the united states the south and make the wrong top revolutionary guard commander in a fireball drone strike in iraq the radio supreme leader was warning of a harsh retaliate against the u.s. . his parliament decision to deploy troops in libya faces strong criticism of israel greece and cyprus fear it will escalate conflict in the region. and continuing our rewind of $2900.00 k. chapters we remember the tragedy which struck not for the full impact.

a warm welcome you're watching r.t. international with me. or 1st the breaking news from the middle east the united states has assassinated a wrongs top military commander and a drone strike in iraq because some solemn on the lead the revolutionary guards elite kids for son was killed following a direct order from u.s. president donald trump the iranian supreme leader is vowing a harsh retaliation against washington while the iraqi prime minister has condemned the u.s. strike as aggression i got an update here for most senior correspondent lourdes garcia. this is unprecedented in how how tense things are how both countries in this is this is the abbotts this is the obvious to kill assassinate the man who is referred to as the 2nd most powerful man in iran a potential successor to the supreme leader he was killed after arriving at the airport in baghdad a u.s. airstrike he was he was targeted i mean this operation was preplanned they knew he

was coming they knew where to strike the they were targeting him and the fallout has been global we've had leaders all over the world officials come out. against you know urging carmen deescalation and the reunion is convening national security and they have one message the entire hierarchy that there will be consequences retaliation. the un sect of international terrorism targeting and assassinating general saloon money the most effective force fighting dion's isis al-qaeda at home is extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation the u.s. bears responsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism there is as of yet no indication how exactly the iranians will respond to it respond to this but they haven't launched any missiles yet and you know that the they are stupid

they're intelligent people they probably understand a war with the united states is the last thing they need but i doubt that the leave this you know without without an answer and so how is the us justifying the myth while the united states is saying that he was the ultimate bad guy this is this is from the state department this is in american press that we just killed the world's number one bad guy this is this is simpson in modeling he was at the forefront of the fight against isis in iraq when it seemed like isis the jihad this would go to take the whole country was he who helped organize the p.m.s. the popular mobilization forces iraqi civilians banding together to resist ties as successfully while the army was in shambles as they got their things in order help by the coalition but they defeated isis what the united states has been saying is that he is responsible for the deaths of 517 americans over the years that

he was complicit that he had a rule to play in recent in the recent spate of attacks on u.s. bases culminated in a u.s. led air strike against syrian and iraq he units military units that again led to the siege of the u.s. embassy again unprecedented in the green zone a fortified embassy that was that was besieged in. by the way to reign in. back proxies they were referred to the urge protesters to withdraw to need the embassy a little nevertheless the united states said that the threat presented by him was continuing that he had done plenty of bad things and that this was the united states this saying defending themselves at the direction of the president the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personnel abroad to by killing qassam soleimani this strike was aimed at deterring

future iranian attack plans the united states will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world reaction is very polarized to this both among us public society people are split some are saying this was a stupid escalation that you know pushed america and iran to the brink of war others are saying that they support president trump's decision to carry out this attack in the press there's a lot of competing messages messages that contradict each other as well american politicians likewise split you had presidential candidates coming out and saying that was this was this is a stupid thing to do it was a needless escalation and you have others coming out and saying well look the rockies some of them a celebrated. iraqis iraqis dancin in the street for freedom thanks for the general

thought the money's no more. we're on american iran should solve their problems outside of iraq we do not want them to solve it here we do not celebrate the killing of so the money or anyone else because this will not serve us at the end of the day. and tell us more about the reaction in the us because apparently trump has acted unilaterally hair i understand that leading democrats a furious they trump has acted without seeking permission from congress 1st well that that is something that they have been talking about he didn't notify anyone in congress in the house in the senate they were going to carry out this assassination so he didn't seek any authorization we he doesn't have to if there's a imminent threat that is you know. an attack that is going to happen there's no type but in this case there was no evidence presented of an attack and some people in congress are saying why weren't we told. their administration has conducted

