First Thing: Court considers Assange’s last-ditch bid to fight US extradition

If extradited, a US conviction could mean life in prison for the Wikileaks founder. Plus, the groundbreaking stories of Black astronauts

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Good morning.

Lawyers for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, will on Tuesday begin a final attempt to prevent his extradition to the US, where, if convicted, he may be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Where is Assange now? He has been in Belmarsh prison, south-east London, for almost five years.

What will his lawyers argue? That his extradition would be punishment for political opinions, and a breach of the European convention on human rights.

What could his US sentence be? His lawyers say that, if convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.