yes, the world of politics, all those, those i'm sure those in the headlines today, players in the middle east, slam the assassination of iran's top nuclear scientists. tehran is blaming israel and the u.s. creating a major challenge for the incoming biden and ministration. plus teachers in norway say they would be afraid to show cartoons of the prophet muhammad in class. after last month's murder of a french teacher, r.t. talked with one of them. after the murder, i decided not to show them at all because i felt i felt

my profession was attacking and the australian military fires 13 soldiers following a report on the war crimes committed by the country's forces in afghanistan. although the dismissed troops are more not directly involved in the interest states . welcome to the program, and i'm happy monday to you all. this is our 2 international. bring you your live news update this hour. first a heinous assassination. that's how the united arab emirates has described. friday's killing of iran's top nuclear scientist, also voicing concerns on deepening tensions in the middle east. the emirates condemns the crime of the assassination cocksure most sites to practice the greatest possible restraint. so as to avoid drag in the region to new levels of instability and threats to peace. the attack sparked uproar and iran's capital with

rioters burning the flag of israel and its ally the us, as well as torching portraits of donald trump and joe biden, while demanding war with america their own immediately blamed the incident on israel, which denies the accusations as what is known about the assault but tehran already vying retaliation. it will only add that aggravate the triangle of tension between the u.s. israel and iran. and as eager as donna explains, that creates a real headache for a future biden administration. so far it's been up to run to make accusations and israel alongside with the u.s.

quite expected. lee are its prime suspects. warning against any adventurist stick measures by the united states and israel against my country. particularly during the remaining period of the current administration of the united states in office. the islamic republic of iran reserves its right to take all necessary measures to defend its people and secure its interests. in response. israel, the one country whose spies might actually know more about iran, that iran knows about itself, has had this to say. i have no clue who did it is not that my lips are sealed because i'm being responsible. i really have no clue. and the united states, the same united states that kicked off 2020 with an open assassination of iran's top general has been completely mute this time. and it would be perfectly fine given the total lack of evidence and nation thousands of miles away from iran had

anything to do with the killing except in the past 2 weeks. several unconfirmed reports claim the donald trump was seeking options to attack iran. to further deal rael its nuclear program. factories that there would make a perfect target given he was quite a celebrity for israeli intelligence. remember the moon 5 years ago. so here's his direct and he says, the journalism is to announce the closure project. but then he adds special activities. you know, what are those special activities will be carried out under the title of scientific know how developments. and in fact, this is exactly what iran proceeded to do. it continued this work in a series of organizations over the years. i know for preside a well, he does know how well i know him. if i met him in the street, most likely i would recognize him. he does not have a new nitty. he did not have immunity,

and i don't think he will have immunity by aggravating iran. trump would also be throwing a spanner in the machinery of joe biden's foreign policy. given that the president elect has hinted at a friendlier stance on to iran, will offer to iran a credible path back to diplomacy. if iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the united states would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow on negotiations. with our allies, we will work to strengthen and extend the nuclear deals provisions while also addressing other issues of concern and europe, whose leaders probably still have a p.t.s.d. over january's prospects of world war 3. have been pointing out that this latest killing creates a tough road ahead for biden, a few weeks before the new u.s. administration takes office. it is important to preserve the scope for talks with iran, so that the dispute over iran's nuclear program can be resolved through negotiations . we therefore urge all parties to refrain from any steps that could lead to

a further escalation of the situation. during the past 4 years, trump has sent america's relations with iran, back into the path of us, tell it by unilaterally tearing up the nuclear deal, recognizing jerusalem as israel's capital. and sending his top diplomat on a charm offensive to all of the middle eastern nations. the oppose iran, that's definitely what the israelis were gaining for. i mean they're there, they're sure and hope is that the united states gets involved in a military action against iraq. that's. that's their ultimate goal. that's their ultimate objective. you know, void of that. the next best thing is to ensure that the united states doesn't improve relations with iran, by rejoining the iranian nuclear agreement. and the way you do that is to sabotage any effort at diplomacy. i mean, when you knock off the number one scientist, iran's nuclear program in a suburb of tehran in a bold, daring daylight attack. you're not going to have the iranians go. that's ok. let's,

let's get on with diplomacy. it's going to get the reaction. it's getting right now, a hard line iranian response that will further restrict the efforts of not only shut down the efforts of international inspectors and only increase international concern that iran might be edging toward. a military weapon is ation effort. this new high profile death, even though there's no hard evidence to reveal the culprits will only once again prove to tehran, that the raw power as hell bent on destroying it, and with the wounds from the assassination of gen, son, imani, still fresh in the mind. no one can be expecting restraint from iran. most teachers in norway fair personal consequences if they show cartoons of the prophet muhammad in class. a survey has found that in the wake of last month's, murder of french teacher some help by t., he displayed such images to his students. one norwegian teacher says there are now