tonight strikes in iraq targeting high level iranian military officials and killing iranian quds force commander custom silly money without in the thirty's ation for use of military force against iran further this action was taken without the consultation of the congress. trump's immediate comment on this assassination was to tweet an american flag just just an american flag and interesting thing one of the one of the 1st responses is a real tweet of his he accused president barack obama of attempting to start a war provoking a war with iran to boost his ratings to boost his poll numbers and now we're in a situation where trump is accused of doing so especially with impeachment just around the corner but ultimately we'll have to wait and see how this all ends whether this will continue to escalate in all that hinges on iran's reaction to

this brazen assassination. the reaction now from inside iran live to politics professor find mohammad marandi from toronto university welcome to the program now it's a new low between the united states and iran is being described as bringing the team to the brink of war just how serious is this in your opinion for this was an act of war the americans killed a high ranking iranian official a number of his colleagues and also i should add in stress a high ranking iraqi military official both war heroes both responsible for defeating isis in iraq. and general stolen money when the americans and their allies were bringing in tens of thousands of foreign fighters into syria extremist with one hobby ideology in order to undermine syria and destroy syria.

he after the 10s of thousands of troops had been brought in began a defense of the capital and helped bring push back the these western and saudi and foreign pact extremists so if it wasn't for general stolen money there probably wouldn't be a syria today and there would be black flags over them ask us thanks to the united states and its allies and if it wasn't for general stolen money probably there wouldn't be in iraq today and the capital over the capital we would have had the black sides of isis and the americans. know quite well that there will be severe repercussions not only from iran but also from iraq iraqis except for those bathurst who supported saddam hussein in isis supporters who are celebrating the overwhelming majority of iraqis supports general salomone

and are grateful to him for helping save the country and they're very grateful to the al mind this their war hero who 2 alongside general salim money pushed back the forces of death and extremism now the pentagon claims this last trial was a defensive action to defend american interests in the region why do you think the u.s. went next far ken killing a foreign general in a foreign country. yes the invasion of afghanistan was in defense of the united states then beijing of iraq was in defense of the united states the plunder of libya was in defense of the united states the destruction of the yemen is in the defense of the united states wherever the united states goes and destroys its all for they helped saddam hussein build his massive army they gave him they gave him chemical weapons just like the europeans to use against his own people and then they destroyed his army then they impose sanctions

on iraq where up to a 1000000 people died during the sanctions then they invaded the country saying that iraq was developing nuclear weapons and they have links with al qaida then that when the iraqis resisted the americans and they had to leave they blamed iran they denied the iraqi people agency this is the this is the language of empire this is the language of a racist's euro centric heritage that we've we've been seeing for the last few centuries the same language that we that existed in the 19th the 20th century to justify had germany plundered death and destruction is being used today but in a different way the same western regimes and their media they just big big called the syrians freedom fighters but we all knew that they were funding isis what baiters became isis the evidence is all coming out now just like the false flag operations the chemical the so-called chemical attacks in syria all of this is

coming out so general salim money who prison helped preserve these countries is the bad guy according to the western narrative in the americans who destroyed iraq and continue to occupy the country and disregard the sovereignty of the country they bombed the. iraqi armed forces even though the prime minister told them not to do so disregard sovereignty to disregard the government they disregard the people of iraq to their utter. arrogant behavior is has made the full region outraged and then they wonder why people hate america which has been a response from the iraqi prime minister has been one of condemnation he's called a deadly u.s. strike aggression how do you think it will affect relations between baghdad and washington i think the iraqi population will be outraged i think that the u.s. troops in iraq are no longer safe i don't think that the american presence in iraq

will be sustainable and i think the american presence in syria won't as a result be sustainable and i also think that foreign nationals should leave the persian gulf region regimes like the united arab emirates and saudi arabia which are in the american i don't think are safe places to be at the moment if i was in western national i vivus soonest possible well in iraq as well i will definitely leave iraq iran as we know is vowing to avenge the assassination so what do you expect to happen next. well imagine if the americans had assassinated the. senior commander of the russian army. what response would come from moscow the americans will pay a heavy price and not only have the americans given the iranians

