brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. the u.s. and iran stepping back from the brink. >> the american people should be extremely grateful and happy no americans were harmed in last night's attack by the iranian regime. brent: u.s. president donald trump promises more sanctions against iran, but says he wants peace, not war. and questions remain, worthy

iranian ears tracks in iraq last night the onlyly iranian retaliation? also coming up, more than 170 people killed when a ukrainian passenger plane crashes near tehran airport. all passengers a and crew aboard the plane e died when it went dn shortly after takeoff. and a treasure this moment, because there will not be many more like them. britain's prince harry and his wife meghan are to step back from their royal duties. has life under the media spotlight become just too tough? and the former nissan boss carlos ghosn hits out in his first public appearance since escaping from japan. he accuses what he calls vindictive individuals of conspiring to smear him, leaving him no choice but to flee. ♪

brent: i'm brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in the united states and all around the world, welcome. tonight, a retreat from the brink. president donald trump says that iran appears to be standing down in its confrontation with the united states, while trump himself has not threatened any further military action against tehran. the u.s. president spoke today at the white house after iran launched a missile attack on military bases housing u.s. troops in iraq last night. iran had claimed that at least 80 americans had been killed, but trump said no lives had been lost. reporter: a crucial and highly anticipated moment. >> no americans were harmed in last night's attack by the iranian regime. we suffered no casualties. all of our soldiers are safe. and only minimal damage was

sustained at our military bases. reporter: donald trump confirming no troops were injured or killed in iran's missile attack meant there was no need to escalate tensions between ththe two countrtries. iranian state television had earlier claimed missiles fired by iran's forces had killed 80 u.s. soldiers at the ain al assad airbase in iraq. the attack was an act of revenge for the killing of top military commander, general qassem soleimani. the move has been widely welcomed across iran. crowds chanting "death to america" as iran's supreme leader ayatoahah ali khamemenei tells themem their mesessage has been delivered. >> a slap was delivered last night. but what is important is that the seditious presence of

america in the region should be ended. reporter: the country's foreign minister also spoke out. >> we have said very clearly that if the united states takes anany further action, iran will respond accordingly and we will respond in a very harsh way. but proportionately. reporter: donald trump did promise further action, but in form of economic sanctions. military confrontation, it appears, has been averted, for now. brent: for more on that i am joined tonight by hussein banai, he's an assistant professor of international studies at the university of indiana. he is also a middle east analyst. it is good to see you again, professor. today we saw the u.s. president donald trump in obvious de-escalation mode.

is that how tehran is perceiving it, do you think? and if they are seeing that, is it too little, too late? hussssein: t they are indedeed g it that way. i think they are glad that the president is seeing their response proportionate as well because they t themselves were worried that this could very easily get out of hand. i think iran made a very calculated response to what they regarded to be a violation of international law, and they wanted to be seen as responding in a way that was commensurate with their obligations under international law, and they are happy that it has been received that way by washington as well. brent: it seems though that both iran and the united states, they are stepping back from a military confrontation, but they may digging in their heels when it comes to their positions they have vis-a-vis one another. we have the u.s. president trump

saying that new punishing economic sanctions will be slapped on iran. how is tehraran going to react o that? hussein: much as they have before. i think nothing about the fundamentals of the relationship have changed because of the events of the last few days. i think iran still very much would like to see the united states military presence in the region to be decreased, if not eliminated altogether. and the united states would very much like iran to negotiate a much stringent nuclear agreement under the presidency of donald trump.p. and i think they are both locked in horns over those objectives. and even though their relationship came to the brink of really military catastrophe in the last 48 hours or so, i think they are both glad to kind of go back to that default position emphasizing their grievances against one another anand trying to cajole the other

side to come to the table under the terms that is preferred the other. brent: and the u.s. president today demanding that the jcpoa, the iran nuclear deal, finally, his words, be put away forever to history. he thinks it is a terrible deal. he wants that to happen. he signaled he may be willing to negotiate a new deal, but he also said he wanted more nato in the middle east. do any of these seem realistic to you? huhussein: no. i think the irony in all this is that what has triggered all this long crisis in the relationship between n iran and the uniteted states was really y a shortsighd withdrawal of the united states from that deal t to begin with. it is unclclear why if this administration has s such a prproblem with iran's nuclear program, why they did not try to work within the e confines of tt

deal to o perhaps s achieve lonr sunset c clauses o on iran's enrichmement capacity, or r anyf the number of grievances that they have against iranan, to really work on those within the confines of that deal. by pulling out altogether, they really triggered an unnecessary crisisis that they are finding themselves was very costly indeed, and cocould really destabilize the region. that would have an adverse effect, especially on american interests. and i think ththe nod to nato in that regard is to really account for the fact that the united statates has badly alienated its nato allies by pulling out of that deal. and by s signaling to them that theyey should be more involvlvei think it is perhaps an acknowleledgment that they could act as intermediaries between iran and the united states once again. brent: yeah, and it is ironic, the u.s. president once said that nato isis obsolete,e, and w he is calling on them to do more in the middle east.

