in headlines this saturday thousands throng the streets of the iraqi capital holding funeral processions for those killed in friday's u.s. air raiding clued in iran's top general washington insists the strike was to avert war and claims it's committed to the escalating tensions with iran. a senior police chief says levels of child criminal exploitation in britain are back to victorian era levels claiming austerity and increasingly powerful drug gangs meantime vulnerable children at risk in armenia to where a criminal scheme has been revealed helping florida's illegally adult youngsters.

good afternoon just turned 5 pm saturday the 4th of january live from the arts international worldview center season's greetings it's kevin owen here with this hour's update 1st thousands of mourners have been holding funeral processions in the iraqi capital baghdad one of those killed in the u.s. airstrike on friday morning including iran's top general money the crowds have been waving the national flag and the flags of various to ranbaxy shia militia groups the remains of the commanders body will be repatriated to iran for burial on sunday considered the 2nd most powerful figure in the islamic republic he was among 10 killed in the early morning raid following a direct order from the u.s. president donald trump or since defended the assassination saying it was necessary he said to prevent an imminent attack on american personnel at another possible war in the middle east but that said it's cause profound anger both in iran and beyond . solemn a he has been perpetrating acts of terror to destabilize the middle east for the

last 20 years what the united states did yesterday should have been done long ago we took action last july just stop. a war we did not take action to start a war that. this was an obvious terrorist move a move that entirely shouted cowardice in every respect we will not fall for the propaganda and blackmail by the americans in whatever manner and whenever we deem appropriate we will give the proper response so the killing of iran's general so many sparked protests among his supporters in the middle east and further afield to members of india's kashmiri shia community marched with images of him shouting anti-american slogans while in pakistan protesters wrapped coffins with the u.s. flag and set them alight in iran itself 3 days of mourning are underway and thousands of turned out in cities nationwide to honor the general.

u.s. leadership has been saying on almost every platform they can find that they are working to deescalate tensions with the islamic republic of iran that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt this plot deter further aggression from crossing still a mommy in the arabian regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation it's not an easy case to make killing the country's 2nd most powerful person most well known military leader and commander of the elite could force of the revolutionary guards doesn't look like deescalation however washington insists its actions were a defensive measure at the direction of the president the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personnel abroad to buy killing costumes still in money this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the iranians are already promising revenge

for the supreme national security council of iran held an emergency meeting on friday and announced that they had made difficult decisions at the right time and place the vengeance will be extracted is not the aggression by the us i mean they should they should expect anything as it is all of this this aggression the international community is now gripped by fear that we could be on the brink of war there is no justification under international law and moral law our constitution is just aggravation and the fact that they are in a way as a guest and have an embassy there we've never had been given any authority to do what we did i think it's morally wrong and if they're doing this to make us safer they said that we had they had to do this to make american safe complete nonsense i feel less safe because there will be retaliation and expansion and who knows what is going to lead to. washington says it's an ally of the iraq again. government and it's working in

iraq's best interest however baghdad is completely on the happy with this move the assassination of an iraqi military commander is an aggression on iraq as a state government and people it's a flagrant violation of iraq's sovereignty and dangerous escalation that triggers a destructive war in iraq the region and the world it violates the conditions authorizing the presence of u.s. troops on iraqi soil the iraqis don't consider this to be a particularly friendly gesture we want to restart the civil war again among the shia who don't want this to happen what has happened is a blatant violation of iraqi sovereignty the fact that he's a high state official in a government that we're not at war with we've crossed the rubicon not only in tehran but in moscow beijing pyongyang caracas they all have to sit there and say to themselves all right the americans now feel entitled to kill anybody and our government because of what over while a disagreement over syria or whatever else. the

international response has been vocal china says it is concerned turkey is angry and syria accused the united states of spreading instability it's a pity to see. the great public of the united states used. to give somebody. the way gangs do it but not everyone agrees though israel says job well done president wrote deserves all the credit for acting swiftly forcefully decisively israel sterns with the united states in this just struggle for peace security and so firms america's nato allies are not thrilled at all we have woken up to more dangerous world the us action did not make it any easier to reduce tensions we had all parties to deescalate for the conflict is in none of our interests.

