this hour's headlines stories turkey's parliament approves a bill to deploy troops to libya in order to the un recognized government in tripoli. also a top u.n. rights experts say the united states jailing of whistleblower. for refusing to testify against wiki leaks founder julian assange is tantamount to torture. and the pentagon claims there are. against american troops some threatens the islamic republic with a preemptive strike. just

a few moments into a brand new day here in moscow the 1st friday of the new decade i'm you know neal and you're welcome to our international. donald trump thinks that foreign interference could complicate the situation in libya he raised his concerns during a call with president of turkey both leaders agreed to maintain diplomatic cooperation in the conflict this comes as the turkish parliament voted on thursday to block the un recognized government in libya giving a green light to a troop deployment there libya has been in a state of war since protests and 2011 the ousting of the country's leader moammar gadhafi in recent months the u.n. backed government has been losing ground to the rival administration of general. who leads the libyan national army the government of national accord formally requested military aid from. a general haftorah as forces currently control most of

libya's territory including crucial oil and gas resources. well they are of the league believes that to the point of turkish troops will further escalate the conflict in libya neighboring egypt is also strongly condemned the decision seeing it would hold turkey foley responsible for any negative repercussions artie's policy has here. he knows that this emergency session took place this afternoon in and we did see opposition from the main opposition party and their major concern is really that it will escalate tensions in libya and that is a concern that's being expressed here across the region that number one we could see the libyan situation becoming more and more inflated and at the same time tensions trickling over elsewhere into the region now the initial mandate we understand is that ships will be sent for a period of one year of course saying that this deployment is vital for turkey for her interests in libya and also her interests in the eastern mediterranean last month and agreement was signed between and libya and according to the turkish

president in that agreement he was requested by the tripoli prime minister fires to . such troops the u.s. government has been embroiled in but her fighting with the military command of telephone have tired and his libya's national army now they've been unable to reach the city center of tripoli but there has been particularly in recent weeks a lot of fighting around the capital. well let's get the take on this not from our listeners at all is the gulf state on the lift fix i was under a welcome what is turkey's goal here does the advent of more where billions more soldiers into an already volatile situation not just lead to a more negative outcome. well i suspect it will lead to a more negative outcome because if turkey sends more troops then general have to or

will also get more support from the governments he's already there are already backing him including and especially egypt and the united arab emirates they will send their own proxies or troops or more weapons so in that sense the situation could definitely escalate in a military sense and also it's not clear what. regular army whether it be a regular army or proxy that turkey plans to use we could look we could end up with another with turkey's afghanistan if you will. but if turkey proceeds with this plan even though turkey does have old historic claims after all libya particularly tripoli dania was a part of the ottoman empire at one point so. this is this strategy fits into. ottoman strategy if you will can i bring in

the issue all verizon or says here to what extent alessandra is on cray using this move to perhaps getting greater gas drilling rights in the eastern mediterranean is it seeking to challenge maritime by andries agreed upon by greece egypt and cyprus i know that those pondering agreements just last november were agreed upon. well it certainly has some energy interests and apart from the it's challenging the greek once in the mediterranean but more importantly i think it's challenging the italian ones but by any because libya over become the leading power g.n.a.t. rather than italy which is the one so far and would probably gain a lot of leverage in access to the main oil fields that any controlled right now you alluded to this issue

a little bit earlier just to maybe broaden it the deployment cut it more. countries become heavily involved in the conflict because you've got egypt already speaking quite directly on that general have tars other bikers how do you think they react to this well they won't react favorably i think they will they will give they will see turkey is turkey's involvement as a green light to increase weapons shipments. and or provide more militias after all have to have a number of foreign fighters already fighters from sudan and chad including militia local militias and backing from military equipment from egypt and united arab emirates and perhaps even there's rumor of a russian. mercenary force as well. so i think the other forces will get will see this as

a green light to proceed because of turkey's intervention that said libya the remains it seems in the hands of others right or rather than and of libya i'm just thinking on a human level as we go into a new year a new decade turkish families do you think the turkish public are going to be supportive of this decision particularly if lives there are songs there are songs lives are lost in libya what kind of reaction do you think's going to come from the general public there. yet that is a very that's an interesting question because so far. he has not really been involved in foreign calls and you know. and it will be a new and novel. approach their new one will have to really intensify international talk and to rally the population behind him i mean he has had some support but it was a coup you might remember in 2016 i believe who attempted to so there are

