♪ host: welcome to live from paris. these are the top stories we are following for you at this hour. britain squeeze elizabeth unveiled the governments to your dominatingith brexit a number of key issues piled on the agenda, including the economy and national security and investment. is ins justice minister line after his party is investigated after job allegations. this indicates a government

reshuffle e by presisident macrn todaday. saudi arabia's president replaces his nephew has crown prince and reinstalls his son as the first in line to the throne. ♪ host: but first, britain squeeze elizabeth has unveiled the governments two-year legislative program with brexit dominating. and the queen's speech that we listen to a short time ago, she stressed the government would need to focus on a special relationship with the eu. other issues addressed in the speech were the economy and national security with plans to review counterterrorism policy. here's the queen speaking a short time ago. >> my governments priority is to secure the best possible deal as

the country leaves the european union. my ministers are committed to ,orking with parliament administrations, businesses and others to build the widest consensus on the country's future outside the european union. host: to bring us more, benedict patio is standing by. good to speak to you. some of the issues coming out of the queen's speech today. talk us through some of the main points she discussed. as we expected, the speech was short. there is a reason for that. the government does not want to tie itself down too much, but there were some very specific measures announced. as we expected, dominated by brexit, which indeed that divorce from the european union was noted for in a referendum almost by year ago by the british peoples being enacted.

very much will the government says it once and the queen's speech is to make a success of brexit. that will have to be done in many ways, forming those new trade relationships. they talk about customs bill that will enable britainin to he its own customs regime upon leaving the eu. that's leaving the eu and the customs union. that is confirmed. very much as i said, making new trading relationships, so those bills on trade wanting a success both of the u.k. but also for the. eu. keeping taxes low was a priority, talking about commercial cars and satellite. another big point has a lot to do with terrorism. we just had for terrorist attacks and month on british soil.

three in the last three months and what we have here is a confirmation of a full public inquiry into the grand cell tower fire that we covered here to ascertain why it spread so quickly, what started it, and very much to ensure to quote that speech that lessons are learned. with terrorism, critical infrastructure is adequately protected. we heard the confirmation and the creation of a commission really about countering extremism. we have the confirmation again much talked about in the last few days about the fact that the counterterror strategy here in the u.k. will be reviewed. many people will be heartened in this country as we endure more terrorist attacks is that prison sentences will be reviewed to see if they are long enough, if they are sufficient. interesting that at the end of

the speech, the queen said that she and her husband, prince philip who has just been admitted to the hospital as a precautionary measure we gather because of an infection, so no undue alarm we are told, she said she and her husband look forward to the state visit of the clean and king of spain in july. we know about that state visit, but what she did not visit is another state visit that has been much talked about. there was no confirmation that president donald trump will be making a visit. host: that is benedicte speaking to us outside the house of parliament. philip, ageprince 96, has been admitted to a hospital. a spokesperson saying she is in good spirits.

news here inld france, the country's justice minister has announced he is to step down from his post as the centrist party faces scandal. emmanuel mack brown is being investigated after he used eu money to pay staff and his political party. as vice president has announced that she too is to step down. reporter: president m mron'ss main ally is at the heart of the government's biggest headache. the centrist party is accused of funds, pain employees with european parliamentary assistance. this book the justice minister an -- this put the justice minister and it tricky position. >> i decided not to be a part of the next government. i will hold a press conference this afternoon. reporter: the vice president

announced that she is leaving her role to lead the party's group the national assembly. the defense minister steps down on tuesday, saying she wants to prove her innocence, the same justification put forward by the government, which says none of them were forced out the door. ministers want to defend themselves. reporter: this all adds up to a n awkward start for emmanuel macron. host: let's bring in some more on this story. claire williams is standing by. any clearer on the reason behind the decision to step down today? it was getting increasingly difficult for him not to step down to be honest. when his colleagues announced yesterday that she had a moral

