turkey's parliament approves a bill to deploy troops to libya in order to back the embattled u.n. recognized government in tripoli we look into the ramifications. expert says the united states jailing of whistleblower chelsea manning for refusing to testify against wiki leaks founder julian assange is tantamount to torture. and the pentagon claims that there are signs of iran plotting an attack against american troops and threatens of the islamic republic with a preemptive strike. broadcasting

live from our studios in moscow this is our international and whether you're watching from st petersburg or in new york this is we're going to have you with us right 1st we're starting with some news that is just coming in multiple blasts have been reported near baghdad international airport the airport is said to be closed as of now with all flights suspended the rockets were apparently targeting a nearby military base local media says 12 iraqi servicemen have been injured in the attack of course our newsroom is keeping up on the situation and we will bring you more updates as the big come in. now donald trump thinks of foreign interference could complicate the situation in libya he raised his concerns during a call with president to one of turkey both leaders agreed to maintain diplomatic cooperation in the conflict this comes after the turkish parliament voted on thursday to back at the un recognized government in libya giving a green light to a troop deployment there and libya has been. in

a state of war since protests in 2011 and the ousting of the country's leader moammar gadhafi in recent months the u.s. backed government of national court has been losing ground to the rival administration of general. who leads the libyan national army general forces currently control most of libya's territory including crucial oil and gas resources the un backed government meanwhile formally requested military aid from last month . the arab league believes that the deployment of turkish troops will further escalate the conflict in libya neighboring egypt a has also strongly condemned the decision saying it would hold turkey fully responsible for any negative repercussions artie's falsely or has been. we know 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 of all tensions in libya and that is a concern that's been 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 troops will be sent for a period of one year of course and course saying that this deployment is vital for turkey for her interests in libya and also her interests in the eastern mediterranean last month an 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 send such troops the government has been embroiled in both her fighting with the military command of tar and his libya 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 and political analyst world earlier told by a colleague our growth is going to use its military deployment for political gains

. turkey doesn't want defeat or at least turkey's not going there to combat at least not initially i expect a very immediate deployment of $200.00 marines there to serve as a stopgap at least raise the cost of hopped hours of pensive on tripoli knowing that there is a turkish presence knowing that if any of them are harmed there would be a much greater retaliation from making the star and his ellen a think twice before bombing the bombing tripoli president add to what has tried to reach out to his nato allies especially his e.u. allies multiple times this is basically a last resort right now when diplomacy doesn't work unfortunately there comes a time where you have to flex your hard power and there is an important saying what happens on the military field heeds the diplomatic table we're seeing turkey become more and more now the major player in not only libya in the north africa and the east and the middle east turkey is showing that it's not going to shy away and

president add one is willing to use his military muscle to get the results he wants at the diplomatic table as well. a senior u.n. official has launched a scathing attack on the united states over its ongoing detention of whistleblower chelsea manning saying her treatment amounts to torture special repertory kneels meltzer made the claim in a letter to the u.s. government which was written in november but has only just now 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 chelsea manning was a u.s. military intelligence analyst but was arrested in 2010 for supplying classified information to wiki leaks she was convicted in 2013 and then 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 julian a songe lawyer and activist kevin zeese explained to us how the law is being used to coerce manning. in a grand jury which is a secret process before someone is indicted or you go for it prosecutions occurring to determine whether someone should be prosecuted this is a power of the court to coerce someone in to testify now this law it 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're 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 a staunch supporters have been saying now for over 6 months this is unjust that this is unfair they're trying to create something new this is the whole point of coerced trying to coerce manning to come up with something that the d.o.j. can use to make a real case against the sunday shows you how flimsy this is this is the degrade 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 refrain and to reframe julius aunt and weekly leaks as it is from a journalist and a publication to being a cyber criminal and 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 u.s. system tremendous. joy in a song is not fairing much better he is also behind bars in a british prison after being dragged out of the ecuadorian embassy in london where he had spent the previous 7 years taylor commons. few buildings in the walls have come under as much scrutiny as this one here at the door and. in those

4 walls for 7 years possibly the most famous was a pro who time to get a song let's hold off until age 2019 to 48 year old was sensationally dropped out which should start sees. 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 triggered them opening the door to the police and revoking his asylum but it's worth noting that just a bit acquittals bank account gotten only 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 belmarsh prison in the country's capital so if

you have 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 neck to the u.k. 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 founded and hold false the u.k. is committed to upholding the rule of law and ensure and. no one is ever bought it but loved its defense rings hollow in light of the reports by many organizations including the web which claimed 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 under alleviates 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 wellbeing is not only fight on his hands ever since wiki leaks exposed gross misconduct by the us 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. his case is the most important for media freedom this is just. miss rule of law and operation. 3 washington's bid. to get asylum 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 stanch to stockholm fast but sweden has now closed that investigation conveniently removing the final obstacle for the americans funny how it all wiped

out a son just extradition hearing is set for factory 2020 but in light of these recent talents of the band's fears are growing that does little chance of play discourse sure i mean what and of course what the united nations special rapporteur on torture is. corrupt and stress that the entire system in the u.k. including the judiciary and the media has to go on when it comes to julian. you know before you could course earlier this year this was a confirmation that what. seems to be true that you. just lost that what journalists fear troy 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 is to secrets are risk of being exposed to justice that is

a word that's up for interpretation so as to tailor r.t. and. it appears the trumpet ministration is getting the new year off to a confrontational start after sending fresh warnings to iran the us defense secretary claims there is evidence of tehran is planning attacks against american troops and the us military is gearing up for a preemptive strike on his killer martin has more on what mark asper had 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 the new act and by the way we get word of attacks is 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 political analyst shabbir razvi thinks that the u.s. has invested too much in iraq with no real gains to show. the administration of a mr trump is threatening nations saying we will do x. y. dead so that they may comply with it but what you have to remember that us if 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 us a get after the recent attacks on the popular mobilization forces the whole of the iraqi politicians were really against what the usa did when you mean people in other countries and you think that they're not going to react i think is foolish it's illogical. for let's go back to our breaking news story this hour multiple blasts have been reported near baghdad international airport and you can see some video here of a car believe the airport is said to be closed right now with all flights suspended this is. only showing the site of the explosions and the rockets reportedly fell near facilities of the iraqi army and international military coalition local media says 12 iraqi servicemen have been injured in the attack again. on top of the situation you can see some harrowing images of the explosions there and we will

keep on top of the story bring you. more news after a short break this is. join me every.

