Of cancer care. Learn more at cancercenter dot. And now, bbc world news america. Katty this is bbc world news america. Reporting from washington, i am katty kay. On witht for falluja is iraqi forces battling the socalled Islamic State to retake the city. Actor and comedian lowcost be has been ordered to stand trial over accusations he sexually assaulted a woman at his philadelphia home. Hange is coming to twitter welcome news for those of us who have trouble expressing it all in 140 characters. Katty welcome to our viewers on Public Television in america and around the globe. Tonight the socalled Islamic State group is being targeted in syria and iraq. Kurdish forces are advancing north of the stronghold of raqqa in syria. In iraq, the army is encircling falluja, which has been held by the militants for more than two years. Our first report is from falluja where jim muir has traveled to the front line with iraqi forces. Jim pounding away at the selfstyled Islamic State in falluja. Day two of the offensive sought heavy bomb argument bombardment as Ground Forces pushed for the outskirts of the city. , the militants said, was filmed on the other side of the line, inside falluja. It shows their fighters defiantly holding on and hitting back. Against them is the result of a huge mobilization. Thousands of army and police shia militiasby and sunni tribal irregulars all massed against the militants. Other city centers, bag dad, to the south, they all come here to kick them out. The shia militias are playing a prominent battle rule and are in a jubilant mood after the advances. One of their leaders was also upbeat. It is a court native plan. Coordinated plan falluja. In a few days we expect to have surrounded we expect to have falluja surrounded. Many in the south are being used as human shields. Jim the frontline has advanced and they are seeing troops and militias being pushed toward the town being defended by, at most, a few thousand militants. Also there are 150,000 civilians. Smoke going up because there is a battle there as the forces move in on falluja from different directions. The next days will be an assault on the town. That is when it is believed that the civilians they cannot get out are under risk. They hope that i. S. Will be under such pressure they will lead them out peacefully. It is unclear how much of a fight militants will put out. Put up. If a fight to the death there are fears that much of the city will be left. We mentioned, in syria, kurdish led forces are pushing closer to raqqa, a home to thousands of Islamic State fighters. Does it suggest the group is losing influence and territory . Our security correspondent Frank Gardner has this assessment. Frank an army on the move in northern syria. They are backed by the u. S. , they aim to take control back from the Islamic State in raqqa province. Russia has offered support. Back here, the man who controversially sent British Forces into iraq admitted today that he underestimated the forces unleashed by that invasion. Now, he wants the west to intervene in syria. They have to be tackled on the ground now. It doesnt have to be our forces all the time, our forces can be do not be under any doubt that if you want to defeat these people, you will have to go and wage a proper ground war against them. Frank our local forces of to the task . Kurdish and arab units have been trained. I thought well when supported by airstrikes, but lack the suicidal fanaticism the jihads are facing. They are in northern raqqa province, 30 miles from the city. Raqqa is the de facto capital of the Islamic State, where hostages are held and atrocities carried out. Crowds have often been ordered to attend public headings and amputations. They have warned residents to leave. There are fears that how the i. S. Will react. I. S. Has been a reaction to a political vacuum. They encroach on government space. If they push back to much, the rationale of creating a react further to try to attack targets within europe outside the region. Taking on targets in the european countryside is relatively using for this u. S. Backed force. Going into raqqa itself is a different force. There will be tunnels, boobytraps, diehard defenders, and a terrified civilian population. It will not be straightforward. And alarming prospect. The new commander of u. S. Forces in the middle east, army general joseph eitel, made a trip to syria. He took a small group of supporters. Among them was Washington Post reporter david ignatius. Welcome back. You just got back from northern syria. A rare trip inside with u. S. Forces. What did you find . David it was the first time a centcom commander has taken reporters anywhere with him in the region in six years. It was very unusual. We were actually allowed to accompany the general into syria. To spend the day at a Training Facility in northern syria. To see how the pieces of the campaign against the Islamic State with the u. S. Advisors deeply involved in training and advising on the ground how that is going forward. Katty was the timing linked to the fact that the iraqis are pushing into falluja and kurdishbacked fighters are pushing north of raqqa . David i do not think the trip was timed to any specific assault, but i saw in iraq and syria that the pace against the Islamic State is clearly accelerating. There are efforts on many fronts. Part of the idea is to do so many things simultaneously that isis resources are stressed. They have so many different battle fronts. The idea is that they are increasingly short of fighters, short of money, short of flows of new people from the outside. Katty your reporting suggest that americans have gone with the army they have rather than trying to create an ideal army. Is that the kurdish fighters, in particular, are they up to the task . David what i saw on the ground in syria talking to people is that the syrian and kurdish militia, the white bg the ypg that the u. S. Has been supporting, is a very tough fighting force of men and women. I remarkably met women fighters from what they call the ypj that have been on the front lines of combat next to the men. I was told by u. S. Military advisers that the women go into combat wearing suicide else. They know if they are taken prisoner they will be made into sex slaves. These are tough people. The u. S. Advisors think that they are a to the job of clearing