>> the mysterious death of a belarusian activist in kiev. we will bring you all of the latest on that mysterious death in the ukrainian capital at the top of the bulletin. a potential hijack of a ship off of the coast of the united arab emirates. iran denies any responsibly. the british navy says the hijack is only a potential hijack for now. in china, the coronavirus pandemic still searching. the delta variant, cases in the

hundreds for the first time since the beginning of the the city of wuhan affected with trains and flights canceled. we start in kiev with the mysterious death of a belarusian activist. he was hanged. he dedicated much of his life to helping his compatriots in belarus. his friends say they were murdered by government agents. an investigation has been launched. >> forensic scientists at work. it is at this park in key have where a missing lucian dissident -- belarusian dissident was found hanged. they don't know if this was a suicide or a murder looked -- made to look like suicide.

>> i think it was done by agents of the special services of belarus. alexander lukashenko himself. his so-called death squad. i will repeat this. this was the demonstrate of execution made to intimidate anybody who was active in the ukraine. hidden >> based on the circumstances and the threat he received, it is clear that this was done by the belarusian special services. this is murder. vitelli was found hanged and beaten. >> there may have been a target on his back given that he was in charge of the belarusian house in ukraine.

one of the most prominent opposition leaders expressed her own doubts over his death. this after a meeting with boris johnson. >> i would say it was a crime but i can't say that without any results of the investigation. >> this comes amid a crackdown by strong, alexander lukashenko. for now, authorities in minsk have not reacted to this incident. >> china was among the first countries to get covid-19 last year after the virus emerged their. they have punted authorities to impose local lockdowns. with dozens of cities affected,

some regional travel has been suspected. tourists have been banned from entering beijing. >> flights grounded, train travel suspended and mass testing currently underway. cases of covid-19 are on the up in at least 35 cities, 17 different regions and provinces in china. authorities are cracking down amid an outbreak of the delta variant lived to have started among clinic staff. other cases were flagged where residents are now under lockdown. >> on mony, they regtered 14 locally transmitted covid-19 cases. > the virus has made a comeback in wuhan. all 11 million of the city residents are to be tested.

one person tested positive for the virus following this end of your show at a holiday camp. employees of the children staying there as well as their relatives were all screened to check the status. >> there were three hundred one students and 105 staff attending as well as 534 family members. all of their tech -- all of their tests showed negative results. >> more than 400 people have contracted the coronavirus in china despite the fact that most of them had been vaccinated against it. >> they have seen 3000 new cases in a single week. this follows the neighboring

territory of martinique bring in -- bringing in cases on friday. >> cases of covid-19 multiplied tenfold in three weeks. 11 spread of the virus in guadalupe is worrying health authorities who are struggling to curb a fourth wave. >> we are in a catastrophic situation. you have exceeded 3000 cases in a week. we have never reached this rate of infections here before. we had 1700 cases on friday. that means that double in just two days. >> from wednesday, the caribbean island enter lockdown once again with an8:00 p.m. curfew.eeks as well as event of picnics on the beach. being in lockdown during the holidays is not ideal.

that because cases are going up in the virus is still present. maybe it is for our own good. >> it is driving me crazy. it is the holidays and we can't go anywhere. it is frustrating. >> in hospitals, patients in intensive care have one thing in common. none of them are vaccinated. due to a sluggish rollout, less than one in five residents on the allen have completed vaccination. with the measures, what a loop -- quality back -- on the island that have completed x nation. with the measures, -- vaccination. with the measures, guadalupe joints for other nations with rates that low. >> this 01 bridge and one romanian citizen killed. that last week came amid

heightened tensions over iran's nuclear deal. iran denied involvement in any of those incidents. that brings us to the end of this bulletin. thank you for watching france 24. >> nigeria was once an ecological century -- sentry before oil turned it into a graveyard. >> there i no way i n fit here. >> tell -- 12 years later, shall still refuses to accept her sponsor bodie. follow the twists and turns in this bitter dispute between the oil giant and the nigerian people on france 24 and france

