week's top stories iran says its military unintentionally shot down a ukrainian passenger jets after it was brought to the brink of a full blown conflict the united states also. france's shaken by another round of violent protests against the government's deeply unpopular plan to reform the pension system. and balancing privacy and protection tech giant apple reveals its gowns photos uploaded to its cloud to screen for child sex abuse images we have reaction from commentators up

was not clear about that apple says illegal part possible what does that mean that's terrifying language has been used for exactly with violence with of pornography and many many images are preventable is the best way of doing it. a very warm welcome you're watching the weekly here on r.t. international bringing you all the latest headlines and around the post the stories that shaped the week but 1st after several days of strident denial iran has admitted that it accidentally shot down a ukrainian passenger plane a plane blaming wednesday's disaster on human error and a breakdown in communication all 176 people on board were killed in the accident iran's revolutionary guards were on high combat alert at the time following an exchange of hostilities with the u.s. they say they mistakenly identified the. line as

a hostile target taylor recaps how it all unfolded. this week has shown more than that tragically it's the average man is the victim of political wars amid tensions not seen in decades terror on and washington have been engaged in a war of the iranian regime is aggression in the region must stand now we've told the iranian regime enough. to really revenge and the ultimate response by regional nations is when america is expelled from this region iran must and its support for terrorism will and you know what the pentagon and the military counted as terrorists the united states will immediately impose additional punishing economic sanctions on the iranian regime the united states rage an economic war against iran the united states has to come to its senses but the chances of this not as uptick not as twitter predicted when the hashtag while it will 3 start to try dying was

close to 0 and sure enough on monday we saw the iranian military hit to us at bases in iraq with missile strikes to iran it was seeking vengeance for washington's assassination of it top command cussen simón e in a drone strike and backed out just a few days. combined these events ticked the book says of a diplomatic crisis it really couldn't get much worse then came the paying crash. just minutes after taking off from terror on app or ukrainian international airlines flight $75.00 to bound for t.f. came down killing all $176.00 on board relatives of the victims from kiev to off from kabul to london and stockholm green that iran initially tonight reports that it was behind to try. judy calling them illogical and scientifically

impossible it invited investigators from various countries and organizations including boeing to visit the crash site then 3 days after the tragic incident suddenly came and admission of guilt the armed forces internal investigation has concluded that regrettably missiles fired judy human error caused the horrific crash of the ukrainian plane and the death of 176 innocent people investigations continue to identify and prosecute this great tragedy and unforgivable mistake the iranian military said the boeing 737 was passing close to a site belonging to iran's revolutionary guards and that its movement an altitude suggested it was an enemy target it said that its military was at its highest level of readiness having received information on the unusual movement of u.s. warplanes so within 10 seconds a decision was taken to launch missiles at the target according to teheran

a fatal example of human error. it's may not be that i take full responsibility and i will obey whatever decision is taken i would prefer to die rather than witness such an incident the admission of guilt has been followed by an apology a promise to upgrade defense systems to prevent another such tragedy a transparent investigation and compensation for victims' relatives and the prosecution of the responsible person as it makes these pledges though to ron has also encouraged certain others to consider that roles in this disaster and how it is that we came to this moment the day preliminary conclusions of internal investigation by armed forces human error a time of crisis caused by use adventurism lead to disaster i would prefer regrets apologies and condolences to our people to the families of victims and to other

affected nations as questions are asked as fingers are pointed as more sanctions are imposed it's not politicians but those who boarded that fateful flight on wednesday who ultimately paid the price. a vigil for the victims has been held to me a rainy and capital to around where the tragedies lead to both grief and anger people they'd flowers next to photos of the victims and it candles for those who died well asked a number of analysts for their thoughts on the catastrophe and how it was able to happen. in time so for and the so called for go for unfortunately the reasonable. yet able to pierce this fog unless the reason the conflicting mechanism so again one can talk about blame and responsibility or accountability the blame is iranian but the responsibility lies

