>> you are watching france 24. it is 1:00 p.m. let's get you up to date. easternation deal in aleppo crumbles. bombardments and clashes have started again. rebelion reigns as fighters are waiting to be evacuated. moscow and his temple say their presidents will speak in the coming hours. it is to salvage a humanitarian crisis in eastern aleppo.

in --, whereinues the incumbent president refuses to step down. west african leaders have failed to negotiate. coming up, wall street shares at their 16th record high since donald trump's election. to the federal reserve be about to spoil the party? the force awakens. the star wars franchises first spinoff it -- spinoff hit here in france. how does it compare against the real thing? thank you for being with us on

france 24. we begin in aleppo where an evacuation deal struck last night appears to have collapsed ofh reports from both sides bombardments and clashes have resumed. for those hoping to be evacuated, the weight continues. thousands of civilians and rebel fighters are thought to be trapped east of the city, the last pocket of her resistance against the syrian army. speak to hisn will turkish counterpart in the coming hours to try and reopen negotiations. our correspondent in moscow is thomas. is going to reopen the talks. what can we expect? thomas: what they are going to do is try to put into place the ,ease-fire that was agreed on

that they agreed together over last night. both crumbling quickly, the activists and the syrian army are blaming each other. here, russia would have preferred the cease-fire to have held. that would have been better for its image, for pr, certainly after such a bloody battle. it is more than a one-year bombing campaign in syria. more than 4000 civilians. , theact that russia russian president is going to be talking to his turkish volumes.rt speaks for russia, that could be seen as a victory, certainly part of a vladimir putin's plan is making russia a great power again, sidelining the u.s. again. demonstrationic

of this position of this increasing in russia's power. belle: you speak about the rhetoric of making russia great again, but how has the battle been covered by russian media? thomas: it has been well covered. there is a lot of coverage from state tv. a lot is done in a film-like setting, grandiose montages, swelling crescendos of music over pictures of people evacuating the city, drone footage flying over destroyed buildings. we have seen little of the patriotic flag-waving you may expect, giving -- given that

russia has been heavily implicated in supporting the point army to this vital against aleppo. there is an article which aleppos this battle for has been an image booster for the russian -- for the syrian army and it has done much for what it says -- this could push the syrian army onward as it fights further battles. i spoke to one man in the street and asked him what he thought about the fact that aleppo has fallen. he said -- when i think about what is happening, i think about what must have happened in leningrad, when that city in the north of rusher was in circled by the nazis for more than two

years. the most important thing is that sees is over and the next step can begin. belle: thank you for that analysis. tabout thespoke conditions for those civilians trapped in eastern aleppo. [indiscernible] it is very cold. it is wintertime. it has been raining nonstop. people are cold and hungry. city, thereof the is a big influx of --. the situation is difficult. people are on the move.

the weather does not allow them to stay put. walk.ave to there is a humanitarian response in place. adam is in a neighboring city across the border. he joins me on the phone. can we say the cease-fire is over? >> the airstrikes have resumed. inevitably each side is blaming the other. the russians, acting like spokespersons announced the cease-fire and evacuation plans yesterday. they say the opposition used this pause to regroup.

it was them who broke the truce. the rebels are blaming the theians, saying notian-backed militia are happy with this agreement and at the last minute they insisted on adding evacuations from two shiite towns that are under siege. this time, by opposition forces. this amounts to is this morning, the buses were ready and waiting and started evacuating fighters. these militiamen turned those buses back. it prevented them from going forward. that further than that, the iranian militia do not want the agreement. they are talking about -- as a pretext. developments,e

the turks, who brokered the deal with russia, are saying -- they are trying to get the cease-fire and the evacuation plans back in place. they say it is a delicate situation. thank you very much for that. murders east of aleppo, the u.s. has announced success of a different operation. it has killed three islamic state leaders in a drone strike. two targeted orchestrated the attacks here in paris last year. thomason waterhouse reports. thomas according to the white house, they announced the deaths -- the death of three of the leaders in drunk strikes.

andhey come out of hiding it allows us to kill them. thomas: two of the trio were responsible for planning the attacks in paris last year. 130 people died and scores more work injured when sympathizer struck sites across paris in a coordinated attack. jets took o off from jordan and joined the u.s. in their mission. house --y, the white wonmuch territory has been back. >> everything in color used to be controlled by isil. everything was part of the caliphate.

green has been retaken. everything in dark green has been retaken in the last month. thomas: the u.s. defense secretary announced the deployment of 200 additional american troops to accelerate the operation. france plus national assembly has voted to extend the state of emergency that has been in place since the attacks in paris since last year. this will last until the 15th of july. police will keep extended powers to search and to arrest. the risk of armed attacks remains high. preparing for presidential elections next year. venezuela, opposition lawmakers relaunched efforts to drive nicolas maduro from power.

turned -- for his political responsibility in the economic crisis. this is the latest in a series of efforts to challenge his power since the opposition took over the assembly. he still has the support of the military and the supreme court. finis weiland's have been suffering food shortages for month. left toe a few hours their money after the president announced the end of their largest and most common bill. as brian quinn explains, columbia explains their exchange rate is the free market at work. final hours for

residents to exchange cash. bandnday, the president the bills, making it void as of wednesday night. >> absurd. it is the first time a change of bills is implemented. spent the week trying to withdraw 100,000 and i only have three days to make a deposit. critics the bills were nearly worthless before the announcement. expects the inflation rate to hit 475% this year. it could reach 1600% next year. the economy, crippled by low oil prices is in its third year of recession and sees frequent shortages of basic necessities. many travel to columbia to buy supplies.

