♪ welcome to the "france 24" newsroom. it is 1:00 p.m. here are the headlines we are following. concerns mounting violence between iran and israel on syrian soil could spiral into a wider conflict. ofly: a seventh straight day protests on the border between gaza and israel. we cross for ann update.

iraq prepares for general elections, the first since baghdad declared victory over the islamic state group. a record number of female candidates in the running. ♪ molly: we start this edition with the latest images out of the capital of tehran. we are seeing anti-u.s. protesters on the streets, days after president donald trump pulled the united states out of the iran nuclear deal. washington has announced sanctions against six individuals and three companies that says are funneling millions of dollars to iran's revolutionary guard. the protests come after a flare of violence in syria between regional enemies.

israel carried out strikes against what it called iranian targets in response to iranian rockets fired towards its forces. correspondent: israel has released images of what it says are strikes against iranian forces in syria. the israeli government says it hit syrian sites after rockets were fired from syria against its bases in the golan heights. it says iran is behind thehe attack. >> iran crossed thehe red line. our response was appropriate. out a broad strike against iranian targets in syria. our policy is clear. we will not allow iran to entrench itself inin syria. correspondndent: the center for human rights confirms rockets were fired from syria saying

they followed a first-rate from israel. meanwhile, iran has not confirmed his forces were involved. in a phone call to chancellor angela merkel, president rouhani said iran does not want new tensions in the middle east. world powers have been urging de-escalation. >> it is the message i passed on to president rouhani and i will do the same thing with prime minister netanyahu and president putin, who in his statements seems to share the goal of stability in the short-term and to avoid escalation. correspondent: israel and run seem to be hoping to avoid further escalation which could lead to open confrontation on the syrian border. molly: this party will mark the seventh straight friday of protests along the gaza/israel border. since the end of march, at least 52 palestinians have been killed by israeli fire.

the palestinians are calling for refugees to be a will to return to their former homes in what is now israel. let's cross to chris who joins us from gaza. where are you and what is the situation? this is thet: border between the gaza strip and israel. there have been five protest camps set up around the gaza strip. the protest is mainly people uprooted during the foundation of the state of israel and scattered in various places including the gaza strip. many of their descendents live here now. five previous protests with various gatherings. on friday, we have seen clashes on the border.

betweener behind me is wasgaza strip and palestine stationed israeli soldiers. palestinians have been sending balloons with flammable material over the border and throwing stones. despite that, these are peaceful protests. the clashes have been anything but peaceful with the israelis responding with live ammunition fire. dozens of people killed with many more injured with various organizations calling for restraint and a proportional response. molly: we do have in the coming days some key dates. we have thousands expected to gather as we have the opening of the u.s. embassy in jerusalem. take placeected to

on monday. we have palestinians were going to demonstrate on the seventh anniversary. what are protesters telling you about this? correspondent: that is right. that friday was to be the end of the weeks of protests. as you said, moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem. today it passed a litmus test. there have been calls for a ramping up of protests which ebbs and flows in terms of numbers. there were plans put in place for protest camps including the main crossing, the only crossing between israel and the gaza strip. all eyes on the turnout, particularly next week. molly: thank you, chris.

iraq is gearing up for general elections. : stations officially open tomorrow, saturday. vote the first time iraqis since iraq declared victory over islamic state groups. of theake up almost 1/3 women in the running, a record number. many found themselves targets of harassment and smear campaigns. our team followed one female candidate determineneto win. correspondent: faces of female adorndates a door -- campaign posters. women are running.. securing respect and votes is a tough task. single female candidate who won and did what she said. they are all zero.

correspondent: whatever their at least 25% of seats are awarded to women. she wants to do more than just document the suffering of the iraqi people. >> the media just provides t the diagnonosis, not the solututiono the problem. today, if i had leverage a and e moneney, i could do more for iri women. >> being a female candidate is all but easy. women haha endured h harassmentt and spear -- smear campaigns prompting some to pull out of the race. correspondent: this targeted and premeditated, not just protect the wowoman but the movement the woman belongs to. there are obstacles. juggle her political ambitions with her societal obligations as a woman. marrieied with children, her

family remains a priority. heher children are supportrtive. >>. willing, she will win because she helps those who need it t the most. support from the pepeople, she e will be able to. correspondent: he worries his mother's electoral bid could put the family at risk. >> we are afraid we could become targets for bandits who could kidnap us and demand a ransom. if she wins, she wants to institute a conference of social security system. ambitious goals that will be harder than winning a seat in parliament. fory: tune into "france 24" special coverage of general elections in iraq. the time and place have been set for the first-ever meeting between a sitting u.s. president and the north korean leader. presidident trump will meeeet km jong-un on june 12 in singapore.

