because. the u.s. secretary of state is grilled by reporters demanding a justification for the killing of iran's top general. in the us held its military in iraq as a force for good in the middle east off to baghdad off 6 american troops to meet the country. and western powers claim a ukrainian airline was shot down in iran by a missile about before international experts had a chance to analyze the data. from moscow where it's just past 2 in the morning you're watching our national welcome to the program. the u.s.

secretary of state has defended washington's decision to assassinate to top general mike pompei of struggle to explain the alleged threat posed by major general sort of money during a press conference as caleb maupin reports. things got quite easy at the press conference where we saw mike pompei o the u.s. secretary of state speaking alongside stephen the new shin the secretary of treasury and this comes just a week after the killing of iran's top general qassam solomonic and as the press asked questions got particularly tense mike pompei o seemed a little bit on concert hall trying to answer the questions of journalists who just don't seem to buy his claim that the killing of solomonic was necessary to protect american lives let's take a listen to some of what went on that specific information about it in the threat and didn't have anything to do with our embassies. we had specific emanation information on an imminent threat and those threats trim included attacks on u.s. embassies. what is your definition of the internet.

this was going to happen and american lives were at risk if the intelligence community is not flawless we we get it wrong in this case the intelligence community got it fundamentally right there was an imminent attack it was active plotting is that right now gone with so the money gone threats are never going now it wasn't just the journalists who don't exactly buy pompei as claims but american lawmakers also have their doubts we just saw in the us house of representatives the lower house of the us legislative branch a resolution was passed attempting to restore it to the activities of the trumpet ministration and trying to prevent them from further escalating tensions with the islamic republic of iran however these doubts about whether it was the right thing in order to kill qassam solomonic go well beyond legislators and journalists they actually go to the us public itself we have new poll results that have been

conducted and it shows that basically 2 thirds of the u.s. public believes at this point that the country is less safe because of trump's decision to kill the top iranian general furthermore 69 percent of the u.s. public believes that iran is more likely to attack the usa as a result of trump's decisions 52 percent describe top killings qassam solomonic as reckless so a pretty solid opposition to trump's killing of qassam solomonic among american people themselves i think there is a lot of. american public. concern about the assassination and the fact that it cools usually people think that it made americans less safe and so what was the point and i don't think people are buying troops explanation that he gave that it was because of an imminent attack on the u.s. embassy while at the press conference mike peo and steve minu. laid out basically

what these new sanctions will include the new sanctions are targeting high level officials in iran basically preventing any business transactions with them but when explaining these new sanctions a mike bomb peo used some rather interesting language to lay out what he argued was the ultimate end game of the united states when it comes to iran the president said we don't want war we want iran to be able to mobilization the reason that the secretary treasurer this morning is to continue this campaign our strategic effort to get to run to behave in a way that doesn't continue their 40 year long effort to terrorize the world if you hear those words he refers to saying that he wants iran to be a quote normal country so essentially it seems the united states is asking lading threats and carrying out more sanctions with the goal of forcing the islamic republic to conduct itself in a manner that the united states considers to be normal not exactly clear what that means but until that happens there will be further activities and sanctions and

threats and what not now many are hoping that the current situation is in a state of deescalation but at the same time people worry about what could happen next you know the sanctions still remain iran still has the capabilities we saw the recent strikes that took place so a lot of nervousness in the global community at the moment well meanwhile iraq's caretaker prime minister has demanded the u.s. make preparations for a troop pullout but to washington has made it clear that's not going to happen. steve has more. of us familiar with the situation you invited someone over to say a friend they stay and stay and stay you drop a hint you know it's getting late on the tod but they just don't get it. america is a force for good in the middle east and a delegation sam to iraq would be dedicated to discussing how to be recommit to our

strategic partnership not to discuss troop withdrawal what complicates things is that your own welcome guest is heavily armed and has a tendency to how do you put this kill your other guests you call make this up americans kill an arabian general in iraq iran then shoots back a bunch of ballistic missiles in revenge out of iraq i mean these poor rocky guys they've done nothing and everyone's bombing them so you can understand if they're a little sick of it all and point to the door we want to restart the civil war again among the shia we don't want this to happen we're not a battlefield between the usa and iran so whoever wants to hit the usa should do that outside of this country. all of these troops must leave because they have turned iraq into a battlefield it's astonishing the americans are saying no we don't care that you