it didn't exactly go over well at home either american media has accurate all sorts of allegations about solid money most americans had never heard of before saying he is the new face of terrorism and evil but democrats say that trump is rushing the country to war without congressional approval the risk of a much longer military engagement in the middle east is acute. and immediate this action may well have brought our nation closer to another endless war exactly the kind of endless war the president promised he would not drag us into now donald trump is defending is he says he saved lives and that he's protecting the country however in some of his responses he's actually said that solomonic should have been killed years ago so why now is perhaps donald trump trying to play the card of being a national savior in the lead up to an election i don't foresee. making

a rash choice because they understand the neo cons who are behind shawn's policy and trump him so funny iran they don't want anything more than to have iran do a very who are high profile strike back the us propaganda machine is in high gear demonizing solem on whom 99.9 percent of americans had never heard of 2 days ago. 2 worse than hitler killing americans left and right none of this is true none of this is supported by facts but the propaganda machine is on high high high alert and americans are being prepared for another war so i don't see the iranians taking the bait. acedia british police chief is when the levels of child exploitation in the country are at the highest in over a century sean sawyer who leads britain's modern slavery policing efforts says the drug gangs of the main driving force and that austerity policies of also been

a fact. for these children they are almost back to victorian times and to being criminally exploited these kids looking for family and security for understandable reasons of austerity stay youth services have been vacated this gap of youth provision between the school and family is the void they exploit is a failing. oh office figures so that in england alone there were more than 18 and a half 1000 suspected child victims in the past year that's an increase of more than 73 percent of the previous year well chief constable soile supported the finger of government cuts to youth services but the home office insists it is doing all it can to stop child exploitation cheryl feel exposed to she's from the anti discrimination group the black child agenda she says it's almost impossible for youngsters to escape once they're dragged into a cycle of criminality these children a lot of people fail to see them as the victims of what's going on and then they become criminalized and once you become criminalized at such a young age it's almost impossible to get yourself back on track

a lot of these young people that we find as part of these drug caton gangs as they're called have been permanently excluded have been rejected from society so i think we need to go back a few steps and even jilt deal with our young people from a primary age level because as they get into secondary school which i can guarantee when they go back next week my phone will be ringing in constantly with children being kicked out of school for have a natural hair not having the right tie on or maybe their shoes so if we start stop doing this you know sledgehammer approach to what we are talking about as children then they wouldn't find themselves in these gangs in the 1st place but no one's actually listening or doing any think about the exclusion matter and the high rates and the issues that we have with young people in the care system as well who if there was another study done you'd actually find that majority of these children have come through the care system are actually being exploited also in the sexual airiness in areas as well as just being on gangs and you know getting involved in county lines which a lot of them don't actually know what they're doing so it is

a much bigger picture it's not as simple as what's been said. to me time elsewhere worrying revelations about vulnerable children in our media 2 words we discovered that for over 20 years a criminal network forced mothers to give up their newborns against their will so that they could be sold abroad for adoption reporting on the roof or notion of for . this is a story with many children involved but it is not one of these typical happy ending tales a team might expect to hear during holiday season an investigation is on to go in now in armenia into an alleged black market adoption network believed to have been operating for years to citizens of the republic of armenia using their contacts in one of the republican obstetrical institutions organized the adoption of more than 3 dozen children more than 30 babies to italy and there were also cases of adoption by u.s. couples one of the victims has been trying to achieve justice for almost 2 decades

already her name is susana she says 20 years ago doctors pressured her to give up her daughter stella threatening to report her case of a 16 year old mother to police and her father she signed papers refusing her rights . because i held my baby in my arms after he was born but that i stayed in the hospital for another 2 days or so but i didn't see him ever again they told me that he was born prematurely and didn't survive i was given some peoples to sign but it was too weak to understand what i was signing in december they are mean and authorities detained the country's chief ops attrition who sues on accuses of threatening her and other officials as part of the probe it does make a better man was released several days later due to lack of evidence a spark public outrage. a lawyer who has represented susanna since 2013 has his explanation for 7 long years we were shouting about it at every corner

this is a mafia that is stronger and more powerful than the one controlling drug traffic i can say there were relatives of the rulers involved. in 2017 human rights watch released a 102 page report titled when will i get to go home documenting thousands of cases of children in armenia needlessly often forcefully isolated separated from their families and placed to institutions more than 90 percent of them have at least one living parent and said they international ngo then tried to draw attention to disturb in inaction by authorities the government of armenia has made some both commitments to reduce the number of children in institutions but needs to make sure this promise is backed by serious sustained action 2 years later last september the authorities noticed that 4 times as many children went to foreigners

rather than to locals and started investigation all adoptions have since been suspended in armenia which might be a good news though changes little for those who believe their kids were wrongfully given away years ago and that there must be a legal solution so that we could do validate they don't show the child it's about selling children i will do everything i will not back down there must be a fair trial. so it's national much water karma the way rewarding the pushing of painful reforms in france is probably good but the way over the pension reforms but the other story connected with it well there's anger there over awarding a top gong to an american boss linked to the country divisive pension changes will make some links maybe it's among the stories ahead.

