>> you are watching "france 24." 60 minutes live around the world. these are the headlines. a nationwide strike in france this thursday. protests in the streets and planes trains and buses shut down over government plans for reform. more from our correspondent in a minute. former president nicolas sarkozy placed under formal investigation in one of france's

most explosive political scandals and years. he denies the charges saying there is no evidence gaddafi funded his election campaign. -- facebookd head mark zuckerberg apologizes for the gwing scandal over the hijacking of personal data from millions of users. he said he will fix the problems at the social media giant. also, as the u.s. prepares to impose import tariffs on steel, we hear from french workers worried about their future in the industry. that is coming up. first, our top story live from paris. >> french president emmanuel

macron is facing his first major showdown with the unions. they have called for a strike to protest his labor law reform and job cuts that would come with it. are expectedests to take place alwi a shutdown of trains and planes. all, how have things been going today? the atmosphere is rather festive. it is different in the north of paris. we have been hearing reports of hundreds of young demonstrators throwing projectiles at police and attking banks. they have been met with tear gas. this group of young this grouprss ar -- strators are on route to join french rail workers. this disruption is

nothing new for these demonstrations in paris. the demonstration by real workers is one of - rail workers is one of 2 happening today. the other is organized by a number of public sector industries, among them air traffic controlle, he and dical staff.presidtacro vowt 120,000 public-sector jobs over his presidency. as you can imagine people are worried about what that means for their jobs. about a number of redundancy packages the government is planning to introduce. the government will limit drastically the number of long-term contracts available to public sector workers. they want to introduce more short-term contracts.

for people here, that means job secuty. they will be joining the demonstration by french rail workers. they are furious about plans to scrap unemployment status for railorke that has for decadess allowed train workers to retire in their early 50's. retirement packages have been generous, and working have been shorter than other workers in the public sector. beenail workers i have speaking to s tt the street to protect that status. >> the train workers are turning today.force is it too expensive? macron's prime minister said frenchench commuters and

rail passengers are paying more money for service that works less well, that the french government is determined to change this. the government says that running trains in france costs 30% more than it does in other european countries. the government believes bringing rail workers' employment status in line with other public-sector contracts will reduce costs. there's another motivating factor. next year french regional and national passenger lines will be open to competition. that includes a series of eu directors. this reform plan will make it more profitable and more competitive. rail workers say it is the first step in a series

of steps that will lead to the dreaded privatization.that is st denies. you.ank placeds sarkozy has been under formal investigation after two days of intense grilling by the police. he is accused of taking millions illegal campaign funds for his winning bid for presidency from the late myanmar leader gadhafi. nicholas sarkozy denies any wrongdoing, denouncing what he calls a lack of physical evidence. days of intense questioning, nicholas sarkozy denies all allegations against him. in his statement he claimed that no physical evidence exists. accused of accepting illegal donations from the former libyan strongman gaddafi

to fund his 2007 presidential bid. i further the say interest of the libyan state? it was me who voted to strike the gadhafi regime. without my involvement this regime would still be in place. if they are approved, some say it could shine on the french intervention in libya. nicholas sarkozy was a key inure to overthow gaddafi 2011. >> extremely active in the war against gaddafi. it could be that when we went to war he wanted to eliminate the proof. >> nicolas sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation. 3 charges have been leveled: passive corruption, illegal

campaign funding, and handling of libyan public funds. the head of state is also under judicial control, which can entail a number of obligations for the duration of the investigation, sh as travel restrictions. if found guilty he could risk five years behind bars and 45,000 euros in fines. this is the third time nicolas sarkozyion. our editor told us what is different this time around. >> it is more toxic because it is gaddafi, there was a war. the others are more events, legally. in one influence peddling, the prosecution recommended he be sent to trial. in the other case, also about a legal financing, this time not from libya but simply

overspending in the 2012 presidential campaign, he is also put under formal investigation. words of, this has the a secret spy story with a number of shady characters, secret .ervices, a war, gaddafi you have all of the ingredients of a major scandal, and it is also foreign money that would be used by nicolas sarkozy. nilas rkozy described whatg. he has been going through as "a living hell." it is still very early, but that could be the problem for nicolas sarkozy. he was hoping this would be the end of it, but it might only be the beginning. state media says rebel fighters have begun to evte.