very real dangers to those working and their profession. after the murder of some, well, i decided not to show them at all because i felt it's wonderful. i felt my profession was attacked at the moment and the freedom of speech over expression was attacked, of course. and i wanted to find other ways to express myself and to achieve the same goal with my teaching. because the characters to get your drawings are not the goal. their ads are just a part of criticism against our religion. and there's other texts we can use as well. according to the poll, almost 2 thirds of teachers here showing the images and many worry about even bringing up related issues like islam, concern about scaring students is the main reason given about negative reactions from students. and parents are also a factor. and in france,

party's brutal murder is proving extremely divisive. present a crime. and since the cartoons are about freedom of speech, but muslims are outraged on the answer to one of our competitors was murdered because he taught our competitor, it was the victim of an islamist terror. attack the norwegian teacher we spoke to as that educator should be free to decide how to explain religion to students. there's the law and the is the law and it one hand and freedoms of speech on the other hand. and we can maneuver in between the limits

of those. and i don't want to have anyone telling me which texts to choose in my teaching. i think it's really important that teacher, it's all around the world, is allowed to, to, to make those choices by themselves. we have the curriculum and we have these limits and i think for us it's really, really important too to make choices about these things ourselves. the thing is that the each and curriculum has a very important main topic. that's democracy and citizenship. and we are teaching in with the law on one hand, the laws against hate speech and in the rain, and we have the human rights on the other hand rights. so we have to maneuver in, in between them. and for us, we will have to find our way to achieve, to develop the students skills and their, and ability to,

to read attacks with a critical mind. and i think we can do that even though we're not showing these specific pictures. australia is demanding china apologize for posting a shocking mock up image of an australian soldier with a knife to the throat of an afghan child. a warning you may find the image we're about to show it disturbing. the picture is part of a tweet by china's foreign ministry spokesperson condemning the unlawful killing of afghans by australian troops. the prime minister scott morrison lashed out at the image as truly repugnant demanding its removal and an apology. beijing defended the tweet, insisting australia should be the one apologizing to the afghan people. australia has already moved to dismiss 13 soldiers over unlawful killings in afghanistan, but as the country deals with the fallout from its damning war crimes report, does anyone harkins asks if it will hurt those not even involved?

the burgeoning inquiry is sending shock waves through australia, dozens of afghan civilians and prisoners of war, killed and brutalized by special forces the evidence systematically and deliberately covered up. and as the grim details emerged, the calls for army top brass to take responsibility have grown. in each case is important that not only is there accountability in the defense forces for individual alleged acts, but also in the chain of command about those. you had responsibilities and accountabilities in that chain of command. the report was heavily redacted, but it still described as possibly the most disgraceful episode in australia's military history. and the commanders are feeling the heat. there is a process to be followed here. we've received the inquiry one week ago. we need to follow a very deliberate, very methodical and very fair process. what's the best damage control? well and apology for starters. to the people of afghanistan on behalf of the

australian defense force, i sincerely and unreservedly apologize for any wrongdoing by a stroll in soldiers. such alleged behavior profoundly disrespected the trust placed in us by the afghan people who would ask 1st to the country to help them. action has begun to trickle down so far. 13 soldiers are facing anything from warnings to discharge if they fail to explain their actions. it's still unclear though, if criminal proceedings will go ahead and many feel this is insufficient and unacceptable . it's not the wish of blowers, it's not david mcbride, it's not jealousy manning. it's not, julian. it's noted snowden, it is the war criminals to be put in prison at the moment. i came to sinai on this, it was even going to think, what kind you mean when i mean my fiancee troops in afghanistan, defense chiefs have opted to go further and strip medals from the thousands of

afghan veterans who had nothing to do with the crimes causing a massive backlash from the military community and beyond. this is not fair on thousands of our soldiers who served with distinction and deserve the thanks of a grateful nation, not to be thrown under the bus. over the last 3 weeks, 9, serving and veteran soldiers, 8 men and one woman have taken their own lives. though there's no direct proven link to the scandalous britain report. some say perceptions of collective blame are damaging veterans' mental health. basically branded, every soldier sees all of the 3000 as murderers, and it's just not right. and it will have an awful impact on these people who are very vulnerable. afghanistan is not a normal war, it's not between it's a guerrilla warfare. the reality is they can't sending back these

