policet, though, paris tear gassed protesters as rent president francois hollande insisted he was standing firm on plans to overhaul the country's labor laws. the government forced the law through parliament. 220,000 people marched today in cities across the country, while lorry drivers nationwide blocked roads and ports. about a quarter of french people are opposed, but the lawn says

it is vital to bring down unemployment. pass.s law will it will pass. because it has been discussed, it has been debated, it has been corrected, it has been amended, and i will not give in. reached,omise was unions are backing the law, the majority of socialists are also in favor. 's" claireance 24 williams was in paris where today's demonstrations took face. she sent this report. the protests started about three kilometers away. protesters blocked as much traffic as they possibly could. there were a few scuffles, incidents with the police, but by and large the protesters were quite called today compared to what we've seen in the last few weeks. effort onreally an

the part of the kenyans and police do not have the scenes we have seen could we have seen some violence and scuffles with police but this time around things have gone a little more calmly. we have they that drivers on our side, train drivers going on strike, too, and the government says, with francois hollande on the radio this morning, that they are not backing down, these reforms will become law. we will have to wait and see who holds out longest. laura: claire williams reporting earlier. the latest talks on syria have wrapped up with no major breakthroughs. russia and the united states chair to the summit in vienna, bringing together countries directly or indirectly involved in the war in syria. but neither this young government nor the opposition took part. efforts were focused on reviving the cease-fire and getting humanitarian aid to civilians. u.s. secretary of state john kerry said the syrian government

needed to start talking to the opposition. there is no way to end this without a political solution, and the reason foreign minister lavrov and i, russia, the united states, our countries are working together, is because we long ago came to understand the futility and stupidity of an escalated process that could destroy syria altogether and create even greater problems throughout the region as well as elsewhere, europe and elsewhere, with more migrants, and that this instability, which attracts ihadis tomore j syria, is not good for anybody. i think president assad needs to take stock of reality. laura: "now to our correspondent. anthony mills is covering those talks for us. anthony, there was never a great deal of hope pinned on these talks, was there?

no, there wasn't, and in effect at their conclusion, the united states, secretary of state kerry and his russian counterpart lavrov, putting a s toe face on what continue be a deep divergence of views and approaches to this now years-long syrian conflict. as they met there were reports from syria indicating that violence continued on the fragile patchwork cease-fires that had been in place for a number of weeks now were not really holding, and putting on start display the disparity between the show of unity, the show of physical unity at that post conference talk and the reality on the ground, where we see entrenched positions on both sides. , ofhe one hand, the regime course, president bashar

digging its heels in, with hezbollah fighting to prop up bashar al-assad. other, countries, the united states, saudi arabia, turkey, saying there can be no stable future for syria without the departure of president assad . in the interim, no clear path forward. laura: no caps off forward, but we did have 2 major talking points today. one was getting humanitarian aid to civilians, particularly those under siege. another was cracking down on any groups who are seen to violate this fragile cease-fire. difficult to see how that will work moving forward. anthony: absolutely. one gets the impression that those 2 elements of the path forward that you mentioned were the only 2 elements that participants in the talks were able to coalesce around.

indeed, putting a brave face on the inability to chart a political path forward in the absence of the ability to do that, russia and the united states and, indeed, the un's special envoy for syria, coalescing around those 2 elements. the stability of even airlifting aid into besieged areas inaccessible to you and aid aid agencies.n. a clutch look into crew was breaking those cease-fires. coalescing around those 2 elements, in the absence of any agreement on the future of the president, on the future political course for the country , and indeed, in the absence of that kind of political agreement, no indication the violence on the ground is going to end anytime soon. laura: anthony mills in vienna, thanks very much.

the islamic state organization has claimed responsibility for at least one of the three major bombings to rock baghdad this tuesday. at least 72 people were killed and dozens wounded in the blast. latest in a deadly string of attacks in the iraqi capital so far this year. reporter: the aftermath of yet another suicide bombing claimed by the islamic state group in the iraqi capital. this time the target was a crowded marketplace in baghdad's predominantly shiite neighborhood. againsidents are once directing a frustration at the embattled government. >> the blast here till the woman, her brother, and a niece could the others who came for shopping were either killed or wounded. what crime have these innocent people committed? >> we are fed up with the violence. the city has become the scene of daily explosions.

reporter: tuesday's blast was the deadliest in a wave of bombings across baghdad. another hit in the north of the capital. in the third onslaught, car three killed. despite iraqi forces in ground against the islamists, attacks in the capital have increased in recent weeks. the continued unrest draws attention to flaws in security procedures. laura: the head of the opposition in venezuela says the country's armed forces must decide if they are with the president or with the constitution. president nicolas maduro is accused of violating the constitution by imposing a 60-day state of emergency amid a catastrophic economic crisis. maduro says that outside forces are to blame for spiraling prices and severe shortages. reporter: nicolas maduro's

