>> welcome back to the france 24 newsroom. these are our headlines -- the breach of a dam in ukraine causes damage and flooding in an area where tens of thousands of people live. because cause of that breach is not yet clear -- the cause of that breach is not yet clear. elections will be held in kosovo, elections that were boycotted by the country's ethnic serve minority last time around -- ethnic serb minority last time around.

welcome back. hundreds of people have had to be evacuated in ukraine today after water burst through the barrier of what is one of the world's largest dams. the dam and its hydroelectric plant are in russian-controlled territory about 70 km east of the city of kherson. it provides electricity and drinking water to huge areas of ukraine. it is not yet clear what caused the breach, but he and moscow are accusing each other. nbc news has cited u.s. intelligence sources as saying that russia was responsible. >> downstream, water is rising fast. people still living in towns up

and down the river had no choice but to leave their homes. >> i was evacuated from the flooded area. our local school and stadium were flooded. the stadium was completely underwater. >> a state of emergency has been declared in the district where the water level has already risen by already 10 meters. water has been gushing through the get -- to the dam ever since it was breached overnight. ukraine's president accused russian forces of being behind the blast, saying moscow was hoping to stop ukrainian troops from crossing it. >> pressure has been controlling the dam at the plant for over a year -- russia has been controlling the dam for over a year. it was mined by russian

occupiers and they blew it up. >> moscow for its part has accused kyiv of deliberately sabotaging the dam. it lies in southern ukraine and has been under russian control since shortly after moscow's large-scale invasion in february last year. it is critical to ukraine's energy infrastructure, providing electricity to millions of homes and water to communities upstream as well as to the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. >> the international court of justice -- lawyers for russia and ukraine trade blame today at the international court of justice over the downing of immolation airlines plane -- a malaysian airlines plane over a decade ago. >> they are not only facing off on the battlefield but in the court of law, too. russia and ukraine go head-to-head in the hague, following up on a case filed by

kyiv in 2017, well before its 2022 full scale invasion. it accuses moscow of not only funding army separatists but orchestrating an insurgency, a conflict which started in 2014, claiming the lives of 13,000 people, and which caused the downing of immolation airlines flight, killing all 219 passengers and crew on board -- downing of a malaysian airlines flight. >> recall what happened to flight mm-hmm 17 -- like -- f light mh17. civilians faced a reign of intimidation and terror. now russia brings terror to all citizens of ukraine on a national scale. >> at the international court of justice, a guilty verdict for

moscow would be largely symbolic as the court does not have the means to enforce sentences. along with accusations of financing terrorism, russia is also charged with restricting the rights of ethnic tartar is in crimea. last february, ukraine filed a separate case accusing russia genocide. also issued an arrest warrant against president putin for suspected war crimes. >> elections are to be held in kosovo. last time around, the elections were boycotted by kosovo's ethnic serb minority, but the vote went ahead anyway. the result was that albanian leaders were elected to serve -- serb regions.

>> following weeks of renewed tensions, the cause of them foreign minister says her country is ready to hold new local elections in the north of the country but that a commitment from serbs is needed to make it happen. >> we are open for new elections , but you have new elections -- to have new elections, we need steps in between because declaring new elections when the other side is declaring every day they will boycott them again does not make sense. we need solutions, not just deals that sound good for press conferences. >> violence has flared since authorities installed ethnic albanian mayors in northern kosovo after being elected on a less than 4% turnout. nato's peacekeeping troops, around 3800 of which are

stationed in kosovo, have engaged in fierce clashes with serbs, with chief stoltenberg sending troops to quell the protests and guard the town hall. kosovo declared independence in 2008, nearly adecco -- nearly a decade after nato's bombing campaign against yugoslavia. >> the foreign ministry in tehran announced it is reopening it embassy in riyadh and its counsel and see in jetta. this mending of diplomatic ties comes after china mediated talks. >> iran and saudi arabia may be kickstarting a new era. after years of rivalry, they are pushing their rapprochement, reopening the iranian embassy in riyadh.

is a key phase of the process to be initiated in march with china's mediation. suny-saudi arabia broke off relations with shiite iran in 2016 after an attack on its embassy that followed the execution of a shiite cleric by saudi authorities. a war between rival powers is likely to have major repercussions in the whole region, starting with the countries where they have confronted each other by proxy. yemen and also iraq and lebanon. >> it would see not only a soothing, calming of the situation but also we could see safety and security of energy parcels and supplies from the persian gulf. >> the date of the saudi embassy reopening in tehran has yet to be set. for now, the kingdom is hope -- is hosting u.s. secretary of state antony blinken.

