live. in egypt the government crackdown on pro-democracy protesters shows no sign of slowing with the death toll closing in on one thousand clashes continue the egyptian court may soon free of pro former president hosni mubarak more on the new developments ahead. and we may soon have a sentence handed down for bradley manning the army whistleblower faces a potential ninety years in prison for leaking government data to wiki leaks both the prosecution and the defense made their final arguments today more from fort meade coming up. and while the airwaves are filled with images of chaos in somalia there's actually more to it the nation has considerable resources that could provide a grand business opportunity

a big picture look at somalia in the form of africa today show. it's monday august nineteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm maggie lopez and you are watching r t well let's begin this afternoon in egypt protests in the country continue to result in bloodshed as pro-war see demonstrators clash with military forces. ok. the death toll in the country continues to rise on both sides thirty six protesters died while in police custody over the weekend meanwhile islamic militants ambush to what many buses carrying off duty police officers in northern egypt killing twenty five of them execution style wednesday marks the seventh week of clashes since president morsi was ousted if the turmoil spreads to

other countries and some analysts are worried that the suez canal could shut down disrupting oil supplies and driving up marc. prices that's something that didn't even happen during the arab spring uprisings so obviously the country is very unstable at the moment everyone has their eyes on egypt hoping for a quick resolution but as artie's belcher reports that is a long way off. two very bloody incidences that took place sunday and of course today the first incident yesterday was apparently a botched prison break out state media reporting it was on sunday thirty six thirty six prison is who had been picked up during the ramses square crisis on friday when morsi supporters and security forces were engaged in bloody street battles were basically in a police truck being moved from a security directorate to prison pending fifteen days in jail pending investigations now according to state media they were attacked this police truck was attacked by armed groups the police responded with tear gas and office there

was a ledge of the kidnapped and in the in the meantime these prisoners were basically suffocated to death however the muslim brotherhood have a different story they say the prisoners were in fact killed by the police forces and more and more than thirty six were actually dead now the second incident happened in sinai this very very difficult area of egypt what the related reports are saying are actually conflicting one source talking to a.p. said that armed gunmen attacked two police cars with weapons and basically mowed down these police officers during and bush all the sources are saying that a rocket propelled grenade was fired at the police and that's what led to their death this is basically the single biggest death toll in sinai in the last few years so it's a significant event as that particular area continues to heat up dozens of churches christian businesses and homes torched ransacked and raided by supposed islamist supporters of ousted leader mohamed morsi i spoke to one christian family down

south where most of this violence that actually occurring in the area who told me that a local islamist family had actually threatened and demanded extortion money to protect her business so what we're looking at here is really serious crackdown on the christian communities to the point where some of the senior members of the church is suggesting that they don't have public appearances christians in. so the feeling that they have to stay at home meanwhile churches are going up in flames almost every single day the people are actually saying the security forces are not helping the situation they're not responding to calls for help so the actual citizens themselves about to for human cordons around these churches to protect them from the bloody onslaught it's really the same kind of culture of impunity contributing to this crisis which is the story that we're going to be watching as it develops in the coming days that was artie's bell truly reporting from cairo and also coming out of egypt today a court may have released former egyptian president and long time ruler hosni

mubarak and his potential release could result in total chaos from a situation that is already extremely volatile here to talk all things egypt r.t. arabic correspondent rima joins me now rima let's start by talking about this potential release of hosni mubarak what could it do to the country that is already experiencing as i said this type of chaos just like everything coming out of a to this is also debatable a lot of people saying that he is not going to be released just the fact that he was acquitted of one charge today does not mean that he will be released from prison and i think the court system is going to look at the fact that egypt is already in us and that means that releasing someone like mubarak at this point will probably just add to the flames in egypt and honestly i was just talking to someone who is very much involved in the dips installation. he said this guy is not going to be released this time is over there's no go about but what about the idea what if he is released you say there's no going back he said there's no going back but

