.t. reporting from belief in georgia. very shortly tonight italy's political paralysis and the repercussions that scott for the rest of europe cross-talk on air eggs.