Union stepped up their battle against proposed Pension Reforms its not the longest industrial action that france a seen in decades. Im sorry so misconducts good to have you with us u. S. Officials say they believe that iran likely shot down the Ukraine InternationalAirlines Plane that crashed on wednesday now the plane was on its way from the iranian capital tehran to the ukrainian capital kiev unnamed u. S. Officials have told American Media that Iranian Air Defense systems might have accidentally shot down the airliner killing all 176 passengers and crew iran says the crew did not put out a distress call but did try to turn back before the plane went down and ukraine is such a team of investigators to join the search for answers. Now a short while ago u. S. President trump had this to say i have my suspicions it was very i dont want to say that because other people have those suspicions also and. Its a tragic thing when i see that its a tragic thing. But somebody could have made a mistake on the other couldve couldve made a mistake it was flying it was it was flying in not our system it has nothing to do with us and it was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake and some people say it was be can it go i personally dont think thats. Even a question hard lets get the latest on the story now from our washington correspondent. Tell us more about what the president had to say here. Hi sue me well i think you heard basically the ghosts of what he had to say with regards to this issue i mean its quite notable what he was saying there just to to requote some of what he said he said somebody could have made a mistake on the other side he said also there was a pretty rough neighborhood no one be. Certain he was at that press conference was very clear about what he meant by that and then he was saying that some people say it was mechanical and i personally dont think thats even a question i was the president trumpets information that has not been released yet the pentagon has not commented so far and at the moment theres just a lot of d speculation and the media here is quoting sources that they have within the Intelligence Community here in the United States is there any more in that public what information the president might be basing that statement on. Well like i said the pentagon hasnt actually commented yet ill just give you some of whats been reported here so far theyre saying that u. S. Officials say that they have intelligence or that theyve been collecting intelligence in the region in the past few days in particular considering you know the missile strikes that took place in iraq just you know a days i was ago almost we can say theyre saying that the likelihood of communications intercepts and other similar intelligence was being collected at the time u. S. Media is also quoting at u. S. Officials who said. The plane was airborne for around 2 minutes when then heat signatures of 2 surface to air missiles were detected at the moment the black box of course is not being released so its very difficult to know exactly what happened as you mentioned there the ukrainian investigators will have access to about whats also being said here in the u. S. Media is that if they could also have access to the wreckage then it would also clear up any doubts over whether and they saw actually hit the aircraft because they would be able to carry out tests and there would be explosives of course on that wreckage and also with regards to what iran is saying theyre saying that a lot of whats being said at the moment thats being quoted in local media there in iran is that it is a logical rumors and that the reports of missiles hitting the aircraft are basically on true already. Reporting the very latest there from washington thank you and for more analysis on the story we can speak to Steven Wright hes an aviation expert professor of Aircraft Systems at temporary university in finland stephen the good to see you is there any indication from the information that you seem trickling out so far that this plane was indeed down and. Good evening yes the information ive looked at indicates the catastrophic event has taken place normally if there is a technical problem a significant technical when the front group will make an announcement Traffic Control because you need to tell people if youre going to deviate from your standard plan for instance theres a lot of speculation at the moment the engine one of the engines was overheating in which case it makes sense that the flight crew would tell people on the ground we have decided to turn back and try and land back at the the main apple and its this lack of information that i find particularly perplexing why did the communications stop and were not just talking about Oral Communication from the pilot to the air Traffic Controller were also talking about the a. D. F. Speed transponder data theres also massive clean gold cost all the time whilst this aircraft is flying yes even as you said a lot of questions particularly being asked about a lack of communication with Ground Control what about this information that has emerged about the plane having turned back heading back towards the airport i mean what does that tell you i think you need to be a bit careful here. And the reason why i say this is the from the video that weve seen that shows an aircraft it looks like an aircraft to me in the sky and its burning and then we see a big fireball when this very large object hits the ground and explodes. To be the aircraft now if this is the case if the aircraft suffered catastrophic failure and as a result one of the engines has effectively disintegrated we can assume that the other good engine. Would continue to operate and if that happens the engines automatically are programmed to then go into a high power setting and its this change in power where you are effectively have one engine guard really fast that pushes the aircraft off its original track and unless the flight crew do something and use the rudder quite considerably the aircraft will deviate from its original position i suspect if it has been down by a missile and the missile has then taken out one of the engines its this differential thrust thats caused the aircraft and its maybe that that we are assuming that is actually the pilots trying to turn to land again ok so thats important that could explain that deviation youre saying stephen what about the investigation iran and iran have originally had indicated it wouldnt share the black box data with boeing or the us but with the ukrainians are you concerned that there wont be a thorough and full investigation into what happened. No im not concerned about