welcome back to international china has reportedly suspended a joint shanghai a london stock exchange project over britain's position on protests in hong kong which some in beijing view as meddling and the link in question was launched in june last year and was meant to enable british and chinese firms unprecedented access to each other's markets china's foreign ministry spokesperson was vague when

asked about the matter but expressed hopes for further cooperation between the countries. i'm showing you we hope the u.k. will provide a fair just open and nondiscriminatory business environment for chinese enterprises and create conditions conducive to principal corp between china and the u.k. in various fields the backdrop to this i v in months of protests in hong kong anti-government demonstrators there a former british colony have been calling on london to intervene while china has continually stressed the international community including the u.k. that it's a purely domestic issue more than a 1000000 people reportedly turned out for demonstration in hong kong for the new year around 400 arrests were made i.

was financial commentator charlie boyle believes that if the project has been suspended it was all about sending a message. missoni going to be an interesting year i don't think it's particularly you know significant economically though right now but it 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 china isn't quite a good position especially with with. looking for reelection later this year and he's backtracking on the whole a lot of that stuff and 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 u.k. rather. are the sputnik news agency has announced that it is shutting down its a bureau in the estonian capital tallinn after dozens of its employees resigned saying they feel a criminal prosecution artie's medical journal is on top of the story for us. this but i think agency published a statement on the 1st of january saying $35.00 foot staff and a star on the air had terminated their labor contracts and resigned fearing possible criminal prosecution now the sputnik agency in the stoniest controlled by the russian state media organization that i.c.c. void 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 just told. that stuff members could be prosecuted due to the european

sanctions 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 attempt to silence the russian president commented on the situation he offered support to the journalists who work for the agency. you do a lot. 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 this they accuse us of this is cynical measures such as restrictions can't work because you will hold those who want to do schooled between the countries we can't allow it you must try to work in those countries the risk of your information the astonishing 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.

saying sions and in our town is still in officials also froze the assets and asks. to vacate the offices that they were ranting by the end of february now or me just on the i said that they plan to appeal to a number of international organizations we consider the actions towards this to be boys. to be used to such international organizations as the un who is the council of europe and e.c. h. are demanding a proper system into of this unprecedented case a 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 called honest to refrain from against journalists meanwhile. the websites will not be completely shut down it was

reported that the website will continue as warrick asset will be reorganized in a way that avoids permanent pressure from the estonian authority this. now a short recap of our developing story this hour multiple blasts have been reported near baghdad international airport the airport is said to be closed right now with all flights suspended it is the middle of night there in baghdad take a look at this video it is unconfirmed but apparently it shows at the site of the explosions the rockets reportedly fell near facilities of the iraqi army and international military coalition local media says 12 iraqi servicemen have been injured in the attack also the latest report says coalition anti-missile systems repelled another rocket strike. this is art international back with more news you know that's about 34 and a half minutes there was. oh. mother

who used leaks last leave. when you. look at that is to close most of the book movie the subpart.

it's going to it's about some new yorkers. just a little shy. but . welcome to the alex salmond show one who bought the ball. if you new year from him sinking in finland but the finns are just happy new year they seem to be happy all year round because

they've just been voted the world's most contented country though in last week's show we asked the question whether it's the excellence of philly said to cation this a secret a finnish happiness in this week's show we come to the political system and that's where the consensus politics of finland of under 10 the social and economic model which exchanges high pass no taxation for the excellence of social services summit in this just been elected the new finish prime minister at 34 years old the youngest prime minister in any democracy on earth and furthermore she leads a 5 party coalition all of which are led by women and there's that remarkable fact indicate the pot should finish politics or rather does underline the continuity of the consensus politics of this not that country there to examine the prospects for finnish politics in the new year who better than alexa skewness

editor in chief of the helsinki times. now let's discuss the the coming to power of salam or even must be a great boon for for journalists helsinki been the whole world is interested and and this young woman the youngest prime minister on the planet so as a bit a lot of international journalists beating a path to the helsinki times to see how she got to go on yes absolutely it has been tremendous interest from international media and even you know hillary clinton to eat it about the new government of finland that. wrote in finnish that vassar or me go to finland and i have also received several e-mails and. from international media who want to know more so i look as good copy for the helsinki times i would imagine yes there are plenty of both the formation of the government has not only has 5 parties be led by

a young woman but 2 thirds of the new cabinet are women as well yes that's right it's even for finn that this is a new record of female leaders and especially their age is very young but tell us about the finnish politics men for our international audience or you know a 5 party coalition the social democrats who are the lead party the prime minister's party here they have less than 20 percent of the vote in the elections just passed when that is a quite remarkable range with how do you manage to keep coherent leading 5 parties in a coalition of bust like helping cats well this is this is not uncommon with the finnish finnish politics it has happened several times that there are many different parties and especially these are small parties who get just a fraction of the wards they so.