forces within the country that are against him and military intervention could weaken. his own support and intensify that of the opposition so it is risky i think everyone is using this as leverage rather than actually he's going to buy time he's using this to try to use it as a threat i think is not going to send troops right away so fast ok very interesting get your take a listen roberto unless the gulf state alexa very happy new year to you as well thank you very much. to moving on now a senior u.n. official has launched a scathing attack on the united states over its ongoing detention of whistleblower chelsea manning seeing her treatment amounts to torture special repertoire needles medals are made to claim in a letter to the u.s. government which was written in november but as only now just come to light. the

practice of coercive diprivan of liberty for civil contempt involves the intentional infliction of progressively severe mental and emotional suffering for the purposes of coercion and intimidation at the order of judicial authorities such deprivation of liberty does not constitute a circumscribed sanction for a specific offense but an open ended progressively severe measure of coercion for filling all the constitutive elements of torture or other cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of chelsea manning was a u.s. military intelligence analyst but was arrested in 2010 for supplying classified information to wiki leaks though she was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 35 years in prison president obama commuted her sentence just before he left office but she was arrested again last year for declining to testify against wiki leaks publisher joining us lawyer knocked of us kevin zeese explain to us how the law is

being used to coerce moly. in a grand jury which is a secret process before someone is indicted or you before a prosecutions occurring to determine whether someone should be prosecuted this is a power of the court to coerce someone into testifying now this law can allow a person in the united states to be held for the length of the grand jury in order to coerce them to testify before the grand jury and no longer serves the purpose it was intended to serve it's now become a weapon of prosecutors it was initially designed to protect people who are being investigated the reason they're kept secret because it trying to protect people being investigated before they were indicted so you don't know that they're being investigated but in the longer serves our purpose and now serves the purpose of being a tool for prosecutors that's abused and i think chelsea manning is a victim of that abuse the report by niels meltzer does give an additional air of

legitimacy to the case of manning to really back up all of the things that manning's supporters that the song supporters have been saying now for over 6 months and that this is unjust this is unfair the trying to create something new this is the whole point of coerced trying to coerce manning to come up with something that the o.j. can use to make a real case against the sunday shows you how flimsy this is this is the degree degradation of the justice system in the united states and also in the u.k. as well in the case of the songes more like more resembles a banana republic style facade of a state judicial apparatus this is all part of a campaign to reframe into reframes rulings on change and weekly leaks as if from a journalist and a publication to being a cyber criminal in a hostile foreign intelligence agency the entire case all the indictments against

dishonor are based on that we frame in principle. and they are trying to get chelsea manning to give them something to actually make that miracle work and she's not she's not volunteering anything and this is frustrating the us system tremendously. for being much better he's also behind bars in the british prison after being dragged out of the ecuadorian embassy in london where he'd spent the previous 7 years. is story. few buildings in the walls have. as much scrutiny as this one here at the door and. in those 4 walls for 7 years possibly the most famous whistle blow in time to get a song let's hold off until 82019248 world with sensationally dropped out by british authorities.

for the wiki leaks founder this was a huge the trial by the latin american country that had sheltered him since 2012 aquittal said the relations had soured with the songe and his bad behavior trick of them opening the door to the police and revoking his asylum but it's worth noting that just a bit acquittals bank account got an almighty boost with a $4200000000.00 loan from the i.m.f. where the u.s. has huge voting rights a staunch is currently sitting in prison in the country's capital. to meet sentence but jumping bail in 2012 but many are saying that what he's been handed is a death sentence because over 60 doctors wrote an open necked government saying that he might die in prison britain for its part denies any wrongdoing the allegations mr son she was subjected to torture and found it and hold false the

u.k. is committed to upholding the rule of law. and ensuring that no one is ever bought it but loved its defense rings hollow in light of the reports by many organizations including the new web which claims that as a scientist health continues to deteriorate authorities are simply standing idly by the blatant and sustained arbitrariness shown by both the judiciary and the government in this case suggests an alarming departure from the u.k.'s commitment to human rights and the rule of law unless the u.k. urgently changes course and believe us the inhuman situation mr songes continued exposure to arbitrariness and abuse may soon end up costing him his life but as sanchez battle for his well being is not only fight on his hands ever since wiki leaks exposed gross misconduct by the u.s. government washington has been pushing for his extradition on espionage charges giving him

a helping hand the british government despite international outcry the u.k. home secretary signed a us extradition request putting us on that one step closer towards being charged for publishing classified information and conspiring to hack the top of my computer the 18 charges that washington has put forward could carry a maximum sentence of 175 years behind bars the reaction all over the wild people are crying foul they say that this is not a case about punishing a crime but of silencing for us julian or singled out for special treatment for one reason only here's the truth he's such an innocent important man is because he is a freedom fighter however much you dislike because. his case is the most important for media freedom this is just. miss rule of law and operation.

