just there both of us love. the u.s. and other western powers accuse iran of accidentally shooting down the ukrainian passenger jet on wednesday killing all on board iran says the claim is scientifically impossible and invites foreign experts to take part in the investigation. donald trump imposes yet more sanctions on iran saying the restrictions will stay in place in till iran complies with washington's demands on top about the us president place the idea of a new military alliance in the region. nato made and then you have to meet middle east. gord they told me i should what a beautiful name. elsewhere police used tear gas to disperse crowds in paris as protesters gathered to join a major nationwide strike of pension reforms now into its 36 day.

hello you're watching r t international i'm rosa lockwood thank you for joining us. western powers claiming intelligence that to ukrainian plane crashed into iran on wednesday they say may have been accidentally shot down by an iranian missile but iran has rejected those claims calling them a logical and impossible and inviting international experts to visit the crash site . looks at the storm of speculation building up before approach has been conducted . nothing instills confidence in international leaders more than the love of precise language but we have intelligence from multiple sources including our allies and our own intelligence. the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by entering in a surface to air missile and it was flying in

a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake as some people say was been cannick i personally don't think that's. even a question but there is now a body of information that the flight was shot down by an iranian surface to air missile this may well have been unintentional we are working closely with canada and our international partners and there now needs to be a full transparent investigation. on specific intelligence unnamed allies multiple mysterious sources hardly the right one expects a at that level of diplomacy and b. when discussing a tragedy that's left $176.00 dead it's on surprising that iran has batted off this latest slew of unfounded allegations about the crash of ukrainian airlines flight $75.00 to a nudge for calm and not check to prevail scientifically it is impossible that the missile hit the ukrainian plane and such room is illogical it's not an unreasonable

request the investigation into the events of wednesday morning which saw the boeing 737 bound for crash just minutes after takeoff has only just begun final report into aviation disasters take months if not years to be published they require coordination between numerous government organizations which is why iran has invited multiple investigators including from boeing to visit the crash site in the meantime all there is a theory is with nothing but unnamed sources to back it all up which is why amid all the confusion and contradictions the ukrainian president who lost 11 of his citizens that morning as they returned home also called for an end to all the chatter and noise here. i am asking everyone to refrain from speculation or conspiracy theories easy hasty conclusions unverified it's not at all that behind you it is small but the spiraling tensions between tehran and washington especially

in the past week have triggered an unprecedented level of scrutiny on the region and people don't seem willing to heed calls for calm especially when they feel the tide might be turning in a favored direction iraq could strike. system is among the main working theories since there was information on the internet about elements of the russian missile being found near the site of the crash it did. take long for the mainstream media to jump on that bandwagon see that he's never been one to turn down an on cerified source especially when russia is involved pointed the finger at a bomb or missile and the undeniable evidence they offered a photo from twitter posted on the count that was later suspended maybe it breached the company's fake news guidelines but nonetheless even all the way across the pond the hysteria continued for the 1st one is the possibility that that plane was hit by

a russian missile i'll just after takeoff the independent also published an article citing something called the o.p.'s group an independent organization which has little to recommend itself other than it provides information for aviation professionals and fox's thoughts according to its twitter page nevertheless it felt confident enough to recommend people just assume the plane was shot down until evidence to the contrary and marge is guilty until proven innocent it's the new name of the game in today's political landscape. a bit more on this we can now cross the line to investigative journalist dave lindorff an editor of the news website this can't be happening today thanks for joining us this evening as we've heard the western powers claiming they've got intelligence that no rain in missile may have unintentionally brought down the ukrainian plane iran for it's by saying that's impossible do you surprised that world leaders coming forward

making public claims before any official investigation has actually been conducted . i mean after all we have the lesion planes over ukraine as a model where you know it was all speculation and. never a clear. and transparent investigation in all the time along that you know we had. speculation that it was russia that it was a russian missile even though the same missiles that russia was alleged to have used are in the position of ukraine. the 1st thing that came to my mind when i listened to your story was that you know why why would we say that it was a russian missile instead of ukrainian missiles you know that they're they're both the same missiles that are being used so i think that that. you know the idea of holding off and having an investigation is right there's no solid evidence

of any of this and it's all speculation but it's aimed at tarring here in with the downing. well that western powers are claiming that they've got intelligence to support this is support their claims we don't have many more specifics than that you expect them to her intelligence over to the iranians of course not and you know . if you if you're heard to me right away that you know people should wonder whether boeing is behind some of this because the certainly you know you've heard trump say i'm sure it wasn't a mechanical the fact that given that you mean that it's a boeing you know you might even ask whether that's a possibility of having great luck with their planes well that is one theory that has been speculated but once again you know the point is that. there's plenty of media throwing out there speculating and offering up theories but the investigation has not yet been conducted like i want to ask about this new york times this shed

