anchor: welcome back to the "france 24" newsroom. it is 2:00 p.m. in damascus. these are the latest headlines. and game in raqqa for syrian democratic forces and the international coalition announced the city has been fully recaptured from the hands of the islamic state group. celebrations have already erupted across the town. army says kirk cook's important oil fields are back in

baghdad's hands. who fled are pouring back to their homes in droves. and pots and pans are banged in anger in barcelona after prominent activists are jailed in catalonia. the men remain behind bars, staging rallies in support of the controversial boost for independence. it has been ruled by islamic state group members for three years, but the city of racket has been liberated. the syrian democratic forces, backed by the u.s.-led international coalition, say that while minor sporadic

gunfire still echoes through the streets, the jihadist organization has been largely pushed from the city. say that a stadium and hospital with the last bastions being clung on to buy the islamic state group. brokentions of already out, with flags being raised in the street and festivities taking place. let's get the latest from our regional correspondent, who joins us from beirut. adam, clearly a monumental day for the syrian democratic forces in the international alliance that backs them. what more do we know at this hour about the last hours of fighting in raqqa, and how this battle appears to have wrapped up? they are now saying they are in complete control of the city, the syrian democratic forces, in coalition with u.s.-backed forces, together with coalition parties who announced the same thing.

until --ing did go overnight. last night, they took some of the major installations that the islamic state group was still holding onto, including a hospital and a stadium. in those locations, they said they have been raising flags. most of those are the flags of the kurdish fighters, who are ,he prominent group in this sdf syrian democratic forces, alliance. it is not a surprise this would happen. they have been s saying since before the weekend that they expected to take back the whole of the city, saying they could have done it by sunday. it took a little longer, but that was sped up by the f fact that t there was an agreement tr the weekend d whereby a lot of .slamic g group fighterers left those who had syrian backgrounds were able to withdraw from the city and to other areas held by

the group east of syria, which meant it was only foreign fighters left in the city, fighting over these last 24 hours or so. out there not ruling are not perhaps a small number of islamic group fighters, but they are talking about dozens, not hundreds. they are still clearing the city of booby-traps and the like, could take the lilife of sdf fighteters. anchor: this could be a victory that comes at a very heavy price. talk us through the civilian cost, rebuildingng the citity. clearly, it will take a lot of timeme. adam: the c city may be takenenk now, but this wowon't be the end of the flight for manany civilis who were disisplaced. we are talking about a city that isis destroyed after months of

street fighting as well as airstrikes, with coalition support to the sdf. this is a city that before the war hahad a population of 200,000-plus, now close to uninhabited. there were civivilians there in largnunumbers until very close to t the end of thehe fighting,o had beenororced to remain n thee by the islslamic state groupup. even i in the last c couple weeks, as the battltle was comig toward an end, the international cocommittee for the red crs said a thouousand women and childrern werere arriving at indndividual camps set up for people flfleeig the cicity. many of them m won't be able to return straightaway. the cicity is lacking infrastructure. the buildings are destroyed. even when they are able to return, it will l be a queststif starting from scratch for many of them. anchor: thank you for that

update. for more on this story, i am joined onset by our in-house specialist on terrorism. first of all, what with the fall raqqa mean?- thet means a lot for country, and for the jihadi militants. first of all, we should maybe add small details about the deal that was talked about. there was many contradictory information for this deal, like a bad cop good cop game between jihadi forces, some saying jihadi's will be out of the town and other saying all the jihadis, including foreigners, will be out of the city. there was a very big flu about that. since yesterday, i had the

information that all jihadis were allowed to leave town, which is getting confirmed today. there are no airstrikes. there is no heavy fighting. the neighborhoods taken by the oepg have been taken almost without a fight, which confirms what i was told. peoplewere let out and they did not want to admit up to this point. of course, the price was heavy, and the moral value of what happened is also heavy. the coalition tried to create some kind of discord between foreign and local jihadis. this goes back to your question. gain for big game -- the coalition, but the fight could still be long, even in syria. if we look at the map, we can see the areas which are still

jihadiled, and the militants are still active. if we look at these pictures, we see the heavy price of the destruction of raqqa. almost 90% of the city was completely destroyed by airstrikes and by militants who committing attacks and putting exploded engines all over the place. today, after raqqa, there are still many towns, going down and across the border to iraq and up to rwanda -- to rawad. it is a huge, deserted area, a desert area, where militants can active and operates semi-military operations. we are not talking about heavy

military operations as we used to see in muscle, in rock -- in raqqa, and other parts of syria. they have reactivated sleeping cells and programs in iraq, for example, which were thought to be calcified. we heard that after the clashes between the kurdish peshmerga and the iraq army in kirkuk, the iraqis were able to take two towns because of that. this has big value for the coalition and those fighting the jihadis on the ground. anchor: thank you very much for that update. as you just heard, the valuable oil fields surrounding the iraqi city of kirkuk are back in

