anchor: welcome back. i am laura cellier. donald trump names a tim acclimate climate change skeptic as the head of the epa. it is the latest controversial pick. russia says the syrian army has stopped its attack on aleppo. the united states says it will wait and see to find out if the fighting has really stopped. ministerr budget sentenced to three years in jail for tax evasion and money laundering. he resigned in 2012.

first, a month after he won the white house, donald trump has been handing out covenant appointments at a rocket rate. he has picked a host of retired generals for top national security positions and he named up theruitt to head environmental protection agency. for the latest, we go to washington. philip is there. president obama made fighting climate change a cornerstone of his policy. reporter: it is in serious danger. scott pruitt sees the epa and the environment of production agency that he will be the head of as a department with an

activist agenda. scott pruitt, the current attorney general for the state a climatea also is change skeptic. not necessarily a denier. the jury's still out on this one. his boss, donald trump, the president-elect, has tweeted about climate change, saying it was a hoax created by the chinese. is suingcott pruitt the agency right now over climate change. that he willhe epa be at the head of. what we're most interested in is when it comes to the climate obama agenda of president is the paris climate change agreements. can scott pruitt work with president-elect donald trump and get the united states out of this climate deal? but it is is yes,

relatively difficult to do, especially because we have heard from donald trump since he won the presidency and he said he was open to potentially keeping partsgreement, but other of president obama's legacy when it comes to environmental protection are certainly in danger. , especially the clean power plan that was supposed to cut greenhouse gas in missions from well bents might completely gotten rid of by the new head of the environmental protection agency. laura: we have had a few other appointments as well. are we getting a sense of the kind of administration trump will be running? >> more or less. the democrats would oppose this. the latest one that has not yet been made official would be the new head of the department of labor. he is an executive in the fast

food business and actually very much against getting a higher minimum wage for workers in the united states. that was one of the big cornerstones of the campaign of both bernie sanders and hillary clinton on the democratic side. also something this president is very much for. when you look at the cabinet positions we have seen so far, one of the big elements of it is that there are three general's retired or not who would be in charge of the biggest dossiers in the white house, and the department of defense, the most important of them, and the department of homeland security and the national security advisor for donald trump would also be a retired general. that leaves us with one big position still to be filled. that is the position of secretary of state and there is a lot of speculation about that one. mitt romney, the former presidential candidate for republicans in 2012, might well still get that post, but as is the case with donald trump, he's

tvying a bit of a reality game and not telling us exactly when this will be announced, and saying there are pretty much for being finalists at this point and only he will decide and tell us when this secretary of state will be revealed, the final position to be filled, the final important position to be filled within the cabinet of president-elect donald trump. laura: thank you very much indeed, philip. russia is claiming that syrian forces have forced forces in to leave.eppo there is a plea to let hundreds of sick and wounded children out of the war-torn city. the united states says it is viewing the claim by a show with caution. syrian forces have advanced tens of thousands of civilians caught up in the fighting. those who have managed to

escape. some have been able to escape the frontline. these people are being directed out of the recently captured parts of the old city by regime truths. thousands remain in rebel held areas, now mainly to the south of the center, and they are largely without food, water, and any medical services. >> today, 150,000 people are threatened with extermination. we are calling for a halt of the bombing and guarantee of faith passage for all. -- safe passage for all. the regime and russian major offensive continues. it has been territorially decisive. they have captured around 80% of rebel held arereas in the east f the city. expectsme has said it victory soon, but more than 800 people have been killed and

thousands wounded there in less than one month, say local officials. some rebel representatives have asked for a cease-fire to enable them to evacuate. thiseeting in hamburg thursday, u.s. secretary of state john kerry and his russian counterpart sergey lavrov failed to agree on terms to allow for a pause in evacuations. >> the corridor is only a humanitarian corridor if there is cease-fire in and around the corridor. there has to be a pause. at the moment, those who try to go through crossing points, try to escape, are caught in crossfire, caught in shelling, they risk being hit by snipers. reporter: humanitarian groups including the red cross is a priority should begin to the injured. those who remain, including the fear execution

by ill-treatment by oncoming regime forces. former defender has been sentenced to three years in jail for money laundering. they are cracking down on tax crime. the investigative news website media part revealed that the former plastic surgeon was hiding hundreds of thousands of euros in swiss bank accounts. he denied the allegations before confessing a few months later. the scandal caused enormous damage to public reception in hollande's government. 's lawyers are arguing that sentence is far too heavy since he and his ex-wife have paid all the back taxes they owed to the government. extremely heavy