a video online that claims to it claims are verified. supposedly shows a missile hitting the plane which then explodes in midair do you think this is going to form part of the investigation how credible is evidence like this. well i'm not exactly a an expert on clean crashes or videos but i did witness 2 planes collide across the river from me when i lived in manhattan a private plane actually 2 private planes. flying from a private airport in new jersey across the river and you saw 2 lights come together and watch the whole thing happen i watched them hit by a small flash and i watched both planes go down and crash. you know into the ground it was horrifying. and this did not look like that it's hard to know what's happening when you're looking at that there's a little late there's a flash it does appear like there was an explosion there and if that was the plane

that there was an explosion i don't know how they came up with the conclusion it was a missile because you didn't see a contrail of a missile going up to it so i think it's it's jumping to conclusions to analyze that and call it a missile well plenty of analysis of the video on going and of course we await the results of the official investigation david the we're going to come back to shortly because there are all the details of the but thanks for that ok thank you. all the u.s. house of representatives has passed a resolution aimed at limiting president trumps ability to use military force against iran and the bill will now go to the senate for approval the latest. trump is imposing new sanctions on the islamic republic of iran saying that they will stay in place until america's bidding is done they're losing a tremendous amount they getting heard very badly by the sanctions can in very quickly but as to whether or not they want that's up to them not up to me it's

totally up to them it's classic trump said an ultimatum and wait for a surrender but it's a little bit risky given that it's a ron which has boasted that its latest attacks on u.s. bases are just a hint of its retaliatory capabilities however it's a different kind of retaliation that's facing trumpet the moment the trumpet ministration is now on the defensive about their decision to kill ron's top general qassam solomonic without congressional approval their excuse they say qassam solomonic was planning to carry out new attacks against america and swift action was absolutely necessary so a man who was plotting. imminent insidious terror attacks on american diplomats and military personnel we caught a total monster we did it because they were looking to blow up our embassy intelligence assessment made clear that no action allowing so the money to continue his plotting and his planning his terror campaign created more risk than taking the

action that we took last week however members of congress both democrats and republicans who saw the classified intelligence briefing say that the information in the report to back up those claims is wanting his the unclassified version of what trump sent congress after the hits on some the money from all we've seen including the redacted parts here and the briefing the facts do not show an imminent threat just avoid the nation. so long for claiming that he was planning imminent attacks and yet they produce no evidence that would just avoid this claim not even in a classified setting i wanted to hear the intelligence 1st what i hear was less than satisfying. i can tell you as a united states senator coming out of a classified briefing they did not show us that they were dealing with an imminent threat i saw no evidence of that whatsoever that was insulting that was demeaning to the process ordained by the constitution and i find it completely unacceptable

the white house says it is not obligated to share all the information with members of congress and that doing so might be risky mike pence says that at this point congress shouldn't expect anything further and they should trust the president when it comes to intelligence we have to protect sources and methods and so there's only a certain amount that we can share with every member of congress i can assure that those of us that have seen all the evidence that saw the evidence in real time know the president made the right decision and now this isn't the 1st time that the house and senate have been left in the dark claims about russia hacking the d.n.c. or china spying on the whole world and followed roughly the same playbook there doesn't seem to be any real evidence that iran was planning to attack america the trend in washington d.c. seems to be that the executive branch is out on its own liking information and engaging in military actions congress is just supposed to take their word for it

and trust them and while that may be the steady trend for decades it seems like in the year of 2020 elected representatives from both parties are now saying they're not ok with it caleb oppen r.t. new york the death of general slow money and the potential for a new start in the region these are just some of the issues discussed by action returns and the iranian ambassador to the united nations office in geneva you can watch the interview info in the intercepted going underground on saturday but here's a short taste. by that assassination the united states has already. pursed the reclines distinguished from better varies them from civilized rules of engagement ok but will there be any more revenge now from iran for the trump assassination of. this is the beginning of a very. i guess exciting of his or.

it was a wake up call for the people in the region and beyond. this was. an action an act of self-defense by going on forces against us but are they told you or i think this is the beginning of a i hope not too long process that the people of our region would be get rid of. the american presence in the region because their prisons in our region has brought nothing except of misery war and hatred. for in our cross live bank to investigative journalist dave lindorff dave thanks for staying with us because we wanted to discuss this with the the u.s. house of representatives has adopted this resolution on limiting president

transpower to wage a war against iran but it's still of course have to clear the senate do you think there's a chance of that happening given the republican majority in the upper house. it's going to be very difficult because they've got $47.00 democratic senators they need to come up with 4 if publicans really. to win is that resolution even if every senator that's a democrat voted for it so i think we did see some defections from republicans in the in the house so it's not inconceivable i think there is a lot of american public. concern about the assassination and the fact that it the polls are showing people think that it made americans less safe and so what was the point and i don't think people are buying trump's explanation that he gave that it was because of an imminent attack on the

