Youre watching on t. V. International im Rosana Lockwood welcome to the program. And we do start with this breaking news iran has Just Announced that it military its military unintentionally shot down the ukrainian plane that crashed on wednesday into iran that is a statement from the military which has been released by Iranian State media the statement said a missile was fired due to human error iran had earlier said claims that a missile brought down Ukraine Airlines flight 752 were scientifically impossible the boeing 737800 went down needed to run on wednesday morning killing all 176 people on board. The u. S. Secretary of state has defended washingtons decision to assassinate irans top general during a press conference my post struggled to explain the alleged threat posed by general sort of money and was grilled by journalists there more pins got more. Things got quite easy at the press conference where we saw mike pompei o the u. S. Secretary of state speaking alongside steve minutia in the secretary of treasury and this comes just a week after the killing of irans top general qassam solomonic and as the press asked questions got particularly tense mike pompei o seemed a little bit uncomfortable trying to answer the questions of journalists who just dont seem to buy his claim that the killing of solomonic was necessary to protect american lives lets take a listen to some of what went on if you have specific information about the internet and you have anything to do with our embassies. We had specific emanation information on an imminent threat and those threats trim included attacks on u. S. Embassies what is your definition of it in that. This was going to happen in american lives are at risk the Intelligence Community is not flawless we we get it wrong in this case the Intelligence Community got it fundamentally right there was an imminent attack that was active plotting is that right now gone with sort of money gone threats are never going now it wasnt just the journalists who dont exactly buy pompei as claims but american lawmakers also have their doubts we just saw in the u. S. House of representatives the lower house of the u. S. Legislative branch a resolution was passed attempting to restore it to the activities of the trumpet ministration and trying to prevent them from further escalating tensions with the Islamic Republic of iran however these doubts about whether it was the right thing in order to kill qassam solomonic go well beyond legislators and journalists they actually go to the us public itself we have new poll results that have been conducted and it shows that basically 2 thirds of the u. S. Public believes at this point that the country is less safe because of trumps decision to kill the top iranian general furthermore 69 percent. Cent of the u. S. Public believes that iran is more likely to attack the usa as a result of trumps decisions 52 percent describe trump killings. As reckless so a pretty solid opposition to trumps killing of qassam solomonic among American People themselves while at the press conference mike peo and steve minutia laid out basically what these new sanctions will include the new sanctions are targeting high level officials in iran basically preventing any business transactions with them but when explaining these new sanctions a mike bomb peo use some rather interesting language to lay out what he argued was the ultimate end game of the United States when it comes to iran president said we dont want war we want iran to behave like a noble nation the reason that secretary treasurer this morning is to continue this campaign our strategic effort to get to run to behave in a way that doesnt continue their 40 year long effort to terrorize the world if you hear those words he refers to saying that he wants iran to be a quote normal country so essentially it seems the United States is ask a lady threats and carrying out more sanctions with the goal of forcing the Islamic Republic to conduct itself in a manner that the United States considers to be normal not exactly clear what that means but until that happens there will be further activities and sanctions and threats and whatnot now many are hoping that the Current Situation is in a state of deescalation but at the same time people worry about what could happen next you know the sanctions still remain iran still has the capabilities we saw the recent strikes that took place so a lot of nervousness in the Global Community at the moment i think air is still on sanctions at this point but i will get around to that again despite the fact that we dodged a bullet about going to war with iran our last few days were still in the same set piece positions where we were before and. All these guys around the president can think of us how do we turn the screws more more and backs mom pressure more and more info and this is the next thing i can do a lot of this list remember is aimed at the europeans i think a lot of this is toward pressuring the europeans to side with the americans in this full Pressure Campaign meanwhile theres growing concern among iraqis that the country is becoming a battleground between the u. S. And iran thousands of people took to the streets of baghdad on friday calling for an end to foreign interference. Demonstrators waving iraqi flags chanting no to america no to it wrong meanwhile the vox cant take a Prime Minister has demanded that the u. S. Make preparations for a troop pullout bonce washington has made it clear thats not going to happen but rather stay for the good its on t. So you correspondent mary reports. Of us familiar with the situation you invite someone over to stay a while say a friend they stay and stay and stay you drop a hint you know its getting late on the tod but they just dont get it. America is a force for good in the middle east and a delegation sam to iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to be recommit to our Strategic Partnership not to discuss troop withdrawal what complicates things is that your unwelcome guest is heavily armed and has a tendency to how do you put this kill your other guests you call make this up americans kill an arabian general in iraq iran then shoots back a bunch of Ballistic Missiles in revenge out of iraq i mean these poor rocky guys theyve done nothing and everyones bombing them so you can understand if theyre a little sick of it all and point to the door we want to restart the civil war again among the shia we dont want this to happen were