seemed wrong. but all wrong just don't call. me. yet to stamp out disdain attitude and engagement equals betrayal. when something find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. this idea as you point out the anecdotally cheney fired all the cia agents in the field because they were too sympathetic to the locals and he felt that was a liability in the major media spheres of washington d.c. they don't want those reporters those stars to rub elbows in the great unwashed of the flyover states because they may become sympathetic to the working class they may become sympathetic to the to the disenfranchised.

again this is not international life from moscow next a libyan rebel commander. told on his compound troops now to rise up and defend the chef and country against a possible deployment of to his forces of course that news came out 2 days ago the appeal comes 2 days after lawmakers an anchor agreed to send troops to libya the request of the un registered and recognized by the government of national accord in tripoli. and comprehensive mood wise a sum i address my speech to the entire arab nation its people's army is. that a smart argument solved ignited the use of

a national war targeting our nation by declaring that leap is heritage. so complicated this one the 2 rival administrations been vying for control of libya since 2041 the g.s.a. is based in the capital of the country's west and the other in the oil rich east the parallel government is allied to khalifa haftar forces which have been closing in on tripoli in recent months as well this is going to head now let's bring in mark colvin director of the crisis research institute hey there mark likely is it we are going to see many libyans heeding this call to rise up for a general khalifa haftar. well in the west probably not but he is appealing to a kind of arab resentment of the traditional occupier of libya turkey ottoman turkey historically control the territory and so he's appealing to a kind of ethnic division between turks and arabs and of course also appealing to his friends and in egypt and other arab countries so in do you want the turkish

government throwing its weight around particularly as president of turkey has increasingly for the note with the saudis and them iraq he's a big friend of the governor katter and there it was drawn with the saudis numerati as who are supporting president after in other words there's a lot of regional complication a lot of rivalries going on in the background of libya itself is a very complicated place where you are with the general had said there's going to be a big push of late this had all been coming to a head there isn't there and is is that why turkey has got involved now to to bring it to a head amongst other things because of course not just that there are so many levels here including oil. well i think. there have to once to bring it to a head and perhaps quickly before the turks can deploy in any numbers. equally that's one of these where the turks may try to bring in forces and perhaps deploy forces on the the problem is that. there are so many local militias to

that most ordinary libyans i think would rather all this went away but they are now trapped by people fighting over oil of a natural gas and also of a patronage from abroad one positive perhaps of the turkish involvement is that after all turkey and russia are in syria have at least been able to moderate the conflict there they've been able to at least some limited zones of peace and cooperation and it might be that the western states who intervened in libya in 2011 and then in a sense lost interest that they lost cohesion could learn a lesson from what's happened in syria and maybe turkey and russia who are slightly on different sides both in syria and in libya nonetheless might be able to knock heads together but i suppose that's a danger figure in the other way maybe civil war no. one of course the danger is that this gets heightened up a turkish transport plane gets shot down and the turks of all really pile in or equally a turkish drone strike accidentally kills a lot of civilians and really doesn't reach local libyans and turns them against

the presence of the turks and also the supporters because we have to if you like to democratic legitimacy is in combat here the poll amounted to brooke was elected when the west thought it was a good thing would bring east and west libya together in the then it changed its mind and we decided to sponsor the government in tripoli and so you have to parliamentary bodies saying we represent the people of libya but really each of them represents only a chunk of the libyan population that those chunks are quite antagonistic to each other so you've got deep rooted regional rivalries in libya too and in a sense colonel gadhafi held libya together because he kept everybody under his thumb by removing a dictatorial system we have also brought out how in fact libya was a rather artificial construct of the lives of the italians after 1000. and then west after 951 year will bring you up to date there as you say m r really it's all eyes on what may happen before if turkey does send in a presence there i mean it's the permissions they're kind of on paper as

a technical bucket big cetera buttons not happened and the question is what's general of the going to do now and who's going to listen to we'll follow the story daily mark almond director of the crisis research institute thank you for giving your comment on it pretty sheeted. no true discontent there to discontent in france to the year we go again live pictures what we got of michelle to hear this from paris i think is a huge as content of a pension reforms there again drawing thousands to the streets of the capital this saturday police are out in force again as we go into another decade using tear gas to disperse the crowds. first protesters have joined the call to abandon the changes that would see the retirement age for many increased transport service workers as big as long a strike that had doctors and teachers are among those who turned out the french capital protests are also planned in other cities including must say strasburg

