Their battle against proposed Pension Reforms its now the longest industrial actions that france has seen in decades and not soon but next it walking the British Royal family prince harry and Meghan Markle announced that they will step back from boyle duties but it seems they forgot to tell the queen will take a look at the war you know falwell. I bring it off its good to have you with us officials tonight are saying that they believe iran likely shot down the Ukrainian InternationalAirlines Plane that crashed on wednesday the airliner was on its way from the iranian capital tehran to the ukrainian capital kiev i named u. S. Officials have told American Media that raney an air Defense Systems may have accidentally shot down the plane killing all 176 passengers and crew iran says the crew did not put a distress call out but did try to turn back before the plane went down and ukraine has sent a team of investigators to join the search for answers so earlier u. S. President will trump said this about the goals of the crash i have my suspicions it was very i dont want to say that because other people have those suspicions also. 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 that has nothing to do with us and it was flying it in pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake some people say it was mechanical i personally dont think thats. Even a question ari lets throw it to move our Washington Bureau our correspondent publicly in the us is standing by good evening to you pablo i mean this is this is in a tragic news if it is true. Where one of the sources what information is the u. S. President basing his assertion here that the iranians may have accidentally shot down that plane. Hi brant well we can assume that President Trump has information that we dont have yet he has of course access to all the intelligence will say from the United States i do want to say though that the pentagon still hasnt actually commented on this yet but its very clear that President Trump is dismissing the idea that this was a mechanical issue which has been suggested by the iranians hes saying instead and if seen from what he just said there earlier and even saying that you know some people say it was mechanical i personally dont think thats even a question its very clear what hes saying there but until we have actual confirmation at the moment well just have to go on what is being said a lot in the u. S. Media quoting officials who have obviously of the information that we still dont have and we are seeing reports to the u. S. Officials are saying that the International Intelligence community has a high level of certainty it was in the rain in missile and that it was shot by accident we cant confirm that as you said but for the president to go public with this and this press conference does seem to indicate that the people around him would have said that the level of certainty is high enough that you can go public with that would you agree. Yes it does appear that President Trump has information which has not yet been released to us but from whats being quoted in so many sources here in the United States in the media quoting officials behind the scenes who of the do have this information theyre saying that it does look like there was some sort of surface to air missile 2 involved do you want to just bring in whats being said as well about the fact that u. S. Intelligence in the region had been collecting data lets not forget brant that you know were dealing this is the same week of course that missiles were launched across into iraq those military bases so obviously satellites and sensors were picking up any sort of movement in the region and whats also being said is. The flight which was on route to kiev was airborne for 2 minutes when heat from 2 surface to air missiles was detected obviously what would clear up a lot of questions will be access to that black box iran is saying that theyre not going to give that information to the americans but also another key point is the wreckage the wreckage of the aircraft would be able to clear up if there actually explosives on it and if they had the information and access to that. A lot of these questions which many people here in the United States and of course across the world. Are asking iran is saying still that the message that missiles did not shoot down the plane we do know is well that ukraine will have access to the black box so maybe once we have that information well get a little more confirmation or at least maybe the pentagon will give us a little bit more information we can only hope so respond publicly also in washington public thank you. And we want to take this story now to Larry Lindsey hes a pilot former aviation investigator with the canadian Transportation Safety board there its good to have you on the program i just want to get your reaction to this news thats come across that weve got u. S. Officials saying that the intelligence nil is Strong Enough to say that this airplane was most likely shot down by accident by a really missile. Well they certainly have more access to intelligence than the rest of this have so i would guess that theyre theyre pretty sure if theyre spreading misinformation around they have the information to confirm. Thats whats on their say so but until that information is confirmed in a release where they have or the iranians or or some official source recent study from a ship as its an accident investigator which is what i am you have to still assume that theyre going to carry on with the normal the normal investigation activities well i mean if were still in the dark i mean were really in the dark arent we if iran does not turn over the flight data recorder box and what we would normally have been in in a situation with a crash right. You know the flight data recorders they