not a battlefield between the usa and iran so whoever wants to hit the usa should do that outside of this country. That all of these troops must leave because they have turned iraq into a battlefield and its astonishing the americans are saying no we dont care that you voted for us to leave we wont and just in case that wasnt enough of a slap in the face actually going to call more of their friends over to iraq nato played and then you have any middle east you know they told me i said what a beautiful name nato personnel in the region to know youre supposed to us to be honest with you because this is an international problem. Today and need to delegation is at the state department to discuss increasing natures role in the iraq situation is absurd it makes a joke a mockery of International Law and simple decency and as does anything absurd has the internet buzzing. America is a force for good in the middle east and well start a civil war to prove you need our protection given military forces the against the wishes of the people who live there its called occupation when we said we wanted to bring you democracy we did not mean you cant use it to make your own decisions iraq asks u. S. Troops to leave the country but president pompei o refuses instead his state Department Issues a statement the 1st sentence reads america is a force for good in the middle east remember if you say i am so cool then youre not cool theres a lesson here i suppose you cant be friends with a superpower theyll call your friend patch on the head but when push comes to shove youre just another poor bombed out nation thats going to do as youre told. Well middle east writer believes there is no justification for the continued u. S. Presence in iraq. The critics as you know without fighting there or isis in there are we dont want them to come back but this is completely fabricated excuses to be honest because this is that. It is it is that i shammed it is they are iraqi it is their it really and it is our whole issue. And this is their and very completely you know i dont believe there is a chance of this i mean. Unless you have one bill to come back and one or 2 climbers then this is the only the only way for those that say to come back. Im going to pull out. Here today and actually im going to lose the usual. Problem this is all part of the ratcheting up trying to show that iran is the one line that state iran is doing things which are not really in the interest of the public and you know usa is is is good for the word but really i would like to say that you know what mr. Trump was saying that they took everything but i think what would be a really good titan is that ari and me Islamic Republic middle east without the usa there then all the problems that we have will disappear and then we could get to some truthful conversation and having a narrative which has some bases and a logical basis to end the communication. Where we return to our breaking news now iran has just admitted that its military unintentionally shot down a ukrainian plane on wednesday thats from an official statement carried by Iranian State media it said a missile was fired due to human error hitting Ukraine Airlines flight 752 the boeing 737 went down a terror on a wednesday morning killing all. 176 people on board later that day the u. S. The u. K. And canada cited their Intelligence Services as saying the plane was brought down by an iranian surface to air missile and iran initially denied those claims calling them scientifically impossible well these are the latest pictures from the crash site and while passengers belongings can still be seen the area is reportedly no longer cordoned off and investigators are no longer present earlier iran said wreckage from the aircraft had been collected and taken to a safe location ukraines foreign minister meanwhile said experts from his country had been given access to the flight recorders and fragments of the plane well this is what witnesses were saying after the plane went down. Moving to help the right side of the airplane and one end of it were completely on fire and i think the pilot made a great effort not to hold president ial houses the plane crash landed in largely park and destroyed the fence before then it took off again and exploded and was completely incinerated after one you know they didnt he was watching the news of the rain ians hitting us bases with missiles on t. V. After 10 minutes i heard a massive explosion and all the houses start to shake there was fire everywhere at 1st i thought the americans have struck here with missiles and i went into the basement to take cover all through while i went out and saw a plane had crashed over there good reports were lying around. In some support for what my oldest son is the steward to colby. From the us she told me that ukrainian Aircraft Carrier she asked where eagle threw i said to ron when i saw the video of the plane crash. Well in separate news regarding boeing the Us Aviation Authority has proposed a 5000000. 00 fine on the company for allegedly putting defective parts into it 737 max planes internal memos from the company have been released suggesting staff were aware of numerous problems with the aircraft but failed to alert inspectors i still havent been forgiven by god for the covering up i did last year would you put your family on a mac. Simulated trained aircraft i wouldnt know the blue news design by gloams who certain supervised by monkeys well over 100 pages of internal communications were delivered to congressional investigators as part of a probe into how the boeing 737 max jet was certified safe before 2 major recent plane crashes the planes manufacturer released a statement expressing regret over the content of that communication between its employees boeing also gave assurances it had made significant changes to enhance its safety procedures where the aircraft manufacturer had its entire 737 max fleet grounded in march last year after it was involved in 2 deadly plane crashes with the Ethiopian Airlines and indonesias online air 346 people were killed in those tragedies problems with automated Flight Control systems of thought to have contributed to the fatal crashes. While some of the most suggest that boeing limited Pilot Training on simulators as a cost cutting measure aviation safety advocate gideon u. S. Believes that was a serious mistake. Most flight conversion training happens and simulate even even. A little derivative of a given type so thats not