genie: t this is "france 24." time for the headlines around the world. e.u. leaders in brussels today to pick the next president of the european commission. that process will be a tricky one in the wake of the election that shook up traditioional alliances at the e.u.. sentences twoq more french members of the islamic state group to death, bringing the total to six. the french foreign minister says

his government is working to spare the group of condemned frenchmen n to execution. people including an 11-year-old girl stabbed to death at a park outside tokyo. before the attacker slit his own throat. 15 other children were hurt in a rare active public violence in japan. proposedhe way, a merger between two european car giants is the latest for an industry undergoing a wave of consolidation. details are coming up in our business update. shock waves in spanish football. a series of first and second division players arrested links to match fixing. details coming up with our correspondent in madrid, sara morris. first, top stories live from paris.

genie: as the new european parliament take shape, all eyes are now on who will be its new top executive. e.u. leaders are meeting to talk about that today. so far there is no agreement on a name or how to decide who it should be. under the so-called candidate process, mp's decide the new european president by endorsing the lead candidate of the biggest political group to emerge from the election. but the smaller party this time around is shaking that up. one of the new key players is the centrist party of the french president, emmanuel macron, and as alison sargent explains, he is working to influence the future of european politics. alison: on the move to build a european alliance, french president emmanuel macron met with socialist prime minister

pedro sanchez. ahead of the lunch in brussels where they will be joined by antonio coast and conservative dutch prime minister marks rutha. with socialist and some center-right parties and even the green. gathered around macron's own centrist group. g groups need us to form a majority, which means that we wilill have a colosossal power in the e.u. parliament, and at the h heart of our group, the leading delegation is ours. pararty,hrough his macron h hopes to weigh heavilyn the choicece of the e.u. president. a real contest this time around with power no longer split along five artisan lines. -- along bipartisan lines. to the french president have already come out conservative,an

the candidate favored by angela merkel. capable of action as a european union. the we make the decision, the better it will obviously be for the future, even if the new commission takes office at a later date. alison: differing views on the e.u. commission's next president could be a source of tension between the core political couple. they will meet one-on-one tuesday in brussels. genie: austria's president is set to name a new chancellor totoday until the country holds new elections in the fall. officeforced out of monday following a no-confidence vote in -- he is now the first in postwar history to be removed from officice by a no-confidence vote over a corruptition scanda, a scandal that had already brought down his coalition at the far right. wasust hours after he

ousted as chancellor, sebastian trail,it the campaign talking to his political rivals as he addressed supporters. >> i am still here, standing before you. today the parliament decided that at the end of the day in september, in a democratic vote, the people will decide. i am looking forward to it. >> sebastian kurtz's downfall began a week ago when footage emerged showing his vice chancellor, the leader of the far right freedom party, apparently offering favors to an alleged russian investor. kurtz pulled the plug on the right wing coalition, and on monday the chancellor was taken down. was brought by the social. >> it has deeply surprised me that a chancellor in such a situation has still to this day not offered one word of apology to the austrian people.

the so-called scandal may have tarted the freedom party, but it has not put off voters. the center-right people's party came in first in sunday's european election with 35%, several points higher than their 2017 parliamentary results. genie: demonstrators in sudan have called for a two-day nationwide strike starting today. they are trying to up pressure on military rulers who stepped in last month after the ouster of longtime president omar al-bashir. the talks currently on hold, protest leaders say their patience is wearing thin. has sentencedq two more french members of the islamic state group to death, bringing the total number of french former jihadists condemned to death this week to six. france's foreign minister says

his government is working to execution,rench from though france has made no effort to bring back captured french i.s. fighters. >> anything but the death penalty. the french govovernment says jihadistst fighters shoululd be tried inin a country where they committed their crimes, but that theyhould not t face capital punishment. the foreign minister is upping the pressure on baghdad andnd several french nationals have been sentenced to death by hanging in the past few days. >> it is up to the iraqi justice system to try these people. we are totally against the death penalty. i am reminded of the opposition. >> for paris, it is a legal, diplomatic headache. wary of the political backlash

at home, paris has asksked the war-r-torn country to arrest and try suspected combatants and keep them in custody. the french government says it respects iraqi's sovereignty -- iraqi soverereignty. one of the m sentenced to death disagrees he described t e trial as a sham. >> the trial lasted about 10 minutes for each person. they basted only on confessioios made in a a wreck he prisons. without lawyers, we do not know -- in iraqi prisons. without lawyers, we do not know what was said. iraq has tried more than 500 suspected foreign memembers of e so-called caliphate since 2018. many were condemned to life in prison, others to death.h. none have yet been executed. moving closeris toward new elections. just one month after the party of prime minister benjamin netanyahu came out on top.

