♪ anchor: hello and welcome. you are tuned in live from paris. these are the top stories this hour. president macron announced is more than 200 million euros of funding on day two of a visit to tunisia. france seeks to bolster the country's democratic transition. the poland senate outlaws public statements which attribute the crimes of nazi germany to the polish public state or people. lift life bans on

from then athletes sochi games. facebook founder mark is making sweeping changes to the newsfeed . stargazers worldwide were out in force to get a rare glimpse of the super blue blood moon. we will have all that and plenty more. stay tuned. this is live from paris. ♪ anchor: first to our top story, the french president has kicked off day two of his first state visit to tunisia and announcing more than 272 million euros of funding for the north african nation.

177 million euros in loans will bolster state sector reforms and urban development, while 50 million euros will go to the economy. has struggled since the arab spring uprising and the country has faced a string of deadly terror attacks. your challenge today is to transform this cultural and democratic spring into a political, economic, and social one. your challenge today and it is a crucial one is to continue the work you started, making it a full and complete victory for your country. for this victory to change your lives, to create a better life for middle and working class .unisians that is the challenge you face today. anchor: to bring us the very latest on macron's visit to

tunisia, our correspondent is standing by live. talk us through what france was offering. what they put on the table today in terms of funding. yes, emmanuel macron raised three points in relation to the economy. .unisia is facing a challenge he said that france will give 500 million euros between 2020 and 2022 adding the amounts to the 1.2 billion euros france is already givining over five year. the 50 million euros for youth initiatives are with the french agency for development. he also said that the french investors would double investment in tunisia in the five years of his presidency, this goes along with the of the president of

tunisia, who pledged today to invest more. with regard to the free trade agreement between tunisia and the european union, he made no announcecement on the conversion of tunisian debt. he said that part of it would be converted. up to 800 million euros. anchor: france promising a lot when it comes to funding. therity was also central to speech today. there was talk of libya and even the formered jab at french president nicolas sarkozy. >> yes, indeed. also candid on the topic of security and regarding the situation in libya, european

countries have e a responsibiliy to the current situation in libya and he directly y pointedo that without mentioning nicolas sarkozy or his policy in libya. he also pledged to supporort tunisisia and he said that tunisians are the ones living with the stress and instability in libya. he insisted on medititerranean policy and more cooperation with europe and security and immigration. anchor: keeping us up-to-date from the tunisian capital, for now, thank you. billenate has backed a outlawing public statements which attribute the crimes of nazi germany to the polish state or its people. the bill, which sets fines or a maximum of three years behind bars, has sparked anger from israel. poland's president must sign the bill into law. to get more on this, our correspondent is standing by in jerusalem. for israel, this is about: wanting to change history.

what have reactions been to this today? >> there have been reactions all week, since this story first arose and it looked like this was going to be signed into law in poland. the reaction was at first confusion and then outraged because if there is one place where the history of the jewish genocicide in europe is still vy alive in europe, it is here. what israel's prime minister said is that we cannot have revisededing changed, him and that this could lead to holocaust denial, so we have seen the israeli ambassador to poland being called in to talk to the prime minister, the polish ambassador being calalled into the foreign ministry here, and today we have calls from israel's ambassador to be recalled from poland and the leader of the opposition movement whose father was a holocaust survivor has been very strong on this, has been very determined against thiss bill, full of angry statements about the denialal of history and how

people know what the history is here, so there is no point in denying it because it is known and he has called on the eu ambassador to step in and not allow this change to go through to make the eu's position known on this very important and sad part of european history. questions does raise when it comes to freedom of speech, particularly in difficult periods of history. , this is the issue, i guess, at the moment. when you look back at this very tough time in history, worthy victims, were the collaborators, and where they rescuers? that is the question that is is a all across -- it similar question for latvia, lithuania, france, holland, everywhere jews were taken to from- nazi death camps their homes. the reason it is a huge story in poland is because there were 3 million polish jews.

there is a historian who has written exactly about this period and the polish involvement and he has made hard reading just as an ordinary citizen to see that it was not the policy, they said we cannot do this on arrow become a we must involve local polish police and local citizens and they rewarded them for handing in jews and there was an active collaboration, so that although there were also rescuers and although the poles were also victims, they were also collaborators and that part of their history looks like it cannot be discussesed at the moment andnd that is the prproblematic part, that historian who read that book, he is polish living in canada. what would happen to him if he were living in poland? would he be in prison for three years? all of these issues make this very difficult period rise up again and it does not look like the polish community wants to have that discussion. anchor: thank you.

