>> welcome to france 24 news desk. these are the headlines. trains shut down across the country as rail workers kickoff the first day of a rolling strike planned for the next three months. they are furious over government reforms to modernize the debt ridden rail companies. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says he is --

that turnaround coming after he agreed to the same deal with the u.s. after pressure fr hard-line nests -- hard lines. the syrian government gets closer to take back control of goo to. up, is the world's biggest music streaming service. it has never made a profit. se will be previewing spotify' stock market debut. -- silicon of india valley could be an habitable -- uninhabitable. in the next few years.

travel chaos in france today for close to 5 million commuters as the country faces a massive strike. it is just the beginning. well workers are planning walkouts out of every five days -- two out of every five days. strikers are angry over a proposed reform from business minded president emmanuel macron. he is trying to figure out ways to revamp the national rail company. that is o over $60 billion -- 60 billion euros in debt. chris is at the busiest train station in europe. we just saw 100 or so people waving union flags. they just set off on a tour around the french capital. they say they are very pleased with the number of people observing the strike.

they intend to push on. in terms of the situation behind me, the busiest rail station seems very quiet today. a lot of people staying at home. in terms of people we have been talking to, a mix of opinions ranging from anger and frustration to those who say they sympathize with what the railway workers are doing. they sympathize with the unions arguing that the rail workers do have good terms and conditions but that is no reason to attack them. hereis the way some people have been thinking. there is likely to be a bit of a battle on public opinion with such major disruption in store over the next three months. opinion polls here in france show that about a week ago, emmanuel macron, the french

people agreed with his proposal. that gap has been narrowing. >> the rail workers, what exactly are they the most angry about? when you start coming through the details, it does not seem at their situation is that bad. that is right. feel that they are on the thin end of a wedge. -- emmanuelrons macron's policy involving liberalizing the french economy and making it more competitive. he does that france has been held back. the government does not have any choice over this. they want to get the debt of the national rail company down and bring in various reforms.

european governments are obliged to open up the national railways to competition. the unions do not like changes to future working conditions. they cannot like the way that emmanuel macron government has been going about this. pushing it through via executive order. they feel it may be paving the way towards the privatization. that is something the government has denied. these are all fears. >> thanks for that. if you are traveling in france, if you're getting a little worried, you can check out our strike survival guide. that can help you get around today. you can find it on our website, france 24.com. news, the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says he is counseling

and african migrant relocation deal. that turnaround coming just hours after he agreed to the same deal with the u.n. france 24's correspondent joins us. this is an incredible turnaround. it has been such a confusing 24 hours. this deal with a 90 -- with the haded nations asylum-seekers being relocated in western countries. that agreement lived for six hours. was benjamin netanyahu did cave to right-wing pressure. that was pressure within his party. it was pressure within his coalition. it was pressure on facebook. there was a torrent of angry responses. he had canceled that deal. he met with people who are the

most affected in tel aviv. that is where most of the asylum-seekers live. he said, you are angry. you are my voters. i am canceliling this bill. i do not think i've seen anything likike it. utterlyentator wrote ththat the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. both hands belong to benjamin netanyahu. >> we still have these thousands of asylum-seekers there. who are they and what is going to happen to the? >> they are in a worse situation. there are some 40,000 asylum-seekers from africa. most from eritrea and sudan. theirannot be deterred to countries of origin. it is too dangerous. what israel said it had cobbled together was a deal with a third country in africa. that they would be sent to rwanda. still without any paperwork.

but just sent somewhere else. but rwanda has said they never agreed to this deal. once they learned it was a forced deporortation, they were not going to agree to that. now these 39,000 people are in a worse situation. there is protesting here in tel aviv. for the six hours, they thought there was a solution for the. now it is not clear what is going to happen. there is a court case next week. they challenge the old agreement. the prime minister -- the prime minister says the agreement does not hold. >> thank you for that. syria says the last pocket of opposition rebels in eastern ghouta has made a deal for safe passage. that deal brokered by russia says the largest rebel group would leave the main town of duma.

other reports say the group is split over whether or not to leave. peter o'brien explains. buses carrying rebel fighters and their families reach a checkpoint leaving the last rebel held pocket near damascus. syrian state media says these buses are evavaating more than 1100 members of the last rebel group in the nation. the syrian observavary for humun rights says the group is divided over whether to evacuate. they have e denied statete media reports that they have reached a deal with russia requiring them to evacuate. this file is the evacuation of more t than 1000 rebels and ther families on sunday.. more than 46,000 evacuated from the region in the last week. ththe you haveve evacuated a are travining northward to regions outside of government control in the provinces of aleppo.

