>> welcome to you. i am rochelle ferguson and these are the top stories. gutless and phony, the words of the u.s. president as he "thends to an editorial in new york times" in which an unidentified senior official describes him as a moral and anti-democratic. offers toetanyahu

close it - -- israel's embassy n paraguay. we will bring you the very latest on that story. verdict in india as the supreme court legalizes gay sex. hopecampaigners say they things will change. ♪ first to our top story, president donald trump slammed a "new york times" editorial in which a senior official called him amoral and anti-democratic. the unnamed official also writes are many of trump's team

working to frustrate parts of his agenda. the president called the claims gutless and phony. donald trump react to. not like donald trump and i do not like them because they are very dishonest people. member this also about "the new york times," when i won they were forced to apologize to their subscribers. they wrote a letter of apology. it was the first time anybody has ever done it, because they covered the election incorrectly. if the failing "new york times" has an anonymous editorial, meaning a gutless editorial. we are doing a great job. mr. johnson, thank you for your time. is this unidentified senior

op-edal who wrote this unprecedented in the u.s.? >> i'm trying to think when we have seen at administrative actively thwart the president's agenda. the most close in recent times is when richard nixon went occasionally drink too much -- would occasionally drink too much so they would defer decisions until he had to soak -- sobered up. there was an incident when a u.s. plane was shot down over north korea in 1969 and neck's and wanted to take immediate action against north america -- nixon wanted to take immediate action against north korea but kissinger and his staff did not listen to that. this letter is of a different character, because it is opposing the president not in matters necessarily of life or

death, but oversensitive policy disagreements. >> of all the time we were gearing the word "impeachment" of donald trump, there are whispers of invoking the 25th amendment. is that likely? >> this particular section of the 25th amendment, section four, has never been used. it empowers a simple majority of the cabinet and vice president to remove a president immediately if they think that president is unfit for the office. what that would take his vice president mike pence and 80 members of the cabinet to write a letter to the leadership in congress and say that they think donald trump needs to be removed. immediately, vice president pence would become acting president and donald trump would be able to challenge that decision, and congress will

decide within 21 days whether or not they should endorse the decision of the cabinet or reinstate president trump. if thereuite frankly, were people who genuinely believe that donald trump is unfit to be president and a threat, that is the kind of action they really need to seriously consider rather than these anonymous op-ed's in the newspapers. >> we heard a sound bite, donald trump vehemently denenying these claims, hitting back, calling them gutless and phony. how damaging is an editorial like this for him? >> it is very damaging. some of the language used in the , basically the admission of a "two track presidency" means there is very little confidence that the president's supporters can have that his agenda can be implemented, and

also the person who wrote it accused the president of being moral, which is,ora concerning that a senior official would think that. this comes at the same time as bob woodward's new book in which there are assertions that the trump administration officials have been hiding documents from the president or simply ignoring his instructions. this is a really chaotic situation where in modern times, some of nixon's foreign-policy initiatives were somewhat ported. the last time this happened was probably after the american civil war in the 19th century, which nearly led to the impeachment of president andrew johnson at that time. >> richard johnson speaking to us from lancaster university. thank you.

next, prime minister benjamin netanyahu ordered the closure of israeli embassy in paraguay hours after paraguay announced plans to move its embassy in israel back to tel aviv. they announced wednesday they would rerse the decision to move the embassy to jerusalem. paraguay wants to achieve lasting peace in the middle east. for more on this, let's cross the lines to our colleague. benjamin netanyahu not happy about this decision. what has been the reaction? >> he is not happy because it is a humiliation for him personally. it is only three and a half months since paraguay moved the embassy to jerusalem and he said they were a good friend of israel. thatso told the public this would be the beginning of a wave of other countries moving

their embassies to jerusalem. it started with washington, then there was quite a mullah, then there was paraguay -- what a ala, then guatem there was paraguay. he is the foreign minister and the prime minister, and he simply ordered the closure of the embassy and the return of the ambassador. he has received some criticism within israel, saying that is not the way to conduct diplomacy. anger should not drive israel's reaction. >> benjamin netanyahu angry. the palestinian authority has welcomed paraguay's decision. >> it is a diplomatic coup for the palestinian authority. they organized it. there was a statement put out to the palestinian authority today congratulating the foreign minister, the palestinian

foreign minister who went to paraguay, saw that there was a new president, and he put the view put the palestinian and persuaded the new president to change the position to move the embassy back to tel aviv. there is a reward for him, if you like, and also the idea being floated, suggestions the palestinians will open their own embassy in paraguay.y. israel closing its embassy, palestinians opening there's. a diplomatic coup. >> thank you. next to india, where the country's supreme court ruled gay sex is no longer a criminal offense. the ruling strikes down a colonial era role that made punishable with as much as a decade behind bars. they have been fighting the band

