♪ >> welcome back to the france 24 newsroom, these are the top stories three more national -- international condemnation of venezuela's government after two opposition leaders were taken to a military prison. the constitutional assembly getting to work soon. and we will go to brazil in a moment. to brazilian football star

leave barcelona. ♪ claire: after being mocked by nicolas maduro in the wake of sanctions, donald trump said he holds venezuela's president personally responsible for the safety of the two opposition leaders seized from their homes and hauled off to jail. big protest is planned for thursday, which is when the controversial new assembly, which could change the constitution, will get to work. alison sargent reports. allison: the people in this crowd are holding photos of antonio medina, the former mayor

prisoncas was taken to in the early hours of the morning on tuesday, as well as former opposition leader leopoldo lopez. or, it was not a surprise. already under house arrest, were lopez made this video one week before. >> if you are looking at this video now, it is because they came and illegally imprisoned me again unjustly. i am a prisoner of conscience, a prisoner for my ideas, a prisoner for wanting a better venezuela. alison: the supreme court accuses the two opposition leaders of violating your house arrest by making political statements on social media. called for a boycott of last sunday's vote to elect members of the constituent assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. the united states and a handful of latin american countries have the electionmed illegitimate. in a rare move, one member of the national electoral council

released a statement doubting the accuracy of the vote count. the assembly is expected to meet in coming days in front of venezuela's parliament, but the country is controlled by the opposition, which has vowed not to recognize the new body. despite conflicts, the government is sticking to its agenda. x within hours, constituents take votestalled and on this new put process. alison: meanwhile, two judges appointed by the opposition arerolled national assembly seeking asylum. the judges are part of a new supreme court appointed by the national assembly in july. since then, several of them have been detained by the government. claire: it is a big day for brazil. deeply improper dealer -- in popular and scandal plagued, the lawmakers are voting for corruption charges on their

present. he is accused of taking a bribe via an intermediary. 2016, this man took over the reins as brazil's president after his predecessor was sidelined for corruption. little did he know that just a year later, his own presidency would be in a similar crossroads. fast towards one year later. a brazilian newspaper breaks a story about this man. -- he andd batista his brother are already under investigation for corruption's. their families at one of the centers of the largest meat conglomerates. no jail time, he strikes a deal, getting information about bribing a large number of brazilian politicians. tape, thee, -- on the president says it is a good idea to anp paying hush money

rard okun yeah, the same man who spearheaded -- eduardo kuhn yeah -- this man was later caught by police with a suitcase of $150,000 in cash. storywo days after the broke on may 19, the supreme court opened an investigation for corruption. by the end of june, there was enough proof to proceed with formal charges, i first against a sitting president. all the while, he has maintained his incidents. incidents -- -- innocence. but in the streets come up protests brought out -- streets, protests brought out large crowds and violent clashes. the presidents low rating of 5% has not helped his cause.

>> now covering this story for us is that sandy, joining us now from rio de janeiro. this is likely to go against michel temer? matt: he is losing power fast. a few months ago when these allegations broke, he had a functioning governing coalition, a majority in congress. and now we are not 100% sure that he cannot muster a third of the votes he needs to survive this. he has expended it a lot of political capital, survived a scandal, and after this vote there might be further charges and votes against him in the 18 months of his term. claire: as i mentioned before and as we heard in that report, iter is deeply unpopular and was only last year, of course, that there was a similar vote.

how to ordinary brazilians feel about all of this. they have had enough? matt: absolutely. i think they have had more than enough in the past two years. unpopularity the of the previous president -- her approval rating was hovering around 10%. the current president, temer's popularity is at 5%. ares almost like people tired of it, and going forward, that is his best hope of surviving the scandal. of that update from rio de janeiro. turning our attention now to afghanistan, where an international convoy has come under attack near the southern city of kandahar. it was a suicide attack. nato says there were casualties, but we do not know how many or

the nationalities of the victims. what you are seeing there is the images coming in from mass funeral, a for victims of the suicide attack at a shia mosque. were twos there attackers. worshipers were fired on and grenades were thrown at them. claims of response ability, but the taliban has denied involvement. -- exoduscidents of of u.s. to mats -- diplomats from russia hasn't started. expelling these diplomats and seizing properties against sanctions levied by the u.s.. state rextary of tillerson says this bill will be signed by president donald trump. response to russia's

aggression in eastern ukraine and its annexation of crimea, the obama administration slapped moscow with a series of sanctions in march 2014. these constraints also affect some companies and russia's financial defense and energy sectors. in december 2016, obama added some dozen russian businessmen, companies, and government enterprises to blacklist. that same month, the stakes changed when the u.s. accused the kremlin of meddling in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. obama punished those that might have been complicit in the hacking. new sanctions were imposed on russia's top intelligence agencies. this, along with the immediate expulsion of 35 russian diplomat's who were working in the u.s.. if moscow had hoped for an easier time with trump, it has been left as sorely disappointing. before taking office, donald trump had hinted at wrapping

