the talk of journalism direct assault on the 1st the moment reaction pulls in from media freedom groups as u.s. authorities fall 17 new challenges against julian assange each of them carrying up to 10 years in jail. and emotional treason make calls it a day announcing she'll step down as conservative party leader on june. i do so with no ill will but with a normal. gratitude to a part of the opportunity to serve the country. and president trump announces he's sending another 1500 troops to the middle east as tensions with iran mounts but the number is much lower than recent reports

suggest. joining us this is r.t. . this is your mother u.s. justice department to slap julian assange with 17 new charges the spot the concern of media freedom groups. any government use of the espionage act to criminalize the receipts and publication of classified information poses a dian threat to journalists seeking to publish such information in the public interest irrespective of the justice department's assertion that the sun is not a journalist this is an extraordinary escalation of the trumpet ministrations attacks on journalists and the direct assault on the 1st amendment when a sandra's dragged out of london's ecuadorian embassy last month and arrested by british police he was slapped with

a us extradition request immediately and it only listed one charge against him and that was a single count of conspiracy to have a computer and it carries a maximum charge of 5 years it's a fairly small fry but that has been padded out substantially now by washington the charges against him now list 17 counts of violating the espionage act and press freedom groups journalists whistleblower have condemned this escalation of the case that's been us indictment of his son's football is an extremely dangerous frontal attack on the free press bad bad bad the department of justice just declared war not what we can expect in journalism and so this is no longer birju in the songe this case will decide the future of media this is madness it is the end of national security journalism and the 1st amendment all the additional 17 charges he kept on a songe each carry a maximum of a 10 year sentence which means that his

a vent chills sentence could be a 175 years in prison julian assange has been charged under the us espionage act which dates back to 1917 and so far it's only ever been used against government officials who disclosed secret information it was never used to charge journalists who publish those seat. it documents and a songe the wiki leaks team and of course the sponsors loyal supporters as i have always argued always only ever acted as a journalist which is something that the department of justice in washington refuses to acknowledge and they say that songes revealed the names of military informants in war zones and thus put their lives at risk the superseding indictment alleges to disarm which was complicit with chelsea manning a former intelligence analyst in the us army in unlawfully obtaining

a disclosing classified documents related to the national defense all of this is very much linked to chelsea manning who leaked astonished the now notorious iraq war logs and manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison but was then pardoned by then president barack obama back in 2017 she's now been subpoenaed to testify against a songe which she refuses to do so she's actually ended up back in custody as a result of that and this whole saga really entered its new legal phase last month when a songe was dragged out against his will from london's ecuadorian embassy the ecuadorian authorities revoked his claim to political asylum he's now serving out a 50 week sentence in a london prison for skipping bail back in 2012 when he originally entered the embassy he's also wanted in sweden stockholm is about to go through the motions

of issuing their own extradition request because they want him to answer questions about an alleged sexual assault dating back to 2010 which is why here originally sought asylum in the embassy fearing he'd be extradited over to the u.s. and i think what's interesting here is that a stange is a very mom might characters very divisive there are more there are some people who are more keen to see him as. a hack a rather than a hero a sort of epic journalistic proportions and yet even those that don't support him have come out now and said wow this padded out more serious case against assad from the u.s. authorities is very heavy handed i think maybe for the good. guy over a lot of secrets all over a lot of emotion which is upset a lot of people he has done what he's done i'm sure he's paid for it and. the one

year is about suitable probably and he should be protected from the american system would you like it or not. there's no there's probably no legal perfect legal system in the world you know. there's. really no i mean i think here it's every 5 years you know it's all about. this little much most information with people will be aware before him he's put himself on the line for that he will see anybody who says otherwise is going. to remind you here are some of the biggest revelations made by songe over the years in 2010 thousands of documents and classified video related to the wars in iraq and afghanistan were made public. leaked details some and other things the indiscriminate shooting of civilians in iraq year later the so-called get my files revealed routine torture squanto them obeyed and the deaths