are we back to square one from where the country was a couple of years ago to today egypt is divided it seems into these two different groups right now one group that says we are not back to square one we got rid of mubarak's regime and now we got rid of the muslim brotherhood the other group however says that we are definitely back to square one we did. get rid of mubarak but mubarak's regime for the past year has been working to restore the government to restore its power and that's exactly what they did ousting morsi ousting the government of mercy of the muslim brotherhood meant for them that mubarak's regime is back a lot of people on the street though will tell you that no mubarak's regime is definitely not back and we will not allow this to happen and there is no one in egypt whether politicized or from the military who can sell the egyptian people now let's talk about some of the media coverage that the people of egypt the ones that you're talking about are experiencing and seeing and how that reflects on the

country and reflects personally on them so i know that numerous news stations there have stopped reporting on people saying that the coverage is biased can you explain that a little bit more in detail and what the controversy is there a lot of controversy when it comes to media coverage in egypt right now a lot of controversy that has to do also with the arabic media and even with egyptian media there seems to be egypt is becoming a sort of rumors factory right now everybody just would be once and attributing this to whatever source source they think would say or might say or maybe have said something like like they believe or they want him to say what's going on in egypt is there is a media war people are saying. this is what we want the media relays this is the way they want and the media is control who is the media in egypt there is the international stations and there is the arab media and there's also

the locally owned media and each one of them sees the truth sees what's going on in egypt that we'd be one to see it and this is why it's very controversial at this moment because everybody is the in this from their own i would say a very narrow perspective and not the whole picture not what's going on actually on the ground so some of the chaos is actually translating into to how people are so. on the television screens we can just take one story the killing of the thirty six or the death of thirty six and mates yesterday the way this was reported in different media just tells you how different the media is looking at these issues these stories that are happening in egypt the first story that came out was that gunmen attacked those inmates attacked the soldiers who were protecting the inmates wanting to free them the second story was that the police fired tear gas at the inmates because of the gunmen who were trying to free them the third story was that

they were killed by police because they were trying to escape a lot of different stories and a lot of different narratives in egypt right now and then fortunately it's very hard to discern what exactly is the truth because it's very hard to get into that country to be safe as a reporter in that country there are so many different reasons but let's bring it back here at home many lawmakers in the u.s. are asking for aid for egypt to be cut off on the other hand you have saudi arabia saying that whatever the u.s. decides to cut off it will make up so what would cutting off u.s. a do really they already. ready is supporting egypt already is showing a lot of support financially and diplomatically to egypt. the u.s. seems to be split on this there are lawmakers who say that we should definitely cut off aid since the law says that any military coup we are not going to support any military going in the region and a lot of people see this is not as

a coup they do not see it as a coup and therefore they don't want. to be cut off however turns varying all of this on the ground in egypt what does the aid do to the egyptians they gyptian people have not felt the aid of the americans and therefore there are petitions now on the street in egypt asking for the government asking the government to actually do. demand the stop of aid from the u.s. they're asking the u.s. to stop its aid to egypt any kind of influence the u.s. aid in egypt i don't see this at all at the moment i don't think there is an influence of the u.s. in egypt it seems it's a very very difficult situation right now thank you for bringing us the latest our to our correspondent with that. the fate of bradley manning could be determined as soon as tomorrow army judge denise len heard closing arguments today against the wiki leak or this was the government's a last chance to explain why the twenty five year old army private first class

should spend the rest of his life behind bars or to correspondent liz wahl is in fort meade maryland with the latest hi there lives so what was the prosecution's closing argument today. hi maggie and yes today we heard closing arguments in the sentencing phase of this case so this trial is winding down the captain joe morrow delivered the prosecution's argument and he asked that manning basically they asked for no mercy for manning sixty years at least is the minimum that the government is asking for they're asking manning to pay us. one hundred thousand dollars and to be dishonorably discharged from the military clearly from what we heard today the u.s. does not take this case lightly at all and they're definitely making that clear they said today he created a great risk of harm nationals to national security due to the volume and this is something they brought up they really wanted to highlight due to the volume of the

information that he disclosed was. kept and morrow said quote every day on the super net was another day to stick his finger in the eye of the classification system now in this hearing the sentencing phase of the hearing and we heard a lot of testimony very emotional testimony about manning's dysfunctional and upbringing and today the government said that they tried to downplay these mental health issues that manning may have been suffering from at the time that he leaked hundreds of thousands of classified information they said captain morrow said that there were other gay people in the unit and that he was open about it and . people were open with him about it this is according to the government at least today so trying to play to downplay the fact that he may have been lonely and had nobody else that he could have reached out to at the time and that he was suffering mentally and that could have led to some of the decisions the defense today or what we heard from coombs this just over the government's is showing no mercy and this