sanctions to repair ties with russia. instead, the white house said it would maintain the obama administration sanctions. washington then announced more penalties for moscow in june, these targeting 38 individuals and organizations accused of helping russia tighten its grip over eastern ukraine, including individuals who allegedly bankrolled moscow backed separatists, and an organization that provides tactical military running to pro-kremlin fighters, and a multimillion dollar private equity firm promoting the tourism industry entire area -- and crimea. these sanctions go even further, by tightening the existing ones, passionate -- punishing key russian sectors and restricting companies from doing business with russia's oil industry -- measures that could fall foul of some eu members. for more on this, i am joined in the studio by benjamin had odd,

fellowible -- hadaad, a at washington university. this is the first stretch retaliatory step four obama's actions. as putin had said, he wanted to see how trump would behave and if you really would hit the reset button on relations. does this mean -- with this retaliation from russia, that putin has given up on a better relationship with the u.s., particularly trump? benjamin: what is interesting about this, despite all the totoric from donald trump, work together against terrorism in the middle east -- when you see the first few months, the relationship has not improved in the past six months. i think donald trump has, like his predecessors, sort of exaggerated the personal dimension of the relationship. the truth is you do have wide strategic differences over syria

and the middle east, over ukraine, all of these issues that have poisoned the relationship in recent years. at added to this is the fact that donald trump has very little maneuverability because of the domestic dimension of it, because of all of the controversy about russia interference in the campaign, potential collusion between the trump campaign in russia on the hacking of emails. in a way, that is what president putin has said, he expected improved relations. but i think he mostly expected donald trump to side with where he was, to work for the position of russia, especially on the fate of assad and the ukraine. and we see that is not the case here. claire: and then there is the fact you have the president, but also the u.s. secretary of state, who is in charge of diplomacy, and the kremlin saying it was getting mixed signals from washington. our tillerson and trump not on the same page?

benjamin: you have a president who campaigned on improving ties campaigned, he explicitly against obama and clinton on this, but he is surrounded by advisors -- tillerson, mcmasters, his national security adviser to have a more traditional view of this, who think there is no reason to lift sanctions unilaterally in exchange of nothing from the russian side. some in the russian side think that this is a strategic importance to the united states, and the u.s. congress, including republicans, were on trump's said, who are just adopted recently a very wide-ranging sanctions bill that first confirms into law all of the executive orders from president obama and sanctions, so it reduces trumps ability to listen unilaterally. claire: they have also included that they needed to be consulted first on any change. benjamin: they concluded that they would have to be consulted,

so they limited the marginal maneuverability of the president, but also widened the scope of some of the sanctions, especially on the russian energy sector. it is a controversial bill. some european leaders have come out against it because it targets indirectly european countries that deal with the energy industry -- sector. but what is interesting is that president trump's press secretary last week said he presumed trump would wrote -- but this new sanction. so how do you feel this? rex tillerson is meeting the russian secretary of state over the weekend, how to give you this is going? benjamin: there is no reason for the u.s. to give anything to russia they do not improve behavior, especially when it comes to the ukraine. the sanctions -- most of the been adoptede

after the annexation of crimea and intervention there. there is a process that was negotiated by friends -- france, germany, and russia tule back to ukraine defendants. that is one of the pillars. there will be corporation in -- cooperation in finding a political solution in syria. but the russian position is backing assad and fighting any opposition. so as long as you do not see improved perspective on the russian side, i do not see any margin for improvement. claire: thank you very much for your time. benjamin hadaad of the hudson institute. "we are not your enemy, co-the the words from"

rex tillerson to north korea as they claim their latest nuclear missile could reach major sites in the u.s.. >> we have reaffirmed our position toward north korea, we are doing, we do not seek a regime change, not a collapse of the regime. we do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula. we do not see an excuse to to send our military north of the 30th -- 38th parallel. we are trying to convey that we are not your threat, but you are presenting in i -- and unacceptable threat to us. 96, and has completed more than 22,000 solo engagements over the past 65 years. he announced his retirement in may. later, he is meeting royal marines who have taken part in a long trek in an aide for charity. the queen is 91.

news -- big football this weeks of speculation, player is leaving barcelona. one of the world's best is expected to come here to paris, and it is believed it -- that his transfer will be the most expensive in footballing history. joining me now is simon harding from our sports desk. france's willing to pay 200 million euros. is he worth that much? >> i would say yes. not just for skill, but the marketing he will add. he's a good dribbler, he scores a lot of goals. think he is also a world star, and the fact that he is a world star will help put them on the map. it will help achieve that global mission and project, which is to win the champions league, and that is one of the keys here.

