we should. recognize. just days after being locked up in the big story last week we speak up to a nobel peace prize laureate who wants to. i think we have to. come. for us also the headlines this wednesday french made weapons have been used against civilians and for other war crimes in yemen according to leaks reportedly from french intelligence. hundreds of environmental campaigners were arrested in central london after bringing traffic

chaos and attack in the h.q. of. everyone seems to be taking a stance. if your house is on fire i would kick your door in a car and try to claim the smashing of the shell building is akin to saving people is absolutely at the truth you are justified harassment you are justified you're justified. this is art international back now after a regular maintenance break kevin i'm with you this morning it's just ten ten am moscow time first than just days after being dragged by police from his asylum refuge up in jail wiki leaks co founder julian assange as we don't know the european parliament he's been given the. award for journalists whistle blowers and defenders of the right to information nobel peace prize laureate. maguire accepted

on his behalf. lord. grows to sure you know sons are twenty so that award given to sons was established in twenty eighteen but a background here by a group of leftwing members of the european parliament on as those who've been persecuted or intimidated for uncovering the truth and exposing it to the public and of course julie the savage can't take that personally he's behind bars he won't be able to attend the ceremony at the australian national a recap of what happened last week was arrested last week when his asylum in ecuador an embassy in london was revoked and citizenship was suspended he was then convicted by u.k. court of breaching bail and has been charged in the us too on top of this with conspiracy to hack a government computer a son's faces extradition to the u.s. and up to five years in prison although some fear in fact the whistleblower could

face far more serious charges as and when if he sets foot on u.s. soil and require again we saw accepting the award for a songe what sounded over to him personally. i just think it's very important that we acknowledge julian assange for the great sacrifice that he has made for a saw one must ask the question why didn't this happen before i nominated this year for the nobel peace prize for his work for peace and trying to end war and suffering of the people when he published through recchi lakes he knew he would be a wanted man and he was governor. i think we have to acknowledge julian assange and thank him and i want to do that personally for all he has done for us i was deeply shocked that julian assange was arrested from there to dorian amber say

so treated so badly julian assange desires his human rights and he should be freed immediately and under no circumstances sent to america for a jury trial because if that happens we all become pera and live in a very dark orders for our children. you know his songs was indicted for allegedly conspiring with former us army soldier chelsea manning to how could defense department computer database sons faces possible extradition to the u.s. over it but civil rights groups say some of the charges of based on actions that any judge in this might take makes his column open reports this morning as the rest is raised fears for the freedom of the press what message does it send to the world that's the concern shared by the american civil liberties union the very body set up to defend civil freedoms in the united states the indictment is troubling nonetheless it characterizes as part of a criminal conspiracy journalistic activities that are not just lawful but

essential to press freedom now much of the indictment focuses on and conspiring with chelsea manning however it's this bit that has everyone talking it was part of the conspiracy that assigns a man into commercials to conceal men and as the source of the disclosure of classified records to weaken leaks including by removing the user names from the disclosed information and the lead in chat logs between man and the sounds so trying to protect the identities of anonymous leakers and whistleblowers is now considered to be illegal well if that's the case american mainstream media should be in huge trouble intelligence sources tell n.p.r. news there is no doubt the russians are trying to influence the presidential election a source tells n.b.c. news law enforcement and democratic sources telling c.n.n. on it in a fide sources two sources with links to the counter intelligence community according to anonymous washington post source take this article from the washington post.

the washington post has obtained transcripts of two conversations president trump had with foreign leaders one with mexican president enrique pena nieto i don't know that with australian prime minister malcolm turnbull the transcripts were prepared by the white house but have not been released the post is publishing reproductions rather than original documents in order to protect sources so time to bring in the department of justice it's a criminal conspiracy to cover up a leak or right or take this one this one turned out to not actually be true it looks like somebody in the government is actually spreading disinformation who could that be well c.n.n. is protecting its source we have a not anonymous sources we protect that for real reasons so the information that is important to the public through can get out and sends donald trump has taken office hollywood has decided to celebrate the who wrote press the challenge the nixon