accused gangs of hoarding cash in a conspiracy to destabilize the venezuelan economy. he closed the border for 72 hours, leaving some venezuelans stranded in border towns. is because of the bills. if they think i have some, they can search me to see if i am carrying some. >> new notes would enter circulation on thursday. it is not clear if they have been printed yet. belle: gambia crisis has deepened following the call for a recall election. west african leaders have been in the country to try to convince the president to step down.

our reporter has more. gambia's insight for political crisis. leaders gather to try to convince the president to peacefully hand over power. fromcluded presidents nigeria, liberia, and gone up. one said the president was open to discussion. at the end of the day, no deal had been reached. folly ang party petition, challenging the results. the leader of the coalition peaces positive, saying and stability would be assured. for a deal. time it is not something that can happen in one day. it is something we have to work

on. >> many fear unrest, adding to the unease, security forces seized control of the electoral commission headquarter. if you are missing your stormtroopers, rebels, and robots, fear no more. they are back. this is not the official star wars franchise. rogueone is the first -- one is the first spinoff. visual expect the same display, but with a host of new characters they hope will awaken the force within you. time for business news. stephen carroll joins me. we are starting in the united states with the federal reserve, which is meeting today. the bank to raise interest rates.

the u.s. economy is in good shape. is at its lowest levels since 2007. it has been a year since the last rate increase. on what we should expect, let's speak to simon smith. thank you for joining us. to a ratepointing increase. could janet yellen surprise us? not on the moves itself. ofre is near zero chance them not doing or doing a more aggressive base. we have to watch for what are for next year?ns each of the fed members will project growth and unemployment. aremoment the markets

pricing another two for next year. it will be interesting to see how the fed thinks. thought they would behind keene four times during 2016. they are just likely to do the one today. the market is this leaving. pricinguickly, they are one. will we get the disconnect? the fed is saying we could do three or more. will the market react? we are in a state where the market will listen more to the fed. the markets are bullish on the trump victory. that will mean higher growth. they are moral -- more bullish and that would be a signal for the economy and the dollar. >> we have seen these 16 record

highs. how much will the election have changed the fed's plans and how much do we expect to hear about donald trump today? >> it will alter the plan once we get a feel on the fiscal stimulus. monetary mean tighter policy. the caveat to that is the impact on the currency and on interest rates. more dynamics on fiscal policy will have an impact. in terms of what janet yellen does its hardest to remain out of politics. donald trump has politicized the fed and what he has said about janet yellen. he said his thoughts have been

softened. do her janet yellen will best to steer clear of the politics. it is hard for them to ignore the reaction we have seen. we have seen a strong reaction. it is very hard for the fed to ignore that. it impacts their thinking. >> thank you for joining us. how have the markets been trading ahead of that decision by the fed? down at thishares midpoint in the trading day. markets reacting to new industrial production figures. that is the picture on the markets a short time ago. headlines, business wells fargo is being punished for failing to provide a plan

for bankruptcy. u.s. lenders must give -- a living will. wells fargo has been barred from opening branches abroad and buying nonfinancial companies until it revises its planned or it ibm will hire 20 5000 new staff over the next four years. the company will invest $1 billion in training american workers. as industry come executives are planning to meet donald trump. -- is in talks to buy a biotech biotech firm. it could be worth up to $30 billion. your chance to own your very own piece of the eiffel tower. >> 300 lightbulbs in the landmark have gone on sale

online. tower sparkle. they no longer work. they are decorative. they are selling for 450 euros each. belle: this is a genuine icon you would have in your home. >> purely decorative. belle: it is time for the press review. time to look at what is making headlines. joining me, you are starting with the reaction in the french press from the news that eastern aleppo has almost entirely fallen. >> let's start with this stark black and white front page.

here lies aleppo. it is a headline as epitaph. it is the last of the rebel neighborhoods to fall to forces loyal to bashar al-assad. another is leaving with a different angle. tankan see a syrian army rolling through what was a rebel controlled zone. al-assad bashar triumph in the ruins of aleppo, reads the headline. headline, the desire to act, it is a damning piece about the consequences of western action in syria. obama's redline turned out to be not much of a redline at all. powerly international

choosing to act in any meaningful way in the civil war was russia. and of course, to devastating effect. cartoon on that theme. we see bashar al-assad sitting on vladimir putin's shoulders as he wades through streets flooding with blood and corpses. long live free of aleppo, says bashar al-assad. to the u.s., where donald trump is trying to shore up support for his choice of secretary, rex tillerson. >> amid growing concerns that rex tillerson is to close the-- o cozy to vladimir putin. the interesting thing is a lot of these people, like jeb bush

and robert gates have been critical of donald trump's decisions, but their endorsements of rex tillerson suggest they need donald trump as much as donald trump needs them. fact that donald trump has described the exxon mobil chief as a world-class player and dealmaker will bolster his own instincts for a transactional foreign policy, and it could tear up old alliances and transform america's place in the world. imagine what that might look like. it looks a little bit like moscow. trump's latest addition to the white house. trump a different kind of tower. you have been looking at the polish press. >> thousands have joined protests across poland on the anniversary of the imposition of

martial law by the then communist regime. it is a symbolic date for the country. a protester chance -- down with communism. these people are marching today announced what they see as a creeping returned to authoritarianism in the country. , it reports demonstrators carrying polish and european flags were worried about a recent move by the ruling law justice party to restrict the right to freedom of assembly. in canada, the country's committee on marijuana legalization has been advising the government how it should decriminalize the drug. >> suggestions that the market for recreational marijuana use to be competitive has caused

shares in canadian marijuana .ompanies to jump that is what we are reading in the financial post. paper is note ..

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