one. of his american appeals we hear from some of his top supporters. his supporters have to be. asked. for. press freedom groups say they are concerned by the. charges against.

him because of concerns over his mental health. does not inspire confidence. that another state might not the time to pursue somebody else in the same way. very very far. and. criminalizes. prime minister. is still. off to a british court brought the extradition. to the united states his supporters and

turning their attention to the fact he remains in custody while the americans launch and the pale wednesday that we could. well learn if his bail application has been successful. i while the blocking of the extradition is good news for sanch press freedom groups are dismayed that's because the judge maintained that the us had a solid case against him and only refused to send him to the us over concerns for his poor mental health is more aghast you have looks now at the message the ruling sends to journalists. it may not yet be true but are these a wean a songe the now has been span being fed into the muscle a sma cantle mouth of the u.s. justice system. was.

the verdict was a damning indictment of the songes mental health will how it must have deteriorated for a judge in such a politically charged case to have made it the chief consideration she just didn't believe he'd survive in the u.s. jail the overall impressions of the depressed and sometimes despairing man who is generally fearful about his future the risk to mr science will commit suicide is a substantial one for years we've heard about the psychological torture of julian a songe the better part of a decades bent in hiding in fear of political persecution and this taken a terrible toll and sent an even more terrible message in a sense the system has succeeded in intimidating the world and passing the message

that this is what's going to happen to you if ever you have to publishing our dirty secrets and making that known to the world because judgment comes from this rationale and this whole narrative of criminalizing investigative journalism and book blowing at it avoids even to the tiny risks that it would still have that its own supreme court and the u.s. might overturn a. judgment against to in essence based on on the 1st amendment of the country to say as was done in the pentagon papers we have to recognize that other investigative journalist just may not have used a year. important health issue could still be extradited to the u.s. based on the exactly same charges the ruling may have been a small win for a son but it's spelled to do for whistleblowers and the judge's opinion journalists

shouldn't be allowed to solicits damnum leaks or to publish and redacted scandals in my judgment mr sanchez a legit to vicki's went beyond the mere encouragement of a whistleblower free speech does not comprise a trunk card even when matters of serious public concern are this closed and it does not provide an unfettered are right for some like mr sashi to decide the fate of others essential ie the judge accepted almost every one of washington's arguments against the sun that by implication whistleblowers what this means is that if you as a professional rule citizen journalist soo much is ask for information about a potential state and you get it via any means but their press office you and who have a nice it a liable to be prosecuted and if you publish that information and someone feels that someone might be threatened by it while you charges just doubled the only

reason why a journalist was not extradited and submitted to the espionage legislation the united states was his health condition otherwise he would be extradited so it's very very worrying. that joshua basically crimi no life. journalistic deviate it's. only in the last mode it would fit did she say that the american prison system is so brutal so threatening to kill you would be at risk of suicide if i sent it to the america to america thought not going to she said there's no public interest there's no we there's no defense for journalists to compete like proper journalists are you do actually do what most journalists to recall mr wilson there's no public interest rates these are these with very very tired remarks but that 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 are by the auction of the people of the united states to trying to get him to be extradited in the pushing this action here and the socially the judge agreed with the u.s. government. on everything. which leaves a horrible precedent for future journalists activists whistleblowers even happier us president these inserts ease catastrophic that essentially outlaws not only whistle blowing but encouraging whistleblowers to do what they think is right what we're left with these as you have new ways to target and punish those with a functioning moral compass where u.s. prosecutors have already said that they will appeal against the course decision not to extradite assange and they have 2 weeks to doing that in the meantime we spoke to roger waters a founding member of the rock band pink floyd in

a long time supporter of jena songe and he warned there is much more at stake than one man's life we his supporters have to be saying you have to bail him out he has he's suffered. way beyond any suffering that should have been be to doubts him for his worms small bio infringement which is only crime under u.k. law because of by him now let the man begin to live this is a battle not just for the life of one great truly great journalist julian assange it's a battle for the survival of this human race if we give up the 4th estate if we allow . the united states government to crucify a journalist on the grounds that he revealed war crimes by them.