net and yahoo! is now threatening to hold a new vote if you ash netanyahu is now threatening to hold a new vote. trying to convince allies to back him in control of parliament, but those allies have refused, pushing parliament to pass phase one of a bill toward a new vote. our correspondent has more. >> another day, another deadlock. israel's prime minister, withmin netanyahu, talks ultra-orthodox allies are at a standstill. as a deadline to an agreement looms. that i will is continue to act in every possible way in order to form a government in the coming days. i call on -- to wake people up again. and right wing allies won a general election last month. the pm has hold -- has

threatened to hold elections if talks are not successful to avoid the opposition getting a chance to form a government of their own. way, liebererman. the ulultranatationalist seculur party controls five s seats, and the former defense mr. want something in return for that report. the guarantee that ultra-orthodox juice will no longer be exempt from military service. jews willtra-orthodox no longer be exempt from military service. i think that at the moment, on the one hand, an election is totally unnecessary. only t the likud is to blame for the failure of negotiations. >> the stakes are high. holding elections so close togethther will be a first, and

net and yahoo! is -- netanyahu is suspected in three separate corruptions cases. genie: a mass stabbing in japan has left three people dead, including an 11-yearar-old girl. 15 other children were hurt in that attack at a park outside tokyo, a rare active public violence in japan. a country that is known for being one of the safest in the world. justin mccurry told us more from tokyo. stands ate death toll three. it was a little e bit of confusn about the age of the youngest japanese media reports saying she is an 11-year-old. one of the other victims is a man in his late 30's. we now also know, that the alleged attacker is also among the dead.

he carried out this indiscriminate stabbing as the children were boarding a bus railwaya rail rate -- a station outside kawasaki in tokyo. as he was leaving, he stopped andd stabbed himself in the neck and lalater died of his injuries in hospital. donald trump the u.s. president, ended his four-day stay in japan today, saying he wanted to offer his prayers and sympapathy to te victims and their families just before he left japan. in the last t few hours, the japanese prime minister, shinzo abe, has talked about his anger at what happened. he went on to say that he ordered the education ministry to ensure that children in japan are safe when they are traveling to and from schools. it is very rare in t this counuy for children to be dropped off outside school by their parents in cars. many take buses.

many as young as five and six will use public transport on their own. genie: japan has a reputation for being a safe society. have there been any incidents as dramatic as this one there before? just in: there have. i can recall three or four in the last 20 years. it is important to put out that gun crime in japan is extremely rare, and that is because japan and forces very strict gun control laws. i think according to the national police agency, only three people died in shooting incident i in japan in 2017, ani think there have been fewer than 50 deaths from gun crime in japan in the last eight years. dose indiscriminate attacks occasionally happen, and when they happen, they invariably willll be through the use of knives or swords. one of the worst postwar stabbings in japan occurred a couple of years ago in tokyo

when a man broke into a residential facility for people with mental disabilities and stabbebed 19 of them to death. there have been similar incidents,s, including at a schl in 2001 and 2008. there is widespread shock over what has happened, particularly because many of the victims, most of the injured victims are children. and the fact t that the suspects now dead and will never be brought to justice. but japan does deserve its reputation as one of the safest societies in the world. genie: justin mccurry reporting from tokyo. now to legislation that will legalize abortion, set to be introduced in argentina. the national congress is similar to other -- bill is similar to other proposals last year that passed the lower house of deputies but failed in the senate. the new legislation would also ask for access to p publicly fundnded abortion in the first 4 weeks of pregnancy.

correspondent declan mccarley has more from point osirisis. bill was triedus months ago where there was a historic debate in the lower house of argentina posner national parliament, and of course was rejected by a narrowing majority by the upper house, the national senate, which is a much more conservative institute. broughte members were frfrom the rural conservative provinces, where the catholic church has a much greater influence. pro-choice campaigners will face exactly the same obstacle in the national senate. argentina is traditionally roman catholic but is an increasingly secular society as well. there is increasingly public demand to change the strict abortion laws, but the challllee ththat faces pro-choice putut -- hasas forced harlem and terrence to

put themselves in charge instead where this public issue is regarded. genie: now to spain where a number of first and second division football players have been arrested over suspicions of match fixing. a spanish paper broke that story, saying a number of players are linked to forming a criminal organization that has been able to profit from betting on games. andral former players coaches are reportededly now unr arrest. sarah morrrris joins us from madrid to talk more about all of this. what are you hearing? sarah: six arrests so far, and they include first andnd second division players. ththey also include executives, the preresident of a footbaball club. hehe is under ararrest. we have seen images of him in handcuffs. there is a search going on at a football club as we speak.

some of the football players -- theaps s would be -- perhaps best-known is an madrid player. and carlos has played for several first division teams here in n spain.n. thos allegations in the investstigation haveve to dodo h whether those footbaballers and ththose executives fixed m matcs in order to makeke money.. the investigation seems to be centering on one particular game last may between mastech and wister. bets were suspended after they noted d what was considered to e suspicious betting taking place in the ukraine and asia. the investigation is ongoing, anand the sources say there coud be as many as 11 arrests by the end of today. genie: sarah, what kind o of

reaction has there beeeen f froe spanish football league to all of this? sarah: the spanish football he has put out a statementnt saying that this investigation has come about as a result of some of the .uspicions that it reported genie: sorry about that, we seem to have lost sarah morris in madrid. we will try to get back to her a little later if we can. time for a look at business news with brian quinn. hi, brian. you are starting with the proposed merger between fiat thesler and renault, as automobile sector rirides a wave of consolidation. >> t the ceo o of renault is sao decidede next weeeek on the e ft chrysler plan, pututting it inie numbmber one spot when f factori in renault's alliance with meat -- with nissan and mitsubibishi.