administration back during the vietnam war. do you have the papers. at the time so seven thousand pages detailing how the white house has been lying about the vietnam war for thirty years. i'm talking about exposing years of government secrets is that legal what is it you think we do here for a living so if you follow the logic of the indictment tom hanks' character is not a heroic journalist at all in fact he's a criminal and that points to another big question a number of voices have spoken up and said that it's ok to persecute and punish julian assange because quote he is not a real journalist but here's the thing the first amendment protects everyone whether you're labeled as a real journalist or not this is how the courts have explained it in the past as the supreme court has accurately warned a first amendment distinction between the institutional press on the speakers is unworkable the ninth circuit really believe that the world has changed and that

everybody should be entitled to personal interactions so i do that of course julian assange. fact that he's hiding that he's protecting his source that's what journalists do he's a publisher. leaks is an organization that publishes truth for classified information that's in the public interest and under that definition he's definitely a journalist so at this point the u.s. department of justice is telling us that julian assange may have done a bad thing by trying to hack into top secret government files well nobody disputes that but the bigger issue may be what he actually was able to reveal wiki leaks made public a lot of information that angered powerful people and it seems that now they want him to pay kaleb up and r.t. new york. french made weapons may have been used during the saudi led coalition's incursion into yemen that's according to leaks said to be from the french intelligence they were made public by investigative web site disclosed which also

says the weapons may have been used against civilians and for other war crimes it demonstrates that hundreds of thousands of civilians live under the threat of these arms and provides information that allows us to demonstrate that some of these weapons may have been used to commit war crimes the french government is today where of the risk of this in light of the revelations announced internationals called on france to suspend arms sales to saudi arabia present across government to staunchly defended those cells and played their role in the conflict fella dubin ski picks up the story. france has long been criticized for supplying weapons to saudi arabia human rights charity said time and time again told the government that those weapons are being used to bomb schools hospitals and other civilian targets exacerbating the crisis in yemen a war that's left thousands dead and pushed millions to the brink of starvation the

u.n. has even called what's happening in yemen the world's worst humanitarian crisis. you're. a little bit france has always hit back saying the weapons that it sells to saudi arabia only used offensively to defer attacks by the theses i'm not aware that french weapons have been used directly in yemen except that now appears to be contradicted by a classified note by the french military intelligence service uncovered following an investigation by a media outlet called disclose it was feels french weapons sold to saudi arabia and

the united arab emirates are being used in the war in yemen but one pressed again in light of this new evidence the government's once again offered denials to our knowledge the french weapons available to the members of the coalition are mostly in a defensive position outside yemeni territory or on call issued rights of way but not on the front line and we are not aware of any civilian casualties resulting from their use in the yemeni theater france is not among the lead. arms suppliers of countries in gauged in yemen but that's hard to swallow given that this classified note was apparently provided to the french government in october twenty eighth it showed forty eight seas our artillery guns were being used along the saudi yemen border that tanks sold to u.a.e. are in action as to fight it jets while missile guiding technology may have

been deployed. france's military agency note actually goes even further two friendships are serving in the blockade of yemeni ports directly leading to food and medical shortages that means that women and children can't access the food that they need nor medicines if they've been attacked now last year president mccone dismissed pressure to halt arms sales to riyadh after it was implicated in the murder of

journalist jamal khashoggi. it's pure demagoguery to say stop selling weapons but they have nothing to do with mr hersh to not confuse these things but it is interesting to hear before knowing the facts say we will not sell more weapons already so more than france through the joint ventures they have arms sales to saudi all big business for france between two thousand and eight and two thousand and seventeen it was the second biggest purchaser of french elam's with deals totaling more than eleven. billion euros meanwhile mark owen has talked about the ongoing crisis in yemen his country even hosted a humanitarian conference to discuss the issue but for many so far it's been all talk and little action as pockets continue to be lined or why the people of yemen face one of the world's most desperate plight. so it's even ski r.t.

