A further sign of deescalation president trumps ambassador to the United Nations offers iran serious negotiations without precondition. More protests and strikes across france as union stepped up their battle against proposed Pension Reforms its now the longest industrial action that france seen in decades. And the shock announcement rocking the British Royal family its being called next that prince harry and mega markel announce still step back from while duties and spend more time in north america will take a look at the fallout. Im sumi so misconducts good to have you with us. What caused the ukrainian passenger plane to crash in iran just minutes after takeoff also 176 people on board were killed in wednesdays crash the Ukraine International airlines jet was on its way from the iranian capital tehran to the ukrainian capital kiev iran says the crew put out no distress call but they did try to turn back to the airport before the plane went down but ukraine has sent a team of investigators to iran to join the search for answers the crash has caused shock and grief in both nations. Marking a day of mourning ukrainian president for not him is in the end ski of the growing memorial to those who died in wednesdays crash. But the scramble for on says gets underway he appealed for International Cooperation to establish what caused this tragedy. The upper shoe i ask everybody especially when ukraine is in the middle of an information war to refrain from manipulation speculation conspiracy theories snap judgments and on verified theories he lists. Dozens of the 176 victims came from canada and Western University in ontario the sense of loss is enormous the persian Canadian Community here tightly knit. And im pushing the big nose and the white house is what. I used to see one of the people who lost his life in the bus and a regular basis one of my friends lost his brother i didnt know him directly but. You know pretty much Everybody Knows someone who was either in that plane crash or was affected by it the crash coincided with iran launching missiles at u. S. Bases in iraq leading some to speculate the plane may have been shot down kind of the Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau said his country would join any probe say categorically one way or another that the plane was not shot down. I cannot it is too early to speculate i would encourage people not to want to speculate. U. S. Secretary of state mike pompei over said he wants the u. S. To be involved in the probe but the iranians say they wont hand over the black box to boeing initially iranian and craning officials both blames mechanical problems but the ukrainians later backpedals declining for a course while the investigation is ongoing. For more on the story we can speak to journalist matthew cover from the kiev post matthew good to see you what is the latest you can tell us on the investigation from the ukrainian side. Well in the latest development the secretary of Ukraines National Security and Defense Council exceed has announced that the Ukrainian Commission is investigating up to 7 different possible reasons for the crash 4 of which he made public they include a potential missile strike a collision with some kind of a drone or other flying object a large explosion on the engine in the engine caused by technical issues and also possibly some kind of terrorist attack additionally he said that the Ukrainian Commission would like to go to the site of the crash to look for shards from a russian made tor Missile System this is rather interesting because it was based upon some photographs that were circulated in the internet but have certainly not been confirmed to be necessarily from the site of the crash its a pretty Big Development in that sense. Ok matthew so thats a perspective there in kiev how does that line up with some of the other information that has been emerging about the possible cause of this crash. It certainly complicates that information yesterday the Ukrainian Embassy in tehran initially said that they had excluded the possibility of a missile strike or a terrorist attack then they rescinded their statement and basically said that no conclusions could be official until their commission makes its final official conclusion it also complicates the iranian narrative of the crash the iranian commissions preliminary report suggested that the emergency was caused by technical issues on board the plane did not send a radio signal of distress and tried to turn around and return to the airport matthew what about the 2 countries ability to Work Together here ron is that it wont release the planes black box to boeing or the u. S. Are ukraine authorities confident that they will get full cooperation from iran here. Iran seems to have backtracked a bit on that initial statement with the head of the Civil Aviation organization there saying that they had extended offers to cooperate in the investigation not only to ukraine but also to the u. S. To sweden and to canada ukraine does not appear to yet have concerns about whether it will get access to the black boxes of the plane president bullet in his in his video address released on social media earlier today said that the Ukrainian Commission the 45 ukrainian specialist sent to iran would be involved in reading the black box journalist Matthew Cofer speaking to us from the key of post thank you so much thank you now and the day after of Iranian Missiles had bases hosting u. S. Troops president trumps ambassador to the United Nations has said the u. S. Is ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with iran now it appears to be a sign of deescalation but iran has made it clear that it is still determined to drive u. S. Forces out of the region neither tehran or washington have indicated they want the situation to escalate further and diplomacy appears now to be the order of the day to solve the many open questions ranging from the Iran Nuclear Deal to the status of u. S. Troops in iraq. And lets get some analysis on the story now we have chris and hanna with us hes a senior middle east expert at the bettles mun foundation a think tank here in berlin hes with us here in our studio christiane thank you for joining us its a pleasure talking to you so mean what we said just now that diplomacy appears out to be the order of the day to get sides back to the table and listen to president tranced statement yesterday after the Iranian Missile strike seemed to open the door to diplomacy as well how seriously do you take that is this a new start for relations there there is a window of serious possibilities for diplomacy and mediation thats thats right sumi. But there was also one last year in september when the United NationsGeneral Assembly was it was a convening there was a lot of talk that there might be a possibility that. That negotiators or diplomats from the trumpet administration and the Iranian Foreign minister and his team could sit together in order to try to direct talks to find compromise on their bilateral conflict relations and then the Supreme Leader in a. Has said has forbidden them to get in touch with the americans during the u. N. Assembly this has a lot to do with the deep mistrust on both sides especially also on the iranian side they look to north korea and they think maybe for tom its just a nice photo with us but we need to have get rid of the sanctions so where is really the outcome if we get into direct talks with a nice photo so that other questions around around around getting engaged in a direct diplomatic talk so weve been here before what is different this time for a 2nd. The question is. How for how long time the iranian leadership has the Financial Resources in order to. To to deal with the really High Pressure of the u. S. Sanctions the u. S. Sanctions are really hurting the economic and financial. Regime of iran and weve seen protests social protests which have been cracked down by the regime couple of weeks ago. So so they need a ship really needs in ease of the sanctions i have sometimes the feeling that they trying to wait until the u. S. Elections are over that there are different political. Less emotional framework for getting into direct negotiations there are a lot of countries in the region iraq tried oman tried to get both sides in the negotiation table now iraq is weakened you know because the confrontation between the u. S. And iran is being dealt with in iraq but it needs now also a utopian European Initiative with the regional players to try to build bridges between washington and tehran so what is that European Initiative you know what is the state right now of the 2015 Nuclear Agreement we heard president robin a state and call out european allies to abandon that deal holy to say that it no longer is valid is that the right way forward and will europe oblige the europeans Foreign Ministers are meeting tomorrow on friday in an emergency session in brussels so they know that there is not only on concerning syria and libya its also on the iraq iranian file there is an urgency that the europeans really translate their their common wording about their joint policy also in action. That means that that the opinion of the ether eat this are germany france or britain why are signed from the european side the Nuclear Agreement that they need to get up their mind are we going review to try to stick to this Nuclear Agreement with russia and china and tried to get back the americans in. Or really tried to give the iranians the financial the financial benefit of staying in the Nuclear Agreement they still are now facing a hold we react with the iranian pulled out of the next Nuclear Agreement so theres a lot of work to do more diplomatically that have to be done the next one to 3 weeks will have to leave it there christian one of the senior middle east experts from the bettles month foundation thank you for your insight it was a pleasure all right lets check in now on some of the other stories making news around the world at least 20 soldiers have been killed in a militant attack on the town of man who know in northeastern nigeria thats according to witnesses military officials they say the attack sparked a fire that destroyed hundreds of homes and extremist groups linked to the socalled Islamic State has claimed responsibility. Hundreds of thousands of roman catholics in the philippines have joined an annual procession to pray to a centuries old wooden statue of jesus christ known as the black mass of rain devout shes walking barefoot along a 6 kilometer route that the procession expected to last at least 15 hours. Lebanon has issued a travel ban on former nissan chairman carlos gone after a question him over an interpol notice going fled to lebanon from japan where he was awaiting trial on corruption charges going disputes all allegations against him and says he would not get a fair trial in japan. And the outbreak in china may have been caused by a new type of virus thats according to the World Health Organization more than 50 people have caught pneumonia in the city of one the w. H. O. Says the illness could come from the same family as the sars virus. Now in france thousands of people have hit the streets in another day of strikes and protests against president in my no one proposed Pension Reforms his push for change has unleashed one of the longest strike actions in france in decades and its cause weeks of travel chaos lets go to our correspondent lisa lewis shes standing by for us in central paris covering the story for us hi lisa tell us whats been happening there in the french capital today. Well people here there are 10000 tens of thousands of people who are marching from some point in the east of paris the president of the big towards the west of paris nearest to the gulf. Obviously there are more than 200. 