♪ >> welcome. joining me, rochelle ferguson. coming up, headlines. the new and very linked -- virulent string. demands a ransom be paid. helicopters fired shots at the interior ministry in this way left and at threw grenades at the supreme cour.

t. a device of this year reforming france's labor laws. prices at trump tower have been slashed. live all happening here on "france 24." ♪ our top story -- a new and viru hit companiesack worldwide. the source of the attack is not known, but experts latest reminiscent of last month's attack. it was first reported in the ukraine where government's banks were hit. oillso hit russia's

company, badly affected. "france 24" reports. this, violence looks like a string of red text, demanding bitcoin to gain access to the computers' files. the ransom where spread like wildfire. >> the computer became uncontrollable, a chain reaction started, the first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth computer, and it spread. >> the ukraine's central bank and even chernobyl's nuclear watch have been attacked, some saying that russia is destabilizing the country. to prevent working dissemination of the harmful

software and elimination of its consul winces. is doingnding out who this and its motives can be tricky as viruses like this one have become increasingly sophisticated. >> the signatures of text are changing too quickly for conventional antivirus to keep up. >> already, the virus has spread across the globe. bonds,rail, deutsche and a u.s. from company are just some to be hit. loophole, one formerly used by a national security agency, but this one does not seem to have a kill switch, which makes it all the more dangerous. the 1989 hillsboro stadium disaster, 96 football fans were crushed to death. the victims and supporters died

overcrowded enclosure in the stadium during a final between liverpool and nottingham forest. was inerintendent, who charge of operations on the day of the disaster, was charged with the manslaughter by gross negligence. venezuela has stepped up security after reports of a helicopter fired shots at the interior ministry, and several grenades were launched at the supreme court. president nicolas maduro has attack by terrorists seeking a coup. demonstrators are calling for general elections and then end to the country's crippling economy. >> amateur film capture the moments, flying over venezuela,

reportedly launching four grenades. the pro-government spring court has regularly been targeted by opposition protesters. the helicopter allegedly fired 15 shots of the country's ministry. immediately after the incident took place, president nicolas maduro when a tv to announce what he calls a terrorist attack. pres. maduro: this is the kind of armed escalation that i have been denouncing. sooner or later, we are going to capture the helicopter pilot and those who carried out this armed terrorist attack against the country's institutions. the pilot identified himself as oscar perez and posted a video online, calling of venezuelans to oppose the government. opposition supporters us the authorities of staging the

attack to justify a wider clampdown on protesters. extraordinary scenes were playing out at the national assembly. opposition lawmakers began fighting those who try to enter the chamber of deputies. some found themselves trapped inside the building. government supporters gathered outside, threatening them with violence. rochelle: staying in the region, brazil's president has rejected a corruption charge brought against him by the country's top prosecutor, calling it "fiction motivated by revenge." he is accused of receiving millions of dollars of riots. executives accused him, he says, merely to escape prison on their own. temer: they have created a soap opera. i tell you, my friends, the accusations are fiction. they reinvented the penal code

and included a new category, accusations by inference. other world news, the syrian democratic forces say they have made gains against islamic state militants in qqas.u raqqa earlier this month, amid ongoing violence, thousands of civilians have left the city. we have reporters from the province of raqqa. >> this young boy and his father have managed to escape daesh and flee. since the 10th day of ramadan, there has been no bread. you do not see any daesh members anymore, they are all fighting. >> for his motorcycle, determined to go back into the

area to get his family. >> to the comrades who can hear me, do not shoot at the motorbikes behind us. they are civilians. >> we advance toward central raqqa. our destination is less than 400 meters from the war. clara is one of the battle's main commanders. she is in charge of coordinating with the international coalition. she wants to make sure they get the chance to succeed. >> if you would like to leave your son with us, the time it takes to do your return trip. >> it is. safer if he stays with me. >> are you going by bike? >> yes. >> i will give you something to take with you. the man and his son ride off for the islamic state stronghold. this time, they are alone. they hope to return alive with the whole family.

spf has promised cover cured as they leave, heavy fighting starts. are you there? take cover. can you movement. >> yes, but only with the tank. >> they have 22 millimeters and mortars. the careful. ok, fine, we will move quickly. -- the situation in ra2qqa is unpredictable, and the senate went wrong, we were evacuated quickly. >> moments later, an ambulance arrived. it is carrying a fighter who was wounded during the attack. he is seen to in this small shop, used as a hospital. medics said he will survive.

the french president, emmanuel macron, has meanwhile agreed to work with his u.s. counterpart, donald trump, in the event of a new chemical attack in syria. it comes after washington claimed it had intelligence that syria was preparing a chemical attack. back in april, the u.s. military hit a syrian base allegedly used in chemical warfare. invited trump to this year's that still day on ony 14 in -- bastille day july 14 in paris. holding talks on reforming french labor talks today. being put forward is a drastic labor low proposing a cap on the amount employees can sue their companies. proved to beave one of the most divisive issues of macron's policies.

