Is trade representative said the President Donald Trump had directed the we investigate the effects of this legislation and determine whether it is discriminatory or unreasonable and burdens or restricts United States commerce the u. S. Investigation could lead to washington imposing retaliate tree tariffs on france thats something the french government would want to avoid but theres little doubt that there is a growing sense of frustration amongst many french politicians with trumps approach to international disagreements can we should mr trump threatens everyone in all areas hes become an article amity when you were head of such a power you have a responsibility you dont amuse yourself by threatening states that are as responsible and democratic is france and that seek to the find the sort of regulation needed to address todays new economies so that there can be justice that the European Commission has been pushing for tech firms to abide by. E. U. Competition law rules and pay more tax in Europe Frances new law is a major step in that direction it also fulfills 1. 00 of the french president s Campaign Promises emanuel mycroft moving to the us but taxing wealthy Tech Companies was one of the yellow vests main demands so French Public opinion is likely to be on macro side. Aljazeera paris. Ms an economist and chief executive of a Tax Justice Network a specializing in analysis of tax avoidance and tax evasion he joins us live via skype from oxford thanks for being with us why do you think france decided to go it alone on this in the end. Well the front has been putting pressure on the European Commission to make a move on this for a while now because of course the french government under its own domestic pressure this is a sign that they really dont feel theyre going to be European Movement on this and so theyre having to move unilaterally but its also to put pressure on the o. E. C. D. The organization which is now leading a global process for reform of the International Tax rules to say if you dont sort this out by the end of 2020 then this is what were going to be doing to make sure that least we get some revenues from these companies and so how far off are we do you think from from any kind of global effort on this or the eventually every city in the e. U. After all for their efforts so look since 2015 really theres been a process looking at Digital Companies and thinking about how to tax them more effectively but what happened in that process is a realisation that although some of these companies are more extreme in the type of tax behavior they have theyre really on the same spectrum as other Industries Everyone is using intangible assets as a way of shifting their profits away from the countries where they really earning those profits in order to reduce their tax bill so what the o. E. C. D. Is now looking at a set of measures that would align the tax base associated with Multinational Companies with the location of their real Economic Activity where they carry out their sales but also where they have their employment so both the consumption and the production and now a global deal on that basis would probably be the biggest change in the tax will since the 1930 s. And would really strike a strike at the heart of the kind of tax haven activity that we see from ireland and the netherlands and luxembourg and a lot of european but also other states the Cayman Islands bermuda and so on and as we showed our Corporate Tax haven index if the o. E. C. D. Doesnt deliver then from us and the u. K. And a whole set of other countries are showing that. They will take unilateral action and will see a splintering of the International Tax system and know that the us a clearly unhappy about this and theyve decided to investigate under the kind of broad law which is being used in the in the trade dispute with china can we expect retaliatory tariffs for france on this but id be surprised partly because you know this is a limit to how many trade wars you can have going at once even if you dont want drawn but also because you know the u. S. Is very heavily invested in a multilateral agreement coming out of the o. E. C. D. And the french move here is designed to put greater pressure for a multilateral agreement at the o. E. C. D. Its almost as if this move by the by the u. S. You know the left hand doesnt know what the right hands doing were just going to hit our without really thinking about where theyre going to get the supposed to be good always tires alex common thank you very much indeed for your thoughts and such thank you thank you now lets return to the investigation into events in the philippines that were joined now by sam her trees a fellow for the the as you for policy studies focusing on drug strategy he joins us live from washington d. C. Thanks for being with us so that the philippines me strongly criticized or have ever have strongly criticized and opposed the investigation how do you think itll work if they cant if they dont join in with it. Its unclear exactly how this opposition this resistance to the u. N. Will will manifest itself once the investigators arrive on the ground will they be turned away at the airport or will the government simply not speak to them and not assist them provide them with data but the government is clearly furious that the u. N. Is investigating their human rights situation but if this is long overdue the police have admitted to killing 60 some 6600 people in the war on drugs but the actual number of open investigations of people that will probably never get investigated you hear numbers from 25230000 inside the philippines of people