makeming up, how can you sure the new washing machine or fridge y you are buying will lat as a fight againinst the long-r-running practice known as plannened obsolescence picks up pace. a french ngo has launched a new label certifying products that are not programmed to fail. the details on the way in business. first t our top p story from pa. ♪ >> the architect behind the

french government pension reform has just resigned. that is a very -- that is the very same reform that has pushed thousands of people into the streets and paralyzed france in a mass transport strike for the last 12 days. stepped dowown over allegations of conflict of interest. he failed to disclose several positions held since interim government to the state body for transparency in public office. the french constitution for him is numbers of the government from carrying out professional activity in addition to their official functions. our french politics editor joins me to talk more about this latest development. how much of a surprise is this resignation? >> absolutely not a surprise. the writing was on the wall. the problem is those revelations about positions he held have been trickling. it started with one and ended up with 13. many of them, he was unpaid and some of them he was paid.

the fact that he was in the for variousnd paid positions was not something that he could go on with. he could even have legal problems and maybe he just anticipated this by resigning because some anticorruption organizations had said they would launch a complaint against him because he had not fully declared what he was doing. it was no surprise that this was bound to happen. the presidential palace just said it excepts, with regret, his resignation and that he will be replaced as soon as possible. we don't know how soon or who will replace him because he was the go to person for that very controversial pension reform. >> how do we think this might affect the strikes which are in their 12th day? >> anyway it is not that important. this is also may be why he is resigning.

he has held a number of consultations with the unions for the past several months and he handed out reports and he was brought into the government to supervise the emblem and tatian of the reform. however we have seen that the prime minister himself really took the helm of this proof -- of this reform. he is the one who delivered a major speech just a few days ago, unveiling what this reform would be about and he is the one who would be discussing the media with the unions and he had done his work and had not consulted that there were tensions between him and the prime minister's office because he did not want the reform to formulate, that there would be an age, 64, where people would be able to earn a full pension,

-- this was included in the not thathe was important anymore because the unions realized he was not the go to person anymore. eventually it will be the president himself. with those revelations, there was no way he could stay in the government. it is a blow because someone in government believes he should not declare everything he says. there is a high authority that was created whereby all the members of government had to fully declare all the range of activities if they are earning money or not but one should d kw exactly what they were doing and they should probably stop a number of activities and they should have been done and today he paid the price.

>> here we are now, a little over a week before christmas. where do we stand with the strikes? could there be any hope e of a trtruce at christmas?? >> today will be a very important day because this is a daday where all the unions including the reformist union have called for major demonstrations tomorrow. thermometer a key of the movement if people will go and demonstrate or if there theress demonstrators and will be negotiations between the prime minister who said i am holding firm but i am ready to discuss with the unions. some of the unions did not want to paralyze the transport system for christmas which is upon us in a week. this will be the deciding moment. bute is a deadlock for now

both sides, some of the reformist unions and the talknment have tried to behind closed doors. bearare hoping this will bear but there is no fruit but there is no guarantee there is a willingness to continue this drink until at least part of this reform is withdrawn, one of the government can afford this polititically is the big question. editorfriends politics as people try to cram into those trains in france. good luck to you in france and over the coming days. next let's go to beijing where the chinese presidedent h has reiterated his support for hong kong's embattled leader. the two sat down today for talks, saying 201019 was hohong kong's grimmest and most complex year since its return to china.

those talklks came one day after new pro-democracy protests rock hong kong on sunday. prprotests had gone onon for six months now. here is what the hong kong leader had to say after their meeting in beijing. >> as you will notice from the opening remarks of the two leaders, they did endorse the efforts made by the hong kong government and by myself in trying to end the violence we have seen, but they have also that this is unprecedented and that it is not worthwhile to halep that it opening remarks, the president also mentioned he very much hoped that all factors in hong kong society will join hands in order to achieve this objective of ending the violence and returning hong kong to a normal situation. >> the leader of hong kong speaking earlier today. to get more reaction from china, let's bring in our beijing

correspondent. protests,months of historically low approval ratings, she still has beijing's backing. how is that? absbsolutely. the president praised the leader for her courage in the face of adversitity. it is impoportant to note that i jinping is the one that chose leader ofof to be the hong kong g and going bacack ont dedecision would be showing weakness, showing fallibility. that is one reason. the orders for carrie lam were very clear, please end the violence and restore ordrder in hong kong. over the course e of the last to or three weeks, it has been n a relative return to calm despitie the clashes we have seen in n hg kong on the night ofof sunday. itit is important to show the appearance of stability and

continuity in the face of adversity and chaos. is a mission from theing that t the position of chief executive of hong kong dodoes not h hold that much powr leeway a and whether it is carre lam oror someone else, they are not going to do anything radically different. >> what is beijing's strategy long-term in regards to hong kong? first off it is conontinuing with w what they were doing, continuing with the arrest and continuing to make it harderer d harderer for people to voice thr opposition to the leadership, whether it is hong kong or beijing. ,here have been 600000 arrests only 8400 places in n hong kong prprison. tothe long run, the gogo is try and change hong kong's culture by implementing

