don't ask them, and they'll tell you -- if you don't think fearless at 50 when you think aarp, you don't know aarp. see more real stories at aarp.org/fearless50. >> funding of this presentation the syrian opposition group will attend peace talks in geneva but how much can be accomplished remains a big question. three days to go before the iowa caucuses. we are on the ground with the candidates getting a real taste of politics. and capturing new york city from above. photographer is bringing us high over manhattan is you that cannot be beat. -- a view that cannot be beat. to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. peace talks aimed at ending the civil war in syria got underway in geneva. opposition groups they would join by this weekend. unlessefusing to do so the bombing of civilian areas was halted. they said they will not negotiate with the syrian government. reporter: syria has been ripped apart i almost five years of increasing horror. flee.ors will continue to the migrant crisis will grow. only islamist extremists will flourish. the u.n. diplomat made the director video appeal to the syrian people. >> you women, men, and children of syria are saying enough. enough killing, murdering, torturing, prisons. toneed to hear your voice everyone who is coming to this conference saying this conference must be an opportunity. reporter: it is an opportunity only one side pickup. the assad government sent representatives. they said they could not talk as long as they were being bombed. cannot do this. humanitarian obligation toward the syrian people. reporter: the u.n. mediator was left discussing it with the assad group. on the critical question of president assad standing aside there is no evidence either his team or russia is ready to trade him for peace. they scored ahope propaganda victory by being first. the u.n. never intended the sites to be face-to-face but they did intend they would be here. this evening the syrian opposition did reverse their boycott. they will come here to the u.n. cost palatial negotiating chambers soon. already fragile search feeds off to a shaky start. lauren: for more on what is at supremespoke with the -- former supreme allied commander. it looks as though talks between the syrian government and the main opposition group might begin in geneva but the two sides were not -- will not talk to one another directly, only through mediators. what chance of success to the talks have? very low.ink it is not only the inability of the two groups from within syria to talk that it is the animosity between iran and saudi arabia, between turkey and the russian federation, between the you -- united states and the russian federation. too many of the macro parties are in serious disagreement for these talks to have much hope at this point. solution?at is the guest: i think it is worth looking back 20 years ago to the balkan wars because that is what happened. after 200,000 dead, 3 million people pushed across borders, the balkans 20 years ago look a lot like syria does today. eventually it was. the u.s., nato, russia imposing a solution from the outside that was required. laura: do you see that being a diplomatic opening given the iran nuclear deal, better relations between the u.s. into ron on, and between the u.s. and moscow now that the russians seem to be interested in a solution, is there something that can be worked on? guest: yes. that is the positive side of the ledger. absent a nuclear deal we would have zero chance of moving this forward. the other aspect to the u.s. -russian relationship is that moscow seems content at this point to more or less accept the frozen conflict situation in that might as the summer draws on, provide an opening to lift some sanctions. you could see that kind of condominium coming together to help. overall, however, i remain unfortunately pessimistic about the outcome. lauren: do you see any military progress against islamic state which might make the diplomacy in geneva effective in some way? guest: i do. the fact that ramadi has been retaken by iraqi security forces is positive. downeshmerga have pushed on the iraqi and syrian side. the bombing campaign is having real effect against the islamic state. all of that i think will be helpful in driving toward a solution. tore is no military solution this. there has to be a political diplomatic solution. it will take outside direction and intervention. these talks are as good a place to begin is we will find. lauren: could the partition of couldbe something they discuss in geneva? >> i think so. that is controversy about let's look act when he years ago at the balkans. the solution lay in the dissolution of the old yugoslavia and breaking it apart into different entities. in today's context you could see the syrianwhich current state which is artificial to begin with breaks -- a sunnillow white part in the middle and a kurdish entity in the east. table eitheron the actual partition or a federated situation of some kind. lauren: thank you for joining us. i report to congress's taliban militants control over half influence almost 30% of afghanistan. security situation was getting worse and it was almost impossible for many americans and afghan officials to travel to inspect reconstruction projects. slowed sharplyy in the final quarter of last year but expanded at a rate of .7% -- from 2% in the previous quarter. one reason could be the recent strength of the dollar which hit american exports. the u.s. state department will not allow the release of some of hillary clinton's private e-mails because they contain information that it considers top-secret. sevens this applies to e-mail chains in an unsecured account. they were not marked classified at the time they were sent. the state department was