of inmates through treatment and then in 2016 wiki leaks revealed a pro clinton media bias during the presidential campaign and a plot to push bernie sanders out of the race. well the u.s. media's picked up on the mounting concern over these new charges against the sons questioning the move of the just this department on the scale of more pain takes a closer look at the coverage. certainly there have been a number of voices who have come forward and expressed concern about freedom of the press and the implications of these charges against a son now it's important to note that the u.s. department of justice is insisting that julian assange is not a journalist however many of the voices that have stepped forward are saying that essentially that point doesn't really matter because what assad is accused of doing is what journalists do that would be publishing information making information available to the public now the new york times i have recently wrote an article on

articles published by the new york times recently regarding the julian assange case the new york times itself has in the past printed classified information provided by a leaker here is what was written in the new york times regarding the case. notably the new york times among many other news organizations have trained precisely the same kinds of documents from wiki leaks without authorization from the government it is not clear how this is legally different from publishing classified information now it's important to note that some of the voices now speaking up with concern regarding the julian assange case are voices that have not been juliana songes biggest fan in the past these are some of the very voices that have been harshly critical of wiki leaks and its activities but even they are voicing some very serious concerns in the aftermath of this new indictment this is a pretty aggressive new move by the justice department a big deal here for a 1st amendment advocates the government is now trying to assert this brand new

right to criminally prosecute people for publishing secret stuff and newspapers and magazines and investigative journalists and all sorts of different entities publish secret stuff all the time that is the bread and butter of what we do now it should be pointed out that the charges against assad have nothing to do with the 2016 elections or the publication of hillary clinton's e-mails the charges in no way raise that activity however it was chelsea manning who leaked that classified information as a member of the u.s. military who ultimately was charged chelsea manning was found guilty at trial and sentenced to 35 years in prison now she was then released after barack obama commuted her sentence as he was leaving office chelsea manning at this point is back in federal custody is back in prison after having not been willing to testify against you in a son before the grand jury however the founder of wiki leaks a son now faces far more essentially 5 times as many years in prison as chelsea manning was originally sentenced to 35 years facing up to 175 years in prison so

number of voices have spoken up about the implications of the use of the u.s. espionage act a law passed in 117 and at this point. even some of the. does that have joined in efforts to denigrate or smear julian assigned to come forward and said they are quite worried about the implications of these new charges so forces are waiting to see what could happen what could be the implications for freedom of the press in the united states if indeed songes extradited and then indeed does stand trial on these charges which seem to implicate him for the crime of publishing classified information that he was provided from a leaker from an inside source we has very differing opinions on these latest challenges from august's. we're talking a lot about 1st amendment issues and 1st amendment rights and it is very important to look at that i mean we're looking at social media mass banning censorship of certain political party outputs certain media commentators this is another platform

we're talking about these are laws that really need to be looked at the 1st amendment has come up a lot not just with twitter banning but with banning of other people and a lot of the people that are being banned are journalists are either freelance journalists or members of the media in some way and so this is a very important case to look at the prosecution of today in the sand is part and parcel of trump's war on the free press full stop and i think they'll be limited takers for that actually both by sea the u.s. and here look the reason important process exists both in the united states in america and across the world although the 1st amendment the reserve to be a news gathering and clearly where julian the psalms goes united states of america assuming it goes that there will be a court case to the supreme court related to that but if you look at where bradley manning released all they say information he was ultimately paul didn't brock obama not because there's there's

a process here what cannot be allowed to happen. a group of people in the military intelligence services. break the espionage laws i think it's a basic mark of respect to chelsea manning to get her name right and and give her due respect on that score in addition she was never a part of the administration i wish she had been her sentence was commuted which means that her conviction her conviction stands which is something that she is still being appealed and i believe will go all the way up to the supreme court i think if you look at the elements of the espionage act itself and of what's happened i mean this this could seem like a case where there could be some issues that he has to face and that he has to own up to but there also is the the facts that have come out that they haven't seen a lot. the people who were who were either killed or damaged in the light of duty because of this so there have to look at actual damages and harm that this cause it's worth remembering that that particular claim was her hearst during chelsea's court martial was no it was never proven at the court martial and information