would normally share that information 1st of all it has to be down ordered their responsibility brought responsible for that then they would share that with all the people who should have access to it who have the best knowledge on how to read it to make sense of what is trying to tell us that yet remember that the plane data recorders you just cant press a button on there and have it disclosed to us of the accident you know what its going to tell you is what systems. Shut down and what anomaly so were within all the dozens and hundreds of systems that it monitors but its not going to tell you for example rate off the top whether it was hit by a man or not so somebody has to do that and also is work. You know this. Whole incident has all the characteristics of Something Like a missile striking the airplane this is not the normal accident type scenario so you know everything seems to be pointing in what you say is putting that right from the ask you as a as a an investigator if you did if you had access to the flight data recorder if we had access to the black box if you will would it be possible then to deduce to look at the information and then to say that yes it the plane was hit by a missile i mean is it possible to connect the dots from that data. You know you would work your way to that if thats if that isnt fact what happened and data would not point to a missile but it would point to all the characteristics of Something Like a missile hitting that airplane you would also go and get validation for that every verification from that from refugee examination you would get a lot of information from the refugee stimulation i can tell you that at this point i would say that the people who are on site there if they have the expertise they should they know already whether that aircraft was brought down by a missile or not the people you know ran the authorities sure would already know and we know that you know where you are canada particularly hard hit by this a 3rd of the Crash Victims were canadians canada is demanding that its own experts be a wild to join the crash investigation i mean do you expect that is going to happen again do you fear that wed have a crash situation now that that has really fallen right into a a geo political firestorm. It certainly could there could be there already and into the fires or because who knows what the center in atlanta do its really up to them how they react to requests for participation in the investigation a normal investigation would have canadian authorities there and all the thirtys from other parts of the world people who could go in there and validate and agree on look at the. Information from the rich in the data records and so on is actually showing you get some consensus which would give some some credence to the whole investigation it would be much better for the arabians in the long run if they had if they had some International Acceptance of what theyre saying to stars theres the evidence is concerned the u. S. President said today that this plane was flying i think he called it a rough neighborhood i mean. I dont know the specifics of what was happening at the very at the time that the plane went down but we understand that it came down near tehran would it make sense then shouldnt tehran have maybe sealed off the air space when the airstrikes were planned to take place against those military bases in iraq i mean what should there been some type of coordination in iraq. In iran its big for how the range conduct their business they seem to have. Their own way of doing things. Obviously yours in the middle east where you have commercial or when you know you dont want to be yeah yeah it would be dangerous it would be dangerous though to have commercial Airlines Flying anywhere near you you have missiles that are being fired. Well obesity thats not a very good mix. If thats what it is one of these some no randomly. If youre what it could. Mean if that proves to be true in a horrible tragedy larry vance we appreciate your analysis and your insights tonight thank you thank you sir. Heres some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world british lawmakers have approved the Withdrawal Agreement bill which allows the u. K. To leave the European Union at the end of this month the legislation will now head to parliaments Upper Chamber and is expected to become wall in the coming weeks 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 mon also sparked a fire that left hundreds of already displaced people homeless an Extremist Group linked to socalled Islamic State has claimed responsibility. Lebannon has issued a travel ban on former nice on chairman carlos going after authorities questioned him over an interpol notice goan fled to lebanon from japan where he was awaiting trial on corruption charges going dispute all allegations against him he says he would not get a fair trial in japan. These speeded up pictures of the volcano. Erupting and filling the skies above mexico city with ash authorities have issued a yellow alert it is considered one of the worlds most dangerous volcanoes because 25000000 people live within a 100 kilometer radius of the volcano. In france hundreds of thousands have hit the streets and yet another day of strikes and protests against president in manual mccollums proposed Pension Reforms his push for change has unleashed one of the longest strike actions in france in decades in fields that are now very familiar police are using tear gas stupid troll protesters the strikes have cost weeks of travel chaos across for us. Or earlier our correspondent lisa lewis sent us this assessment of the days events from paris 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 all the police thats about. How many people were out protesting on the 17th of december that is the last day of