on other shoulders too so iranian defense systems were on alert and they were expecting attacks by us planes as stated in the armed forces the statement there have been reports that some hostile objects flying objects have been appearing on radar screens in some of some parts around the country so soon as they saw a plane coming to a sensitive i.r.g.c. base they have you know rushed to jump to the tank luzhin and fired strategic at has become tactical blunders distracted g. off by that regulating or closing down the space under extreme circumstances could have avoided this whole. magical whenever we have our volodyovski in that you'll be in we had bound to have mentioned raised guns cog

coolidge's ready to fight the it will be said that you wish me to be have to be the case and the big picture to how to use this and that you know how to be escalated this i believe did on ian's have taken the 1st step by the initiation process of this whole accident in which 176 people were lost was done by the americans at the video onset yes that is true. on friday washington impose further sanctions on iran in response to his targeting of american military personnel in iraq during the announcement though the secretary of state had a tough time defending the united states assassination of general salim on me his mother being challenged on the alleged imminent threat from to run the troika to the killing. if you have specific information about the threat and didn't have anything to do with that kind of disease. we had specific emanation information on an imminent threat and those threats trim included attacks on the u.s.

embassies what is your definition of the internet. this was going to happen and american lives were at risk 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 that was active plotting is that right now gone with sort of mollycoddle threats are never going. so the money's assassination has sparked protests among his supporters both in the middle east and in the u.s. where hundreds of people have been rallying demonstrators were shouting antiwar slogans urging washington to withdraw its troops stationed in iraq as some american media pundits have been seemingly pushing for the u.s. to step up its charge against iran and escape with more pain reports that a lucrative defense industry deals at stake 6. there was compelling intelligence reasons of an imminent threat to respond i trust the intelligence assessment of

what's on the neo is doing the kinds of actions he was preparing for i take it at face value what he is saying and secretary pompei oh this was a preamp the defensive measure now these are supposed to be just random smart people who are going to help us understand the situation except there aren't a lot of them have a particular financial interest in a specific outcome essentially they're tied to corporations that make profits from war the usa and iran go head to head they'll get a pretty nice payout and the viewers are kept in the dark about these ties the world is on edge since the u.s. to county rein in terrorist architects and codes force command a custom sunday morning following the december 31st attack on the u.s. embassy in iraq since 979 iran has bullied threatened and killed and spread its reign of terror the president has made the right decisions on iran to this point including scrapping the iranian nuclear deal then the hip junior works for

a lobbying firm american defense incorporated that represents military contractors and who are one of the sponsors of his lobbying efforts none other than the manufacturers of the drone that killed solomonic so are we really shocked he's not singing kumbaya on urging restraint check out this guy they crossed a red line with this president when he when he exercised enormous going to story. not taken. provocation but so don't kill americans and when they did he he acted and acted very strongly jack keane is represented as just a retired general giving his $0.02 but actually sent his retirement from the pentagon he's been working with military contracting companies like general dynamics and now he runs a venture capital firm that specializes in defense and security not exactly mr objective general saw money he was a lawful military objectives and the president had ample domestic legal authority

to take him out without an additional congressional authorization jed johnson was in the department of homeland security under barack obama but now he's in the private sector working for lockheed martin that's the company that makes the war planes that are stationed across the middle east and who can forget david petraeus that's the military commander turned cia director who had an affair and leaked classified information to his mistress now you would think you wouldn't be credible after all this is what happened when he tried to teach classes at city college in new york. i mean if you don't know what it is going to break. you go but petraeus is back selling war on prime time it's impossible to overstate the significance of the attack that takes cost and soul money this is bigger than bin ladin that's bigger than bud donahue the overwhelming majority of the american people believe that the invasion of iraq in 2003 was