extracted from the us government by freedom of information request subsequently has shown that in the very extensive surveys the us government did after the manning disclosures they could not find a single person who had been harmed by those disclosures he's not a proper journalist it will be for the american courts to decide whether what he did was not terrorism and that spirit knowledge or whether he is a genuine journalist my own view is that julian the sarge was dragged down to the i could say like a scared badger in the headlights and actually the truth of martha was he has been afraid of making his case to a group of juries i'm courts that actually properly constituted judge you are in i'm serious i think he needs to go to america and he needs to make his case in front of the american courts which may although you may not accept that he's a journalist but what you can't do is what he did when he ridiculed the united kingdom by hiding in the ecuadorian embassy here in the science has been

a member of australia's accredited journalism union and since 2007 julian of psalms is pretending that britain and america are like north korea i think julian charge should do is make his case and good luck to him i think it's going to be a fight but i think i think he can win it because what has happened with this superseding indictment it makes the issue absolutely crystal clear i think this is going to be a much bigger case than people imagine look at the end of the day i could scream and cry and insult others and just and just sit there and sob and baton being my feet like a baby in call conspiracy theory when i don't like something but there are facts there are laws and all of that is going to be assessed very soon. treasonous announces she's stepping down from the role of you. a prime minister speaking outside 10 downing street she expressed regret over failing to get a briggs a deal over the line despite her best efforts step down upon to lead on june 7th although remain as pm until

a successor is chosen makes may the 2nd scalp to be claimed by breaks it. will shortly be heading to buckingham palace to see a majesty the queen well tender my resignation as prime minister. today announcing that i will resign as leader of the conservative and unionist party on friday the 7th of 2 so that a success can be chosen. with a normal during gratitude to attach the opportunity to serve the country i love.

from the beginning of her premiership treason may set a goal was to deliver briggs it a task he found impossible with m.p.'s rejecting her deal 3 times the draw agreement she negotiated with the us being criticised by people across the political spectrum earlier this week she announced she tried a 4th time to get it passed and often plays a chance to vote on a 2nd referendum if they backed or. where briggs it goes next it's hard to tell what becomes of the official conservative stance depends on who succeeds by labor the main opposition party accepts the referendum results and wants a deal but not may's ukip and the brig's it party are both advocating a so-called hard brigs it where britain quits the e.u. single market the liberal democrats green party in change u.k. they all want to reverse briggs it and have a 2nd referendum mark almond of britain's crisis research institute in oxford says the country faces uncertainty and chaos. it's going to be a difficult task because the house of commons is still strongly against leaving the

e.u. except on terms which involve remaining in a customs union almost certainly so that there's going to be a disconnect between the tory party members and supporters and presumably the people who defected to the briggs's party who are mainly conservatives who want a serious break with europe and the members of parliament and so unless you change the arithmetic in the house of commons whoever succeeds mrs may if they want to leave the e.u. was going to face huge problems in the same sort can they force a new general election what will be the result of that we don't know but there's going to be a great deal of uncertainty and as i say there's this looming deadline of the 31st of october which is the end of the extension of britain's membership and the british politicians seem to forgotten that in the modern world divorce can be initiated from both sides the remaining members of the european union may decide we find you too much trouble we want you to leave now and so that could be a chaotic disorderly brigs it. president terms announced more u.s. soldiers heading to the middle east details after the break.

you know world big part of the lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks. we are not to shy to talk about our ambition to turn chinese navy into a blue water navy actually we have made it clear that if i need a century p.-l.

a will be developed hopefully into a world class military that would even clued the classic chinese navy. posts confirm the approval of arms transfers to saudi arabia the united arab emirates and jordan this part of an effort to came after president trump announced friday the u.s. troops would be sent to the middle east to maintain the status quo in the region the number being sent is much lower than recent reports suggest. we want to have protection in the middle east we're going to be sending

a relatively small number of troops a boastfully project do. some very talented people are going to the middle east right now we'll see how and we'll see what happens. it'll be about 1500 people we have seen reports in recent days that the united states was preparing to increase its troop presence in the middle east with some reports claiming that national security advisor john bolton was pushing for at least 120000 troops to be sent to the middle east to prepare for a possible war with iran there are reports of claim that that number will likely be between 510000 troops this comes after reports from u.s. intelligence claimed their wrong was directing militias to target american forces in the middle east in response to those reports the united states increased its military presence in the region and it also won as far as to call for the withdrawal of all non-emergency personnel in iraq citing threats from iran congress