response to the crisis rocking his country, i decreed establishing a state of economic emergency, one that gives him sweeping powers. 12 articles detailing the measure were published in the government's "does that. -- "ga zette." to get theaduro: productive capacity of the country backup, to strengthen food supply to committees, and above all, to report, neutralize, and defeat the external aggressions that have been launched against our country. reporter: like his predecessor hugo chavez, maduro blames the united states for the country's woes. the decree beefed-up the power of the military. guaranteeill help to the distribution of food and stables and guaranteed public order against destabilizing actions. for the opposition, the decree and the state of emergency sound a lot like an abuse of power. befor decree like this to

passed it has to be approved by the national simile. it has not happened and will not happen. reporter: four months venezuela in been weathering the fall oil prices, a drop in state revenue that has led to cuts across the board. electricity, hospital supplies, food shortages. a crisis the opposition blames on maduro's mismanagement. they are calling for a national referendum to remove maduro from office. peopley may, 158,000 signed a petition in support of it. the national electoral board has yet to reply. laura: mexico's president has proposed changing the constitution to allow gay marriage. henrique pena matchup -- enrique pena nieto says is it is important to have consistency across the country. he was speaking at an event against homophobia.

states, athe united long slog to become the democratic party nominee for president continues. hillary clinton take bernie sanders in 2 states today, kentucky and oregon. nationwide, she has a comfortable lead over her left-wing rival, but supporters where he a drawnout battle with sanders will hand ammunition to donald trump, who is all but certain to become the republican party candidate. reporter: another twin primary for democrat voters in kentucky and oregon on tuesday, with hillary clinton under pressure to pull further away from rival bernie sanders. hillary stands up for women , andhildren and families the violence in our country, the gun issue. oh, my goodness, so many issues. foreign policy. i think she is qualified. reporter: qualified perhaps, but former secretary of state is

struggling in kentucky after comments vote putting coal miners out of business. that left sanders looking to the state's poor white demographic. the senator has found not to drop out of the price for the party nomination, dragging clinton more to the left than she had expected. >> make sure she sticks to the more liberal values of the democratic party instead of trying to be more moderate because i think when this is showing is the democratic party does want a more liberal candidate. reporter: that has left clinton tied up in democratic showdown to the bitter finish ahead of any electoral battle with presumptive republican nominee donald trump. >> awful if he won. horrible things to basically anyone who is not a wealthy white male and it disturbs me there is such a substantial portion of the population that doesn't care and thinks he would be better than a democrat or independent. support withmp's

poor whites far outstrips and any campaign between the two promises to be bruising. laura: time to get around about the top business news. markus karlsson is here with that. starting here in france, report .n the french labor reforms francois hollande is sticking by them and a lot of protesters on the street saying otherwise. markus: indeed, this package was put to the test in the streets this tuesday, as we saw thousands of protesters coming out in cities like marseilles, paris, worried about a watering down of their rights as workers. the cdc union says 220,000 people came out, while police sources say 68,000 people came out. quite a large discrepancy there. as we usually see whenever there are protests of this magnitude. in any case, the turnout was smaller than we have seen for previous protests, with 400,000

people coming out at the end of march. seemsay was a test, it the labor reform package pass pattern has test at least today because we see further strikes and protests later on this week. in the meantime, as laura was just saying, we heard from the french president and he said the government won't back down, he won't give in, the reform package will happen. that was the message from francois hollande as he spoke during a radio interview and he spoke of economic priorities between now and the next election. issays the french economy doing better and he wants to lower taxes for households. he spoke about the issue of executive pay package. this follows criticism that a partly state-owned carmaker was too generous to ceo's. shareholders recently voted against the pay package for this gentleman, but the board still backs it. francois hollande says he is ready to take action to prevent that from happening again.

hollande: let's say the shareholders, the people who own the company, decide in a general meeting to cap executive pay. and a reasonable level they cannot be judged as being extravagant. the first decision that will be taken is that all decisions taken in general meetings will come into effect immediately. that means the board won't be able to undo what the shoulder general meeting the sites. beyond france come here is another story we are watching for you. brazil's finance minister is using to boost -- racing to boost confidence in the country's beleaguered economy, following the suspension of president dilma rousseff. he has named a new head of the country's central bank. antigens has more details. brazil's turmoil is echoed in its economy and the new finance ministers making changes. i would like to announce the new president of the central

bank. emma: he has an impressive cv. he has previously worked for the imf, world bank, and the u.n. command was the central bank director for economic policy from 2000 to 2003. his expertise is sorely needed. last year brazil's gdp shrank by 3.8%, the same dire result is predicted for 2016. henrique is pledging to take whatever action is needed, including setting the central bank free of government interference. >> we are advancing in a very firm and secure manner, but also advancing in a very important and decisive way. brazil's new acting president and his government are already phrasing protests on the streets, accused of stealing power by some. there are also fears that

business from the agenda could make life worse for ordinary fromlians -- the business the business friendly agenda could make life force ordinary brazilians. unemployment could get as high as 14% and he will not rule out further increases in tax. look at theill stock markets next and in the united states we are seeing shares close to their session the dows tuesday, with jones industrial average accelerating its losses in the past hour or so, down more than 1%. we are think it's -- we are seeing consumer discretionary shares trading to the downside utility shares trading to the downside. digesting comments from 2 fed officials that suggests the u.s. central bank could raise interest rates two or three times this year, a little bit more than what investors seem to be thinking. one sector that is backing the trend is the oil sector. we are seeing energy shares heading higher as we are seeing higher oil prices.