the u.s. president announced the details after pyongyang released three american hostages. months ago, the men threatened each other with annihilation. now trump says he has high hopes of doing something meaningful. kenya wherecentral rescue teams are trying to look at the victims of flooding that followed a dam's burst. at least 47 people have died. many other residents are still unaccounted for. authorities are beginning to investigate what caused the tragedy and if it could have been prevented. correspondent: debris is all that is left of homes smashed and buried by water and mud that flooded the county. in the ruins, emergency teams continue their search for victims. >> we are suspecting there are people inside this house. you can see when the tragedy happened, there were people inside. you can see e it was at night so people were relaxing or having

supper. correspondent: the tragedy was set off when this dam in one of the region's many farms burst after weeks of torrential rain. this unleashed what victims described as a sea of water down the hillside. they have tried to salvage what they could. many have lost everything. i am just asking you to give me somewhere to shelter my children. will the government help me? look at the water and my children. where will i take them? i don't have a home. correspondent: disaster experts have arrived on site to avert new collapses. critics question whether authorities could have done something to prevent catastrophe. >> we are beginning investigations to find o out, to establish exactly what happened.

we are maintaining an open mind as we look at thisis matter to find out whether it could have been avoided. correspondent: heavy rain's have killed more than 150 people in kenya this year. as newg could worsen razor expected in the region which is located about 190 kilometers from the capital of nairobi. in europe, the former catalan president t has rejected being reelected the new leader of the group. he's waiting on a decision of whether he will be extradited to spain. someone him to be charged with rebellion and misuse of funds for holding the catalan referendum last october. this week, we have been taking a closer look at emmanuel macron's first week as president.

macron chose the working-class suburb of paris to announce his run for the french presidency. during his campaign, he played football with the young people from the suburb. unemployment is high. when you're later, what has come of his promise to create jobs for france's youth. we take a look. he moved here this year. he did not know the estate before renovation. at 24, he has never had a job. many young people are unemployed. even though he has a high education diploma, he cannot find work. >> for me, equality means education. that has got to be the first thing. some people feel forgotten about. when we see the government is not doing anything, we have to do something ourselves to help our own people. correspondent: she created her own community group to tutor schoolchildren after school. for her, it is up to the locals

to act. >> i don't want to play the victim. they are always bringing up our area. if people come and see what it is like here, they change their opinion. he lived under three different presidents before him emmanuel macron and has seen many politicians cocome and go. in the first round of the election, he got 24% of the vote here. some young people even helped with his political campaign. hopese here raising wild in all of the communities that voted for him. he said he was going to make a big speech about suburbs and working-class neighborhoods. we are expecting the speech to bring new hopes to our communities. correspondent: in may, emmanuel macron is set to announce a new plan that will invest in and revitalize france's most

deprived areas. molly: let's get a reminder of the main stories we are following in the "france 24" newsroom. there are international calls mount that concerns tensions could spiral into wider conflict. the foformer catalanan president rejects being reappointed leader of the spanish region. he proposes a new candidate instead. the catalan parliament will debate the matter tomorrow on saturday. details are in for the first ever face-to-face between the leaders of the u.s. and north korea. kim jong-un and donald trump are set to meet in singapore on june 12. updateime for a business . we are going to start with the i.m.f. chief who is in argentina. >> at his right. christine regard says she iss ready to assist the e country.

discussions are set to continue on a loan program for argentina. with again grappling soararing inflationon. gogoing to the i.m.f. for health is a risky move for the president. correspondent: behind the smiles and handshakes, politicians scramble to keep argentina's economy afloat. what a series has begun -- when is areas -- buenos aires has begun formal talks. >> i stressed my strong support .or argentina's reforms to date correspondent: concerns are mounting over surging interest rates and inflation. the peso has lost one quarter of its value in the following year while costs continue to rise. the call for help from the i.m.f. is risky.