investigating whether they should have been. after months of campaigning there are three days to go until the voters of iowa become the first to make their choices in the u.s. presidential race. there was plenty of action in the state with the public and debate and a rival donald trump event. >> amateur ted cruz. -- senator ted cruz. name missing, donald trump. he limned a large, brought up by his nemesis, megyn kelly. >> let's address the elephant not in the room tonight. >> i am a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat, and ugly and ben, you are a terrible surgeon. now that we have gotten the donald trump portion out of the way. cruz who founds himself taking offense. hoping to dominate in trump's absence. the tea party favor had a bad night. >> last four questions have been rand, please attacked ted, chris, please attack ted, jeb, please attacked ted. the me just say this. -- ask one more main question i may have to leave the stage. >> if they were missing donald trump all that would have to do is switch channels. he took his -- staged a rival event purportedly to support u.s. veterans. it was a split screen kind of night. i did not want to be here. i wanted to be about five minutes away. i have enjoyed that. all the online polls said i have done very well with that with the debates and i have had a kick with it. you have to stick up for your rights. when you are treated badly you have to stick up for your rights. witnessinghat we are right now is a civil war within the american conservative movement. the republican establishment is losing control of its own party. increasingly it is donald trump who is calling the shots. takenpeople think he is but with days to go to for the iowa caucus, the ponds right themselves. he is still top of the pecking order. you joined us from des moines a short time ago. you say donald trump is at the top of the pecking order. how does his decision to boycott the debate go down with the voters? the woman in the chicken outfit said he was a chicken and that this was a profile in cowardice. it asare some who regard a active petulance rather than presidential-like waiver. there are some who think it is quite smart to run down the clock. not to set him up for mistakes or big fall. there are others who are trump supporters who like the fact that he breaks all the rules and the price that into the market. he defies the normal law of local gravity and that is why they like him. lauren: without donald trump on that stage, who seemed to gain ground? the debate was a bit more elevated. it felt like a normal presidential debate. there are -- there were not the usual insults. jeb bush comes across as the head of the school stamp collecting club up against the high school quarterback. i think jeb bush was far more relaxed and confident without donald trump there. another person who had a bad night was ted cruz. people ganged up on him and he did not do very well. he came under pressure for not supporting ethanol subsidies and really biganol is a deal. a lot of people locally think that ted cruz was the big winner last night and jeb bush was a beneficiary. thank you. as politicians make their closing arguments what are the voters looking for? which messages are resonating? to donaldson, iowa to get a taste of politics there. >> it is home in the kitchen where there is an essential american dish. >> the first thing is the tapioca. my name is beth. i am an author and blogger. what do you think of the baseline issues? >> the economy and health care are important to me. i am the local director of our public library. bringingterested in compromise and discussion. i am in the livestock feed business. >> this might be an important issue because we do not see a lot of that. >> i am a nurse and i live on a farm. reporter: it was difficult to get consensus on the electrician. what are your thoughts on the subject? >> i am pro-immigration and i think if people come here they do need to respect our american values. onour country is founded immigration. >> imo proponent of controlled immigration but with some rules to wear if you are going to come here you are welcome but here is how we would like people to assimilate. everything is a divisive issue. it is not so divisive out in the country, not in the rest of america but everything is divisive in d.c. reporter: what are the issues that people care about? >> gun control. do not take away our guns. >> to you need assault rifles? gun.ne >> they are illegal. >> people have them. >> not legally. >> who is responsible for that? believeve a right and i in our laws and if you do not believe in our laws and should work to change the law. i respect you if you need to do that. reporter: how many of you have a gun at home? that is all of you. iowa caucus on monday night. you will have to make a decision. for am the precinct captain bernie sanders. i the precinct captain for hillary clinton. marcom leaning toward rubio. >> i do not have a favorite. i think i will have your apple. >> doesn't anybody feel better now? >> we do not hate each other. lauren: there with the voters of iowa and their delicious looking high. still to come. peek is asking students to help with an experiment and they cannot wait to assist. report has found pilot error and fatigue find the crash of a trans-asian flight that killed 48 people in july 2014. reporter: at first bad weather was suspected to have caused the plane crash. thunderstorms were still trailing when the pilots were trying to land but the aviation safety council said in its report that the crash was caused by the crew. failing to follow standard operating procedures. to close to the ground while trying to land. it said they should have checked earlier with -- if the conditions were safe for landing