moretion policies to be nationonalistic and patriotic ad classes being taught in mandarin as oppososed to cantonese and ao encouraging a demographic change inin hong kong, m making sure tt maininlanders arare encouraged o emigrate to thee city. this would shift the power dynamic, the population to people whoho perhaps are more pro-beijing. at hongigging away kong's special statutus to integrating it within a lararger theon, a project known as raider bay area where hong kong would be sort of the silicon andey sty o of collective alsoso trying to chip away at is financial status. there was a report in reuters expending that beige -- that beijing was considering handingg -- special financial rewards a s

it becomes the next financial hub in place of hong kong because it is a good stutudent n the one country two systems model that beijing has been using. >> thanks for that. lebanon, dozens have been hurt in a second night of violent protests in the capital. demonstrators threw bottles and fireworks at police officers who responded with tear gas and water cannons. protests began two months ago when people rose up in anger at the ruling e elite. the protesters accuse them of being corrurupt and driving the country into economic ruin. our correspondent has more on this latest protest that brought thousands into the streets. last night what we saw was a reaction to two things, firstly to saturday night when only a few hundred protesters were there and they tried to get into parliament saying the government

is not doing anything, they are not using the building, they should be allowed to get in. acting very aggressively, many protesters saying thahat theyeyk their duduty to k keep them bacy beyond what was necessary. outerday, protesters came to show that they were not scared by what happened. hundreds or thousands of people in downtown beirut. they were wearing the kind of hard hats you see on construction sites. many of them had gas masks. other people were wearing scarves, they brouout onions, vinegar, milk. they continually tried to move forward and then were pushed back by huge volumes of teargas again and again. the protesters were heavily tear gassed and they're using the

military branch compared to what they were using in the more peaceful protests. that they possibility might be nominative for prime minister again today and they came out yesterday with big flags saying we do not want this man to be leaving the country again. >> as that political stalemate goes on in lebanon, the former prime minister could soon be rias -- reinstated as per minister again after protests forced him to step down in late october. we have now -- we have more now on that man who cannot seem to be shaken from the top spot. >> attests toppled him from power and just six weeks later, he is now poised to take the top job once again. last month, the former prime minister had been deposed on two separate occasions and said he would not stand as a candididate agagain.

again on -- once not everyone is happy about it. >> part of a corrupt system and we are against him. it should be someone capable of extracting us from this situation. >> even though the protesters consider him part of the corrupt political elite, he has positioned himself as the only person willing to form a new government and would respond to protest the man's. unlike other candidates, he can rely on the support of sunni religious leaders. -- wantrs won a cabinet a cabinet made up outside of the political elite. -- able to deal with the country's economic crisis. has below and other groups want the government to include politicianans. lebanon's president is required to choose the candidate with the greatest support amongst the different groups in the country's parliament. for the moment, he looked like the most likely choice.

stories forr news you, and in new zealand, people observed a moment of silence today to murmur the moment last week when a volcano erected, of the 47 people on the white island the time of the eruption were tourists. somalia, the worst flooding in recenent history, more than 180,000 people e were forceced o flee their homes, heavy rain across east africa created a new humanitarian crisis. the man knownates as the butcher of the argentine dictatorship. he is a former argentine police officer with suspected links to the e murder of hundreds during the country's military dictatorship. he has been liliving near paris since the mid 80's. argentine accuses him of taking part in over 500 kidnappings, torture and murder during the country's so-called dirty war.

in india, protests over a new citizenship law has spread out to keep -- out to student campuses across the country. that law fast tracking citizenship to students if they are not muslim. -- used teargas in new delhi to disperse protesters as they demonstrate against india's new citizenship law. a number of police officers were wounded and other parts of this -- and in other parts of t the city, cars were torched. [indiscernible] >> new delhi decided to give

citizenship to refugees s who we non-muslim who came to the country y in orderer to avoid persrsecution but t for many, te law is a deliberate snub to the muslim minorority. others support the law forgiving thousands of people the right to live here legally. protest areh this asking for the problem to be resolved, not made worse. modi has blamed the violence on the opposition party. political party has promised to challenge the law in court. >> let's take a moment to look at the oldest person ever to run a marathon in antarctica. -- 84-year-old canadian man

man4-year-old canadian along with 50 other runners from 15 other countries. this year's winner got a new record time with an impressive three hours 34 minutes and 12 seconds. that 84-year-old crossed the line in 11 hours, 41 minutes and 58 seconds. oldest make in the person to ever complete a marathon on the continent. let's take a look at today's headlines. this is day 12 of france's nationwide strike and we learned the architect of france's controversial pension reform has resigned. he had been accusesed of havinga conflict of interest. hong kong's carrie lam gets new backing from china in the face of ongoing pro-democracy protests. lebanon hit by a second night of