raqqa house to house. Theyre trying to build enough of a sunni component that the sunnis that live in raqqa will not reject their presence. Katty when you have a coalition like that in northern syria, the question is what are their isious interests . When raqqa retaken, falluja, mosul as well . David that is the big question. Is nowitary strategy beginning to gain momentum. You can see that, talking to people on the ground. The political strategy remains confused. Ets defeatn is l isis, then we can worry about very complicated political issues later. Katty thank you for coming in. Actor and Comedian Bill Cosby will stand trial on Sexual Assault charges. That was the decision of a pennsylvania judge. More than 50 women have publicly accused mr. Cosby of sexually abusing them. This case deals with one 2004 encounter in the entertainers home. 78, this was at not the retirement be had planned. To facesed did not get his accuser in court. That is yet to come when he returns to the criminal trial. The judge heard from three statements made one year after the alleged incident. In them Andrea Constand says she was given three unidentified while at bill cosbys house for dinner. They made her dizzy, she felt frozen, unable to talk. She says that is when the Sexual Assault took place. Bill cosby says any Sexual Conduct was consensual. Andrea constand said bill cosby was her friend and mentor. She says she was asking for career advice on the night she was assaulted. The point is that it was intoxicating to her. That she was unable to consent. That is a crime. Thisok forward to handling in court. Correspondent since the details of the case were made public, dozens of women have come forward with similar claims. His behavior was like that of a predator. I woke up in the back of my car, a loan. My clothing was a mess. My bra was undone. Correspondent some have taken out several suits against the entertainer. The former stars own words may prove damaging. Often a perpetrator or alleged perpetrator does not give a statement to the police. He did. Now, he will have to deal with his own words, which it was indicated through testimony that he signed his statement. Correspondent once known as americas dad, he was a legend. The first africanamerican to hit prime time. His past is now blighted by controversy. He will get a chance to defend himself, but if he fails come his last years could be spent in jail. Bbc news, philadelphia. Years it has been eight since the financial meltdown of 2008 sent markets tumbling and businesses going bust. Unemployment soaring. Many are trying to recover. In the new book makers and strategist rana that ourargues Financial System is vulnerable as ever. Could another meltdown be on the way. I was joined from new york to discuss her research. We heard a lot above the regulations being put into place to make sure wall street did not make the same mistakes again after 2008. Are you suggesting it hasnt panned out that way . Regulationsof the have been made into swiss cheese because of financial industry lobbying. The financial industry and big pharma are usually the number one lobbyists. That is part and parcel of what im talking about in my book. As finance has gotten stronger and more powerful, business has become weaker. That is the opposite of what it should the. If you think about what adam smith expected the Capital Markets to do, it was to support business. Iny 15 of the money American Financial institutions right now is making its way into business investment. The rest of it is existing in a closed loop of trading and speculation. Katty another statistic that was extraordinary was Financial Institutions account for 24 of profits but 4 of jobs. Rana if you want to look at who is sucking the economic oxygen out of the room, look at that figure. As finance has gotten bigger over a 40 year process, business startups have decreased. Entrepreneurialism, the foundation of Economic Growth in america, is going down. Nonfinancialggest businesses are starting to behave like Financial Institutions, keeping money overseas, not doing the job creating things that they used to. Rana if you look at the last couple of years, it has been a record year for corporate share buybacks. When companies artificially jack up the prices. That Financial Engineering has become rife. Companies get five times as much money from doing financial activity. You have airlines hedging oil. Until recently, ge was a too big to fail bank. It is affecting the economy as a whole. Katty we are seeing some of this play out in the political season with bernie sanders. Will it change . Rana if you look back at when markets towards the best philosophy began, it began in the 1970s, then continued in the 1980s and 1990s. We are at a tipping point. The fact that outsiders are grabbing so much attention in the campaign and hillary is having more trouble getting traction then you would have thought, people know the economic airtime is broken and they are looking for change. Katty the book is makers and takers thank you for writing it and thank you for joining me. The world of finance and how to create jobs playing out on the political scene in the United States and other countries as well. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come on tonights pigs are helping cure blindness in china. It is a medical advance that is worth one part of the countrys science revolution. Five days after the last of the lane over the mediterranean, one official claims the investigation points to an explosion on board. That is being denied right other investigators. There are conflicting reports swervedther the airbus before it plunged into the sea killing 66 people on board. Correspondent aircraft and ships from Different Countries are looking for the wreckage of the egyptair plane. Looking for anything that could help investigators understand what happened. So far, little has been established with any certainty. Seven News Agency Reports have quoted an unnamed senior egyptian forensic official who says the small signs of human remains recovered suggests the logical explanation is that the aircraft was brought down by an explosion. That has been denied by the egyptian head of forensics, saying it was too early to identify the cause of the crash. Came down last thursday on a flight overnight from paris to cairo with 66 on board. One