voted for us to leave we won't and just in case that wasn't enough of a slap in the face actually going to call more of their friends over to iraq nato played and then you have any middle east you know they told me i said what a beautiful name nato personnel in the region to know you're supposed to us to be honest with you because this is an international problem today and need to delegation is at the state department to discuss increasing nature's role in the iraq situation is absurd it makes a joke a mockery of international law and simple decency and as does anything absurd has the internet buzzing. america is a force for good in the middle is and we'll start a civil war to prove you need our protection given military forces the against the wishes of the people who live there it's called occupation when we said we wanted

to bring a democracy in we didn't mean you could use it to make your own decisions iraq asks u.s. troops to leave the country but president pompei o refuses instead his state department issues a statement the 1st sentence reads america is a force for good in the middle east remember if you say i am so cool then you're not cool there's a lesson here i suppose you can't be friends with the superpower they'll call your friend patch on the head but when push comes to shove you are just another poor bombed out nation that's going to do as you're told on middle east right i'm sorry out one believes there is no justification for the continued us presence in iraq he thinks there is you know well i think that's the state authorizes and there are we don't want them to come back but this is completely fabricated excuses to be

honest because this is that. it is it is that action that is they iraqi it is that it really is it is at all if you will simple and this them state is there and very completely no i don't believe there is a chance of this time. unless you have 2 states one the comeback and the one to violence then this is the only the only way for that same state to come back the best i'm going to pull out. here today iraqi parliament is the dilution and alcohol problem. now the ukrainian president vitamins and i and ski has a thanks to the u.s. for its support in investigating wednesday's plane crash. had a phone call with secretary pump am grateful for the condolences of the american people and valuable support of the u.s. in investigating the causes of the plane crash information obtained from the us will assist in the investigation. ukraine airlines flight 752 went down it killing

all 176 passengers and crew on board earlier washington passed what he described as important data on the tragedy to crane the u.s. canada and the u.k. all say they have evidence suggesting a surface to air missile hit the airliner iran denies that claim and has invited international experts to monitor its investigation is in the moment will allow the americans the french the canadian some of the swedish to come here and see how we investigate this crash specialist borders some cameras in america that investigate as we trust those borders what we can say with absolute certainty is that no missile has had the splay of these are the latest pictures from the crash site while passengers belongings can still be seen the area is reportedly no longer cordoned off and investigators are no longer present earlier iran said wreckage from the aircraft have been collected and taken to a safe location ukraine's foreign minister said experts from his country had been

given access to the flight recorders and fragments of the plane. well the black boxes recovered from the crash site have been shown by iranian state media tehran says they claim they claim the jet was downed by a missile is illogical and impossible so i ask you take a look at how speculation has been mounting before any probe has been carried out. nothing instills confidence in international leaders more than my love of precise language. we have intelligence from multiple sources including around lies and our own intelligence. the evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by in a rainy and surface to air missile and it was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood and somebody could have made a mistake some people say was bin cannick i personally don't think that's. even a question there are no reason to not believe reports we have seen from different

nato allied capitals that. plane may have been downed. iranian air defense systems there is now a body of information that the fly was shot down by an iranian surface to air missile this may well have been an intentional we are working closely with canada and our international partners and they now need to be a full transparent investigation on specific intelligence unnamed allies multiple mysterious sources hardly the rhetoric one expects a at that level of diplomacy and b. when discussing the tragedy that's left 100 $76.00 dead but 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 a missile hit the ukrainian plane and such rumors are illogical and it's not an unreasonable request the investigation into the events of wednesday morning which

