protect its own existence is. true. i. came to the united states because of mental health concerns. at different points questions press freedom. for journalists however the u.s. has already and. we speak to some of the.

whatever. this is. just because he's a. well the decision could potentially. still sends a chilling message. to you. breaking news this hour a u.k. court has rejected a u.s. extradition request for. due to concerns about his mental health america says it

will appeal the decision and still wants to try him on charges of espionage meanwhile the president of mexico was offered political asylum for the wiki leaks founder and his supporters outside the courthouse could hardly believe the verdict when it was made. i mean. it's true was you are you. are are you. was of. 6 as long as julian has to endure suffering in isolation as an unconvicted prisoner in belmarsh prison and as long as our children continue to be the rest of their father's love and affection. we cannot celebrate. we will

celebrate the day he comes home a glimpse of hope. the new year and hopefully a new era. a day. was when. we have. a window for journalists and. we have absolutely and that was was she having read eunice on does not fit in the story a moment outside the for her was charged i was ready to actually date you innocence to the united states has been a decision based on was meant to house friends and did was to be exercised to the united states it is a very unexpected result because my judgment to the last moment the judge had said

that the case was not as politically motivated he said she said he would not he would face it in the united states under the u.s. constitution for that 11th hour with the judge actually said no to do so and would not be actually i said to the united states that it really is incredible scenes. just heard from star morris the partner of judy in the sun she says actually right now we cannot fully celebrate we can only fully celebrate when judas sarge is port hope but this is the 1st step to just as we've also heard from the wiki leaks editor and cheap christian who roughed her up to and he said i can yet it's not when featured in just yet nor win for jonas and just yet but there should be more pressure applied on to the united states for the u.s. government to finally say enough is enough because of course judah soldier has been wanted by the united states for his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of the united states and if he were to be found guilty he would have been sentenced up to 175 years behind prison that's

under the u.s. is indictments of 18 counts under the espionage act for spying and publishing tons of fire documents all related to the war in iraq and afghanistan plus one of conspiracy to hack a government computer to publish these documents as well though according to today's sun just defense the united states was trying to prosecute yunus on the political grounds it was a politically motivated case it said of course if it is politically motivated that would therefore mean that you know a soldier was exempt from actually titian under the u.k. you asked extradition treaty however the prosecutor said the absolute opposite that it was not politically motivated and in fact you're a songe endangered the lives of hundreds of thousands of people for publishing these classified documents so although today is a victory in essence for june a songe the judge did of course say that it was not politically motivated enough a serious concern for journalism going forward on the future of journalism as well

you know i spoke to rebecca vincent from reporters without borders and she says that journalists need to be protected so we're relieved very much and share the court's assessment of his serious mental health arrests but we're concerned that the rest of the decision leaves the door open for possible other prosecutions on similar grounds because in. well that point until she came to that point of the decision it seemed very much that the case would have been in favor of the prosecution so without the mental health issues at play somebody else in that same situation could have indeed been extradited to the u.s. to face charges there so this pointed out broader systemic issues that need to be addressed the not the astronaut act must be reformed it locks the public interest of fans if any publisher any journalist any source finds themselves subject to similar proceedings they cannot adequately defend themselves so the 3rd it hit today was one thing story medical grounds of course students soldiers defense team said that he was totally unfit to travel to the united states both in terms of his physical how auntie's mental how the post units are just being holed up in london's

ecuadorian embassy for a whopping 7 and a half is that he was put into a belmarsh prison for almost 2 years so his mental and physical health has been seriously deteriorating but it wasn't just his mental and physical health here in the united kingdom but what could happen to him if he were to be sent to the united states he would have had to serve that sentence if found guilty and convicted in any text colorado jail that's one of america's most notorious jails in fact home to some of the world's worst criminal lost a large truck killed terrorist you name it there in that most notorious prison and that's exactly what you did a soldier was going to be had it so that huge sentence that prospect of the future like that was something that really meant a judeans meant to house was really at breaking point i his lawyer says that he was having suicidal tendencies and those hundreds of times a day so that is pretty much the key reason why the judge today said that that is a future that's a fate that he was not going to be facing having said that as i do mention it's not