since the 1990's. >> overwhelming joy in india's lgbt community. for them, this ruling changes everything. gay sex used to be punishable by up to 10 years in prison. >> i have never felt this amount of happiness ever in my life. we did not expect to see this day, but finally, we have got justice and at this moment, i cannot express anything else. >> it has been a decade-long struggle against a law introduced by british colonizers in the 1860's, which banned gay act's, calling them against the order of nature, and carried a maximum sentence of life in prison dust life in prison. -- life in p prison. they say it helped createte a culture of fear. >> blalackmailing,g, extortion,a

lot of caseses people have faced caususe of thiss law and that will not happen anymore. while i am super happy for the judgment, i know there wilill ba lot ofof work needed to change society's mindset. in india regard homosexuality as a mental illness and the authorities have warned that judges should not change other aspects of the law like gay marriage. milestone toward changing perceptions. hiatus, a two-year peace talks for yemen's ongoing crisis get going in the swiss capital. discussions are aimed at halting the country's grueling three-year war which has claimed thousands of lives and displaced millions. and envoy for yemen said he

hopes they can draw a flickering signal of hope. >> the time has come to begin -- a new process, to relaunch a process which will lead to a revolution -- resolution of this conflict which is so tragically marked and continues to do so. >> authorities have declared a citywide curfew. protesters are blocking the entrance overnight and demonstrations continue to sweep the southern region, with one person killed wednesday night. it follows six other demonstrators who lost their lives in clashes with security forces on tuesday. demonstrators saying they are angry with the government over inadequate outlook services and crumbling infrastructure. thursday, u.k.

officials will bring the un security council up to speed on our -- a resolution issued for charged withgents a poisoning. prime minister theresa may saying wednesday that russian intelligence officials were behind the poisoning. absentia, these are the two suspects accused of being flown to britton by russia ain bych -- brit russia in march. prime minister theresa may once again laid the blame entirely on moscow. >> i can state that based on a body of intelligence, the government has concluded that the two individuals named by the

police and cps are officers from the russian military intelligence service. gru.knownwn as the attack to anked the similar incident that resulted in a death in june. alexander petrov and were slumped by shop -- are being charged with conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, and the new -- the use of nova chock hok.ovic russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack. >> we have requested copies of the fingerprints which the british government has refused to give us, like with all the other materials we have previously asked for. >> following the poisoning six months ago, britton expelled

russian diplomats. authorities holding out little hope they would bring the suspects to justice as russia does not enforce extradition of its own nationals. >> gutless and phony, president trump hits back in an opinion piece in "the new york times" in which a senior official describes him as amoral and anti-democratic. benjamin netanyahu ordered the closure of israel's embassy in paraguay after paraguay announced plans to send there is back to tel aviv. a historic verdict in india legalizes gay sex. the lgbt campaign says they hope the perceptions will now change. it is time now for our business news. stephen carroll joins me.

starting with the markets, but keeping a close eye on the tip -- the currency terminal. >> we have seen some accelerated over recent weeks, turkey, south africa among the currencies affected. it seems like the slow off is selling -- sell off the slowing down. ,hey are still massively down if you look at their position a few weeks or months ago. stock markets are worried by the bowls. asia markets are trading lower. things seem to be settling down on the main european indices. able to eat out some slow gains but still at the lowest level in three months. riel -- realian actually hit a record low against the u.s. dollar. between sunday and wednesday,

it lost a quarter of its value, making life difficult for many. >> waiting out the long lines at foreign exchange bureaus, many iranians are trying to swap their nation's currency two dollars. it has lost two thirds of its value to the dollar this year. >> we have some savings and every day the value is going down while the dollar keeps going up. we should buy some dollars now to protect our money. we are going -- getting married soon and will need it. >> the causes of the currency dive are many. renewed american sanctions, growing fears about iran's economy. the massive fear for dollars has not helped either, nor are weak banks. a global selloff of emerging-market currencies is at work. as the dollar strengthens, iran's currency has suffered

like turkeys. the iranian government has set up a fixed exchange rate and punishing black-market sellers, but for some that will not do much. >> there is not lingering of hope. no kind of practical and , practicalay solution on behalf of the government to solve this problem. staggering 140% drop in value in the past four months may continue, as a second round of u.s. sanctions is expected in november. >> a different kind of turmoil on the crypto currency market, the price of bitcoin has continued to slump after reports that goldman sachs has scrapped plans for a crypto currency trading desk. bitcoin down around 5% on top of