meanwhile, they will make employees more vulnerable. we are at the palace in paris. >> so much much that about emmanuel macron and his party's prize from nowhere in a way that was the easiest bit, as far as concerned. he won a how to deliver on his campaign progress of reinvigorating the french economy. his argument has been the argument of many across the french party for decades, that labor laws, which are famously lengthy and detailed here in france, need to be shaken up, giving more autonomy to individual companies. as he said, they are streamlining the sometimes generous process that comes with employees seeking compensation. part -- macron is a key as a key part of his campaign, something on which his ultimately would come

to be judged, and there are two major problems -- tackling stubborn unemployment here in france with measures like this, and inan end to the plan some cases careers of politicians, going back years. the second problem for him, preparing the ground for his cap netmeeting today, he talked about -- his cabinet meeting today, he talked about it, using so-called augmentatives around getting around the scrutiny and debate in parliament. it is likely to be a continued source of controversy. rochelle: a continued source of countries that, as you say, chris, macron may have the majority in parliament. but does not mean he will not be up against opposition, does it? chris: absolutely, no. as i said, there are many lessons from the past, we look back, for example at the recent socialist government, ultimately

killed as a party, seeking to put through reforms by much more data than macron is promising. anger when the government used a similar method to force it through parliament. macro has a lot of support in the chamber. when opposition does not take place in parliament, it will take place out on the streets, and as such, one of the country put the major unions already calling for a day of action o september 12. we define emmanuel macron's honeymoon drawing to a close. around the country, --ning not to meddle in after the u.s. embassy raised questions over how authorities were treating him. he is currently being treated in a chinese hospital for liver cancer. he was jailed for 11 years back in 2009.

has themougin details. lange: let him come to the u.s. for treatment if that will help. that is the message the u.s. investor has to beijing. >> we americans would like to see him have the opportunity for treatment elsewhere, if that could be of help, but it is important that we work together between our two countries to adapt these important human rights issues. be ane: these case could early indicator of how far washington will be willing to push beijing when it comes to human rights. the u.s. downgraded china to its lowest ranking on human trafficking. for president xi jinping, who has a long-standing relationship with the u.s. ambassador, this is a domestic issue. shouldi: the country

respect china's judicial sovereignty and refrain from using any individual case to interfere in china's internal affairs. was granted medical parole may 23 and hospitalized with late stage liver cancer. in a widely circulated the outcome has wife has been under house arrest. she was devastated by the news. >> you can't have surgery, can't have radiotherapy, can't have chemotherapy. liu xiaobo is serving an 11 year sentence for writing a human rights manifesto, he was awarded the two army 10 nobel peace prize. -- 2010 nobel peace prize. rochelle: a change of pace now, it is time for the business news. stephen carroll joins me. good to have you as ever.

unblocked computers affected by the ransom attack. stephen: this is striking around the world, particularly ukraine and russia. it is blocking users' access to the computer until they pay a sum of money, using the digital money bitcoin. tracking payments made to want bitcoin wallet being used by the hacker spirit so far, they have seen 43 payments worth almost $10,000 in total. note to the payments are being paid to the particular counts seem to be around $300. rochelle: all right. is this causing anyways on the today? stephen: nothing to dramatic so far. the focus is on the currency markets come on comments from the head of the european central bank, mario draghi, yesterday. this is speculation after, that perhaps the ecb could be trying to reduce his economic stimulus. it is at its highest level so far this year. the central bank moves also

playing a big role there as well. technology shares have been seeing losses earlier on in trading, following on a trend that started on wall street on tuesday. loans come as you can see, trading losses in paris and in frankfurt. another company we're keeping for you is the japanese technology giant toshiba, suing its partner, western digital, for interviewing with the sale of the firm's memory chip business. they are seeking damages of ¥120 billion or 100 billion euros. they are hoping to compensate for losses at its u.s. nuclear business. western digital rejects the sale and is seeking an injunction in the united states to stop any deal that it does not agree to. rochelle: let's head to india where donald trump' property business iss taking a hit. stephen: that is rector of the new goods and services tax in india moves forward to saturday. ahead of that deadline, many

companies have been discounting products to encourage consumers to spend, and that includes the half-built trump tower in mumbai. the larger group, trump's business party in the city,/$100,000 off the asking price in an effort to attract buyers before the tax changes come. the trump tower is the group of the flagship in india's business capital. three-bed apartments are selling for $1.5 million. rochelle: let's bring it back here in france. trouble recruiting summer workers this year. stephen: some 200,000 people work on fruit farms every summer picking fruit. often above the national average of 10% cured farmers say this year, though, are having difficulty finding workers and are resorting to bringing in staff from abroad. andrew hager has the story. france's supermarket

shelves are overflowing with strawberries. they come from fields like these where laborers toiling away on a daily basis to meet consumer demand. these workers are guaranteed the french minimum ways. -- wage. it stands at 1150 euros per month. if they gathered 1110 kilograms of fruit, they have an additional $.96 for each extra kilo, but this year, producers are struggling to find enough strawberry pickers. one of the reasons is the difficult working conditions. >> it affects my back in my legs because we have to walk a lot in the fields. >> it is true that people are often indifferent to the work. sometimes people just are not motivated enough. they say it is too hard, and they quit.

