good. luck to. bradley manning reveals he would like to spend the rest of his life as a woman called chelsea and says he will request a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years for leaking america's secrets. government pressure on britain's guardian newspaper over the publishing of n.s.a. leaks causes the european council to ask london exactly why it is resorting to intimidation tactics. life out of prison egypt's deposed leader hosni mubarak has left jail for health arrest despite facing retrial on charges he ordered the killing of protesters our top stories this hour.

international news and comment live from our studio center here in moscow where it's just turned ten pm this is r.t. whistleblower bradley manning's defense will follow requests to the u.s. president to have the former army private pardoned manning has been sentenced to thirty five years behind bars for disclosing the largest amount of classified data in american history meanwhile bradley manning has revealed that he would now like to be known as chelsea manning and live the rest of his life as a woman he's going to take on as the details. every man he now wants to be referred to as chelsea manning he requested hormone therapy to which the army said no he's going to live in a male prison there's obviously a lot of personal drama involved bradley manning has struggled with his gender identity for a while now in two thousand and ten he wrote to his supervisor that he joined the army to quote unquote to get rid of it of course has been a struggle for him we heard his defense talk about talk about this but his attorney

also said the stress that he was under was never an excuse because that's not what drove he's actions. he said what drove his actions was a strong moral compas he said that because for most media here personal drama becomes the main story and it overshadows everything bradley manning has actually done he wants to be referred to as chelsea and he has released a statement saying he is female i think manning has said he wanted to become a woman and chelsea it's easier to talk about his sex than about foreign policy and the human cost of war and that's what grabs the headlines and we see everybody jumping on it and then someone is going to watch the story and say ok this is where it's coming from and that kind of a narrative could be convenient for the government i mean the notion that bradley manning did what he did not out of conviction but out of his personal drama and one way or another he acts in scared shifted in the story becomes about the personality rather than the issues that he uncovered and bradley manning supporters i mean

a piece of supportive not not just as an individual but mostly for the public's right to know for the public's right to be informed on what their government is doing on their behalf and they of course see bradley manning sentence of thirty five years in prison as unjust and unfair after all they save many who committed murder got away with less than thirty five years bradley manning has received a prison sentence that was ten years longer than the period of time after which many of the documents that he released would have been automatically declassified now bradley manning and his defense are submitting the request for a pardon the president of the united states has the power to pardon him but bradley manning also has supporters who were somewhat relieved by this sentence i mean at least is not going to. and as prosecutors wanted but there's hardly any chance president obama will pardon him really especially in the current environment of the government's crackdown on whistleblowers well meaning could be released on parole but no earlier than twenty twenty one week he leads is called the sentence he

received a strategic victory well just in ruddock from the government accountability project says manning doesn't deserve thirty five years in jail. would limit it to time served which of course included nine months in solitary which even the judge found to be torture or unlawful pretrial confinement. but realistically given that the government was seeking ninety and then sixty and defense was around twenty five thirty five seems like a good a good outcome though obviously it's a very steep compared to any other whistleblower on espionage charges so to me that's all about politics and has nothing to do with justice in terms of whether it's spend her at least in my office where we represent whistleblowers it has not stemmed the flow of people coming forward and i think edward snowden is a good example of someone who found demanding case and all of these espionage act

prosecutions to be instructive. and we want to know what you think about this story don't comb our web site. you what effect bradley manning sentence could have will lead to the responses we're getting so online poll of the moment so far we can see here that the majority sixty seven percent say that whistle blows will not actually be deterred they will be scared away about sixteen percent the now saying that the sentence will spot a major backlash and even more leaks a little less say that a public outcry could lead to the sentence being reduced and not many seven percent believe that money is exampled will stop all of this from blowing the whistle your responses right now. on the. right to see. first. and i think your.

report. i. i. i. a judge has ruled british police won't be able to fully inspect a laptop or other items taken from the partner of a journalist who is involved in publishing n.s.a. spy leaks they were miranda was detained and questioned for nine hours under the terrorism act in london the government has been under fire ever since detaining him as well as forcing the guardian newspaper to destroy the files containing n.s.a. data of his or smith has more from london. this is a story that gets more and more bizarre as it unfolds with high level government involvement we now know and now david miranda lawyers who have come out threatening legal action against the government they want his belongings returned they don't want any further searches performed against him he of course was detained at heathrow for nine hours and questioned all his electronic devices taken away his

passwords got out of paying for investigation by the security services we actually have got a small clip of what his lawyer said for example today that in order for the home office and lead to look at the material to be a genuine threat. to the. rather than make near as they have done today so that's more embarrassment for the government potentially on top of what is turning into really in a very embarrassing situation for them we now know of top level involvement in the government prime minister david cameron was intimately involved in the decision to detain david miranda and also in the decision it now. becomes clear to destroy the files belonging to the guardian that were released by edward snowden a deputy prime minister nick clegg also was made aware of and supported that