3500 civilians have been evacuated from a town outside of damascus. crowds of people started leaving yesterday and are continuing today followindealro by russia between the rebels and the syrian government that has been bombing nonstop for newly a month. -- nearly a month. the bombing has been the mos intense in the seven-year war. more details have come out on the suspected serial bomber in austin, texas. 23-year-old mark anthony conditt was an unemployed college dropout who.planted bombs across the texas capital for three weeks two people were killed in three were hurt. tt himlf bomb in his car when the police moved in for an arrest. >> the smiling face of the man behind a three-week reign of

terror. the vehicle that mark anthon conditt used to evade arrest. the police suspect he bombed a series of places in texas. he blew himself up in the police tracked him down oweesday. search teams found lawmaking components at his home. >> we have located a recording that the suspect made. it is about 25 minutes. he talks about what he has done. i would classify this as a confession. he does not mention anything about terrorismr hate. ,> he escaped arrest for weeks planting bombs in different locations in austin and san antonio. investigators have confirmed little about his past. only that he was unemployed and charged with an explosives

event. they don't have a motive or a mpteicture of his last 24 hours. still in that. we are looking at any associates haveuspect might had to make sure this was singular in nature. that continues. >> officers are cautiously optimistic that no other devices are out there. they want the people in austin to remain vigilant, leaving the city perhaps on edge for a little while longer. days of silence, mark zuckerberg has started to answer questions on the biggest scandal since his empire began. he has apologized for what he called a massive breach of trust in the hijacking of data from millions of facebook users. he said he is ready to testify before congress, answering questions about the breach.

>> posting a statement on facebook wasn't enough since it was revealed the social platform has allowed cambridge analytica to siphon private information uss and poticians ha bee manding swers. rk zuckeergaid thcompany was soy for the each o trt. when asked if he was ready to testify before congress, he said he would be happy to. in congress, lawmakers are ready. a little bitlearn more about his efforts to protect the privacy of the people that use facebook and if there was a misuse of this information that harms people individually or hurts their capacity as citizens. i do not know mr. zuckerberg, he obviously gs a lot of money, but i don't know if he gets the constitution. >> many are surprised by the scandal. is goingsomething that

on with all of the social apps. that is what you have to give order to get that connection with the world. expert case, i am not an in privacy, but someing went on the fact that they are stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility is commendable. >> others have deleted their accounts, turning to twitter to call on others to do the same. >> in peru, prosecutors have asked a judge to bar the president from leaving the country. back comou a president said that he was resigning one day before his near certain impeachment. the 79-year-old former wall street banker is guaranteed immunity from

prosecution, but only until congress formally accepts his resignation. here is the reaction from the people in peru. >> it makes me sad, because i voted for him. they should have closed congress the minute he entered the palace. all congressional members are shameful. they accused m of so much his last option was to resign. i think we needed to let him do his job, at least to finish his term. >> as a peruvian, i am angry. it was pr t p committed some crimes. unfortunately, the people judging him, the ones kicking him out, are also people proven to have committed corrupt, immoral offenses. >> let's look at the big stories. france.wide strike in

protests in the streets and buses shutines, and down to protest government reform. nicolas sarkozy placed under formal investigation and one of france's most exclusive political -- explosive political scandals inears. he has denied that gaddafi funded his presidential campaign. mark zuckerberg apologizes for the growing scandal over the hijacking of data from millions of users. he said he will fix the problem at the social media giant. it is time for our business news. you were looking at the business reaction to mark zuckerberg's comments in the wake of the scandal? >> investors had a chance to react immediately. yesterday there was a slight uptick in the share prices. they a still down over a percent for the week, wiping

tens of billions of dollars off of the company's value. this is before the opening on rrly cvinced by the comments of mark zuckerberg. experts recognize the damage, but fundamentally most believe the share price will bounce back. >> there is a campaign online for people to delete their facebook accounts. #deletefacebook has been weeted thousands of times. the delete uber campaign led to thousands to remove their accounts. facebook has 2 billion active users worldwide. it doesn't look like that will drop sharply for now. and also own what's app instagram.