of the few pieces of hard data is messages that smoke had been detected in a toilet and the avionics bay below the cockpit which contains electronics. Swervedsay the airplane 90 degrees to the west than 360 degrees to the right before losing altitude. Ahead of egyptian air Navigation Services said the officials did not record any swerving. While they did spot the airplane on radar before it disappeared, they could not communicate. With so much unclear, the key to establishing what brought down the aircraft will be the recovery of the voice and data recorders if they can be found. Changes are coming to the social networking site twitter. To attract new users there will be some trex ability regarding the traditional 140 character limit. Despite its highprofile, this business is struggling. The man who wrote the first tweet is jack dorsey. Simplify the user experience. He has been speeding to our north american correspondent. It is the social network used by everyone. Faces a problem. Business is doing badly. The man behind it, billion chief executive jack dorsey is under pressure to put his right. Uset can be simpler to around tweeting. We are focusing energy on making sure that when people tweet it makes sense. Correspondent when twitter hit the New York Stock Exchange and 3 it teen the si in 201 had a valuation of 23 billion dollars and expectations were high. Over the past couple of years the company has had a rough time and the value has dropped dramatically. People are tweeting less and not enough new people are signing up. Twitter hopes that making it easier to include more in a single tweet will help. As well as other changes to make things more straightforward to newcomers. Others say widespread issues with controlling on the social network is what is holding it back. Be feel reluctant to involved. There is a sense that in many cases it is not a nice place to be on the internet. More so than other social networks you are seeing abuse. I do not think the negativity , abuse, and harassment is unique to twitter. It is an internetwide issue we all need to solve. We made it a priority for the company, making sure people feel safe to express themselves. Giving them easy tools to mute and block. Correspondent it is not difficult to find users in san francisco, but even here the social network is falling behind. Do you use twitter . No. Why not . Dont. St i have facebook and instagram. It is enough. Twitter and facebook for that matter have been trending up in age. The average user of both are increasing in age. Younger people are flocking to snapchat and instagram. Twitter has had a hard time. Correspondent jack dorsey insist the latest tweaks are just the beginning and he has more ideas to get people coming back. The company has a fight on its attract a new generation of social media fanatics. Bbc news, san francisco. To our continuing series on chinas science revolution. The bbc is focusing on how in a few decades the country has become a global powerhouse for technology. When it comes to medicine, eyesight problems are a Public Health issue. Scientists have come up with a new treatment. Our global science correspondent reports. A radicalent solution for chinas shortages. Are big business. This farm has a new use for its livestock. Parts of their eyes are being transplanted into humans. Here are the animals that could help the blind to see. They are under quarantine because they are being bred for meat. Their corneas are removed as byproducts. The government gave the goahead last year. It is being rolled out on a massive scale. Tos patient is the latest have undergone this experimental procedure. ,is cornea has been infected leaving him unable to see on one i. It meant that he lost his job. Now, he has been given a pigs cornea. His sight is already returning. The doctor says in two to three weeks i will see clearly. Of course, it will be huge transformation. Newespondent the operations could ease chinas transplant crisis. 8 Million People are blind with damage to the cornea and major causes. There are only a thousand transplants each year from human donors. It has taken this company 10 years to develop an alternative. We are trying to use animals to replace human corneas. Dog, pig, and carol. And cow. We found out the pigs are similar to human beings. Correspondent that the undergo steps to get ready. In the finished product, all of strippedells have been away, leaving the basic scaffolding ready for transplant. Some warned that china is moving too fast without assessing the longterm effect. Inggui says it will be worth it if his eyesight returns. Other countries have expressed interest in using pigs to treat line this. With a growing interest in harvesting organs from animals, pigs could be just the start. Ty of unbelievable how fast medical technology is progressing in china. Those people are very happy with their results. All of the news is on her website here you can find me on twitter kattykaybbc. Thank you for watching, i will see you back here tomorrow. Make sense of International News at bbc. Com news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. Newmans own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good. Kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Etrade. And, Cancer Treatment centers of america. Etrade is all about seizing opportunity. Cut. So i am going to take this opportunity to direct. Thank you. Well call you. Evening. Film noir, smoke, atmosphere. You are a young farmhand. Etrade is the cow. Milk it. Etrade is about seizing opportunity. Proper nutrition can help maintain your immune system during Cancer Treatment. Thats why here, dietitians are part of the comprehensive care team. Integrative cancer care lives here. Learn more at cancercare. Com. Cancercenter dot,. Hi. Its mecoach hooper and ive got my special whistle, which means its time to get up and exercise [bugle] wow its also time to get a new whistle. Ok, now, lets get moving because today, were going to exercise like dinosaurs. Move those feet and stomp through the forest like a stegosaurus and watch the ground shake now flap those wings like a pteranodon through the sky just flap those wings and do your thing now shake your tail, your dino tail just shake shake shake short or long just shake your tail to this song awesome job and if you want to try out more exercises with me,