another meeting between the government and use the shuttle for shoes day with hopes that it may confuse a situation i will be in terms of kind of linked in the story in the background of all this the french pension controversy we've been talking about there is now casting a shadow over the country's highest state award the legion of honor some of the names that are up for the accolades causing more than a bit of consternation they include the head of the french branch of an american asset management firm linked to the reforms cover is called black rock it's one of the world's largest asset management firms and has been in france indeed since 2006 now last summer it apparently pushed for privatizing part of the french pension system with the us style format it's accused that are trying to take advantage maybe of the country's deeply divisive reforms which have seen weeks as we see it again a crippling strikes charlotte dumas do bensky next looks at whether or not the company could cash in if those reforms do get through. to be awarded france's

a legion of own a medal is to receive the country's highest award so no doubt this year's recipients were pleased as punch to know that they'd been given the nords hit when the list was announced one name provoked rather than appreciation it was that of the. head of the french branch of the american management company black rock. well critics accused of trying to cash in on the controversial pension changes that are currently being pushed through by the french government. directly benefit from the pension reform. the chose to honor the lead of blackrock france is nothing but an anecdote blackrock is simply the dark side of the pension reform john transource you believe president of blackrock france is promoted to officer of the legion of warner on january the 1st as a reward for pillage and of our pay as you go passions the presentation of the

legion of honor it is on france was to release a provocation it reveals the close ties that exist between the graun and the world of finance he's selling the retirement system to american pension funds it's a big deal strikes against pension reform and now into this week it's the longest running strike in the century across problems people have taken to the streets to let the government know that plans to merge 42 different pension plans into one you system at the same time is raising the age of retirement or not welcome. if you lose on pension reform and everything and the next issue is social security and social protection and. we are not at all in favor of the status quo we are in favor if you prove ing the system but not tearing it down and we will go on it until it is withdrawn and improved but has already come under fire officers accused

of attacking french pensions now it's alleged to have provided recommendations to the government in regards to reform and way and it will benefit from any privatization of france's redistributive pay as you go pension schemes something the government and but cork is at pains to deny in no way have. an influence on the current pension system citron what dispatches the french market is a box of trees from player clark to stop talking nonsense. and there is a big but in an internal document unveiled by french t.v. in many t. last month that books of. streets is a lot bigger than the secretary of state to my top do you believe it outlines the high end market value in france and how black caucus wanted a piece of the pie critics say bestowing the legion of boner on black ops manning fronts is a rude for the pillage of the country social work time and system and while black

rock perhaps isn't as well placed as all this to take a huge slice of french pension savings it certainly is primed and ready to jump into the market a lot of people are afraid that the complete pension scheme is going to change that this is just a 1st big step to go to something more of a totally funded scheme which is the courtroom was going to do in france this is obviously from a political point of view very bad time and the middle of this message strikes which is we're going this is are those strikes are going on for practically over a month richard records now a lot of people and so satisfied a lot of people who are very tired of the strikes from the people say that they won't stop the strikes until the government draws back from its initial that it's giving the impression that there is a plan b. that there is something created by the government is actually just being down to

the grounds of the 1st project of the something worse. so the universe protest is michael astrue depression over the course leaving antti dot com if you want to follow so much more as well when i was kevin i mean but with more in just over half an hour as we watch in seasons greetings and thanks for choosing the internet. is you'll be a reflection of reality. in the world transformed. what will make you feel safe. isolation community. are you going the right way or are you being led. by. losses.

in a world corrupted you need to descend. to join us in the depths. of the shallows. there's a lot of it here is the economy where china has caught up or surpassed us you know the mobile payments market 50 times the size of the us or over here still writing checks our banking system is not innovated. kind of recently woken up the last couple years and while we don't even have a company that can make 5 g. equipment it's been a win win for china and it's been a lose lose for the us. but if she warned you and i do. the shit at the bottom or those. speeches see me.

in the news i mean that infants involved. a lot of. the. cabinet 5 days doing. a english 38 people who simply knew. would include in total. this is boom bust broadcast around the globe and covering all aspects of business

and its impact upon us all. and i'm christiane and washington hands i like out what done that today. it is only america's there. is an act of terrorism and by leaching of iraq's sovereignty i'm mentioned in the middle east have roiled markets that the u.s. has a fascinated and iranian general in iraq we break down how the attack has moved markets and what this could mean for the future of geopolitical relations but the saga of multinational businessman carlos growing takes another turn as he has managed to escape japan's argy correspondent sara lee but there's a ok and lauren fix the car coach are both on hand to help us break down the caper we have a packed show today so let's jump right in. and we begin the program with reaction to the assassination of a top iranian general in baghdad general custom civil money who led a special forces unit of iran's revolutionary guard was killed in a u.s. drone strike on thursday the pentagon has confirmed the department of defense issue

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