>> this is d.w. news live from berlin. tonight, a showdown in the gulf, britain says that's what it was, iran s says that's what i it wa. britain sasays a royoyal navyy frfrigate has drdriven off iran boats trying t to intercept a british oil tanker. iran denies there was any confrontation. also coming up tonight, a powerful storm devastates greeces northern coastal areas leaving seven people dead and dozens injured. and making internet companies

pay more, france is the first european country to slap a tax on tech and washington does not like it saying american companies will be unfairly targeted. the white house is threatening to impose retaliatory tariffs on french goods. and it's a museum to take the whole family to, maybe. japan's parasite museum offers a glimpse into human and animal parasites. ♪ brent: i'm brent goff to our viewers, welcome. tonight britain says that three iranian boats attempted to intercept a british oil tanker near the persian gulf. it says they were driven off by a royal navy frigate. iran has denied that its vessels

tried to stop the tanker. its boats were simply carrying out routine duties. >> the strait of hormuse, iran's navy is an active presence here. the narrowest point in the strait is 40 kilometers wide. the british minister of defense says the incident t took place near an island. it says this frigate turned away iranian speed boats that were threatenining the british oil tanker. the u.u.k.'s foreign ministerr responded byy calling for camam. >> obviously ver c concerning dedevelopments, but also i'm ve proud of t the royal navy and t role t that they played inn keeg british assssets, british shippg safe. we are continuing to monitor the situation very, very carefully. >> the fear is that this latest incident will escalate. it comes days after british authorities seized an iranian

tanker off gibraltar. iran started enriching uranium outside off limits. thee confrontatition n never had says iran. it's foreign minister has called the british accusations worthless. iran's news agency quotes saying they are seeking to cover up their weaknesses with such claims. as tensions in the gulf simmer,dy employee mats arere scrambling to keep the nuclear deal from unraveling completely. brent: joining me at the big table is from the german institute for international and security affairs. it's good to see you again. >> good to see you. brent: we have been observing growing tensions here in the gulf for weeks now. is the situation between iran and the u.k., is that what is

escalating or iran and the west that we're seeing escalate now? >> i would say the west and iran are the major players here. it's escalating or it continues escalation for the last couple of weeks. it's a strategy of warfare pursued by the iranians under the threshold of deniability. they deny to be involved another time. they have denied to plant the bombs two weeks ago. so they intend to spread instability and insecurity here and try to target u.s. interests or western interests in general. brent: yeah, they claim that the reports by the royal navy are an example of fake news, for example. we heard today from the foreign secretary in the u.k., mr. hunt, calling for de-escalation, but the u.k.'s potential new prime minister boris johnson, i'm sure you have heard of him, he chose a slightly more aggressive stand today. take a listen. >> well, i t think it't's very

important t that all vessels, u. flaggedd or otherwise, are able to use international waters in the persian gulf and elsewhere with perfect security. ofof course, were i t to be acti would take immediate advice about what extra steps we might need to protect u.k. vessels. brent: extra steps, what is he trying to signal here? we're looking at britain's next prime minister saying he is ready to escalate the situation with iran? >> i don't think so. he might be considering measures like protecting by international forces tankers and vessels in general in the persian gulf as we have seen -- brent: which the u.s. wants. >> as we have seen in the 1970's and 1980's during the iraq-iran war which was pretty effective. it cost a lot of money and it was effective to protect international waterways, would

run counter to the u.s. interests in the persian gulf because the current president has run on a campaign arguing that he would withdraw the united states at least in military terms from the arab persian gulf. brent: when you look at the u.k., it seems to be stuck in a very uncomfortable position. the tensions right now over these tankers with iran, at the same time it's a member of, it's one of the signatories to the nuclear deal with iran and is trying to save that deal with iran. how much longer do you think london can afford to play both sides? >> i don't think that it can afford any longer to play both sides. i mean, we have seen iran sending signals to the west and maybe this has been another signal from the united kingdom to iran. iran has been trying to put pressure on the remaining signatories, in particular, the