the day before he left for riyadh, he was concerned about iran. >> we continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to verifiably, effectively, and sustainably prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon. if iran rejects the path of diplomacy, as president biden has repeatedly made clear, all options are on the table to ensure iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. >> the secretary of state encouraged the saudi kingdom to normalize relations with the jewish state. >> for the 14th time this year, france's trade union protests held limited strike actions today, despite the fact that president macron has already

signed the reforms into law. at one stage today, electricity was cut off for a couple of hours in the french capital which is where this channel is based. protesters also occupy the offices of the paris olympics committee and said unless the reform is scrapped, there will be no olympics next year. >> we are still just as motivated and determined to make workers' voices heard. >> some people are going to say it is a lot of fighting and we are coming to the end of it, but no, the fight is permanent. it is a fight for our rights because they are constantly being impacted, being called into question. in a relatively short space of time, they want -- >> people there speaking on the streets of paris. france 24 has been following the protests in central paris. we had this update. >> we have seen a fairly decent turnout today, this 14th day of

protests against emmanuel macron's pension reform. there were 300,000 people in paris, a lot more compared to the official figures from the police. they say there were 31,000 people. we can probably imagine that is somewhere in between. of course, this is not as many people as we have seen in previous protests, but unions say that is not necessarily an indication of waning opposition. they say people simply cannot afford to take another day of strike action. we have seen mostly a festive mood today, the hope still that they will repeal this reform. we did see a few incidents at the end of the march, as usual. burning of a truck trailer, for example, smashing up bus stops. they were met with riot police and teargas. this protest comes two days before a potential vote in parliament to repeal the main article of this reform that is

raising the retirement age from 60 to 64. this motion to vote was put forward the parliamentary group, but we are not actually sure if there will be a vote on repealing this article. the speaker of parliament needs to decide this on thursday. unions say they simply want to vote. that's all. they simply want to be listened to. that's why they say frustration has grown over these 14 days of protests. >> commemorations have been held today in normandy to mark the 79th anniversary of d-day landings, the largest naval air and land operation in history, which led to the liberation of france and western europe. more than 100 allied troops invaded france to try the nazis out. president emmanuel macron and the u.s. secretary of defense were among those taking part.

♪ >> a somber occasion and commemorations along the coast mark this 79th anniversary of the d-day landings. it has to be said the real stars of the day where the veterans, the american, british, canadian veterans, the survivor still with us today. many say it is essentially vital to speak to those veterans to transmit to the younger generations the sacrifices of 1944. for those surviving veterans who are fewer in number, it is important to transmit that message. we spoke with one british d-day veteran about why it is important for him to remember and pass on to future generations the sacrifices they made. >> absolutely overwhelming.

i did not realize how many people remember what happened years ago. it is important to note the stories are being told still. people are treating it as something special. we saved the world from a dictatorship, and i only wish the russian people would follow the same route as i only wish -- i only wish that rush put in would follow the same route that hit loaded. >> emmanuel macron, the french president, already set in motion today the coordinating preparations for those commemorations. there are fewer and fewer surviving veterans. there are, of course, fewer and

fewer opportunities to bring them together. also on an international level, it would be both crucial and complex. it is an opportunity to bring together the anniversaries and allies of the second world war. remember back in 2014 on the 70th anniversary of the d-day landings in normandy, it was a chance to reopen dialogue with vladimir putin, the leader of russia. in 2023, with more once again president on the european continent, and it rapprochement with moscow seems increasingly unlikely. >> it has been announced today that they brazilian oxen singer has died. her version of "the girl from ipanema" became a huge success around the world during the 1960's. she carried on recording throughout the 1960's and 1970's . she was 83 years old.

♪ is it's time now for business. i'm joined by yuka royer from the business desk. yesterday was bytedance. today is coin base that is the target of legal action. >> the securities and exchange commission filed a complaint against -- a complaint in new york against coin base, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the united states by trading volume. the sec accused the company of breaching security source by taking the role of a broker and exchange and clearinghouse without obtaining permission to do any of them. >> the crackdown on cryptocurrency platforms is heating up. just a day after suing

bytedance, the u.s. securities and exchange commission is taking aim at coin base, the u.s.'s largest crypto exchange, for allegedly acting as an unregistered broker. >> as alleged, there are complaints coinbase was fully aware of the applicability of federal security laws to its activities but deliberately refused to follow them. while his calculated decisions may have allowed her to earn billions, it has done so at the expense of invests by depriving them of the protections to which they are entitled. >> coinbase has hit back bloom and the regulators' approach. >> the fcc's reliance on an placement -- enforcement-only approach is hurting america as well as customers like coinbase that have a demonstrated commitment to compliance. >> coinbase and its founder were accused on monday of running an illegal exchange in the u.s. and misleading investors.