professor hussein banai joining us tonight from indianapolis, thank you. hussein: thank you. brent: the latest conflict between the u.s. and iran is playing out on iraqi territory. iraq has long been under the sway of both powers. shiite muslims are in the majority in iraq just as they are in iran. but the u.s. has a huge military presence in iraq. current tensions are changing the dynamic in the region, and u.s. influence in iraq could be the collateral damage. reporter: when a u.s. drone strike killed tehran's top military mastermind, it did not happen on iranian soil, but in iraq. the country was a target for general qassem soleimani and iran in their master plan for the region, to extend shiite power using proxies. like the shiite militia that attacked the u.s. embassy, many of these militant groups came

to prominence during the fight against so-called islamic state. shiite iraqis trained in iran were central to defeating i.s., and many of them took their orders from soleimani. iraqi lawmakers call out "no to america." iran's influence pervades iraq's political class too. in the 2018 elections, 45 former shiite militiamen won seats in parliament. that deal also made a prime minister who is long a member of a shiite base in iraq. he resigned after mass antigovernment protests at the end of 2019. he remains acting prime minister, but with a government on the verge of collapse. protesters have been calling for a new political order, one without corruption and sectarianism, and without u.s. and iranian interference. american soldiers ready to deploy to the middle east. the position of the u.s. in iraq has been shifting over the past decade. in 2011, former u.s. present

-- former u.s. president barack obama pulled u.s. troops out of the country, declaring that the war in iraq was over. three years later, they were back to fight i.s., this time on the invitation of the iraqi government. but now, iraq's shiite majority parliament wants u.s. troops out. washington says that is not happening. iraqis know that if the americans leave, so-called islamic state could take advantage of the resulting power vacuum and resurge, and that is a situation no one wants. brent: added to the already volatile situation, faults an unverfied information of iran's missile attack on bases housing u.s. troops in iraq. that is being spread on social media. to talk about that i am joined by my colleague peter rolle-dahl, taking a closer look at this. what can you tell us? what is happening online? peter: in the wake of these strikes we have seen what can

only be described as a barrage of false information hitting social media, particularly twitter. one of the reasons people are just too trigger-happy, for lack of a better metaphor for situation like this, it is people like this who choose speed over accuracy. in this case, vastly overstating the severity of the attack. here, falsely claiming that more than 60 missiles were fired, 20 americans killed. in actuality, the number of missiles fired was closer to 15, maybe 20 tops. to the best of our knowledge no one was killed in the attack. what we are also seeing though is what appears to be more deliliberate attempts at spreaeg disinforormation, like this vido which we are about to see which falsely claims to show iranian rockets being fired at the airbase in al assad. when actually this video is from 2014 and shows a russian military drill. brent: during daylight. peter: during daylight. exactly. it was an overnight attack. brent: it is interesting when you talk about the speed, because i was watching the coverage last night when the attacks took place.

and social media lit up like a christmas tree, if you will. and you are right, people were tweeting things that there was no way they could have been able to verify. peter: they are tweeting information that reporters on the ground and not have. and that is really the danger of sharing stuff like this. you have this incredibly volatile situation. disinformation like this, it is like fuel on the fire. it really makes a volatile situation even more combustible and it can really have severe consequences. brent: and it changes perceptions too, because if you were only watching what was online last night on social media, you would have thought the third world war was breaking out, and that was not the case. what can people do on social media then to detect and be aware that this is going on? peter: one thing i cannot stress enough, especially in a situation like this, breaking news situations, be extra critical. be extra careful before you hit that retweet button, before you hit that share button. and ask yourself some really basic questions like, what is

the source that i am about to share? is it coming from an otherwise trustworthy news source or coming from @tinfoil hat 666? are other outlets reporting similar facts and numbers? if not, it is either very exclusive information or it is wrong, and usually it is wrong. so, remember this. if it looks or sounds too good to be true, well, it probably is. brent: what do you make the suggestion that on twitter for example, every time we retweet something there should be something that prompts us to answer, do we know the person that we are -- do we know them, yes or no. do you think that is a good idea? peter: it certainly would make our jobs -- brent: it would slow down the cycle. peter: it would slow down the new cycle. and i think in a situation like this, might that be the solution? i don't know. i know that we certainly need to pump the brakes sometimes in a situtuation like t this. brent: last night was a great example of that.