three remaining european signatories, u.k., france and germany and now it runs exactly the opposite and the interesting thing is if it works, but to be honest, i really hate to say that i think the deal is more or less dead. brent: we appreciate you coming in and giving us your insights. thank you. >> thank you. brent: in greece, at least seven people have died after a powerful storm battered the north of the country. it brought down trees and power lines and it followed days of intense heat in the country with temperatures soaring up to 37 degrees celsius. >> a catastrophe, the greats gave us what described best what befelled their country last night. it was a terrifying evening as a huge storm front swept through with winds churning at over 100

kilometers per hour and hail pounding eastern parts of the country's famed aegean coastline. >> not even cannons make that much noise. i didn't have clothes on and i came out to get the kids and as the rain fell, it was like rocks were hitting my back. >> the morning after that night, this holiday resort is in ruins. two romanian tourists died here last night in a beach sidebar which was torn to pieces. dinner is still on the table, a reminderer how sudden this onslaught was. >> everyone inside was screaming. it was chaos. a friend of my brbrother was wounded from head to toe because the bar fell on him. there was glass flying through

the windows. >> 1,000 kilometers away, this time on italy's east coast, super cells from the same intense front tore through, tot, nearly 200 people were injured s the sea surged into the home of one of the biggest ports on the adriatic sea. beautiful italy is now battled italy as emergency services clean up after the submit throughing. brent: scientists say extreme weather event will be more frequent because of global warming. that has the european union putting climb change at the top of its agenda. finland will lead as it just assumed the e.u.'s six-month rotating presidency. the finnish prime minister says it's important to take the demands of europe's youth seriously and he says fighting climb change should be a top priority everywhere. >> 16-year-old spent many

fridays traveling two hours each way to protest at the finnish parliament holding signs pleading for climate action. the climate itself wasn't too cooperative as he stood there through the winter. >> it's really horrible in front of this parliament. it will be raining or sleet or snow or ice. most of the politicians just go by and don't even look at us. some say hello and some even come to talk to us. >> but he says it was all worth it as the prime minister has declared solving the climate crisis should be europe's next heroic act, at the very least, it's the top priority for the finnish e.u. presidency. he has credited the youth climate strikers for inspiration. he got to thank him in person and vice versa. >> i really felt that you have listened to us, the young people. >> i have listened and i need to listen more. >> thank you.

>> for backup, he appointed a green politician as foreign minister to press the message in the foreign policy arena already overflowing with warsrs, nuclea threats and huhumanitarian disasters, he knows it will be difficult.t. >> this part of the government has one goal, it's s the climat and it's the environment. >> but he says it's the activists to whom he feels responsible. >> they are pushing us and they actually think that isn't enough, i think it's good. we need the society to boost the politicians. >> it's maximizing sustainability, minimizing everything else. no bottled water, mostly plant-based meals and u.u.

bureaucrats traveling to finnish meetings will receive a unique gift. the head of the presidency secretariat says the finnish way is not to lecture, but to lead by example. >> we want to be practical and what we promise, we want to keep. >> he says whatever finland achieves is great,t, but that s much more is needed, he'll be protesting outside the e.u. meetings, rain or shine or sleet or snow. brent: here are some of the other stories making headlines around the world. the u.s. coastal city of new orleans h has been inundndated rainin and floods as a tropical storm churns in thehe gulf of mexico. the storm is expected to make landfall within 48 hours and forecasters warn it could strengthen into a hurricane.

two car bombs killed four people and wounding 33 others. several libyan national army officers gathered for the funeral of a high-ranking general. libya has two competing governments and the struggle for control has escalated into more violence in recent months. germany's domestic intelligence agency is stepping up observation of the far right movement. the agency says that the group believed to have about 600 members here in germany is now officially classified as quote an extreme right movement. authorities consider the movement to be hostile to immigrants and refugees. there has been a huge blaze at a gas fired power station just outside of moscow. one person is dead, 13 others injured. firefighters have now put out the blaze. its flames reached up to 50 meters. russian media say the calls may have been an explosion. you're watching "dw news" live from berlin, still to come, they