syrian government forces show reports of a sprawling network of channels. -- left behind. >> it is like a spider web that leads from one network to another. >> there is not a civilian insight outside the tunnels. assaultan governments since february has killed 1600 civilians and displace thousands more. >> russian president vladimir putin is set to get turner -- is set to go to turkey to discuss the situation in syria. earlier we were talking about the massive strike in france. in the united states, it is teachers who are walking off the job. thousands of teachers in oklahoma and kentucky went on strike monday for better funding and salaries. they are on salary -- they are on strike again today.

yesterday they rallied outside of the state capital demanding better conditions for students and themselves. of acomes after one month similar protest in west virginia. >> filling the streets of oklahoma city, thousands of angry teachers marching on the state capital. they ditched the classroom on monday to call for high pay and increased funding for education. inthe same moment neighboring kentucky, thousands protested against proposed cuts to pension benefits. they also demanded better conditions and for themselves. >> we are not an afterthought. we are not something that you can put at the bottom of a bucket. we are not something you can put lobbyists over. we are the future. our students at a future. they need to fund our future. >> oklahoma and kentucky rank 47th and 36 for pupil funding.

average teacher salaries are among the lowest in the country. hasns say public funding plummeted since the financial crisis. many teachers have not had a pay raise in over a decade. many are also asking for more money to help pay for more textbooks and classroom supplies. >> we are all focused on the same goal, which is funding and supporting public education. it is for everyone. it is part of our democracy. it is part of being american. they have been inspired by similar walkouts in west virginia. >> we talk a lot about the environment on france 24. now we will focus on the worsening situation in bangalore, the capital of india's silicon valley. pollution there is so that it is provoking fires on the city's lakes. some say bangalore could be

uninhabitable in the next seven years. >> it might look like snow floating down the river. it is hot in bangalore. this is toxic foam. visual proof of the city's extreme pollution problem. some days the foam becomes mountainous and the wind blows it into the air. it is a rare phenomenon caused by huge amounts of industrial waste combined with wastewater from housing nearby. the foams chemical vapors are extremely dangerous. >> i've had problems breathing. i also have a young child who has been taken to the hospital because he is struggling to breathe. >> the foam has even caught fire several times. the sun eight nights the phosphorus a and oil floating on ththe water, whicich then burnsr hours. the problem is bangalore's extremely fast-paced development. in 25 years, the population has

quadrupled. companies are growing rapidly and what is called india's silicon valley. everything is not contaminated. not just the water. 2025, 98% of the area -- >> the pollution has caused a drinking water scarcity. authorities are having to dig deep to find drinking water and are using trucks to distribute it. the lakes and rivers around the city are simply dying out. >> you are watching france 24. let's take a look at today's top stories. french trains shut down across the country as rail workers kick off the first day of a rolling strike planned for the next three months. the furious over government reforms to modernize the

company. benjamin netanyahu says he is canceling the african m migrant relocation deal he suspended earlier in the day. that is coming up after he agreed to the same deal from the u.n. the syrian government gets evenn closer to taking back for control of eastern ghouta. state media saying the last rebel held pocket is being evacuated from the former opposition stronghold. time for a business update. closergoing to take a look at the business angle of this massive strike in france. lots of disruption for papassengers. also a big cost for the company. debt itentioned the has. it is over 50 billion euros. that is led to the reform causing the strikes. this walkout will cost the sncf between 12 and 20 million euros a day.

there also lost ticket sales. those who decide not to travel by train in the future because they do not think it is reliable. in 2016, 23 days of industrial action cost about 200 and 50 million euros -- 250 million euros. a disruption of this scale has an effect on the wider economy. if we look at the major general strikes that it happened in france, in 2007, 10 days of action not 1% off french growth. the massive stoppages in 1995 had double the effect. does can be balanced out over time as companies make up losses. >> what is happening on the market? >> we have had a cououple rough days on trading. that is been feeding into what is happening in asia and europe. the big fall is on wall street. suppliers are suffering in

europe. when wall street opens later, there will be lots of focus on spotify. >> the streaming service is launching on the stock market. spotify cannot be offering new shares for sale. just those held by existing investors. fittinglar market day for a company that has an unusual path to success. >> it has been hailed as a savior of the music industry. it is become the envy of startups. expandings beenn around the globe becoming the world's number one streaming service. >> i think it all worked because we recognize the consumer behavior. fans wanted all the music for free immediately. what we did was to build a better experience. we built something that could compete against piracy and make

