headline stories a. inhumane treatment. striking on the whistleblowers. all the. british foreign secretary jeremy hunt. calling for the u.n. to refrain from making. remarks. also ahead on the program called. president.

the prime minister of the investigation into the. continued. to blame for the 20. head in the program the u.s. . in an attempt to sway reluctant european countries into believing. 247 news live from the russian capital r.t. international wherever you're tuning in from a warm welcome to the program our top story a united nations expert on torture said julian assange is being subjected to cruel and degrading treatment and that several democratic. states that's

a quote are trying to break the whistle blowers will the comments come after the special report tour visited the wiki leaks founder in london's belmarsh prison where he's currently incarcerated and reportedly extremely unwell artie's going underground spoke to niles melzer the full interview on saturday julie said that physical consequences clearly from not being able to access all medical care for several years the much more serious aspect is how he has been mentally ill the most easily affected by the extremely hostile and increasingly arbitrary environment she has that exposed street for several years so here he really shows all the symptoms that are typical for a person that has been exposed to. psychological torture with the u.n. official are coming into criticism for those comments artie's done will hawkins told me how deep the controversy could run. reports on the remarks by the un

special experts on torture has brought the media's attention but they've also drawn quite a stir online from officials in the u.k. foreign secretary jeremy hunt for one trading tweets with united nations special operator about the extent of his involvement in the legal battle surrounding julian a son's. this is wrong assigns chose to hide in the embassy and was always free to leave and face justice the un special rapporteur should allow british courts to make their judgments without his interference or inflammatory accusations. with all due respect sir mr sons was about as free to leave was someone sitting in the rubber boat in the shark pool as detailed in my formal letter to you so far you get caught some not shown the impartiality into objects to the required by the rule of law by this thread despite what some of the controversy mr saunders case has drawn from all sides which we all follow t's human rights organizations and the media

community this all stemmed of course from a report released by mr meltzer to the british authorities as well as other countries documenting the treatment of a songe it's already got response slowly not only from the u.k. foreign secretary but also from australian authorities who issued a statement just earlier today strongly denying rejecting any claims they've been complicit in any form of psychological torture saying they have provided mr assad's with all the assistance you require as mr meltzer though has insisted that these claims are not just speculation he visited to sanjian belmarsh high security prison where he's now being held alongside medical experts spent several hours evaluating him and his concerns has to be said that didn't pull any punches he's described the treatment of our songs as a psychological torture describing a deliberate concerted and sustained abuse judicial persecution and all of which we can farm and before in the. course through his time in the ecuadorian embassy in

london he made those comments to add he's going on the ground for tansy you can see the full interview as you mentioned that morrow here is a good preview of what the u.n. official said to us earlier. where it was but prisoners political prisoners of war for years and but what we do in these cases you can under the doctors the psychiatry center should call which is designed to examine potential victims of. these standards and use the evidence was well when we leave clear. jewel in the sunshine and be exposed to several. forms of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment which she will do we can only describe. well as ye shocked me with this particular case is that a single individual has been saluted and singled out by several democratic states

and persecuted systematically and it is a manner which could point to the breaking of this comes shortly after julian assange says extradition pace in the u.k. court was postponed view through ill health his lawyers stating he is unable to even hold a functional conversation the swedish authorities on their part have refused to postpone a hearing ruling on his attention in is that percentage despite calls from lawyers and human rights organizations so it's clear he faces mounting legal pressure here from all sides mr meltzer also expressed concerns about the potential for his extradition to the united states where he of course faces 17 new charges from u.s. prosecutors relating to the more serious allegation of espionage as opposed to simply computer hacking these allegations would draw a month's link the a prison sentence we're talking many decades perhaps even life behind bars so really there is no end in sight for the case of julian assad that this has dragged

on. so you draw emotions and from troubles you from all sides ranging from awful richie's legal experts on human rights organizations to of course the wider journalistic community. right now go live to new york me colvin who's a whistleblower advocate a long time supporter of julian assange the only good to have you on the program when did you last see mistress and are you able to comment on his mental states. i well i've seen some of the communications that he's written from prison he's written to a few people and he he notes in the letters that he's been writing that he's feeling unwell he knows that he's not as strong as he used to be he's feeling a bit fragile he is still trying to actively be involved in his case and you know he. he's recognizably judean in the letters that i've seen but he is fragile and i think last friday in particular that would have been the day when he received

