coming up on r t edward snowden's travel plans are still on hold the former n.s.a. contractor remains in russia he's now seeking amnesty from more than a dozen countries and it looks like venezuela of a.p. snowden's number one defender a deeper look ahead. it's now day fourteen of the bradley manning trial is the defense's turn to call on witnesses in a bid to help the whistleblowers case we'll get the latest from fort meade coming up. the streets of egypt are still packed with protesters demanding the removal of president mohamed morsy and now the nation's army has offered morsy and ultimatum to resolve the crisis more on the unrest in egypt and today show.

it's tuesday july second four pm in washington d.c. i'm maggie lopez and you are watching our t.v. well he is the contractor who leaked america's surveillance secrets to the world now edward snowden is desperately reaching out to the international community to protect him from the wrath of the u.s. government transparency group wiki leaks which has a legal representative accompanying snowden on his travels announced today that he has applied for asylum in no fewer than twenty one countries including some of the very countries his n.s.a. documents proving n.s.a. was spying on here's a look at a few of those nations and how they are responding let's start with the countries that flat out said no or are unlikely to grant edward snowden's asylum bit austria ecuador iceland ireland italy the netherlands norway spain and. switzerland also

said that he must be present on that country soil in order to ask for protection brazil won't respond to finland hasn't processed the request france says asylum is a non issue germany and poland said his argument isn't strong enough to be granted asylum india flat out said no and snowden would drew his request from russia after president vladimir putin said he had to stop leaking documents in order to be considered now to the best of our knowledge bolivia and venezuela are the only countries to offer the former n.s.a. contractor zero ray of hope meanwhile no information is coming out from china cuba or nicaragua in terms of requests or government responses for the latest on edward snowden's international plight and venice wales reaction to his plea i was joined earlier by our to correspondent igor piskun off and i asked him what we know about these asylum. well snowden has sent requests to around twenty one countries this

time and have already officially given the red light including brazil and india and eight e.u. member states including spain and germany and they're saying that under their rules all political asylum applicants have to be on very serious story since snowden clearly isn't you still stuck in that transit zone actually means of airport they're still not able to begin processing the requests the same goes for ecuador which became the first currency which returned through with the request and were heard from the ecuadorian president who said that by their rules has to be at least on russian territory and since he's not there and they're also not able to begin processing it now he has applied for asylum in over twenty one countries of course it only takes one of those countries in order for him to potentially escape the u.s. justice system but one of those countries that has been as i understand it thinking about giving him asylum is then asked why last venezuelan president nicolas maduro

had this to say to r.t. spanish today that young man has to be protected by the international community he did with dignity to tell the world that there are mechanisms to spy on the world even on your own if snowden stays alone he will be destroyed protecting snowden will protect peace meanwhile also evo morales the bolivian leader went ahead and made another statement if you would go ahead and fill us in on what evo morales had to say. even morale was also said that their country is basically ready to grant political asylum to snowden but if they received an official request for him earlier the same or at least everybody thought the same one for event as well as since its president snowden had a great chance of getting political asylum there but he's still saying that they

have also not you see a request from him in fact while as the venezuelan president. was here in moscow everybody expected him to take snowden a wall with him to going as well but that didn't happen he is saying that they're not afraid of pressure from washington that they're used to this pressure in the exclusive interview to r.t. but he's also saying that if he did receive this official request from snowden for political asylum he would have to weigh everything else first and see what the reaction would be both in as well and abroad so he's despite being obviously sympathetic to snowden and his revelations he's still being very cautious about this whole issue now no matter what the ultimate outcome is whether any one of these twenty one countries decide to in fact grant him asylum the fact is that he's still kind of caught in this catch twenty two where he can't leave an intern to

russia because he does not have a valid visa but he also can't leave the country and fly elsewhere because he doesn't have a u.s. passport anymore so is this just a symbolic kind of measure or what would be the next step in this asylum process the fee is granted it. it's very hard to predict what will happen next because snowden is clearly stuck in this transit limbo as it's been called by world media now basically in the spotlight of the global media for the past week but at the same time nobody nobody really knew exactly where he was since we didn't know that he arrived through the strength of actually minutes of our airport in moscow from hong kong with this invalid last word and accompanied by a week elise representative but then for the full week nobody pretty much knew exactly where he was we heard from president confirmed that snowden was in the transit zone in the beginning of the week we've heard from foreign minister lavrov who said that you never crossed the border line so it was the rest was mostly

