>> you are watching "france 24." these are the headlines. the u.s. and russia meet in endch for a new approach to the fighting in syria. beenas 50,000 people have moved by the government offensive in aleppo. three warships in the aegean sea are trying to and bang the deadly smog -- end the deadly smuggling of migrants. in the u.s. is trying to force missouri to change its court system and police system after it was found to be biased against minorities. also, european shares are in a tailspin once again. we will be telling you why in our business update.

the world is abuzz after a hotly anticipated announcement about gravitational waves. more on what they are and why you should care. but first, our top story. >> the number of refugees who have run from syria's biggest city of aleppo is up to about 50,000. many are still waiting in limbo on the border with turkey, desperate to get in. the government offensive has been at the fight by a series of airstrikes from russia. that is what has pushed these thousands from their homes and put an end to new peace talks. kerryary of state john warned that russia's bombing of

opposition targets could further derail diplomatic efforts to end the brutal civil war. another meeting with the u.s. and russia is on today in munich to try to kickstart those talks. more on reaction from russia, let's bring in thomas love. you have thend, russian foreign minister meeting john kerry in munich, on the other, you have russia's tenured airstrikes that are helping the assad regime. what does the russian foreign minister want? reporter: that is a very good question. it is a very conflicting situation. what we are hearing is that russia has forward a cease-fire plan to major world powers. this cease-fire plan is reportedly set to start from the beginning of march, from march the first. we are hearing the u.s. is not happy because that would give the bombing around aleppo, by russia, supporting bashar

al-assad, could give russia and syria the time needed to achieve much of what they want. what we are hearing from experts is that assad has the upper hand. he has the momentum and russian forces are giving him that momentum. he would be nowhere without them, they are saying. at this point, with the momentum behind him, does russia really want to negotiate? you went through those previous failed examples of peace talks. we will have to see later today whether this meeting can take place between russia, saudi kremlin, and the other powers. whether they will give any ground. anchor: how has the media been covering these airstrikes and

the war in syria in general? when everyhe days night on tv we would see bombs dropping from russian planes onto syria -- they are long gone. what we have seen yesterday and today is a focus on humanitarian aid which is being dropped by russian forces, russian planes, to, they say, german population -- civilian populations. report oner in this one of russia's most watched news stations said that this 50 tons of aid is being guided down . military forecasters were helping them. to make sure that gets down to civilians and make sure it does not go to what russian rock esters were referring to as terrorists. we've also heard he can use

channels by a press briefing on the military spokesmen here which has been relayed a number of different times. he had a number of strong words saying that russia will not change its gratitude in syria. hypocriticaly thing everywhere you look when the u.s. has gone into different countries, he said let's take libya or iraq, the u.s. has left only ruined refugees and blood. anchor: also on the set, we were just seeing some of those horrific pictures of aleppo. is there any chance that russia might stop this military airstrike? >> you are asking me the question o, no. there is no chance.

it sounds a lot like newspeak we are hearing. 1984, two plus two equals five. you say white and i say black. not only is there no sign of airiding of the russian campaign but the russian defense ministry just came out with a statement saying, i have gone on 510 sorties in the past week. they are not trying to hide it at all. as far asve reports the humanitarian side of this. doctors up borders are officials on the ground in the region saying that medical workers are being forced to flee for their lives in the area around northern aleppo. this has been a recurring theme here. it's not just a matter of we haven't russian military invention involving war jets over the skies of northern syria come a it is also a matter of he

said, she said. , according to claims on the ground, the targeting of hospitals and schools. reports of at least 500 civilians killed already. what do you have? syrian officials on one side saying that the battle will continue. this is one official "in all directions." the syrian information minister saying he expects a short but tough battle but says they will be seated back under state control. on the russian side we have the u.n. ambassador basically saying -- this goes back to what i was saying, newspeak. that the russian airstrikes are being carried out in a "transparent manner."