and should have turned around when they could not see the runway. there errors caused the plane to crash into a residential neighborhood one kilometer from the runway. the council said the captain was likely overconfident in his flying skills for that my have led to his decision to continue the approach below the minimum to send altitude without an appreciation of the safety risks associated with that decision. planemonths later another crashed into the taipei river shortly after takeoff, killing 43 people. errors by experienced eyelets. saidstatement, trans-asia we respect the findings and week continue encouragement and correction from all sectors. they added they will severely punish pilots if they do not follow procedure. the council said the civil aeronautics administration had not followed up on whether the airline had made improvements after previous problems were discovered. laura: now to a science experiment with highflying appeal. askedak has schoolchildren to help them out. their growth will be compared with normal plants to help researchers develop new varieties of crops that could be grown for food during long space missions. our science correspondent has all the details. ever since tim peak blasted off his adventures have been trolled all. he is doing it again. >> we're going to get up packet -- a packet of these space seeds and we are going to do some experiments here in school. he is asking schoolchildren to help with one of his scientific experiments. >> these are very special space seeds which are ready for our special mission. up at thepacking them end of the mission and sending them back down to earth. when they arrived they will be sent out to thousands of schools to grow alongside the seeds that have not been out there as part of our special experiment. they have the rocket seeds instead of the stem going up it will go to down and roots will instead. that is what i am thinking. >> i have been watching virtually every broadcast and i am excited and my aim is to be like him. >> all the schools will be involved. the pupils and stafford are among children from 10,000 schools expected to help tim and his project. the experiment could ultimately help scientists develop crops that astronauts could grow on the international space station. in the future it could enable people to grow their own crops and other planets. eating on the space station has never been straightforward. their freeze-dried food could make way for fresh fruit and vegetables. the spacewalk made british schoolchildren realize that one day it could be them up there. even if they do not make it to space the mission might inspire them to reach for the stars in their own way. laura: what would etched of taste like? vegetables taste like? photographer at daily life in new york. >> i feel privileged to float over the world and share that with them. my name is george steinmetz, i am a photographer. i just finished my fourth book called new york air, the view from above. for 15 years i went all over the world photographing deserts. i was trying to think of something else to do. i was astounded by the acropolis -- the metropolis next door. i was using a very small helicopter. we could fight between the buildings. after a few months of flying i realized there was such a construction boom going on in the city and if i did not finish this project in a year the pictures i took would be outmoded. this morning with this pink light behind me you could see the skyline. some tolerant than the empire state building. when you are flying it is very hectic. i would discover things in the moment but also after the fact. there city,ho think they know it like an ant crawling through the amazon. you see the vanity of these people with their high-end hotels and people below are oblivious. one man sees another's floor and they do not see each other's lives. you would never know that there was another cylindrical building inside. i wanted to make a complete portrait. i had to look at all different aspects of it. york in the fall reminds me of woody allen movies. i find the city more beautiful in the winter. it is like if you are a skier and you are at the top of the mountain on a fresh powder day, it is all yours. hell of a town. laura: you can find much more on our website. to reach me and the bbc team, just go to twitter. from all of us here, thank you for watching. have a great weekend. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs, and aarp. >> what is fearless at 50? just ask cynthia anderson, who jumped out of her own 50th birthday cake. boom. or how about dr. hector flores, who grabbed life by the microphone to do some improve. don't forget my man, guy ford, the firefighter who's lighting the business world on fire. just ask them, and they'll tell you. if you don't think fearless at 50 when you think aarp, you don't know aarp. see more real stories at aarp.org/fearless50. >> bbc world news was presented by kcet los angeles. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff, here in iowa, where we take a close look at women voters as we head into the final weekend of campaigning before the caucuses. >> sreenivasan: and i'm hari sreenivasan in washington d.c. also ahead on tonight's newshour, david brooks and e.j. dionne talk yesterday's republican debate and a full week of news. plus, barbie gets a makeover: toy maker mattel introduces three new body types and various skin tones for the classic doll. and, how a ballet in denmark tells the story of asylum seekers by using a mix of professional dancers and refugees. >> this will help people in thinking differently for refugees. they look at us as normal human beings, the way we are. not just the parasite. >> sreenivasan: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.