the. right to retaliate but they united the country the whole pull the whole of iranian society is now united against the united states and they've united iraqi society now all the major political parties that have been bickering in iraq are all condemning the united states. and the others are all calling for the americans to leave and i think that there will be if the americans don't leave immediately that there will be a great deal of violence the americans had almost 200000 people in iraq during the height of their illegal occupation they're not going to be able to sustain their occupation with 10000 people there the embassy will be overrun their bases will be overrun they'll have to leave syria and their presence in this region will come to an end they don't have the ability to wage a war against the people of yemen syria lebanon lebanon iraq iran

afghanistan simultaneously it's just not doable for the united states the united states is a regime on the relative decline in fact i think it's quite it's possible that even the opponents of trump actually pushed him into this i mean this may sound conspiratorial but it is so foolish and idiotic and so much and so obviously against u.s. interests that it is possible that they they are fearful that he'll be reelected so they made him make this foolish decision i have no idea what goes on in washington but even the mouthpiece of the deep state. and pundits linked to the deep state in the united states they too are saying that this is an extraordinarily foolish move that when people like. a mouthpiece of the abolition they are saying this was a foolish move by the american regime it is immoral it is a violation of international law but more importantly it's an act of war against 2 nations 5 mohammad marandi politics professor at the university of toronto if you

have time. now several countries have condemned the turkish parliament decision to send troops to libya there's deep concern from israel greece and cyprus over a possible escalation of the conflict in the region they're calling turkey's move reckless turkey's decision to deploy troops in libya presents a dangerous threat to regional stability the repercussions of such reckless move will be dire for the stability and peace of the entire region and a phone call with the turkish leader the us president raised concerns that foreign interference could further complicate the situation in libya but both agreed to maintain their diplomatic cooperation libya is currently in a dual power regime there's a un banks government of national accord that's headquartered in the capital tripoli and there's the alternative so-called eastern cabinet headed by general holy for half the 3rd region is controlled by local tribes and militias libya has

been in a state of war since an uprising in 20 eleventh's all the ousting and killing of longtime leader muammar gaddafi in recent months the un backed government of national accord has been losing ground to the rival administration of general hurley for hafter who leads the libyan national army general huffed us forces currently control most of libya's territory including crucial oil and gas resources the un backed government formally requested military aid from turkey last month. libya's neighbors also have major reservations the egyptian foreign ministry is calling on the international community to respond urgently we've been hearing analysis from turkey and beyond on anchors military plan and its possible repercussions. we see a very soft announcement by the arab league we can see that they're unified only by name we're seeing turkey become more and more now the major player in not only libya in the north africa and the east and the middle east turkey's showing that it's not going to shy away in present add one is willing to use his military muscle

to get the results he wants at the diplomatic table as well turkey made a very important chess move the greeks to decide for yourself well the egyptians. of course are very disappointed by just decision but turkey's strategic move will. brink of some. advantages strategic advantages for turkey we will see the method the manner of how turkey is dealing with this problem and challenges in the coming days if turkey sends more troops then general haftar will also look at more support from the governments he's already there are already backing including and especially egypt the united arab emirates they will send their own proxies or troops or more weapons so in that sense the situation could definitely escalate in

a military sense. so to count among the defining impressions from 2019 about who's left watching helplessly it's not a done cathedral and after the break we revisit the tragedy and assess how long it'll take from still the kind of. the world is driven by dreamers shaped by one person or those with. dares thinks. we dare to ask.

you know world of big. lot and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that made stream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smart we need to stop slamming the door. and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now we're watching closely watching the hawks. welcome back well now that 29000 done and dusted this time to take stock of some of the defining events.

and they blaze tore through not to don cathedral in power has nearly destroying the 850 year old landmark so deep and scale reports on just how deeply that was felt in france and how the scars will remain for decades to come. fronts was shaking to its core in april fully a ravaged the jewel of paris not to dumb. across

the world they was show too with blanket coverage over the place and harry in paris thousands came out to the streets standing shoulder to shoulder what ching