government hands. baghdad's forces say they have completed the operation to retake that land after having already seized the government office in key military fights from kurdish fighters, the day after they flee the fighting to join the liberation of their hometown. civilians and started returning. clairere brings you u more on te liberation of kirkuk. claire: a lightning offensive. iraqi government forces have kirkuk, are cook -- massive oil producers. third, oil barrels, a come from kirkuk. it is a lifeline for a region seeking independence from iraq. in an independence referendum, 90% of ballots favored the move, fueling some violent clashes, especially near key oil fields

and military airports. but kurdish forces, divided by internal conflict, abandoned their positions with little resistance. derricks emptied out as fighters left the city. kirkuk's capture is due to divisions between political leaders, one of which has called for closer relationships with baghdad. thousands of civilians fearing violence have fled. >> we have n nothing to do with all of this.s. the kids arere terrified and we were afraid there would be clashes and shooting. >> i am stuck. the vengeance for my wife, my daughter, my life. claire: neighboring turkey also opposes kurdish independence. they have closed airspace to flights to and from kurdistan.

they have asked iraq to take control of the border gate with the semiautonomous region. anchor: the philippine president marawilared the city of free from the control of islamic state group militants. 140 day occupation by those loyalists marked the country's biggest internal security crisis in years. this is just a snippet of rodrigo duterte a -- rodrigo duterte's speech. duterte: i declare this city liberated. duterte announced the fighting is over, and it is time to rebuild the city. country'srson for the military has a rather different account of events, saying that

between 20 and 30 rebels are still fighting, and they are still holding around 20 hostages. now, and the spanish region of catalonia is bracing itself for moore street protests . on monday evening, rallies were held in barcelona. leading lightswo of the pro-independence movement. they are being held without bail while they are investigated for hosting pro-separatist rallies ahead of the controversial vote on independence. simon harding picks up the story. simon: arrested on charges of sedition. late on monday, jordi sanchez omnum culturalof were jailed without bail. in catalonia, the ruling has been condemned as a political move. >> as entities, we understand

this case is politically driven. this is about judicial independence in the spanish state. we also understand this puts into question freedoms and basic rights, like freedom of expression, freedom to congregate, and freedom of opinion. simon: and it's after the spanish judge's decision, people across barcelona protested by banging pots. this is a traditional way of protesting used by the m -- catalan people. many have been left bewildered and outraged by the decision. >> shameful, because it looks like a dictatorial state because there is no free speech. people have died to achieve the right to vote. >> i think it is another example the state of by

spain against catalonia. in the world we live in, and in a country we suppose is amocratic, we do not have reason for political prisoners. has giveniano rajoy catalonia until thursday to outline their decision on independence, at which point they have threatened to suspend the region's autonomy if they insist on a split. look atit is time for a the world of business and finance with a reporter from our business desk. we are starting with news of a new deal for airbus. the airplane manufacturer has announced it ts picking up a a majority stake ia sea series program. besides began discussion in august, before the u.s. announced a preliminary decision to levy duties of 300% againinst imports of f the sea series into the united states. u.s. plane maker boeing is trying now.

a questionanable deal between heavily ststate-subsidid competitors,espite the recent findndings of the u.s. governme. prime minister justin trudeau told u.s. president donald trump at the white house that the onision to impose tariffs the sea series was a block to canada picking up any military purchases from boeing. volvo has finally revealed the first model from its standalone brand, polestar. with a four seat coupe range of 150 k ph, and it runs on electric power. the largest as electric range of any car on the market. to talk more about the car, we can speak to polestar's chief executive, who joins me from shananghai. take you for joining us on the program. you were behind the bold design changes and volvo. can you tell us more about the youand what design elements

incorporated from volvo? guest: hi from shanghai. based the design of this beautiful car on the very, very successful concept car, the concept coupe. there arare links. we defefinitely have a family tt is genetically coded, for example, by our choice hammer headadline. that is about it. polestar, withsh thisis design, very strongly asn individual brand. technology ththat is available with ourur family, but we will develop coal star into its own direction. the unveiling is taking place in chihi, are you focusing on the country and the emerging m markets, and what abt

in europe? guest: we have the events here tonight. we will have our production facility for polestar close by shendou.o -- all three markets are important regions. there is no preference in that respect. what about countries who have said they want electric car sales only by 2030 or 2040? how do you innovate byby key prices in check for consumers? guguest: obviously, any new tetechnology goes through that .ourney by the time it gets into a broad application, prices go down. moreechnology will become