protest against the pension reform today was that that she thinks 60 day of protest of a strike here in france at the strike is actually happening in different sectors across the friends economy specially in the transport sector you know that there are very few trains running and also here in paris transport the our a. T. P. Which is running the metro metro is as we go out to a whole it said this is the longest strike really since long straightaway strike since the 1930 s. Here in france there was lisa was there reporting from paris now over to Britain Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say they are going to step back from their royal duties and spend more time in north america it is a shocking announcement that reportedly took even Prince Charles and the queen by surprise harry and megans wedding in 2018 was thought to be the start of a new chapter for the british morgul family but the honeymoon between the u. K. Is tabloid press and the newlyweds well it did not last. Long. Since this report from. The british media. Coverage to design expected announcement we had today. They being known they didnt even tell the queen and in the daily mail there are 16 pages in the opinion piece they say that theyre all a couple. Now some tabloid papers had a right. Before prince harry and particularly had fights with them he said that the behavior towards his wife the minds of to bullying the fields with regards to his late. History was repeating itself one thing is for sure with this new step criticism of parts of the british presence unlikely to stop anytime soon. It is a shock. To talk about now im joined here by my colleague. Whos been tracking reactions online you talk about the media see this one british newspaper today did the key did the 1st 17 pages of its addition to this announcement yeah this is absolutely explosive i mean really its a move over bricks that theres a new. Toy its next exit its been trending ever since the shock announcement reactions have been its been a very kind of mixed bag right on the one hand you have some saying you know theyve gone too far when youre saying they didnt even bother consulting the queen she goes on to call them. And harry ungrateful entitled brats and others in saying you know they havent gone far enough calling this kate mall be calling the royal family quote an Outdated Institution which ruins the lives of most people in it but yes if harry and are going to quit they have to quit probably ditch the world titles and patronage as they cant have it both ways and then others are again. I respond with more tongue in cheek saying wait you can resign from your family. Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in london has taken the resignation bit and this is really quite funny very literally resigning harry and megan to a different part of the museum away from the rest of the royal family so i tell you what these days life comes at you well i mean you cant you know you cant resign from your family but this amounts basically is prince harry saying im resigning from my job my public jobs as as a royal and what we understand is hes also said that he doesnt want to be paid anymore either that doesnt sound like a spoiled brat that sounds like a man who thinks he maybe has a better income source in the future i mean we dont know it but it just reinforces the fact that this is a big deal with a huge huge deal its a huge on there are a number of reasons for that i mean one is you know and make and really the most popular couple of the royal family right i mean just in terms of sheer favor billeted this is a huge blow to the royal family they were also very much seen as this new bright hope. At just the right mix of pomp and progressiveness and so for a lot of people they felt a lot more relatable than previous role couples have felt so there was this hope that they would ring in this new era for the royal family and that was something that was really sorely needed it we saw a slew of scandals just last year. And last and i think this is something that a lot of people who didnt grow up in modern times may not fully understand in times of political turmoil and britain has seen its you know share of the earth. The royal family is really who you look to for a sense of continuity stability prime ministers come and go the crown is for life and so i was like youve been writing for the listener you there ive got to tell you well what about the money though i said they want to become financially independent i mean how how did the how do how does a prince go. About becoming not a pauper but. Not financed by the crown yet and that is kind of the gray zone that they find themselves or right now i mean. You dont have to worry about them any up in the streets right i mean theyre still going to keep their old cottage theyre going to keep their titles security is still going to be paid for. What is essentially happening by stepping down the senior members they are giving up access to this sovereignty granted its an annual funding mechanism of the monarchy and basically this is means that there are now free to earn their own money so shortly after announcing the decision they launched this very sleek new website its called sussex royall dot com and they actually trademarked mark that name back in december and that fueled obviously a lot of speculation that you know maybe what theyre up to something was interesting is that theyre basically relaunching themselves as a brand and so thats not unlike the obamas not like yeah its a war of bill and of gates they want to use that name recognition to launch this big new charity potentially very successful if that doesnt work out you know looks like theres a job opening over at the daily show the world shes an actress but what youre telling us is that theyre not going to have to wor