they sang trees old cathedral. my heart just dropped like. are you kidding me it was completely shocking and i was just constantly waiting away like ok to help with what he would say the tears everything just complete just. just refreshing closely looking for any sort of update and i thought it was gone i thought there was no way you know they were going to put it out at all with. everyone at work we just kept refreshing the page and seeing what caused it what had happened we couldn't believe that notre dame was on fire we were at home in seattle and we had literally booked our plane tickets to france the night before and was going to be one of the highlights of course it was it was a little bit of a blow relief came in the early hours that it could be saved but it was. that cost was being counted with a price tag potentially reaching billions of euros money polled in from wealthy

benefactors and people chipping in what they could but that provoked anger itself many frustrated that the money was so forthcoming for a building when people were struggling to make ends meet the outrage intensified when the authorities were accused of not being completely upfront about lead contamination in the area following the fire some 450 tons of lead in the roof and the steeple melted during the blaze schools were closed for decontamination but many accuse the state of putting the reconstruction of the cathedral ahead of people's health and environmental defense association decided to take matters into its own hands it accused the authorities of having lacked in their response and in transparency it is a question of establishing who is responsible for this miscommunication which has

left the population uninformed on the dangers to which it is exposed in our opinion people's lives have been in danger since the night of the disaster because the environmental code requires elected officials to provide precautionary information in real time on public airwaves unfortunately. we never heard this advice and people and journalists stayed around the cathedral on the forecourt and whole families stayed on the ground on the terraces with all the windows open watching this disturbing show without knowing that the plumes hitting them consisted of extremely toxic lead dust and were dangerous to health but officials claimed there was no risk and somewhat angry about the coverage of the contamination at the site saying that all old buildings were built using leds and there was too much fear mongering don't. you really have to lie on the ground and leak it if you want to be in fact in this story about lead has been around for

a long time and it's causing inundation a problem for the not true don destry it was isolated knocking down from the tourists travel agents across the world were forbidden in a certain way to come to paris near not to die because of the risk of contamination which didn't exist 8 months old and this is what surrounds not a huge perimeter fence safeguarding the sites tourist numbers through here though more of a trickle than the flood that they used to be and that has hit the businesses around the cathedral halt to at least we have lost tourists we have lost the pilgrims we have problems with the restoration work or not saddam and with the level of security is because the building is still not secure and we suffer from all these houses the businesses here have seen their sales figures drop at least by 80 percent during certain periods currently in the month of december an average 70 percent trade is hey want to return to the status quo but the work to secure this

so i can restore it to its former glory is expected to take years in the meantime some businesses fear that they may end up on the cheap too just like much of not in 2019. paris. for a mind to now of our breaking news this hour the united states has assassinated a wrongs top military commander and a drone strike in iraq because some of the money that the revolutionary guards elite forces conducting anti terror operations in iraq and syria but washington claims he was planning attacks on u.s. citizens around interests the iranian supreme leader is threatening a harsh word tali ation against the u.s. while the iraqi prime minister house condemns the u.s. strike aggression we'll update you on developments and reaction and on the explicit in just over half and.

join me every thursday so i will be sure and i'll be speaking to the world. i'm sure i'll see you then. hello and welcome to sophie cohen visionaries i'm sophie shevardnadze and they call him the all fall out of the french literature for his no mercy approach to the evils of the modern society and asking them what sparked thing here and satire today i talked to writer literally create a t.v.

presenter and film director i did a big. critic back there it's really nice to have you with us today's been a while we wanted to have an interview with you what a chance that you're here in moscow so i want to start with bed with your collection. it's a new project that's going to come out in 6 months it's sort of a compilation of french writers you're not a meat you're a producer or an editor of this thing and it's supposed to talk it's supposed to show the french way on a turtle matters and i correct exactly what are they so matters you know it's a crazy idea is that russian writer famous. of to ask me to choose my favorite books of contemporary writers and put my name on the cover instead of theirs but no i will i will ask that my name is smaller than the name of the author it's just that we present my favorite novels of the last 10 years. so no

voters about yet today about the the the world how it's changing so quickly and so we really. we're working on the list we're working on the translations we didn't choose everything but very glad and i think it's a beautiful idea because we need ideas to. put closer our 2 cultures france and russia we're very close in the 19th century and now less crazy nations like you that much that you crazy. anything anyway in a good way we like to criticize everything related to.