and more companies joining to get into a very affordable range. brand,a premium presenting quite an exclusiveve polestar one. we are still here in the price range which all of the time has to come into a more accessible area. reporter: how much money are we talking about for the polestar one? guesest: pull l star one? between is in the range 130,000, 150,000 euros, which when you look at what you get is a very attractive price. reporter: we are going to have to leave it there. thanks for joining us from shanghai on the program. next, let's get a check on the markets. here in europe, it is a sluggish performance on all the main indexes at the sour. you can see not much is happening at this hour. shares of airbus trading up more

than 2%, on the bombardier c-series jet. thank you very much. let's move from business to look at our daily press review. a reporter's onset to take us through the top stories making headlines around the world. let's start with the shocking death of a maltese journalist on monday. reporter: a prominent investigative journalist in malta was murdered on monday. the times of malta says on its front page "lack monday." that is the paper where the 53-year-old began her career. that's look at another front page from malta. the malta independent calls it an attack on democracy and freedom of expression. the reporter was killed yesterday in a car bomb attack. iconoclastic, pungent in

her writing. no one was safe from her barbs. her work was published on her blog that for many people was the first thing they consulted each morning. charlie," we suis say today, "i am daphne." anchor: her work as a journalist put her life in danger. reporter: she was investigating top leaders in government, and accused many of them, including the prime minister, of corruption, with links to the panama paper scandal. she was ad although harsh critic of his, nobody can justify this attack. she reported death threats to the police, according to politico, and had already escaped one assassination attempt. the fbi is stepping in to investigate her murder because her family has requested that the lead investigator recuse himself. the iraqi army has

seized back the oil-rich city of kirkuk. there are tensions over independents. -- indepence. a pan arab london paper says, they -- the kurdish dream of independence. iraqi forces removed the kurdish flag from the government building of the province yesterday. losing gamblen's is what one opinion writer said. back yesterday and has endangered the survival of the existing kurdish autonomy. before that fateful independence referendum, rings were looking pretty calm between baghdad and the kurds. recent events have shown how badly the region's president has overestimated the kurdish military and political strength. sadly for this writer, they are

going to pay a heavy price for it. anchor: let's go to india and the country's first transgender judge has given an interview to a national newspaper. a country ofia is contradictions on women's rights and bringing rapists to justice. india is really at the forefront of recognizing transgender rights. -- first transgender judge the 29-year-old was appointed three months ago to a local and spokeorth bengal, to the hindustan times, saying that while she earns less now than in her previous job, she is enjoying the rise and respect. there has been a series of appointing transgender people to power and permanence. india has recognized the third gender back in 2014, and they are even examining a bill seeking to enlarge transgender rights.

remarkably advanced, india, compared to other countries, even if there is still some work to do. thisr: i was terrible at subject at school -- that is physics. scientists have made an amazing story after the merging of two neutron stars. i have no idea what that means. reporter: i am not an expert on this issue either. it has taken a bit of research. astrophysicists have made a huge discovery -- at least to them, it is really big -- and we are going to try to explain it to you. they have detected gravitational waves provoked by a collision of two neutron stars, which are sort of like black holes. what happened was, they witnessed this and were privy to the explosion that in suit after this collision -- an explosion of materials and debris sent into space. all of this from their own telescope, which is something that has never happened before. the neutron stars produced about 10,000 earth masses of precious heavy metals.

heavy elements, rather. that is according to "the atlantic." the discovery is really important because it confirms a long-standing theory that neutron star mergers are responsible for pretty much everything in the universe, including our very existence. anchor: i am still a bit lost. let's move to our final story. sport could be appearing at the paris 2024 olympics. to wrap: this is easier our minds around. it is all hypothetical. but that sport could be pulled in thing. pole dancing. sports have been officially recognized. it became popular in the early 2000 and people started taking it up as a sport, and taking out the sex stigma attached to it. now, the international pole sports federation are hoping to

apply to the british olympic committee to have it recognized one day as part of the olympic program. that could be as early as 2024 here in paris. other sports hoping to make it to the olympics include tug-of-war and cheerleading. anchor: thank you very much. on thewant more info stories in the international press review, take a look at our website. www.france as usual, 24.com/en. stay with us here. .ive from paris continues we bring you the latest on the syrian city of rack up. it was liberated from the grasp of the united states -- islamic state group.

announcer: this is a production of china central television america. may: sustainability is in, and it's shaping trends all across the board, from agriculture to fashion and gourmet dining. this week on "full frame," a look at the tatastiest, chicesest, and coolesest innovatis s in sustainability. i'm may lee in los angeles. let's take it t "fl frame." may: so, what do you need to grow thriving crops? soil, sun,