has yet to pass a resolution declaring war on iran and the senate foreign relations committee felt that passed a proposal that would have required congressional approval before any military action against iran malta both senators expressed frustration with this and they pointed to the fact that without the need for congressional approval the united states can continue to wage war in the middle east. as it has done in countries like syria iraq afghanistan and gehman without any checks or balances our biggest focus at this point is to prevent iranian miscalculation to worry very much but intentionally or unintentionally weak and create a situation in which a war will take place this is about deterrence not about war that's been our worry from the beginning that this is a mind escalation with the hope that the iranians will come to the table in the end

hoping that this show of force will result in deescalating not escalate i think when you do that you're talking about a war that will go on and on and on. despite the fact that multiple u.s. officials have continued to warn about an imminent threat from iran against u.s. forces in the middle east president trump has said that he does not want to go to war with the country and at the same time iran's president has also said that he does not want to go to war with the united states and he has called for a merge and he talks to be held in a neighboring country so for now it remains to be seen just how many troops the united states well the ploy to the middle east if that number will remain at 1500 or go even higher and exactly what those troops will be used for this is a situation that's still fluid we don't know it's going to go this is clearly a message the president is sending both internally. and through your own of

course that is willing to send more forces to protect its interests in the area but up at the same time he's sending a message that this is not really an escalation in his emphasis as he reported. this news item basically said that you have ordered given the authority to the secretary of defense acting supreme. troops to the middle east also i'm sending a message that this is protected this is not a large number of forces you know where he's bald is saying that the potential is there we will depend on our interests. the numbers are not huge and they are not anywhere near what we're going to work. at least 13 people have been injured including one child in an explosion in the french city of leon local media say a suspect was seen riding a bike and dropping a parcel bomb near

a bakery the bomb detonated shortly afterwards police quickly sealed off the area no one has yet claimed responsibility although the prosecutor's office has said it has identified the suspect and while it's been confirmed there were no deaths the paris counterterrorism prosecutor has launched an investigation into an attempt to deliberately kill as a macron called the incident an attack into kirchen former u.k. police officer says he believes it was a lucky escape. it was plainly a very viable device i understand from the early reports that there were not some bolts and screws in it so it was plainly put together with attempt to injure and those sorts of devices if they go bang 2 time to kill a very seriously injured people so yes very much a lucky escape i think there's no obvious motive put it out why it doesn't fit the model of what we've seen in france and elsewhere from extreme islamist terrorism it doesn't fit the sorts of things that they've seen in the south of france from

terrorism coming from north africa so you know there's any number of potential motives there's normally jump out a page. i don't think they've had this sort of device in france now for over 10 years. ok the karen will be here with updates for you in half an hour. after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next the ball different clubs on one hand it is logical to go from fields where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and the fresh perspective i'm used to suppressing and i saw one on t.v. . i'm going to talk about

football not the or else if you think i was going to go. by the way ways of the flying here. i. i. i. i i. i i. i. i. was only days ago we were told the u.s. was preparing to strike iran for nonspecific reasons to deter nonspecific threats

then the narrative simply disappeared into thin air just exactly what is the trumpet ministrations policy regarding iran where is trump in all of this. the problem in venezuela.

within a decade my country was ruined. it lost a quarter of its manufacturing. a 1000000 people emigrated and public debt kept rising. in 2015 a government claiming to be left wing promise to force an end to. go over its agreed measures that tie the country up until 2060 and started messing privatisation. motors on the lift became depressed because it had succeeded with what the right hadn't. the right was depressed because they knew they'd lost their

is on different. in this country of mass depression however there was one word that awakens the political fervor of the. venezuela. that's. a good. thing i love to see 42 just we see. it is would send them off the busy. on another human as well again not good not though.

when a european country went through a crisis why were its politicians worried about toilet paper in latin america. i flew to caracas to find out. during the 11 hour flight i read all those sorts of articles warning me that caracas is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. if i wasn't murdered as soon as i got off the plane i'd be kidnapped mugged or die of hunger or disease. will rot in prison. venezuela's capital is indeed amongst the most danger.