snapat has 187 million daily users. twitter has 330 million per month. hasears of wi chat surveillance on that network. in the u.s., they are expected to announce trade measures against china today. tothe sanctions are expected include restrictions on chinese investments and tariffs on goods. a seven-month investigation into behavior by chinese companies in deals with american counterparts. the business groups want something done, but they fear such sanctions could spark a trade war. china has warned that it will act to defend its interests. theeasures would come on top of the tariffs on steel and

aluminum. french steelworkers are worried. this is one of the last steel works operating in france. scrap metal is turned into steel bars for export. 2% of france's total steel exports are destined for the u.s. now that president trump has announced a 25% tariff on importss, there are fears that the american markeuld on be off-limits. if washington makes it more expensive, top producers like brazil, turkey, and china could seek other markets, possibly flooding the eu th discote steel. >> what is not sold in the u.s. will probably be sold in europe.

veryommercial battle gets tough and unfortunately it may affect the workforce of french steel producers. >> regulations could make it harder as they face chinese competition. some employees have agreed to pay cuts. these workers are worried about their jobs. >> with the factories closing everywhere, in the u.k. they are closing. that is not too far awa>> theirs plant, and thousands of others at risk across france/ >> the trade issues are big worry for the markets. european shares are do sharply. london, paris, and frankfurt are firmly in the red. the bank of england announced it is maintaining interest rates up .5%. >> the post brexit british passports will be made in france. >> the government wants the

passports to change color to navy blue. it was described by thbritish prime minister as "an expression of our independence and sovereignty." the maker of the current british ssrt failed to win the current bid. byy were undercut in bidding french manufacturer. >> we will see how that pans out. it is now time for our press review. sargent joins me to look at what the papers are saying. >> lots of focus on the scandal surrounding facebook, the company that allowed it personal data to be taken from millions of users. mark zuckerberg finally broke his silence yesterday. you can see what he had to say ins rt

it was drawn by peter brooks. it looks like facebook is using rare editorial judgment. butooks really concerned, not with the news itself but the impact it has had on facebook, causing the stock to drop a 10% over the past couple of days. not a lot of sympathy for mark zuckerberg in the press. a columnist with the guardian writes that the scanda one of facebook's on making. saying that facebook has worked tirelessly to gather as much data from users as they can and profit from it. acoouss less willing to share information about themselves. >> the #deletefacebook has been gaining steam, as we have seen it do at other times when facebook has come under fire for things like spreading fake news. as much as you might hate facebook, getting rid of it is hard.

facebook istting like trying to leave a store that is giving away candy. they say they are clever and when you try to delete the app they will pop up pictures of your friends and say they will miss you. that is one way that they keep people. why deleting facebook is not a very good solution is that some people don't have the luxury of ti, such as small business owners who rely on that website out there.r names some say that facebook has failed consumers, when in reality facebook has failed society. eager changes have to be made. if you wanto quit facook, i'm thinking it couldn't hurt. >> papers are reacting to the news that nicolas sarkozy has been placed under formal investigationlledly taking money from the libyan government to finance his winning by mitchell cont --

his winning presidential campaign. sarkozy when he learned he was being put under werel investigation indignant. he said it was ridiculous because "without my political engagement gaddafi's regime would still be in place." he blames the scandal for his own political downfall. "the controversy created by the 1.5%."t me ?> the son of gaddafi >> p helped bring this to light. he publicly asked sarkozy to give the money back to libya. he is thanking the french

justice system for interrogating nicolas sarkozy. he says he has solid proof that sarkozy accepted money from libya. he is not been questioned by french investigators, but he hopes they will seek him as a witness. he is in libya, where he plans to run for president despite the fact that the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for him for crimes ainst humanity. >> 2 rival children's books about a bunny rabbit are battling it out for the top spot on the amazon bestseller list. >> mike pence's wife and daughter have written about a bunny. john oliver was so inspired he created a rifle book about mike pence' bunny.

the book has shot to the top of the amazon bestseller list and be doubt the book by james comey. 'book iumbe not too sbby in i own right. mike pence's wife says she is not totally unhappy about the new book because they will be giving the proceeds to charity. for both books. so either way, it is a winner. >> you can find the stories on 24.com.france this thursday is the second anniversary of the terror attacks in brussels that left 32 people dead. we will see the effects it has in theyoung jobseekers neighborhood that was the breeding ground for the attackers.

>> business news is not abou

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