3. washington's bid to get assigned stateside was also helped by not the european country sweden the scandinavian nation was investigating a rape allegation against the whistleblower and would have been within its rights to request his extradition to face trial since that case predated the u.s. request london would have been obliged to send a stange to stockholm fast but sweden has now closed that investigation conveniently removing the final obstacle for the americans funny how it all worked out a song just extradition hearing is set for factory 2020 but in light of these recent talents of the bands here's rubbing the does little charts of play this close to sure you know what and of course what music. you know that goes for special rapporteur on torture certain corrupts and stress that the entire system in the u.k.

including the judiciary and the media has forgotten when it comes to julian. you know before you call course earlier this year. was a confirmation that what. seems to be true that you are. just a lot of what journalists fear trial into while one always hopes that may lead to justice will prevail u.s. authorities have rather spared a client wired for a start so it might well turn out that when a country's dirty secrets are at risk of being exposed justice that is a word that's up for interpretation so as to tailor our team. it appears the trumpet ministration is giving the new year off to a confrontational start after sending fresh warnings to iran the u.s. defense secretary claims there is evidence to iran is planning attacks against american troops on the u.s. military is gearing up for

a preemptive strike or to scale up and has more on what mark asked her to say on the matter. in his statement on behalf of the u.s. military and department of defense he basically cited a recent attacks on u.s. personnel and said that another strike against iran or against iranian aligned forces could be in the works this is what he said through some indication that they may be planning additional attacks if that happens and by the way if we get word of attacks some type of indication will take preemptive action as well to protect american forces to protect american lives now on tuesday a crowd of protesters stormed the u.s. embassy in baghdad in response the usa said it would deploy $750.00 more u.s. troops to the middle east furthermore $100.00 u.s. marines were moved from kuwait to protect the embassy in a show of force we had the united states helicopters flying over the compound

firing flares as kind of a warning at protesters the embassy on rest came in the aftermath of a u.s. strike against forces in iraq and syria they say have ties to iran 25 people were killed dozens were injured in the aftermath of this strike we had protests at the u.s. embassy in baghdad. was. a good god however we have donald trump on twitter iran will be held fully responsible for the lives lost or damaging if any of our facilities they will pay a very big price this is not a warning it is a threat happy new year as tensions escalate in the middle east the united states continues to blame iran for incidents and say that it will respond to this pattern of tension between the united states and iran tension that has been asking lading

seems to be continuing now that we enter the new year. let's delve a little further into this i'm hoping to say a. political analyst speaking to us this hour from london joins us on the program good to see you and the issue of provocation it's something we hear quite a lot from washington but us are strikes kill 25 members of a pro a reunion militia in iraq and syria last weekend i would suggest that that was provocative enough in the 1st place. i agree with you entirely i mean the word probably cation is used so use lee and for the last 16 yaz says the sort of 2003 attack on iraq. usa has been provoking the iraqis to take action against the usa and there have been multiple level of problems that have been created in iraq prior to

2003 and you may all recall that madeline albright the secretary of state at that time very proudly and happily. to the question when someone asked whether a 1000000 lives was worth it and she probably said yes it was worth killing off a 1000000 people in iraq prior to 2003 due to sanctions due to attacks on iraq no fly zone so really continuously u.s. has been provoking the iraqis and provocation you know if one can find this from the word that provocation one would use it but the reality is that you are sick continuously pokes its fingers in of the nation's eyes. because washington keeps saying it doesn't want a war with iran and then warns of a preemptive strike why those mixed messages. well i think it's not only

mixed messages but at the end of the day you know the administration of a mr trump is really acting like gangsters whether they're new york gangsters the chicago gangsters threatening nations saying we will do x. y. z. said so that they may comply with the what do you have to remember that usa for the last 16 years has spent over a trillion dollars with lossless or loss of $5000.00 american soldiers and many thousands wounded and at the end of it what did usa gate after the recent attacks on the popular mobilization forces the whole of the iraqi politicians were really against what the usa did so one can see that what they were lying what it was strategy and i think really the leader of this law