24.com. [speaking french] eve: that was a french actress calling out racism in the french film industry at the french oscars. one year on, she brings us her documentary about the lack of black representation in french cinema and television. i'm delighted to say she joins us here in the studio. thank you so much for being here. you created a book about this subject. you have spoken about it on stage at the biggest film award ceremony.

you're in front of the whole world and you'd announced the discrimination black women faced in the film industry and now you are bringing us this powerful film called black gaze. why did you want to make it? >> i am lucky to have a very good career in france. aissa: so few of us have the opportunity to get some interesting parts in the film industry in france that i wanted to bring the conversation in the middle of my industry and in the middle of my country. to me, the conversation about diversity is a conversation that needs to be discussed with everyone in france. it is not only the problem of people of color. it is the problem of equality. i wanted this film to invite

people to look through my eyes, through a journey in france and brazil. >> they struggle to find parts they don't reduce them to racial stereotypes. they rarely find leading roles. here are two actresses in your film talking about their experiences. [speaking french] >> [speaking french]

>> se you have been in something like 50 films. -- i see that you have been in something like 50 films. what has been your experience? aissa: i am female and a black woman. i have faced many kinds of discrimination because of it. i have also had the opportunity to work with major -- great directors. at some point i thought things were going forward. at some point i realized that even though i was having a very

interesting career, the general problem was still there. what these extracts to show is that france has a history of colonization. france has colonized asia and africa. many countries in africa and asia. this is why our population is so diverse. we have a diversity in terms of at the city and race. to me, it is not about complaining, it is about saying what do we do with what we are. i think we should be very proud of that, we are. french people in a diverse society. you want to speak to actors and directors and casting directs. we surprised by what you found? aissa: i was not surprised by

what we faced in the u.s.. cinema in france.e to th u.s. brazil was really upsetting. the black population there is a majority. 54% of the population is black. still, you don't see black people on screen. most of the time, when you see them, they are typecast as maids, drug dealers, it is the same that we can experience in france and the difference is the rate of black people there. that shows it is not only a problem of number. >> when you give the speech, you counted about the black people in the audience. there was just 12 in 1600. the camera spun around and we saw the audience feel quite uncomfortable. what was the reception like are

your speech? >> i think people were surprised to see me bringing the problem onto the stage. i was just supposed to present the award. the academy was aware because i have always heard it is not a good moment now. we will talk about that later. there is no good moment to talk about this problem. if there was a good moment, we would have done it. the problem would be solved. i received a lot of backlash and support. what i realized is there is this -- >> there is a moment in the film where we see casting directors talking about casting results. let's take a look.

>> [speaking french] >> 4 white casting directors telling us that things are potentially changing. that feels like the problem. aissa: we have had a lot of discussions with the french casting directors. i have to say that we support each other. when i started as an actress, i got a chance to get roles because some casting directors were very pushy with the directors, the producers and

they are still pushing things forward. the problem is they are not the decision-makers. casting directors make proposals and then they are not the one that decides. what we started to do in terms of talking about the pub and together is quite important because together we are stronger. eve: there has been pressure on the french equivalent to the oscars to reform. there are way more women represented. have changes been made to improve the number of people of color involved? aissa: yes. i think, excuse me if i am not precise but i think there used to be 4000 members in the french academy awards. now they allowed some people to

enter, some people of color. in france, it is very tricky. i think what they did is they try to open up to people who made short films and people from different areas in french suburbs. i think we still have a problem in terms of how we make change happen because no single person will tell you he is racist in french cinema but still, we don't know how to make things happen because it is illegal to have statistics on a basis of race or color. it is difficult. aissa: it seems crazy from an english person's point of view. aissa: i know, that is why i had

to say it. eve: necklace will invest $109 into organizations that help underrepresented communities train and find jobs in tv and film. do you think the french cinema industry is ready to do something similar? aissa: it is so weird to see that necklace is ready and doing something so important and to see on the front side and the institutions. what people need to know is that french cinema is financed by the state. it should be the rule of these institutions to make things happen in terms of inclusion and diversity. i am optimistic. i believe the change will come from the french society as well. i am happy to know that necklace is doing that.