let's also talk you through the european close on this side of the atlantic. we saw, shall we say, a lackluster session. at first the indices were in positive territory. then they tapered off the gains with the cac and the frankfurt dax in a negative territory. vodafone shares did well in london after the company came out to say there was a recovery in europe and the european business. back to you, laura. laura: thanks very much indeed. that is it for business. now time for our cannes rendezvous. genie godula has been sticking to director steven spielberg about his latest film "the bfg." take a look.

genie: steven spielberg is one of the biggest names in entertainment today. with the past 40 years he has used and directed one blockbuster after another. "jaws," "close encounters of the third kind," "raiders of the lost her," "jurassic park," the list goes on and on. --elberg is back in cannes for years he was president of the festival jury -- two for his new movie, "the bfg," the big friendly giant. if the critics in cannes are right, it might be the next "e.t."

genie: steven spielberg, hello. stephen: hi, how are you? --ie: the world for your of world premiere of "the bfg" was in cannes. do you still get nervous? stephen: i was nervous on the airplane, i was nervous getting out of the car with all the glitterati. once we got to the red carpet i felt right at home here in cannes. genie: "the bfg" is based on a children's book by rolled --

roald dahl. steven: through my kids. i had known about "james and the giant peach," "charlie and the chocolate factory." it came out in 1982, the same year "et" was released. i think i read it to my son in spain when i was making "the empire of the sun," and i andmber playing the bfg feeling tall, and also lonely, because it is a story about 2 lonely people who find each other. it is kind of an epiphany hearing myself reading dahl's words to my first child and i've since then ready to a lot of my kids. -- ready to a lot of my kids. it to a lot of my kids. genie: you have said in a past was inspired in part

by you trying to deal with your parents divorce. " was thatn "the bfg scene where he was bullied by the stronger giant. would you ever bullied as a kid? steven: yeah, i can relate to that. it is a scene i can do for my own memory. that was never bullied way, taken to the top of the hill, stuck in a garbage truck, and sent hurling to 2 cars. genie: thank goodness. steven: thank goodness. but the movies allow us to take her own life and magnify it and exaggerate it. " is the firstg film you have directed for disney. what is your favorite disney movie that you like showing to your kids and grandkids? steven: i think my favorite disney movie is still "no white and the seven dwarfs." genie: why? movie: i love what that

says about conversing of differences, and each of the different personalities of the seven dwarves. it is a story of jealousy and envy and also your heart will triumph evil pit i love those basic precepts of fairytales. "the bfg," it is my first fairytale. nie: which of all your films that you made would you like to be remember for? steven: oh, i can't answer that question. it is too difficult. it is not up to me to suggest to anybody that they should remember anything about the movie because i said so. it is up to people, not to me. movie is much of the about what the bfg calls the golden fizz wizard. what is yours? do you want to direct a bond movie? steven: no, not since 1970's when i asked twice could i have gotten over that. is starting aard

movie that today talking to you is unknown. it is when that little idea and you wake up and say that is what i want to do next. genie: you have seven children. your grandkids can do they realize how cool their grandpa is? steven: no, but they know how cool my reading skills are because i reach all of them. genie: you have one movie each of the next four years. hownext "indiana jones," are you preparing for that? steven: i'm not apparent for because i'm not making it until 2018. it is not in the foreground of my thinking now. i'm making 2 movies, both of which have mark rylance in them. genie: you directed him to an

oscar last year in "bridge of spies"? what makes him such a great bfg? cteven: he is such a savanti prodigy on stage and making the transition to fill. you have to reach the little old lady in the back row. in film you have to be quiet sometimes. the camera sees everything. the camera sees deeply into what you are doing that you think you are not doing. mark made that transition from peter to film without -- from theater to film without any help from me. he wanted his character to be mysteriously quiet and yet he told us so much about himself with his mental wilson -- his minimalism. ," it is theg opposite. it is a big performance, and to be able 2 movies in a row to see from blackng color,

and white to color, like dorothy stepping into the land of oz, that is how it felt. it was just a gift for me to witness that. here.l be right genie: you were talking about "e.t." before. premiered in cannes 34 years ago. it must be british review you because both films were written by melissa matheson -- bittersweet for you because both were written by melissa mathison. steven: i met her on the set of "raiders of the lost ark" in tunisia. we did "e.t." together, "the bfg " together. but she was on the red carpet. i thought she was there. genie: steven spielberg, thank

you so much. ññ1111@1@1@1@1púúa xx

05/17/16 05/17/16 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from chicago, this is democracy now! >> the u.s. invasion of iraq was a major reason in the development of o or primary rean in the incitement of sectarian conflicts, which have now exploded into these monstrosities. amy: "who rules the world?" we continue our conversation with noam chomsky, leading political dissident, on unrest in the middle east, the threat of a new nuclear arms race, the