therere are changes in the marketplace from electrification to autonomous vehicles. but the move has risks. the histotory of giant car mergs is littered with failure. auto giantnew global be in the works. renault has seriously looked into a 50/50 deal offered by chrysler, this i in addition to alliances with nissan and mitsubishi. if it happens, it would be in the latest of a string of marriages in the global car industry. renault's french rival, renault-citroen -- a chinese - - mitsubishilt family alliances already giant. last year it sold over 10.7 million cars, trading just behind -- adding fiat chrysler would make its outfit 1.5 times bigger than the german group. capital, the deal seems

to offer a win-win situation, at least on paper. >> these days the bigger the better. ways to have e more invest in the future challenges the industry faces. >> scale counts when tackling an expensive shift toward election and self-driving vehicles. but the car industry has also seenfailed mergers -- also failed mergers, one between ineral motors and saab 2010. > capitalistic mergers essentiaially destroroy jobs ans workers, who pay a high price. the french government says it supports the idea, provided that no jobs will be lost in france. the italian prime minister says it is time to revisit e.u. budget and finance

rules that constrain t t pubublc finances o of other countries. dark o of the popopulace governt is pusushing for deep p tax cutd higher p plic spspending too kikickstart an italian economy that has seen negative growth in two of the last three quarters. the european commission is likely to hit rome with 3 for a fine and excessive debt. after the victory of his right wing league party in italy's e.u. elections, cell v vini sass he is ready for whatever is coming in brussels. we are waiting for this letter. letter is written in an old way saying we should do our homework, we should answer no because we need to hire doctors, judges, firefighters, and policeman. we need to fix schools, hospitals, and roads. to do so, we knew to spend the money the italiansns give us by payi t taxes

genie: how are the markets shaping up today? brian: the european index is falling back after gains. the parliamentary elections holding a majority. one coming back after a bank holiday for its first trading session since the brexit party came in first for that voting. the ftse was flat midday. nearly 2% in paris after soaring up 12% yesterday, still off by around .4%. isman consumer confidence that a two-year low. the frankfurt dacs is down -- the frankfurt -- in f frank for, the dacs is down. milan at nearly one point midday. affecting asian stock markets unexpecteded ways. > ali is reportedly - -as the u.s. trade war with china slowly

morphs into a tech war. an offering could come as early as the second hahalf of 2019. that news comes as china is encouraging its homegrown tech titans to list their shares closer to home in response to mounting u.s. pressure on companies. it would also open up new funding avenues for alibaba, who whose $25 billion offering on wall street was the largest at the time. genie: the city of houston, texas, is trying to reduce its dependence on the oil industry for its economy. > it learned a painful lesson when crude prices crashed during a global supplply glulut a few s ago. houston is also home to n nasa's astronauts, isis gradually diversifying its e economy from -- black, gold it is like a town in itself.

the texas medical center covers five square kilometers, housing dozens of clinics and medical schools. every yearpatients and about 110,000 employees, it is the largest medical complex in the world and it is stilll growing. >> what we saw in 2018 and we are predicting stronger in 2019, we have seen health care jumping forward. >> the health sector is the bibiggest employer in the statef --as, accounting for 11 this as the state and in particular the city of houston, have been trying to reduce dependence on oil to better cope with the future. >> houston has moved away from the oil curse because we have diversified so much over the years, such that if oil returns to $30 a barrel, the economy would be impacted in houston, but not as much as we have seen. cityerica's fourth-largest

has automated a lot in thehe teh sector. >> our mission is to transform houston into a world leading technologygy and innovation capital. so we do that by serving entrepreneurs. >> the center provides working and meeting places for around 180 companies. a techl of becoming capital seems like a tall order against rivals san francisco and new york. it is also hard for the state to cut the umbilical cord. businesses in houston are linked to the energy sector. genie: good news for those of us tired of all the giant bills fifilling r r wallet. i can barely stand it. the european central bank is rolling out its new 100 and 200 year old notes, which are more compact and more resistant to tearing. they are now the same size as notes.euro

though the -- cash remains the method of choice for the majority of transactions. ofe in france, 2/3 transactions are still carried out with good old-fashioned cash. i always think that the colorful european bills do not look -- it could be the fact that i have never seen a 200 year old bill. genie: i love the bills. thanank you for that, brian qui. do you like dressing up? >> no. genie: listen to this. theersailles, there was fanciest custom party i have ever seen in my life. 630 guests got a chance to pretend they were royal inhabitants. a lot more on the annual event, honoring marianne to annette and fashion. coming up.

>> how are you? hawley: bali, indonesia. over 4 million tourists flock here every year chasing sun, surf, and tropical perfection. the hindu island captured indonesia's holiday market decades ago and continues to grow, but it's not a paradise for everyone. almost as well-known as bali's beaches is kerobakan jail, 4 ar