city center. ♪ laura: the presidential campaign of françois fillon is in disarray, just seven weeks out from the first round of the french election. the conservative candidate has been ordered to -- to appear before judge, raising the prospect of criminal charges over a fake jobs scandal regarding his family. one of his key aides has already quit the campaign and the party has -- one party has suspended its alliance. fillon has insisted he is staying in the race. reporter: a last-minute press conference and a combative speech. françois fillon confirmed that he would be put under -- formal investigation following his families fake jobs scandal.

i my lawyer has informed me have been summoned by court on march 15 to be questioned. had been fillon expected at the agricultural fair, but canceled at the last moment, calling a press conference. he denounced the smear campaign to discredit him. yet said earlier he would quit if question, but surprised many by saying he would carry on to the very end. >> yes, i will be a candidate for the president. and we will take the good with the bad. to put our country back on track. despite his show of determination, the fillon camp is already splintering. the candidates foreign affairs adviser resigned. macron said the democratic vote should not be used to pardon fillon.

>> regarding the public in politics, the french people will judge françois fillon for themselves. but let us not consider a democratic vote for the political party. reporter: he decided not to express his opinion on the proceedings. others voiced disapproval. are incredibly provocative toward the magistrates and the courts, but to speak of a political assassination, the reality is that the events surrounding the fillon campaign affect the presidential office. reporter: with just over seven which to go to the first round of the election, françois fillon continues to sustain blows. the centrist party have suspended their backing for him. laura: after he made that shock visited the, fillon agricultural fair here in paris,

a rite of passage for members of the french political elite. claire williams was there and since this report. isorter: françois fillon getting an enormous in and attention here at the agricultural fair. you can hear the crowds around , shouting. there is clearly divided opinion here. in a press conference earlier he said he would still run for president. clearly they fill their has strength. i did speak to some farmers earlier on and they said, why should i give my vote to a candidate who is accused of paying his wife with taxpayers money to do a fake job? i get up every morning, seven days a week, to work in my fields. why should i give my vote to a man who is accused of doing that? he has a lot of work to do if

he's going to win over the vote of the farmers here. it's a very important voting contingent and any candidate is absolutely obliged to come to the agricultural fair. it is an unmissable political rendezvous. laura: claire williams their reporting. was the surprise winner of the conservative party primary contest and was by far the strongest candidate in the race. today his campaign is in crisis mode. alexander looks back at health is hugely damaging scandal unfolded. the scandal began on january 25. a small headline started a political storm. the weekly newspaper allowed alleged -- alleged that his wife penelope had been paid over a half-million euros as his parliamentary assistant, despite not actually doing any work. the financial prosecutor opened an inquiry into the misuse of public funds. adding to the scandal, she was

accused of being paid to work at a literary journal. she earned 100,000 euros over 18 months, although again, there is no evidence that she ever did any work there. meanwhile, the french media reported that the generals billionaire owner was awarded france's highest honor in part payment for mrs. fillon's job. it unfolded that fillon had paid two of his adult children also. it so happened that i hired to my children for specific projects because of their expertise as lawyers. reporter: once again, there were holes in his story. they were just law students in their early 20's when they were paid tens of thousands of euros of taxpayer money. after the fillon family, his business interests, the embattled politician faced allegations of conflict of

interest involving his consulting business. he was also accused of hiring one of his harlotry staffers to be part of his presidential campaign, a clear violation of french electoral rules. was the clearon favorite to win the french presidency. he's always denied any wrongdoing and initially said he would quit the presidential race if he was ever charged with anything. and his wife set for questioning by magistrates and a formal investigation, he has defiantly bowed to fight on. moving to united states, president donald trump has been praised for toning down the rhetoric during his speech last night to congress. the fact checkers have been out in force today, with many claiming he misrepresented the truth on issues like immigration, job creation, and military spending. his speech was aimed at building bridges in a heavily fractured

house. did he manage to do that? reporter: i house divided, and never more clearly, as donald trump wrapped up his first speech before both houses of congress, republicans gave a standing ovation. scrambled democrats to leave as quickly as possible. filing out of the chambers, some democratic lawmakers expressed doubts the president is serious about bipartisan cooperation. >> we want to work with donald trump on strengthening the middle class and strengthening our position in the world. when it comes to destroying international alliances and ripping out important andronmental protections climate change. republican senator ted cruz from texas praise the president for bringing light to security concerns regarding undocumented immigrants. that's when president trump

singles out the families of those who have been murdered by violent hymnal, that is powerful. i've had the opportunity to visit with a number of those families and there are heartbreaking stories that are normally not told to the public. i think was important and powerful that the president tells us. reporter: critics say it unfairly criminalizes bolder groups of people like the elderly and children benefiting from the dream act. laura: i'm joined by a professor from the united states. angst for being with us tonight right off the" racism,condemned anti-semitism and hatred. he's gone a long way from some of the inflammatory language he used on the campaign trail. trump isink president maturing and realizing the effect his language has on others?