unusual i think one of the problems that bring painted themselves into a corner. With. Much burton was trying to make it cheaper. To operate in terms of a common. Pool with the earlier models of 737 specifically the astoundingly successful in g. Series as people influence 30 communities go and search is expensive trial and accident might say this isnt the ultimate station of that particular mantra the recall asked to blow it. Out of the problems with the 7 through so much program i dont think and were people have tried to cover i think its beyond dark. When we return to our breaking news iran has just a bit it did its military unintentionally shot down a ukrainian plane on wednesday and thats from an official statement carried by Iranian State media it said a missile was fired due to human error hitting ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 the boeing 737 went down there tehran on wednesday morning killing all 176 people on board later that day the u. S. The u. K. And canada was cited their Intelligence Services are saying the plane was brought down by an iranian surface to air missile iran initially denied those claims calling them scientifically impossible and foreign minister zarif has just released a statement on twitter says quote preliminary conclusion so internal investigation by armed forces of human error at time of crisis caused by u. S. Adventurism led to this disaster quotes continues our profound regrets apologies and condolences to our people to the. Families of all victims and 2 other affected nations well these are the latest pictures from the crash site while passengers belongings can still be seen the area is reportedly no longer cordoned off and investigators are no longer present earlier iran said wreckage from the aircraft had been collected and taken to a safe location ukraines foreign minister meanwhile said experts from his country had been given access to the flight recorders and fragments of the plague. Now another International News german chancellor Angela Merkel will be arriving in moscow later on saturday for a meeting with Vladimir Putin theyre expected to discuss the iran crisis and also the north stream to gas pipeline linking russia to germany be to oliver has more on that visit. Its not a difficult time that angle or merkel arrives in moscow for what will be her 19th official visit to russia as german chancellor certain to be up for discussion between herself and president Vladimir Putin are taking energy out of the Current Situation in the middle east and the standoff between iran and the United States and Getting Energy from russia into germany via the nord stream to gas pipeline chancellor merkel and president putin are in agreement when it comes to a deescalation of tension in the middle east mrs merkel Spokes Person stressing the need for cool heads this week its const its important that all involved parties exercise restraint and turn away from the logic of escalation towards the logic of dialogue both the federal chancellery and the kremlin have their concern at the situation in the region with the government here in berlin sounding less than convinced by the justification given by washington for the assassination of a rainy and Major General because some solemn army. We saw the explanation of the u. S. For this strike but the information to comprehend the explanation is missing force of the school year that mildred violence must only be the last resort germany and russia were both architects of the rainy a nuclear deal that now looks to be lying in tatters following 1st donald trump pulling the United States out of it unilaterally back in 2018 and just this week the iranian side saying theyre not going to live up to their end of the bargain following the killing of solomonic its. Very concerning that iran is failing to meet is no longer meeting. Several of its obligations and what it has now announced is that it will no longer meet further obligations this is another wrong step in the wrong direction and naturally raises serious questions about the future of this agreement when it comes to nord stream to a balancing act between washington and moscow will be required from the chancellor the United States is very keen to sell germany its liquefied natural gas but doesnt want germany to receive gas from russia slapping sanctions on the project and making overt threats towards european businesses and Companies Involved you face a binary choice stop maam and leave the pipeline unfinished or make a foolish attempt to rush to complete the pipeline and risk putting your company out of business forever with the pipeline just a few dozen kilometers from its planned destination the project that was planned to be up and running at the end of last year now and visit completion date at the end of this year angle americal knows germany needs that gas at the price russia is willing to sell it then the flag of the other thing is that no 1. 00 wants to be unilaterally dependent on russia but we received russian gas not only the d. D. R. Where i lived but also in west germany during the cold war and they dont see why the times today should be so much verse that we can no longer see russia remains a partner if not im going to merkel can expect a warm welcome in a wintery moscow helped in part by the fact that both russia and germany find themselves on the same side of the argument in 2 major issues the russian president Vladimir Putin has also called for calm heads in the middle east and the government in moscow calls the sanctions that have been put in place on the north stream project illegal expect both chancellor merkel and president putin to be singing from the same song sheet when it comes to joint statements on these particular issues but theyll also be close attention. Haid later on today through what im bill americal has to say and how closely she aligns herself with the russian president and thats going to be paid attention to not just here in berlin but also in brussels and in washington peter all over r. T. Berlin. But we return to our breaking news now iran has just admitted to unintentionally shooting down the ukrainian plane on wednesday killing all 176 people on board and that comes from an official Statement Released by state t. V. And News Agencies in iran it says the military fired a missile due to human error hit a Ukraine Airlines flight 75 to the bering 737 went down there tehran on wednesday morning and later that day the u. S. The u. K. And canada cited