decision and this has exposed the government's to to a lot of criticism increasing amounts of criticism. they have been criticised by a german human rights minister he said that he felt that the british government had crossed a line in its destruction of the files and in detaining david miranda at heathrow airport and he said that the actions of the government left him truly appalled we've also heard of a letter from the council of europe which has been addressed to the home secretary which is also criticizing that decision and looking at how europe could be involved in this freedom is a very very high value across europe and we. apply the same standards to all our member states that you recall that many have been in the spotlight regarding press freedom especially in eastern europe europe has been commenting the situation and i agree recently but also in turkey and in other states but i think we have to apply

the same standards to all our members and these two actions do post certain questions we're asking some background information from the u.k. government and i'm pretty sure we will receive a response there are a lot of questions in this case and hopefully in an effort to plug some of those holes i'm talking today a chakravarti from the freedom of india thanks for being here now we've been talking about the destruction of the information at the guardian newspaper this lashing of hard drives and discs in the basement of the nice paper in the light of the fact that all of the copies of this information clearly existed in the editor of the guardian told the authorities that they did it or how to how can the government maintain that this protects lives it does as you just said in your introduction it does get more and more bizarre because as alan rusbridger had also said in his blog this act of destruction this physical destruction of the hardest seems like nothing but a point his piece of symbolism which is his words are just word for it because as you say there are copies of it available elsewhere and we know from since when the

. matter snowden controversy broke we know that journalists no longer. exchange data electronically you know so now do you think that's going to happen is journalists are going to avoid coming into london to carry out their work or the other explanation could be that the security of our security pass and just don't have any idea how it. how data can be transferred electronic and how these things work both of those things are pretty serious concerns so another thing that the guardian those who said that was that these paper was threatened with legal action if it didn't surrender these files something they're calling prior restraint so shutting down reporting through the courts i mean is there any precedent for this and what would be the point of it straight to something that was white. through second world war two to protect the education of military units things like that precedent in terms of precedence with more recently seen celebrities taking out super injunctions that's another potential example of that now there is there is

good reason to use this sort of measure if national security is actually in danger like in the case of a military person or a visit of bruce. bruce attack one on person previously which is of no use to sort of which doesn't have to be public to made public so no need to know about it but those things have to be very narrative conscious go ahead and use them for any case we'll be following this story as it unfolds and it comes as we've both said more and more bizarre. after being implicated in world wide surveillance america appears not to be targeting those who help users protect themselves against the n.s.a. spied is the owner of a secure email service used by whistleblower edward snowden is locked in a court battle with the u.s. government at the moment after being forced to shut down the here's a statement that all of a bit owner. made two weeks ago when he took his service off line he indicated that u.s. authorities demanded information about his customers or else but according to him that would amount to a crime against american people so he took the service offline isn't allowed to

disclose many details because of ongoing court proceedings but he did explain his decision further to my colleague. if i had continued to operate i felt like it would have put me in a ethically compromising position. in other words the service no longer would have been what i intended it to be which was a secure and private method of communication for americans so you posted a message on line saying that you were in an impossible situation that either you would quote do you hear become complicit in crimes against the american people or walk away from a decade of your hard work what do you think you would have faced if you didn't shut down the service when you say no to the government. they have the ability to take everything they have the ability to take your business take your money and take your freedom it's i was looking at the very real possibility of an impossible

debt and possibly being put in jail and still not being able to tell people why i was even in jail you wrote on the line that without congressional action or strong judicial precedent that you would advise people users against trusting a company that has physical ties to the us why is that all of the major providers here in the us. have provided. our government with real time access to the private information of their users and they don't really have a choice about it. from other email providers the n.s.a. collected fifty six thousand messages annually over three years and according to the classified documents none of them had anything to do with terror threats but if you go to the dot com to find out more about what the security agency revealed about itself. he was toppled during the arab spring and is facing life in prison for allegedly ordering the killing of hundreds of protesters but egypt's former

leader hosni mubarak has been freed from prison and be back in court on sunday but would not be preparing for those proceedings while under house arrest troops as more. egypt's ousted leader hosni mubarak has left tora prison where he's been held for the last few years in undisclosed location where he will be under house arrest now he's been put under house arrest despite the fact that he walks free today because the prime minister said yesterday that basically according to emergency law needs to be under house arrest and we're not sure what will happen to him after that but he is due for his retrial to start again on the twenty fifth of which is in a few days now the reason that barak has been allowed to walk free today is because he has served his maximum amount of time that someone can spend in detention without being charged he was sentenced in june last year to guilty for being responsible for the deaths of protesters however the appeals court found that trial