sure artists were compensated for their work. amounts inpays huge licensing fees to recording companies. withs yet to turn a profit annual operating costs running into hundreds of millions of euros. the company has shifted its lucrative paid subtraction. spotify's -- paid subscription. apple music is trading a distant second. its revenue from paid subscription is 10 times bigger than its advertising revenue. those have doubled over the past two years. as it goes public in new yorork, spotify says it is not looking to raise c cash. it has opted f for direct listig without hiring underwriters. >> onene of the main reasons we have decided to pursue a direct to be more transparent and accessible to a wider range of investors. >> the public listing would not only allow current shareholders

to cash in their investment but may also prompt the company to change its business model to make it more profitable. >> more of today's business headlines. britain's sky news could be sold to walt disney or spun off to a new company. 21st century fox's plans to take over the european broadcaster. fox says it wishes to design -- protect the channels independence. a bid d for a contract for hundreds of millions of euros s technically secure. the new blue passports -- a major u.s. investor has called for mark zuckerberg to quit as chairman of facebook. he oversees the pension

investments. wereld cnbc that changes coming after the cambridge analytica scandal. >> sales and apartments in manhattan are dropping. >> the number of apartments and condos fell right 20%. the biggestis annual decline in sales they have seen in nine years. the price per square foot dropped by a most a fifth in just under $7,000. property experts say that buyers are holding off until they can see the effect of donald trump's tax changes. how they are going to affect property purchases. perhaps now is the time to buy. >> thank you for that. it is time now for our press review.

we take a look at what is the making the headlines around the world. in france, it is certainly the rail strike. today is the start of what could be three months of unrest. >> the transport sector is pretty much going on strike sporadically every week until june. the right-leaning paper adopts a military tone on its front page evoking what it calls the war of attrition. a military style headline here. a war of attrition between the government and the union. france is at a turning point is what the editors say. on the other side, the communist paper is paying a mosh to -- paying homage to the leaders of the strike. they're saying we will defend commuters and the public sector. there to five -- they are defined.

already provoking a lot of headaches for commuters. >> thank god you can find a little bit of humor and what is a serious topic. it is crunch time for consumers. macronpresident emmanuel may have the solution according to the cartoonist. here he is telling his prime minister adouard philippe that this is the way. i am telling you we will get there on time. millions of french people may not say the same thing. >> and other story we are looking at is the saudi prince visiting france next week. he has given an interview to the website the atlantic. >> it was an extraordinary interview. the reformist prince is not

afraid to speak his mind. he is not afraid to drive through important changes in his country. he is on his epic three-week -- he talks about two major statements. he advocates for israeli and palestinians to have the rights to live in their own peaceful nations. this is what he says in the interview. the other major takeaway on iran. he says, i believe the iranian supreme leader makes hitler's look good. adding that while hitler's wanted to come to -- when to conquer europe, arad was to conquer the world. -- iran wants to conquer the world. mandela orr winnie mama winnie as she was known.

they are going with a big torilla's image of her. wing that wasry founded by her late ex-husband nelson mandela. called -- she became a symbol of the struggle during apartheid. she led the party after the imprisonment of leaders. she was much more than nelson mandela's wife or ex-wife. by theests in india untouchables have turned deadly. >> quite politically. protests have killed at least nine and plunged northern india into chaos. police are -- they are blocking railway tracks. theysupreme court ruling,

have rejected the arrest of individuals discriminating against the lowest caste of indians. they say this lessens the protections for them. as you read from the hindu sun-times, it is much more complex. by their numbers and growing connectivity, they could be a rising political force. >> in france, i'm so glad you flagged this story. --anuel macron favoring facing the wrath of the unions. he is also facing the wrath of french language purist. created thattly committed the ultimate faux pas. he is an english word. the word was bottom-up. bottom-up as an top-down, a is this model word. ofs was not to the approval

language purists. the hilariously went over heads of many french people. some worried about him using the word bottom saying it might be inappropriate for head of state. others confused it with bottoms up, a drinking game. >> i do not know how you would translate bottoms up into french. thanks so much for that. you can get a closer look at the press review on our website at france 24.com. as worries over the facebook privacy scandal snowball, have you checked in on your privacy settings? if not, we will have digital coach -- a digital coach to bring you up to speed.



announcer: this is a production of china central television america. lelee: we live in a world of extremes. on one end, prosperity abounds. on the other, millions live in extreme poverty. why is that? why is eradicating extreme global poverty such a daunting challenge for everyone from powerful governments to ngos? maybe it takes a little more ingenuity. this week on "full frame," conversations with change makers who are taking innovative, new approaches in the fight to eradicate global poverty. i'm may lee in los angeles. let's take it "full frame."