speculation and now that well sent countries that apply to have already given the red light so the list is going shorter and he had to retract the request for political asylum from russia after hearing what fortunes conditions warrant the list is getting is growing shorter and it seems that while there's some chance of him receiving in ecuador it seems there is a chance of him getting political asylum inventors well and believe you really have to see how this journey how the story is going to work out next this story certainly has taken a lot of twists and turns over the past few days and it is a story that we here at r.t. will continue to follow follow along with our correspondents over in moscow igor pissed off reporting from moscow thank you so much perhaps no one knows better the potential fate that edward snowden could face if he ends up in u.s. custody than wiki leaks or bradley manning today is week five day fourteen of

a court martial that could decide if this private first class will end up spending the rest of his life behind bars for the biggest document drop in u.s. history for the latest we turn now to our to correspondent wall. today the judge ruled that the prosecution's last witness can in fact qualify as an expert in counter intelligence yesterday the defense tried to cast doubt on daniel lewis and his expertise lewis is a defense counselor intelligence officer the judge cited his twenty nine years of experience in counter intelligence that qualifies him as an expert in that field however judge lindh ruled that he is not an expert in valuing classified information now this is important because the prosecution is trying to prove that manning stole classified documents and that these documents are some kind of a monetary value now cord was in session for just a short time today before they went on recess and into a closed session and that's because much of lewis's testimony is expected to be

classified so whenever classified information is discussed we go black and that media room and are on able to see or hear what is going on now lewis is the prosecution's last witness before to the defense calls their witnesses if the government were to rest its case today it's likely that manning's attorney david coombs what motion to dismiss some of the charges the defense will oftentimes do this by saying the prosecution failed to show enough evidence they were out the course of the trial to justify the charges as we know with the most serious of the over twenty charges that manning faces is aiding the enemy defense has been trying to chip away at the government's theory that manning aided by working together with wiki leaks co-founder julian assange on to get u.s. secrets on to the internet secrets that word then accessible to qaeda and osama bin ladin a key piece of evidence admitted by the judge yesterday is this wiki leaks most wanted list of two thousand and nine this is a list of by wiki leaks listing

a document that they're interested in getting a hold of part of this list included up profiles of guantanamo bay detainee as manning admitted to leaking these documents to. he leaks but denies that he did so in an attempt to aid the enemy now the timing of this trial is really in the hands of the judge karna linda we are told that after today the trial will go on extended recess for the fourth of july holiday and be back in session on monday so we will keep you updated on all of the latest developments here in fort meade maryland live all our team now looking at the cases of bradley manning and edward snowden outsiders are undoubtedly making comparisons between the two men both leaked massive troels of information to the bop like both are being pursued by the government for espionage and a host of other charges both say that they leak that information to serve the public interest and the comparisons don't stop there but there are also

a few pointed differences between these two secret spillers to help me navigate through both cases i'm joined now by michael brooks he's a producer at the majority report hi there michael so let's start off with the biggest similarities and differences in your mind between these two men. meghan it's great to be with you i think you know the similarities are clear you know they're both young young men who decided to really great personal risk expose what they perceive to be significant systemic wrongdoing. and they both by most accounts are very intelligent very competent and good in their fields as far as we know obviously the core similarity or dissimilarities because edward snowden chose to flee the united states and his cases kind of progressed it's become it's taken on a much different kind of. a distinct geo political calculus that bragging bradley

manning's case does not and then obviously going back to manning he's been the victim of really significant abuse and you mean conditions under military capture in the united states and another very big difference is the fact that bradley manning was in the military forces edward snowden who was an n.s.a. contractor so if ever snowden is somehow extracted and brought back to the u.s. to face the criminal justice system he'll be facing a civilian court versus a court martial or a military tribunal can you talk about that a little bit. yeah i mean that's a really good point and i actually think the one thing that's very significant about that even before you get to the legal implications is the fact of edward snowden's position in and of itself how many contractors we have handling this type of intelligence i mean you could take the opposite view even and say maybe hey i

don't want this stuff to be we will then you would have to ask yourself do you feel comfortable the system that allows someone like edward snowden who you know there's conflicting reports about his how senior he was and even just the fact that he was a private contractor having this amount of access to that information he also faces espionage charges so he's also been hit with you know the most harsh charges possible i guess other than treason so even though you know he's not a military system he's also been hit with an incredibly draco nian an exceptionally over the top charge which in some ways the holiday it's his point almost as much as some of his leaks about the n.s.a. surveillance program i would say and edward snowden allegedly sent out a letter yesterday via wiki leaks comparing himself to other whistleblowers he said quote in the end the obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me bradley manning or thomas drake we are state list imprisoned in powerless no the

obama administration is afraid of you isn't afraid of an informed public and formed a republic demanding the constitutional government it was promised and should be so finally what are your thoughts to wrap this whole thing up about both of these men kind of being seen together in the same sentence as whistleblowers. well again i think that there are some distinctions i think some of the things that snowden has had to do have complicated is his situation because it's got drawn into a larger geopolitical concerns and raise other questions in terms of some of the other countries that he's had to deal. with the situation that he's in and some of the leaks he's chosen to make but fundamentally yes they're both performing a whistleblowing function thomas drake is a whistleblower and the obama administration unfortunately has taken an exceptionally aggressive stand against will suppliers and then also. double

