you can find it here, in aruba. families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the >> this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am jane o'brien. rescue efforts in aleppo as the syrian city continues to be bombarded and diplomatic tensions grow between washington and moscow. bidding farewell to former israeli president shimon peres. leaders from all over the world together to pay respects. and a space odyssey comes to an end. after 12 years, the rosetta satellite down forever from the comet it was sent to study. welcome to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. in a bbc interview, russia's foreign minister has accused the u.s. of supporting syrian rebels linked to al qaeda and rejected criticism of russian bombardment of aleppo. his comments come as the u.s. state department has warned it is ready to walk away from talks with moscow after seeing little diplomatic progress. our middle east correspondent quentin sommerville has the story. quentin: when the bombs fall, it is syria's white house that come -- white helmets that come to the rescue. but don't call them heroes. for mohammed and his colleagues, their work is shattering. for this girl, he is her savior. it was four stories, he says, she was buried under for two hours. but she is still alive. the home was hit by russian planes, say the white helmets. she is just fine, with barely a scratch. but her seven-year-old sister died under the rubble. russia's entry a year ago transformed syria's war. in the streets of aleppo, they felt it especially. russia's bombs are more powerful than the regime's, crushing through entire buildings. people fled. across aleppo, civilian casualties have doubled. despite considerable evidence to the contrary, russia denies killing civilians. >> we take all necessary precautions not to hit civilians. the term "collateral damage" was invented not by us. you know by whom. and we are taking most street -- most strict precautions to make sure we don't hit civilians by any chance. quentin: russia's foreign minister says the west is sparing jihadists to undermine president assad. >> refuses, basically, to separate the opposition from nusra and the terrorist groups joining with nusra. instead of separation, we see more and more groups coming into alliance with nusra, and whenever we hit nusra, we are told, look, you shouldn't do this because they are good people next to it or in the middle of those positions. quentin: civilians of all ages are bearing the brunt. the hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. in idlib, mobile phones provide light for critical operations. medical supplies are running low. the united states says the victims are not being targeted accidentally. >> we have seen evidence of attacks on civilian infrastructure and obviously on civilians that are inexplicable in terms of trying to go after nusra. quentin: russia says it won't stop bombing. the u.s. is on the brink of suspending diplomatic efforts. for those left in the ruins of eastern aleppo, there is little prospect of escape. quentin sommerville, bbc news, beirut. jane: i'm joined by a former u.s. state department official who is now a senior director at the mccain institute of international leadership. talks with russia on life support but have not flatlined yet. looking at the pictures, it is hard to see what is left. >> that is in large part because the united states led by president obama decided not to do anything about the situation in syria, leaving a terrible void and vacuum that vladimir putin decided to fill and he has done it by killing as many people as possible to prop up syrian dictator assad. it is a shame and embarrassment. it is horrible to watch, not just as an american but as a human being, to see the suffering and the cynicism by the russian foreign minister even beyond normal standards. jane: a lot of people would say that america is right to stay out of this and, furthermore, what could president obama actually do? >> at this point the situation is much harder to deal with and it would have been three or four years ago when there were moderate forces the united states could and should have supported or a safe haven that the united states and turkey and countries in the region could have carved out to save thousands of lives and separate the terrorist forces from the moderate opposition forces. now the russians are in cahoots with of the syrian regime, along with the iranians, and they are bombing people utterly indiscriminately. the point is to terrify everyone and get everyone to flee. they are using munitions that really do as much damage as possible, including targeting hospitals, humanitarian convoys, and others. we should have no illusion about what the russians are up to. we do not share interests with the russians on syria and any presidential candidate who thinks it would be nice if we and the russians to work together in battling isis is fooling themselves. jane: again, the talks are technically still ongoing, and the state of comments is all options are being discussed. -- the state department says all options are being discussed. >> this is one of the fundamental problems from the beginning. john kerry talked about plan b. he knew, president obama knew, and sadly, the syrians knew there is no plan b. the russians knew he was bluffing. theay that we will now and diplomatic efforts, i don't imagine russian officials are losing sleep. jane: we hear about the fact that there can only be a diplomatic solution, but clearly the russians and president assad feel there is military solution. is that the only way forward? >> we are now in the worst of all possibilities, where the russians and the syrian authorities are moving ahead militarily, destroying aleppo, destroying and killing as many people as possible. and we are left to sit on the sidelines, saying we might end diplomatic negotiations could it is hard to imagine what we could do militarily at this point that would not lead to a wider confrontation with russia and no one wants that. had we done something a long time ago we would not be at this point right now. this will be one of the biggest blemishes on president obama's record when he finishes in january. jane: we are looking at what is happening now. there are reports that troops are amassing around aleppo. if the city falls, what will happen? will that be a game changer? >> it already is a humanitarian disaster and will increase exponentially on the humanitarian scale. the number of innocent people, civilians, who are being slaughtered, and it is slaughter, with the syrian and russian air force, killing as many people as possible. it will mean that people will flee, we will have renewed refugee crisis coming at a time when winter is not far away. it will overwhelm