saw the boeing 737 bound city have crashed. 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 governments and organizations which is why iran has invited multiple investigators including from boeing to visit the crash site in the meantime all there is a series 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 for. everyone to refrain from speculation conspiracy theories hasty conclusions and unverified versions and it's not a topic for height 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 possible missile 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 didn't take long for the mainstream media to jump on that bandwagon c.n.n. has never been one to turn down an unverified source especially when russia is involved pointed the finger at a bomb or missile new evidence indicates iran shot down ukrainian flight 75 to with 2 surface to air missiles made by russia an 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 just after takeoff 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 that's 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 the reality is that when there were a situation like this arises if it doesn't concern the western powers. and then the blame game starts and all these you know unknown sources intelligence figures appear on the horizon to blame a particular nation who is you know fighting at many fronts with the usa and

the washington consensus so you run quite easily is sort of blamed that the plane was you know stuck struck by some missiles and there is no evidence and really it's incredible it's laughable and i don't know why mr trudeau really comes on the horizon saying that we have information how does mr trudeau have this information and the veto chief comments on it so the whole narrative is being built in such a manner that really iran should be blamed without really investigating it well elsewhere president trump has claimed the u.s. is doing a good job in venice whaler we'll have more details on that after this short break .

join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then.

welcome back now for more than a month there have been protests against the french government's plan to reform pensions a draft bill of the project has been revealed and will be presented to the council of ministers in 2 weeks the main bone of contention is an increase in the pension age although according to the text it's not something that would apply until 2022 shell that depends. will you still need to me will you still feed me when i'm 64 or so goes the chorus to that song sung by the beatles now back in the 1960 s. when it was recorded average life spans were far shorter than they are today in france it was around 70 years old the idea of being 64 suggested you were probably

close to you wrote expiration off. in france they consider that the us too healthy at the age of 63 so for us if unacceptable to diet work in bad health of all. it is very possible to work at this. people are tired of that age they can continue working as parents enters into it 6 week of strikes over proposed changes to the pension system the one element that's really seems to be roiling people is the up being over the age that you can retire at with a full pension to yes you guessed it $64.00 polls show that 2 thirds of respondents find this to be on palatable while some unions if even demanded that all references to retirement at $64.00 be removed from the law. this new age is unfair because it will be no lies those who started working young economists agree that it's

unnecessary and people are against it despite the opposition this seems to be a sticking point for the government. i think he does know that everywhere in europe in countries like ours across europe people work a little longer because life expectancy is going up. well he's right life expectancy has increased significantly in the last 50 years in fact in france 7 the median lifespan is now 83 years old meaning the average person with toys at 64 would be dipping into the pension system to some 19 years and even if the government refuses to budge all not retirement age compared to other countries in the e.u. some might say that the french have it pretty good in countries like sweden denmark portugal germany and many more the age of retirement is already higher than the current age of retirement in france at $62.00 and it would still be higher than the

new threshold at $64.00 in addition the life expectancy in these countries is lower than the fronts meaning that people who work longer to retire on average in those countries and are more likely to access their pension for a shorter period of time so why are the french making such a song and dance about this. is not about comparing countries it's about social regression it's about pensions and we don't know what will be next. to the opposite gender the lower the retirement age to $60.00 to $60.00 we should do the opposite and not race to the bottom that's the issue for the european union as a whole only seem to believe that france's current retirement system is economically viable so as long as we support retirement funds. we do not need to slash workers' rights. the main problem for us is not the retirement age the main

problem is 0 hour contracts for this this signifies the complete breakdown of the social system. it seems for the french regardless of what they european might be doing when they turn $64.00 they want to already be enjoying their retirement and this is no indication jollity been ski. paris. now and other international news or trump has claimed the u.s. is doing a good job in venice while he was speaking almost a year after the u.s. recognized opposition leader why though i was the country's leader although president maturer is still in power. we have a good strategy but we're taking care of people helping people colombia's helping a lot of people some of the nation surrounding it helping people but where i think we're doing a good they have a system that right now is very broken we'll see what happens stay tuned. well

meanwhile the u.s. secretary of state has called for a swift negotiated transition to democracy in venezuela mike pompei of said the government and opposition need to negotiate to form a transitional government and hold free and fair elections on tuesday one guy i don't know was sworn in by supporters for a new term as the leader of the national assembly just dramatic pictures show this there was a standoff with soldiers who tried to prevent him from entering the building why don't assume the role last year after branding the presidency illegitimate and went on to declare himself interim leader of them this way or nicolas maduro meanwhile has refused to resign. after a bit more on this we can now cross live to journalist for the independent news that venezuela and alice's dot com paul dobson paul thanks for joining us as we heard just a moment ago trump has called the u.s. strategy a good strategy in fairness where he says they're helping people what do you think the u.s.

