>> hello and welcome to france 24. the headlines this hour -- the u.s. warns north korea it will pay a price if it provides arms to russia. the latest warning comes as washington announces a meeting between vladimir putin and kim jong-un is in the works. ukraine's president needs soldiers on the front lines in bakhmut. volodymyr zelenskyy's visit comes as authorities in moscow accuse kyiv of ramping up strikes. and the heat is back on once again across france. temperatures in paris above 30 degrees celsius all week long.

but first, the kremlin is remaining tightlipped over possible upcoming meetings between russian president vladimir putin and north korean leader kim jong-un. u.s. officials believe the face-to-face interaction could be planned as early as this month. washington has accused pyongyang of supplying weapons to moscow for its invasion in ukraine, and the u.s. now believes talks on a potential weapon sale are advancing. >> now able to share that the visit was more than just a photo op. russia used this visit to the dprk to try to convince pyongyang to try to sell artillery ammunition to russia. since then, vladimir putin and

kim jong-un have exchanged letters pledging to increase their bilateral cooperation. >> good evening. thank you for joining us here on france 24. what arms do we know that north korea has been supplying to russia? >> [indiscernible] what we see now is north korea has potentially been sourcing ammunition and [indiscernible] yevgeny prigozhin -- france24.com/yevgeny prigozhin -- yevgeny prigozhin [indiscernible] >> sorry, we have had audio problems with you. let me try that again. what new arms deliveries is washington concerned about? >> north korea could be sending

more sophisticated rockets to the south. that could be an issue. there seems to be a decline in the number of [indiscernible] >> samuel, i am sorry to cut you off, but we have to try to reconnect with you. apologies for the quality of that audio connection. in other news, we do have russian authorities who say at least one person was killed after ukrainian shelling. attacks inside russian territory have been on the rise in recent weeks. cities like moscow have been frequent targeted. >> it is a site that is becoming increasingly familiar to russians, the aftermath of a drone strike, here on a moscow office building in mid july. so far this year, the bbc's

monitoring service has recorded more than 190 suspected attacks on russian targets, mostly concentrated around moscow, ukrainian border regions, and russian-annexed crimea. while three people were killed in an august strike in the border region of belgrade, most of the attacks were intercepted by russian air defenses without causing significant damage. those strikes on moscow in recent weeks have disrupted air traffic and shaken residents. >> it gets scarier and scarier to come here. i hope this ends soon. it is very nerve-racking. most of all, i want to feel safe . >> some attacks have done strategic damage, like this strike at the end of august which destroyed several military transport planes. ukrainian officials have never claimed the attacks, but president zelenskyy strongly alluded to strikes on moscow at the end of july. >> gradually, the war is returning to the territory of

russia, symbolic centers and military bases, and this is an inevitably natural and absolutely fair process. >> analysts say the strikes en masse -- on russian soil are likely meant to humiliate moscow and brighton the populace. >> ukrainian strikes on civilian targets confirm the brutality of the kyiv regime. >> ukraine's western allies have had little to say about the increase of strikes in russia. as they intensified in august, the united states repeated that it neither encourages nor enables attacks on russian territory. >> back to one of our top stories, the potential upcoming meeting between russia's

president, vladimir putin, and north korea's leader, kim jong-un. we can speak to our guest who joins us on the telephone line. apologies for earlier. good evening to you once again. what arms do we know that north korea has been supplying russia? >> we don't have much hard evidence, but we do see reports toward the end of last year, that the wagner group's yevgeny prigozhin had sourced ammunition from north korea and also that north korea has been flying various tanks to russia. >> do the u.s. suspect potential deal could be in the cards? what would that entail? >> russia getting more access to north korea. russia is using less artillery fire now than it was a year ago,

