♪ "france 24.atching. .al i'm genie g godula here are our headlines. a long-awaited summit looking at ending the war in ukraine after four years. we will be touching base with our correspondent at the palace. france it with the fifth day of

nationwide strikes. travelers will stay away from stations to prevent dangerous overcrowding on the platform. and rush banned from the olympics in tokyo this summerer and the 2022 winter olympics in beijing. that decision handed down by the agency.anti-doping alsoso, two major trials over so-called ill acquired goods. one of them involved the u uncle of syrian leader bashar al-assad . who b brought big bird to life has didied. more on the legacy of "sesame puppeteerer carol spinney after headlines. rroll spinney.

is president of ukraine talking with the leaders of russia. this will be thehe first time tt volodymymyr zelensky wilill setn with the russian president face-to-face. critics though are worried t the ukrainian preresident w will sel out ththe disputed area of don basque in exchange for a settlement. bilateral meetings will get underway about two hours from now. what can you tell us? absolutely. there will be bilateral meetings

between them out -- emmanuel macron, vladimir putin, and zelinski. four will be meetings with heads of state and then there will be a press conscience that is scheduled at 7:00. we are being told that the meetings will take as long as .hey need to take they could be moved to a later time. indeed, this is the first time that saloon ski and putin are meeting face-to-face. that's not the case with macron. .e met zelinski the first visit of the lindsay was to paris after his election. this is very important. this is the first time this format, called me -- called the normandy format will take place 2016 -- with the

heads of state present. the last time it happened was in berlin in 2016 indeed, we are being told a lot of wowork has been done and it will probably be announcements here today. what do we think that announcement might be? there's lots of fear that the ukrainian leader will be selling out. we are being told that indeed, the international sanctions on russia have been frugal. it has cost a lot of money for the russians and while this is a new strategy, this is also emmanuel macron chine to see if his strategy of an open hand held out to russia will bear fruit diplomatically. toy have been working hard

broker some kind of deal. are being told there's a lot of diplomatic work being done. we are expecting some concrete advances going back to 2015, which means we will be talking about this and not crimea for this -- for the moment. james, thank you for reporting from the presidential paris. that meeting as paris has been paralyzed by a fifth day of international strikes. travelerers have been warned to .void train stations that has pushed people to drive kilometers of traffic jams around paris alone. the workers are announcing plans to strip away generous

retirement benefits that will allow some to retire in their 50's. they are calling for new demonstrations after a report of pension reform. it will be another difficult few days across france as disruption to public transportation and services continues. but whether it goes on will dedepend on decisions made in paris this week. there will be the unveiling of an outcome of month-l-long negotiations. tuesday will be a key day. unions have called for a second day of mass demonstrations protest. thursday's

we wawant to cancel the reform and improve our current system, whwhich is the best in the worl. reporter: on wednesday, it will be the government's turn to enter the spotlight. the president has remained very quiet, but this weekend, his ministers have been hinting there could be concessions coming, mainly how quickly reform is implemented. timefrarame.ict it c could wait a a few months. reporter: a few months? >> a few months, or a few years. bryan: the prime minister -- reporter: the prime minister has insisted he will not back down on the pension scheme, meaning the strike is unlikely to come to an end anytime soon. in france, the fall --

far-left leader has been sentenced to prison -- jean-luc elanchon. his home in party offices were raided last year. he described it as being political. he is a supporter of the yellow vests antigovernment protests. russia has been banned from the olympics this summer in tokyo and the winter games in beijing in 2022. the world anti-doping agency recommended that russia be handed a four-year band. moscow has been accused of falsifying data handed over to investigators this year. here is more from james fitzgerald.

approroved unanimously the four.y for noncompliance of four days. russia will not be represented. russia will not be represented at any of their events. the flag will not fly. the russian federation will not have a team in need of those events. a reporterd walsh is for the l.a. times and the author of "l.a. confidential: lance armstrong's secrets." what is your reaction to this decision? reporter: my reaction is it is a good day for sport because considerable power in the world of sport and the

olympics mean a lot to russia. what the world agency as saying today is tokyo was going to happen and you guys are not going to be involved. you will not have your officials at the olympic games. this is quite a significant punishment. it is deserved. people would have feared that t russia was to bigo be sanctioned in this way, but dopingd havave a state system and thehey did everything up.ir p power to cover it for me, the punishment that they than is theour-year least they deserved. anything else would have been wrong.

genie: will this decision force russia to clean up their game? hopefully. but that's not something we should presume upon because this is addicted toat cheating. a lot of athletes who became great athletes did so on the back of a doping program. it's not easy to come through that program and decide that clean sport is a good idea. you need a new generation of coaches and people who have not been tainted. the must be some clean athletes there. the russian anti-doping league called it a tragedy for them. arerter: at the time we talking about, which is noughties to early

the olympic games where russia turned up with a team that was doped to the gills -- if you were a russia athlete and getting to the elite level and competing, it was just certain that the creme de la creme of the russian team weren't subjected to testing. in other words, if russia wanted and icontribute a and 2012 knew i could go, they would be subjected to the rules, bubut an theption was granted to very top athletes and that's how bad it was. everybody talked about what a london 2012 was.