soldiers time and time again. and i think that was quite wrong. and that explains, i think it was happened. and you know, the politicians have a lot to answer for this and, and everyone's ducking for cover on the leadership has also made clear that responsibility must go up the ranks for what happened in afghanistan. accountability ris with those who allegedly broke the law. and with the chain of command responsible for the systemic failures involved. ironically, general campbell himself was in command of australian troops in the country from 2011 to 2012. when most of the killings in a broken report took place. even receiving a distinguished service cross for his efforts, his medal doesn't appear to be up for a vacation. and as the scandal drags on with army chiefs finding themselves under

fire from all sides, accused of doing too little too late, dodging blame themselves and now collectively punishing innocent veterans. whatever the outcome, the broken report fallout is only just beginning still had we look at why u.s. media are fawning over a president like joe biden as he fills his administration story after the break.

the foreign policy team of a potential biden ministrations, beach county by the liberal media. we tell you why before a fine also, there's a lot of talk about a great reset, build back, better looking back or bode well for the future. welcome back and a historic 1st us president elect. joe biden selected an all female communications

team, as part of a promise of a more diverse administration. assesses how an unusually buoyant american media are, treating biden and his nominations. the u.s., mainstream media seems thrilled that it will have a new white house team to report on this january. and the biden administration seems quite thrilled about its upcoming relationship with the 4th estate. and president biden believes that the media is a critical piece of our democracy. he also believes though, that the media's job is to hold him accountable. he walk of that relationship, the idea of a better relationship with the executive branch is certainly appealing to the media . you are being very aggressive, as is the job of a white house correspondent, david gregory, and i are sitting here talking about our experiences. pissing off everybody in that room, pissing off president obama pissing off president bush 1st, long as i've been alive for as long as you've been alive. no leader of the free world has publicly spoken about the press. the way trump does it is points already

the press are hitting home the hard questions. let me just make yourself your business. does russia have any leverage over you the mantra or otherwise? and if not, will you release your true friends to prove it? how will that color of your attempts to build a relationship with a leader who has been accused of committing an act of espionage just. 8 kidding, those were the questions they asked when donald trump was transitioning into power . now at this point, biden has already been the president elect for 3 weeks. and this is how tough it has actually gotten. going to encourage unions to cooperate our grandkids back to classroom the media is giving him such a grilling. what do you see as the biggest threat to your transition right now, given president trump's unprecedented attempt to obstruct and delay a smooth transfer of power, you just spoke of. some of the dangers of the president's continued stonewalling of

this transition, but it doesn't appear that the president is going to come around anytime soon and admit defeat. so what are you going to do? and what is your message to republicans who are backing up the president's refusal to concede? yes, the press is doing its job and being oh, so tough on biden. some democrats want investigations to go forward against president trump after he leaves office. do you support that? there's going to be some tension between getting unity getting things done, working the republicans and investigating any wrongdoing that occurred during the trial administration. so we've got journalists accepting joe biden's, non answers as the focus now seems to shift to his picks for the cabinet, who all seem to follow a certain pattern. but he didn't. once his teams have people of every race, color, creed, gender, and sexual orientation, who supported the war in iraq. now with poll after poll showing that the american people are tired of foreign wars, you would think that the media would press him on the fact that he's filling up his

cabinet with washington establishment or ox. but the mainstream us media has decided not to go there. this is about the least flashy team you could possibly get . they are deeply experienced. they are humble, and they are life long. public servants is the experience of intelligence professionals for 3 years at the cia has been handling the national security team. the transition for joe biden on national security and is a respected intelligence professional trying to repair what is broken here and less focused on the team of rivals, to repair team, to fix what has been broken. now to be fair, there are a handful of journalists asking real questions, but this pretty much sums up the new attitude. can we just says take a moment and just i don't want to talk moment to, to drink you in for just a moment. because i'm having to get used to looking at a president again, you know,

i've gotten out of a gotten out of the habit you got to go. i got a warm up for joe biden. so after a presidential term of digging for dirt around the white house seems like now the media is busy filling the trenches back in. one thing we can certainly expect will be another 4 years that are the polar opposite of the last kaleb up and r.t. new york. amid widespread criticism of the lockdown from the public and even his own party. britain's prime minister is looking to ease restrictions ahead of the christmas break. throughout this crisis, the prime minister boris johnson, has faced criticism for his handling of the krona virus pandemic, a lot least from many on his own backbenchers, the new faith is yet another rebellion from tory m.p.'s because many of them are unhappy that move out of this lockdown this coming thursday,