standards which is the other significant component of this because leaks have happened throughout about all of these security programs and when they are favorable they aren't as aggressively pursued and when they're exposing of uses or problems they are and right there that undercuts the whole notion of this threatens our security and highlights a really huge issue of accountability and democratic process which of course should concern all of us two men potentially facing two very different fates from both being whistleblowers and secret spellers michael brooks producer at the majority report thank you edward snowden's release of documents about the n.s.a. included particular information about the prism program which started in two thousand and seven under the george w. bush administration and it continued under the obama administration in an interview that aired yesterday from zambia president bush defended that program with the program in place to protect the country and one of the certainties is civil

liberties were guaranteed so you don't think there's a compromise between security and privacy i think there needs to be a balance and i think as the president explained there's a proper balance. so a bit of bipartisanship from the former president but keep in mind president obama came into office on the promise of being the anti bush no more war he said let's close guantanamo bay bring our troops home and restore america's image abroad by at hearing to international law once again but these revelations about america's continuing surveillance and its counterterror tactics are spurring criticism of the president and for some a feeling of deja vu back to the bush years political commentator sam sec shares his thoughts on the matter today presidents forty three and forty four were together in tanzania africa far far away from the white house in office currently dealing with the fallout of all its intelligence secrets laid bare for the world to

see secrets created by both presidents bush and obama. now these two men couldn't be more different barely of the same generation they are from different socio economic backgrounds from different parts of the country from different intellectual backgrounds and professions they had different upbringings different hobbies different religious beliefs but they did hold the same office and that's why today bush and obama look more similar than ever before it's as though the white house took hold of these two men these two very different men chewed them up and spit them out into two monochromatic globs who forgot who they were before moving into the highest office in the land and most importantly forgot their ideals remember it was as a presidential candidate in two thousand and eight that barack obama opposed mass domestic surveillance i will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our constitution and our freedoms that means no more illegal wiretapping of

american citizens no more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime no more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war no more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient now edward snowden's leaks prove that as president obama all those promises were thrown out and remember it was as a senator in two thousand and seven that barack obama sponsored legislation that would have protected journalists from heavy handed subpoenas by the d.o.j. it was called the free flow of information act and it was directly opposed by george w. bush in the white house that legislation failed in two years later when obama was in the white house he made sure the legislation went nowhere working actively to water it down. and then his justice department went to unprecedented lengths to target journalists at the a.p. and at fox news and of course one can only assume that as

a member of the illinois senate in two thousand and two when he spoke out so passionately against the iraq war that barack obama didn't imagine a decade later he'd be at the helm of a global drone war targeting not just afghanistan and iraq but also pakistan yemen and somalia so what causes this transformation maybe it's what eisenhower warned of in one nine hundred sixty one the power of the military industrial complex or maybe it's the immense political pressure to keep the nation safe from terrorism or maybe it's the weight of responsibility of steering a world superpower maybe it's a combination of all of these but it's affected not just obama and bush but also clinton and george h.w. bush and reagan all have used the force of our military around the world in fact the only president who didn't start his own conflict was jimmy carter and that was more than thirty years ago carter also tried to ban extrajudicial assassinations

and today he's distinguish himself from both bush and obama calling snowden's leaks beneficial but carter was tossed out of the white house after only one term and the presidents who came later learned this lesson and now here they both are two term presidents bush the man who created the surveillance machine and obama the man who innovated it both shaped not by their political ideology but by their time in the white house taking the reins of the american superpower and doing everything it takes from war to mass surveillance to hold on in a world that's becoming more and more hostile to superpowers in washington same sex artsy. well twenty four hours dell less than twenty four to go on egypt's military time anyway before the army steps in and quells unrest that has spread throughout the country as of late however president mohamed morsi for jech to that ultimatum

meanwhile the protests continue. you are looking at live pictures of the massive protests that continue to talk we are square throughout last night and into today and as you can see tonight protesters are demanding for morsi to a needy at least step down and make way for new elections the latest from egypt here's our teens the true mates growing tensions across the country on the third day of nationwide protests against the president the muslim brotherhood the islamist group the president hails from released a statement saying they expect imminent attacks on to one presidential palace which is witnessing anti government demonstrations right now they say this will be on they don't know who's behind these intimate attacks they talk about it is set up to frame the muslim brotherhood and divide the nation some people are dismissing this statement as a means of them trying to get people to leave anti-government demonstrations in fear however the crowd is taking for the president the hour winds the military have