00 protests and demonstrations happening across france today and this is the 36th day of strike here in france which is bringing to a whole largely at least local transport here in paris and the train the right way transport across france this is the longest strike since the 930 is the longest right away strike thats hear more about what this is actually about. For more than a month no french workers have taken to the streets they are worried they will have to work longer for and contribute more to their pensions. The reform is one of the manual mccalls key electoral promises a single points based Pension System for all replacing the 42 separate pension schemes but offer early retirement and other advantages mainly to Public Sector workers. Faced with popular anger the government consulted Union Representatives earlier this week but wants to get the proposed reforms through parliament. Soon as possible meanwhile unions insist that the planned increase in pensionable age should be taken off the table. From what i understand were going to work a lot longer to earn a lot less. Concessions have been made to some in the Public Sector with those born before 1075 exempt from the new system but others especially the Younger Generation are determined to strike until they get what they see as a fair pension deal. So lisa as he said you know these strikes have been going on for weeks is there any end in sight. While the government is negotiating with the unions again since the beginning of this week they the government especially wants to convince the c. F. D. T. Union which is the most moderate union here in france that union is opposed to one specific measure included in the reform and that is to push up the age the pension age at which well it which you would get a full rate pension here in france from 62. 00 to 64. 00 though so see if he is radically opposed to that if the government withdraws that measure or water sit down at least there is chance that the c. S. T. Union will agree on that however there are more radical unions here in france and they have pledged to continue the strike until the government withdraws the reform so we can actually look forward so to say 2 more strikes ahead more weeks of strikes ahead lets just be clear here the government doesnt really need the support of the union in that it has a majority in parliament at the plan is to introduce the draft law in the cabinet later this month and discuss it in parliament next month but obviously the government of money because the president wants to make sure that it gets the largest share of force of support from the people here in france it can at least it looks like nobody is prepared to to budge how important is the standoff for both sides. Its really important for the unions but also for the government the unions want to show that they still play a role here in french politics you know just look back over the past year there were yellow vests protests each week and the unions didnt really play a large role there and they have to show that they still you know can actually make the government move and have an influence on National Politics the government on the other hand in my macaw has pledged to push through this before me was part of his election manifesto when he was elected in 2017 and many people here say that if he doesnt manage to bring through this reform its very unlikely that will we will be able to put in place any other major reform in the last few years of his time in power and also it diminishes his chances to get reelected reelected in a few years time alysa discreetly we heard some voices of frustration in that report of travelers or how popular is the strike movement. Well the share french of the french who support the strikers the still higher than those who dont support it and also most of the people put the blame on the governments of for now it looks like the strike has have the biggest share of the french population on their side. Puerto lisa lewis reporting there in paris thank you so much. Now a shock announcement in the British Royal family the duke and duchess of sussex prince harry and Meghan Markle say theyre going to step back from their wild duties and spend more time in north america reports say the news took Prince Charles and the queen by surprise and the head of the oil families apparently not amused by the decision. Hari and megan on their wedding day it was thought to be the start of a new chapter for the British Royal family but it was not meant to read like this in an Instagram Post the couple explained they would stay back a senior royals and would aim to become financially independent it seems the cult even the queen of our guard shes reported to be heart one commentator said it was beyond belief last year was a pretty dreadful year for the royal family this has begun in a way that is not only completely unprecedented but