neighboring states and cause more problems in europe, where european leaders have been facing tremendous difficulty. most importantly for the syrian people, it is an unmitigated disaster and the russians are as guilty now as assad is. jane: david kramer, thank you very much for joining me. today presidents, prime ministers, and the israeli public came together for the funeral of nobel peace prize recipient shimon peres. palestinian leader mahmoud abbas was among those attending and exchanging a rare handshake with benjamin netanyahu. orla guerin reports. orla: a poignant final prayer for shimon peres. he requested this song himself. his grandfather used to sing it before he was killed in the holocaust. israel's former president mourned today by his family and by world leaders who viewed him as a tireless champion of peace. president obama: we gather here with the knowledge that shimon never saw his dream fulfilled. the region is going through a chaotic time. threats are ever present. and yet he did not stop dreaming and he did not stop working. orla: in death he brought palestinian and israeli leaders together again, briefly. mahmoud abbas was warmly welcomed to the funeral, though the peace process here is all but dead. israel's hawkish prime minister admitted having differed with shimon peres about peace but he lamented the loss of a visionary. pm netanyahu: he was a great man of israel, he was a great man of the world. israel grieves for him. the world grieves for him. but we find hope in his legacy, as does the world. orla: as the tributes are being paid, there is a real sense that this is the end of an era. shimon peres was part of the fabric of israel right from its start. he's the last of the generation that helped to build the state and he occupied virtually every major post. israelis are saying goodbye not just to an elder statesman but to a key part of their own history. decades ago, it was peres who helped to buy weapons for the army of the new israeli state and founded the country's nuclear program. in the 1970s, he supported the building of jewish settlements on occupied arab land. by the 1990's, he was negotiating peace and winning the nobel prize for the oslo accords. but many palestinians will remember him as a man of war, not peace. after a long life, a complex legacy. shimon peres was taken for burial in the soil of the country he loved so much. orla guerin, bbc news, jerusalem. jane: let's have a look at some other news. investigators have uncovered a events recorder from the train that crashed into a station in new jersey on thursday and they are hoping it will tell them how fast the train was going when it crashed, killing a woman on the platform and injuring more than 100. 16 of the injured are still in hospital. 4 mexican soldiers are dead and 2 others wounded in an ambush in the northwest of the country. local media said they were taking an injured suspect the to hospital when they were where attacked by gunmen. after the shooting, the gunmen set fire to the soldiers' vehicles. the united states has ordered families of government personnel stationed in the democratic --ublic of the congo amidst to leave amidst fears of escalating violence. most official travels to the country have been halted. dozens dead left incan shots as opposition groups -- in kinshasa as opposition groups have demanded the fall of the president. he is no stranger to controversial statements, but this time president duterte of the philippines has taken it to a new level. he says he wants to slaughter 3 million drug addicts in the way that hitler killed jews in the holocaust. jewish leaders have condemned the remarks as inhumane. but at home they are not likely to deter from his popularity. jonathan head reports. jonathan: the shocking death toll in his war on drugs has marked rodrigo duterte out as one of today's most controversy ial leaders. more than 3000 people have been gunned down since he ordered police to use all measures to deal with the problem of drug addiction in the philippines. but his latest comments comparing his campaign to the nazi holocaust are sure to provoke much stronger reactions. president duterte: hitler massacred 3 million jews. there is 3 million drug addicts, there are. i would be happy to slaughter them. at least, if germany had hitler, the philippines -- i would like all criminals to feel the problem of my country, and save the next generation. jonathan: mr. duterte had just returned from a state visit to neighboring vietnam. like the philippines, vietnam is trying to balance increasingly close ties with the united states and a strained but vital relationship with china. the philippines is a much older treaty ally of the u.s. but on this visit, mr. duterte warned he was stopping the long-standing military exercises carried out by the 2 countries' armed forces, he said to avoid offending china. earlier this month he stirred up another row with his angry response to u.s. criticism of his drug war, promising to curse president obama when he met him. >> repeat after me -- jonathan: president duterte remains popular in the philippines, and his references to adult hitler -- adult hitler -- adolf hitler will probably cause less outrage in this region thaan they will in europe and the u.s. there are unanswered questions hanging over his administration, of how far he is really willing to go in fighting drug addiction and whether he can meet the many promises of change he has made, which are the real reason is popular support. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. jane: you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come on tonight's program, the u.s. presidential candidates take to twitter with tirades that have become the talk of the campaign trail. the dutch culture minister has remarked on the recovery of dutch -- paintings of by vincent van gogh. the paintings had been stolen from a museum in amsterdam in 2002 and are described as priceless. james reynolds has more. james: the police in a naples showed off their recovery of the paintings by van gogh. one is an early seascape. the other is a depiction of his father's church. each has lost its frame. but they are both in fairly good condition. >> it is a great day for us to see the works and to know that they are safe and in safe hands. we hope they will be able to return to our museum as soon as possible. that is our great hope. james: the works were stolen in december 2002 from the van gogh museum in amsterdam. 