peter: yeah, absolutely. brent: peter rolle-dahl, as always, we appreciate it. peter: thank you so much. brent: more than 170 people have died after a ukrainian passenger jet crashed in iran. it is not yet clear what caused the plane to go down. the ukraine international airlines jet was on its way from iran's capital tehran to kyiv. ukraine's brenneman volodymyr zelensky has broken off a foreign visit to return to kyiv because of the crash. the president says ukraine will be sending a search-and-rescue team to iran tonight.. rerter: a fifield of burning debris lights up the sky near tehran. the apparent remnants of the ukraine e international airlines flflight that crashed shortly after takeoff from the iranian capital. iranian tv stations are the first to broadcast images of the crash, includingng this mobile phone e video which appears to show the plane going down.

it is daybreak that reveals the extent of the destruction and the human toll. the plane was carrying 167 passengers and nine crew members from several different countries, mainly iran and canada. >> nobody survived. all the passengers are dead. reporter: at the international airport in kyiv, the arrivals board lists the flight that would never arrive. people here are distraught. this man thinks is son was in fact on the plane. >> yes. my son is a senior flight attendant. reporter: iranian and ukrainian officials have both blamed mechanical problems for the crash, but the airline says it is still trying to determine the cause. a statement by ukraine international airlines said the

plane was one of the best in its fleet, and that the aircraft had passed a safety check just two days earlier. as iranians mourn another tragedy, ukraine's president and others have warned against specululative about a potentiail link the current flareup in iran-u.s. tensions. however, current events are very much on people's minds. >> i was watching the news of iranians hitting u.s. bases with missiles. after 10 minutes i heard a massive explosion and all the houses started to shake. there was fire everywhere. at first i thought the americans had fired missiles and i went into the basement to take shelter. reporter: and a few hours after the crash, the ukrainian embassy in iran released a statement saying the crash was not a result of terrorism. that statement was later redacted. as investigators search for answers, a number of airlines have suspended flights over iranian airspace. and on the ground, emergency

workers are getting on with the grim task of recovering the dead. brent: yeah, a bizarre tragedy. for more on that we want to talk now to stephen wright, he's an aviation expert, professor of aircraraft systems at the university in finland. it is good to have you on the program. we heard i in the story that initially the ukrainian embassy in iran had put out in its release that the accident was not caused by terrorism, and then terrorism was omitted from that release. what do you makeke of that? stephen: welell, i think the redaction of the statement could have been trying to see the bigger picture today. because overnight we had the military action from iran against the bases in iraq which were being occupied by the american forces.

and when you then have a major event, a civil aviation aircraft come down, you can understand the cautiousness to say no no, we do not think it is this, it is something quite different. and i i am sure in hindsight as they then thought about what they said, they perhaps thought, well, maybe we have been a bit forward thinking. maybe we need to have a few more facts before making these very powerful statements. brent: right, because it would be an incredible coincidence if the plane goes down at the same time you have got these airstrikes taking place. what do we know about the safety of this aircraft? i mean, this was not an aircraft that we would say, yeah, maybe it did crash becausese of mechchanical error, , right? stephen: that is possible.e. the 737-800 is a mature aircraft. it was launched around the year

2000 mark. i remember it being launched, because i want to see it. it brings quite a lot of new technology. and in the years that boeing have been manufacturing it, it has quite a good safety record. so again, it is a bit quick to say it is this aircraft that has a checkered history, because it has not. it is a good plane. and as long as it is maintained properly, it performs really , really well, hence its popularity. brent: that was aviation expert stephen wright speaking with me earlier. here are some of the other doors now that are making headlines around the world. russian president has met his turkish counterpart recip type --recip type erdogan. the turk stream pipeline opens up a new export route for russian gas to turkey and europe. the meeting followed putin's surprise christmas visit to

syria. a car bomb exploded at a check point in somalia's capital mogadishu today, killing at least three people. the islamist group al-shabaab has claimed responsibility. the blast comes 10 days after another attack killed almost 80 people. the european commission president ursula von der leyen wawas in londodon today for taln brexit. she told prime minister boris johnson that it is unrealistic to expect a post-brexit trade deal by the end of this year. the u.k. is due to leave the european union at the end of this month. in what sounds like an episode of that popular netflix series "the crown," tonight a report from london that prince harry and his american-born wife plan to step back from their duties as senior members of the british royal family. prince harry and meghan have just returned from a six week stay in canada. in a statement, they said that