220 million euros, plus bonuses, which could take up to 250 million euros. it is a massive amount of money, which totally equipped as the the mosty -- eclipses previously expensive transfer, to manchester united. claire: and what does him joining me for the french league? >> i think is important because it will add interest to the league. he's one of the greatest layers on the planet at the moment, so a lot of people are going to want to watch him, they want tv rights, they are going to go up and we have seen in spain and england have tv rights have allowed clubs to bring in more expensive players, better players, and that is something that is also important with myanmar, that people want to play with him and against him. the overall quality of the league will improve and help

france push toward becoming one of the powerhouses of european football again, which they have been lacking in the past couple of years. claire: they could have legal problems because of this transfer? >> absolutely. barcelona's president said he would push for a financial fair play investigation by eurasia if france push through. if the investigation failed, he would take paris into court for legal issues. so it is all a little bit of a 80 transfer in a way, because of the amount of money -- shady thesfer in a way, because amount of money is a lot, his father has just been paid by barcelona, so there are a lot of gray areas paris might have to answer to. the worst we could think is that they had a huge or chance of -- bigger chance of transferring other players in the future. outsidechris moore is

in central paris. how excited about this transfer our fans? fans -- are the fans? a steadyhas been stream of pst fans and others popping by this shop on the sean d'elysse. -- champs that of fans are echoing france is not have the strongest league in europe compared to spain, italy, and england. want isy particularly improve performance on the pitch . have poured billions

into the class in recent years, but it has not transfer to success on the european level, the against disappointment coming -- they blew it all away in barcelona. one fan telling me that the perfect revenge with that would be to bring myanmar here to the french capital. talking about the financial aspect for this. hopefully they are getting some of the transfer speed back , and it does not come cheap. psg shirt comes in at 140 euros. are making that very purchase today. claire: thank you very much,

chris, outside the psg store on the sean still is a -- ch amps-elysees. 3, 2, 1, go. claire: launching into space to fight climate change back honors. on board this rocket is the venus satellite, beginning its two and a half year mission to observe the earth's surfacace. every day, venus will take high-resolution photographs of over 100 sites across the world. from the amazon rain forest to the siberian tundra. the frequency of the photos will allow scientists to superimpose the images, removing cloud cover for a clearer picture than ever before. the photos will also be taken spectral -- in 12

bands, allowing researchers to measure various aspects of the earth's meditation and atmosphere. been as's main objective is to obobserve the imimpact of climae onnge on arts plant life -- earth's plant life, and will also map river flow in the movement of lasers. the first collaboration between the france and israeli space agencies, the venus is also a new generation of climate observing satellites. several others observing global carbon emissions are said to be launched in 2020. business news now -- stephen carroll joins me. the u.s.with news that is considering trade sanctions against china. >> they are said to be in serious discussions about launching a program to china's intellectual property laws. in particular, they are looking at rules that require foreign companies to transfer technology to their local partners in china . it is not exactly clear what steps could be taken by

washington, but any action would be under a 1974 law that empowers u.s. presidents to impose trade sanctions against countries it believes are using unfair trade practices. has criticized china and recent days over north korea. beijing, for its part, has called on washington to not conflate that issue with trade relations. claire: the latest results coming from apple shows there is still an appetite for their products. >> him was 10 years after the iphone was first launched, i've -- apple has sold 1.2 billion smartphones. in the end ofd june, compared to the same time last year. this is good for apple is it prepares to launch a new model in the coming months. has been a tough year for apple's most iconic products. in 2016,les dipped leading to the company's first annual profit decline in teen -- 15 years and disappointing figures at the

start of 2017 sparked fears that the company could be passed its prime. but according to apple reports, sales rose by 2% in the june quarter, bringing the total amount of iphones sold to 1.2 billion since it was launched 10 years ago. given that sales usually dipped during the summer, this was surprising. >> they're coming out with iphone eight in the fall, so people traditionally put ipods on any purchases -- -- a pause on any purchases -- why are they buying a new one? but they blew it out of the park. >> the projections have helped reassure investors over possible delays the launch of the next iphone. the june quarter also saw ipad sales return to growth for over the first time in three years, while earnings from other apple services grew by 22%. apple has forecast revenues derived again in the coming three, an optimistic prediction

which would confirm its position as the world's most valuable company. of apple hasss responded to accusations that the company was aiding censorship in china. apps thatiant removed created virtual private networks , which caused many people to skirt control and internet access there. the company agreed with beijing's position, but had to comply with the country's laws. the tax giant -- tech giant had sxpress opposition through it appropriate channels. hitre especially shares to a new record high win wall street goes underway in the next couple of hours. apple suppliers are doing well, but mining companies are feeling the fall, particularly in run -- london. rio tinto is down by 2%. a look at other business

headlines for you. hasgerman airline lufthansa reported the first net profit in its history, 740 million euros

[music] announcer: dhaka, capital of bangladesh. . there are already 13 million people here. that is set to almost double in the next decade, making this city one of the most densely populated places on earth. all these people are coming to dhaka because their rural homes are being destroyed. atiq: bangladesh is the front line state of climate change because of the multiplicity of impacts. announcer: cyclones, bursting rivers, torrential raiain fall. climate change is feltlt here more than anywhere else in the world. climate refugees from all over the country are pouring into dhaka fleeing for their lives.