they're going to move back into a so-called 3 tiered system. and in particular by there are some areas which have been put into to 3 of the most stringent measures in place. limiting people to rights to move and meet and also to open their businesses. and because of that, he's come under criticism from m.p.'s who represent people in those areas. but he's written a letter to his backbench m.p.'s, promising that he will give them more of a say when it comes into reviewing these measures. these will not be easy decisions with christmas around the corner and the difficult months of january and february ahead of us. we will need to continue to exercise caution, where we have robust evidence that the disease is in sustained decline, particularly in those 2 or 3 areas that are already showing marked improvement. and that case rates are low enough to allow light to restrictions. areas will be laid down. now the prime minister has indicated that these measures will come to an end

at some point in january where he will devote that right to speak out for a number of them, particularly those represent a constituency in 2 or 3 areas. unhappy with the government's communication strategy thus far as the prime minister is kind of following the evidence, we agree to a full copy cost benefit analysis, all its impact on our economy and public health. before he introduces anything that will lead to years of economic harm, that could end up being worse on people's lives. in the virus itself, we are still in and the site of lockdown just simply are not with the government have again, we used to the opportunity over the last few weeks to get a handle on testin trees and isolate the government of also indicated the measures will be eased over the christmas period so people can visit their families, got indication by the prime minister that coming into the new year. he also wants to make things more relaxed. there are some, even within his own cabinet,

including the foreign secretary, rob you think that it might not be so easy for those restrictions to be lifted. if this process doesn't work and infection rates start to go back up again . i'll be facing a 3rd wave in january and february, but there's a risk of that if we don't get the balance right. plenty for the prime minister boris johnson to consider as he tries to keep all happy scientific advisors on the one hand. also of course his bike to jump public. lastly, some world news in greece, police have searched the home and office of diego maradona's doctor in argentina. prosecutors are looking into negligence claims over the football star as a 6 year old. died on wednesday after a heart attack, or recovering from brain surgery. a volcanic eruption in indonesia has released an ash cloud rising 4 kilometers into the air and the airport has been closed and more

than 2700 residents have been evacuated from nearby areas, but no injuries or damage to property have yet been reported. and a small german town has found a novel way to keep the christmas spirit alive, while maintaining social distancing rules. amid the pandemic in the south of the country, a drive in let's locals, place orders while passing through the market in their cars. that's a breakdown of today's top headlines for now, but if you're looking for more, you can always head on over to our web site. aarti dot com. thanks for tuning in. always, be polite, never engage with a negative,

a good or confrontational. also. don't get into any conversation or start answering questions. just ask for an attorney to survive and tear a goodish definitely don't want to go on the trail of jumpsuit on cups. you're more likely to walk free if you're rich and guilty, or if you're poor and you got 2 eyes and 2 years in one now. so you should be seen in here and a whole lot more than you're saying. if you don't take that advice, easy going to dig yourself a hole. seemed wrong. but old roles just don't hold any new world that is yet to shape

out. disdainfully comes to advocate and engagement equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart, just to look for common ground. imagine or times you were going underground after repeated aerial bombardment of syria by israel armed by britain e.u. nations in the united states coming up in the show. we ask a former middle east based m i 6 agent whether a joe biden presidency signals

a new road to damascus and the renewal of isis al qaeda and u.k. u.s. . the u.s. attempts at regime change in syria, even during a global pandemic, and what bloodshed to expect from obama officials accused of facilitating civilian drone killing and the destruction of libya, africa's richest per capita country. and as an inquiry launches in, rumania after a coronavirus intensive care unit sets fire and kills 10, we investigate oscar tipped film collective with its echoes of el edged incendiary profit driven corruption for which an inquiry continues here in london into the grenfell fire in the poorest area of one of the richest in the world. also more coming up in today's going underground, the football star, diego maradona being mourned today around the world. not only once said in my heart, i am palestinian. he declared the motives of western powers in syria was to destroy a secular nation hours before he died. warplanes from israel and by britain, even nations and the us a bomb, the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world, damascus. joining me now from room is the conflict forums, alister crook,

who cut his teeth at m i. 6. and since the siege of bethlehem has dedicated his life to deescalating violence. alice jeff, thanks so much for coming on going underground. i think it's a 1st time, although we don't choose the right before. just how do you explain the fact that during a pandemic we know, and when you get to as said he wanted a worldwide ceasefire. why was there this barash of aerial bombardment from the israeli air force on damascus? and this happening as we hear netanyahu going to saudi arabia denied by the saudis, and to the blinken. this old obama era official being selected by joe biden to be the next secretary of state. so what i think 1st of all the main aim and this at the moment. and the main aim that netanyahu howard icing with these visit to saudi arabia kmiec m.b.'s, the crown prince, the 1st priority for.