who have been extra to extrajudicial be killed in the war on drugs that gap in between those figures is quite big isnt it how difficult is it to find out whats actually going on. Its very big its you see this out in a lot of countries actually with that wage the war on drugs mexico for instance has a hard time discerning which killings were specifically drug related versus gang related versus other things but in the philippines however the police have a lot of open investigations and investigations that are probably never get completed and they dont have much reason to complete them because the findings are very disturbing they will simply say theyre a poor country we cant afford to do all these things and people dont really push them on it and so someone needs to account for all these people whove been killed and how they died and just as government is clearly under scrutiny with this decision but how much support does he still have within the country for the for the policy. Its terrifying but its a very high rate of support domestically within the philippines what president has done is hes waging a modern day program much as the czarist russia did against jews in the 19th century hes taken a cornucopia of social problems social ills many of which are structural in nature and basically scapegoated this on to one group in this case drug users saying if you just get rid of this one group of people just just unleash hell on them things we better will make the philippines great again so to speak president has bragged openly about his desire to kill millions of people he famously said. Hitler killed 3000000 jews the number is actually 6000000 but i would be happy to kill 3000000 drug users in the philippines his foreign foreign secretary today denounced the u. N. Investigation and he has good reason to this is a man who when he was the special representative to the u. N. To the u. N. From present day in 2016 tweeted he says i believe that the drug menace is so big it needs a final solution his words all caps like the nazis adopted that i believe no rehab time and again he praises hitler he said he had the right ideas but he killed the wrong people hes sung his praises of fascism quote to quote him directly in 26 saying he tweeted give fascism a chance read up on it it is the best written political philosophy very. Very elegant democracy has failed and then someone said what about hitler he said while hitler was not all wrong you better learn to accept that this is the man who is now the foreign secretary of the philippines. Thank you very much indeed for your thoughts thank you. Thank you. The Ruling Military Council in sudan says it has formed an attempted military coup and arrested 16 officers including the alleged ringleader it comes as the military council are in discussions with opposition politicians about signing up to a deal that will eventually return the country to civilian rule the military ousted former leader bashir exactly 3 months ago 5 but he survived gunshots and tear gas to disperse a demonstration by a shia group in nigerias capital hundreds of members of the Islamic Movement of nigeria gathered outside parliament in a budget to demand the release of their leader who has been in the detention since 2015 at least 2 people were killed on tuesday and 40 others arrested as police and protesters clashed workers still being done to identify those killed in argentinas socalled dirty war after the conflict ended in the 1980 s. A Forensics Team was set up to search for hundreds of missing people and histories of all reports from what is aris their mission has been taken around the world. Truth and justice have been for decades the Main Objective of the argin time entropy elegy Forensic Team thats why they continue to work to shed light on what happened to the thousands of people who were disappeared doing argentinas duty war over 40 years ago my mom was taking samples from the relatives and we would create forwards with information from the diary or and of the relative who disappeared there we compare it with the bird samples we had the team was created in 1906 when argentina embarked on a process of exhumations of the many unmarked graves found in the country believing that many of them could well contain and identified victims of forced disappearances the argentine mantra pollard ji Forensic Team believe that with their work they can help the relatives find justice but also some type of closure theyre currently working to identify the remains in this boxes there are 600 remains that allegedly belong to people who went missing during the dictatorship in argentina in the 1970 s. And eightys their expertise has taken them to 55 countries including south africa syria iraq colombia and mexico where the attempt to help relatives find the remains of their loved ones they use genetic profiles drones infrared cameras to locate mass graves in the most remote locations but if they would either says thats not the most important part of their investigations the main church will introduce was to incorporate the family members in the war usually the medical forensic system just takes out information for their families. And their provider overboard book well so we do it in norway we have the farmer it is the center of our work to reduce our personal interaction may shows they are in for about what we are doing in many cases families dont trust industry they come to us because they dont trust industry one and all optional thats why they played a crucial role. In the investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students in mexico who were killed by a drug cartel