>> you are watching france 24 live in paris. here are the headlines. more outbursts from the surviving defendant on day two into the trial of the 2015 paris attacks. he is want of tournament -- one of 20 man accused of carrying out the massacres that claimed the lives of 130 people. he was justice department sues the state of texas over a law that bans most abortions, calling it on scones at calling it unconstitutional. this comes days after the supreme court refused to block the law. brazilian president jair bolsonaro is set to meet with truckers who blocked highways in

he continueso defy the nation's supreme court, raising questions about the future of democracy in the country. ♪ >> hello, everyone. thanks for joining us. we begin with day two of the trial into the 2015 paris attacks. for another day, proceedings were interrupted several times by outbursts from the only surviving defendant. the 31-year-old admitted being soldier for the islamic state group. he is one of 20 defendants accused of carrying out the massacres across the capital that claimed the lives of 130 people. france 24's clare gives us a rundown. clare: salah abdeslam had

another outburst throughout the day. he was aggressive and uncomfortable yesterday when he claimed to be a fighter for the islamic state. today, without being invited to speak, he got up to the microphone and said that even though he didn't believe in this justice system, that the men who were his codefendants were innocent until proven guilty. he spoke of three defendants in particular, said they were from a neighborhood brussels where he is from, quirky corrupt. he said the neighborhood was full of generous people and that the judge shouldn't berrogant and should understand they were just helping out a fellow member of the neighborhood, and they had no idea they were helping someone who had done what salah abdeslam had done. for instance, the man who got him in paris the morning after

the attack and drove him back to brussels, he claims they had no idea when they were driving back what he had done and where he had been in that he was a group of the attackers. the resigning judge put a stop to it to maintain order in the courtroom. he said very clearly that salah abdeslam had had five years to express himself and that with investigators, he had not a while -- she had not cooperated, barely opened his mouth in the five years since he was arrested. and if he wanted to express himself that way, that could come later in the trial but for right now, they were going through the list of civil plaintiffs in this case. >> that was clare paccalin reporting for us in paris. an appeals court has upheld a case against the uncle of she relish on. 84-year-old was convicted of buying property in france with millions of euros he acquired from the syrian state. the property will now be

confiscated. the court also confirmed a four-your prison sentence that he is unlikely to serve because of his age. we have more. reporter: two parisian townhouses, a castle, vast office space and a stud farm, the list of defrocked wrench assets was long. whose money pay for it all? his crimes spanned 1984-2016 and included tax fraud and misappropriation of syrian funds. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: in june 2020, a french court found al assad guilty of money laundering and embezzling to acquire 90 million euros

worth of property in france alone. he was sentenced for years in prison, althoughe avoided jail because of poor health. and while his assets were in offshore tax havens, his defense team claims it all came from saudi arabia. >> [speaking french] reporter: nicknamed the butcher of hama, al assad commanded troops in a brutal uprising in syria in the 1980's. he left the country in 1984 after mounting a failed coup against his brother hafez. two years later, he was awarded the legion of honor for protecting french interests from syrian secret services, and

award rights groups are now demanding he be stripped of. >> now to afghanistan, where a commercial for light- commercial flight took off this morning from the kabul airport, the first commercial flight since the withdrawal of troops last month. a large group of foreigners were said to be on the qatar airways flight which made it successfully doha. before today, previous flights. aid and officials. a search is underway for six palestinians who made a daring escape from an israeli prison. in what could have been a scene from a movie, the inmates and free after digging a tunnel under the jail. france 24 set down with the family of one of the best-known prisoners. our correspondent in jerusalem is the story. reporter: where are they? where are they? that is the question on everyone's minds, israeli and

palestinian. the search is focused around the west bank town of janin, home to all six futures. -- a six fugitives. the most famous is a former leader of the struggle. his brother understands the effort involved. he spent two years in the same prison. >> we are proud of him. he raises the heads of all those who seek dignity. we are happy, but also scared for him. happy because they managed to get out of prison and scared because you don't know what will happen to them. reporter: his brother says they have not heard from zachariah since the escape and he is convinced it can succeed. >> these men are educated. they know very well what they are doing.

