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>> [indiscernible] ♪ ♪ anchor: you are watching "france 24." these are the headlines. the army has cease-fire and a traditional military leader in place in the wake of a disputed election result, amid accusations of cheating. reactions and analysis throughout the program. two killed in air attacks on kyiv, others killed in the capital of ukraine, one of the most severe series of air

attacks on ukraine in recent months. the extensive damage being assessed. these images speaking for themselves. the blue supermoon, a rare lunar event happening this evening. it will be 14% bigger than normal in the next one will not be until 2037. in the meantime, state with us here. live from paris. ♪ mark: thank you for being with us. we begin with the military coup d'etat in cgabon at the weekend. the people had been told there had been a force change of

leadership. the president declared himself the winner at the we in about that had no independent monitoring and independent media were blocked in gabon, suspicions of electoral fraud. this evening, a general has been named as the transition leader. kathy clifford has this. >> [speaking french] translator: the general has ordered the restoration of the internet and international radio and tv channels broadcasting in gabon. the president of the transition insists on the need to maintain calm and serenity in our

beautiful country. mark: let's bring you our first guest for analysis who examines west africa, joins is now. good evening. what is your understanding of the situation this evening? correspondent: thank you. at the moment, it seems the junta has effectively taken power. there is no counter coup or opposition within the military to the junta itself, and it looks like as of this moment it will be difficult for the use of domestic resources for the return to power. mark: what do we know about the military junta who have taken charge? >> right. they represent different branches of the army which suggests unity within the armed forces. there are rumors, but

unconfirmed and reporting is patchy on the circumstances of the coup, but there may have been differences over pag patroe networks, but there are different ways this could have motivated the coup. what does seem to be the case is the coup makers are relying on the unpopularity of bongo as a way of legitimizing the takeover in another aspect is the elections which were announced last night, early this morning, gave bongo a victory in the august 26 elections in this contradicted a lot of information coming from this electoral commission that suggested that opposition was

ahead in the votes, so it is conceivable the army saw this as a moment to step in and stop the process that would have seen," elected in a situation in which the polls appeared -- seen bongo elected in a situation where the polls appear to be -- he himself is we know from the u.s. treasury documents has considerable real estate holdings in the united states and is connected to the networks linked to bongo so it is unclear whether the junta will be different in terms of its governing style than the bongo regime, a real open question that will be hanging over the transition over the next couple of weeks and months. mark: essentially this is more of the same you think? >> that is a real risk, a

situation of meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and he is a cousin of bongo, and parts of the military leadership have been involved in corruption scandals in the past, that being said, the dynasty that has been in power has generated an arm's amounts of unpopularity in the country, so the junta has an opportunity to use this grace period to deliver democratic transition, unfortunately juntas did not do this and tend to want to drag transitions out and that would be the baseline expectation this junta would do the same thing, but there is room for surprise in the hope they will look for a rapid and democratic transition process that restores constitutional rule and delivers gabon to a civilian president.

>> thank you for joining us. thank you for sharing that analysis with us and we are waiting for developments from the other side of the story in gabon. let's bring in our correspondent based in cameroon. gabon the latest in a growing list of african states that have seen coup d'etat. any sense where you are what is the phenomenon behind this? correspondent: well, i think it is long years of suffering for most of this country. most have had a single leader for several years, just like in gabon, the same person for 55 years, that is the major difference between all of these countries and coups that has happened over the past three years. gabon, many did not see it

coming. they anticipated there would be these elections, accusations and counter accusations and the government and the opposition but the coup came as a total surprise. we would want to remember the fact that things were not going well and gabon. saturday, while the elections were ongoing, the government decided to cut the internet and did not want observers in the country, meaning they did not want foreign media, of these things -- but a coup, many did not see that coming and it is a big surprise to many. mark: thank you very much indeed for joining us, our correspondent in cameroon looking at the broader aspects of how this is development. we will bring you more analysis throughout this program live from paris, the military coup in gabon, a transition leader named and of course we will be looking

for all development from the country as we go through this program. next russia has launched a severe series of attacks, air attacks on ukraine's capital did the mayor of kyiv confirming the incidents. air defense shooting down apparently all 28 missiles fired by russia, 15 out of 16 drones that came across, two civilians killed, two in the city itself, and reports of several wounded in the greater kyiv region. correspondent: the most intense bombardments seen in months in kyiv, as russia launched drones and missile attacks over the city. ukrainian officials said the majority were shot down, but the downed missiles following on buildings, a part, and at school, several civilians killed or injured by falling debris. >> the blast broke all the windows. the entry doors are broken as well. we were terribly scared.

