after spending the majority of the last decade behind bars or inside the ecuadorian embassy in london. speaking outside the court, julian assange s lawyer, barry pollock, said the prosecution of the wikileaks founder was unprecedented . in the hundred years of the espionage act, it has never been used by the united states to pursue a publisher, a journalist like mr assange. mr assange revealed truthful, important and newsworthy information including revealing the united states had committed war crimes and he has suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom tremendously in his fight for free speech, forfreedom of tremendously in his fight for free speech, for freedom of the press, and to make sure the american public and the world community gets truthful and important newsworthy information. we firmly believe that mr assange never should have been charged under the espionage act and engaged in exercise that journalists engage in every day and we are thankfu
disorder and it s too difficult to police. reporter: miami beach officials will be meeting monday to consider imposing another curfew next week. thank you. overseas, vladimir putin s power move in ukraine. defiance in the face of an international arrest warrant. visiting the russian occupied city of mariupol, the scene of massive devastation. that comes on the eve of his high-stakes meeting with president xi. the two were last seen together in december. tom soufi burridge reports tonight from kyiv. reporter: a defiant show tonight from vladimir putin. the russian president, for the first time, visiting land seized from ukraine in this war. putin driving around the russian controlled ukrainian city of mariupol. visiting newly built apartments there. the city obliterated by russia d
they remain a huge buyer of russian oil, helping finance all of this, and one of the things that the west, john kirby here in the u.s. and the white house has been warning against, if china were to come out after this visit, ivan, say there should be a peace deal right now, that would not be palatable by ukraine and the west given that russia has taken more territory than when this all began? sure. and has declared that it is annexing ukrainian territory seized since the invasion of last year. and to underscore that, you had vladimir putin on saturday fresh from this icc arrest warnrant, visiting the russian-occupied ukrainian city of mariupol, he landed by helicopter, drove himself into the outskirts of the shattered city and visited an apartment building that the russian government built.
moments ago, chinese president xi jinping, as you can see here, landing in moscow for his face-to-face meeting with president putin. on the agenda, obviously, ukraine. xi says that he believes that china is actively promoting peace talks, while putin, who was in the russian-occupied ukrainian city of mariupol over the weekend says that he welcomes china s, quote, readiness, to make a meaningful contribution to the settlement of the crisis. the white house s john kirby joins us now. good morning, john. are you expecting any tangible agreements to come out of this summit with putin and xi? difficult to know, kaitlan. obviously, we re not part of these discussions, so we ll see what these two leaders actually come out and say at the end of this. i guess it s going to be a couple of days of their meeting and that agenda. so we ll see. but as you note, we ve been very, very public about any concerns about some sort of a cease-fire announcement right now. we all want to see peace and see t
visited the devastated ukrainian city of mariupol, which was seized by russian troops last may. that is according to russian state media. the tass news agency says he travelled there by helicopter, and drove around the city talking to residents. it is the first time he has been in ukraine since the invasion last year. our diplomatic correspondent james landalejoins us now from kyiv. how significant a moment as this? clearly vladimir putin is on call. yesterday he was in the crimea, obviously occupied as part of ukraine and today as you say in mariupol. it is significant simply because mariupol was such a symbol of early ukrainian resistance and early russian advance. back in the early russian advance. back in the early stages of the war you may remember this was the place that the