maybe even 75% less. also we should be looking for any kind of deals for ballistic missiles. they were concerned about violating united nations embargoes. maybe the north koreans will step in and supply those longer-range missiles moscow was looking for. >> if a deal does take place, how soon would north korea be able to start supplying weapons to russia, given all the sanctions that are in place against pyongyang? >> i think a deal, if agreed, would probably be necessarily announced of all the terms in public. it would probably be framed in some way as some kind of military cooperation. everyone knows the iranians are

giving the drones, but they need to be seen doing it. it is the same with north korea. >> the u.s. is threatening north korea not to sell arms, warning that pyongyang will end up paying a price. if it does, what can washington realistically do, sanction north korea that is already sanctioned? >> that's a problem. north korea has already been sanction. how much more can you go? when the white house released public disclosures, they warned of a preemptive supply through africa. that's a place they could potentially target. they could target syrian arms dealers or african states that are friendly to them. that seems to be the only thing the americans can do. >> since the war in ukraine

broke out, we have seen this access develop between russia, iran, as you said there, which has been clandestinely supplying drones to russia, north korea now, and potentially china. how dangerous is this? >> i think china for the most part has not been entering the arms supply game. they have been supplying semiconductors for electronics, uniforms, and we have been entering the game of supply ammunition shelves. that would be a major red line. it is bad enough already. iranians are supplying drones that are threatening ukrainian cities on almost a daily basis. if china comes in after, it would be a lot worse. >> the fact that russia is potentially looking to gain weapons from north korea, what

does it say about its strategy in ukraine? is russia in it for the long haul? >> i think pressure is definitely in this for the long haul, trying to outlast western nations, contrary to the fact that it is running low on ammunition and weapons itself. keeping the supply chains going, they will be in better shape to win the war. >> talk us through the counteroffensive that is underway. of course, there have been a lot of mixed messages coming out with the ukrainian telling everyone to hold their horses, but there's some sort of divisions emerging between washington and kyiv not seeing eye to eye on how things are progressing. how much time does ukraine have two make up during this

counteroffensive? because winter is approaching. >> it is a bit unfortunate for ukrainians because they don't have much time. her big breakthrough, 50% of the fortifications the russians built they have broken through. still i think ukrainians have a fighting chance of advancing. they will be focusing on zaporizhzhia while also making smaller but sure gains in bakhmut. >> we thank you so much for joining us on the program tonight. authorities in cuba so they are working to dismantle a trafficking ring aimed at recruiting their citizens to fight the war between russia and

ukraine. cuba's foreign ministry says it is working to target traffickers, reiterating that cuba is not part of the war in ukraine. in other news, cap on -- gab on's post-coup leader met after the he was appointed the leader of the diplomatic process. the country has been suspended following last week's coup, and details of the talks were not released. the advisor to the president of the transnational council has spoken to france 24. >> we need to carry out a census of the population, and that will take time. it will take a lot of time. everything is confused in this country. we have to draw up a new constitution. we have to rethink our institutions -- the electoral code, the penal system.

you can imagine that will not be completed within two weeks. we are going to hold consultations with all the major sectors in our country, and we need to take time because these consultations need to be carried out calmly and in a climate of trust, so we can't determine an exact time, saying it will take six months, two months, or two years, but we will not stay in power eternally. >> dozens of french schoolgirls have been sent home for refusing to remove their abaya. the new policy has been praised by the right and far right in france while muslim groups worn that banning the garment creates an elevated risk of discrimination. the heat is back on once again across france. on monday, the country registered its hottest day for

the month of september. temperatures are expected to remain high throughout this week with temperatures in paris surging past 30 degrees celsius. >> it may be september, but the high temperatures feel more like the dog days of summer. rents is again dealing with a late-season heat wave. the mercury rose to 33 degrees celsius on monday, and high temperatures are expected to continue, especially in the south. in marseilles, some residents decided the best way to keep cool was to head to the beach for a swim. >> we have a cold draft channeling hot air directly to france, so this week will have extremely high temperatures, a heat wave, with highs above 35 degrees in the center of france. >> officials are reminding people to drink plenty of water and take it easy during the hardest parts of the day.