problem staying on as defense minister given these accusations over misusing eu money against the party, when she stepped down, that was at the time described as a personal decision. but of course, they had trouble staying on. it was increasingly pressure on their shoulders to step down and follow suit and do the same as their colleague. he was theat, justice minister and could be facing his own judicial investigation. on top of that, he was in charge of bringing in this law to more lies political life. position a difficult and it was untenable for him to whenon as justice minister he could be facing these kinds of investigations against his own party. host: all this is likely to complicate president emmanuel acron's government reshuffle today. reporter: it was supposed to be a technical reshuffle with no

big changes. the government assured everyone at the beginning of the week, but for ministers have now step down this week. three of them from modem and two of them women. the government would like to replace those women with other women ministers because they want to keep the promise of being gender equal. we've just heard that the udi right-wing party and some of members of the other right-wing party have formed their own group an in parliament, calling them the constructive and are ready to work with the president. electric the government reshuffle could see a manual macro -- emmanuel macron reaching out to the right wing and france. reaching out means dividing the right-wing opposition in france. it is likely we will see more of that and we will find out later on today more about what will happen in that reshuffle. host: claire williams speaking to us from paris, thank you.

in other news, it is a move that could change the political trajectory of saudi arabia. in psalm in ousting his crown prince and replacing him with his son. reporter: h he is just 31 years old and d he is now slslated toe saudi arabia. in a shakeup, prince mohammad bin salman has been anointed to succeed his father installment went -- king solomon when his father passes away. the decree was announced early on saudi television. has issued an royal decree, replacing his nephew from crown prince and appointing his son as crown prince and deputy prime minister. reporter: understudy tradition, position is passed from brother to brother and not father to son.n. son inped over his

succession, but by stripping his nephew of this title, king solomon has shaken things up again and what people are calllling a political earthquak. as you may have played a decisive role in the decision. more than half of the saudi population is under 25. the change will give the young aaron even freer hand. he wants the semi-privatize the saudi oil industry has been in influential of pushing for the war in yemen and a blockade in qatar. host: republicans won a high-stakes congressional election, retaining the atlanta seat in a traditionally conservative georgia. the former secretary of state karen handel defeated john also by about five percentage points to win. impressive rebound from polling that showed her nearly trailing her rival. a disappointing loss for democrats and a boost of confidence for republicans and

what was the most expensive congressional race in u.s. history. karen handel has managed to win the seat in congress, but it was the close call for the 55-year-old. even if her republican district has voted republican since 1970. >> someone give me a bracelet of years back and it reminds something everything all day, she believes she could so she did. [applause] well, friends, we did. host: and what normally would have been in under the radar local race to replace tom price, who became donald trump's health secretary, the election was watched nationwide. both campaigns received an influx of cash from across the country. in total, a cost $57 million, twice the national record. democrats hope a win would be a sign of what is to come for next year's elections, a fight to

retake congress that the 32-year-old newcomer referred to in his concession speech. >> this is not the outcome any of us were hopoping for. but this is the beginning of something much bigger than us. host: even if the democrats lost on tuesday in georgia and have not managed to win seats in similar raraces and d kansas, montana, or south carolina, the special elections were not slam dunk for republicans. with opinions on donald trump front and center in all the, and that may not change for next year's midterms. host: in portugal, more than 2000 firefighters are battling to extinguish the country's deadliest forest fire on record. on to say, temperatures hitting up to 42 degrees celsius coupled with windy conditions reignited blazes in several villages in the region. 64 peoplesay at least

have been killed and others wounded. rebecca rossman has the report. reporter: it is the worst fire in the country's history. now questions are being raised about the initial response from disaster management services. portugal's prime minister is demanding answers as to why authorities failed to close the highway. the majority of victims perished on this road dubbed by local media as the road to death. some survivors say they were 236 asting them to the an alternative route to a nearby road that has been closed. firefighters say they have the majority of the blaze under control. high temperatures and strong winds have some worried that the fire could reignite. >> it's going to be dangerous. the situation is improving, but the temperatures in the heat and the wind. a civil protection spokesman reported a fire plane crash in the region while trying to control the blaze.