is something that coombs opened up right away and said the argument by the government today is interested in one thing and one thing only and that is punishment and coombs said that the judge. should take several things into consideration when they do deliver this sentence and one of those things is manning is twenty one years old at the time when he was deployed in iraq had limited experience he cited of failures of his superior. that was our t. correspondent was wall now what is the first thing that comes to mind when i mention the country somalia is it poverty or violence or famine war lords child soldiers drone strikes well whatever your initial thoughts about the country are chances are that they aren't good and chances are that they are inaccurate as well while some of all of these elements do exist in the country the fact is that somalia is also the home of beautiful beaches business opportunities and oil riches the u.s.

is becoming more and more involved in the horn of africa with drone strikes covert cia operations even diplomacy and one man says that is the wrong thing to do michael shank is the director of foreign policy at the friends committee on national legislation and he's here to tell me why the u.s. should keep out of somalia affairs when it comes to the military michael thank you so much for joining me right now first of all you were just in somalia why were you visiting and what did you discover i followed somalia for years and years to write on it pretty often two thousand and six two thousand and seven two thousand and eight when we were heavily involved in airstrikes and fighting the islamic courts union back in the warlords so i wanted to visit finally as a non federal employee i was a congressional staffer for many years it would have been difficult for me to travel now that i'm off the hill it's easier to go what i found is a city mogadishu is primarily in mogadishu that is bustling with activity lots of business the west is not investing in that and that's what i'm here to say and that's what i've been writing about how do we invest in the socio economic future of the country not primarily military which is how we've seen the country and what

is the current status of the u.s. in somalia and then broadening out a bit in the horn of africa right so primarily as you mentioned cia drone strikes a little bit of defense support for the african union soldiers very little support for the small a national security forces you see the salary difference between a smaller soldier it's one hundred bucks a month versus an amazon soldier it's fifteen hundred bucks a month so we need to support the government's capacity on that front a little bit of humanitarian aid but not much investment meeting with small the women small youth groups now much of. in the infrastructure of roads bridges clean water sanitation power and lady you know let's let's figure out a sustainable plan for agricultural development rather than just giving them food that kind of thing so what are some of the solutions here what are some practical things that the u.s. can do in the short term and then in the long term to kind of change the path the directory that we're already on right so a lot of people think of somalia as a as a danger zone a war zone that's all they think of so we have to change that perception one two i think they want to partner they want investment they want people to come invest in the you mentioned oil which is one hundred billion barrels of oil that suspected

there but they want to be a part of that process they want to lead that process they want i mean they're frustrated that the west sees somalia. as one of the peace of somalia rather than peace in somalia and so they're looking for partners in that process that's what we have to change you know everything i saw in somalia is very similar to what is on afghanistan and pakistan which is we're not trusting locally led processes and that's the difference so are we doomed to repeat over six that we made and arguably some of those countries well it looks like it unless and why i'm here today and thank you for giving platform to this we change we change that process it's a fledgling government they want to partner with us but we have to change our mindset now i want to bring up something that you wrote for an article on c.n.n. you said quote beyond the one point five billion dollars provided in the u.s. security assistance since two thousand and nine in the myriad of airstrikes that america has rained down on somalia the u.s. has created an untenable situation where any association with the rebel group al shabaab however remote is illegal can you elaborate that on that

a little bit more and what it means for somalia right so we have a department of justice terrorist watch list so anyone who's on that list any age group can on associated with that group the phone with al shabaab is that it's very more if it's very fluid so someone might be related to someone who might be related to someone who's in that makes a very difficult world food program was to a lot of their humanitarian aid which ultimately led to a famine which killed two hundred fifty thousand people between two thousand and ten and two thousand and twelve we have to rethink that whole paradigm because it's preventing real socio economic development in the country in ways that will build allies among smaller meals and let's talk about somali perceptions and people across the horn of africa perceptions of the u.s. obviously as you mentioned the only thing that they really know about the u.s. is that we have functioning drones that have the capability of killing a lot of people at one time so what else do they think about the u.s. or is that simply it well there are a lot of entrepreneurs so they see the west as a potential entrepreneur when i was traveling throughout the city a lot of people were surprised to see me because we're not many white male westerners can walk in through mogadishu so but they were certainly welcome of my