these record temperatures are expected to last around 10 days. paris could see highs of 30 two degrees celsius while the southwest is bracing for highs of 37 degrees in the coming days. >> two former oil executives have gone on trial in sweden, accused of asking the sudanese government to make its military responsible to secure the site of exploration fields in the late 1990's. prosecutors say the deal lead to human rights abuses. >> a former oil executive arrives in court for his historic trial, one of two charged with war crimes committed by sudanese authorities. london oil is accused of requesting the sudan government to provide security at one of its oil fields between 1999 and 2003. the prosecution said this led to aerial bombings and burning -- burning of villages, charges the

two accused flatly deny. >> the allegations against us are false, completely false, and they are also very bad. sudan has suffered from internal conflicts for many years, but we never had anything to do with these conflicts. we always operated to the good and the highest ethical standards. >> the trial is the culmination of a 13-year investigation. activists stood outside the court for the start of the trial. >> we are here today to show our support for the people of south sudan who have suffered as a consequence of the oil companies

' -- what do you call it? drilling. for me, it is important that swedes take -- that a swede take a stand against a swedish company doing something that is not morally right. >> the trial is expected to be the biggest in swedish history and will run for 18 months. lawyers for the defense say the prosecution has presented no firm evidence and that the trial is a waste of time. >> time now for a check of the day's business news. good evening. you are starting out with some tech news, and a new smartphone has been launched by huawei. >> yes, they released their latest model last week just as the u.s. commerce secretary was visiting china. it caught the industry by surprise and reignited debate over cheap technology. while users were excited about its performance, attention quickly turned to what is powering the device.

semiconductor researchers and tech insiders investigated the phone and found it uses a processor made by china's smic, in spite of export curbs imposed by the u.s. >> china is within a couple of real notes of the most advanced manufacturers in the world, and even close to a note of where the u.s. or eu is. this is a major accomplishment on their part, and it really shows the engineers working with china what they can do. >> what does this all mean for the rest of the world? >> it means the rest of the world is going to have to run harder and faster, which is always the case with technology.

if you know something can be done, it is at lot easier to copy it and chase after. that has been the history of technology. it was once said that whatever can be done can be outdone and you just have to make sure you are the ones outdoing it. >> u.k.-based chipmaker arms as it is looking to raise between $1.5 billion and $5.2 billion in its initial public offering on the nasdaq. its parent company is putting 10% of shares up for sale, so the target range puts the company's valuation at up to $2 billion. it is a leading designer of chips and aims to be a major player in the artificial intelligence field. google, nvidia, and samsung have announced their intention to buy shares. let's look in on what is happening on the markets today. wall street closed in negative

territory this tuesday after european markets edged lower as well. this as the u.s. dollar strengthened against other currencies. crude oil prices, meanwhile, surged to their highest levels in 10 months after saudi arabia and russia extended their voluntary supply cuts to the end of the year. in the u.k., the birmingham city council has put out a special notice that blocks spending on all but essential services, essentially declaring itself bankrupt. it is the latest local authority in the u.k. to be in financial distress, finding itself unable to balance the budget in the face of high inflation and mounting cost. >> the u.k.'s second largest city is in big financial trouble. birmingham's city council has declared itself effectively bankrupt, become the late -- becoming the latest government body to announce it can no longer balance the books. the council will tighten the

spin controls already in place and put them in the hands of the section 151 officer. the move means only spending with the exception of protecting and vulnerable people must stop immediately. birmingham announced last month it was facing severe budget shortfalls, about 100 million euros for 2023, -- 2023-20 24, rising to almost double that in 2024-2025. several factors have contributed to these financial troubles. the city council has paid out more than one billion euros to settle claims it discriminated against female employees on pay grounds, and in june, they revealed huge additional sums related to the installation of a new i.t. system. the council has cited other issues, including an increase in adult social care demand, reductions in business rate income, and the impact of

inflation. those challenges apply to a number of other u.k. cities that are also troubled. the local government association expects the total funding gap to grow to more than 2 billion euros this year. >> thank you very much for that. time now for our daily fact checking segment, truth or fake. days ago, two moroccan tourists on jet skis died after straying into algerian borders. after an altercation with algerian postcards, beginning a diplomatic spat, big viral video has begun circulating, claiming that the tourists provoked to the authorities. tell us more. >> indeed, that is correct. diplomatic tensions are searching between algeria and morocco following the deaths of two moroccan tourists who died at the hands of algerian coast guard authorities after a run in in algerian waters.

