>> welcome back to the studio, you're watching "france 24", this is live from paris. i'm shona bhattacharyya. let's take a look at our top stories this hour. two hospitals and a bakery targeted by air strikes in aleppo. u.s. secretary of state john kerry threatens russia with cutting off all negotiations as france's foreign minister says he's preparing another resolution calling for cease-fire at the u.n. security council. he was israel's last living founding father and the country's most prominent politician still calling for a two-state solution. shimon peres died early wednesday at 93. world leaders and celebrities are expected to attend his

funeral friday. solving the mystery of malaysian airliner flight mh17. an independent investigation says the malaysian airliner was brought down by a russian missile, killing all on board. russia denies the claim. shona: the u.n. secretary general, the situation in aleppo is worse than a slaughterhouse. ban ki-moon says wednesday's air strikes against a major hospital in the embattled city constitute war crime. hospital staff blamed the attack on russian or syrian aircraft. another hospital, as well as a bakery were also damaged as ground forces intensified the assault on a rebel-held neighborhood.

france's foreign minister is calling for a u.n. security council resolution to impose another cease-fire in the former economic capital and u.s. secretary of state john kerry threatens to end all cooperation with russia this wednesday unless moscow and damascus stop their attacks on aleppo. joining us now for more on the story is nabi bulos from beirut. do we know who was behind the air strikes? >> frankly no. it's pretty hard to tell at this point still. we just don't have enough information from the rebels on the ground or activists on the ground, i should say. with that being said, this area has been targeted in the past. one of the hospitals in aleppo, was targeted previously in june or july. so these areas are constantly under fire by both syrian and russian aircraft. shona: do we know whether these hospitals were targeted specifically? >> no.

according to the syrian observatory for human rights, they were saying the bombing targeted the environs of the hospital, not the hospital itself. it should be noted that if it is actually syrian warplanes, they would have been dropping barrel bombs which are not possible to target anyway. in addition, i think the entire point is to actually attack groupings of civilians so whether that's in a hospital or bakery what, have you, oftentimes that really is the idea to basically attack those areas as military targets. shona: the syrian government forces say they took a neighborhood northwest of the citadel in aleppo. how much of the city do they now control? >> well, it should be said this is merely one neighborhood that was on the fault line, which divides a rebel held from government-held aleppo. so it's not such a big advance quite just yet. it's significant because it's breaking through stalemated front lines and they've been

stalemated since 2012. that's the reason it's a significant escalation but in and of itself, it's not an achievement yet. if they solidify it, going beyond into eastern and rebel held aleppo, that would be a major development and breakthrough for damascus. shona: thank you so much reporting live from beirut. now, moving on to -- more on the story, our guest secretary general of the union of medical care and relief organizations providing free medical aid for the people of syria. thank you so much for joining us on "france 24". how do you interpret the bombing of the two hospitals in the rebel-held parts of aleppo? >> hello. unfortunately, this strike, these latest strikes on is exactly the same time when doctors make a work

strike for non-emergency all over syria, mainly aleppo, to protest against targeting hospitals and health workers during last -- during the last these days. in fact, it's another answer, savage answer, to the protesting doctors who are saying stop targeting hospitals and health workers. shona: what would you say the reality is on the ground in aleppo concerning the number of doctors, hospitals? we've seen reports that just 30 doctors are working in the rebel-held areas. >> unfortunately now we are estimating their number between 23 to 30 doctors remaining serving almost 270,000 people, civilians, in this besieged eastern aleppo. actually we have been -- we have 573 killed in aleppo during

these last few days. 10 days only. and we have 1,600 wounded people. all of these figures undermine with targeting other hospitals. we have been targeted during these last 10 days almost every day and the latest even is this, two hospitals. shona: the u.n. is asking for aid corridors. do you believe that's likely or possible at this point? >> we think that there must be cease-fire. we don't know exactly what cease-fire but at least there must be cease-fire on hospitals and health workers and humanitarian workers, at least. and we are calling also for humanitarian corridors because without them, with 1,600 injured in 10 days, no way to assume all

