♪ >> welcome to the france 24 newsroom. i'm molly hall it.t. here's a look of the headlines we following. turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan will travel to france with talks with french president emmanuel macron. ins follows all war of words 2017. s offerng accepts seoul'

for dialogue. this will be the first official inter-korea and talks in more than two years. at least four people are killed as heavy snow and freezing cold temperatures spark dangerous travel conditions in the eastern u.s. french president emmanuel macron is hosting his turkish counterpart, recep tayyip erdogan, today. they will discuss on corrupt's relationship with brussels, the humanion in syria, and rights violations and a media crackdown in turkey following the failed coup d'etat in 2016. i will continue to press

turkey on the issue of the jailed journalists who were prevented from doing their jobs. i will raise this issue with respect for defending our values and interests. just as journalists are expected various's stories, leaders are expected to discuss issues they may not agree with. molly: for more, we will go to our correspondent standing by for us now at the presidential palace. walk us through why are we seeing this meeting now and why, here in paris? reporter: president recep tayyip erdogan should be here any minute. behind me, you see the toublicanan g guard is in place welcome him.

the president is on a mission. he wants to improve relations with the european union. today, turkey has become increasingly isolated and as the turkish president said, he wants to reduce the number of turkey's enemies and increase the number of turkey's friends. he sees in macron the new leader of europe, the new strongman, and a potential friend today. molly: that being said, walk us through what we are expecting from this visit. not see the leaders do i to i on many issues, not least of which journalists in turkey. estimated 135 journalists in turkey are in prison. among those detained were two french nationals. certainly a sensitive issue for the two leaders, one macron has vowed to address today.

but recep tayyip erdogan hit back yesterday, saying emmanuel macron was misinformed, that he lacked information. high on the agenda is the syria now that the war against the islamic state group is almost over and the i.s. group has been almost defeated. both countries are hoping to achieve a peace, a political solution in syria, but once again the leaders agree -- disagree on what this should be. for turkey, it has always been about regime change. macron says that bush are all aside should remain in place, at least included -- bashar al-assad should remain in place, at least be included in talks. recognition ofe jerusalem as the capital of israel. and turkey and paris have agreed to improve economic ties to

boost trade levels as turkey experiences unprecedented growth. reportthank you for that from the presidential palace. next, north and south korea will hold official talks next week. this after pyongyang accepted seoul's offer for dialogue. this will be the first inter-korean talks and two years. area willthe border host the talks, the first and tw's. it was here that a cease-fire was declared during the korean war in 1953. >> today, north korea sent us a letter regarding the dialogue. the agenda includes improving relations and north korean dissipation in the olympics. reporter: earlier this week, north korean leader kim jong-il

un said that he wished his country could participate in the olympics. they agreed to suspend all military maneuvers throughout the generations of the elevator spirit these exercises have often contributed to the exacerbation of political ties. japan, on the other hand, has said the main problem, north korea's nuclear program, remains unresolved. >> north korea goes through phases of apparent dialogue and provocation, but either way continues s nuclear missilee development. we have no intention of weakening our surveillance activity. north korea has performed nuclear tests as well missileple new launches. theu.s. president praised renewal of korean talks.

molly: the un security council is set to hold an emergency meeting to discuss iran. the united states asked for the session as it seeks to show support, but russia has warned ininst external interference what it regards as iran's internal affairs. at least 21 have been killed and hundreds arrested during a week of unrest. securityis cutting into pakistan. the state department says they are suspending $900 million in assistance. the trump administration said they made the decision citing pakistan's inability to crackdown on terrorism. it does not affect civilian aid to the country and that could go through if is, bob took -- if bad tookove --if islama

decisive action against terrorism. reporter: this was the reason given by the security -- by the state department. >> until the government takes decisive action against the taliban and the haqqani network, the united states will suspend that kind of security assistance to pakistan. reporter: it would at least include 200 55 million dollars in foreign military financing, which had already been blocked. of details could suggest the state department is scrambling to align its pololicy with donald trump's january 1 tweet, claiming pakistan gives terrorists a safe haven. onlyly last october, trump raisd pakistan for its work in securing the release of an