the u.s. has been tightening its grip on crypto platforms, particularly since the collapse of ftx in november last year. its founder, reid, has since been charged with multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy -- its founder, sam bankman-fried, has since been charged with multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy. >> coinbase shares listed on the nasdaq nosedived on the news, dropping as much as 20% at the open before recovering slightly. trading was fairly muted on the european stock markets today. london's ftse 100 rose by about .4%, partly due to to a week pound. economic growth is slowing down sharply this year with the risk

of financial stress in emerging market economies intensifying. the lender expects global gdp who declined 2.1% this year. advanced economies will only grow by 0.7% while developing nations other than china, growth is set to slow to 2.9% from 4.1% last year. at financial conditions have dealt a "injuring setback" to development of imaging economies -- "enduring setback" to development of emerging economies. >> the situation has becoming worse in terms of developing

economies' ability to pay back debt. interest rates decreased dramatically. financial conditions get even tighter at the global level, so from 2000 to 2019, we saw only 19 defaults. since 20/20 20, we have already seen 40 countries defaulting, so we have a real debt crisis on our hands -- since 2020, we have already seen 40 countries defaulting. >> is a price fall added to concerns about the health of europe's biggest economy. the country's economic minister, however, said the disappointing result was mainly due to a decline in large orders. turkey's currency has been

extending its decline against the dollar since the reelection of president erdogan. the lire has dropped by about 7% since the second round of voting on may 28. it is down 23% compared to a year ago. turkey's credit default swaps, a measure of its ability to repay debt, has also fallen sharply, despite the appointment of a highly respected economist as finance minister. he previously held the position from 2009 to 2018, and his comeback was widely seen as signaling a possible return to more orthodox economic policies. that wraps up the business news. >> 23 lire to the euro today. i was younger, it was two lire to the euro. it is time now for our daily fact checking segment, truth or fake.

today, we are looking at that incident in ukraine, the dam. what is being circulated about that online today. >> ukraine and russia mutually accuse each other of blowing up the dam in southern ukraine, a military action that triggered catastrophic floods, forcing thousands to flee their homes. we have seen many viral videos online showing the extent of the damage of these floods, some real, some fake. let's begin with this viral video that has gathered over one million views on twitter. a video that is black-and-white, posted today, following the explosion. eventually, we will see several explosions that can be seen hitting this dam and bridge as well, where these users claim that this is the precise moment when russian occupation forces of the hydroelectric power

station while others claim that this is the precise moment when we see that ukraine and armed forces blew up the dam in ukraine. >> do those images actually belong to the dam collapsed in ukraine? >> they do not belong to today's explosion. we did geolocation and noticed the destroyed area on this viral video corresponds to the northern part of the dam while today's explosion took place on the southern part of this dam. if we compare this image, the viral video of screen shot to this image on google maps that shows the northern part of the dam, you can see the images correspond with the same elements. for example, this electricity pylon we see on both images, or this metal building that we also

see on the viral video that, i repeat, belongs to the northern part of the dam. here's more satellite imagery where you can also see this electricity pylon if we zoom in in the northern part of the dam, and today's explosion took place right here. just to be more precise, here is an image of close that shows the damage of today's explosion that took place next to these beige and white buildings. the explosion from the viral claims to place right here in this area. >> so it is the same dam but a different area. if these images in the video are not from today's explosion, what are they from then? >> even though this video did not take place today, it does show an explosion in the dam from november. borders and other media reported on this major explosion that

took place on november 11, 2022. the same viral video was also posted by russian media, published on november 12. we see the same video we showed earlier, viral on twitter. the explosions from november also shown by u.s. satellite imagery, where you can see this shadow of the electric pylon. that we showed earlier on the northern side of the dam from the explosion on november 11, not from today's explosion that caused severe damage in this area in southern ukraine. here is verified video of the extent of the damage where we see entire houses being washed away by the flooding caused by the explosion in the neva river. -- in the dnipro her. >> thank you very much indeed. that is it from class.

i will be back very shortly. stay tuned. -- that is it from us. >> a program about women who are reshaping our world. we meet those who seek equality, be it in the board room or at the village world. "the 51%" brings you stories from across the globe about the women who are challenging the way we think. >> "the 51%," presented by annette young on france 24 and france24.com. >> follow our international journalists on france 24. douglas herbert, angela diffley, robert parsons, philip terrell, and armen georgian. from the newsroom to the studio or live on air, they are on standby 24/7 to analyze world

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06/06/23 06/06/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> just today, russia blew up a major dam causing significant sibling devastation. >> we can state unequivocally we are talking about the deliberate sabotage of the dam on the ukrainn