in terms of journalistic freedoms we're still out a point where the bucket is not over just yet we understand that a decision on whether or not you're in a search will be granted bail or not will come on wednesday and of course the united states is appealing this verdict today. they still are on the hunt for judas origin essence they still want to see judas sold extradited to the united states to go back to really isn't over yet but in time to support his own campaign is it outside the criminal court here today it wasn't just you know so much that was in the dock but actually the fundamental tenets on tricycles of the rights and freedoms of expression and the press but also for the public to access information as well so it is a big day for tourists but there's still a long way to go when it comes to journalistic freedom what we did discuss to the implications of the announcement of some of the scientists more prominent supporters outside the court. i wasn't sure what to expect but i'm so happy that

it's. been discharged for whatever reason it's fantastic i mean there's so many people who've been campaigning for an awful long time against this injustice when he's gone through 1011 years of hell 1st under house arrest then in belmarsh prison for the simple crime of journalism which isn't a crime he's standing up for freedom of speech he's done nothing but tell the truth he's been treated as a political prisoner object or the east mental health has suffered an unknown people opposed to him has said that that is the case this this is not just about him personally it's about journalism it's about freedom it's about freedom of speech it's about freedom of the press and all those things are being undermined both in this country by the actions of the people in the united states they're trying to get him to be extradited in the pushing this action here was a really absolutely remarkable decision 95 percent of the judges remarks were in favor of the us i mean favor of extradition she threw my political the penalty

through our public interest depends only in the last moment for a decision that she say the american prison system so brutal so pressing to you would be at risk of suicide if i sent him to be america for america saw and not going to do it now this is the end of the story we will go to a higher court so this by all is just because it is a terrific day what she said about darkies much more worrying because she said there's no public interest there's no we there's no defense for journalists. like proper journalists or you to actually do what most journalists do because mr wilson there's no public interest but these are these were very very bad remarks by the way this is a victory and the chains you need to celebrate the fulton thing is the final result julian room be extradited according to the decision of the judge joe is very who are saying that the only reason they're. the reason why this study sion has been

stopped is his fragile health condition and the high risk of suicidal journalists around the world should be very very worried about today's outcome is very very worrying darts the judge basically creamy now lies journalistic activities in these a political case. and. it's not over it's not over yet well to give you some background then to all of this you've done of looks at the events that led up to a songes long fight for freedom. jr and his son has come a long way from an obscure activist to freedom fighter or traitor depending on who you are one thing you can deny him though is that he led the charge that we kill leaks to dig up the secrets that america's intelligence colossus spent billions of

dollars burying and he succeeded. field reports from iraq military logs from afghanistan sensitive documents from guantanamo bay none of which made the u.s.

look particularly good but would argue that it's closer to being a high tech terrorist it isn't it i mean international community i'm not for the death penalty so if i'm not for the death i don't want to do it illegally shoot the son of a. great discredit to this nation should be assassinated he should be treated as an enemy combatant it didn't take long for a son to experience firsthand what it means to be uncle sam's public enemy the us went after the whistleblower launching a probe into his actions at the same time a seemingly unrelated sexual assault investigation was opened. in sweden a son himself though claimed it was all part of americas to extradite him by all means possible the pressure mounted so when 2012 a son requested asylum from ecuador and holed up in the country's embassy in london this kicked off what would become

a long 7 years of confinement with even the u.n. calling for an end to this suffering various forms of deprivation of liberty to which julian assad has been subjected constitute a form of arbitrary detention the working group maintains that the arbitrary detention of mr assigned should be brought to an end instead the old things short from bad to even worse for a son ecuador's new president who was looking for warmer relations with the u.s. seem to take personal offense when we can leaks wrote about corruption allegations against him sanj was shown the door artie's video agency ruptly turned out to be the only outlet to catch the moment a son was literally carried out of the building some 7 years after he stepped in it . was.