overturnedourt has its decision to release the local arm of amnesty international, sparking international outrage. the court ordered the traditional definitional release -- ordered his conditional release. prosecutors accuse him of downloading and messaging app 2016 q those in the attack. have been listed on 28 of 43 russians accused of doping at the 2014 sochi winter olympics. the decision could allow some of those athletes to compete in this month's winter olympics in pyeongchang. the top court found there was insufficient evidence that they had benefited from state-sponsored doping. >> the consequences of this are being digested because, , you

well know, the international olympic committee has come down very, very hard on russian olympic athletes since it was ioc says that many were doping withth the help of e fsb at the associate olympics, which wewe held four years ago. the iocc permitted 169 russian athletes, excluding those, for the pyongyang winter olympic games, whihich are about to stat in j just a week's time. permitted 169 russian athletes it deemed clean that have never doped and it does not suspect of ever having doped, but in russia itself, there has been a lot of pushback against this decision to bar a number of russian athletes. , as decision has been seen

couple minutes ago, the sports minister saying that essentially stancendicates russia's that the international olympic committee does not have enough that theto prove russian olympians who have been banned by the ioc from these upcoming winter olympics in pyongyang, that they are guilty.

statements obtained by the associated press confirm the presence of those graves. teams. were picking corpses in the village. --- due to the graphic nature of the images, we have decided not to show the victim'' bodies. >> some were dumped into rivers, some were buried, some were burned with acid and turned into skeletons, some were chopped up and dumped into the fields. >> the footage was captured by a man who hit his phone memory card from police in plastic tied to his thigh as he crossed his border into bangladesh. these latest statements have confirmed the existence of at least five mass graves, which the u.n. have set our hallmarks of genocide. >> i have said that no stone

must be left unturned because the victims, the families of the victims definitely deserve an answer and the people of myanmar deserve an answer. >> verma continues to deny that massacres have taken place, but this latest discovery adds to the evidence of genocide piling up against the government. anchor: the fbi says it has grave concerns as republicans push to release a controversial memo which they believe shows anti-trump bias at the agency. the bureau has questioned the accuracy of the memo, which contains classified information about an inquiry into one of trump's campaign aides. the white house could publish that memo later today. u.s. is a secret memo that president donald trump and house republicans are ready to release, but democrats and now the fbi say it needs to be classified.ept

the fbi released a statement wednesday saying it had grave concerns about the accuracy of the top-secret memo commissioned by devon n nunes, the republican chairman of the white house intelligence committee. people who have seen the documents say it claims the fbi and justice department officials abused power to obtain a warrant on a foreign does former trump campaign advisor. democrats say it is a cherry picked list of misleading information used to distract the public from the russia investigation led by robert mueller. >> this is not about the facts, this is about a narrative that the presesident wawants to put , a a misleading narrative to undermine the fbi, undermine the department, and ultimately undermine bob mueller. >> the republicann led intelligence committee voted monday night to release a document, leaving trump with the final say on whether or not it would be made public. but trump made no secret of the fact that he would not pose any objection. >> will you release the memo?

[laughter] >> the fbi statement on the memo the fbi director christopher wray into a public confrontation with president trump. the agency's stance on the memo means that if trump does publish it, he would be openly defying wray, who he hired as fbi had six months ago after firing james comey. anchor: stargazers worldwide were out in force to get a rare gifts of a super blue desk glimpse of a super blue blood moon. slopes of the volcano in the philippines to the urban skyline of beijing, stargazers i in asia weree the first to get a peekk of this referent on and on super blue blood moon. time t that i first

have been able t tcome and seeea lunar eclipse and i've really enjoyed it. to happy to have been able take pictures of the moon and the stars at the same time. it is normally difficult to do. >> it is a triple feat. the second full moon of the month of january at its closeset point t in its rotation around e eartrth, which makes it look larger than usual. it is also w when the earth,h, , and moon line up perfectly to provide a full lunar eclipse. best visible to those in east asia and northern russia. in dehli, some enthusiasts set up equipment to get a better view. >> it is fantastic. >> in europe, the super moon brought a new glow to landscapes from the parthenon to st. paul's cathedral in london. the last time these country saw a super blue blood moon was in december 1982 and it will be a while until the next one,

expected on january 31, 2028. anchor: i hope many of you were able to get out and see that yesterday. time for business. we are kicking off with some interesting developments about the world's largest social media firm. >> facebook has reported earnings of its most recent quarter, the company crushed expectations with $13 billion in revenue. the news comes as the company is revamping its news feed to try to give the user in more enriching experience, but that could come at the cost of user engagement. >> facebook founder mark zuckerberg is pushing users to spend less time on the social media network he created and his changes are working. released on his facebook account, he said he wants to make sure facebook contributes to people's and society's well-being. >> already last quarter, we made changes to show fewer viral

videos to make sure people's time is well spent. we made changes that reduced time spent on facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day. by focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term. to criticism thatat overexposure to viral videos leads to addiction and unhnhealy use of the social media platform, zuckerberg mododified the newsfeeded to prioioritize s from friends and family, instead of posts from businesssses and media. it did not take long for the changes to produce results. in the u.s. and canada, the number of daily users decreased by 700,000. worrying investors. but despite the roughly 5% of decrease, facebook's revenue increased by 47% last year to over $40 billion, while profits increased 56%. though the founder has said it

