>> you are watching "france 24." time for 60 minutes live around the world. here are today's top stories. global protests calling for a quality enand respect on international women's day. male-femalee, the pay gap is 15%. trucks trying to get through our blocked again. civilians have been trapped inside the damascus suburb for weeks now.

this as syrian troops try to clear out rebel fighters. the man accused of dismembering a journalist goes on trial today. he's charged with killing can wall last year aboard his homemade submarine. the countdown to trade tariffs. president trump expected to announce import duties today. some key countries could be exempt. you will get the latest focusing on lebanon. today, a look at the country's first census of palestinian refugees. story, live from paris. this march 8 is international

women's day. it is a day full of protests around the world as women press for progress. for working women, one of the most frustrating things in the genderce comes to equality and equal pay. you earn on average 16% less than your male colleagues in europe. take a look. >> a woman who works is unfortunately less well-paid. work, women in europe earn 16% less than men. among the e worst countries for wage equality are estonia, with a pay gap of 28%, and latvia with 21%. jobs carrying more response ability are often given to men picked as we go up the corporate ladder, the gap widens further. theirrn 28% more than female colleagues in executive popositions.

if you're a european woman seeking equal pay, the best workplaces are in romania, belgium,xembourg or where the gap lies around 6%. that can partly be explained by hiring practices. in france, the salary gap is around 13%. in practical terms, this means from the seventh of november, french women worked for free until the end of the year. across the atlantic, the u.s. and canada are hardly exemplary. than their18% less male counterparts. >> we will talk more about all of this now. i'm joined by the host of our women's issues show on "france 24." >> it does get a bit confusing. focus on the situation in france. >> there's a variety of figures. it depends on what sorts you go

to. the one we've been using is that eu. the figure in france is 13%. if you look strictly at men and women working the same job full-time, the difference is still 9%. we are 18 years into the 21st century and this is still happening. especially given the extraordinary number of young women entering the workforce, the number keeps rising rapidly by the day. equalityctually been pay laws in france since the early 1980's. what's happened is they haven't been enforced. why does this occur? look quickly at the figures in terms of women working, the difference is close to nil. the difference is women having children and exhibiting themselves from the workforce.

a multi-pronged approach in terms of dealing with this issue. it can be done by government and by companies but alongside other key important issues which also help such as looking at parental leave. >> today, the french feminist or unveiled a series of new proposals. what is the french government going to do? >> a raft of new measures were announced earlier this morning. the ones that are particularly interesting in relation to this particular issue is that french companies will now have three years to fix it. if they don't, they will face fines. companies of more than 50 employees will install a special software which will be looked up just looked up to their payroll system to monitor and supervise unjustified pay gaps. hooked up to their

payroll system to monitor and supervise unjustified pay gaps. i was talking to the french minister for gender equality yesterday. let's listen to what she had to say about this issue. >> something we are used to doing in france -- i found that the companies protested because this is not something we easily accept. there's other countries where this does happen and it works quite well. it's a matter of mobilizing public opinion. telling companies they have to look to public opinion and public opinion is on thei our side and their image will be tarnished. >> this has been an extraordinary year for gender equality and the fight for gender equality. >> a busy time for us in the 51%. 2012 months it has been. that'se #metoo campaign

-- quite a 12 months it has been. #metoo france, the campaign equivalent, the government is now looking at eurosng a minimum of 90 if men are caught saying inappropriate things about a woman's appearance in public space. the gender equality ministry is one of the lowest funded in france. there's questioning being raised about how this will all be funded. the government has made it clear that they are committed to promoting and boosting equality wherever they can. >> particularly in regard to the

gender pay gap. thank you so much. that is our annette young. in syria, eight trucks are trying to get to eastern -- they have been blocked again. civilians have been trapped inside the damascus suburb for weeks now as syrian troops step up moves to clear out rebel fighters. just part of a first conflict this week -- a second convoy y s trying t to get that desperately needed aid to the conclave sometime today. russian warplanes have been bombarding the area. the brutal offensive meant to has beennclave in half slammed by the international community with the u.n. calling it an apocalypse, apocalypse.t an >> the bombs continue to fall.