paris or further to this we talked to the co-founder of the disclose investigative website which published the documents here for laval c told us that france supports the saudi led bombing campaign for commercial reasons. the french contracts now with saudi arabia and the united arab emirates generally for weapons made names arms is sold to these countries and france keeps them operational so it's not just a question of arms sales to these countries but it can stop keeping these weapons operational in the yemeni conflict front supports the coalition through arms sales and it answered disclosed today that its defense support is to fight terrorism wherever french weapons are county not used in yemen against al qaida but against yemenis themselves namely to hooty parts so clearly this is not a question of fighting terrorism why is the french government continuing to support the coalition it is certainly linked to economic interests these contracts bring in

huge amounts of money to france which is the world's number three or four arms seller. nearly three hundred environmental activists have been arrested in central london after a series of protests bought traffic chaos to the city thousands of taking part in coordinated demonstrations at key sites in the british capital since monday demanding action over climate change. the environmental activists staged to sit down protest simply sites including waterloo bridge the has the parliament circus some vented their anger on the london age two of the old giant shell to smash the windows and spraying graffiti on the walls is what some of the protesters have to say. my grandchildren know what everybody's grandchildren to be able to grow up to safely we are demanding that the government tell the truth. and they must do that because people don't know what

they're doing is criminal all the governments across the world are part of this and they are letting us down i planted die or u.k. system is down i and we all have to stop this. the demonstrations are part of a global campaign organized by a british climate group called extinction rebellion which was formed last year twenty eight the movement demands governments reduce carbon emissions to zero by twenty twenty five and the program should be monitored by a public group to achieve its goals extinction rebellion promotes mass civil disobedience and staged rallies in more than thirty countries so far that show you meantime the scenes from berlin a demonstration there monday. not a good look. we have demonstrated long enough we have the right and must now use the means of civil disobedience stand to rebel. the issue of climate change this place activist and teach it tim jones and andre walker

a political commentator new york observer columnist and opposing cohen is that. the point that we're raising which is about the potential collapse of society and really seriously the end of the human race is now a real possibility so some disruption to a city compared to a collapse of a society that comparison is what we have to think about what these people believe that just because they think they're right that anything that they do is morally justified that is an extremely dangerous i think streaming on democratic positions and it's grossly unfair we are making a point by make by not harming anybody at all no life is harmed or threatened anything we do and we sometimes we do commit criminal damage and we do that to draw attention because nobody is listening to the terrifying severity of the of the evidence the relevance of what we're talking about if your house is on fire and you're asleep i would kick your door in a car and try and save you so if you know it and then if you to complain about the

criminal damage that i caused by kicking in your door to come and save you then that would be a little bit absurd to claim that smashing up the shell building is akin to saving people in a fire is absolutely offensive the truth is you are justified harassment you're justified bullying you're justified criminal climates rebellion the organization have said that they will not stop the protest all until carbon emissions go to zero within six years that means an end to vehicle transports an end to aviation an end to electricity and this child will blow play a return to the stone age the idea that people do not believe in man made global warming in this country is nonsense we've got. ultra low emissions i would just been launched in london this affects diesel calls we've got a lot until tax which means that you have to recycle everything on less you want to pay a hundred dollars a toll and this is classic denial what's that got to what none of those things got anything to do with climate change ok or the or the collapse of. biodiversity in

the world they've got nothing to do it so you're just distracting from what is a terrifying prospect and climate change is going to get worse and worse and worse more and more more quickly and if we don't act now even if it's not that they fast difficult then where we are completely don't want to avoid bad language but we're in a bad way and the only way that we can do this is with radical action all of the scientists that have given predictions the world's going to end in five ten fifteen years all of those deadlines have passed and so they say well i just want to show you that is what's going on because i've had the most of the i.p.c.c. predictions going back if you look back at what they said what happened they were massive underestimate especially if you look at things like the the decline of arctic ice they massively underestimate what has happened i'm going to bet you if you're dead as a result of climate change by sixty five that i will pay fuel for you don't get me upset if you're still alive when you claim your pension when you'll still if you'll still live long enough to claim your pension then you've got to give me the entire

padgett if you also come for that that you're going to be dead by retirement age will you take that back look at your own conversation went on top of the conversations gets a lesson in foreign policy for one old man to tell you that was dishing out advice of the break. good politicians do something to. put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president. or somehow want to. have to go right to be close as like them before three of them or can't be good get . interested in the waters of our. guests it.

seems wrong. just don't call. me. yet to say proud just being educated and in gains from it because betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart. just to look for common ground. again folks what she got international live from moscow so as france comes to terms with that devastating far the world not for a dime cathedral vigils have been held in paris.