make republic of iran ayatollah hum and i you know for the 1st time he responded to mr trump's tweet and he said that if you are logical and that it's highly unlikely he said that for the u.s. administration to be logical that when you sort of bomb people when you main people in other countries and you think that they're not going to react i think is foolish it's illogical what's your sense to do you expect a real confrontation between iran and america. look i think this is a discussion that analysts commentators for the last 40 years have been saying that whether there will be direct confrontation between iran and usa i think usa realizes that yes a case of powerful nation it has got thousands of what i think currently 60000 troops surrounding iran in one is standing in iraq in kuwait the in

bahrain all over the place but even then the usa is under the board and really realizes that if they do attack iran they may start the war and they are generous and money of iran has said that it really ron who will decide when that war would end and i think that's the reality why iran u.s. is reluctant to go back and shapiro thanks for your time this ari shapiro's very political analyst live from r.t. international. enqueue. china has reportedly suspended a joint shanghai london stock exchange project over britain's position on protests in hong kong which some in beijing view as meddling now the link up in question was launched in june last year was meant to enable british and chinese firms on precedent to docsis to each other's markets china's foreign ministry spokesperson was vague when asked the both the matter but expressed hopes for further cooperation between the countries. we hope the u.k.

would provide just open a nondiscriminatory business environment for chinese enterprises and create conditions conducive to principal corp between china and the u.k. in various fields yet the back drop to this of course the months of protests in hong kong anti government demonstrators there a former british colony helping calling on london to intervene while china has continually stressed to the international community including the u.k. that it is purely a domestic issue more than a 1000000 people reportedly turned out for a demonstration of hong kong for the new year around 400 arrests were made.

well i spoke to financial come to charlie boyd because of course there is a lot of money at stake here he believes that if the project has been suspended it was all about sending signals. it's certainly going to be an interesting year i don't think it's particularly you know significant economically right now but it's certainly sends a signal i think the chinese have also started to realize especially in the last couple of years that we are entering a global recession whatever that whatever form that takes whether it's the next month or the next couple of years and trying to quote a good position especially with with. looking for reelection later this year and he's backtracking on the a lot of that stuff. it just makes sense for them to send a message to the u.k.

that they're on the radar as well especially at this important time for england the u.k. rather. ok another story we're closely following today the sputnik news agency has a nonstarter it's shutting down its bureau in the a story in capitol tallent after dozens of its employees resigned saying the feared criminal prosecution artie's medina cotch those are of course the story. this but i think agency published a statement on the 1st of january saying 35 perfect staff and a star in the air had terminated their labor contracts and resigned fearing possible criminal prosecution now the sputnik agency in astronomy is controlled by the russian state media organization. unfortunately experience dictates that despite the apparent absurdity of the government's threats criminal prosecution of journalists is a reality in today's europe last month a telling a story to us towards any of that stuff member could be prosecuted you to the

european same sions against russia and if that would have happened they would be facing up to 5 years behind bars now moscow sees this demand as an obvious attempts to silence the russian president commented on the situation he offered support to the journalists who work for the agency. you do a lot all sorts of attempts to still pure activity can go unnoticed i'm very surprised because russia is always accused of all evils including pressure on independent media and they do the same that they accuse us of this is cynical government measures such as restrictions can't work because you will hold those who want to do schooled between our countries we can't allow it you must try to work in those countries the risk of your information is tiny and government continues to insist that it is not doing anything wrong with the country's foreign minister said that targeting sputnik was about enforcing e.u.

sanctions and in our town is stolen and officials also froze the bureau's assets and asked. to vacate the offices that they were renting by the end of february now or make a stand and said that they plan to appeal to a number of international organizations we consider the actions of the thordis to be. remiss and claim to be used to such international organizations as the un the council of europe and e.c. h. are demanding the proper amount of this unprecedented case of violation of freedom of speech in recent years and measures to ensure the right about journalists to carry out their professional activities and concerns about this situation have been forced by a number of european officials in particular at the o s c e representative on freedom of the media cold honest anya to refrain from against journalist meanwhile sputnik us dani as

a website will not be completely shut down it was reported that the website will continue its work as it will be reorganized in a way that avoids permanent pressure from the estonian authorities. ok to african nation of 2 a developing story 18 people are confirmed dead. it was a result of a military plane crash in the region of west war this thursday 4 children are among those killed it's been reported the plane crashed 5 minutes after takeoff from the airport who was delivering aid to the area an area hit by recent deadly tribal fighting all updates in this story we will bring it to you here at the program. ok a reminder for a look back at some of the best and worst 29000 to offer a web site you covered all sorts being reviewed there.