One year ago today three of our al jazeera colleagues were arrested in egypt where they remain in prison now. The United States which gives egypt 1. 5 billion a year in aid has protested their detention as have other governments. Now theres talk that peter greste, Mohammed Fahmy, and Baher Mohamed, could be released soon as world outrage grows at their plight and pressure from the United States and others increases. In june all three were convicted of aiding the outlawed muslim brotherhood, and spreading false news about the country. Our colleagues have denied the charges, but the court still sentenced all three to prison sentences of between seven and ten years. The court can dismiss the entire case, uphold the verdict and sentence or order a new trial. What we do know is that peter greste, Baher Mohamed, and Mohammed Fahmy have paid a heavy price for their work as journalists, and that kind of work is judged a threat by the countrys military dominated government. Since july of 2013, an estimated six journalists have been killed by Egyptian Security forces. Dozens have been detained. Egyptian authorities continue to detain at least 11 on youralists including our three colleagues. Authorities admit to detaining some 10,000 political opponents in 2013. The u. S. Government continues to give egypt military and financial support. The United States gives up to 1. 5 billion a year in aid to the egyptian government, 1. 3 billion of that goes straight to the Egyptian Military, but president obama temporarily suspended the military portion of that aid in july 2013. Thats when the Egyptian Military removed mohammed morsi, the countrys first democratically elected president from office. Since then the new military dominated government has cracked down harshly. In december 2013, egyptian authorities jailed three al aljournalists. Peter greste and two egyptian producers. Mohammed fahmy, and Baher Mohamed who also holds canadian citizenship. Six months later, john kerry let with egypts new president and protested the journalists defense. During the talks kerry offered to release u. S. Aide to the egyptian government. I emphasized our strong support for upholding the rights and freedoms of all egyptians, including free expression. That did little to help the jailed journalists. The very next day an Egyptian Court convicted all three of aiding terrorists and reporting false news. They have always maintained their innocents. The Obama Administration has released 570 million worth of aid and ten app patchy helicopters to the Egyptian Military. In december the u. S. Congress inserted language into his 2015 spending bill that would make egypts aid contingent on progress made on free and Fair Elections and the freedom of expression, but gives the u. S. Secretary of state discretion to wave those conditions if doing so is deemed to be in the u. S. National interest. We welcome the flexibility that the bill provides. That said, there has been no policy decision with regards to our Assistance Program which remains under review, and our concerns about egypts human rights record, which we speak changed. We are joined by a professor in new york, and author. His family roots are from egypt. He has followed events there since mid2013, and he says in effect, the u. S. Backs repression in egypt by continuing financial and military aid there. The u. S. Had a choice in mid2013 to pull that aid out, they did for a little while. And then they went back in. They gave up that leverage. Why do we talk out of both sides of our mouth on egypt . I wish we wouldnt. It seems to me the United States is making a bad decision. The same kind of decisions they have made with countless dick forships in the past. So egypt needs to succeed as a democracy, and it has certainly struggled with that. Can you call egypt an democracy today . I dont think so. You have mass arrested. There were at least 10,000 people who were arrested last year. Probably the figure is closer to 20,000. You have show trials. You had hundreds of people sentenced to death in these show trials as well. And you have laws against public assessably in egypt. So i think theres very few ways democracy. What has gone wrong though . When the first protests began in egypt, the military was thought of as a bit of a savior. Well, its a long story, but essentially there is a lack of institutions in egypt, and its a winner takes all game in egypt. You are either on one side of the muslim brotherhood, or you are on the side of the military at this point. These are the forces that have been working towards that was the case in so many dictatorships where they didnt build a Civil Society without everything collapsing. Exactly. We need institutions to be formed before you have this government working. You dont even have a sitting parliament right now in egypt. Lets take a look at the military and Institutional Support we give to egypt. 1. 3 billion. Much more than the economic support. That military support becomes important to the United States in this current environment with the issues going on between israel and hamas, with isil in syria and iraq, and when you think about who is going on with iran. So the u. S. Has made a determination that egypt is more important as an ally as ann ann an regional power. I feel like thats a dangerous place to be in. If you look at the example of iran back in the day. You can see how you can go from being an alley to not being an ally overnight. You need a government that speaks for the people and is a stable government, and if you dont understand how instability forms extremism, then were not going to be working towards eliminating either. What is the best policy right now for the u. S. To follow with respect to egypt. I think setting performance goals is a necessary thing. The report you just aired said there are waivers that are going to be coming in. We didnt do this for china, which is now almost our biggest trading partner. Absolutely, but the u. S. Continues to say they support democracy all over the world, but they speak out of both sides of their mouths. But what if he just flipped it around. What if he contributed 1. 