are on your skin and in your bed and they also have their own mumuseum. tonight, a peek inside the museum dedicated to, are you ready, parasites. in france, it is the latest battle over who has the right to decide who gets to live and who gets to die. a frenchman at the center of a bitter legal battle over whether he should be allowed to die has passed away at the hospital. doctors removed vincent's life support more than a week ago against his parents' wishes. he had been in a vegetative state for 10 years after being involved i in a car crash. his case had divided his family and it had divided france. >> they held a vigil for him, pro life supporters who folollod the fight through the courts to

save his life. nonow they're mourning the deat. >> the death penalty was abolished in france. we can say whatever we want about t that. we abolished the death penalty for the guilty. it remains for the innocent. he is innocent. >> he was nearly killed in a road accident in 2008. he laid in hospital for more than a decade, his family split over what to do. his parents and two of his eight siblings fought to keep him alive. his wife and the rest of his immediate family fought to allow him to die. >> vincent was in a vegetative state. he didn't want to live like that. out of respect for him, it was necessary to stop keeping him

alive in this state. now he has finally been able to leave us. i hope e he r rts in peace. >> supporters of his parents say doctors who removed life support systems last week broke the h o hipocratic with some talking of murder. >> france is taxing the world's biggest internet companies. they have faced heavy criticism from the white house. u.s. president donald trump has ordered an investigation saying that the tax unfairly targets american tech companies. >> big technology companies like google, amazon, and facebook operating in france will soon be paying more tax. france's senate has approved a 3% tax on tech companies doing business there. the aim is to plug a taxation gap that allowed some internet heavyweights to avoid tax in countries where they make their

profits and to book their income in low tax countries like ireland. it's estimated the levy could net france 400 million euros this y year and 650 million nex year. before the vote, french finance ministster spoke out against th growing power of big tech. >> we can all see the emergence of economic giants with monopolistic attributes who not only want to control a maximum amount of data and make money with this data, but also to go further than that by, in the absence of rules, avoiding taxes and putting into place instruments that could tomorrow become a sovereign currency. >> but even before the legislation was through, u.s. president donald trump had ordered an investigation. the u.s. warned that if the law passed, it would activate

section 3011 of the u.s. trade act. that authorizes retaliation against a foreieign government whose trade policies or practices are deemed unjustified, unreasonable, or discriminatory or that they restrict u.s. commerce. france is the first major economy to impose a tax on big tech, but other e.u. countries including austria, britain, spain, and italy have also announced plans for digital taxes. brent: janell is here from d.w. business to talk more about this tech tax. do we know why did france go it alone? you would think this type of tax would come at the european level? >> it has to be said that the european level did try to introduce digital taxation standards that would apply across the lock. that fell down due to opposition from countries like ireland. france is facing its own kind of situation domestically.

it's under pressure to show policies that are tougher on the wealthy amidst this bigger wave of economic disenchantment going on there. it's going at it not alone, but perhaps the first country to do so which is a definite risk for france. it's painted a target on its back in this way. it's hoping to spur action on the multilateral level. it had said that it would scrap this tax if international standards are agreed on the eocd level, that being the club of rich countries. it's hoping that the countries that said they would impose similar measures like italy, spain, the u.k., austria, they hurry up and to do so. if it turns out to be a fight with the u.s., france could use some allies. brent: we have the trade tariff conflicts going on with the u.s. with europe, the u.s. with china and now the united states looking at this tech tax and saying we may have to retaliate. what can the u.s. do? >> indeed, now, we have already

heard that they are launching that probe to see whether american tech companies are being unfairly disadvantaged by this new law and it's interesting to see that they're using the same legal basis that underpins the trade war between the u.s. and china, the famous section 301 of the trade act. now, france for its part has said that if they're going to see that, of course, they don't want to see retaliatory measures from the u.s. they argued that taxation is a sovereign matter and it's called on the u.s. to settle this dispute with france in a matter befitting the relationship as allies, but, of course, this is also coming at a time that you said where the u.s. is also considering other tariffs on other parties of european industries, the auto industry, this would open it up further. brent: another line there on the battlefield. as you intimated this earlier, there really aren't any taxation standards when we're talking about the internet economy,y, right? so france is just going to alone, i mean, you can always