strategy is in venezuela. well over this point in time resign or it is very difficult to out here understand the u.s. strategy in venezuela if it is very clear that their political goals in the country in 2019 were not achieved they did not achieve regime change in they did not achieve out there where they were from power and the comments coming out of the white house in the last few days seem to suggest that there is some computer in about the current u.s. strategy on both that we thought they might talking about a dialogue transition with gives a significant step down in the rhetoric regarding venezuela however only today we saw earlier abrams the special u.s. envoy who announced whaler bringing the issue of military intervention back onto the table he'd specifically said that all options are on the table including military intervention in these 2 comments taken before our part really here. there

is a process a revision of the u.s. strategy in venezuela going on behind closed doors in washington and the there are certainly differences of opinion after what we will work to achieve the strategic objective which is very much stand that around getting nicholas mother out of power thanks for that context want to pick you up on the idea that there's been somewhat of a muting of the approach to venice whether the u.s. pressure may be a step down as you put it because the u.s. has of course been the main supporter of quite do you think privately people in the administration might be disappointed by his inability to take power in the country formally i think this will be natural for them to be disappointed i see very very difficult for anyone in the in the trump administration to be the opposite to the power of what they've achieved through wanting whether her in venezuela we've seen a dramatic drop or whether you support base here you're in 2019 we've

seen a series of scandals in gophering the opposition leader including millions of dollars of opposing humanitarian aid we've seen opposition parties allied leaders turn their back on why and why though over the last 4 to 5 months and we see him really embroiled in a series of increasingly desperate are ridiculous stunts which really how showing that the the u.s. didn't necessarily think their strategy through here in venezuela particularly well they didn't necessarily true is that they lack there for their strategy all about well and i think for anyone in the trumpet ministration at the moment reflecting on the venezuela strategy in 2019 the only feeling they could really have would be one of disappointment and regret to some extent so would use you say potentially the the sort of. the approach to go i don't is taken in the past year as you put it there has had oversleep an impact on the jury still staying in power

majority has still managed to retain his position he's overseas military support so we saw those pictures of the military stuff and why they're entering the government building but how do you think the jurors manage to resist all of this international pressure. is very important to point our fun of it that there is a lot of elements backing mother a still. murder enjoys a significant support base within the venezuelan population often there are very well attended marches pro-government marches here in venezuela and across the cities there is a significant amount of international support for nicolas maduro one why though when he was declared himself interim president last year was recognized by around 50 governments meaning that around $150.00 government continue to do normal diplomatic relations with the a little with the government of nicolas maduro in this context i think it's fairly easy to see that miller has have certain pillars on which he can he can support

themselves over the last year. internal support of the support of the military also international support from certain sectors and i think that is often overlooked by the international media when evaluating the reasons why the current constitutional government which you point out continues to be in the presidential policy or pull solves and john this independent venezuela analysis dot com appreciate your insight from on the ground there in venezuela my pleasure of well that is your updates and now i am or is on a lot could not be back here with the rest of the team in just over 30 minutes time with more news from around the world will see that. i'm going to fulfill the repeated promises oh possible to the people and promise to be there with all pots to. be.

pretty. pretty good. now you want to. know. trump is a new yorker and you know he looks at the global picture and he sees the tension in the middle east he sees iran doing a dance with it there and then the neighbors and there's like you know when let's

just cut to the chase this is take out a guy in iraq and we're going to get more money printing right away because i want to make my young pain med this weekend why fuss around this is the new york way of doing things i said it when he 1st got elected it's like having a new yorker in the white house and having a new york around the world i'm a new yorker some of you know i got to tell you i'm one of the. you know world of big partisan law and conspiracy it's time to wait to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back 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 for watching closely watching the hawks.