4 billion in economic aid, and only 200 million or so in military aid, we would probably have a very different looking egypt. We have a lot of aide going to be israel and egypt, and what we really need is to think about how we should limit the militarism of that region, and militarism. What do you think is likely to happen to our colleagues . There is a hearing on thursday, and it sounds like that is a procedural. Its not really about the mar rits of the case. So we would love for them to be happens . Predicting the future is always tresh tresh treacherous. But theres more of a possibility they will be pardon. Right, which does not deal with freedom of the press. If the judiciary and the government doesnt have to say changed. Exactly right. Thank you so much for being with us. Join us onto at 9 00 pm eastern for an indepth look at the dangerous state of journalism and press across the globe. Hollywood bigwigs just learned something about the movie business today, and they might have north korea to thank. Keep it right here. Its a chilling and draconian sentence. It simply cannot stand. This trial was a sham. They are truth seekers. All they really wanna do is find out whats happening, so they can tell people. Governments around the world all united to condemn this. As you can see, its still a very much volatile situation. The government is prepared to carry out mass array. If you want free press in the new democracy it started little little literally as a shack in Madison Square park, now shake shack just filed an initial Public Offering for 100 million. In the last four years it has more than quadrupled his profits. Millions of people downloaded the interview. Sony decided to release it on line. As Duarte Geraldino reports, the interview could pave the way for more blockbusters to bypass theaters all together. Reporter sonys the interview was banned by over 300,000 theaters. So they released the movie on line. People paid to download the interview, within five days the movie earned more than 50 million on line, and 2. 8 billion in box office sales. That adds weight to the belief that movie theaters no longer carry the sway they once did in hollywood. 20 million fewer people went to the theater than the year before. Its a horror story for theaters struggling to stay in business. Since 1995, one in four u. S. Cinemas has shut down. Industry. The thinking behind that is we should shut down unprofitable establishments, and focus on these multiplexes. Ibsworld expects theaters to earn 14. 9 billion in 2014. Thats a half of percentage than a year earlier, but mostly because of increased concession sales and higher ticket prices not more attendance in the seats. The demographic s is dropping because of online distribution. We see netflix and amazon prime capturing the demographics. Reporter that shift and the impressive online performance of the interview, suggests a deep appetite for online watching. Distribution growth has already exceeded 2 billion. Revenue from the video on demand Services Grew almost 27 in the First Six Months of this year. And sales for platforms like itunes grew nearly 37 in the same period. Hello, north korea reporter while sales for the interview are impressive they were still not enough to cover the 44 million sony spent to produce the movie, but all of the social media buzz, the company is hopeful, will push the film into the black. In the first nine months of 2014, profits at Regal Entertainment were down 50 . And movie attendance for americans ages 12 to 24 keeps falling. Sony makes many of its films Available Online only after a run in theaters. But with the interview it released the movie online at the same time it did in a somebody of theaters. It made the strategy a test case for major releases. It is taughting the interview as the bestselling online movie ever. Bill, im going to take the other view with this thing. This is not a test case. There is nobody interested in a movie as much as the interview. The interview is probably a patently mediocre movie that got all of these people to download it because of all of the hype. Exactly. Sony was walking the plank, and it was the plank the company did not want to go on. That was a great report. And we have all of these inflated ticket prices, 3d, imax, that has been covering up a decline in movie price right, because everybody tells you how this is the biggest grossing movie ever, thats because your ticket prices are more expensive than when i was a kid. Exactly. And one thing i always tell people is avatar is not really one of the top five highest grossing movies of all time. Thats how extreme ticket prices are going up. The interview should have gotten 30 or 35 million given all of the publicity at the real box office. 