u.s. embassy so who knows i mean i think i think it's not. you can't close the door on the possibility that the senate will also narrowly support the war powers resolution let's pick up on the safety issue and public sentiment because trump ministration in the bill saying it undermines the u.s. military's ability to fight terrorism do you think it does a reasonable claim that you don't know it doesn't there's a there's loopholes in it that say that if there's an imminent threat the president is in constrained by the word even in the original language of the word terrorist resolution if there's an imminent threat that needs instant action by the president it's not required a requirement is then that the president has to go to congress and explain why it was done. and supposedly he could be you know called out for faking the reasoning but it doesn't constrain him from acting if there's an imminent threat so that's

just a completely bogus argument. isn't quite sort of significant checks and balances there as you would expect and hope that trump has. proposed a greater role for nato is what we're hearing from the in the middle east and in this he's suggesting european forces taking some of the pressure off us troops allowing them to come home let's take a listen. to nato played and then you have middle east you know they told me i said what a beautiful name nato personnel in the region it's i know you're supposed to be honest with you because this is an international problem. so they tell me do you think a european country could be on board with the side it a. no i don't the europeans are very reluctant about putting their troops abroad in harm's way and you know i think there's been a lot of frustration with particularly over this is you know pulling up here

in his pulling out of the nuclear arms agreement that european countries are putting a lot of. effort into so. to me it seems very very unlikely that europeans are going to buy into doing because. it would press worse for it. staying on the couch sounding words and names being sort of around today in light of recent tensions between u.s. and iran media pundits about she branded trumps policy towards iran recently as a rock $2.00 do you think these parallels are appropriate. i don't know if it's iraq 2.0 but it certainly iran. 5.0 the u.s. has been. and it's been threatening iran since the revolution you know so in 79 so. this is. an ongoing thing with the u.s.

. investigative journalist dave lindorff thanks so much for time and insight on those topics thanks for having me well if politicians are having to tread carefully when questioning the u.s. assassination of iran's top general new york congresswoman alexandra cortez has come under fire for liking this on twitter a son flying into the u.s. says he hasn't seen so much security since $911.00 the u.s. is terrified of how iran will retaliate iran won't attack civilians that's what al qaeda does but it shows this is did the opposite of making america safer and our leaders know it well that like sparked outrage online but it was apparently not so much because of content of the to eat due to it's all for journalist rania kartik critics rounded on the i.o.c. accusing her of supporting a war crimes deny and whitewash of middle east murders and amid all of that online

pressure the congresswoman then unlike to the to eat but she doubled down on her views of the assassination. last night the transcendent and gauged in what is widely being recognized as a neck to war against iran when the it's now obvious the lives of millions of innocent people now is the moment to prevent war and protect innocent people the question for many is how publicly and congressionally well we spoke to the journalist at the center of that story rania colic and she told us progressive voices are often silenced by washington's hardliners when it comes to questions of war. this is not the 1st time this has happened in one omar we did something i said about venezuela at some time last year and she was similarly subjected to a pressure campaign by these online regime change trolls what really disturbs me about it is the fact that when you see someone like capitulate and cave to these people what you have here is really orwellian and you have a coordinated smear campaign by regime change trolls who are monitoring the social

media posts the line seems to be drawn when at least. when it comes to issues involving war and peace when it comes to issues involving the us regime change campaigns and whatever you speak on the issue of iran on social media you're inundated by these people this is a very well funded coordinated effort to try and the viewpoints and interactions it's also as an example for other people if you don't want to be smeared like a o.c. was then don't interact with these anti-war voices. and other news this hour the longest transport workers strike in france in decades has now entered its the 6 day it was called if the pension reform plans paris and other cities or witnessing another major mobilization supported by people of different classes and occupations in the french capital crowds gathered to cool on the government to withdraw its plans according to the local unions 370000 protesters descended on the capital over

the interior ministry claimed it was a fraction of that size depends he reports from the center of the protest. hall we've already seen tear gas deployed on several occasions by the police as they were trying to control the crowd see paris and the crowds are huge i just want to get you to go up and get a sense is looking down this street this is going to vote to mission and push you much all the way down to the last of the week it is chock a block with people people who've come out to support the strike now in its 36 day . this is the full day of nationwide protests and as you can see it doesn't seem as if the support is abating a tool many people thought this strike would only go on for maybe 2 weeks but hey we are not $36.00 they are going into the 6 week and it still looks like it's getting huge amount to support in terms of have the strike is going there is more public transport that is operational at the moment in paris are we seeing trains