as airstrikes intensify, the army strategy is clear. they are cutting the enclave in two. regime forces have seized half of the damascus suburb by advancing from the south and the east. have concentrated on the strip of land in the middle of rebel held territory. the army just retook the village and has been pummeling the town of misraba in preparation for rn infantry assault.. is situation on the ground changing by the hour and there are reports that g government forces may have already succeeded in driving a wedge straight through eastern booze that -- >> our things, everyththing stae therere. we left with the clothes on our backs. >> the u.n. human rightsts team says the human rights

conflict has entered an era of their. >> it is hell on earth. next month or the month after, it will be somewhere else. it is urgent to reverse this catastrophic course and refers syria to the international criminal courts. >> around 850 civilians have been killed since the offensive began, with 100 killed on monday alone. confined to isolated pockets of resistance, the rebels are losing territory everyday. the man accused of murdering and dismembering a danish journalist goes on trial today. peter is charged with killing kim wall last year on board his homemade summering. -- submarine. >> a real-life scandinavian murder mystery that shocked the world. kim wall disappeared while

interviewing peter madsen abort his personal submarine -- a board his personal summary. wall set out with madsen on his nautilus from his doctor outside of copenhagen. her walt didn't come home, boyfriend reported her and the sub missing. madsen told authorities he had dropped wall off at the port the previous night. 's body began to wash up on the shoreline -- madsen denied wall's killing, saying she died when a heavy hatch fell on her head, later changing his story to say she

died from carbon monoxide poisoning. a hard drive found in his workshop with fetish films of women being decapitated. prosecutorors have said they wil call for a life sentence, which in denmark, averages just 16 years in prison. the latest for you now in our series this week focusing on lebanon. the country held its first senses on lebanon's palestinian population last december. that was the first official data available since the founding of israel in 1948. an event that spark a mass exodus of palestinians to neighboring lebanon. roseformal settlements higher and higher in the outskirts of beirut. held 6000 palestinian

refugees out of 174,000 accounted for in a recent government census. the vast majority of palestinians in lebanon arrived after the state of israel was founded in 1948. mohammmmed is a third-generation refugee. >> the people are poor in this camp. a haircut is three dollars. they will try to negotiate down to two dollars. it is difficult in the camps. we palestinians have lost our rights. a lot of good people have left. >> youth unemployment is at 35%. for decades, there have been legislation banning them from obtaining certain jobs. want plans to immigrate dust this is the thing.

not because they want to make some solution. >> palestinians have often been victims of dissemination. their presence sparks fear and animosity. they hope the census will break that view. >> they are saying there are only one who summed up or thousand palestinians in lebanon. not that much. -- only 174,000 palestinians in lebanon. these camps stay in such a bad state. we know that there's a lot of poverty and hardship. those difficult circumstances could tempt people toward extremism. >> it's not the first time lebanese officials tried to find solutions for the palestinian crisis. in, 2010 the parliament voted to give more rights to members of the community.

refugees are still waiting for these laws to be put into action. >> thank you for joining us on "france 24." global protests calling for equality and respect on this international women's day. one in three women around the world have been victims of violence. in france, the male-female pay gap is close to 10%. eight trucks trying to get through our blocked again -- civilians have been trapped inside the damascus suburb for weeks now as troops step up moves to clear out rebel fighters. the man accused of murdering and dismembering a danish journalist goes on trial today. peter madsen is charged with killing kim w wall last year of aboardis death aboard -- his homemade summering. of board hiso

aboard d his homemade submarine. >> people are looking up in washington this that could be delayed until tomorrow. there have been many changes to this plan over the last few weeks. president t trump's trade advisr has said the tariffs would go into effect in 15-30 days. that is despite a last-minute plea for the preresident to chae his mind. in an apparent softening of tone, the white house is there could be flex ability for certain countries. >> president trump is keeping his promise to revive american manufacturing. tariffs on steel and aluminum will make things more defensive

aluminum and 2525% on steel. carveoutstsre potential for mexico and canada based on national security and possibly other countries as well. advisors hasade the tariffs should be effective within the next 15-30 days. canada and mexico may escape them froor now. we are going to make sure we are doing everything we need to do to protect canadian workers. that means waiting to see what the president actually does. >> china warned of a possible retaliation. the countries accused by the u.s. of producing too much steel and forcing down global prices. >> the trade war is never the right solution, especially now in a globalized world. choosing a trade war is the wrong prescription. in the end, you will only hurt

others and yourself. china will certainly make an appropriate and necessary response. >> eu officials are also considering their own measures. accordining to the trade there could be possible levies on bourbon whiskey and peanut butter. >> china has posted a 44% jump in the value of its exports since february. the biggest jump in two years. the rise in imports slowed to just over 6%, leaving china with a trade surplus of almost $34 billioio in the u.s.,., just under $21 million. -- $21 billion. the markets are very interested bank --uropean central we are not expecting any major