time and of my investment you know the u.n. monitoring group which is kind of given oversight over everything in small. has been pretty perturbed alist akin nature and that's what they're frustrated with they don't want another parent telling whether it's ethiopia kenya or the west us u.s. and u.k. telling them what to do so they welcome participation open arms open doors but it has to be one of equality now on the same kind of coin that we're talking about right now the issue with giving so much aid to a country is that we don't exactly know all of the uses for what is going to be could potentially fall into corrupt hands that could end up fueling terrorists that hurt the u.s. i mean ultimately we need oversight of everything we do which is why i've been very involved in oversight of even pentagon dollars going into afghanistan because there's corruption there too so we've got to we've got to vet these organizations and root out corruption wherever it lies whether it's in our defense department our state department usaid or that we're going to say she's on the ground so yes

oversight is critical but that's very doable that's better than disengaging completely now obviously the afghanistan inspector general would definitely agree with some of the misuses of money there but if the u.s. doesn't get involved in the horn of africa is it an argument that could be valid that possibly another country would well absolutely and turkey is very involved in some very positive ways in terms of socio economic development so they're building the relationship not unlike when i was in syria japan was heavily involved we're missing opportunities to build these alliances and shabaab is coming in you know they're offering a cell phone to a kid and recruiting a kid that way lots of kids roaming the streets of mogadishu let's get them jobs so what is the takeaway lesson from here very quickly take away we see in afghanistan we see in pakistan we see in somalia we're only or primarily investing in military solutions and not socioeconomic political sustainable solutions that are locally led by the country that's when you switch very interesting and i hope that you'll keep us in more involved in what you're doing and what you're working on and keep us involved in the region michael shank director of foreign policy at the friends

committee on national legislation thank you so much. well let's take some time now to talk about death it isn't something people tend to like to discuss and it certainly isn't something that they spend a lot of time thinking about but three thousand inmates in the u.s. are currently being forced to contemplate the end of their own lives and exactly when and how it will happen the men and women on death row twenty three have already been executed this year and another seven hundred are currently waiting but their way could be a little longer you see states across the u.s. are running out of one of the most common drugs in the deadly cocktail used to usher these inmates to the afterlife texas the execution capital of the world is expected to run out of its supply of pentobarbital by september and it isn't alone georgia california missouri and ohio are experiencing similar shortages now the reason for that is because davis drugmaker lubeck announced in two thousand and

eleven that it would no longer supply customers with the drug if they plan on using it for executions the company argues that the drug is meant to save lives and not end them did mark after all abolished the death penalty decades ago this is forcing prisons to find other government to prove ways to execute inmates vietnam is experiencing a similar shortage there are talks in that country of returning to good old fashioned firing squads utah still offers that option to its inmates in fact last year micro chose to die that way though the state eventually stepped in with all it is quickly becoming the alternative drug of choice meanwhile some states like new jersey and illinois are getting rid of the practice altogether though not necessarily because of the shortage right now each execution costs almost a million dollars numerous surveys have found that it is cheaper to imprison someone for life than to execute them and in their lives early but the reality remains that

if these states are desperate enough they will find a way to execute inmates spineless. action or not. well get ready america they spent years fighting our wars abroad now they are getting ready to come home but i'm not talking about our troops and a day now unmanned aerial vehicles could be scouring the skies near you some of them already are industry giants the likes of which include boeing lockheed martin and northrop grumman flooded d.c. this past week to show off their tech toys they say the economic benefits of these machines are vast and their uses are endless i was there and here's a look at what i found. they role play fly they even dive you can throw this one a few in the air let it land on either side that one runs on the sun big or small unmanned aerial vehicles come in all shapes and sizes these days and chances are they're coming to a city near you and now we're ready to step into the sort of next generation if you

