> you're tuned into live from paris. i'm rochelle ferguson. these are the top stories. everyone responsible for the accidental shoototing down of a ukrainian passenger debt -- jet must be punished. there has been an arrest linked to the investigation. demonstrators in lebanon block several roads around beirut and other areas across the country, anger at the governments failure to boost the economy is writing

-- rising. program, talkse over thehe libyan conflict and - end without general haftar finding an agreement. you're watching live from paris. ♪ rochelle: first to our main story. president hassan rouhani has appeared on tv to discuss the accidental shohooting down of te ukrainian passenger jet. only one person could not be held responsibility for the fatal crash. iran's judiciary saying arrests have been made to the crash killed 176 people who were on board the flight at the time.

>> calling the tragedy of painful unforgivable mistake, iran's president hassan rouhani promised a thorough investigation into last week'ss shootingng down of a passesenger jet. he ordered the judiciary to set up a special court to deal with the case. >> this is not a normal case. the whole world will be watching. who should be punished must be punished. >> iranian authorities said some of those accused of having a role in the disaster had already been arrested without providing further details. wednesday, ukraine's international airline flight 572 crashed near tehran's airport with one hundred 76 people on board. amid heightened tensions between iran and the u.s. following the killing of a totop iranian gegeneral. tehran initially claimed

technical problems were to blame but then later admitted that its revolutionary guard accidentally shot it down to avenge the commander's death. outrageuncement sparked among the iranian public. most off the passengers were frm the country. antigovernment protests led by students have been taking place with some being met by a violent police crackdown. forces said the armed admitting their mistake was the good first step and that government would be accountable to the victims. five of the countries that lost citizens in the crash are set to meet to discuss possible legal action. haselle: president trump sparked further controversy over his decision to kill the iranian commander qasesem soleimani by saying it doesn't really matterr whether soleimani posed an imminent threat or not. the trump administration had insisted that an imminent attack

led to the drone strike on iran's tap general. yesterday argued it was more about reining in a dangerously emboldldened iran. herbert joins us. hello to you. a real question would be that days after this strike, justification for killing soleimani appears to be falling apart. even fallingh apart as there has never been a coherent narrative. , andtories usused to justify yoyou can calall them stories, e killg ofof this totop commander have been shifting by the day, by the hour and sometimes even by the minute before your very eyes. trump will tweet something or say something andnd then all the presididents menen and w women d him have to scramble to do damage control and adapt and catch up with the presidential statements trying to make it all

sound coherent. we werere told the original justification was there was specific intelligence pointing to the threat of an imminent attackck by this general and his foforces against americann intererests in t the regioion. then we had donald trump at rallies talking of intelligence pointing to an attack against the u.u.s. embassy in baghdad. and four embassies. once again, his owowdefense secretararmark esperer said thtt he hadad no specicific e evidene pointiting to any signs there ws going to be any atattack against embassies. pattern wheret a donald trump is expressing a belief in the intelligence and willingness intelligence to point to something more than the evidence actually points to it. and even pentagon officials said they were unaware of any specific intelligence. you can say why is that

important. is it actually imminent? donald trump has said the american people do not have a right to know specifics. he has also defended himself. this is one of his latest tweets in the past several hours where he basically says that the democrats and the fake news are trying to make terrorist soleimani into a wonderful guy. anything i do he says will be scored by the radical left do-nothing democrats. basically there is another twtwee in n which he basicallyly said at t the end ofof the day t doesn't rereally matatter becauf what he called hohorrible past. it has gone frfrom threat of an imminent a attack to the reason doesn't really m matter. ththat is raising a a lot of ququestions s and debates righgw in washingn. foreignu really kill a commander no matter how dangerous you perceive him to be on the basis of it doesn't really matter?

that's not really a concrete justification. rochelle: all of this is happening as a senate trial looms. hehe's on the offensive elsewew. against his public enemy number one as he sees it, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. to show you another tweet. in this case a lot of people see this as being beyond the pale. what you are seeing there is house speaker nancy pelosi, and the democratic senator chuck schumer. nancy pelosi wearing hijab and chuck schumer in a turbine wearing middle eastern garb below democrats 2020. trump retweeted this from an account that goes under an alias called down under. that has tweeted very a anti-demomocratic messags ofoften linking democrats to terrorts..