american woman and her children held by the haqqani network for years. obviously we have to look at our strategy coolheadedly. we face is that america may take extraordinary action. where prepared for that. a result, pakistan could turn to china for military assistance. molly: the pakistan foreign ministry reacting to the aid suspension, saying this friday arbitrary deadlines and unilateral announcements and shifting goalposts are counterproductive in addressing common threats. next, severe weather we have seen in the united kingdom and ireland -- storm elinor with into france and several areas

are under avalanche alert. the latest victim, a volunteer rescuer who had been missing since a mudslide swept them away in the east side of the country. have dubbed experts -- dubbedter storm the winter storm ripping the united states as "the bomb cyclone." reporter: --- lines,r: empty security a riverside at laguardia. the winter or bomb cyclone is leaving thousands of passengers stranded.. information.ot t any and now we are just not sure we will be flying out anytime soon. >> we are staying here until

tomorrow night. >> it't's a mess. we don't have this s much snow n georgia, to --so to come here and see that much snow is really amazing. reporter: more than two thirds of the flights in new york and boston were canceled. though officials said that they hope to resume flights on friday. education football star mohamed salah won the player of the year award. this was a big win after he inspired his country to a long-awaited world cup place and had a phenomenal start to his career in liverpool. take a look. reporter: he was the favorite. player ofthe afghan 2017. it was awarded to the egegyptian player while hisis liverpool teammamate came in second. >> i am excicited to winin it ai

am very proud and hapappy to she this moment with my friend and i am sure he is going to win it very soon. i'm very proud. thank you. this awardalah owes in part to his decisive role in securing the world cup position in russia. back home, he is arguably the biggest name in sport, but he has made sure to share his building a medical center and a youth center in his hometown. his dedication to the team is what stood out to his coach. >> it took four or five hours for mohamed cela to come to the club. then he trained. had a lot oft, he hours before he went home. good nightt was a

for education football as the award for best national team was handed to the pharaohs. is still in contention to be the top goal scorer in the end of the season. next, advances in health and science -- an italian woman has been fitted with a bionic hand. in 2014, but it has been made more efficient and researchers hope that the device could be made available to a wider publilic. she lost her hand in an accident 25 years ago. thanks to this new bionic replacement,t, everyday gestures have become popossible again. he prototyped, which allows her to touch, grip, and even feel, is the result of years of research -- the prototype, which allows her to touch, grip, and even feel, is the result of

years of research. provide able to sensations like a normal h hand. in 2014, a similar device was fitted onto a danish amputee, but require too much equipment to functction, meaning the patient could not leave the lab. with the new prototype, everything fits into a backpack. entirely 3-d printed, the hand offers a higher variety of sensations by sending direct signals to the brain. object tell whether an is soft or solid. the next step, to further miniaturize the device. molly: now an update on headlines. turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan expected at the french presidential palace shortly. part in talks with president michael macron in a bid to improve relations with

europe. 's offerg accepts seoul for dialogue, the first official korean talks in two years. and a giant winter bomb cyclone hits the united states. at least four people killed as the winter cold sparks dangerous travel conditions. time now for a business update. we will start off in the knighted states where the government has announced a plan that would vastly -- in the united states where the government has announced a plan that would vastly expand offshore drilling. right.r: that is this would include areas where drilling has been blocked for decades. the trump administration says that it will create jobs, but environmentalists and even republican state officials are against it.

it has been deemed a new path for energy dominance for the trump administration. the plan to dramatically expapad offshore drilling woululd open nearly all of the e u.s. coastal waters and federal waters off the coast of california for the more than three decades. news that has been met with mixed reaction in the coastal state. >> we know that there are billions of barrels of oil sitting off the kerala -- off the california coast. that will return billions to the california treasury. g going to be devastating for our community. our region has spoken over the years. dangersthese risks and of offshore development are not hypothetical. a devastating spill in santa barbara cost more than 150 billion euros.