i didn't see it like that. is ae have had since then catalog of people who cheated to win gold medals london 2012 and i hope when future election -- when future olympics app russia will have a team and we should give some credit to the anti-dopingd world agency. they have effectively on after russia and in my view they have succeeded in holding russia to account. and that is why i say it is good for sport. david, thank you. a sports journalist, thank you. now five people were killed when a volcano erupted on what island. some 50 people were visiting when the volcano exploded suddenly. several are still missing, but

they do not expect to find any more survivors. rescue operations are at a standstill as officials say it's too dangerous to go back now. it was just another day on white island, tourists looking down into the smoky north in new zealand's island. a few minutes later,r, mayhem. speeeeng away fr the islanand is the volcano erupted, plumes of sky. -- soaring into the moments later, -- they return to attempt those who are held on the island. they are found huddling in the water. some are eventually evacuated. authorities believe around 50 people were on the island at the

time of the explosion. however the island is to unstable.- too unsafe to go onto the island, so i have to safety of people and emergency services staff. most people were treated at this mobile triage center while the more severely injured were taken to hospital. kari, isand, or what .he most active cone volcano the last fatal eruption was in 1914 when 12 silver miners were killed. now to the united states

where it is a said day for fans of the children's show "sesame diedt."." caroll l spinney has . he was the man behind big bird and also garbage can-living artist the grouch. this was days of their -- after t" was given a prestigious kennedy award for his 50 year anniversary. reporter: four years, kids knew caroll spinney from the iconic "sesame street." playing the roles he helped create never got old for the artist, who was fascscinated by pupuppets. i still getet to act. i'm not a bird. . act like a child bird it's so much fun toto play them. he was so convincing

generations of chihildren truly believed that he was a friend. >> i get wonderful letters. "dear big bird, you can come and stay. i just got bunkbeds. you can stay on the top." reporter: puppet mamaster jim henson created the show. he w won daytime emmys, a lifete award, and a grammy. on the day that he passed away centerw received kennedy honors. although he is gone, he handpicked his successors and his characters live on, along with eternal sesame stars who pay their own tribute to the .uppeteer "franceyou are watching

24." let's look at the have my spirit of the russian and ukrainian presidents meeting for their first taste of face -- first face-to-face talks. aiming to end five years of war. -- railonal real company y telling passengers to stay away from train statationsn france. and russia bananned from the olympics at the 22 winter games in beijing. that decision hahanded down by e worlrld anti-d-doping agency. updatates.your business we are starting withth that make or break plan, the pension reframes -- the pension reforms. reporter: that's right. it's all ahead of the national workout on tuesday, the day that

there is an expected formal proposal to keep the reform ambitions and sad -- intact. it's a difficult balancing act and one that could involve concessions. we have this report on what those reforms may look like. whahat concessions s can the french government offer? one possibility is to delay implementation. originally slated to go intoto effect inn 2 2025, that would impact those born in 1963. the unions want the date pushed back so it would start for those born i in 1973 or even 1978. it is a movement check by the prime minister and repeated by ththe finance miminister. with 42 different t public a and private pension fans, it won't be easy merging ththem into one system.

an even longer transition could be put in place. discussing a grandfather clock so it would only impact to those starting their working careers. but cgt is opposed to this idea. habit of not in the sacrificing future generations. that's not our plan. reporter: public sector employees, based on their last six months, many are concerned out.they will lose there are fears that people will have to work longer for similar benefits. considering these options, the fairest would be to gradually increase the benefits. it is clear that

battle lines are being drawn. take a look at the trarading actition. shares are d down, the fts showowing slightt l losses. yoyou can see e that this is don nearly four percent. turning now to the major indices, which finished the day with slight gains. shares in shanghai were up nearly a 10th of a percent. they were down eararlier i in te daday. it's the latest sign the trade theis taking g an effect on economy. authorities have ordered all government offices to remove hardware and s software. it will hit hard for companies

delell.rosoft, hp, and the move also appears to echo washingtgton's plan on check. shares for the u.k.''s biggest retatailer on the rise. absolutely. that company is tesco. they are reviewing this after getting offers from outside bidders. thailand is a key market for the and profitailer margins are double those in the u.k. the e potential sale is at an early stage and no decisions have been taken. there are t two closesely watctched trialsls over corrupt. reporter: thahat's right. those major cases are a coincidence. they are both on trial today.

the first, the son of the current president repealing a ruling that saw him having a suspended sentence for money laundering. luxury apartment in paris. we have more on this case. and a chateauses and a horse farm. he owned 19 millllion euros. suspectators and ngo's the charlotte sought paid for those homes with money taken from syrian state coffers. >> we suspect these assets could have been illegally obtained.

reporter: he used to be a pillar of the regime, a military commander referred to as the hamas butcher allegedly for ordering a crackdown on protests. after mounting a failed coup against his brother, he fled the country and began investing in a an offshoreeties by company.y. >> there is no s syrian public money bebehind this. arrival in switzerland, he received a natural support from his friends. his fortune says comes from a series of gifts family butudi royal investigators say riyadh has only transferred 10 million euros. his uncle is being investigated in the u.k. and spain where he

owns more than 500 properties seized by authorities. genie: a good day for women's activists. >> under previous rules, there wawas one area for menen and a r for family. they are getting rid of that policy. men eatd single separately. earlier this year women got the green light to travel abroad without permission from male guardians and they ended the ban drivers. although some argue that the pace of change is too soon -- too slow. in the nextg up half-hour, our senior reporter kathlyn noris trench will be on set. she will have the latest report from libya. stay with us.

man: donald trump has become the first u.s. president to officially recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. woman: it is a controversial and politically risky move. man: ...a wall of flames. man 2: fears that this could create further tension. woman: fears it could spark a new uprising in the middle east. crawford: hello. i'm alex crawford in jerusalem and this is "hotspots." tonight, we're gonna take you behind the scenes of some of the world's biggest and hardest-hitting stories. we get caught up in the violence in and around jerusalem and the west bank. man: the level of anger was intense. crawford: we're on the scene as zimbabwe's military topples its longtime diat