violent antigovernment demonstrations, people trying to get rid of a political elite they say is corrupt. it i is time now for thehe latet business news. the u.s. and china have reached an interim deal aimed at ending ththe ongoing trade war but it doesn't mean the talalks are ovr just yet. >> a phase one deal provivides some respite but it is only a step. tariffs haveve been ncnceledutua bulk of tariffs remain in place. the two sides s have yetet to fd an agreeeement but are already looking ahead to the next phase negotiations which could kick off other lingering protests. >> u.s. and china negotiators were enthusiastic about the first phase one, partial deal since the trade war began a year and a half ago. as president donald trump has stressed, trade tensions are not over. >> the tariffs will largely

on $250 billion. we will use them for future negotiations on the phase two deal. >> the u.s. started it standoff with china to get an -- to get a number of concessions like better protection for intellectual property, putting an end to forced transfers of u.s. technology and stopping china's manipulation of its currency. with negotiators say they have maderogress on these issues -- u.s. negotiators say they have made progress on these issues. pushing forward while gradually lowering tariffs. proromote phase-based cancellations of tariffs or even remove all tariffs and contribute more to the world's economic growth. negotiators havave -- s some u.s. negotiators have said p phase two --

others w would like to wait and see how the f first deal isis implemented. >> t there are other -- - theree important issues leftft in phase ii and perhaps there will be a 2b.e two a and a phase >> the u.s. hopes its prpressure on china willl rebalance trade with critics saying the tariff hikes have deeply weighed on both countries and global growth. >> you just saw that drawnout trade battle has alreadydy had n impact on the global economy. in france the e economy minister gaveve a very pessimistic outlok the e coming year. the french economy would slow down in 2020 and downgraded the government's estimate to one point 3% from the previous forecast of 1.4%. lamed a crisis in the trading sector as well as the trade war between the u.s. and china. economic data also points to a slowdown in neighboring germany.

private sector activity in europe's largest economy shrunk for the fourth straight month in december as a downturn in manufacturing offset growth. >> how have the markets been reacting to all of thahat? >> shares have pushed higher r n euro f following t the u.s.-cha trtrade deal. the ftse 100 rose more than 2% at midday as the briritish pound studied.d. -- steadied. some more of our business headlines for you now. as antigovernment protests continue through hong kong, the city's international airport saw the biggest drop in passenger numbers in more than a decade. just over one million passengers in november, down 16.2% from a year earlier. aftertest figure comes falls of 12% were recorded in the three previous months.

held theirouth korea first high-level policy meeting on export controls in three and a half years. the talks came aftfter - citing national security coerns. both sides have also dowraded eachch oththe's tre status. italy's college and government -- 900 million euros. the trouble corporate lender is the latest in a string of banks to be rescued. opposinghave been government bailouts saying they were a waste of government money -- a waste of taxpayer money. n now for decades, manufacturers have been deliberate redesigning -- deliberately designing products to fail so they can sell them again. governments and consumer groups

have been stepping up their fight against that practice. >> planned obsolescence. the government introduced a law back in 2015 outlawing such deliberate design flaws but how can you actually make sure that your new purchase will live there full lifespan? a new grgroup has launched a certification label to help consumers identify products that are designed to last. >> when buying electric appliances, people used to consider their price, efficiency and how much noisese they made. but now one of the main criteria is how long it will take before they break down. effectors toment produce appliances that last, a new label has been created, long time. one of its goals, finding out if appliances can be easily repaired. much want to check how spare parts cost and if they can be delivered quickly. we are examining how appliances are built, if manufacturers have

carried out tests to make sure they last for a long time. >> this manufacturer believed that getting the quality label can help his business. public will soon know about this label. the fact this has recognized our efforts to make our metal does there's as a lot -- our metal detectors as reliable as possible. >> in recent years, the lifespan of elelectrical appliances has dropped. manufacturers are accused of building products designed to degrade within a few years to increase their profits. e-waste is not just expensive for consumers, it is a major sourcece of pollution.n. governments have started working on regulations to limit the problem. in france, stores will soon classify appliances from those easy and cheap to repair to those whose owners have no choice but to throw them away. finally, the cable

broadcaster hallmark in the u.s. has decided to put commercials featuring same-sex couples back on the air following a storm of protests and calls for a boycott. >> t the compapany says s it waa wrong decision to pull those ads in the first place. they featured same-sex couples kissing at the altar for the wedding planning site zola. they souought to remove them afr a conservative group sparked outrage. the -- says they are relieved the decision to pull the ads has been reversed. >> france may be bogged down i n the 12th day of its nationwide strike but the country is still in love with its food. a closer look at christmas cuisine in france coming up in the next half-hour. ♪

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