the statement later turned out to be false. water dropping aircraft terms from spain, france, and italy have joined firefighters battling the flames. the search effort to find and identify the cause continues, but authorities fear the death toll could rise further. host: a change in pace and mood. stephen carroll joins me. we start out with hoover's boss . reporter: traviss clinic founded uber in 2009 and oversaw its growth to a giant in the transportation industry. he plan to take a leave of absence but under pressure from shareholders, he step down completely from the job. we have the story. >> we are generally a little bit forward leaning when it comes to trying to make progress happen. reporter: the road stops here as the uber boss has resigned as ceo of the company he cofounded

in 2009 and whwhich had been valued at $68 billion he said in a statement reported in "the new york times" that "i love uber more than anything in in this difficult time and my personal life, i've accepted the investors were request to step aside so that uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight."" psps face increased scrutiny i n recent weeks after investigations and tuberers culture andd workplalace activi. he said last week that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence, fighting the need to grieve the death of his mother. the departure comes after an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment by the company and robyn down as the complaints poured in. his exit came under pressure after hours of drama with key major investors.

they want him however to remain on the board to help choose a new ceo. he steps aside as uber announces new initiatives to address problems. the company is now saying that drivers will soon be allowed to accept tips. host: stephen, to china in the next amid big news in the countries stock market. guest: chinese shares will be listed in a global benchmark of emerging markett equities, a milestone in the drive to attract foreign investment to the country. they will include the shares in next years and it will show investment fundnds replace the $1.6 trillion that they used to track emerging markets into chinese shares. the chinese stock market is the second biggest in thwoworld, but foreign investment currently accounts for less than 2%. host: talked about what is happening in the markets today . guest: the london ftse 100 trading in the red although not dramatically compared to the

european markets today. the biggest follower in europe anyway in percentage terms as the paris market after the resignation of those ministers from the french government. generally the trend is negative across european markets. we are also watching sterling today as the queen's speech takes place. dropped in trading yesterday after reports of talks between the conservative party and the dep were not going to plant. a slight rebound as the queen started speaking. the dollar around one dollar toy six cents. that is the same level we have seen for sterling before theresa may called the recent election. a look at some of the business headlines for you next. fortis to ship production of its focus model to china from 2019. the carmaker says it will not lead to job losses in the united states. it has been under pressure to maintain employment. for plants to build a factory in mexico after pressure from

donald trump. shares japanese airbag plungedurer takeata 25% in tokyo after plan to file for bankruptcy. such a move would facilitate a plan to sail the firm after an exploding airbag scandal that caused 17 deaths worldwide. an insurance company is ditching its investment in tobacco. the firm has more than a billion euros invested in the industry. this action follows similar moves from the irish sovereign wealth fund. host: stephen, finally from the demise of a bike sharing company in china. guest: it went out of business after 90% of its bicycles went missing in the first five months of its operation. the company says the majority of its 1200 bikes were lost or stolen. based in the western province, they realized too late that it should of equipped bikes with

gps trackers. the way the systems work in china is that instead of docking your bike into a particular location, you leave it until someone picks it up. did not work out very well for this company. host: a bit too trusting, stephen. gps absolutely needed for a bike sharing company i would think. thank you for the business roundup. time now for a look at the papers. ♪ time now foror a look at what is making news around the world. good to have you. we start with portugal. there's a lot of soul-searching in the papers after the devastating forest fires that the country is facing. guest: forest fires that have killed dozens of people and there are a lot of soul-searching and questions being asked and the portuguese press today. how could this have been prevented? was enough done to ensure this would not happen? let's take a look at some of the

