úqúqúqúqúqúc . huge rallies in athens. tens of thousands of people take to the streets of the greek capital ahead of sunday's referendum. remembering the dead. a minute of silence is held to honor the 38 victims of last

week's attack in tunisia. the french government says it will not grant julian assange asylum. good evening. we take you straight to athens where tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets to take part in one of three rival demonstrations. they are preparing to vote on a referendum where a no vote could be seen as a rejection of currency altogether. banks have been closed all week. there have been reports of scuffles at those protests.

prime minister alexis tsipras backs a no vote. those pictures are from the no camp. short while ago, they were chanting the greek for no. we also heard alexander severus -- alexis tsipras address the crowd. he called for them to vote for a way that the country and its people could live in dignity and went on to say the demands by greece's international creditors are blackmail. there was a yes rally half a mile away from that. there are concerns with those rallies being so close to one another there could be more scuffles during the course of the evening. the greek prime minister was there amongst the crowd a short while ago. he was talking about the need for this country, which he called the cradle of europe

civilization, to return to dignity. hanging in the balance is the future of tsipras's government the greek economy, and possibly the future of the euro currency as well. reporter: it is a question that needs to be read carefully to understand the meaning. the greek people are deciding whether to accept the outlines of the agreement by the european union, european central bank, and imf. it is made up of two parts which constitute the unified proposal. to working documents of puppy -- two working documents accompanied the documents. greek creditors made proposals last week and it is on these terms that the greece will vote. alexis tsipras's government has

urged the electorate to vote no. it would put athens in a place to negotiate. a yes would probably mean the end to his government. the eurogroup dealing with problems. in the shorter term, greek banks are deprived of liquidity. without the help of the european central bank, would most likely go bankrupt. anchor: we can speak to a senior lecturer of politics joining us from london. thank you for speaking to us. can i start by asking you for your opinion? this referendum on sunday, is this a stroke of genius or a demonstration of stupidity and a poor sense of judgment? guest: i think it is a complete

disaster for two reasons. there is no certainty that if the outcome is what mr. tsipras wants it to be, the outside really change its attitude. secondly, he has managed to divide completely, very deeply and sadly, i daresay, for a long time, the nation. the kind of interests used by both sides of the argument are unbelievable. anchor: what are the people saying to insult each other? we spoke to a correspondent a moment ago and i was asking candy two sides sit down and have a conversation? what is your view? . there are -- guest: there are always moderates on both sides.

people are using this as an opportunity to say basically because you support x, you are a beggar or if you are opposed to y, you are the complete opposite. this is not the way to resolve big issues. this is not a way to answer complex questions especially questions the body politic has been given to the people. anchor: we are christine lagarde saying yesterday that greece had been on a path to recovery until syriza came along and they have undone be hard work. do you think that message is getting through to the greek people, that their years of sacrifice were being wasted, if you like, if they decide to go down this confrontational road with the troika? reporter: -

guest: most are surrounded by families who have a lot of people -- there is proof of any recovery that was used in any way quite solemn. a lot of people based on the idea that this is a approved meant or rejection of being a member of the eurozone. the question is being more political and difficult whether the country should stay in the eurozone or not. there is proof that the government has lost control of their agenda because they do not want the people to answer the question about the euro. they want the people to express opinion on what was an offer to them last week but is no longer

on the table. anchor: there will not be anyone puzzled by that. doctor at this stage does athens have any friends out there in the international sphere aside from sidling up to mr. putin, which we saw alexis tsipras doing the other day. is there anyone else showing signs of support on the international stage to syriza and prime minister tsipras? guest: there is no support amongst those who actually make decisions for there is a -- decisions. they are trying to make improvement. among politicians who make the decisions, i fear that the big government has managed to alienate most people. in the past week, president hollande of france has

demonstrated that the same could be said about mr. renzi. perhaps he knows because they will be down in the next few years or so. there is no front. there is no group of politicians who open and systematically support mr. tsipras's view. the exception is the outgoing chancellor. this could be seen as support for what mr. tsipras's is trying to do. anchor: he is an isolated figure, but you can understand why the greeks have resorted to voting for such a figure and his policies. up until now, nothing has shown any side of bearing towards them at all. guest: that is a good point. in 2012 the country had to