15 is great. It helps sony a little bit. That 44 million is before advertising, and sony only gets exhibiters. And the advertising has got to be very good to cut through the clutter, and if you are market in some way other than advertising thats even better. Exactly. And nobody wants online streaming. The exhibiters dont want it, because it takes away from their opportunity to sell 12 12 gnawcos to teenagers. Once you go to the online streaming, your revenues go drastically down. When i was a kid, you know, there were little video stores, and then there was blockbuster, and thats where you went for everything. The fact is, the the the consumer, particularly the young consumer, 12 to 24, they are agnostic as to your studio and how you distribute your video, and they want to see it on their devices and computers. Exactly. The movie industry is relatively smart. Thats why were seeing the top ten, top 20 movies of the year are always these larger than life comic book movies, but the game is shifting. Its not going to happen next year, but within, you know, four or five years, were going to see a drastic shift in the movie industry. For old timers like us, this effort to continue to get us to go, while its still remarkably expensive to do so, there is a bit of a win for movie goers, because has duarte was describing, there are theaters that have full menus and everything. Its not economical, but the experience is getting better. There is one by my house too, and it has about 30 seats in it. And you realize its not a movie theater. Its a diner. A diner showing movies. Seriously because the exhibiters have to give the first week or two, all of those revenues back to the studio, but if they can get people in to buy their overpriced food, they are ahead of the game. And thats a great expense for movie goers like us, but its full of commercials, kids texting next to you, you have to get there to get a decent seat, its not a good moviegoing experience for adults, thats why People Like Us sometime stay home and watch hbo on our largescreen tvs. Yeah, between the parking, seating, and cost of everything i had to go to, im going back to my tv. North koreas hacking abilities is a reminder of the stiff competition in the world of tech. There are more techology jobs in the United States than workers with the skills to do those jobs. It has become enough of a problem that president obama has allocated 25 million in the knew year to go to stem technology. And cities are starting to get serious. Chicago said all students must know how to code by the time they graduate. But for those who want better jobs, getting into stem fields can be challenging. But some Tech Companies are trying to fill the gap. Mary snow reports. Is that active state. Reporter 20something joe is a Web Developer in new york. Ill get a design, and ill have to code it, work it out with html, css, and others. Reporter he started here in march, just a few months earlier, he was working two jobs as a security guard. I wasnt passionate about security. It was mainly just a means to make a living. Ill show you a simple example. Reporter so joe signed up for tree house, an online site that teaches courses in computer courses. One month after he finished he was offered a job. I did not think i would find a job in three months. But you have to take a risk. Reporter three months is a quicker turn around than normal, says the ceo of tree house. If you take someone who has never written any code or used technology in their job, it will take around 6 to 12 months. But the nice thing is that is working 20 to 30 minutes a day. We can take someone from zero to job ready in six months. Reporter and there are many tech jobs to be had. Nationwide there are five job openings for computer workers. There are 50 times more job openings for an unemployed computer worker, than an unemployed unemployed construction worker. The u. S. Department of education predicted by 2020, stem jobs, jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math, will increase dramatically. I think that demonstrates this ability for people that feel like they are a part of the middle class, and they cant find something that is well paying and meaningful. Reporter not all stem jobs are created equal. Tree house teaches around building websites and apps or to write code. Initially they get paid about 15 an hour for about three months as a trial, and then they get paid around 45 grand. But thats the beginning. Grand. Reporter tree house is one of dozens of Online Education companies teaching coding and web development. It believes not every tech job requires extensive higher education. Its the same for joe, he had some education in computer science, but didnt want to spend the money or time to go back to school to finish his degree. But getting a tech job isnt as easy as joe makes it look. Many large Tech Companies still require a College Education and several years of experience before being granted an interview. This is a major challenge for job seekers like austin. Typically they ask for more experience than i have. Or for a degree that i dont have. So thats where im looking to cross that barrier. Reporter but he says even though he ran into a lot of roadblocks, his Current Employer saw a website he built, and decided that was enough to get him the job. Thats where you find companies that actually care more about what you are producing than your actual background. Like it or not, china is now getting swept up in russias new cold war with the west. Were on the ground with both border, next. Al Jazeera America morning news good morning and welcome to al Jazeera America real stories. Real reporting. Real news. A deeper look. A much better forecast for today with an International Edge why is this so important and how close is this deal . From our Award Winning news teams across america and beyond we begin with breaking news coming out of the west bank. News that matters. Al Jazeera America morning news every morning 7 eastern only on al Jazeera America from stage to screen oscar nominated actor ethan hawk the theatre has always bee my first love. Separating art politics if you have an agenda with people. You sometimes dont see the truth and the lifelong influence of his mother she was worried i was gonna be a spoiled brat and not see how complicated the world was every monday, join us for exclusive. Revealing. And surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. Talk to al jazeera only on al Jazeera America pain killer