then we give up our access to the real world. to leave you alone and if somebody comes along and says actually you know what that's not true this government murdered journalists by machine gunning them from a helicopter in baghdad in 2007 and we know they did and here is the proof and we're going to publish it and then and and then we'll say you can't do that because if you do we're going to kill you is that the world we want to live in no but it's not the 1st time that the u.k. has blocked a u.s. extradition request over mental health because back in 2002 a british hacker gary mckinnon he was a kings to breaching u.s. military computer systems had he been found guilty he could have faced up to 70 years in prison in america well after a decade long legal battle treason may then home secretary refused to send him

stateside citing the risk of suicide party spoke exclusively to him about the songe case. we surely will be in this position you know 7 years in the ecuadorian embassy the best part of 2 years in belmarsh prison. for telling the truth you know he's not a criminal. jury and the killings did their best to always ensure that they have the intelligence assets in danger and it really has been journalism on trial mainly in budgie mainly to the the heavy handed us authorities but also exacerbated by this particularly imbalanced tradition treaty we have between a president and america can only imagine julian is exactly the same as when i was under house arrest it was at my own house not a little door going to say. it really is. incredibly difficult it's awful i got to the point of suicide of george eliot's and suicidal thoughts and you're trying to maintain normality you're trying to fight your case you're trying to live as normal

a life as you can but you've got this unbearable pressure inside and when it goes on for 7 years 10 years it gets worse and worse and worse and it's really really difficult to handle. meanwhile in the united states think committee to protect journalists has welcomed british court decision to block a sound you say tradition and is the u.s. department of justice to drop all charges against him we harden that a british court has denied the united states request to extradite julian assange launch the us government's decision to charge the wiki leaks founder said a harmful legal precedent for the prosecution of journalists around the world simply for interacting with their sources we asked the u.s. department of justice to refrain from further pursuing extradition through appeals and to drop all charges against a stone age however that pay does appear to foreign on death is in the us now i saying it doesn't tend to a pale the u.k. court's decision has kind of more pain takes a closer look now at washington's war against the whistleblower. so

a huge win for juliana sobs but the usa is still not ready to back down while we are extremely disappointed in the colts ultimate decision we are gratified that the united states prevailed on every points of law raised in particular the culture jets and all of mr songs as arguments regarding political motivation political offense fair trial and freedom of speech we will continue to seek mr saunders extradition to the united states washington quickly announced it intends to appeal and continue pursuing the extradition and julian aside this makes sense as politicians from both sides of the united states political spectrum have placed a target on his back or to argue that it's closer than in the high tech terrorists it is an attack on the international community but i'm not for the death penalty so if i'm not for the death penalty i want to do it illegally shoot the son of a son should be assassinated actually they're tough and say if we catch you we're going to hang you whatever when the world's top military power is out for your

blood you don't really stand much of a chance they're ready to throw the book at him he's facing 18 different charges 17 for as and one for attempted hacking of a u.s. government computer if convicted he could face up to 175 years in u.s. prisons the law being invoked is an obscure piece of legislation known as the espionage act from 1917 it was originally used against peace activists during the 1st world war now the parts of the law that suppressed free speech had been cut down by the courts but now it's being used against whistleblowers human rights activists call it a tool of intimidation the espionage act must be reformed it locks the public interest to fund it any publisher any journalist any source finds himself subject to similar proceeding they cannot adequately defend themselves today's decision does not inspire confidence that the u.s. government or the another state might not the time to pursue somebody else in the same way so that seriously needs to be addressed and we will continue to advocate for broader. to strengthen protections for journalists for sources for

whistleblowers because at present they would anybody trying to publish similar information to what wiki leaks they could find themselves in very hot water that the case is far from over u.s. officials are very unlikely to forget all the damaging information that found its way into the public eye thanks to julian assange and wiki leaks. but we do believe.

when we spoke with a former lawyer. backed his case and he gave us his views on the whistleblowers prospects. i'm aware that everyone is concerned that the americans. appealing. there's nothing to stop assad from cross appealing a songes fundamental position is that he was acting as every journalist acts you know ever since the daniel ellsberg case in russia the pentagon papers it has been fundamental in american law that a person who merely acts as a journalist has the protection of the 1st amendment and. even if the person who leaked information to them. commits an offense it is not a criminal offense to publish that material the most notorious of the disclosures