they would continue to support the queen, but wish to become financially independent, and to balance their time and their lives between britain and north america. for more on that, i am joined by our correspondent charlotte potts in london. good evening to you, charlotte. so what does it mean that they are resigning as senior members? charlotte: this is what royal experts are trying to wrap their head around as we speak. this really comes as a huge surprise. nobody had counted on it. and essentially what it means, what we know is that they are stepping down as senior members of the royal family. they want to be financially independent, split their time between the u.s. and the u.k. but there are many, many open questions here of course. will harry, for example, give up his position in succession to the throne? he is now seventh in line at the

moment. how will they make it work? what will happen to their foundation? they have been doing a lot of charity work. so all these questions tonight at the moment unanswered, but i am sure the couple has not taken that decision lightly, and that they have been letting this be signed off at least by the queen. harry has a very close relationship to his grandmother. brent: and i am sure people are wondering, does this mean that harry, if he wants to be financially independent, will he then receive no more income from the royal family. i guess we will have to wait and find out about that. do we know why they made this decision? i mean, it seems to be a drastic move for the royals. charlotte: it is really a drastic move, and unprececedentd in m modern royal hihistory. and i think we have to take a look back at the couple's history, their marriage and their relationship in 2018 was

met by huge enthusiasm. also their charitable work they have been doing through their foundation. all of that changed in 2019. one of the highs was the birth of their son archie. they opted out for a royal title already for that baby, so maybe a sign of what we are seeing happening now. but the couple was met with huge scrutiny, criticism by british tabloid media, to a point where harry stepped up and said that the tabloid magazines were driving a ruthless campaign against the couple and that he was afraid that what happened to his mother, to princess diana, would happen now to his wife meghan markle, formerly meghan markle, now the duchess of sussex. so that was his fear, and they are probably trying to take themselves a little bit out of the public eye. of course that move though does not mean that they are completely out of the public eye, but at the moment very much in it. brent: yeah, and we know that especially in the united states, the royals are very popular.

i do not think that they will be able to escape the limelight in north america, that is for sure. charlotte potts on the story for us in london tonight. thank you. now to the bizarre case of carlos ghosn. mr. ghosn has given his first public statement following his escape from authorities in japan. he described his treatment by japanese legal system authorities as a travesty against his human rights and dignity. he revealed more details about why he chose to become a fugitive. tokyo prosecutors have slammed his allegations, accusing him of being one-sided, and they say it is unacceptable how he has criticized the country's legal system. reporter: in beirut, carlos ghosn faced the cameras for the first time since his daring escape from japanese justice. >> today is a very important day for me. one that i have looked forward to every single day for more than 400 days.

since i was brutally taken from my world as i knew it. reporter: during a press conference lasasting almost 2.5 hours, ghosn claimed to have been the victim of a conspiracy by those who were against his plans to merge nissan and renault. he pointed fingers at nissan executives, tokyo prosecutors, and elements within the japanese state. >> i can talk about what happens in the government of japan. i can give you names, i know them. but i am in lebanon, i respect lebanon, and i respect the hospitality that has been extended to me by the authoritieies in lebanon, and in no way will i do anything or say anything that will make that task more difficult. reporter: ghosn described his decision to flee japan inside this musical equipment box as the most difficult choice of his life. new w footage has s emerged,d, appaparently showingng him being

transferred between private jets at istanbul airport. back in tokyo, prosecutors raided the offices of ghosn's lawyer on wednesday. he says he was as surprised as anyone by his client's escape from japan. now that he is out of the country, carlos ghosn has shown he has no intention of keeping quiet about why he left, and who he believes is to blame. brent: out of japan, out-of-the-box. you're watching "dw news." after a short break i will be back to take you through "the day." stick around for that. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content anand accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

smith on france twenty four france twenty four .com. in a comparison fronts twenty four the headlines this hour. donald trump response to iran's missile attack terror on five twelve missile at an iraqi air base used by american troops from system in a casualties says tiranë piece to be standing down. iran s says it will not hand over the black boxes from the ukrainian and lines passenger jet which crashed shortly after takeoff from tehran. although some people harassed most of the victims came from iran canada and on this plan to technical. cranes ready to. and the for many s samples colores got into says