will take time to heal the the changes insists will increase the company value over the long term. anchor: let's turn to mexico where an auction of major deepwater oil wells in the gulf. auction,t up for representing exploration and drilling r rights on wide areasf the seafloor in mexican territorial waters. royal dutch shell won nine of the 19 blocks that received bids. the stakes were high for the mexican government, which wants to show results from its 2014 energy sector reforms that opened the market to foreign firms. the timing was right, mexico expects around $93 billion in investment as a result of the option. -- hasas a resulted shown a tripling of fourth-quarter profits. >> this is excellent news for mexico. it is a strong commitment for shell for the development of

mexico. the quantity and activity that will take place in the coming years is only good news for every mexican. time for a checkck on the markets. how are things looking? >> the european markets mixed in thursday trading. you can grow at a seven-month low. growth at aory seven-month low. the frankfurt dax is up. some of the look at business headlines. theresa may is meeting with the chinese president. on the menu, chinese infrastructure initiative. theis traveling to lay groundwork for a future trade deal once brexit takes effect. she expects deals worth 9 billion pounds to be signed during her visit. says the baby milk

salmonella scandal will cost the french dairy giant 7 million euros. the company is now subject to a actions. legal they say they will pay compensation to families o o sickenened children. india is planning to launch a nenehealth insnsurance program r the e country's poor. the 100 million impoverished families will be entitled to roughly 6300 euros to cocover hospititalization in c case of injujury or grave illness. health care costs are a major driver of poverty and debt in india, where close to 70% of health spending comes out of pocket. finally for business, climbing mount everest maybe one of the world's everest tourist experiences, but it is apparently not white rare enough. >> for regulation and overcrowding on the southern nepalese side of the mountains have been pushing climbers and guides away for years.

china is now investing in the northern tibetan side of the mountain to improve the experience, installing infrastructure like a mountaineering center, fixed pad., and a helicopter anchor: that gives me hope. one of my hopes is to climb even a small part of mount everest one of these days. maybe i won't quite make it to the top. all right, it is time for our press review. ♪ a look at the international papers this thursday. we are starting out with the latest twist in the catalan crisis. >> a twist in deed and we have seen many of them over several weeks with the situation in catalonia and now this is all said, "it isthat

over, our followers have given it up." he is texting a key supporter, the leftist catalan senator. that text was filmed in secret by a cameraman and shown on one of the main spanish channels. he has really slammed this, saying you cannot publish my private texts, but this deepens the crisis, doesn't it, really? he was hoping in the last day or so to see himself appointed this week in parliamament as catalan leader, only then to see the regional parliamentary speaker coming out saying, we will formerlythe vote on sweeping them back into office. the catalan paper reporting on demont andng that puige also his party says it will not

give in to pressure from madrid. of course, he is in exile in belgium. is there a question mark about his leadership? this comes up in the article, saying that by march, perhaps an alternative leader could emerge. that is the conclusion of that article. the crisis in catalonia rumbling on. anchor: rumbling on indeed. quite said you can't send a text without being filmed these days. to russia and the presidential election campaign. the russian president putin saying he will organize an alternative olympics for banned sportsmen and women. >> the first round of ththe russiaian election is on march , the winter olympics in south korea are in the coming days, aren't they? the whole absence of any russian athletes is bad for russia. let's go to the news website, the new delhi tv news website, saying that, yes, we've got an

, linked toplace reports of vast moscow-backed doping over the years, saying these games could be held in sochi. the prize money would be the same as the prize money at the olympics it self. russian winners would get the same for gold, silver, and bronze. this story saying that there could be an alternative counter ises in sochi, but the irony that when we look back at the winter games in sochi in 2014, out of the 33 russian metals, 11 were pulled out because of the doping question. so, that story, of course about putin trying to defend his athletes. anchor: let's stay with french papers. >> this is an extraordinary

piece based on a study that suggests that in the professional arena at competition level, women actually do better than expected, they up their game when they are playing men. whether that is the question of , men, watch out for those women players in the game of chess. journalall to do in the "psychological science," the data shows that in ranked chess players in more than 5 million chess matches, women playing bebetter when they arere up agat men. this sort of counters the stereotype that women might be slightly intimidated against grandmasters or certainly competitive chess players. they are saying this is good news. there is a women's weeeek coming up in march nenext month.

chess clubs will be promoted to women to encourage them to join. that whole idea of a level playing field, there is nothing more egalitarian than a

every decade, more or less. sami yaffa: a republic ththat works as the gateway between the east and te e west,greeeks f antiity, roms,s, byztine and otoman empires, th place i ilt upon the culturaheritage of althese ancient powers. it's plplace of conontradictions that has been the meeting place and the destination for different peoples, traditions, cultures, and art forms. it respects tradition but wants to be modern. t this musicall melting pot is thpeperfect subbjector "sountracker." welcome to t turkey. [kanunun, baglama, and clclarinet playiying]