headlines coming out of portugal. communication had already failed in portugal in 2016. that is what it says on the front page. the paper also looking at communications systems, saying faulty communications are not new and portugal in this helps expense the lack of coordination between rescue workers a and firefighters that has delayed the response time into getting people trapped by the fires. this paper calls it a day of suffocation and they are questioning why a major road was not closed off, the so-called road of death where dozens of people were burnt alive in their cars as they try to escape the flames. a really big tragedy coming out of these forest fires. a lot of questions and a lot of finger-pointing as this opinion piece says, who is to blame for this? according to this writer, everyone and everything has to have thet

crosswinds that are guilty for fanning the flames. you have the dry lightning that apparently caused the fire. you also have the impotence of politicians that "sterile laws the over planting of eucalyptus trees that burn easily during force fires." these devastating fires are the fault of society as a whole. host: of course, sweltering temperatures are not helping the situation either. let's move on to french politics. what was meant to be a routine government shuffle, if you will, has become much more of a scandal for emmanuel macron's ministers. guest: all those being linked to financial allegations of misconduct. the scandals that have forced emmanuel macro to reshuffle his government. is according to the right-leaning paper on its front page. you have the minister for french territories announcing he would be stepping down due to a separate scandal of financial

misconduct. now you have the defense minister. she stepped down amid allegations of misusing eu parliamentary funds as has the minister of european affairs who is also stepping down. most recently, the justice minister, who was the leader of the center-right party, which was a big source of support for a minimum m -- emmanuel macro and during his campaign. while there tried to downplay the reshuffling, saying it is part and parcel of this post parliamentary period, but for this newspaper, what should've been a technical reshuffling has turned extremely political and is turning out to be much more complicated fro for macron then he first thought. host: let's go to the u.s. next where the democrats have lost a closely fought special election in the state of georgia.

guest: a closely fought election and one of the most expensive elector campaigns in u.s. history, costing nearly $60 million. that special election took place in the state of georgia. sixthticular, it is the district seat that was vacated by tom price when he left to join donald trump's cabinet. democrats always had a long shot of getting this staunchly republican seat. it has been republican since 1979, but they did fight a hard campaign. they did place a lot of hope in their candidate who you see behind me here, youthful, charismatic 30-year-old politician. tens of millions of dollars were poured into this campaign and the democrats are hoping they would be able to capitalize on this growing wave of anger against donald trump and his presidency. times" saysew york they cannot and two-handed -- and two-handed -- they came up

empty-handed. there wanting wire -- there wondering why the anti-trumped protesting cannot seem to translate into veritable political power. to defeat might even make it difficult for democrats to recruit the best candidates in upcoming elections that might be of importance. for the moment though, trump gets to breathed easy for this went. in. the republicans also one a anotr special election in south carolina. host: finally, today june 21 marks the summer solstice and france. down under it is the winter solstice. and state of tasmania, is traditionally celebrated with a dip in the river. guest: it is not any ordinary dip in the river. it is a nude swim in the river and tasmania. it's an annual nude swim that usually draws quite a few people.

this year it drove over 1000 people come a much more than organizers had initially expected. perhaps it had something to do with the unusually warm temperatures of the water at this time. like a said, it's more of a quick plunge in cold water than it is an actual swim. this year was over 1000 people turning up. organizers did not have enough towels for everybody. it is safe to say many were left exposed to the elements. host: you would think some of them would have brought their own tells. [laughter] thank you very much for the roundup of the papers. if you want to see more, don't forget that you can log on to france before.com for a roundup of the paper -- france 24.com for a round up of the papers. we are going to take a short break, but live from paris continues on the other side. stay tuned. you are watching "france 24." ♪

♪ musicic [loud raindrops] narrator: torrential rain in the dry season. flooding when there's nonormally droughtht. desert where trere used to b be grass. ♪ music narrator: tens of thousands of deaths in cities across europe from freak heat waves. even more taken to hospital. is this a taste of our future? dr. patrick kinney: climate change is already profoundly affecting public health across the globe. narrator: evidence is moun