these responsibilities with only 23 doctors and less than nine hospitals left with very, very weak provision. very precarious situation. shona: thank you so much for joining us on "france 24". secretary general of the union of medical care and relief organizations. thank you. in other news, reinforcing its troop presence in iraq. the united states will be sending 615 more soldiers to help the iraqi army retake the city of mosul, according to u.s. defense secretary ash ash carter. troops will provide logistical support and help in intelligence efforts. the islamic state seized mosul in june 2014 and forces on the ground are readying an assault to take iraq's second city back.

he was a pillar of israeli history. shimon peres, aid to the country's founding fathers in 1948, later prime minister and president, was one of the strongest proponents for peace with the palestinians. he brokered the historic oslo peace accords with yasser arafat and won a nobel peace prize for it. by the time he died, he was the last top politician in favor of a two-state solution. we spoke with our correspondent who told us which world leaders are expected to attend peres' funeral on friday. reporter: we're going to see president barack obama headlining a group of all the main world leaders and it's going to be a security nightmare for israel to organize the safety of barack obama, bill

clinton, francois hollande, the president of germany, leaders from canada to australia. there will be a lot of people to be kept safe here. and they're going to be at israel's main military cemetery in jerusalem. they've planned to close the main highway between the airport and jerusalem. it's going to be chaotic, i think, but they are hoping that it will all pass smoothly. at the moment, we know that president barack obama will speak. he's the only one we know for sure is speaking. there is an outcry because the israeli speakers include israel's president its prime minister and the speaker of the parliament, all of whom are right wingers from the likud party there. will be no one from mr. peres' labour party no centrist politician will be speaking causing uproar locally. shona: shimon peres was an aide

during the creation of israel in 1948 and today is considered a founding father. more on how israelis are reacting to its passing. reporter: while the world mourns the passing of a man of peace, for many israelis, the nation has lost one of its fathers. >> it's a very sad day for me today. i even have tears in my eyes when i hear people talking about him. i feel it very personally. my mother had the same reaction after itzhak habean was murdered. reporter: the older generation praises his work, strengthening and building the state of israel. >> i think he gave us a lot of rights. we have to thank for every day for the nuclear reactor. he was a man of action. reporter: for the younger generation, the passing of the father figure marks the end of an era.

>> he was the last of israel's founding fathers. as part of the young generation, i feel a responsibility to carry on his legacy because there's a lot of work to be done in this country. the one thing that i loved about him was that he was unbelievably stubborn and worked hard to achieve his goals. reporter: although a controversial political figure, shimon peres leaves as legacy his steadfast commitment to finding peace. shona: an international criminal inquiry reveals malaysian airliner mh17 that crashed over eastern ukraine in 2014 was brought down by a russian missile. all twa -- 298 on board were killed. investigators compared various types of russian-made ground-to-air missiles with metal parts recovered from the crash site. the russian defense ministry

disputes the findings, accusing the investigators of basing findings on the internet and ukrainian intelligence. thomas lowe reported earlier from moscow. reporter: these are serious findings from the dutch-led investigation team and russia has hit back very hard and across the board. from the ministry of defense that you cited, they also said they've never sent weapons over the border into east ukraine that's something they've said for a long time. they said that includes the buk missiles they point-blank denied that from the foreign ministry. they slam what they call a political and biased investigation. they questioned why russia wasn't part of the investigation team whilst ukraine was and also asked why some of the data that we've put forward, why hasn't that been taken into account? the investigation team did take some of that data into account

and said quite simply some of it was false and some was sent too late to be incorporated into the report. there was a press conference, as well, from the manufacturer of the buk missiles the missile we know was used to bring down the mh17 boeing over east ukraine over pro-russian held, russian separatist-held territory. what we saw was a bewildering array of images, of data, of numbers which purported to show that the investigation team had got their numbers wrong their calculation wrong and misunderstood the trajectory of the missile and thus where it was fired from. the buk manufacturer has said it was fired 20 kilometers to the west of where the dutch led investigation said it was fired from, a little village in the east of donetsk. lots of denial from the russian government. what we haven't heard is the