policy changes. the ecb may signal that as economic growth picks up, it is preparing to end its bond purchases. interest rates have been zero for two years. the ecb will have to rein in its stimulus. that's what's moving the markets in europe today. we are getting a press conference from the european central bank today as well. shares in the fashion brand hugo boss down over 6% in germany after the company reported a sharp fall in profits at the end of 2017. >> the owner of snapchat announuncing more job cuts. >> snap is planning to ask 10% axits engineering staff -- 10% of its engineering staff. snap has been struggling to grow its business and recently had to write off $40 million.

a look at international women's day, particularly mcdonald's. >> the golden arches have been turned upside down, turning the iconic m into a w. physically, this has only happened that one california restaurant. and has caused a bitit of a stir on social l media. people posting some photos on twitter. outlets, staffr are wearing special t-shirts. their social media will go upside down today, putting the emphasis on w. >> time for our press review.

we are taking a look at what the papers have been saying today. >> want to focus on this international women's day today. it's making a lot of front pages. let's start with this unprecedented move from a left-leaning paper in france. today, a double spread counting the gender pay gap. charged two will be -- they do say the profits will go to a group fighting for gender equality. >> in france, it's actually international women's rights day. >> there's a difference, according to a french paper. they are calling out the hijacking of international women's day. the council for equality has tweeted out some suggestions

reminding people that this is a day about activism. don't organize beauty contests or handout roses. this is not a holiday. this is a day to be politically and socially active. >> lots of papers are focusing on incredible women doing some incredible things. >> the washington post is looking at one such case. you have a 75-year-old turkish woman who is dedicating her life to fighting domestic violence and sexual abuse. she has managed to reverse the onetry's laws -- in japan, woman spoke out about her own sexual abuse at the hands of her father in a country where few victims come forward. she's pushing to change japan's sex crime laws. >> staying with japan, japanese papers looking at a recent report on women's

representation in parliament around the world. 158th out of in 193 countries. interestingly, the top of the list was rwanda with 49 of 80 lawmakers in women. followed by bolivia, cuba, nicaragua and sweden. clearly, more work needs to be done for other countries. editors at a lebanese paper saying it is a battle every day -- it's not one year from now. >> there's been a lot of focus on international women's day against harassment. in the u.s., stormy daniels is claiming donald trump'ss lawyer is harasassing her to keep silet over her alleged affair with the president. >> stormy daniels and her

lawyers claim the affair took place in 2006, shortly after melania trump gave birth. it is alleged she signed a nondisclosure agreement during the electoral campaign and received $130,000 from trump's lawyer. this was during the electoral campaign. on tuesday, she filed a lawsuit claiming the nda is null and void. one legal expert says it's not about the money. by filing this lawsuit, stormy daniels has made public a portion of her story. she wants to continue so she can make her entire story public, showing just how much harder it is getting for powerful men to pay for women's silence. >> making headlines, the saudi

prince and his trip to the u.k. >> he met with queen elizabeth and theresa may on wednesday. the trip has drawn a lot of backlash from opposition mps who criticized the red carpet welcome that was rolled out for the prince. a labor politician called the red carpet welcome shameless in the guardian, especially given saudi arabia's record on human rights and the offensive in yemen. a cartoonist in the e british they are among the biggest weapons and arms dealers to the saudi's. a double-edged sword. helping --ight is heir aid is helping the yemenis, but their weapons are killing them.

they will continue online -- they are a victim of changing times and the internet, of course. let's leave you with four of their iconic covers. john lennon made the front cover after his death in 1980. kurt cobain made the front cover after his death in 1994. blureight of grunge with and oasis. >> shout out to the loop in chicago, shutting its doors. >> what a shame. >> you can get a closer look at the press review on her website france24.com.ite, bbc.co have you noticed that your clclocks are stranangely behind lately? we will tell you why that's been happening, after the break.

[man singing in spanish] sami: finnish crooner reijo taipale sang about the land of fairy tales in the year of 1963. by thehen, finlandnd had alrdydy been intoxicated by tango for 3 decades. in the early days of the twentieth century, tango drifted to the nordic shores on e backs of sailors andnd traveling music men. i first got interested in this music when i heard the bad boy of the argent