will in that seamless integration international airspace this is the world's largest drone expo happening in the district where industry titans and government regulators meet seven thousand people and six hundred corporations from over sixty countries show off their inventions here this is the future of technology so what we have here this is the unmanned little bird what we see here is the discovery to about one hundred thirty pounds you have the talent robot the u.a.b. industry in the u.s. is expected to rake in eighty two point one billion dollars in the next decade and grow some four hundred eighty two million dollars in tax revenue industry giants boast this unmanned tech will create over one hundred thousand jobs reduce operation costs even save lives the possibilities are really endless search and rescue missions natural disasters ozone monitoring this it can be used by you place the fire brigades because it's not small you can keep it in an ambulance the border

security embassy protection where there's a chance to cash in businesses are sure to follow and so are governments ohio is one state that's got its eyes on the sky so let's talk about how this could potentially help ohio economically sure huge first of all research in technology unmanned aerial systems tremendous research opportunity that's universities that's private companies that's economic development certainly jobs creating manufacturing you avi's these are the top ten states looking at you wavy technology as money making opportunities utah oklahoma north dakota idaho arizona and ohio. all had booths at the two thousand and thirteen a you vs i conference attempting to appeal to these you a.v. companies a number of others are pushing back against the technology for ginia instituted a two year moratorium on drones even the federal aviation administration has shown hesitation in allowing these devices to fly freely but that's not stopping these

you a.v. advocates we're excited we're waiting for you know our legislators in government organizations to figure out exactly what the rules of the road need to be for those who are worried privacy tops the growing list of concerns happily you know we don't sell for you to see and in that regard so i would say this i mean privacy is a governmental issue you know and we respect you know the government decisions on how that ultimately pans out regulatory uncertainty and tough competition is forcing companies to solicit to other markets well the u.s. is is a big market obviously it's very it's difficult to get into the u.s. if you don't have a u.s. presence or u.s. partner and so on but this particular product here with this capability is still very very new in the market and our focus is right now mostly on asia as well as the middle east meaning if the u.s. does decide to turn away from this technology it could soon fall behind the rest of

the world so what is the takeaway lesson here well the takeaway from this conference anyway is that the u.a.b. industry is not only booming it's growing exponentially there are a lot of competitors here and a lot of room for money making opportunity is that all the people that you see here today are obviously taking part in the second take away bus and possibly is that new wave use are really inevitable when it comes to a domestic demand so whether you like it or not it looks like you a.b.s. could become into a city a state or private company near you in washington mega lopez r.t. . and while american companies are looking to the skies the canadian military has its own i.c. tech endeavor. underway it has been sneakily test driving a six hundred twenty million dollars stealth snowmobile to help boost the company's military the country's military might in the arctic the canadian press reports that the canadian of the department of national defense is taking a hybrid electric snowmobile for a spin to test its speed at battery power acceleration and the most important

factor it's silence that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america and check out the latest and greatest stories that we cover today and a few that we just did not have time to get to archie dot com forward slash usa and follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez say to me prime interest is next.

technology innovation all the developments around. the future are covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. exactly what happened that day i don't know but a woman got killed. years later is when i got arrested. for a crime i did not do. we have numerous cases where police officers lie about polygraph results. innocent people to confess to police officers don't beat people

anymore i mean it just doesn't happen really. in the course of interrogation why because there's been this is like meant no because the psychological techniques are more effective in obtaining confessions than physical abuse and they were they could get what they wanted they could say what they wanted and there was no evidence of what they did or what they said to. the. wealthy british science. that's not on trial for. market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max concert for

a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into kinds a report. and get out there nailing a welcome to prime interest i'm harry i'm boring and i'm bob english to get there. one percent means the ninety nine percent are favorite one percent heard jamie diamond just this clip close some troubling news j.p. morgan has set aside additional six point eight billion dollars to deal with future fines and lawsuits so that puts them on track to take over bank of america when it comes to legal problems in the too big to fail arena according to j.p. morgan's filing the justice department is no investigating them on six count them six separate counts heads roll likely so sleep well mr diamond and to one of those investigations and volved. that it is not just j.p. morgan several of the top banks are hiring children.