given him to meet the demands of the people who are closing with hundreds of thousands of people coming back to the streets calling for his ouster they say they've had enough the president is unable to to rule they see no change in the last year and they're staying put in till he resigns the president appears to be losing support from within his own administration we've already had five ministers resign in the last few days and today two presidential spokespersons on the spokesperson to the cabinet have also resigned as the president for his bonn has met with the ministry of interior and the ministry of defense in a bid to try and solve this crisis however many are projecting that we may see presidential elections coming soon in addition we've had comments from the u.s. president obama who's pulled on the. listen to the people saying that democracy is not just through a budget books this comes amid growing fees from the americans the u.s. embassy has closed off to that has been a lot over many american sentiment expressed in protests here and also in the

presidential palace i've certainly seen a lot of fun is targeting the u.s. ambassador to egypt and passive in practice in story saying the mission but it is one of being a u.s. agenda what's happening right now is you see really divided egypt with tensions rising and expected violence on the horizon that was artie's bell true in cairo. well forget the one hundred thirty foot christ the redeemer statue in rio de janeiro brazil atheists agnostics and other nonbelievers across the country now have a monument of their own to adore or rather it's a celebration of secular was secularism according to the american atheist group what's just wrapped up a year long court battle this past week the lawsuit demands for a local christian group to remove its monument of the ten commandments from a local park outside the bradford county courthouse in stark florida a settlement however allows that the that monument that you see right there to

stand all on by side alongside that ten commandments monument this one was built by the atheist group it's a five foot long gray granite bench that features secular quotes from the founding fathers joining me now to detail the lawsuit and the new monument in more depth david in the scott oh he is the american atheists organization spokesperson hi there david thank you so much for joining me i just gave a brief description of the bench can you describe it in a little more detail. sure well like you said it's five feet long it's granite grey we wanted something that was functional that had utility as opposed to the ten commandments monument which just sits there that you look at. it has a pillar in the back with our logo on the top which is the symbol for atheism and he said quotes from the founders of this country a quote from madalyn murray o'hair and also an excerpt from the treaty of tripoli which was the first treaty of the united states that says the. united states was

not founded on christianity now david and there are thousands of religious monuments across the country and around the world why it was this one of the ten commandments too much to bear and not so to make you bring up a lawsuit. well one of our members initiated this. is basically our position is just that the ten commandments does not belong on public property it's a overtly religious. symbol and it has no place in government land and really this was just where we started is could have been anywhere it just happened to be stark florida now on the other hand as i understand it you have a kind of ten commandments list on yours which says the possible punishments for things you could suffer if you broke the ten commandments and that is in fact getting a lot of criticism from other atheist groups and what have you can you talk about

why they are knowing that you brought up the ten commandments at all in your monument and your group's response to those other atheists. well some people feel that by bringing the bible into our monument we're making this an anti-religious monument as opposed to a monument about secularism or celebrating secularism which is part of the purpose of the monument but the other purpose of the monument is to show that the bible is a primitive and brutal document that people there's this idea that it's. that the bible or the ten commandments specifically are this just kind of good moral code that we can all kind of agree on but that's not true it's very very brutal if you actually sit and read it the punishments call for death seven out of ten times and it's just it's not something that civilized people live by and finally let's take a look at the gallup poll that was conducted in may regarding american attitudes toward religion seventy seven percent of americans believe religion is losing its influence on american life as a whole but according to that same poll seventy five percent of americans said the

country would be better off if it was more religious any thoughts as to why we're seeing this change i mean is it is it cultural. will it i think part of it's cultural part of it is just better access to information with the internet proliferating people can find out that a lot of this stuff is a scam god doesn't exist and they can see that there are other cultures with many different beliefs and that they're not right just because they happen to be born in the united states and they were raised christians as far as people thinking that it would be better if it were more religious that's not true we can clearly see that the people who have less religion have better lives and. as a result david misconduct were from the american atheist organization thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me i really appreciate it and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our web site r t dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez stay tune prime interest is up next.

well. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. download the official ati application to yourself choose your language stream

quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television well it just doesn't matter how would your mobile device you can watch on t.v. any time anyway. good

afternoon welcome to prime interest i'm bob english here in washington d.c. and here is a story worth telling today is it two thousand and eight redux that is the question on everybody's mind are we in store for another financial crisis but handicapping the ultimate that tail risk which would be well the end of us dollar hegemony has been the death knell of many trend forecasters over the last few years so let's look at the evidence keeping in mind that clever line from mark twain about history rhyming not necessarily repeating you know when the fed stopped buying bonds and instead sold them in the summer of two thousand eight hundred markets seized up there was a mad dash for cash which precipitated the lehman disaster now we have talk of tapering another wind down of bond buying but so far it's just talk the fed announced it's requiring banks to hold more capital and reduce.