elections in may. tsipras's party took an ambivalent position on the euro. they won the election in january 2015, in my view, because they moved away and said no, we want to keep the country in the eurozone and we will manage to keep the country in the eurozone. but we'll try to do is improve the terms of the bailout and that is what they have been trying to do. to a certain extent, some of the arguments they have been using is correct in the economic sense. i fear that partly because of the attitude of the minister of finance besides on the attitude. partly because of the intransigence of the other side, mr. tsipras has been alienating

more people than he has been allying with amongst those who matter, make decisions. there is no doubt in my mind that the program is here partly because of addressing causes of the crisis. the consolation of power in a hands of a small number of people. it is not out of my mind that all of these will cause unrest. the government has made another tax moment because not that there is a new market. anchor: thank you so much for sharing that with us. thank you very much again for speaking to us. that is the scene there this evening. something of a carnival atmosphere. we had the prime minister alexis tsipras speaking a while ago. that is the scene now.

huge crowds there. 25,000 people in the no camp. is in front of the athens parliament. shortly away is the yes camp. less people in the yes campaign of there are around 20,000 said to be in the yes camp a kilometer away from there. we heard the greek prime minister earlier on calling on the greeks to vote no and using the word blackmail once again. he has used it before and using it again. the demands are made on greece by their international creditors. we will keep a close eye on the developments in athens throughout the course of the evening. let's move on to other world news. events have been held today to remember the victims of last week's gun attack in tunisia. eight travelers were killed. a minute of silence was held at the scene of the attack and also

across the united kingdom. reporter: a matt's silence at noon on the beach were 38 foreigners were shot dead one week ago in an attack claimed by the is long state group. a few hundred people attended the ceremony -- the islamic state group. a few hundred people attended this mayor money -- the ceremony. in glasgow, the queen pater respect and at wimbledon, games were halted as players and fans paid respect. >> 30 british victims have been confirmed dead, many more injured. the link to terrorism -- the message to terrorists is straightforward. terrorism will not win. reporter: earlier this week the

bodies of some of the british victims arrived back in the u.k. the wounded have also been repatriated. tunisian authorities have detained a people in connection with the attack. british officials are investigating. the shooter is believed to have trained in the same camp as the shooter who shot people at a museum earlier this year. it was the deadliest terror attack on british people since the london bombings a decade ago. anchor: the french government announced today that it will not grant asylum to julian assange the wikileaks founder. a newspaper in france printed a letter that was interpreted to be an asylum request. assange is spending his fourth

birthday at the embassy of ecuador in london. reporter: after three years of living in the ecuador embassy in london, julian assange is eyeing up a change in scenery. the wikileaks founder wrote a letter to president francois hollande. he asked for asylum, calling on france's history as a begin for the oppressed. the response was a short and swift no. the president noticed that he is currently wanted under an arrest warrant. there was an alleged sexual assault in sweden. french personalities have been among those calling for france to grant asylum. it comes after wikileaks revealed the u.s. has spied on president hollande and his chief predecessors.

france warned washington that there would be serious repercussions for the relationship if they continued. >> the united states is an ally. we have to behave like allies. this implies the need for respect. reporter: assange claims the swedish allegations of sexual assault are part of a plot to extradite him to the u.s. wikileaks released thousands of classified american documents in 2020. -- in 2010. he has not been charged with any crime. anchor: surrogacy is banned in france, but the country's top court ruled today it will grant legal recognition to surrogate children. from now on, if a baby is born abroad to surrogate mothers, it will be given citizenship and a french identity. until then, children born to surrogate mothers were dubbed

the ghost of the republic because they were in legal limbo. we are joined by a lawyer based in strasburg. can i start by asking you your position on the ruling today? guest: this ruling goes against the traditional french physician, which was very -- position, which was very clear. surrogacy is forbidden in france. it is considered a violation of the dignity of women who cannot be treated as incubators and children, who cannot be given a home in some cases. it is against the basic schools of -- principles of french rules. anchor: europe's. court of human rights did not give france a lot of choice, is it? guest: that is the problem. the ruling was strict and

decided not to recognize surrogacy abroad because recognizing it and recognizing the legal parentage of the people who have gone abroad to get the child is a recognition of surrogacy. the french court was very strict on this point. last year, the u.n. court of human rights decided on the case that even though there was no violation of the rights to family life, the children -- i know they work sometimes called the ghost of the republic, but it is a catchy phrase. it was not true at all. these children had an identity. parents could live with them and had parent rights to them. the children had social security, family benefits, and everything. the only thing was there was no official registration of their