for many argentinians, it brings raise --ful can memories. >> the money will create debt that is difficult to pay off. we have seen this in the past. we don't have to let them do the same thing to us again when we already know it is bound to fail and leave workers worse off. correspondent: many still blame i.m.f. austerity measures for the 2001 economic crisis. aireshe sierras -- buenos could default and plunge the economy. companies allegedly funneled millions of dollars to iran's forces. they also accused the central bank and individuals of helping

to access money in foreign banks. donald trurump has given grace periods of three months to six months for countries to scale iran.eals with they are expected to ask for waivers since the agreement was signed before the return of fresh sanctions. tehran is currently in discussions with airbus on the possibility of signing agreements before sanctions are reimposed. french finance minister says it may be time for france and europe to stand up for their own economic interests.. take a listen. do we want to be vassals blindly following decisions made by the u.s. so it can become the or dos economic police, we want europeans to say we have our own economic interests? we want to keep doing business

with iran in the frame of a strategic deal which was agreed on where iran abandoned nuclear weapons. >> looming sanctions on iran's oil sector keeping prices at four-your highs. iran produces roughly y of global supplies. analysts expect prices to climb to $80 to $100 a barrel when sanctions start to bite. futures are trading above the $17 mark. let's get a check on the markets. it looks like european markets are set to end the week on a negative note. all the main indices are trading in the red. down .4%. apple has abandoned plans to build a $1 billion data center in ireland. the plan had been delayed for

years as environmental activists were seeking to block it. apple said the stalin forced it to make other plans. this is it does remain deeply committed to plans in the country. apple is said to be responsible domesticf ireland's products last year. the bank has teamed up with apple to collaborate on a credit card. the joint credit card could come out early next year and release current card with barclays. it is a first for spotify. music service is dropping r kelly from the playlist and recommendations. the singer has been accused of sexual misconduct. subject of anan

online campaign. his music will still appear on spotify but no longer be promoted. spotify says it wants his ededitorial decisionons to reflt its values. it seems it is coming a little too late for the music industry. molly: it has been quite a while. thank you very much for that. it is time for our press review. ♪ in the studioined for a look at what is grabbing headlines. we start with reaction to the latest flare of violence between israel and iran in syria. >> absolutely. this attack was the most extensive of its kind in decades. there are fears the middle east this could escalate into a full-blown conflict between iran and israel which would destabilize the region. in israel, the strikes have been

well received by the population is a sign israel is flexing its muscles and not bending to iran's will. the israeli daily wants to be careful about the general euphoria and that it could be a prelude to disaster. the article explains even though benjamin netanyahu is enjoying massive popularity as well as donald trump in israel because of the most pro-israeli policies so far including moving the embassy to jerusalem, despite all that, generally when israel has sought to flex muscles industry in a miss by force it has often backfired as history shows. isit -- the biggest example lebanese hezbollah created in the wake of israel's intervention in the lebanese civil war in the 1980's. when israel sought to weaken it with another civil war, it made

it more popular with the lebanese population. molly: there are fears in israel in terms of has block it would respond in kind to the latest airstrikes. >> hezbollah is often seen as the strong of iran when it comes to israel. according to the lebanese daily, hezbollah has been calling for de-escalation of conflict, even though the group has criticized trump's decision to pull out of the iran deal. it also said it's top priority is to maintain stability in lebanon and it will not engage with israel for now. it also said the clashes were smalall and should not lead to escalation. the attitude i has block should not come as much of a surprise -- the attitude i hezbollah should not come as much of a surprise. molly: another big story out of the opposition

leader was elected prime minister at 92. >> that makes him the oldest prime minister in the world right now. what is also important is the election represents a major shift in malaysian politics. it is the first time a candidate who is not from the ruling party is elected since the government -- country gained independence over 60 years ago. the question now for the daily is whether the ruling party can become a credible opposition force after losing the election. it argues this will be complicated as it still has ties and influence over malaysian institutions but it is possible. it will require a significant reboot of the party structure to happen. molly: let's cross to the united states where we are seeing another controversial interaction between a police force an african americans. >> it seems like it never ends. this happened at yale university, a prestigious ivy

league school in the u.s., after a white student called police when she saw a black student sleeping in the common room. he says she was not -- she said she was not sure if the black student belonged there. black student was not arrested. she was only required to show i.d. and that she was registered in school. it was another case of discrimination, the likes of which we have seen a lot in recent years in the u.s. molly: another uncomfortable situation. scandal a starbucks few weeks ago as black men were arrested waiting for a friend inside starbucks. >> according to the "new york times," this is added to a long list of things that could get you in trouble if you do them while black. napping now joins driving, walking, sitting down at a starbucks, playing with a toy gun, or even wearing a hoodie. the article argues if any of these things were done by a

white person, they would not get in trouble and points to latent discrimination in the u.s. system. molly: unfortunate. thank you for that. for more, you can always had to our website. we are going to take a quick break. stay with us as the news continues on "france 24." ♪ >> you might watch "france 24" in english. don't foforget it is also broadcasting french, arabic, and spanish. media in online and in france and around the world.

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