[indiscernible] president trump, we are going to have the strongest energy policy and become the strongest energy superpower. >> oil i industry leaders ofof praise to o the move, while environmental activists are likely to try to block the plan with lawsuits. waters immediately off the coast are not under federal control. on global's check in stark markets. -- global stock markets. europe, then eurozone shares are in the green comfortably. this is set for a weekly gain of 2.5%, the best performance since may. you can see all of this is in positive territory, and the

26-yearlso closed at a high after rising more than 3% on thursday. daymoving on to some of the for business stories for you now, inflation across the eurozone dips slightly in december according to latest figures. with consumer prices rising across the bloc, it is below the central bank's target of 2%. in france, inflation edged up as consumer confidence rebounded. strikes.ing the ba walkout to protest working conditions due to -- there will be a walkout to protest working conditions due to cuts. one pilot said that flying would be under -- against security

relations. and apple says all apple computers, ipads, and imacs are affected by microchips that make hackers vulnerable t to memory stored in the cpu. will launch a patch on the safari browser in the coming days to protect against potential attacks. molly: finally, 2017 was a good year for gold? yuka: it was the best year for 2010.ecious metal since that was mainly due to a week dollar. also political risks pushed investors to keep their money in a secure commodity. the upwards trend is expected to continue this year. that said, the price hike was relatively small. crypto currency bitcoin gained 14,000% in 2017.

molly: thank you very much for that update. time now for our press review. and i am joined here in the studio by our correspondent. >> hi, molly. they: we start with reaction to donald trump's decision to overturn a ban on offshore drilling. >> he made that announcement on thursday that he was to expand essentially revoking environmental protections barack obama had put in place. the editors of "the wall street praise this decision, saying it would make the u.s. energy independent. the paper says as long as drilling safety and accident prevention measures are "is no goodheir reason not to exploit america's offshore resources for the notic good." obviously

everyone agrees. it has drawn a lot of backlash from democrats, some republicans, and environmentalists in particular. law control the five kilometers separating land and sea, so essentially it comes down to state legislation on deciding permits for constructing oil platforms on land. passed bills in california have given them even more rights on deciding what activities take place on the coast. it's not all smooth sailing. molly: let's stay with the decision -- with the trump administration and the decision to cut aid to pakistan. >> trump says that pakistan is a safe haven for terrorists. the pakistani authorities do not agree. one columnist says it is a ruse by the u.s. to hide its own in

norman's failure in afghanistan. it warns that decisions like this will be pushing pakistan closer to china and away from an indian tv journalist agrees and the washington post, saying that cutting off aid to pakistan will not solve the problem, the survivesing, pakistan in the "smug belief" washington will return to pakistan when it needs it to mop up its work in afghanistan. have a story from ukraine? inthis is been making news ukraine -- a 38-year-old stabbed multiple times, and investigators are publishing their findings this friday. she disappeared two days after helping block the release from

prison of the nephew of an influential judge. that nephew had killed her own sister. protest fromked people saying that the justice system in ukraine is corrupt. the ukraine foreign minister says that her death is "a test of our society's of ability to ensure justice." molly: in germany, there has been swift backlash -- a member fd partyar right r making comments about boris becker's son. son has mixedr's parentage. he has an african grandparent through his mom. anyway, this was a tweet commenting about no in an

interview in which he explained he had been the target of racist attacks in berlin. he says that he did not post the tweet, but someone from the party. the chairman has told the german daily front that the comments have gone too far, that he can scissors it -- considers it a racist comment and he says 'the afd is not basically for extremist sentiment." molly: and there could be a case s for the greeka army. >> this is not just splurging during christmas and new year's. these spanish elite unit is putting thousands of soldiers on a weight loss plan including dieting, exercise, and regular body mass index tests. if they fail the is, they could be kicked out of the army.

according to a document posted "el pais" for them and the acceptance of obesity are to blame for these fears. photos a far cry from a posted of the same unit -- half, brawny spanish soldiers in low that got people all hot and bothered on twitter. it is a far cry from those rather brawny pictures. molly: all right, thank you for that. for more, you can go to our ance24.com. we will go to a quick break. we have the turkish president ue at tayyip erdogan dy the french presidential palace

for talks to improve the relationship with the european union. we'll have more on that coming up in the next half hour. stay with us. you are watching "france 24." ♪

♪ >> i in this episode, kim stringfellow's project documents -- documenting the diverse communities of the mojave desert. . >> my practice isis really soci practice. it's about conversations with peoplele. shsharing ideas,