a big mistake so it's worth pointing out that these same people were on t.v. in 2003 selling the invasion of iraq are now on t.v. pushing a new war against iraq the exact same people it is important to understand the consequences of pulling out of iraq before our work is done in victory is achieved abandoning our iraqi friends would signal the world that america cannot be trusted to keep its word. he was the highest ranking official in the quds force he has the blood of many american soldiers on his hands the us public has voted for presidential candidates who promised less involvement overseas over and over again but the mainstream media seems to be working pretty hard to convince them otherwise and it's giving special attention to certain individuals who have certain shady financial ties and it's not disclosing those ties to the viewers many of the pundits the analysts that we see in us media are people who are either on the

boards of military corporations or their lobbyist for the military industry and they have an economic incentive unfortunately when it comes to war and this is not disclosed when we hear them talking about how good term is doing in killing the general of another country in a new war we have to admit that there is a strong military industrial complex in the united states and that the news media itself benefits from war. protests against pension reform in france have carried over into the new year well the government has now made a concession to scrap raising the full benefit retirement age on saturday rallies in paris and other cities thought thousands out in force including the yellow vest movements the police resorted to water cannon in the city of non-designed the

boiled over almost $3000.00 people took part in rallies there union say some half a 1000000 people demonstrated in total across france. also on thursday large sections of the french population joined what's become the longest transport workers strike in recent history again in paris the demonstrations turn violent. well we've already seen tear gas deployed on several occasions by the police as they were trying to control the crowds here in paris and the crowds are huge i just

want to get you to go up and get a sense of looking down the street to seclude to mission 10 and put you much all the way down to our last of the publique it is chock a block with people people who've come out to support the strike and it still looks like it's getting huge amount to support in tubes 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 i've been doing that the large cross the day little is operating apart from the automated lines that's $1.40 now in terms of the general support for this strike the polls in fogg's show that most people are still supporting the strike people very unhappy from across the board about these changes to the pension system to their forms 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 sometimes but work is settle into either be destroying get a strike moving to try and get the impasse safe to cross that people are furious say they say. you know they don't want to sell out their children's 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 center of paris you can see those crowds of tear gas the price don't tear gas still raining down on the protesters as the police try and control the situation here you can hear the people in the crowd sound shouting everyone hates the police that's a chant we take quite often but you can really feel that tension right shooting up

play 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 sticks towards the police that sounds like some grenades but it could also be tear gas coming down on us but you might be able to see the lights coming up on the fly as it sounds like that was a sound going to aid going off that people saying that they won't get to even live to enjoy their retirement and they determined to stay out in the streets and to make sure people know they're unhappy. still ahead this hour our poll opens up about his monitoring or private data on the reasons behind the controversial practice which i am about that in just a few minutes. but

. you put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and you. want to be rich. but you going to be cross which is what the before 3 in the morning can't be good. i'm interested in the waters in the. first. place we ponder the future and look into 2021 fascinating stories will come our way you know i'm often said on this show that you can't have capitalism without capital capital without positive interest rates encouraging people to say and this next story this next whole show this next entire segment is going to be dedicated to

this very notion. that. this is that we cannot see international welcome back and if you panic that you'll photos are being viewed by of those that apparently you write so now it's off to a political discussions pictures this says to clamp down on child sex abuse. we are utilizing subject ologies to help screen for chan sexual abuse material the tech giant was forced into making the admission after its updated privacy policy contained a line saying the corporation may collect information regarding customer activities now those activities include monitoring everything from i cloud to i tunes and beyond the company adds it may also scan users uploaded data for illegal content

well we decided to put the issue up for debate with privacy activist technology expert bill new and political commentator char for more. course everyone is for stopping child abuse and that's not the issue here it's the i simply i'm not buying it at the company i don't believe it apple really cares about fighting crime they just entered the live streaming business where people may be concerned that apple is rifling through all of the photos and all of that data this isn't actually the case the type of technology that we're looking at here simply is used to take a fingerprint of a particular image once an image is known to include some child abuse imagery apple is not clear about that apple says illegal pot possible potentially illegal activity including child porn what does that mean that's terrifying language you wouldn't simply have the processing power and the computing overhead to be able to