sentence. it is totally unprecedented and i think that is sort of what they are arguing. what was built into the reason to try and speculate here as to it is not that much because it is in the decision but he did not turn anything over. he waited until he was way beyond being exposed, after quitting, resign, line to parliament -- laura: he lied to parliament. exactly. >> this would not fly. a politician would do something like that would be sanctioned very heavily. i think in france, culturally, and it has shown you just don't c to jail for a white ollar corporate crime. the political will and the will of the judiciary to put an end to tax evasion, whatever the format of it, and it leads financial process -- the

financial prosecutor in france, she considers that tax evasion is a crime against society as a whole and the french society. laura: cahuzac is appealing the sentence. is he likely to win that? >> he is on my be to win because the facts are established. he's hoping he can reduce the sentence. he's not going to jail tomorrow because there is a state in the sentence and it is an opportunity to argue his case. laura: you mentioned that he did not disclose anything. not only that, he was the man in charge of cracking down on tax evasion. that has been something that has been very hard to take for the country and the socialist government which was hit hard by the scandal. government with it extremely hard by it. it was a humiliation for france.

he was responsible for enforcement so it is basically, the police officer committing the crime. he or she will get a harsher sentence, of course. have we seen white-collar crime in france? >> it is extremely likely. the financial ministry and the department in charge of tax evasion have announced over 500 single procedures arising out of the scandal. we will get a lot more of this. laura: thank you very much indeed. italy, where the president is holding talks with various political parties to try and find a way out of the prices brought about by the prime minister. matteo renzi stepped down this week. sergio must decide whether to appoint a transitional government to serve into the elections in 2018 or two more fresh elections, something being demanded by some of the populist and right-wing parties in

parliament. mckenna told us what was happening in the talks earlier. >> the president began the talks today with the two parliamentary leaders, the leaders of the senate and the lower house as well as the former president, napolitano, who had to weather a few political crises of his own. he want to press for this parliamentary term to run until it is concluded in early 2018. that is an ambitious prediction at the moment. that does not look like it will happen. what are his options? he can put together some sort of multiparty national government or. apoint matteo renzi third option, which is to put together a candidate for a caretaker prime minister. he is understood to be under pressure to try and resolve is in the next few days with the european council meeting next week, and don't forget that

italy has a seat on the un security council, starting from january and is hosting a g-7 may, in sicily. there are all these different appointments on the calendar that are putting more pressure on the president to try to resolve this as soon as possible. renzi?what about matteo he resigned just yesterday but there are rumors he is planning a comeback. is that possible? the secretary of the lower house party. he has been hinting of a comeback. just before he left office, he was posting video on facebook and twitter about the achievements of what he had achieved in 1000 days in office. he will be a bit more worried today after a poll came out showing that the two minor parties, the five start movement and northern league both picked

up percentage point in the polls after this very divisive issue forced renzi out of office. they had 28.9% of the vote, within spitting distance of the democratic party. is anelections, that option everyone seems to be pushing for. even mr. renzi apparently is quite keen on an early election. he wants to keep up the momentum and his party does not seem to have another candidate in mind at this point. it will be interesting to see whether he can hold his own party together and organize some sort of renaissance for himself in the future. in the short-term, we are waiting to see if a caretaker prime minister may be appointed perhaps within the next few days. in britain supreme court, judges have been hearing the final arguments in the british government's appeal over

brexit. theresa may want to leave the e.u.. she won the backing of mts to do that. wants the high court decision that ministers need parliament's consent to vote article 50. brexit in andfor out of the supreme court. arguedal team successfully in front of the high court that parliament should be consulted before brexit is considered. the british government is hoping to reverse the ruling. theresa may's government said it should be able to utilize prerogative powers to trigger the brexit process without consulting parliament. they witnessed a response from the military to reiterate invoking article 50 of the lisbon treaty. it needs parliamentary approval. on wednesday in the house of commons, and he's voted in voted in support

of triggering it in march. in the supreme court, scotland said it should be consulted prior to brexit on the possibility of a new scottish independence referendum from the u.k.. the turn of the welsh government to address the landmark case with a lawyer lambasting may, saying not consulting element could violate human rights. -- parliament could violate human rights. despite the blocks brexit commissioner wanting talks wrapped up. with the hearing over, the supreme court president said the verdict is expected as soon as possible. impeachment proceedings against south korea's president have begun.