once u.k. law enforcement got their hands on a son they threw him in prison a proper one but the u.s. government is looking to try him under american law where the whistleblower faces more than a 100 years behind bars now every cording that emerged in line has sparked another wave of calls to pardon the whistleblower in the tape ironically julian a son she was trying to help u.s. authorities minimize the fallout of the 2011 leaks. which have in. our view is that it's more or. but we have been calling. me. every day trying to trying. to hold back on trump since you're given pardons to people please consider putting those who at great personal sacrifice expose the deception and criminality of those in the deep state mr president if you grants only one act of clemens the turing the time in

office please free julian a'sssos you alone can save his life on hoping that he will pardon julian a songe it's the right thing to do so far trump has remained deaf to the pleas the junior and his son just saw go has been going for so long it feels like it could be over any minute but flashing back to how it's been going so far it seems like we've just turned the page on another chapter due to the sounds of for what i have known of him is a very resilient person but he has been brought to the breaking point to 10 years of persecution. joint persecution for political reasons by sweden by the united kingdom by the us by ecuador and none of this is being addressed she's not being compensated and not receiving justice for the ill treatment you know suffered she should not have been brought to

a point where you are suicidal you have been prosecuted to a point where you have been broken and now they basically the system is ripping him out and you know obviously that is a legal obligation but in the fence the system has succeeded in intimidating the world and half in the message that this is what's going to happen to you if ever you have the idea of publishing our dirty. secrets and making that known to the world. well let's just remind you them what happened because a few hours ago a british judge did rule against extraditing jr sanch to the united states due to concerns over his mental health the u.s. has said it will appeal the course decision because in london says the discharge will remain in custody ahead of the appeal but also said a decision on whether to release the wiki leaks co-founder on bail will be taken on wednesday now there were huge celebrations outside the london courthouse when the

judge announced the verdict human rights activist and former british diplomat craig murray who was present during the hearing spoke outside the court after the decision. we are delighted delighted but here soon going to be a free man again today we are swept away by our joy. c was. be with us i'm delighted we have seen some humanity at the end of the process it doesn't really matter in the sense how over justice has been breached even if it's been breached by a peculiar process. like ours he ok let's have a look at some other world news that's been happening today because in america the coronavirus vaccine rollout isn't quite going to plan the country missed its target of inoculating 20000000 people by the end of 2020 and only managed to give the job

to fewer than 3000000 saskia taylor picks up the story. it might be a new year but it's cool to buy the same old problems on the fust day of 2021 the us hit $20000000.00 kovac 19 cases but just out was before as the clock struck midnight thousands flooded the streets hoping that the next $365.00 days would just be that little bit that. i've been scared i don't know what will happen 1st rule for 2021 don't talk about 2020 and i believe this is there we go she started here we did. that everything is going to get better actually working at the c.b.s. and his own crazy with the colby vaccine and everything right now we really hope

that everything goes back to normal this christmas i knew here many wished for a return to our old normal lives something top medical advisors have been promising was just around the corner by the time we get into all of 2021 we could be approaching some level of normality tuns out though the very thing they said would quite literally set us free the vaccine is cool top in its own trauma president trump health experts in operation warp speed hope to have 20000000 americans vaccinated by now but things are going slower than 1st thought there is now growing frustration building over the slow roll out of the corona virus vaccines across the u.s. there's only a small percentage of the vaccine that's been distributed by the federal government that has actually been administered the massive vaccination campaign against the coronavirus in the u.s. has gotten off to a slower start. very slower start there's no way we can speed this up in the near

term 14000000 doses of the fine and madonna fight scenes have been distributed across america but fewer than 3000000 have been administered it why well donald trump says he's done his job but states aren't doing that. the federal government has distributed the vaccines to the states now it is up to the states to administer get moving a blame game that didn't go down well with those who say it's a lack of direction from the top that's left people out in the cold that comprehensive vaccination plans have not been developed at the federal level and sent to the states as models is says and comprehensible as it is inexcusable it was unrealistic to assume that the health care workers already overburdened with covert care could take on a massive vaccination program many of those of the bugs and health care was because on now protesting they say they were promised

a vaccine and instead face and miscues and crashing apps if lucky that's despite being in contact with infected people all hours of the day for 10 months straight the promise to vaccinate them as a priority fell apart as quickly as the promise to inoculate 20000000 by the end of 2020 so if they're not going to the risk groups where all they going while no one apparently there are delays at every corner we agreed that number is lower than less we hope for we know that it should be better and working hard to make the best tons out the holiday period and snow storms on what a smooth rollout means but even once the holidays end in the snow melts if nothing changes unless say it would take almost 10 years to vaccinate enough americans to control the virus gives a whole new meaning to a peroration warp speed and the mess continues on a local level to. is