by wiki leaks was the video collateral murder which i think upsets the american to great deal that that video was released by assad along with a lot of other mature later and. we most of us would not have heard about it except that it was republished by the major news networks across the across the world now the leaders of the major news networks are not being prosecuted for not being attacks indictive with us i'm just being attacked. further discuss the implications of the u.k. coach decision today with a panel of guests including a lawyer a journalist and a former cia officer. it was a truly disparate surprising decision because you know i expected a judge who had ruled so often in support of the british security state to simply be a rubber stamp and what was interesting about it to me was the way that the judge's

decision essentially endorsed the entire narrative of the us national security state and at the same time they seem to find a way 'd of saving face you know we're at such a pivotal time where news and truth and and getting out information is so don't necessary and so what one hopes that can come from this is a delay meet a slight delay in the process to as races to allow a new president to come in who may take a different view of this nation a certain planes place to eliminate this mess coming into the united states this despicable act where people can't defend them showing 7 where the cia will be shown to have interfered with lawyers others were that terrible shape the collateral murder to be shown endlessly about what our troops did in iraq. the political

nature of the accusations and the impact on freedom of the press makes it a very difficult to get a fair trial we're starting to see elements of the establishment media and establishment n.g.o.s press freedom organizations which had been muted on julian a songe largely due to his demonization by the press they're starting to speak up for him and they're starting to say this is an attack on all of us the political left or what passes for it in the united states has been very muted and we've seen remarkable developments for example in mexico with president andres money. well lopez obrador actually offering to give sanctuary to julian a songe to take him in this is a president of a country that's historically been allied with the u.s. and so julian assange has summoned so many of these new currents of resistance

to empire and it's going to be interesting to see. where he winds up maybe we need a u.n. peacekeeping unit to come in and surround him lest he be droned death or otherwise targeted for assassination by whomever i mean it's sounds crazy be to be speaking about these things but i've been there i've been there and that embassy and i've seen how he's been treated and i know he's in the enemy number one from pump a 0 to 2 to anyone so my immediate concern is that he really that he not go out out of the out of belmarsh without a security detail that is equipped to take on anyone well i just want to say that i think that their goal is to debilitate him not to chart try him and they're they've they've been succeeding at that is mental state and his is ability to hurt him in

the future or this is probably been damaged to some. some degree obviously and so i think that i don't think the assassination type scenario serves them either they just want to. neuter the messenger if you will we'll see what happens on wednesday i do believe ultimately julian assize will be a free man but he should be released immediately the conditions in a maximum security prison in london are not much better than those in the u.s. so i fail to see the case for holding him there 'd and still continuing to abuse him psychologically and physically. so then the next chapter in your son's case is a decision on his bail and that will be made on wednesday and of course we'll bring you all the developments as they do happen here on arctic.

in other news tonight boris johnson has imposed another national rot down in england the country's 3rd since the spring the british prime minister said he hopes the move will be enough to contain a highly contagious variant of covertly currently spreading around the country that is the u.k.'s recording around $60000.00 new cases a day we now have a new variant of the bars and it's been both frustrating and a longing to see the speed with which the new variant is spreading. scientists have confirmed this new variant is between 50 and 70 percent more transmissible in england we was therefore going to a national lockdown which is tough enough to contain this variant if come back full circle to to last march when we were told to stay home protect the n.h.s. and to save lives and that mantra was repeated by boris johnson again today and

it's in force once again what it means simply enough is that people in england are being told to stay home except for a number of reasons essential shopping work if that work can't be done from home exercise urgent medical needs or in cases where someone is threatened with domestic violence and has to get out there's also significant pressure coming for parents and students as primary and secondary schools will move to remote learning from to morrow and the closure of schools is a major government u. turn as the pm had said that he was determined the primary schools at least in england would stay open he did say that there is a rather downbeat ments message of course that the oxford astra zeneca vaccine means that the biggest next nation program in the u.k. history can now be effectively rolled out and that he hopes that the most vulnerable will all have been vaccinated by mid february for goes well brennan says

that now more than ever we must pull together many people who are going to be extremely frustrated that the government has given them almost no notice again for yet another major life upheaval and is once again being reactive rather than proactive with covert 19 by the way we're back in lockdown in england and the new rules are going to become law from wednesday where a tightening of protections has been seen across the united kingdom because just before johnson's announcement the main part of scotland also moved into lockdown under the new rules people there are required to stay at home and work from a plane if possible and wales northern ireland have had stricter measures in place since late december microbiologist at reading university any case i mean clarke believes that the crisis has not been heading in the right direction. if the numbers of infections are going up by definition restrictions on a working because it is very minimal they should cause them to level off ideally