to be. procedural grounds and therefore all the organized the retrial this means that basically the clock turns back to the end of the journey was divided volution as if he'd never been sentenced and therefore it's almost like he was never tried so he could be can't keep him in prison much longer however he is still facing trial judges charges of corruption as well as being involved in the killing of protesters so he will continue his trial but it will be kept outside of prison under house arrest. the forces of egypt's military backed interim leadership are involved in almost constant clashes with supporters of ousted president morsy car opposed award winning journalist. says the current situation is that news of mubarak's releases faded into the background. you have the president the democratically elected president in jail but i did a case against him and was going to be released it's kind of everything's been flipped over the news of his possible release was just

a kind of cherry on top for everyone so much has happened so many people have died that mubarak has faded into the background a little for a lot of people when you think it was going to try to the death of the protestors in eighteen days and then you compare the fact that a greater number of history died in one day last week it kind of puts things in perspective for a lot of egyptians. would be twenty four hours a day still ahead this hour as zero hours contract means zero guarantees over a million british face being left penniless despite having jobs as firms use the economic crisis as an excuse to employ people with no promise of payment. and react with force from the international community to take serious action if allegations that the syrian government used chemical gas against civilians confirmed that a mobile stories after this break. what

defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth. or a factual standard of living. dramas that can be ignored. stories others refuse to notice. thinks it's changing the world right and the.

whole picture. from around the. globe to the. news continues here on r.t. russia is calling for a fair and professional investigation into an alleged mass chemical attack near damascus moscow also denies earlier reports that it blocked the u.n. statement on the use of toxic weapons in syria on his election is falling the brewing international tensions. intensifying diplomatic tensions concerning the reports on wednesday that there was a. doing chemicals in syria russia is demanding a thorough and professional and unbiased investigation into the matter this is according to the spokesperson of the foreign of the russian foreign minister alexander who said that none of the conflicting sides none of the sides involved in

the conflict has any concrete information about the number of casualties in this incident on wednesday the rebels are claiming that at least thirteen hundred people were killed as a result of the attack using chemicals in syria rebels are claiming that this was the assad forces using the gas but the russian foreign ministry says that from with sources it is believed that the rocket which carried the toxic substances was fired from the territory occupied by the syrian rebels also emergency meeting of the un security council was held on wednesday in relation to that incident in syria there were there was speculation and there were some reports coming from several media outlets that russia blow off a joint statement from u.n. security council members which also denounced any such accusations says that this never happened and also in relation to this statement coming from the french

foreign minister who said that eve these allegations of the use of chemical weapons in syria would prove to be correct then the countries of europe would have to respond with force he did not specify what kind of force would that be but a look at shea beach pointed out that such a thing a use of force may only happen on the consensus of the whole of the u.n. security council only through a joint decision of its members and this obviously hasn't happened yet all in all look at the all the recent allegations and another diplomatic tour of wall surrounding syria is hampering any kind of peace process any kind of attempts to find a peaceful solution in particular the geneva conference which was agreed upon in moscow by john kerry and sergey lavrov. the u.n. has asked the syrian government to allow chemical arms inspectors access to the site of the recent attack in story mark ullman us but i'm a little early he's been closely following the conflict he says there were no indications whatsoever that a sad was behind this assault the syrian government would have to be not only very

brutal but very stupid to have done this in a period when the u.n. and chemical weapons inspectors are just down the road in damascus secondly you would have seen if they had done this if they had launched a very large scale for surely they would have sent in special troops under the cover of the chaos caused by such an act occupy the area in order precisely to prevent kind of films and pictures of merging politically sent around the world by the opposition this after all this american trial by the opposition so far the problem arises with the demands of syrian government permit experts to visit to see syrian government doesn't control the scene of the crime if it was crimes were committed it's up to the rebels if we see no attempt to press for rebels to cooperate so in fact it seems to be probably designed to embarrass the syrian government so why don't you let the experts go to the scene where in fact they don't control the scene couldn't guarantee their security or even possibly enable

them to enter the areas where these attacks were supposed to have taken place. by the way if you missed something on screen a mouse click we'll take you to our website on the dot com now here's what we have lined up for you today a huge blaze which destroyed hundreds of hectares and sprains on a yorker has forced thousands to flee you can watch this fire breathing footage in motion page right now. and straight to our you tube channel russian star holidays just imagine relaxing and some bathing on the sand in russia's western city of when this amphibious monster of a harbor craft decides to the beach to write about surprises that you tube slash party. desperate for any kind of job low paid workers in the u.k. have been caught in the trap of what's become known as zero hour contracts. in a world where employment doesn't mean there's any work or any money. you have a job but you don't know when you'll work or if you'll be paid that's the reality