operating fairly normally metros operating fairly normally in the mornings and in the evenings during the large part of the day little is operating apart from the automated lines that's $140.00 now in terms of the general support for this strike the polls in france show that most people are still supporting the strike people very unhappy from across the board about these changes to the pension system to the reforms that the government wants to make it wants to put $42.00 different pension systems down into one universal system to end many of the special regimes it says that yes actually it's still offering many special regimes to the police to some transport workers except to india at a bid to try and get the strike moving to try and get him past say to cross that the other big issue is raising the retirement age up to 64 it's currently $62.00

a wave front so they want to add another 2 years on to that but of course that won't affect anybody who's retiring in the next 17 years say the government they say it will only affect those who turn 18 in the next few years but people are furious here they're saying you know they don't want to sell out their children speeches that grandchildren's features and that's why they determined to come out into the streets to keep protesting tensions are rising here towards the end of the protests they just want to get you to have a look back down there that's too would sun lazard in the. the center of paris you can see those crowds of tear gas inside still to tear gas still raining down on the protesters as the police try and control the situation here you can hear the people in the crowds and shouting everyone hates the police that's a chant we hear quite often but you can really feel that tension right shooting up here in paris at the end of this protest that has been largely peaceful

a tear gas has been deployed throughout it and we have seen some individuals arrested individuals who apparently throwing objects to the police and that sounds like some grenades but it could also be tear gas coming down this but you might be able to see the lights coming up on the fly as it sounds like that was a sound grenades going off that people saying that they won't get even live to enjoy their retirement and they're determined to stay out on the streets and to make sure people know they're unhappy this is a protest now 36 days this is the 4th day of nationwide protests across france i know as you can see it doesn't look like it's about to be broke. hundreds of mental health patients are reportedly being sexually assaulted in mixed sex wards in england's national health service single sex ward c 3 times few reports of abuse it despite ministers pledging to scrap mixed wards guidelines

still allow shared spaces there were $1019.00 complaints of sexual assault in mixed wards between april 2017 and october $29000.00 that's a rate of one attack a day. one of the victims told her story. there i was on a mental outward roll my depression and anxiety there is very very low i was in this particular hospital. and in the past couple of weeks i met a blast. changer it was a start remember the night he comes on time to talk to me i didn't really think much of it. but over time and he just became more friendly close to me joking to me always in my gut your know what in a chat room it was the best but you. should have no chips event i'm used and you

might. even just touching my hand and my own was it was wrong and i didn't. think it was a program that adds. he slowly became closer to. what extend to not. sexual so many to. knowing seems to me well that. well the department of health and social care has responded by saying it will not tolerate sexual abuse in the n.h.s. but political activist linda bell also says it's disgraceful that the decision to axe mixed wards has still not been carried out. i think it's that it's about 20 years certainly 15 years ago that. hospitals made an undertaking that they would get rid of mixed wards frankly the government ought to be ashamed that

allowing british hospitals to it to not carry out an agreement that they made which was that there would be wards for women and wards for men and they shouldn't be they should not be mixed wards we fought very hard to ensure that women had safety and security so as for no better reason that we could speak to each other about issues of the of of concern i mean lots of women would be in hospital because of you know reproductive issues. of old age and you couldn't necessarily do that in a mixed ward not so men prefer to be in wards in which matters of their you know the reproductive organs can be explored with other men in a way that is not appropriate in front of most women well i certainly think that in a 1st world country that we should have wards for women and wards for men. the polish president has pulled out on an event in israel to commemorate victims of

the holocaust and the liberation of the auschwitz concentration camp and that's after organizers rejected his request to give a speech at the event itself organisations eventually it turns out that the presidents of russia and germany at me and of france whose government collaborated with nazi germany at the time will speak of this once in the organizers do not agree to a speech by the president of ireland or of my country absolutely do not agree to this comes amid tense relations between russia and poland ever disputed around the 2nd world war warsaw is angry at accusations by president putin of the country is partially responsible for the outbreak of the war poland also summoned the russian ambassador over putin's harsh words about a polish envoy to nazi germany. smallish city meets good scumbag and anti semitic pig you cannot do it any other way he expressed full solidarity with hitler in his anti semitic views. of the jewish people he promised to erect

a monument to hitler and. the holocaust during world war 2 resulted in the deaths of around 17000000 people of which 6000000 jews and that account of him or the hoffa of europe's entire jewish population mark schulman editor of history central and a newsweek columnist says the organization organizers of the event in israel have every right to decide who should be given a platform was clearly the 1st country that was invaded during world war 2 it was the place where. the largest number of jews were killed in poland so that's the fact that you know the polish jewish population was totally annihilated while in other places it was only partially annihilated so there's no question poland was central to our cause but that is solely means that the current polish president should be the person to be speaking i mean everybody comes i'm sure wants to speak there are about 50 heads of states or coming.