that because i think its in everybodys interest the transparency. That the information the truth will come out one way or the other and its just a matter of time its in everybodys interest to identify the facts as quickly as possible for instance the the flight data recorders the cockpit voice recorder it doesnt need to go to america there are lots of other countries that are independent and off the really capable of downloading the premises and identifying whats happened also the analysis of the material the structure of the crashed if it was a miss so it should be relatively straightforward to take saw in post find the holes if they do exist and to take residue swaps and then rapidly put that through spectrometer to identify whether any explosive was actually used in this case all right well have to leave it there Steven Wright professor of Aircraft Systems a temporary university in finland thank you so much for your insight thank you. Lets get a roundup of some of the other stories making news around the world british lawmakers have approved the Withdrawal Agreement bell which allows the u. K. To leave the European Union at the end of this month the legislation will now have to the parliaments upper and is expected to become law in the coming weeks. And at least 20 people the majority of them soldiers have reportedly been killed in a militant attack in northeastern nigeria the attack in the town of one grunow also sparked a fire that left hundreds of already displaced people homeless an Extremist Group linked to the socalled Islamic State has claimed responsibility. In france hundreds of thousands have hit the streets and yet another day of strikes and protests against president in manama calls proposed Pension Reforms his push for changes unleash one of the longest strike actions in france in decades and now familiar Scenes Police are using tear gas to control protesters the strikes have cause weeks of travel chaos across france. And lets go right to our correspondent lisa lewis is standing by for us in central paris covering the protests for us hi lisa tell us what youve been seeing there today. Well thousands hundreds of thousands of protesters have been marching today here in paris and in other cities across france according to the figures we are getting it was between 20600000 depending on who you listen to to the unions or the police thats about a 3rd of how many people were out protesting on the 17th of december thats the last day of protest against the pension reform today was the 3660 day of protest of strike here in france and the strike is actually happening in different sectors across the French Economy especially in the transport sector you know that there are very few trains running and also here in paris the local transport they are a. T. P. Which is running the metro metro has as largely ground to a halt so this is the longest strike really since long straightaway strike since the 1930 s. Here in france and this is there any end in sight to these protests. And the government is talking to the unions negotiations has started again at the beginning of the week the government especially trying to convince the more moderate union the c. F. D. T. To come on board that union is opposed to one specific measure measure especially of the reform that is the socalled age that is the government wants to increase the age at which she should get a full rate pension from 62. 00 to 64. 00 the union is a radical you pose to that but and they say if you withdraw that then we could actually you know support the rest of the reform that is especially you know merging the 42. 00 different special regimes into one however its not known yet if the government will really you know give way to that and also if even if these negotiations work out there are the unions here more radical ones like the city that have patched that they will continue the strikes and that could continue for another few weeks really is a what is at stake here i mean how important is the standoff for both sides. Of the reform is really important the sound of the board for both sides really and that the union have to show that they still play a role in france after about one year of yellow vests protests where there werent actually really participating that much that was you know Grassroots Movement every week there were purchasing here in paris and other cities in france and the unions now have to say that they still can actually influence French National politics the government on the other hand wants to push through this reform it was one of the centerpieces of the election manifesto of m. M. R. Cost in 2017 when he got elected as president and it is very important for him to push this through some people here say if he doesnt succeed in pushing it through then its very unlikely he will be able to implement any other reform during the last 2 years of his time in power and also that would also diminish his chances to get reelected in 2022. Lisa lewis reporting for us in paris thank you. Now prince harry and Meghan Markle say theyre going to step back from the royal duties and spend more time in north america that shock announcement reportedly took even Prince Charles in the queen by surprise harry and megans wedding in 2018 was thought to be the start of a new chapter for the British Royal family of the honeymoon between the u. K. As tabloid press and the newlyweds did not last long. Sent us this from what. The british media is devoting a lot of coverage to this unexpected announcement we have the day in the mirror theyve been bowed they didnt even tell the queen and in the day he made their own 16 pages in the opinion piece they say that the old couple isnt mean to the road through bullets now some tabloid papers had a road targeted their young rose before prince harry in particular had fights with them he said that the behavior towards his wife of mines of to bullying and the fields with regards to his late mother you know you feel that history was repeating itself one thing is for sure though with this new criticism of flaws of the british presence unlikely to stop anytime soon. All right youre watching news brant goff will have more coverage of the investigation into the ukrainian International Airlines plane crash in iran coming up at the top of the hour stay with us. Every 2 seconds person is forced to flee their home. The consequences to serious trysts our documentary series displaced to picture dramatic humanitarian crises for profit. For good thing we dont have time to think i didnt go to university to kill people but actually i mean i hate. People for their cars and their future so they seek refuge abroad but want to