news about this extraordinary new indictment from the united states when he's been charged with 17 counts under the espionage act charges which are you know unprecedented in their scope and in their breaths and in their severity and i can imagine the coming on top of everything that he suffered over the past few years i can see how that would have had a very bad effect on him from what you're seeing go. into his treatment in prison and what you know concerning that. well i don't think he's being treated differently from anybody else on his security level belmarsh his security though is ridiculous for somebody who has been convicted of a quite minor and totally nonviolent offense but without once right for the moment i think that he experienced an awful lot of harm in the ecuadorian embassy i went to see him quite a lot during that period i saw him decline a bit during that period and i think during the last year when he was he sort of

knew that the ceiling was about to fall in and he was dealing with a very hostile environment and he was knew that he was being continually surveilled i think that had an enormously poor effect on him and i think the tyrian significantly during that period the united nations is concerned they have said julian assange has been subjected to psychological torture accuse several countries some of the early reaction to this new your me they're questioning whether he has really been subjected to this saying it's a build up of pressure and stress with the possible extradition hanging over him for half a decade in the stead what. well so i think there's 2 aspects of this the 1st is that julian has been living under unrelenting pressure for about a decade that's not healthy for anyone but on top of that again i refer you to. this final period at the ecuadorian embassy where he was continually surveilled he was dealing with a very hostile environment they changed the water starts he would be to be horrible

to him he went weekends without having any food he his visitation was very restricted and he knew that a deal had been done and the ceiling was about to fall in on him i think that does a psychological torture and you can't just blame it on that quote or because as we know the discussions to bring his stay in the embassy the end happened between ecuador the u.k. and the u.s. that we know of and it's not as of sweden where you can or into what was going on because it was happening in public so all of these states do best responsibility for what happens to them ok so you see a lot of external and pressure do you think mr assad showed. wiki leaks or perhaps one of his many balcony speeches to perhaps more highlight his health concerns to get it out there more publicly because for the 1st time this is the 1st time a lot of people are hearing about this in the last month or 2. where well i mean i would say that you know julian even when he was in the embassy he had good days and bad days and you know the ratio was always you know he had some pretty some pretty

good days and he likes to put on the performance and when people went to see him i think that he often you know would put on a pretty brave face about things i think he did talk a bit about some of the physical problems that he experienced while in the embassy and he was unable to receive medical treatment but you know he's quite a proud guy and quiet headstrong guy he's not going to talk about. his. you know mental or emotional difficulties until it really comes to crisis point he's kind of that kind of guy basically ok listen thanks so much for coming on the program and sharing your insights on this the only cauldron whistleblower advocate speaking on the health status of julius. all right moving on now 3 more presidential hopefuls in the u.s. have joined the chorus of those calling for donald trump's impeachment it comes after the retiring special counsel robert mueller said he could not exonerate the president over claims he obstructed justice but murat against the of explains

impeachment isn't necessarily a recipe for democratic success every so often america goes crazy for impeachment it's like the flu someone gets it and before you know it everyone sneezing all well and preaching they hoped and prayed mueller would get rid of the president but that isn't how the law works he couldn't do it the opinion says that the constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system. to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing it's up to congress representatives and senators to start impeachment proceedings in the media to rile up the mob q democratic presidential candidates tripping over one another to milk this impeachment frenzy for all it's worth when we talk about a process of impeachment it is about the texans prepare for impeachment that's what

i've told my colleagues i believe that expungement proceedings will strengthen congress's hand in getting the information and the responses that they need to come to a conclusion about ultimate impeachment we took an oath to protect the car and serve the constitution of the united states of america and the way we do that is we can impeachment proceedings now strangely enough the more senior slightly wiser politicians aren't quite as nuts about bringing down the king over that probably love to but for now they seem content to merely dig deeper you don't bring an indictment where you don't put in page unless you have all the facts the strongest possible case. robert miller's assessment also makes clear that congress has a right we believe an obligation to continue our constitutionally mandated oversight without interference or stonewalling and follow the facts wherever they

may lead odd our top democrats a happy to merely continue their investigations their voters and colleagues want to impeachment now but this is politics it's a hell of a lot dirtier and more cynical than most people would believe in the smarter folk they know they're being played. hard to believe what does trump gain from impeachment and again think about it 1st according to latest polls most americans are overwhelmingly against impeaching trump 2nd the chances of trump being successfully removed from office are slim to none closer to none really sure democrats control the house of representatives but republicans run the senate they'll hardly vote against their own and 3rd the last time the