andrew: for the first time, this companies having to rely on migrant farmworkers. first, it was not easy to bring them over. he had to prove to friends's employment agency that he could not find any french seasonal workers. than it is up to france. office totion do the hirings. tos leads to many companies employ illegal workers, paying them below minimum wage. rochelle: and self driving cars -- details. stephen: this is a story from beenalia where volvo has paying companies to detect kangaroos and avoid them when there are in self driving mode. 15,000 kangaroos are registered every year. they pose a particular problem for self driving cars because of the way they move, which makes it difficult to detect how

far away they are from the car. volvo has already fine-tuned the technology to detect small animals like deer. it insists the kangaroos will not delay the launch of self driving cars in australia, though, as they will have it figured out in time. rochelle: i confess i did not know there were so many collisions -- stephen: neither did i. the shocking rochelle: statistic of the day. 15,000. my goodness. time now for our press review. time to take a look at what is grabbing headlines around the world. florence villeminot joins me. flo, the two have you. we start with germany. chancellor angela merkel is in the headlines. florence: she was speaking at a conference organized by a woman's magazine, and she said she would allow members of her party, the conservative christian democratic union, to

vote how they see on the issue should it come to a vote. big turnaround for angela merkel, something she could be remembered for after the energy revolution, opening borders to migrants. gayit's next big mission -- marriage -- you can see her in this imaginary rainbow colored flak jacket. herday, artists might paint torture with the rainbow flag, which is the symbol of the lgbt movement. this comes with. a particular context, of course. we have upcoming federal elections in september. and it read it here, points out that this seems like big talk show politics here. marble has a conscience when it comes to gay marriage, but who is going to benefit the most from it -- homosexual couples or politics?" ofhelle: a clear majority germans of all ages are in favor of same-sex marriage.

not everyone agrees, though. florence: this is a conservative paper in germany with a piece that defends the importance of between ating a union man and woman, making it constitutionally different from a homosexual union. why is that? according to this piece am only a union between a man and a woman leads to a child. this article says these days, we are defending the idea of marriage for everyone, but the idea of marriage is losing its meaning. if two people of the same sex can get married and be united for other -- united throughout their life, why can't siblings, groups of people? perhaps we can abolish the title and say marriage for no one. rochelle: yesterday, france's national ethics committee said it was in favor of making medically assisted procreation available for everybody. florence: it is currently only available for heterosexual

couples, not a single women or lesbians. this is an independent ethical committee that says it should be available for all women, and this is indeed something that the president, emmanuel macron, promised he would do during the presidential campaign. .ou can read more about it it is being met with a sigh of relief for many women in france and of and forced to travel outside of france -- spain, denmark -- european countries where it is authorized to. it is really a thorny issue here in france. particularly amongst very conservative, catholic groups, that every numerous here in france. rochelle: france does have a catholic paper. what does it say about the committee recognition. florence: it is on the front page today. are we going towards radically assisted appropriation for everyone? macron has an interesting take on this. it recognizes but is concerned

about issues assess our legitimate, and there should be a debate about the legitimate questions that are praised by this issue, for instance, "la croix" says we are going for an institutionalized lack of father, even if children are raised in a loving family, the lack of a father is something we should debate. it is interesting because if you look at the conservative papers, it has a conservative take on the issue. a riskymacron is facing choice, and they accuse him of being under pressure from lgbt groups. they say this is a cultural downward spiral. there were huge protests here in france over the issue of gay marriage, so if this indeed does go to legislation, you can imagine there will be a lot of people in the streets. rochelle: absolutely.

let's move on to a lighter story. trump'sof donald companies around the world have raised eyebrows for their decorations. florence: several of his golf clubs around the world, you can see it here, "a time" -- a "time" magazine cover, but this is a fake cover. if the issue dates for march 2009, and you can see here, donald trump, the apprentice is a television smash, trump is hitting on all fronts and even march 2009,e is no and even then, there was no trump on the cover, and even "time" magazine has asked trump to remove this phony cover from his golf clubs you are several clues give away it is fake. the border is not quite right, and also the two exclamation points on the front of "time

cocoa and the "washington post" says "time" magazine does not yell in its covers. rochelle:

♪ music narrator: lima, peru, one of the driest cities on earth. a quarter of the population have no direct access to water. narrator: all over the globe water supplies are dwindling as temperatures rise and glaciers melt. as we head towards an ice-free earth, it will only get wors everyone will be affected. lonnie thompson: it doesn't matter whether you're living in peru or the united states or china, you will be impacted by this change. narrator: but something can be done. people are already adapting to combat climate change.