>> pigs, that is what they are. it is not human what they are doing. there are no military objects here, nothing, just an apartment block, a part. correspondent: earlier in the night, the sky lit up with explosions on the russian side of the border as drones hit an airport close to russia's border with estonia and state news agencies reported several transport planes were damaged and that the reduced describe the biggest nighttime drone attack on russian soil since the war began 18 months ago and russian officials set out fast operation had been destroyed or down across multiple regions. >> according to preliminary information's, there are no casualties from the drone attacks. nevertheless, ukrainian drone

attacks confirm the terrorist intentions of the kyiv regime once again. correspondent: the russian foreign minister said the wave of attacks would not go unpunished. mark: and of course we are watching for all developments in the situation in ukraine for you. president emmanuel macron met with the leaders of france's political party leaders including bitter opponents outside pears in a bid to break the deadlock of a hung parliament. deprived of an absolute majority in the assembly lower house since last year's parliamentary elections, he said he wanted a frank, honest and direct discussion, acting together for the benefit of voters in a letter inviting party bosses from the hard left to the far right to work together on writing new laws and if need be, he said, organizing referendums, a rare political tool that has previously backfired. we have been following this. correspondent: president emmanuel macron decided to invite all party leaders here in

one of the poorest parts of france and one of the worst hit areas during the recent urban riots, a symbol of course president macron one team to discuss topics with the opposition, how to improve living conditions of the french people and basically find solutions for the country. the president needs to convince opposition members to join him in passing laws and in voting laws in parliament, so a lot of negotiation, because president emmanuel macron does not hold an absolute majority in parliament. there is also the idea that referendums could be taking place in the coming months. the right wing and the far right movements also of marine le pen want a referendum on immigration and tougher immigration laws, and on the other hand, the left wing coalition wants a

referendum on the pension reform system. today was a day for all parties to discuss these matters, domestic, but also international with president macron and president macron ask him to leave their funds outside the room in order for the meeting to remain private and confidential as possible. mark: a rare lunar phenomena could make the effects of the storm hitting the united states much worse. it is called blue supermoon and experts say it could raise tides above normal just as a hurricane lashes florida's west coast. the blue supermoon is an interesting site in itself. 14% bigger than normal, the last one until 2037, oc it while you can. we have this -- so see it while you can. we have this. correspondent: it is the phenomenon that inspired the

expression once in a blue, wednesday and thursday will see it, a rare event that only occurs every 10 to 20 years. >> to date is the first time i can see the moon so big. it is almost as if i can grab it with my hands. it is different date and i get to look the telescope and take these wonderful photos. correspondent: for regular observers there is no need for binoculars or telescopes as it will be a supermoon, making it appear brighter and 14% larger than usual because the moon will be orbiting as close as possible to earth at some 357,000 kilometers and nasa says only 3% of blue moons are also supermoon's, making business owner event even more of a rare treat. astronomers say there will not be another blue supermoon until 2037. mark: once in a bloom and as

they say. time for business. going back to the ongoing coup d'etat in gabon, the country rich in resources oil, mineral wealth, frustration growing in the population. correspondent: many people were seen celebrating in the streets after the coup was announced. they were calling for a change after more than 50 years of one-family rule, and a third of the population lives in poverty struggling to find work well corruption has been rampant. we take a closer look at the country's economic situation. correspondent: with its vast oil reserves and natural resources, gabon is one of the richest countries in africa. it is the fourth largest oil producer in sub-saharan africa in the sector accounts for nearly 40% of gdp and over 70% of exports. it is the world's second-largest producer of an important alloy and steel construction and generate significant income from

its rain forests. all this helped it to recover quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, posting 3% growth last year. the country's population is small with just 2.3 million people, and yet, many do not benefit from the considerable oil and mineral wealth. this is a key source of resentment against the government of president ali bongo ondimba and his family which has ruled for 55 years. [speaking french] translator: one family holds all the power. there is a semblance of democratic institutions, but it is controlled by the regime. it is basic and oil is written unlike a family -- emirate run like a family property. correspondent: over a third lives in poverty with one in five people unable to find work. among the youth of the jobless rate jumps to 38 percent. one key factor is a lack of direct foreign investment with

weak governance and corruption making gabon an unattractive venture. transparency international ranks gabon 136th out of 180 and its corruption index. correspondent: the coup dealt a blow to some businesses in france, the former colonial ruler of gabon with 80% different companies registered in gabon with a wide-ranging interest in the oil and mineral sector. one giant operates the largest manganese mine and a rail transport service and halted all activity during the coup though it later said it would resume activities on thursday. the company saw its assets drop by 17%, total dropped by about 15%, as did another oil and gas firm. let's look at some market action this wednesday now more in general. stocks moved higher this

wednesday following a positive finish in europe earlier in the date and 3m saw its shares drop after it agreed to pay $6 billion to settle lawsuits by u.s. military veterans over faulty earplugs which led to some hearing loss. the u.s. commerce secretary has wrapped up her visit to china named at restoring trade ties. after meeting officials and business leaders, she admitted there was no breakthrough in resolving the ongoing trade for it but stressed that the u.s. did not want to "decouple from china nor seek to hinder its economic growth in any way," however she repeated washington would not compromise national security and warned that conditions must improve for u.s. firms to continue to invest in china at day after the report that many american businesses were finding the country "un-investable". >> there is appetite among u.s. businesses to continue to do