it makes them act very carefully. they will never be stupid enough to make a phone call. everyone expects them to come. reporter: these brothers enjoy keeping everyone guessing. according to israeli media, the escapees stopped first in this arab village inside israel. israeli police say the fugitives spent a few hours in the local mosque before moving on. they arrested three people from the village. >> police and the army entered the village, searched all new construction, empty buildings, they looked in the hills, looked everywhere. reporter: israeli authorities the prisoners had help fromher side the jail. 14 employees have been questioned. there is still no trace of the escapees. >> we now have results from

wednesday's legislative elections in morocco. the national rally of independence has won a majority of seats in parliament. the party is run by a billionaire with close ties to the monarchy. it is considered a stinging defeat for the islamist justice and development department which has -- and developing party which has been a power for more than a decade. the u.s. justice department is suing the state of texas over a law that bans most abortions. the doj says the law is unconstitutional. it is asking for an injunction that would keep the law from being enacted. the texas law ends abortions after six weeks, when many women don't even know they are pregnant. the suit comes days after the supreme court refused to step in and block the law. here is what attorney general merrick garland had to say. >> after careful assessment of the facts and the law, the justice department has filed a lawsuit against the state of texas. sb eight bans nearly all

abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they are even pregnant, and months before a pregnancy is viable. it does so even in cases of rape, sexual abuse or in cest. and it for birds aid to doctors who provide abortions and women who seek them. the law is clearly unconstitutional according to long-standing supreme court precedent. >> our washington correspondent explains the reasoning behin the it. report: as you heard from merrick garland, clearly unconstitutional were the two words talking about the texas law. its unconstitional in his words into ways -- becae it violates the 14th amendment and violates the supremacy clause. the 14th amendment is the

amendment that giv all american citizens equal rights under the law, including the right to privacy. that is the amendment that roe v. wade, landmark supreme court case that gave the righto abortion to erican women, that is the amendment eight based on. the supremacy clause basical states that any state law cannot supersede or go against something in the constitution, that the constitution is above statlaw. for merrick garland, this texas law goes against those two main constitutional principles. and there is the roe v. wade precedent, a precedent that has been in power in the united states since 1973, which allows women the right to have an abortion before at fetus is viable, which is not the case in the texas law, which as you mentioned, bans any abortions after six weeks, which is before

most women know tt they are even pregnant. but there is something in the speech by merrk garland that is very important. thiss all very well talking about constitutionality, but the case needs to go tthe court. the lawsuit needs to show some sort of what they call injury to the party that is suing, the feral govnment in this case soerrick garlandpecified there was also injury to federal workers, federal workers, when the state ofexas wld be in their jobs. their duty would beo give the opon to men to get an abortion and they could, in state law, beubject to those lawsuits from any american citizen under that texas law, who could sue anyone near or far who would help a woman get an abortion after six weeks in

texas. and that is probably the key in seeing if that lawsuit, that federal lawsuit against the state of texas, can succeed. >> u.s. president joe biden is requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated against covid-19. the mandate also covers government ctractors. biden's executive order covers millions of federal workers. the move comes as cases of the despite a strong push by the white house, just 53% of americans have been vaccinated against the disease. brazilian president jair bolsonaro is expected to meet with truckers leading blockades of highways across the country. the truckers were early supporters of bolsonaro, so the situation put the president in a tight spot, since the blockade is blocking key export groups.

truckers are upset over high fuel prices per meanwhile, bolsonaro continues to defy the nation's supreme court, sayin he would ignore rulings of one of the justices who led investigations into the administration. joining us is a senior lecturer in the department of war studies at king's college in london. let's start with this blockade by truckers. bolsonaro is in a bit of a tight spot. what do you think they are trying to achieve? >> thank you for having me here. this blockade of truckers, it is a group that supports bolsonaro very strongly. they are not really trying to achieve anything in particular, but to put pressure on the supreme court and are specifically claiming they would only release the roads if the supreme court would -- even this

jue in particular, that would be deposed from his role. apparently, it was not successful. bolsonaro sent a whatsapp message to the truckers that they should not block the roads because they were damaging the brazilian economy and preventing food from arriving to the population. >> we also mentioned bolsonaro it's attacking the supreme court. that is seen by many as a threat to democracy in the country and now, there is talk about possible impeachment among political parties. do you see that happening? >> what i see about brazil today is that it is a very fragile democratic system and democratic regime in general.

it has gone through a long process of democratization that was done properly. the two parties don't talk to each other, the executive, bolsonaro, is acting aggressively towards the other powers. the judiciary is staying strong together and is conducting investigations that come close to bolsonaro and his family in particular, and the congress that is sitting, especially the president of the congress, that is sitting on requests for the impeachment process against president bolsonaro. it is dramatic, and traumatic for brazilian society in general, because if there is another impeachment process, it will be the third president impeached since the democratization of the country. it shows how the democratic transition is still an ongoing process. >> after further protests

tuesday, bolsonaro as i understand it had a 35% approval rating. you think he will be able to increase his base as the election approaches next year? he appears to be taking a page out of donald trump's playbook. >> absolutely. what i think is important to note here is that he is trying in many ways to contest the possibility of a fair election next year. the first action was asking for the printing of the votes. we have a system of returning votes in brazil for quite a long time, so first of all, doubt about the right procedure in the electoral system, now he is contesting the supreme court, especially regarding this judge that is inquiring, calling it fake news. so that is coming, to contest the result of the election. it is quite difficult that he

can ensure a majority for the next election if he continues the way he is going right now. his popularity is decreasing systematically, and the population is still suffering from the coronavirus crisis. inflation came back strongly as well after a long time, unemployment rates are very high as well, so the population, especially the poorest, has seen suffering from the lack of policies towards this most vulnerable population. consequently, i can imagine he would lose quite a lot of votes among this part of the society. >> thank you for your time, the senior lecturer in the department of war studies at king's college in london. thanks for your insight. now, to the passing of france film legend jean-paul bell mondo. he died this week at the age of 88 --belmondo.