a big slump yesterday. the fbi is said to be investigating foreign exchange pricing at american express. the inquiry is looking at whether the company's foreign-exchange division misrepresented prices to win new clients. the probe is in its early stages and the company declined to comment. features toed new increase passenger safety, including passenger -- including contracting -- contacting passengers and drivers upon a crash. the british fashion brand burberry says it will stop burning goods it does not sell. the practice r revealed in a financial report earlier this year alleged they destroyed clothing and accessories worth more than 30 million to protect its brand. they announced they would stop

using real for in their product -- real f fur in ththeir produc. >> starbucks is finally opening in italy. >> it is a landmark for the coffee chain. they have 25,000 stores in 78 countries, but only now are daring to open in italy. -- malign reserve -- there will be no blended drinks on offer. there will be of course, espresso, but also pizza and pastries made by the local baker. founder wass inspired to set up the chain in milan. they will open more cafes by the end of the year. >> i still prefer a quaint little cafe. >> at the catheter -- counter. >> time for our press review.

taking a look through today's papers, i'm joined by alison sargent. we are starting in the u.s. with reaction to the new york times editorial penned by an anonymous trump official. >> it is very rare for "the new york times" to publish an op-ed and anonymously. they invite readers to ask questions and say because the person's job would be jeopardized, they believed this was the only way to get this information to readers. the piece echoes many of the accounts in the upcoming book by washington post journalist rob woodward that officials have been taking the country from what this official calls trump's amorality. they are not from the left wing extreme. that has not stopped donald

trump from being livid. he questioned if it is a phony sores and says they have a duty to turn the person over for treason. trump aids have been deeply shaken and write the chump loyalists have been sharing text messages with the phrase "the sleeper cells have awoken." >> this article has inspired a lot of action online. >> the big question is, who wrote this piece? the race is on to figure this out. got a lot ofat traction online is the person who wrote this was perhaps the vivice president himself. this is because of the use of one word, "lone star" that mike pence has been known to use. senior official and trump administration can be meant broadly.

the person is only known to a select number of staff from the opinion pages, which are kept separate from the rest of the paper. the national review is less concerned with who wrote it then why they wrote it. this writer thinks ultimately it comes down to self-interest. they think the author is trying to save their own reputation years from now to be able to say basically they were fighting against the worst parts of the trump administration even from inside it. i have that now on record, even if for now the record is anonymous. >> one of the claims is that donald trump had to be convinced to take action against moscow in the poisoning of fair. >> this is after the british government announced they are charging two russian suspects for this allegedly poisoning. you can see them on all of the front pages. the daily -- daily mail is

calling them putin's smiling assassins. theresa may says this was not a rogue attack and it goes all the way to the kremlin. a cartoon we find from the daily telegraph, vladimir putin is reacting to those accusations. "now you say two russians were responsible, it is just one." russian media is far more skeptical when it comes to moscow's involvement. >> they say these charges do not necessarily prove anything. according to them, the case remains a mystery. the paper worries these charges will be a reason to punish russia, as theresa may has promised. >> some of our viewers may be recovering from the world cup.

i am against them. france's national team will be back on the field tonight. >> it will be their first game since winning the world cup. place in munich since they will face the former world cup champions, germany. all week we have been talking about back-to-school time in france. theiru will be making entree tonight. identified the team playing with the world cup. it is a good chance to root germany, as they seek to redeem themselves. story,lly, we end with a a business promotion gone wrong. >> or perhaps gone too well. in russia, domino's pizza offered free pizza for life of

anyone who got a tattoo of their logo, posted it, and proved the authenticity. it might not sound worth it but so many people did it they had to end the promotion. domino's pizza can only give free pizza for life for the first 350 people, and had to send an urgent message to anyone under a needle in a tattoo appointment. >> they did not stress how big the tattoo was. >> it had to be visible. , icanceling the promotion think to its own success. thank you very much for the roundup. if you want to see more, log on to our website at france 24.com. we will be pack -- back on the other side with more international headlines. stay tuned.

coming up onreel south.

- [darius]s] from mobile to birmingham, alabama's gay community is no longer silent. - [searcy] you know, my roots are definitely southern. - [dariuius] and the strugglee to change statate laws anand attitudes has s gained gr. - [patricia] for somebody like me who's a political junkie anand an activivist, thiss is thehe front linines. - [darius] but in many cases, families' lives have been upended. - [k[kinley] oncnce again, oulife is put t on hold.d. - this is s about the whole sta. thisis is about t every single gayay personn who's beenen denied rights. - [darius] wititness "alabama b bound" onreel south. - [female narrator] support for this prorogram is provided by south arts, sponsors of the southern circuit tour of independent filmmakers, with funding from the national endowment for the arts.