official response to the sheer myriad -- plethora of evidence which was put out by the dutch investigation team, the images, the videos and the recorded phone calls from on the ground. shona: sinking deeper into political crisis almost half of the leadership of spain's socialist party quit this wednesday. they resigned to protest against socialist leader pedro sanchez's handling of negotiations. spain still has no government after two elections. the ruling conservatives won more seats than the other parties, but not enough for a majority. mariano rajoy's negotiations with smaller groups but a solution still hasn't been found. our correspondent reported earlier from madrid and told us whether the resignation is a solution tort -- to the crisis or signals more tough times.

reporter: the conservative prime minister mariano rajoy is hoping this could pave the way of the pedro sanchez, socialist leader, being ousted and the caretaker administration running, as it might be more favorable in lending votes to the conservatives to allow mariano rajoy to remain as prime minister. tonight, sanchez's team made it clear he won't be going anywhere, that although the resignations have taken place all that means is that on saturday mr. sanchez will present to congress his plan he feels the party should continue to resist a rajoy government and that what should happen is the question of what kind of an alternative government should be open up to debate. if necessary, he's prepared to have the members of the socialist party debate and vote on his proposal because he

suspects that many of these socialist people on the street are against continuing to back the rajoy government which has faced many corruption allegations recently. shona: a timely release, one of former french president nicolas sarkozy's former aides is releasing a tell-all memoir thursday. he orchestrated sarkozy's turn to the far right during his term but the two had a falling-out. the book and criticism could further hurt sarkozy in the polls. >> once key adviser to nicolas sarkozy, now a threat to his campaign to regain the presidency. investigated in 2014 for secretly recording his private conversations with the president, he was consequently shunned, then sued by sarkozy for violation of privacy.

now, back with a vengeance and a book his main target, the former president himself. one of his many claims is that during his time as interior minister in 2005 sarkozy purposely let riots get out of hand to embarrass a rival. "we had decided to let the groups of young black and arab rioters attack students and let the photographers know that such a thing could happen." a claim denied by the magazine's photographers. he also recounts a time when sarkozy, then candidate for the presidency in 2007 seeks the support of far right president jean marie lepen. "call le pen, ask him what he would want for it." an episodede le pen claims he doesn't remember.

the list goes on and sarkozy refuses to comment. his right-hand man, however, stepped into the ring. "i give no credit to this man whatever he says whatever he writes." the publication of the incendiary book couldn't come at a worse time for sarkozy. he has just seven weeks to go before his party's primary and is still lagging in the polls. shona: speaking with french news, 15 air france employees are on trial following the so-called ripped shirt incident. in october of last year angry workers forced open the gates of the head of the airline interrupting a meeting where a plan was announced to fire over 200 people. the crowd ripped the shirts of those targeted. reporter: on the second and

final day of the hearing, we heard a lot from the state prosecutor. he said that he believed that the protestors that day got caught up in a kind of losing control group effect but that was no excuse for what happened. he suggested that the 11 of them who were accused of damages that they be given 1,000 euro fines. he also suggested at that five men who were accused of violence be given suspended prison sentences for two to four months. the defense has said that the video that he used to draw his conclusions is insufficient that it was not clear what was happening in the video. most of that video, of course, was filmed by journalists who were there on the day. the judges will now be considering their verdict and they say they will release it november 30. shona: it's time now for business with kate moody. back on set. welcome back, the competition to become europe's next financial hub is heating up. three months after the brexit