president was impeached bill clinton his approval rating soared in the aftermath by 10 percent no less you see now why trump in self is sly provoking his opponents and is he talking about impeachment they like to use the impeach word impeached you can't impeach somebody that's doing a great job impeaching make it a preacher for any reason let's impeach him because the country is so successful we will update but i say how do you teach somebody the story great job do you impeach somebody because he created the greatest economic success in the history of our country right and wrong move things in politics approval and votes of what counts and this is why top democratic presidential candidates can see him to shut out. about impeachment democrats vote has 70 percent of them want impeachment the candidates want their votes the democrat leaders want to win the presidential

election they knew that if they rush an impeachment and fail it will hurt them like hell and trump he's playing the victim he wants to see his opponents fail and barrister but as interesting as all of this sees remind me what exactly these that they're going to impeach him for right because the if will a t.v. host and political commentator steve malzberg to list out the democratic leadership understands that it won't be able to get donald trump and. nancy pelosi knows that it's politically unpopular and she would be the 1st to go it sure more in the senate he knows that even if the house peaches donald trump then it goes to the senate and they have to convict him and they need 2 thirds of the senate to convict him and schumer knows that's never going to happen it didn't happen with bill clinton now when they impeached bill clinton he won reelection so nancy pelosi

is been around long enough to understand that the public doesn't really care about this and they're fed up with this whole russia nonsense and so they know that even if they have pictures of the house it's going to fail in the senate and donald trump i believe really wants to be impeached he's kind of egging them on you know hey do it if you want it's a horrible word it's a terrible thing but he's kind of prompting them to i dare you to do it because i think and i think nancy pelosi knows it will help trump. 17 minutes past 5 pm here in moscow still to come the u.s. for a bronze age she'll get ourselves a product of freedom to win over potential buyers in europe we've got more after this.

after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next about 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 surprising. if you think.

i'm going to talk about football not be or else you can think i was going to go. by the way ways of the. hello again the united states has found a new way to market a cio gas to reluctant to european customers they've labeled it as the gaffes of freedom are. sniffed at the story. can you smell this scent of freedom where you can well check your pipes seriously you might have a gas leak and the intoxicating fumes could be all the more deadly if they come from the wrong place to with the u.s. in another year of record setting natural gas production i'm pleased that the department of energy is doing what it can to promote an efficient regulatory system

that allows for molecules of u.s. freedom to be exported to the world yep kids the next time i geography teacher asks you what's buried in that texan shale you can proudly old freedom and all mel gibson from braveheart on them and don't even think of wasting your money on the dirty desperate gas coming from the wrong places seriously for some exporting builds freedom allah kills from the us to europe is a heroic milestone akin to defeating nazis 75 years up to liberate in europe from nazi germany or could be asian the united states is again deliver a form of freedom to the european continent. and this genius freedom marketing is only the latest fad in america's push to monopolize the european gas supply chain ever since donald trump got into office his administration has been pushing the

wall becoming increasingly aggressive with time we are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy so poland and its neighbors are never again held hostage to a single supplier of energy. when germany makes a mess of oil and gas deal with russia. you're supposed to be going against russia and germany goes out and pays its ability to russia. we have not deployed the full set of tools it could significantly undermine if not outright stop the project. we emphasize that companies involved in russian energy exports are taking part in something that could prompt a significant risk of sanctions if you come up with the same actions for the car industry or german banks for the german chemical industry and so on and so on and

so on and then you tell them they have to keep their freedom. on this same person that quantum in our hands sorry this can't be honest ironically enough it seems that energy aside trump and co have done everything every possible thing to alienate europe from threats of a trade war to straight up trying to dictate policies to countries like germany so not only is it cheaper for the e.u. to get its gas from russia it naturally doesn't want to keep all of its eggs in one basket. germany is entitled to secure its energy requirements in various ways one of these places fresh natural gas i have a big problem with a 3rd country interfering in now and the deposing german industry needs more room to enhance and just supply safety. saying morlock use free them instead