turning the tables on the u.s. and its allies saying that he believes the united nations when it asks russia to let up a ,ittle on the airstrikes russia's u.n. ambassador says that is the u.s. and the un security council exploiting humanitarian issues and making it difficult in the process to find any political solution to this process. >> what is the strategy? can there be a cease-fire? can there be any talk settle? >> here is the basic contradiction. sincerely saying that it wants to be a broker for peace. thatnts to go to negotiation table and to bring the assad government and representatives to promote and foster a political solution. same time you have the military campaign when you are a

blitz rating and blowing to smithereens any remaining vestiges of rubble resistance -- rebel resistance. i am using that word loosely. rebels,there are good bad rebels, and terrorists. for russia, they tend to be all terrorists right now. on the groundrts that people will agree with that they are not going to finish until they have finished the battle. the military campaign has neutralized if not crushed those pockets of resistance giving bashar al-assad the battlefield of victory which he seemed on the verge of losing before the event -- the russian intervention started. when and if those peace talks february, i end of think the date thrown out by one russian official march 1 -- by then military fax will have been -- you will basically

be last with two people at that negotiating table. players on the ground. you will have the islamic state group and the so-called moderate rebel organization neutralized. not just as a partner but in a position of relative force. back in control of a lot of areas that he was on the threat of losing several months ago. nato is stepping in to stop people smugglers and to stop the flow of refugees into europe. the european commander has ordered three warships to move immediately to the agency -- aegean sea.the >> our top military commanders

are now directing the standing nato maritime group to move into the aegean without delay. about stopping or boats. back refugee they will help counter human trafficking and criminal networks. anchor: next to the united states. the justice department says that it is suing the town of ferguson, misery. it is -- ferguson, missouri. it is tried to force them to accept reforms. the ferguson council says the reforms are too expensive and wants to renegotiate. the agreement came after those massive protest when an unarmed black teenager named michael brown was shot dead by a black police of -- by a white police

officer. >> hands up to my don't shoot. -- hands up, don't shoot. night,r: day and protesters marked to the streets of ferguson demanding justice for michael brown. the young black man was shot dead by a white police officer. he was 18 years old and unarmed. they are accused of routinely targeting the black community. earlier this week, the city agreed to reject the agreement on the grounds it was too expensive. the u.s. justice department said they were left with no choice but to file a civil rights case. >> residents of ferguson have waited nearly a year for their city to adopt an agreement that would protect their rights and you can save. they have waited nearly a year for the police department to accept rules that would ensure they protect the constitutional

rights. they have waited decades for justice. they should not be forced to wait any longer. >> ferguson mayor james knowles says it is no one's purpose to fail but even if the council wins the civil rights case, the legal fees could end up costing more than implement think the agreement. -- implementing the agreement. >> the scientific committee could make a major -- major announcement. one century after einstein came up with his theory of relativity, they say they have found gravitational waves. ripples created either collisions of black holes. it would be an incredible leap forward in our understanding of the universe and the big bang. detecting vibrations in space.

they are picking up gravitational waves in the cosmos. if it turns out the universe is not still. it is as though it were filled .ith jelly which vibrates work andel, these generate ripples which move at the speed of light. >> this is what happens to space itself. it stretches in one direction and compresses and the other. here is a gravity wave. once per second or something. reporter: the problem scientists have had is the further you are from the source, -- source, the harder it is to detect them. it has been a century since albert einstein the rise about these waves but now scientists are revealing their findings. an american observatory working in collaboration with a french italian center have finally

managed to detect else's. pulses. caused by the collision of two black holes. we are only able to pick up gravitational waves caused by the most violent phenomena. like the burst of a black hole or a massive star. anything smaller, and we cannot detect it from earth. [speaking french] >> just like the theory of relativity, the detection of gravitational waves opens a new kind of science. gravitational astronomy. anchor: time for business with stephen carroll. it ismore seriously,

another grim day for that european markets. >> bumped back down to earth. we have seen hefty falls on the stock markets in the first half of the trading day. london, paris, and frankfurt all down by over 2%. paris nearly 4% down a short time ago. that is wiping out this recovery and really adding to the false we have seen since the start of the week. in theloff sparked beginning by comments in the federal reserve chair janet yellen. banks again are the main focus today. here inhe falls is paris. selloff across the european banking sector not being helped by an interest rate cut announced by sweden's central bank.

why are the banks being hammered again today? thingshows how fragile are around the banks right now. squeezing profit -- profit margins. means for the nonperforming lows which has been an issue for the last five years. furtherst resorts consent that they warned on the profitability issues going forward. it is just another reason to sell looking at the markets. -- spiral willre take something significant to get them out of it. people are looking at the central banks to say this is how investors are reacting, what is your move? >> mario draghi has said he is

not responsible for banks being profitable. what could drag them out of the spiral? >> i think that we need to see some more clarity from the banks. we have heard a lot about deutsche bank. and the talks that their balance sheet, a third of which, is unaccounted for. what assets they own. we need to see more transparency and clarity. the central banks have shown previously that they are willing to step in. the worst-case scenario is we have a credit crunch or credit crisis. i do think central banks will have any option but to step in. we need to see some willingness for them to do something to present -- prevent the worst from happening. >> a lot of these issues are not new. we knew these problems were around for a while but we are seeing this slump in banking shares.