you want to drive them down so if the numbers are going up then they're not working so really there are only a few leaders left to paul and there are. closing schools and universities. restricting the amount of people that go to work on a daily basis to those who really really have. not the european union has vowed to ramp up with us to salvage the 25th a new clear deal with iran hey comes after taran increased its uranium enrichment on monday to levels not seen since before the green no not on topic we are highly concerned by the steps taken by iran to start a niche in uranium to 20 percent and we will redouble our efforts to keep the agreement. well the iranian government confirmed this week that it has increased iranian richmond to 20 percent and running foreign minister zarif said that the steps are fully reversible though the partners of the deal complied however it has

appeared increasingly unlikely ever since donald trump pulled the us out of the deal in 2018 with washington slapping another round of sanctions on iran steel industry only today is the russian foreign ministries take on the situation. the renewal of reman richmond by iran is a departure from the join comprehensive plan of action but these dirty asians are caused by the united states actions iran should be ready to act accordingly once the u.s. abandons its efforts to undermine the nuclear deal. take a well let's look at this a bit further now and talk with professor side miranda he's from the university to run and joins us and you're very welcome as always do you think iran's move here will work because it looks like it is trying to put pressure on countries to revamp this deal. well whether it works or not

it's the right thing to do after all iran has the right to enrich uranium within the and framework of then p t and the nuclear agreement that iran signed with the p 5 plus one was based upon the assumption that all sides would respect the deal now what happened was that under obama the united states never never fully. implemented the deal whereas the iranians did but then under trumped the us as you pointed out earlier ripped the deal apart so the iranians after the americans exited the deal and the american and the europeans obediently. abided by trump's demands and sanctions iran effectively after that happened the iranian still waited the iranians implemented the deal in full for another year on its own while the other side was violating the whole deal and then after a year iran's in 5 faces every 2 months began to decrease its commitments and ever

since then the iranians have continued to still abide by some of their commitments and now the iranians are saying that we're not going to abide by those anymore because the other side is doing nothing so the iranians are a leveling the playing field either biden wants to implement the deal if he does fine then the iranians will reverse all of these as our foreign minister stated but if a biden doesn't want to abide by the deal then the iranians will continue with the nuclear program does it all hinge on biden because i know that the u.s. also wants to revive this deal and it said it will bring us it but i mean if he's on board with the americans arms with this deal just fail in your opinion. well the europeans have shown themselves to be. without a backbone during the. trump years so there's no reason to assume that the europeans are going to change and when obama. was deceptive

and did not implement the deal in full the europeans played his game so i think that what will happen now is that the europeans will look to washington see what biden does and obey biden so it all i think more or less depends on biden if biden is sincere on day one he will reverse all of trump's presidential decrees he could reverse most of the sanctions in one day. so we'll see the ball is in the u.s. for the iranians if are very clear they're saying look you implemented dealin fall will implement the deal and fall but if you don't implement the deal in full anymore we won't either and as things stand right now iran is going to is no longer going to abide by its commitments just as you haven't been abiding by your commitments for years from what you've heard from biden so far. even hopeful that

some sort of deal will be reached well there isn't a deal has already been reached well ok well you're now hearing about it washington is that washington wants. well that's the problem because right now what we're hearing in washington is are are preconditions iran won't accept any preconditions iran will not accept any limitations on its military defense iran is not crazy it's surrounded by american military bases of course the americans want iran to disarm so that they could attack iran whenever they want iran will not stop supporting its allies in the region because the united states and its allies turkey saudi arabia and others they and the europeans were supporting isis and al-qaeda we know now from jake. the incoming national security advisor of biden jake sullivan that he wrote in

a. in an e-mail to hillary clinton on this on february the 12th 2012 that in syria. there's on our side of course isis came out of there so when the americans were you know that was the obama administration and biden was the vice president going to not trust biden or the americans when they supported al qaeda and when they are constantly threatening iran so either the americans implement the deal or there's no deal ok preconditions for iran no preconditions will be acceptable for iran side look we're going to have to leave it there we could talk a lot longer i'm sure but we've run out of time the sidemen and the professor from the university. thank you. just come half 7 a mosque attack again at the top and. join

me now.