their Intelligence Services as saying the plane was brought down by an iranian surface to air missile iran initially denied those claims calling them scientifically impossible and foreign minister judge has just released a statement on twitter he says quote preliminary conclusions of internal investigations by armed forces of a human error at time of crisis caused by u. S. Adventurism lead to disaster he continues our preferred regrets apologies and condolences to our people to the families of all victims and to other affected nations or this is what witnesses were saying after the plane went down. Moving to the right side of the airplane and one end of it were completely on fire and i think the pilot really great if not to hold president ial hands its the plane crash landed in largely park and destroyed the fence before then it took off again and exploded and was completely incinerated after one of the key was watching the news of iranians hitting us bases with missiles. In minutes i heard a massive explosion and the houses started to show. There was fire everywhere but 1st i thought the american substructure here with mr gates and i went into the basement to take cover all through while i went out and saw a plane had crashed over their body parts were lying around. In star support for my oldest son is the steward daughter called me from the us she told me that the ukrainian aircraft crashed just wary go through i said to to run and i saw the video of the plane crash. Now another International News for more than a month there have been protests against the french governments plans to reform pensions a draft bill of the project has been revealed and will be presented to the council of ministers in 2 weeks the main bone of contention there is an increase in the pension age although according to the text its not something that would apply until 2022 a shallot to explains. Will you still need to me will you still feed me when im 64 or so goes the chorus to that song sung by the beatles now back in the 1960 s. When it was recorded average life spans were far shorter than they are today in france it was around 70 years old the idea of being 64 suggested you were probably close to you wrote expiration. In france they consider that the us too healthy at the age of 63 so for us if unacceptable to diet work for a time in bad health. It is very possible to work. People are tired of that age they can continue working for them as friends enters into it 6 week of strikes over proposed changes to the Pension System the one element thats really seems to be roiling people is the upping over the age that you can retire at with a full pension to yes you guessed it 64. 00 polls show that 2 thirds of respondents find this to be on palatable while some unions if even demanded that all references to retirement at 64. 00 be removed from the law. This new age is unfair because it will be no lies those who started working young economists agree that its unnecessary and people are against it despite the opposition this seems to be a Sticking Point for the government. I think he does know that everywhere in europe in countries like ours across europe people work a little longer because Life Expectancy is going up. Well hes right Life Expectancy has increased significantly in the last 50 years in fact in france the median lifespan is now 83 years old meaning the average person were toys at 64 would be dipping into the Pension System for some 19 years and even if the government refuses to budge all not retirement age compared to. Other countries in the e. U. Some might say that the french have it pretty good in countries like sweden denmark portugal germany and many more the age of retirement is already higher than the current age of retirement to france at 62 and it would still be higher than the new threshold at 64 in addition the Life Expectancy in these countries is lower than the fronts meaning that people who work longer to retire on average in those countries and are more likely to access their pension for shorter periods of time so why are the french making such a song and dance about this. Is not about comparing countries its about social regression its about. The next. To the office it generally lower the retirement age 60 to 60. 00 or less we should do the opposite and not race to the bottom of the issue. As a whole room only sympatico on doing we believe that france is current retirement system is economically viable so as long as we support Retirement Funds we do not need to slash workers rights. At the retirement age the main problem is the row our contracts are for this this signifies a complete breakdown of the social systems can move it seems for the french regardless of what they european neighbors might be doing when they turn 64 they want to already be enjoying their retirement and this is nonnegotiable jollity been ski altie paris. When we return to our breaking news now iran has just admitted to an intentionally shooting down the ukrainian plane on wednesday that killed 176 people on board thats from a government Statement Read out. State t. V. Carried by Iranian News Agency says the military fired a missile due to human error in Ukraine Airlines flight 7052. 00 and that the aircraft had flown towards a sensitive area and was mistaken for an enemy aircraft the boeing 737 went down there to iran on wednesday morning and this happened just hours after iran had fired dozens of missiles at military bases in iraq housing u. S. Forces in revenge for the assassination of its top general and in a Statement Released just minutes ago by the Iranian Foreign minister he referred to that conflict divide serif said quote human error at a time of crisis caused by us adventurism led to this disaster profound regrets apologies and condolences to our people to the families of all the tims and to other affected nations well these are the latest pictures from the crash site while passengers belongings can still be seen the area is apparently reportedly no longer cordoned off and investigators are no longer present earlier on said wreckage from the aircraft have been collected and taken to a safe location ukraines foreign minister said experts from his country have been given access to the flight recorders and fragments of the plane. Well that is it that is a wrap up of our breaking news and other stories from around the world stay with us because we will be back here at the top of the out with the latest developments on this story see them