i guess it's a big reward to night of himat one not saying things that would be very divisive, but one night of him mentioning the problems that are associated with anti-semitism or racism, that all of a sudden that erases so much that he's done before. last night was a lot about presentation. it was not as much about substance being too different than what we've seen both from the campaign trail as well as the early month and a half of his presidency. so i couldn't go as far as to say that he's made some big growth or big change. he certainly follow the script a little more and changed his presentation style. laura: it was interesting to hear him say that the time for trivial fights is over. when you look back at the last few weeks, this is the president who's been in fights with everyone from the actress meryl streep to cnn to arnold

schwarzenegger. all of this since he took office. people have been waiting for him to be a bit more presidential. do you think he is making the effort now? >> i think he definitely used the stage to open the door for him to maybe make such an effort, but a lot of times we end up focusing so much on the various stats that he may get into via twitter that we miss some of the infighting that goes on among republicans and then the trump administration, or even some of the things that go on in terms of him having some issues with some of his appointees and not really allowing them to make decisions on staffing. so there's a lot of different things, depending on the audience, that could be considered as trivial fights. when it comes to the things you mention with twitter, when he's talking about those celebrities, you days,he next weeks, and months, we see him

pull back from that and focus more on the job of the president and the institution of the presidency, maybe we will look back at this as a turning point. but i think to make a clear evaluation of that, we need to take a little time to see if he decides to change his approach after giving the speech, or was it something solely focused on the speech. laura: and what about policy then? he talked about immigration, which is one of his key themes, promising to crack down on illegal immigration. but the speech was low on detail, for example about health care, tax reform, those kind of issues. were you hoping to hear a bit more detail on some of those issues? >> certainly. when talking about health care reform, he talked about a lot of the things that might appeal to many americans, but he didn't end up opening the door for how might some of these things he paid or to he did not really

talk a lot about what might be done to replace the individual mandate. as you go down the line on angst dealing with the environment, dealing with race and policing and all types of different issues, he did have a lot of lofty language and a lot of times that is to be expected in a presidential address to the joint session of congress, but he certainly put any meat on the bones for some of these things, particularly in a time where in his first weeks of his presidency, we have not heard a lot of detail and there has not been a lot of work on on the details side by the republicans in congress or him, so this was an opportunity may be missed by him. laura: thank you very much indeed. where iraqiaq now, forces have seized control of the last major road out of mosul , trapping fighters from the

islamic state group inside the city center. it follows a five-month , thesive to liberate mosul last stronghold under jihadist control. reporter: the iraq he army said it took control of the last major road at a westernmost on wednesday. the road links mosul to a jihadist held town that represented the last at the retreat toward syria for militants still fighting inside the city. are now effectively beseeched by coalition forces, but are still putting up fierce resistance. >> it would be a difficult fight for any army. it will no doubt be challenging, but i have no doubt that there one and thate but is the defeat of isis. reporter: slow but steady progress as soldiers clear out the last remaining militant pockets.

>> there are still several militants and they have antitank weapons and snipers. they will either pull back or get killed as our forces move forward. reporter: iraqi forces captured eastern mosul in january after a three-month long battle and launched an offensive on the western side three weeks ago. they are now within reach of government buildings were several jihadist fighters remain holed up. mosul was the last remaining iraqi stronghold. its recapture would effectively crush the group's presence in the country. laura: and what could be another major loss for the jihadist in syria, regime forces have entered the isis controlled city palmyra.ra --

jihadists have systematically destroyed temples and monuments and looted archaeological treasures. but the syrian regime and the rebels seeking to overthrow it committed war crimes in eastern aleppo last year. that's verdict of a new u.n. report which sites atrocities carried out between july and september. it says there is conclusive evidence that syrian forces dropped chemical weapons, including chlorine, on hospitals, markets, and other residential areas. both sides committed war crimes, according to a report by the u.s. report -- commission of inquiry which found proof of human atrocities committed by the bashar al-assad forces,nd regime including an attack on humanitarian aid convoy. >> 14 eight workers were killed

and most of the remaining ones were injured. 17 trucks of much-needed aid items were destroyed. civilians all across syria suffered from the suspension of delivery of aid. reporter: investigators say civilians i in aleppo were victs of unrelenting violence. evidence that rebel factions in aleppo used civilians a as human shields and proof that the regime carried out multiple airstrikes on civilian areas, including chemical attacks. forces laid siege to eastern aleppo in july and civilians, many of them children, lost their lives to that use bombardment cluster munitions, incendiary weapons and crudely weaponize fluorine canisters on civilian inhabited areas. >> the report comes as the u.n. is hosting peace talks in geneva