that will be voted on tomorrow and is expected to end the career of the president who is accused of colluding with the french to manipulate affairs. 4%with an approval rating at , the president days appeared to be numbered. the twoieve they have thirds majority needed to push the president out on friday. are assured, we that what i'm 200 lawmakers will vote for impeachment. if there occurs a situation where the motion fails, our citizens will not forgive the parliament. >> south korea's first female president is accused of allowing a confident to wield political influence. she was indicted on charges of leaking confidential documents. the president has apologized three times and acknowledged she received help but had denied any

involvement in criminal activities. south korea's constitutional court will have 180 days -- [no audio] >> >> the scope of the investigation and areas of the crime are wide, not only because the situation is complicated but because influence peddling appears to be in all sorts of areas, so there are many areas and charges the constitutional court has to review, which naturally extend the process. >> park geun-hye's term was officially set to end in 2018. she agreed to step down after hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets. impeachment fails to pass, public anger in korea is likely to mount. laura: more business news. what could be a vote of

confidence and post brexit britain. tell us more. expecting a lot of countries to leave after that referendum result. they say they will be moving their non-us headquarters from the timber to the u.k.. a fast food giant has been facing scrutiny in the european union. kate: it is accused of using a loophole offered by luxembourg to effectively pay no corporation tax on its european royalties. was announced 5.5 months after the brexit vote. it will be paying the british corporate tax rate. it.ay lower the european central bank will continue pumping money into the euro zone economy throughout 2017 because growth is not strong enough without it. keptresident mario draghi

interest rates steady as inspected. based on buying program was due to wrap up in march. he is extending it at its current rate until april and then it will the reduced to 60 billion at the end of next year. that is tapering or slowly winding down a stimulus program. draghi said there is no end in sight for the quantitative easing program. >> is in the meantime, the outlook becomes less favorable, or if financial conditions become inconsistent with further progress towards a sustained path ofnt of the inflation, the governing council intends to increase the program in terms of size and or duration. kate: the european markets were somewhat surprised by that announcement. they bounce back to close

upwards, banking sector rising 2%. the docs closing up 1.7 -- the dax closing up 1.7%. a record session on wednesday. the dow has jumped about 100 points to leading gains with about 0.4% there. the european union is preparing to sue seven of its own member states including the u.k. and germany for not cracking down on auto companies that were violating pollution laws. the european commission said the government should have taken action in the wake of the volkswagen scandal. fallout from that scandal meanwhile has continued around the world. south korean officials have nearly 30swagen million euros for false advertising. reporter: south korea's fair trade commission cracking down on the country's volkswagen unit with the largest fine ever imposed in a false advertising case.

consumers trusted volkswagen, the market leader of imported diesel cars. reporter: the fourth use of sophisticated cheating software -- before its use of sophisticated cheating software was revealed, they --imed they a balloon on the peninsula from 4000 cars in 2008. the south korean driver who purchased a new volkswagen is no longer a satisfied customer. >> i suffered mentally from other people's opinion of my purchase. used car prices have also sharply drops, causing monetary damage. reporter: the fine of over 37 billion won, equal to 29 million euros is the maximum penalty allowed under law. the trade commission is also pursuing criminal charges against five former and current

vw korea officials. in august, seoul band volkswagen models and levied a fine for forged documentation related to the scandal. the fallout is taking a toll. korean vw sales were down 33% for the first half of 2016. volkswagen is currently facing legal action in several countries over the dieselgate affair. laura: business headlines. greeks have staged another day of strikes and protests against austerity measures. thousands of people marched through athens while public transport, schools, and rail services were disrupted. earlier this week, international creditors said they were open to the sort of debt relief but greek government has to cut funding. foreclosures and job losses are in store for the sears group and its kmart branch.

u.s. retail giant has said it had fallen short in its efforts to bring back shoppers as it reported $750 million of losses for the third quarter. shares in this year's group have lost nearly half their value this year. 140 kmart and 30 sears locations have already been shuttered in 2016. the chinese investment fund has dropped its bid for a german maker.uipment the german government had also expressed concerns about the aixtron.of we stay in china now. has claimed rare victory in a trademark case. he has right over the chinese translation of his surname.

name?er: what is in a if you are sports star michael jordan, millions of dollars. he has been fighting a trademark case, saying the company, his logo was in the silhouette of a leaping basketball star, have built their business around the mandarin translation of his surname, selling products from sneakers to soymilk under the brand. after a four-year legal battle, china top court ruled in jordan's favor this thursday. a registering a name which person has a prior right to into a trademark without permission would mislead the public into believing that products or services marked with the trademark have some sort of special connection like that of an endorsement or permission with the natural person who has a prior right. reporter: it is rare for a foreign brand to win an

intellectual-property case. many have lost legal battles against chinese firms. with a cavalier attitude to trademarks. it is only a partial victory to jordan. they have 70 trademark under the brand and chinese law protects trademarks that are over five years old. michael jordan is usually popular in china where nba basketball is a national obsession. laura: thank you ray much indeed. we are taking a -- thank you very much. we are taking a short break. more to come. ♪

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12/08/16 12/08/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> president obama said the biggest threat to our country is global warming. give me a break. the biggest threat to our country is nuclear and we cannot let iran get a nuclear weapon. amy: after campaigning on a platform of denying climate change, donald trump has tapped a climate change denier to head the environmental protection agency. scott pruitt. she is accused bhe