vote. everybody wants to take london's place. kate: exactly and paris has been lobbying for financial business, those that might be leaving london in the wake of the brexit vote. financial regulators offered to simplify and speed up the process of registering financial firms by handling files in english. there's a special email address created to handle brexit-related inquiries. dublin and frankfurt are seen as top contenders for companies that may want to set up european bases elsewhere. i spoke to martin shanahan, chief executive of i.d.a. london, about what the irish capital has to offer. >> it's no surprise to me that a lot of other jurisdictions will see this as an opportunity for business. i and my team are every day seeking business for ireland and there's a lot of competition across the globe. from an ireland perspective, i

suppose we will be relying on our offering of the track records. ireland is a home to a large amount of foreign direct investment particularly in financial services sector. the talent availability, the fact that we're english speaking i think is a significant advantage and the cultural and physical proximity to the u.k. ireland is probably the closest thing to the u.k. outside of the u.k. so i think all of those things will play in ireland's favor. kate: dublin has been firmly in the international spotlight because of the european commission rulings about apple's tax arrangements in ireland ordered to pay 13 billion in back taxes. surely that ruling will discourage companies considering operating there? >> no, i don't believe so. we have no evidence of that. we've seen significant investment even in recent weeks post the commission decision. ireland fundamentally disagrees with the commission decision in relation to the apple ruling and

we believe the decision is flawed. ireland has decided to appeal that decision now to the european courts. apple has also indicated that it will appeal this decision and we've a long way to run on this. we've had a three-year investigatory process and now we're going to have potentially the same length of time in a judicial process so it's back in a process yet again. kate: reports suggest that opec has reached a surprise deal to cap oil output in an effort to reverse a two-year slump in oil prices. opec members downplayed expectations they would reach an agreement during informal talks with russia in algeria but oil markets have spiked as reuters cited two sources saying opec will announce a million-barrel-per-day reduction in output. the reduction would be confirmed in november.

bloomberg news is reporting a deal has been reached but none of these reports have been confirmed from the players that are taking part in the discussions in algers and talks are indeed continuing but markets have reacted quickly. uswti and international brent doubling earlier gains, spiking about 5% now. they were up as much as 6% a few moments ago so a quick reaction to the reports. we'll continue to follow the opec meeting. checking on the stock markets european markets rallied to close higher. dax and cac leading gains. deutsche bank seeing a 2% boost after plummeting earlier this week as it denies reports it's seeking german government help on a fine in the u.s. wall street was trending lower. ticking up now as oil prices rise. u.s. investors tuning into

comments from the federal reserve about the health of the world banks. and the e.u. has announced spending plans next year. reporter: it has all the hallmarks of a pre-election budget. the french state will spend 7.4 billion euros more next year than this year and cut taxes by a billion. small and medium sized businesses will see a drop to 28% from 33%. nevertheless, it expects the budget deficit to be 2.7%, bringing france into line with e.u. budget rules for the first time since 2007. >> i can confirm that we're aiming to bring the public deficits down to below 2.7% next year. this is a commitment we stand by.

some have said it's unlikely we can bring the deficit below 3%, yet our previous results give us confidence. reporter: the calculations are based on expected economic growth of 1.5% both this year and the next. international institutions like the oecd are skeptical and france's own budget watch dog says the targets are unlikely. the fiscal council is uncertain that the nominal deficit will be brought under 3% g.d.p. in 2017. europe's second largest economy is a serial offered of the e.u. fiscal rules. they have been granted an extension twice to reach the deficit targets. kate: blackberry said it will stop designing its own smartphones 14 years after its

groundbreaking model was launched. the development will be outsourced to partners. once a market leader, the company has struggled to keep pace with apple and samsung. the chief executive of wells fargo is to forget more than $40 million in pay as he tries to deal with the fallout of the scandal. they were find $180 million by the consumer regulator after staff opened more than two million accounts in customer names without their knowledge. and a deal to combine the two large beer companies cleared a hurdle. regulators around the world have given the green light to the merger already. that's all

rom pacifica, this is democracy now! >> no more will they be pawns in the game. amy: prison guards in alabama refuse to show up for work as prisoners across the country are continuing to wage the largest prison work strike in u.s. history. we will speak to a prisoner in solitary confinement in alabama and two organizers.