business here. the market is enormous. the environment has to be predictable and there has to be a level playing field, due process, transparency, so my point was you as business needs to see some action taken to address these issues, otherwise they will deem it too risky, and as i said un-investable. correspondent: many have been disappointed after ordering food that look fabulous on the menu and less impressive on the plate , but burger king is facing legal action in the u.s. over just that. in a proposed class action lawsuit, customers are accusing the burger chain of misleading them by making it sandwich appear larger and meteor that it is saying it amounted to a breach of contract and burger king asked the judge to dismiss the claim arguing it was "not required to make burgers exactly like the picture,"but the judge rejected it and said it was up to jurors to decide

what would be considered reasonable. and it has to be said that other burger chains like mcdonald's, wendy's, taco bell are facing similar lawsuits in the united states. mark: it is all a question of taste, isn't it? thank you. let's cross the studio. we have truth or fake. good evening. today after the funeral of gabon , --yevgeny prigozhin, the leader of the wagner mercenary group and all the controversy that goes with that, you found videos that appear to show cemeteries where wagner fighters have been buried being set on fire. truth or fake? correspondent: these videos have been shared widely on social media ever since russia announced that yevgeny prigozhin , the russian warlord, had been killed in a plane crash and they were doing the rounds. let's look at the first one. here it is. here we see a russian mercenary in a cemetery and he alleges

that graves'that fighters have been destroyed and we see -- graves of fighters have been destroyed and receipt that, and another pile of flowers removed from the graves and these have been shared by wagner supporters and pro-ukraine accounts. with the allegation, claimed that in fact it is part of a sort of a rewriting, re-falsifying that history by the russian state, but this accusation is denied by wagner -affiliated telegram channels. and also pro-russian media, so we have this article here, yeah, so this article was published in a pro-russian media outlet called the daily storm in the

claim is that graves are being refurbished or upgraded and we have this photo supposedly of the redevelopment plan which is to replace the wooden crosses and flowers by black pyramids bearing the name of the deceased and wagner symbols. we can see here this is the plan, apparently, but we wanted to find out if this work had been planned before or after yevgeny prigozhin fell from putin's favor, so we did a search and actually we found references to these new, improved graves going back as far as may. here we see in this article dated 11 may, which is eight-month before the wagner mutiny, and this is a russian media which is based in one region in southern russia in the article here explains that a project to improve wagner cemetery has been announced in the plan is to install like a granite graves in place of

crosses and said the wagner group is behind the project in any case, it does date before the mutiny. we found other mentions of it. here is an article dated, that came out in july, and this one is in the media, an independent newspaper founded by russian-ukrainian and belarusian journalists, and here i translated it into english, dated july 11, so yeah in it, the journalist decided to see if these upgrade or refurbishment plans were going ahead after the mutiny, and sure enough, reports that these black pyramids had begun to replace crosses in this cemetery. as we can see in this photo. so after that controversy sparked by the video of the man who made it went back on his allegations of sacrilege, telling this russian media outlet that they were doing the

right thing, that the fighters were being looked after with these new graves, so there is no reason to think this video in particular is a plan by the russian authorities to erase wagner from history. it seems to have been in the works for some time and potentially instigated by the wagner group itself it has just taken this long to put the plan into action. mark: we want to find out what happened to the aircraft that came down but that is a separate issue. tells about the video in eastern russia that appears to show a cemetery of dead wagner mercenaries being burned. is that one truth or fake? correspondent: socorrespondent: this video is slightly different and we actually see graves with clouds of smoke billowing from them in the video has been shared with the claim that it shows a wagner group, let's find it, it has been shared on twitter, and other social media platforms, and you can see this one has 184,000 views at, it

claims it is showing a wagner cemetery, so we did a keyword search using those terms which led us to the original video published on telegram by a russian media outlet called the people of bikal published on 17 april before the mutiny, so it explains workers were digging new graves', but as it was april, the earth was still frozen and they had to burn the ground and thaw it with fire, so hence the smoke, so once again wagner graves'of not being deliberately destroyed, and the france 24 observer team has not found any evidence there is a large-scale operation being carried out in russia in order to cancel the wagner group, yet, of course, because this is a story that keeps developing, so

i am sure we will be coming back to it soon. mark: indeed. thank you very much indeed. thank you. and thanks to you for watching. state with us. more to come live from paris. -- stay with us. more to come live from paris. >> your stories inspire the future. your daily lives create the news. your cultures, struggles, and successes are at the heart of our programs. we tell the stories of those who made our planet and those who are building it. we tell the story of the world-shaped by the lives of those who live there. >♪

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