morocco has launched a probe into the incident, and national anger is building. the countries have a long history of tensions, including having a closed border between them since 1990 four. amidst all of this, one particular video has gone viral, claiming to show the late moroccans taunting and provoking the algerian coast guard authorities supposedly moments before they died. this post is captioned, "the truth always comes out and is shared." it has over 232,000 views, and if we watch the caption embedded in the video, it does say that young moroccans attempt to taunt and play with the algerian coast guard. in the video itself, we can see sort of a cat and mouse between what looks like a larger authority boat and a few jet skis, and chase does ensue between the lot of them. this video, these same kinds

also made it to other social media. i saw this circulating across french and arabic channels online. this particular post had nearly 100 50 million views. this is quite a dangerous game amidst tensions already rising between the countries when i have been so long as well. >> those claims will not help in combing those tensions. how did you go about fact checking this video? >> the first step was to do a simple keyword search to see what other similar media was out there showing anything, if anything, along these same lines. by searching the words "jetski" and "morocco" in arabic, they led me to a video showing a similar scene in the background to the one we saw. this was posted by the account of a woman who does appear to live in morocco itself. it was posted on july 18, so that is over a month before this incident occurred at all. by watching the video frame by frame, i was able to find a lot

of similarities with our original viral video. it is not the same video -- that has to be said -- although it is very, very similar. it does seem that it is the same scene although shot from a different angle, so let's have a little look at some of the similarities that i found. if we take a look at this freeze-frame from our youtube video and compare it to our viral video, we can indeed see those same rock formations in the background, and it does seem very much that it has been shot in the same place. there is another scene that does look shockingly similar because it is pretty much exactly the same landscape. we have this scene from our viral video, and as you can see, we have the exact same coast guard authorities in the background, even the smaller one included and the larger one, and of course, our jetski zooming away as well. if we have a look at the caption that was attached to that youtube video, interestingly, it

does mention, chasing three moroccan her fingers with a jetski box moroccan security. the term means to burn, generally referring to north africans attempting to burn their papers and seek their fortunes on -- in europe on the clandestine. according to the video title in arabic as well, this claims it was filmed on a beach in morocco. i want to double check that claim to see if that was true and this was filmed where it said it was, so i conducted a reverse image search on freeze-frame's from this video itself, and that led me to an article in a spanish publication from a port city, a spanish enclave in morocco. they actually had published the same exact video that we had seen, slightly different angle, again, as well, and it is dated

from one day before our youtube video was posted, and they are alleging that the video shows smugglers on jet skis risking the lives of the migrants they are bringing alongside them. this was followed up by another article a few days later, saying that they moroccan authorities were involved, the smugglers had been arrested, and they also confirmed that the incident had taken place in morocco, so, yes, this completely confirms to us that that viral video we saw is completely out of context and is circulating out of context. it is showing moroccan authorities and smugglers, and certainly not the moroccan tourists conducting any taunting to algerian authorities. quickly have to be careful obviously online. thank you very much. more news coming up.

stay with us. ♪ >> 60 years ago, martin luther king jr. gave one of the most iconic speeches in history. "i have a dream" was a defining moment of the civil rights movement. in the next "inside the americas," we will take you to his hometown of atlanta, georgia, where activists are still keeping his dream alive today. we will meet his family and friends. >> during the time he was speaking, it was very unsafe to say some of the things he said. >> "inside the americas" on france 24 and france24.com.

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