say we're pioneers here because there are no standards anywhere. >> indeed. well, there is widespread consensus that something has to be done, that cross border taxation, that the way it is now, it hasn't just kept up with the times, that these companies don't pay taxes where their profits are which is everywhere and instead pay taxes where they're headquartered. that is happening because the system allows them to do so. the european commission has recognized that average traditition businesses in the e. face a 23% tax rate versus an 8% or 9% tax rate for these tech companies. some get away with paying nothing at all. it's coming at a time where they're raking so much money. apple made $60 billion last year. many agree something has to be done and something will be done, france is the first to get its foot in the door. brent: i have a feeling we haven't heard the last of this, that's for sure. janell, thank you. sports news now, in cycling, dillon has claimed his

first-ever victory at the tour de france winning stage six. he rode to victory after a grueling climb. despite finishing second italy's cyclist grabbed the jersey, ahead of the longest stage in this year's competition which takes place on friday. tennis news now, serena williams has reached the final of wimbledon women's tournament after beating barbara strycova. he won the match in straight sets. williams will face simona halep for the trophy after she won 6-1, 6-3. halep is the first romanian woman to reach the wimbledon final. and to the men's tournament now, it's going a big show, a chapter in one of the sport's biggest rivalry will play out on friday. roger federer and rafael nadal will meet in the semifinal. it's the first time the two most

successful male players at all time have met at wimbledon at 2008. with both gentlemen well into their 30's, it could be the last encounter for a grand slam. >> rafael nadal with his great rival will be the fourth time he has met the swiss master at wimbledon. the swiss lost to nadal last month, grass is a different matter. the swiss master has won eight times and won over nadal on grass surfaces. the mutual respect is built on more than a decade of direct competition. federer has two more grand slam titles than the spaniard. nadal has a significantly better head-to-head record, a nine match lead, and now the scale is

even. arguably the sport's greatest ever rivalry, episode 40 of roger versus rafa offers a place in the wimbledon final. thee fact that federer is now 3 years old means this clash is one to relish. brent: if you're traveling to japan and if your gross and icky threshold is high, the first ever parasite museum. the folks at the museum outside of tokyo are proud of their collection. they say it gets under your skin. >> it's the stuff of nightmares. hungry creatures lurking inside feeding upon your flesh. and this museum shows you just how parasites do it.

>> there aren't that many people who have actually seen a parasite that infects humans. here we have various human andn animalal parasites andnd peoeop trtreat them a as rare and d inteteresting crcreatures. that's why they come here to see them. >> photo ops are also part of the draw. this world of creepy crawlies is an instagramers paradise and a must see stop for foreign tourists. over 300 parasites are on display here selected from over 60,000 preserved samples, like this parasite-infected whale kidney. they're donated from personal collections around the world harvested from both humans and animals.

>> the white parasites go inside a creature and live their lives there. it's really interesting. it's like they take over. >> and don't forget to take one home. $30 can buy you the most popular item in the gift shop, a t-shirt of the longest tapeworm in the world, a constant reminder of the creatures out there out to get you. brent: pretty paparasites. here is a remindeder of the top storory that we'rere following yoyou, britain s says a a royal frfrigate has d driven offff ir boats that trietoto intercept a britisish oil tanker in ththe g.

iran has denied that any confrontation took place. france has introduced a new tax on the world's biggest tech companies defying pressure from washington, the white house says that the tax unfairly targets u.s. companies and it's threatened to impose tariffs on french products in retaliation. you're watching "dw news" live from berlin. after a short break, i'll be back to take you through "the day." we'll see you in just a moment. ♪

e bloody day at two am et. ten pm here in the french capital the headlines from around the world. five hundred euro bottles of wine. and an expensive refurbishment phones is. the stuff remains in office for now. with allegations he's been playing for the blues the taxpayers money. at the center american right to die debate has finally. found someone will b best case o fighting his family and public opinion from -- spread the britishh navy intervenes in another instance in the streets full movies u. k. ships will not and to invade your water system ron's wharf