is everyone feeding off of each other? >> we have seen almost six weeks of your panic in the market. there's talk of u.s. interest rates being the cause of the spiral than there was the commodity story. what we are really getting for the market is people not happy with the way that things are and also it tells a lot about where the markets were at the start of this year. thank you for joining us. stephen, let's talk about twitter which is having a bit of a rough time. >> they are expected to have a worse one when wall street opens. they fail to add any new users over the last three months. growing the number of users is a

key measurement for a company twitter that has yet to report a profit. jack orsi says they are working to fix -- fix what he called broken windows. >> it was big enough news to tweet about. twitter reported a drop in user growth. ers, they sms only us had 3.5 million users, down 2 million from the previous quarter. wall street has been fixated on user gains. it pales in comparison to facebook's 1.5 billion and instagram 400 million. a photo sharing platform launched four years after twitter. the earnings were broadcast on periscope. jack dorsey said that management , rolling new changes out a new timeline. >> we think there is a lot of opportunity in our product to fix broken windows and confusing

aspects of our service that we know are inhibiting growth. >> will it be enough to soothe investors? a new timeline uses an algorithm to promote the best tweets rather than the most recent. for better or worse many say that makes twitter us unique and resemble more and more facebook. less than three years ago, the company went public, today it .tands at less than 10 billion anchor: time for the press review. catherine is here with us to take a look at today's papers. lots of focus on the u.s. presidential campaign with the sites turning toward south carolina. >> as the dust settles from new hampshire, the big winners, bernie sanders for the democrats and donald trump for the republicans. the republican field is starting

to window a little bit with chris christie and fiorina dropping out. the republicans are turning their attention to south carolina and as the new york times is reporting it will be a bareknuckled brawl. the fight is staking -- shaping up to be two parallel battles. donald trump and ted cruz. the anti-establishment candidates. and in the other side between three establishment candidates, marco rubio, don jeb bush, and john kasich. many say that rubio needs to recover from his fifth place finish and john kasich needs to prove he is more than a fifth -- one state wonder. the times also says that south carolina has catapulted the winner of every primary here since 1980 to the presidential nomination with the one exception being 2012 when newt gingrich beat mitt romney. >> a slightly different

perspective on the president. >> i thought this was interesting. obviously the presidential campaign is trying more than just american reporters. reporters tried to figure this out and explain to their audiences back home. the post interviewed a german reporter who says that his impression of the u.s. to mary season is one of a vertical brawl and we saw the times say -- of a bareknuckled brawl. we saw "the times" say the same thing. he also says that, as a foreign journalist, it is tough to get access to the candidates because german papers do not bring in a lot of voters. anchor: someone else might the about to throw his hat into the ring. >> michael bloomberg has been toying with the press, dropping tidbits that depending on who looks like they are doing well, he might put his hat in the ring

as an independent. possibleooking at matchup saying he could possibly trump trump. he is also a billionaire and successful businessman but has experience governing as mayor of new york. the paper asks, who knows how a strong independent might skew the race. come back to france where we will talk about french politics. >> we have been talking about this off and on. there have been hints and leaks about which post might go to different party members for francois hollande. one paper is reporting that francois hollande will address the nation tonight on tv. it is really a big deal because hollande needs to set himself up for a presidential bid.

to givean opportunity post to his supporters. anchor: another newspaper has been having fund -- fun with his government minister's shopping list. thatey have a cartoon here shows the president pushing a shopping cart like in a grocery store. reshuffle is a spring and he is going down his mental checklist. two women with immigration backgrounds -- and i almost forgot, a little green. referring to the green party. anchor: thank you for that look at the papers. for a closer look at the press review you can check out our website, france24.com. frenchhave ever failed a spelling test, there is good news on the way. the infamous circumflex may soon be a thing of the past. don't go away.

;gñ

[phone dialing and ringing] >> police department. >> ye i just lled my twoaughters >> you did what? >> i just killed my two daughters. >> where are you at, sir? >> i'm at 1123creek pot drive who i am was chemically altered. >> my dad, in his ght mind, wouldn't have done anything like this. >> they told me i left a knife in one of my children. i mean... [phone static] i just freaked out and killed them. >> are you on medication?