he died this week at the age of 88. he was part of the new wave movement in the 1960's. there was a tribute to him this thursday. how well-known is he by the younger generation? serena sykes takes a look. >> an unexpected name on the back in honor of this local fan's favorite doctor. >> [speaking french] . reporter: for older generations, jean-paul belmondo driving scenes and fights were legendary, driving a generation of younger people. >> [speaking french]

>> [speaking french] >> [speaking french] reporter: will parents and grandparents show the films of their childhood to their children? >> [speaking french] >> [speaking french] reporter: an icon in france of his generation, belmondo's memory will live on with his films, his passing from to many to rewatch or discover certain classics for the first time. >> time now for business with kate moody. good to see you. we are starting off with a series subject. kate: alarming reports from the u.n. development agency which

warns afghanistan is teetering on the brink of universal poverty. in a worse-case scenario, gdp could shrink 13% and baseline poverty would balloon to 97% of the population by mid 22. -- mid 2022. 80% of the afghanistan budget had been covered by international funds. governments and organizations like imf and world bank suspended aid since the taliban takeover over. i spoke about that with a guest. >> this is what the secretary-general of the united nations will be calling for on monday at the big confence on afghanistan, to provide support through the u.n. and its partners, both for immediate humanitarian relf and also for the fundamental livelihood saving activities on the development side. so that partners can come in and

provide that bridging fund, if you wish, until international finances can come back when there is an authorizing environment for the international financing system that will enable it. kate: the lebanese government is to begin getting cash assistance to hundreds of thousands of struggling emilys. inflation, power outages and shortages of medicine and fuel have left the population in need. reporter: classic sandwich, a once bustling fast food outlet in beirut, is now out of business, devastating employees. >> [speaking arabic] reporter: facing rising food prices and chronic power outages, the restaurant owners

had to pay more out-of-pocket for fuel to keep generators running. prospects for the employed are dim. >> [speaking arabic was back at ] -- reporter: even people who still have jobs are affected by the economic crisis. the value of their salaries has limited the lebanese pound has lost roughly 90% of it value against the dollar in two years. the 12-month inflation rate h soared dignity 158 percent according to the world bank, pushing up the price of basic goods. one in five lebanese struggle to put the food on the table according to the world food program. >> there is a wf fp food basket, which is the minimum survival expenditure basket, basically. it is available on a monthly basis and lebanon. it is currently 350 lebanese

pounds, a 557 percent increase. reporter: the u.n. estimates 70% of lebanon's population now lives below the poverty line. kate: the european central bank has kept interest rates on hold but will shift monthly bond buying to a lower pace. the eurozone economy is recovering faster than expected. the growth forecast was revised upwards from 4.6% to 5%. the ec president says it is not time to relax pandemic supports. >> the time will come, but it is premature. w -- we believe a lot of the good result in the economy and the rovery ha to do with monetary policy, recovery has progressed and is rebounding. but we are not there yet. we are not out of the woods. kate: let's check in on treating

actions. the upbeat outlook did give a slight boost in paris and the frankfurt dacs. the london ftse was dragged down by easier jet is the carrier refused to take over bid. moderna shares up 8% up to the drugmaker says it is working on a single-does vaccine that could provide boosters against the pandemic -- against covid and the flu. ford says it will stop making cars in india. the auto giant says it failed to find a sustainable path forward despite urging from the indian government. 4000 employees will be affected. united airlines will force american staff who refused to be sedated -- refused to be vaccinated against covid-19 to take unpaid leave last month, the carrier set all 67,000 employees would have to be inoculated by fall. it now says those who claim to

religious exemptions will have to take time off. some lawmakers in ukraine have approved legislation to legalize and regulate bitcoin. the move does not make the cryptocurrency legal tender as el salvador did this week. analysts say it is a sign governments around the world are acknowledging cryptocurrencies are here to stay. better get used to it, monty. >> we have have heard a lot about bitcoin this weed and that is probably -- this week and that is probably not going to change. kate, thanks. that is it for now. stay tuned for more world news here on france 24. ♪

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