parentage. anchor: that is complicated. if one of their parents dies, one of their children could have been deprived of their inheritance. guest: surreptitiously it's possible, but in practice when a child is an orphan, the judge decides who is the best to take care of the child. there was no parental mix between them, and there was no real problem. the problems never occurred. european courts said even though there was no violation of the right family life, there was a violation of the right to privacy other children because parentage is part of their identity and in that case, the man was a biological father. anchor: sorry, we are running out of time. surrogacy is banned in france. the you think this -- do you

think this ruling is a step towards an upcoming battle? guest: necessarily, yes. we said it after the hearing of the european court. the court said there is no violations for france to prohibit surrogacy. when it is done abroad, it sent inflation to live like this in france. otherwise it is it is going abroad counter to france law and get children like that in violation of french law. anchor: we're going to have to leave it there. i'm so sorry to cut you short. thank you so much for speaking to us. after spending 72 hours crossing the pacific, a solar powered plane trying to circumnavigate the globe touched down in hawaii. it was the seventh and

potentially most dangerous journey of the plane that started in japan. the plane started its journey in abreu dobby -- abu dhabi back in march. markus karlsson joins us. we have been keeping a close eye on athens. we heard from alexis tsipras was strong language. reporter: the issue of debt forgiveness has come back into the spotlight after them statements made by alexis tsipras, but also by the international monetary fund. alexis tsipras says a no vote in sunday's referendum would give his government the stronger position in negotiations with international creditors. we are getting a clear picture of what he wants from those negotiations in terms of debt forgiveness. tsipras has called on creditors

to except a 30% write-down of greek debt holdings. he was leading against a report issued by the international monetary fund on thursday. it claimed greece will need 50 billion euros of additional bailout money over the next three years. greece owes its creditors around 323 billion euros. that is around 175% of greece's roast domestic product. that is a heavy burden and promised her tsipras says that burden is -- and prime minister tsipras says that burden is unsustainable. germany is the biggest creditor in france is second, followed by italy. it is so unpalatable for eurozone politicians to talk about a debt write-down because it has been a no go. in germany, angela merkel has pushed back at any suggestions that greece would see its debt written down. polls ahead of sunday's

referendum shows will be a tight race. on friday, the head of the european commission was short and frank with his remarks. jean-claude juncker said there is no way a no vote will give the greek government more leverage for >> there are no -- leverage. >> if the greeks vote no, their position will be dramatically weekend. markus: that was jean-claude juncker. businesses and eurozone are doing fairly well with the economic uncertainty brought by greece. a closely-watched gauge of the activity has risen to its highest level in four years. purchasing managers across the eurozone is done by market. the turmoil in greece has seemed to have little impact on the actual economy.

let's take a closer look at the figures. 54.2 is the highest level that has been observed since 2011. the reading for france is the highest for 46 months. let's take a look at the stock markets next on this final trading day of the week. european indices ended in negative territory. investigators were eyeing the vote in greece. that may have turned down risk exposure. banking shares took a hit as brazil said it would investigate allegations of foreign exchange trading. u.s. markets are shut this friday as americans are comparing for the independence day holiday on saturday. ride hailing company uber has pulled a plug in france after drivers have been attacked. the violent protests in france have been increasing in next week.

uber has become popular alternative to taxing drivers for reporter: a victory for fred -- taxi drivers. reporter: a victory for french taxi drivers for the moment. uber has announced it will be the suspending service this friday over safety concerns for its passengers and drivers. uber called the decision a terribly missed opportunity, especially in a country with 10% unemployment. >> i am disgusted. the government has decided to put pressure on our company because of one day of protest and violence. reporter: several huber drivers were physically attacked and their cars damaged or set by protesting taxi drivers during nationwide demonstrations on june 25. luber drivers operate without a professional license and taxi drivers, who have to pay tens of

thousands of euros for permits sate is unfair competition. it is only the second time the company has volunteered suspended its service. >> is the change in communication with uber.

rom pacifica, this is democracy now! >> what to the american slave is your fourth of july? i answer, a day that reveals the him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant, to him your celebration is a sham. amy: frederick douglass