hundreds of firefighters battled those flames for many twelve hours on monday evening but not to spot and most of the roof was lost in the horror when i went up in child and many precious artifacts was saved from the historic building built by a human chain huge amount of work their restoration was underway at the time and investigators are looking at that as a possible source of the blaze many leaders in companies from around the world of express their sadness and willingness to help rebuild that cathedral.

if donald trump called former u.s. president jimmy carter for the first time over the weekend to discuss relations between the u.s. and china is to cut to reportedly criticized america's current foreign policy is warmongering and encourage trump to follow the chinese example by spending the military budget differently china has not wasted a single penny on war and that's why they're ahead of us in almost every way and i think the difference is if you take three trillion dollars and put it in american infrastructure you'd probably have two trillion left over. i would have high speed rail road we have bridges that aren't collapsing we have roots there are maintained properly. with bearing in mind the u.s.

spends three times more than china on defense and twenty eighteen much of the budget goes on military operations conducted many pubs the world china on the other hand spends money on bolstering national security in countering terrorism since one thousand nine hundred nine beijing's conducted almost no military offensives over the us because it is china a potential major threat to international security. issues there is a problem the problem though is when china does business in places like latin america often it just injects corrosive capital into the economic bloodstream giving life to corruption and eroding good governance the united states has also been very clear with our security partners on the threat posed by huawei and other chinese telecom companies as chinese law requires them to provide beijing's vast security apparatus with access to any data that touches their network for equipment the existential threat presented from the people's republic of china every university in america has penetrated to gain as much intelligence about america

pretty much everything they do is in one way or another in influence operations and many of those influence operations are designed to have psychological effects on us former u.s. congressman ron paul hopes caught his recommendations to try will prove useful in developing u.s. china relations now. i thought he was pretty shrewd and he acknowledged to the president president romney says you know you're right you ought to be worried about china because they're getting way ahead because they're smart enough not to waste too much money on their military and you know and he was claiming that we as americans spend too much and this is this is true and i think there's a you know a pamphlet put out many years ago by an austrian economist henry has what it was entitled instead of what and you know when you money when you spend money on something like military instead of what and it was mentioned introduction that maybe it would have been spent on infrastructure or health care or who knows what

but every time they say well it's absolutely necessary we do this because it creates jobs when you build weaponry but no i think it's fascinating i think it's great that he did talk to the president and the president president carter i reminded him that china has not been at war since we started diplomatic relationships again one nine hundred seventy nine when when carter was president so and he also threw out the number he says you know only sixteen years of our two hundred forty years of history have we've been at peace so we as a nation have generally endorsed war much too generously. sold the wrong poll roughing out but this bullet in this way things look in so far this morning from moscow one is kevin of in thank you for watching our team tonight. to the international memorial awards twenty nine seat i'm now open for entries the

media professionals and which of all whether you are a freelance journalist works real terms of media or part of a global news plus participate in the published works and video which. go to award dot com i'm into now. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see that. when lawmakers manufacture to sentenced him to public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. when the final merry go round lifts only the one percent.

we can all middle of the room signals. from the real news is really. my body told me that i belong with the board if my thoughts my mind with that i'm along with the girl for. dr. i was born a male had a sex change when i was thirty years old. i've now been living as a woman for twenty eight years and i fully regret this. problem should have gone away from by now but they hadn't so these surgeries are nothing more than plastic surgery i've had several female to male friends and you look at it and you just go oh god you paid for that it's horrible nobody can change genders is impossible.

is still luzhin it's a mental illness. this is now where one of my bones from flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out from a. hello and welcome to cross town where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle that came to be known as journalism is under assault and it didn't start with the trials of julian assange and wiki leaks once it was a noble act to report on the nefarious activities of those in power now it is being criminalized free speech is now the privileged few.

across talking journalism i'm joined by my guest john white in edinburgh he's a political commentator and writer in london we have george galloway he's a former member of parliament broadcaster and writer also in london we have michael patchett joyce he is a barrister with place chambers specializing in european international law cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate i'm going to ask all three of you the same question from the very start here is journalism being criminalized george first in london yeah i think you're right there's a systemic problem it's not just about julian assange this is just the latest station for the cross so.