i am a board member of 50-50 witches -- netflix is doing that. i am a board amber of 50-50 -- i am a board member of 50-50. th is an organization that helps these decisions be made. surprisingly, i chose an exhibition about paris. i was surprised by the poster and i wondered why they chose this. the exit visions are always really good. they are good for the entire family. the bluejeans is something you can find everywhere on the planet and in every layer of

society. that is quite interesting. eve: pleasure to have you. we will have -- we will leave you with the virtual exhibition on genes. your guest of honor at the virtual women's international film festival. there is more news coming up on france 24 after this. >> thank you for joining us.

>> the storm hit new york city. >> almost 99 million of you watch us every week. thank you. >> your confidence means a lot to us. >> thank you. >> liberty, you he, actuality -- legality, actuality. >> it is time for our look at french connections. today, we are going to talk about something france has been very proud of for a long time. a frch exception. that is the strong fertility rate in this country.

france has been the babymaking champion of europe for years but the country has been experiencing a bit of a baby blues. the number of births has been dropping, particularly now during the time of the pandemic. >> that is surprising. during the lockdown people thought there could be a baby boom. people were stuck at home. if you look at the statistics, it was a different story. nine months after the first lockdown, france saw a historic drop in the number of births. people are calling it a baby bust, not a baby boom. according to the national statistic bureau, you can see in january of 2021, there was a 13% drop in the number of births compared to 2020. it turns out it is hard to be optimistic during a global pandemic. >> [speaking french]

>> while a lot of french people may have postponed their babymaking plans, those who ended up going through with it said being locked down at home and working from home were ideal conditions. >> [speaking french] >> the babymaking numbers might be down but they did have some positive effects like a drop in the number of premature babies. >> this is a trend that has been observed in france. elsewhere as well.

why are there fewer preemies being born? doctors think it is because of a reduced stress level for mothers in the final part of their pregnancy, cleaner air and even better hygiene. take a listen. >> [speaking french] >> some good news therefore premade babies but there is this big drop in fertility in france but it is actually part of a trend we have seen over the past couple of years. florence: absolutely. the number of women and the age of having children is dropping and those women are having fewer babies. look at the figures here. in 2020, 740,000 babies were

born in france. that is the lowest number since the end of the second world war. you can see it is a real drop compared to the peak. the babymaking rate in france is still relatively high compared to other countries, particularly in europe. let's look at the figures. if you compare the figures from 2018, you can see that in france there were 1.88 babies per woman , germany was one point 57, italy was superlow, 1.29. these are the european figures. you can see all of these countries are below but france is still the champion of europe. >> france has this traditionally strong fertility rate. why is that?

it is not because they have babymaking powers, it is because they have a strong welfare program that encourages people to keep having kids. >> absently. it was a system put in place in the 1930's to boost the birth rate. you start receiving them on the birth of your second child. until recently, this was a universal system of cash handouts. in 2015, facing a major budget deficit, they decided to make the system income dependent. let's take a look at one case. if you are a family earning less than 70,000 euros per year, for two children you get 131.95 euros per month. >> that keeps you in diapers. >> parental leave, that's talk about that. some say it is not that high in

france compared to other countries. >> absolute. compared to all of the nordic countries that have these fantastic systems. paternity leave just increased. the easier you make it for women to go back into the workforce, the more babies they have. that being said, this reasoning has been thrown up in the air due to the covid pandemic. everything is up in the air. there is so much uncertainty about the future. will the french recover from this baby blues? will they go back to procreating? we were talking about the quarantines but maybe this will be post quarantine. >> the covid kids. thank you so much. thank you for watching.

if you have any questions about things in france, you can always tweet flo.

♪ nermeen: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are in urgent need. we have critical patients. we need assistance as soon as possible. nermeen: over 700 refugees were rescued in the mediterranean this weekend as they attempted to reach europe in what's been a deadly year for migrants fleeing