with the complicity of the countrys Security Forces the relatives wanted the Team Involved in the search and not mexican authorities in argentina there are many who are still trying to locate their relatives the necklace was father disappeared in 1975 he was a left wing activist and they have a gun they were under but i have always been trying to find him and i know their remains and maybe to him we have very Little Information of what happened but i want to find whats left. And thats why this Anthropology Team is crucial for victims of conflict and violence because they locate the victims and help hold accountable those involved in serious human rights abuses around the world. Under siege when a site is. Brazils congress has taken a major step towards reform in the countrys Pension System a priority for president bush for narrow in the 1st of 2 votes the bill passed the lower house with a clear majority supporter said the measures are needed to stave off another recession there are many who are still oppose it as Priyanka Gupta reports the no vote that brazils president says will lead to prosperity but for some jerry both scenarios pension reform plan falls far short of static means that i am very ashamed why is happening here tonight on wednesday the lower house approved balts narrows plan with huge numbers in the show vote yesterday here for homeowners these reforms are aimed at reducing inequality im sure that is the goal of all parliamentarians here those who voted for and also against the bill was my god but these protesters think the poor will have to work longer why politicians maintain their privileges at last when our daughter i mean is that. The working class is living in misery heads of families are living on the street because a car pay the rent its tough so before they measure the pockets of the poor they have to reach inside their own pockets because there are certain many people that are in the congress retiring at 4050 years and we have to die to retire brazil doesnt currently have a minimum age for retirement and its constitution guarantees Retirement Benefits for all both sonera wants to change that his measures include a minimum retirement age of 65. 00 for men and 62. 00 for women also an increase in Workers Pension contributions and cuts to some benefits. Some say the reforms are important in a country would spend 45 percent of its budget on pensions a rapidly aging population means there could be both burden for Young Workers but. The government things it would save around 266000000000. 00 over 10 years money that south americas biggest economy can use to put itself back from the brink of recession middlebury all the amazing its pretty scary 1st the government doesnt have any more money and this is why the reform is so urgent this reform doesnt happen then we have to cut into more important areas secondly because of social justice i am in favor of pension reform. The lower house is expected to vote for the 2nd time in the coming days before the bill goes to the senate my god but protest as one day will bring brazil to a standstill if the bill is passed and the demands are ignored. Al jazeera. Still to come this news hour more than 20 countries signed a letter to the un condemning what said to be chinas mass detention of we get prisoner abuse. And a stream runner is looking to go up in the world peter has the details and support. Hello there its been a very unsettled picture of course across much of Southern Europe this is an improvement on the weather picture as we head through the next couple of days to get a chat on the satellite and actually quite a bit of activity across Central Regions of western europe but what about the rain just yet but the good news is a sigh is that much of the south in the southeast those strong thunderstorms that really are clearing through certainly by friday the rain pushing using say across much of the black sea quite a bit radical central areas and there is a band of rain stretching really from germany down tools and old and if they more widespread rain here on saturday carrying out towards the west and i say london with a high of 23 and pretty good too across into turkey wants us to some upholstery so 24 in ankara and 28 celsius with my sunny skies in athens then we had down to Northern Africa its been very warm into tunis for really the last few days and again the temperature here is pretty high compared to the average but no so a lot of cloud to talk about and sunny not really anything in the way of range 35 is the temperature on friday a very warm day in cairo 40 want to degrees celsius then as we head off into south we see that damage it comes back down again but as you can see tunis up to about 38. 00 so thats about 6 degrees above the normal but sunny skies but it will be a hot day. Conflict passion. To any successful such. As most loved it is no different behind the cameras this week tensions run high as the producers are forced to balance creative and social issues with the demands of commercialisation. How a subset of all its episodes fall of soapbox mexico on aljazeera. As iraq rebuilds itself following years of conflict women struggle to play a bigger role politically and Domestic Violence also remains a problem. Some of the brave women battling abuse talk to aljazeera about the struggles they face and their pursuit of justice. And one of the top stories here on jazeera police in gibraltar have arrested the captain and chief officer from a detained Iranian Oil Tanker theyre accused of breaching e. U. Sanctions on syria the arrests come amid claims iran tried to impede a British Oil Tanker late on