of natural gas is like calling or oil a liquid bomb magnet except the law is actually rooted in reality but well in the age of i phones and all out marketing they had to try. to get more expensive. rush of the market price for gas and they have to because the u.s. made this agreement with john kirk to explore natural gas to europe and he agreed and he said ok we hate certain amount and the whole how it would be a service so then this was a try to make. it a people that it is more expensive or with the u.s. continuing to reel against europe's importing of russian gas artie's sophie shevardnadze caught up with the kremlin spokesperson to me tree peskov explain why

in particular the nord stream 2 gas pipeline project which is expected to come online next year has got washington worried the full interview by the way will air on monday. but huge international project. that we've seen out of a project is being and did before it started. well that is being performed for for the benefit of those countries supplying natural gas and receiving natural. the project there would be a very significant contribution for any of your and the project that is a huge competitor and very serious competitor for american gas producers and suppliers so instead that the main reason of course instead of fair. competition. they preferred to wild west time. so they just show the gun and they say that no no you guys here in europe you're going to

buy our natural gas and we don't care that it is at least 30 percent more expensive than the gas coming from the russians. did on a big story not malaysia's prime minister house called into question the findings of the dutch led investigation into the dawning of flight m h 17 over ukraine in 2014 year mohammed says the international inquiry which alleged that russia was complicit in the atrocity was politicized and those not follow and enough evidence to support its conclusions he also claimed malaysia has not been allowed to inspect the plane's black boxes. the accusing the russians by any means but what decent you could even be doing ukrainian government because they do have disappeared and 5 years have passed but it only seems like it happened yesterday you know i was there one of the 1st reporters on the scene so we have. a prime

minister who says malaysia accept the results of the investigation however they accepted to a certain point they accept that the plane was brought down by a russian missile but to this is that has not been concluded and this is what malaysia has a problem with the moment also there is absolutely nothing that supports the investigators claim that the weapon was actually smuggled from russia and after the d.d. was taken back from the korean territory which there were claims that the missile belongs to the russian military moscow obviously denied all those claims and what they did was actually trace its origin back to the soviet union the missile was manufactured in a soviet union but then it was routed to ukraine and this is where remained. for the rest of the time and also russian defense ministry said that the type of weapon that the joint investigation committee claimed was used is not being utilized in

the russian army in this 21st century the last time they used it was back in 1900 did the investigation then when you look at i'd like to actually come to such conclusions well we began this story with the malaysian prime minister is a saint so i think we should get back to him because he's explained it's the best in my opinion as having us and. we do know way we excluded from the examination but from the very beginning we see too much politics in the the idea was not to find how did this happen when all that. seemed to be considered it didn't need to be on russia headed mean a new troop by the examinee and making. a wholly sweeting to accept it but here we have but these who have some political interests in the mid.

all very goal promise or malaysia say this and himself political reasons behind it right from the get go from the very beginning everybody was accusing the russian federation of what had happened and also each time we heard some revelations from the investigation saying it was highly likely russia is highly likely russia that we are more than convinced that it was russia however there was never ever any undeniable proof that would say that this is exactly who the culprit is and also from the from the very start of the inquiry methods themselves well they did raise a few eyebrows around the world 1st of all ukraine was allowed to participate in the gauge and that's a country who did not close their airspace while there was an internal conflict going on in ukraine and also prime minister of malaysia was saying it and the 17 belongs to malaysia is the malaysian the airline however that country was not

allowed to participate in the investigation of the black boxes so quite a few things there that raise eyebrows around the world ok we are returning to the subject of our top story now and an in-depth discussion on what the imprisonment of whistleblower julian assange means for investigative journalism crosstalk. hello and welcome to cross talk were all things considered i'm peter lavelle summoned media and even some politicians are giving julian assange new look and it's no wonder a case can be made the u.s. crusade against assad is a blueprint for criminalizing journalism what fate is in store for a songe journalism suffer the same.

cross talking julian assange i'm joined by my guest under walker in london he is a new york observer columnist and in los angeles we crossed he is a comedian a frequent guest on the jimmy door show and the young turks as well as host of his own streaming show get your news on with ron crosstalk rules in effect that means he can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate i'll go to ron because you got up early as for this program and i much appreciate it i always do that i think . there's been a number of articles coming out one notable is by joe lauria at the consortium news that there are a number of politicians and even media outlets are taking a 2nd look after demonizing julian assange for so many years is this because they're beginning to wake up like you have and i have on our our platforms that there is this is an attack on freedom of speech or is this.