for a million brits employed on zero hours contracts donald says admitted that it employs ninety percent of its u.k. workforce in this way staff are expected to be ready for work in the mornings in case this summoned by their bosses they also have the right to refuse shifts crucially though there's no guaranteed minimum set of working hours per week hence the zero in the title this man in his twenty's is almost zero hours contract with a well known restaurant chain every morning he waits for the call telling him whether or not he'll have work really in charge of your own destiny as it were while you're working there to be able to. make that much profit this week so actually we're going to try to do those minimum stuff as we can you guys can all be cut and we'll just do it on three stuff this week is completely and for the government have promised to investigate the controversial employment amidst concerns that leaving an increasing number of brits in financial limbo with few

rights low pay and no stability or stuck in this job no guarantee of other jobs or wasn't making enough money to pay the rent is falling behind the number of zero hours contracts has shot up during the recession some economists forecasts that employers will return to hiring workers on better terms when the economy recovers the trade unions buying it in recent months and years we have start to see a growth of see around contracts particularly amongst public sector workers no longer are these small groups of workers who are employed on temporary employment in some sites is this type of abusive employment lation chip is becoming the norm macdonald sports direct dominoes and even buckingham palace zero hours employers they've been accused of exploiting people desperate for any kind of work it's part of the race to the bottom to drive down the terms and conditions the pay. working people i know fortunately big business is using the history measures in the

government economic crisis as an excuse to use these contracts but business representatives say that the financial crisis is forcing companies to use zero hours contracts there's people that criticize you're out of contract you've got to recognize the impact that that would have on unemployment levels it's contracting the flexibility that. wasn't available to employers i don't think it would be acting is the kind of employment stabilizer we're seeing it work out the terms of these contracts may see the bosses but many of the young people on them say that while they're on zero hours they've got zero chance of any financial stability i think they're wrong no i think they should i think they should shouldn't any lasting strain than they are because it was it doesn't happen that you don't have. any can sort of expect that at some point you made. artsy london. now for some news making headlines around the world two russian cosmonauts have completed their space we upgrade the international space station they successfully

added a new optical laser camera despite working with faulty equipment a camera has a floor and another space walk will be needed to fix that problem though this is the fourth of six outings planned this year for the russian team. the french capital was enveloped in smoke after a fire not far from the eiffel tower one hundred firefighters were called in to battle the blaze near the historic hotel the convict lease it was sparked by a nearby motorcycle accident the flames left two kilometer high column of smoke hanging over the capital for hours after it was put out. or. a storage tank has leaked three hundred tons of contaminated water into the ground at japan's fukushima nuclear plant site workers are currently inspecting hundreds of other tanks kept there tepco the company leading cleanup operations as well that toxic liquid may have already reached the ocean nuclear watchdog is classed as the most serious crisis to hit the devastated area since the post tsunami meltdown in

two thousand and eleven. and another twenty one people been killed in china by extreme weather nearly two dozen construction workers were swept away by spreading floods in the northeast this is tropical storm trami hit the southern provinces it triggered huge landslides during dozens of homes it's estimated two hundred people are dead or missing since the beginning of the floods over a month ago. and mother nature continues to cause devastation in russia as well floodwaters in some areas of the country's far east and now said to be falling but still there is concern over the situation in the city of kabul office where water levels are expected to reach eight meters this weekend five thousand people have already been affected emergency workers have erected almost seventeen kilometers of temporary embankments ten of them in cut offs the floods have been described as the worst in the sentry and many thousands of hectares of farmland swamped it's estimated more than sixty million dollars worth of damage may have been done the high water levels were caused by heavy downpours in early july and

not expected to start receding until early next month. i'll be back with the news team with more from just over half an hour from now in the meantime coming up after the break the dangerous lives of farmers in going to and how that on the defense for their livelihoods this is our team that's up to the brain. they see geopolitics is a lot like a schoolyard and what obama snubbing a meeting with the president of russia to in theory punish him for the stoughton incident sounds kind of amateur that is the kind of stuff the girl you did when you're sixteen would do cancel a date just to show you how much your feelings are hurt let's not mistake the

canceled meeting with cutting off diplomatic relations which is the total rejection of any form of discussion with another country which really sent a bold and possibly dangerous but a message but obama did was more like a minor annoyance he knows that he will talk to putin again in the near future i mean how are they not going to talk of the next g. eight summit what is he just going to have to hide behind merkel the whole time and hope it works out or ducked behind the short cocktail whatever here's a russian accent one could argue that. to appease republicans he had to do something to look strong at the student but this grandstanding just comes across as silly passing something like a new jackson verda commandment yeah that is how you could shows people that you're really mad even if your anger is irrational because stone pretty much did the right thing but that's just my opinion.