why did trtrump retweet this? it goes in line with a very familiar pattern. harnessing fears of middle east. linking it with terrorism. trying to stoke fears. also plalayi to his babase. and the timingng is not coincintntal. going on the offensive against nancy pelosi as she e is abobouo bring the articles of impeachment from the house to the senate for an impending trial against donald trump. he has really been on the attack with her and that tweet from , nancytrump carries a # pelosi fake news. which has been determined to be an inauthentic, it has been propagated by inauthentic accounts spread by automated bots and anonymous trolls. conspiracy stoking theories and fears of middle eastern people. stoking g fears of terrorism m d

plplayg on allll the themes that were familiar toto trump right p until today and that he used very effectively in this campaign. demonstrators in lebanon have blocked several roads around the capital, beirut, and across the country in anger over the government's failure to boost the economy. mainsters blocked three highways. of others marched down main highways. saidon's president has obstacles have prevented the formation of a new government which was expected last week. let's cross to beirut. leila is standing by. what more do we know about the process? are they gathering momentum as we speak? >> you can see one of them behind me. today there were plans launched

this weekend. the protests would start at about 3:00. protesters are calling it a week of rage they are launching. they are given the government 48 hours to form an emergency government. it was supposed to start at 3:00 today. it has been going since the morning. scenes all around me burning, dumpsters burning. the air is thick with acrid black smoke. suspect police are going to turn up with tear gas. it's not just here in beirut. it's across the country it's been happening. there were protests in tripoli and police were using rubber bullets to disperse protesters. many people out on the streets again.

is only: all of this exacerbated by the fact that the country is still struggling to form a new government. >> i'm so sorry. could you repeat that? it's very loud. is sayingmichel aoun there obstacles when it comes to a foreign government. i imagine that is only exacerbating people's anger. >> absolutely. it's not the president who will be forming the new government. it''s the new prime minister nominated by t the parliament jt before christmas. we've reached nearly a month since he was nominated. he said it would take four to six weeks maximum to form his new cabinet. we had v very odd scenes earlier today when the president was making a traditional speech on television. there saying 2020 is the

year when lebanon will meet its s with everyone working together to create a country. and there were some apocalyptic scenes of people on the streets. very little in the way of creating that new cabinet. it has been since the 27th of october that lebanon has not had a functional government. everybody is furious about that because the dollar pegged to the lira is slipping. they say this is complete mismanagement by the government. it's a result of corruption. before that what they need is an emergency government to sort out problems of people losing their jobs and homes. they cannot afford to feed their families. that's what people are furious about today. rochelle: thank you. in moscow, talks over the libyan conflict have ended with

strongmen general khalifa haftar failing to sign a cease-fire agreement. the headeen haftar and of the u.n. recognized govevernment were aimed at haltg nine months of fighting. on monday, delegations from both sides spent hours trying to agree on terms of a permanent truce. tuturkey's erdogan wines that he will teach libya's general haftar a lesson if attacks resume. we wille coming days, carefully monitor what happens between haftar and libya's legitimate government. if the attacks against the people and the legitimate government of libya continue, we will not refrain from teaching him the lesson that he deserves. i spoke to rob parsons to ask him where thihis leaves discussions about libya now.

erdoganher with present , president putin has inserted himself into the future settlement of the conflict in libya. the united states has withdrawn europe in the form of france and italy tried to fill the vacuum and failed. turkey and russia are now moving into replace them in a concerted way. france and italy seemed all the time to be in disagreement with each other. turkey and russia despite the fact that their interests are not by any means completely aligned on all series of issues have nevertheless found a modus vivendi which will allow them to go forward and put that pressure on both sides and probably before very long come up with a deal. whether that's going to be a deal as soon as january 19 when a conference is meant to take place in berlin remains to be seen. but the pressure is undoubtedly

growing on both sides in the libyan conflict to bring this conflict to an end. rochelle: just as friends and partners in west africa where meeting to discuss stepping up the fight against jihadists in the region, washington's top military commander has said the u.s. plans to reduce its military presence in africa. >> the top military commander on arriving at nato headquarters in brussels signaled a scaling down of the u.s. military presence in africa. general mark milley said, resources could be reduced and shifted either to increase readiness of the force in the continental united states or shift it to the pacific. the statement was greeted with dismay by the french president as he hosted a g5 summit in southern france. it would be bad news for us if the americans decided to pullout from africa. i can confirm that.

i hope that i can convince presidident trump the fight againsnst terrorism in which hes deeply committed is also playing out in this region. >> 7000 u.s. special forces are africa.y deployed in not least in somalia. another 2000 soldiers conduct training missions around 40 african countries. they provide mainly logistical and surveillance assistance in ali. rochelle: a young boy from ivory coast was found dead in the undercarriage of an air france train. -- plain. our colleagues went to see his family and learn more about his story.

was laurent --tholomew annie get by laurent bartholomew ana queen body -- laurent barthelemy ani guibahi. >> [speaking french] >> earlier this week, he left the poor neighborhood where he grew up. instead of going to school, he walked 30 kilometers to the airport and found a way over this concrete barrier. p.m. as a boeing 777 was preparing for takeoff, he climbed into the planes undercarriage. the compartment where landing wheels are stored. with temperatures dropping to -50 degrees celsius and very little oxygen, he had no chance

of surviving. his body was found seven hours later when the flight landed in paris. h his friends are trying to understand why he took such a risk. >> [speaking french] >> and his high school had a ceremony to honor his life.e. the principal urgiging s studens not to make a similar gamble. in recent years, there has been several cases like this. aprilst in france was in 2013 when the body of a young boy was found in t the undercarriage of a plane traveling from cameroon.