2 men broke into the building roof and got away with the two paintings. the suspected thieves were tracked down and convicted two years later. but the works themselves remained missing. in january of this year, the italian police arrested suspected members of a criminal network near naples. officers have been looking into allegations of drug trafficking. but reports say that one detainee confessed that the network was hiding the 2 stolen works by van gogh. >> organized crime units like this particular one, this splinter clan, was probably using this art or saving it -- it wasn't on the walls -- as a possible collateral piece for negotiation. if someone was arrested, to plea bargain the case down. james: the police in italy will continue their investigations. the van gogh museum looks forward to the return of its lost works. james reynolds, bbc news, rome. jane: just when you think the u.s. presidential campaign couldn't get stranger, it does. today it was twitter tirades that were dominating the news -- donald trump and then hillary clinton chose to carry out a war of words in 140 characters. a brief time ago, i discussed it all with anthony zurcher. what could they possibly have to talk about on twitter? anthony: they were talking about alicia machado, the woman hillary clinton brought up in the monday night debate as an example of donald trump's sexism, saying that donald trump "fat shamed" her when he called her miss piggy and miss housekeeping when she won the miss universe pageant and then gained some weight, too much weight according to donald trump. donald trump did not let this sit still. he brought it up tuesday morning after the debate and talked about it yesterday, and this morning, 5:00 a.m. eastern time, he tweeted this. "did crooked hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) alicia in the debate." anthony: i appreciate that he gment" the british way with an e. jane: got something right. anthony: hillary clinton, sensing she baiting him into looking bad with the key demographic, fired back. she tweeted anthony: the unhinged line is something she repeated at a rally friday evening. tape" in said " sex donald trump's tree could this is a delicate question -- have you seen the sex tape? anthony: as a working journalist, i googled, and there are forgeries, but maybe trump was referring to a spanish reality tv show where she was getting amorous in bed with someone, what it was grainy, not exactly explicit. jane: some people are thinking, what on earth does this have to do with any of the issues in the election? anthony: it doesn't have anything to do with any of the issues in the election. i'm not sure why donald trump deemed this worth talking about. he took what could have been a one-night story and stretched it out into four days. 4:00, 5:00 in the morning, it seems ridiculous. there is the saying that nothing good happens at 5:00 in the morning and this is an example of it. donald trump is getting off message and extending the story much longer than i think is good for the campaign. jane: anything can happen, still early days. thank you, anthony, very much. anthony: my pleasure. jane: we will continue to bring you all the twists and turns of the u.s. presidential election even when they happen at 3:00 and 5:00 in the morning. it is a rare day when a slow-motion crash landing is met with hugs and celebration but that was the scene in germany as the rosetta satellite finished its 12-year mission. it traveled 12 billion miles to reach the comet and brought back valuable information. from mission control, our science editor reports. reporter: in one of the greatest ventures in space exploration, the landscapes are revealed in more detail than ever before. cliffs and rocks nearly 500 million miles away photographed and beamed back during the day as the rosetta spacecraft inched towards the surface. an animation shows how the touchdown was planned. rosetta drifting down at walking pace, the end of a 12-year journey. a last chance to explore the alien world. an anxious time at mission control. rosetta has achieved more than anyone expected. many here have devoted decades to this project. all eyes were on a single from -- signal from the spacecraft. which it suddenly switched off. >> this is the end of the rosetta mission. goodbye. >> it is like, rip rosetta. it is really sad. really, really sad. the legacy lives on. you just know that when you do these things it comes to an end. you know, it is the end of a long, long mission. reporter: emotions were so different two years ago. monica was leaping for joy that day. a tiny lander launched by rosetta had made it down to the comet. something never tried before. it didn't anchor itself but he did deliver useful science. what is remarkable is that all of these maneuvers from deep space were run from this control center, and the mission has proven so successful that the volume of data flooding back could keep scientists busy for years. what they have seen already has left them amazed. they found dust blasting off the comet contained many of the ingredients needed for life. this really matters. one theory is that the comets crashing into the early earth kickstarted life here. to flyeems a bit crazy hundreds of millions of kilometers in space to a cold-dead body, but it is full of complex molecules that if you were to bring them to earth, you can make life out of them. that is a huge discovery. from rosetta we have all the ingredients in place. reporter: for understanding our own origins, this mission has turned up key evidence. it has done more than that. it has caught the imagination of people around the world. comets were once feared. now they seem more familiar. jane: rosetta gone, but the information continuing. that brings today's show to a close. you can find much more able to day's news on the website. to reach me and the rest of the bbc team, go to twitter. from all of us here at "world news america," thank you for watching. have a good 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 aruba tourism authority. >> planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. you can find it here, in aruba. families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. nonstop flights are available from most major airports. more information for your vacation planning is available at aruba.com. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening. i'm hari sreenivasan. judy woodruff is on assignment.n on tonight's pbs newshour: n donald trump turns again to social media, unleashing a storm of tweets, while hillary clintoe keeps up her attacks on the trail. also ahead: in search of ahe better life, how nigerian women are being conned by fellowy africans to work as prostitutes on the streets of italy. >> reporter: the problem isem their clientele is poor, the prices are low, which means that the girls have to work extrao hard to pay back their debt.ck >> sreenivasan: and it's friday. mark shields and david brooks are here to analyze this week's political fallout following the first presidential debate. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.