it just normal teething problems of one of the most ambitious vaccination campaigns in u.s. history or is it just incompetence at every level either way it looks like to cure meant to bring is now only outing to the chaos from the very beginning of the pandemic in the united states what we've lacked is any storage of national strategy the trump administration has you know worked against developing a national strategy it didn't have any problem with taking billions of dollars of public money and giving it to private corporations to develop

a vaccine but then when it came to the states saying that they needed money in order to administer the vaccine it was you know just millions that were given out for that states are getting around you know $7000000.00 and this is completely inadequate the states are overwhelmed already with the covert 19 crisis and just didn't have the capacity to set up you know an infrastructure to vaccinate people and so right now they're scrambling to try to set up sites to give the vaccinations figure out who should be prioritized and how they're going to get it to them so you know all these months of trying to create a vaccine and that time was wasted in terms of developing a plan for how to actually get the vaccine to the people who need it. where europe is also struggling to get its citizens vaccinated with experts branding the rollout sluggish fronts in particular has been in the firing line is on to show that the pinsky with more. france's vaccine has been rolled out and criticized by many is

being done at as snail's pace in the weeks since that program has been rolled out only a few 100 is said to have had the job compare that say to germany where over 40000 people have already received the 1st inoculation now there are some reasons for that here in france you have to get written consent to have the 19 jab and of course there is this huge distrust of vaccines so 40 percent of people say that they will have the vaccine meaning around 60 percent of people who have responded to surveys here in france say they won't be having it now the government says that yes it's being cautious but this is a marathon not a sprint others though are saying that in needs to be more urgency there is still time to make up for this feeling of a sluggish start to vaccination it is a matter of urgency now to give an optimistic outlook now the e.u. has also come under fire for not altering enough vaccine 1st of all this criticism

came from pfizer biotech this is the manufacture of the only vaccine so far been approved for use in the e.u. but there's also been criticism from some quarters in germany obviously the european purchasing procedure was inadequate it is difficult to explain how a very good vaccine was developed in germany but is available more quickly elsewhere now to put this into context the e.u. ordered some 300000000 doses of the pfizer bio on tekken vaccine now the e.u. is also set to approve another vaccine in the coming days this isn't the done a vaccine of which it did $160000000.00 doses of now this of course comes in the context as the number of couvade 19 infections is said to be rising again and there are fresh restrictions that have been put in place in some european countries greece for exam. said it's going into a week long lockdown and here in france where there is

a curfew already in place across the country from 8 pm has decided to tighten that even further in some parts this is in eastern parts of the country where the curfew will now start at 6 pm in the evening leading to criticism there. from 5 to 7 pm is where people leave work so there's obviously a lot of turnover because when people leave at 5 they want to have a wander around so the situation has now been complicated of all this to our difference has a serious effect in revenue it's a time when people come in and try things so as a bakery clients don't want to come in. we need 85 percent of our sales revenue between $5.00 and 7 pm so as a restaurant we try and get by we're now being hit even harder so we look for new solutions to survive but despite the restrictions continuing and the fresh measures there are many who are still willing to flout the law take over the new year's eve

when mass parties were banned here in france. it seems that 2020 may be over but europe is still not out of the code words in 2021. in ski there now let's give you a reminder then of our top story today because a british judge has ruled against extraditing julius sanchez the united states due to concerns over his mental health the u.s. though has said it will appeal the court's decision and assigns will remain in custody ahead of that appeal there is a chance to he could be released on bail before then and a decision on. that we made on wednesday stateside that we can lease co-founder

does face 17 counts of spying and one of conspiracy to hack a government computer if found guilty he would face up to 175 years in prison and in another development today the president of mexico has said that he's he's prepared to give a sanjay political asylum so a lot of developments but when the verdict was 1st announced there were big celebrations outside the court in london. so that brings you up to date that's how the news is looking so far today here in r.t. international just coming up to half 7 in moscow we're back again in 30 minutes. join me every thursday on the alex i'm i'm sure i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm sure business i'll see you there.

i measure it as you welcome to going underground the team and i will be back with a brand new season starting on january the 13th but today we're rebroadcasting our coverage of julia songes extradition trial as today marks the sched jewel ruling in london that may decide the future of all global free speech black lives matter. movement has come upon. us by the hard work practice but the core of what is driving it is the footage that is undeniable that everyone

it's not a matter of the you know do you believe the police do believe.