american director spike lee was named president of this year's cannes film festival. it was the first person of african-american descent to preside over the festival. was shocked, happy, surprised and crowd -- proud all at the same time. a quick reminder of the stories we are following for you. everyone responsible for the accidental shooting down of a ukrainian passenger jet must be punished in the words of iran's president rouhani as tehran announces arrests linked to the investigation. demonstrators in lebanon blocked several roads around the capital of beirut as well as in other areas of the country. over the government's failure to boost the economy. russian talks are over r about e libyan c conflict, but general

haftar did leave without signing a cease-fire agreement. of pace now. stephen carroll joins me here in the studio. and china are due to sign a new t trade deaeal. states has dropped accusations that china is manipulating its currency. applplying that t bel to beieijg had part of -- been n part of te cacalation off tenensions. u.s.s. treasurury secretary says china a s now madede enforceceae cocommitments to not comompetity devalue the an.. data showingublished the weakest growowth in n three years in 202019. >> lookiking at the brigight sie even if the big picture was a bit grim. growth in china exports hit a with the u.s.

trade war and a slowing global economy taking their toll. but the chinese government posted on the good news. a year and uptick in exports. >> the achievement is eye-catching and commendable. and imports were up by 16%. a progression that came with others. andu.s. and china agreed december notot to raise tariffss plans. warthawing of their trade has led to the finalizing of a first step agreement. >> this is major progress just in the sense that we have something signed and we have a real expectation that both sides will begin to meet more regularly and discuss some of the more challenging issues they both would like to address. ofand another sign friendlier relations, the u.s. also decided to no longer label china a currency manipulator. a designation that was slapped

by the u.s. on the country this summer. the secretary of the u.s. treasury said china had made commitments to refrain from competitive devaluation. beijing welcomed the move, saying they never manipulated their currency. for the first time inn eight years, g global sales of personal computers are actually on the rise. fromis is down to figures industry resources. driven says growth was by business demand for windows 10 u upgrades. they expect the growth to continue this year. lenovo remains the world's against pc maker with over 65 million computers sold. sales of pcs have been dropping in recent years. visa hahas made a massive acquisitition. >> payining $5.3 billion for the plaid.e firm

it helps for and tech f firms connect to customers bank accounts. visally big purchase for which is looking to expand into electronic payments from their traditional cards. day 41 of the transport strike herere in fran. it's not t just passengerer sers that havave been affected.d. askeded --ors are estimateted to be losing a milln euros a day. the sector'srs for survival. >> inside these freight containers, there are auto parts, furniture, merchandise for supermarket shelves. tons of goods stuck at this railyard. thise problem is that train is currently stopped here. its final destination is italy and the border crossings are

still partially shut. it was supposed to leave at 5:00 in the evening but it's now stuck here. >> the freigight trains aren't stopped because of s striking train drivers, but because of protesting signal operators. the freight trains travel long distances and if just one is on strike, then hundreds of trains are stuck. >> the short-term consequences are dramatic with 80% fixed cost for the freight companies. this means s some will not be ae to get past t this. > are some transporters going to close? >> yes. some have cut working hours. they are struggling financially. branch has been hit particularly hard. they have been losing around a million euros every day during the strike and the timing couldn't be worse for an already struggling sector. trainer shipments have dropped

traransport 1/5 of under 10%. even though the railways remain one of the most environmentally friendly methods of shipping. renault andrmakers nissan are d denying their alliances in t trouble. >> both companies have reiterated their c commitment to the alliance. renault chairman told belgian nenewspapers thahat the alliancs not dead and was nowhere near the point of collapse. nissan has also point out to his statement today saying it was in no way planning to end the 20 year partnership between the carmakers. both companies have suffered since the arrest of the company's architect carlos ghosn.n. staying with carlos ghosn after his draramatic escae from japan. anannusual warning from m a japapanese company.

>> i it was reported he was translated wednesday -- transported wednesday in a case for music. the japanese music instrument maker yamaha has advised cucustomers on twitter not to gt into large instrument cases. in a tweet, it said that it's too late once an unfortunate accident occurs. the compmpany tweeted agagain jt to say that it was really stating something that was quite obvious. in thee: i see a film next couple of years about how this took place. thank you very much for our round of the business. stay with us. we've got plenty more news headlines coming up after a short break. you're watching france 24. ♪

host: i imagine this,s, swallowd by s suburbia. man: just a couple of kids falling in love with something cann actually y go big. womanwe just thought, well, we just have to do is. host: tonighght, the storyry ofa wiwild place sasaved and thee billioionaire couple who made it happen wiwith the gifift of a lifetim man: i didn't believe what i was hearing, actually. i it was unbelievable. this was a piece of good news, a big piece of good news. man 2: prototecting ourur world iisn't aa spectator sport. everyone needs toto get involve. everyone needs to be a leader.