between the regime and the opposition. rebelsin colombia, farc will start laying down their arms on wednesday. members of the left-wing insurgency have been gathered at supervised disarmament points as part of the terms of the controversial peace deal signed last year. reporter: crossing the country to lay down their arms. farc rebels in colombia have announced they will officially start disarming, with a process expected to end by june. farc members have been debt -- gathering across the country for the past few weeks. ,ith 7000 them already in place they are now due to take inventory and destroy their weapons under you and supervision. >> the beginning of the disarmament process demonstrates our firm commitment to peace. as the weapons held by farc over towill be passed

the custody of the united nations. the disarmament is the latest death in the peace agreement signed last year between the colombian government and the rebels. all in one rival movement is still engaged with the colombian authorities in south america's longest-running conflict which started over 53 years ago and killed over 220,000 people and displaced millions. farc rebels will be spared jail time under the agreement. one the most controversial terms in an accord which has been heavily criticized by many. the peace terms were rejected in a referendum soon after the agreement with many colombians complaining they were too lenient. laura: some stunning pictures coming from the italian island of sicily. mount edna has erupted for the first time this year. it's one of the most active volcanoes in the world and have

been largely dormant for the last two years. it sprang to life, spewing lava. orange law the -- is last major eruption was back in 1992. let's get some business news for you. kate moody is here in the studio. another recordbreaker on wall street. the dow jones hitting 21,000 for the first time ever, of over 300 points since the opening bell. it appears to be stemming from the positive tone by donald trump in his address to congress on tuesday. some were disappointed by lack of details on tax reform and deregulation. we are seeing record highs for the three major indices in new dow continuing to outperform, climbing 1000 points in just 25 sessions. that would be a record-setting pace if it closes at those levels that we've been seeing now.

the nasdaq and s&p also a very trading of mcdonnell shares halted while investors meeting takes place. as trading lines down in york, we will keep an eye on snapchat, which is expected to price its stock market flirtation just after the closing bell on wall street. it would be the biggest tech ipo since facebook in 2012 despite never having turned a profit. we will see the price they put on themselves and just under an hour's time. investors are beginning to shift their attention to the federal reserve. the american central-bank could raise interest rates for the december. since we asked what the markets are expecting.

were that stood out williams,dley and jon both of them seem to be aligned on what they were saying, talking about the near-term prospect of an interest rate hike and a much tighter labor market. i think it was william dudley who said the case for a rate hike is much more compelling. is stillms that march very much on the table and the fed will likely lean more toward thin. the message the fed wants to send right now is that every single meeting is live and they go in to every meeting anticipating that a racetrack could happen. this time last week when markets were pricing in a 20% chance of a rate hike in mark, that sibley was not the case.

now it seems much more line with what the fed wants. now it seems much more line with what thelaura: sticking to a protectionist tone, the financial times and wall street journal are reporting details of a document due to be sent to congress today that lays out the administration's trade policy in writing for the first time. they say washington is preparing to bypass the wto if it doesn't agree with its ruling. >> my job is not to represent the world. i job is to represent the united states of america. >> donald trump stayed on message in his first speech to congress. reviewing his commitment to a protectionist trade agenda. focusing on the u.s. trade deficit, the president promised to level the playing will with partners, once again singling out china and the north american free trade agreement. >> we've lost more than one

fourth of our manufacturing jobs that snapped a was approved we've lost 60,000 factories since china joined the world trade organization in 2001. clear,h his intent was his speech was light on details. but a leaked report laid out his trade policy saying the new events ration is prepared to ignore any agreements by the world trade organization that it sees as an affront to u.s. sovereignty. the document being sent to congress blames the wto for enabling the economic crisis in china at the expense of the u.s.. stepping back from the dove t o would be a major departure for america. concern for its chief. >> these are challenging times, global economic growth is slow. the threat of protectionism cannot be ignored. reporter: as donald trump

promised overhaul the way the united states does business with the world, two of his preferred targets defended their economic ties with the u.s., indicating that are willing to negotiate on trade, but not at their own expense. ford is reportedly planning to cut over 1000 jobs at an engine plant in wales. they are meeting with management after news broke in the british press. according to a leaked document, there are concerns the site is underperforming and does not have enough orders to ensure its future. ford has announced a 4% decline in sales last month, underscoring the tough market conditions it is facing. the chinese government is preparing to slash a half-million jobs in the steel and coal industries in an effort to reduce excess production capacity. the flood of cheap chinese exports has pushed down commodities prices and created problems.

store owners in a southern indian state are removing coca-cola and pepsi products from their shelves after unions call for a boycott of the soft drink giants in order to promote local brews. saying their unhealthy and draining much-needed groundwater from the drought ridden state which is home to nearly 70 million people. certainly a big market for both of those companies. a rather particular form of detection is him there -- protectionism there. moody with the business news. we're taking a short break, do stay with us to read more news and headlines for you in jusa ap

03/01/17 03/01/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! pres. trump: america must put its own citizens first because only then can we truly make america great again. amy: in his first address to a joint session of congress, president trump vowed to greatly expand the military budget, end obamacare, and restrict immigration in the name of nationonal security. pres. trump: we cannot allow terrorism to form