. scan full photos against each other in an in the kind of way that people imagine this is possibly the best use of the current available technology you know to crack down the posting of a serious child abuse images i but i'd love to know how successful is all of this technology if you look up cases that photo d.n.a. has been used to catch people distributing kiddie porn there was one this year there was one in 2015 there's one in 2014 i mean there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of these images out there these take many techniques we use with the question where they offload it's a really violent video once they had that video they managed to prevent people real plugging that video over a 1000000 times it has been used effectively with violence with pornography and many many images of me prevent it and is the best way of doing it i don't trust these companies i just think it's ever encroaching more and more into our privacy

into owning our data into finding out even more information about us i think it's scary and i don't think that apples to be in the business of law enforcement. the death toll in australia has now risen to 28 people as the most ferocious wildfires in decades affect the southeast of the country many thousands of people have been forced to abandon their homes and about 1000000000 animals are feared dead there's been a brief response on the record breaking heat wave but authorities say lives and homes are still under threat and more hot weather is expected.

thanks joining us here on r.t. international and if you'd like to say something about any of our stories would love to hear it so do get in touch by following us on social media as again at the top of the hour. time after time corporations repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important. transitions to sustainable transport sustainability stay number may not be more equitable and sustainable world. they claim their production is completely harmless. because. companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something i'll just as he want any minute i need

money. and news to me doing the nieman i'm stunned. understood superman and. so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy going foundation let it be an arms race is all off and spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. the world is driven by a dream shaped by. the

day or thinks. we dare to ask. all. hello welcome to worlds apart the formation of a constitutional committee for syria has been billed as a sign of hope for the long suffering syrian people the people those hopes for peace were dashed many times over the last 8 years is there any reason to believe that this time around things will be different to discuss that i'm now joined by

a. former deputy special envoy of the un secretary-general for syria mr rounds it's good to talk to you thank you very much for your time thank you very much for inviting me now you step down from based post a few months ago but i'm sure emotionally and professionally you still care about what's going on in syria given the scale of suffering given the scale of divisions how significant or insignificant is this latest development aren't we all sort of overselling the whole that is there well 1st let me say that i remain of course very much attached as you said emotionally involved with syria this is the 1st this is the reason why i took the job 1st with the u.n. to try to help bring about a settlement that would meet the aspirations of certain people you know coming from the region. i think you. know the constitutional committee i look at it as a milestone in the very long process in bringing about

a peaceful settlement peaceful and political settlement in syria. it is something that we've been working for as you know for some time i've said it before and i'll say it again i think we could have earlier it will help syrians. know the opposition but also independents. to put their minds together and work out. a new constitutional framework you know i think. ambassador i'm sure you know that there have been a number of internationally mediated efforts to resolve this conflict since 2011 and some of them failed because of the breakout citron of the syrian actors many of well at least some of them because of the positions of foreign powers what has changed on the ground to give you this faint hope that you just articulated though

its main lead to something beyond talks well 1st of all i mean you refer to the situation in. the world of the war is certainly warranted and i think people are tired in syria and beyond and i think this is. a mechanism that allows the syrians to get together and do something about now. positions have changed told you i mean we could have an agreement or you're cool and why it's happening now because positions have changed has the positions how the positions changed within syria or is it the stance of foreign partners or foreign sponsors affair and sides that have well. as you know the syrian. conflict has 3 levels there's the international there's a regional and of course there is a good message local. positions have changed both of the regional and if you.

are in the sense that at some point or countries did not see. much meaning towards a constitutional committee i think that it changed i think they have come around and that has influenced the syrian arctics. a messenger i know that when it comes to syria you like quoting his own men they french political economist who used to say that to solve an intractable problem you need to change the context now apparently the context has been changed as you said but. there was also a big believer in coordinating diplomatic and military policy is among european nations particularly britain france and the united states and he's even credited for shortening the 2nd world war through his coordination efforts do you think the syrian war would have been shortened a more specifically do you think the coordination among western powers on the

syrian front did ultimately.