wednesday leading to an intervention by british warships. Here in Human Rights Council has been great to begin a preliminary investigation into what it calls a Staggering Number of murders in the philippine governments war on drugs. And frances passed a controversial tax bill targeting tech giants like google apple and facebook has prompted u. S. President donald trump to order an investigation into the planned levy a move that could result in retaliatory tariffs. A car bombing in the libyan city of benghazi has killed at least 4 people and wounded dozens of blast targeted the funeral of a former military commander who was aligned with a former libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi the head of libyas special forces which is under the control of warlord holy for have to was attending the funeral but was unharmed. At least 11 people have been killed in a car bombing in northwestern syria 35 others including children were injured the explosion happened in the rebel held city of a free in which is near syrias border with turkey observers say the blast was near a checkpoint where vehicles were lined up to enter the city. Its been a year since the Syrian Government and rebels in the province of dera reached a cease fire agreement observers say violations started immediately after the deal and the government has since done little to fulfill its reconciliation promises so that holder has more. It was a symbolic moment in syrias war when the opposition surrendered in july 2018 the Southern Provinces where the prodemocracy Movement Began back in 2011 we taking it had special significance for the government even though the opposition remained in control of some towns as part of russian brokered reconciliation deals that avoided further fighting a year later state control seems weak and fragile well the situation has really regressed over the previous 3 months where weve had a spate of different assassination attacks by unknown gunmen attacks on syrian army which is something which we havent really seen in areas which have been agreed upon reconciliation the state hasnt been the only target for rebel commanders particularly those who joined units of the army as well as civilians who joined state institutions have been killed its not clear who is behind the violence the opposition believes the government has much to gain. There have been many assassinations of civilians and former leaders of rebel groups who agreed to reconcile theyve been killed so the aim is to create a state of fear eventually change the socalled reconciliation deals. Some say the rest and there are is linked to the battle for influence between government allies russia and iran they have been recruiting locals and former rebel fighters into the different government affiliated military and security branches they control. Rising tensions between the reigns on the russians across syria on the front levels 1st militias backing each other and to shuffle senior positions the latest of which was basically changing all of the heads of the security agencies in syria in all different sides on the ukrainian within the iranian collison are reporting rising tensions with russia and its allies. To return. The state to the Southern Province has not improved peoples lives syrians have shown their anger they have protested in towns where Security Forces arent present speaking out against the lack of jobs and essential services as well as the arrests and detentions International Rights groups have accused president bashar assad of reestablishing repressive rule if there are people continue to strive for freedom in the birthplace of their revolution senator beirut ambassadors from 22 nations have condemned chinas treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in an unprecedented move they shoot a letter calling for an end to the detention of weaker muslims u. N. Experts say at least 1000000 are being held in camps as what iran has more. This fun stuff building is called a Vocational Center in china critics say its more like a prison one of many detention camps run by the government. The target they say are ethnic and religious minorities mostly wigger muslims in the Northwest Region of chink young activists say at least 1000000 people are detained in similar camps where extreme surveillance force assimilation and abuse are common the camps have long sparked International Criticism in an unprecedented move 22 nations signed a letter to the un Human Rights Council condemning disturbing reports australia canada and japan are among the signatories along with britain france and germany they call on china to stop the mass detentions respect religious freedom and grant independent experts meaningful access to the region. Countries that did not sign the document raised just as much interest out of the 22 nations assigned as none of them were muslim majority nations which is really quite telling because china is using their pocketbook to gain influence in many of these nations as well. China defends the practice the government says its not about eliminating peoples identity but about teaching employment skills and pushing out what it calls extremism year far surely by ceasing up locational education and Training Centers in accordance with the law we aim to education save those who were influenced by religious extremism and committed to mine it legal to fix it. The letter is not tied to a vote or a resolution but it will be published as an official document of the uns Human Rights Council activists say its a good sign but chinas government has long stood defiant against foreign criticism. Of the young aljazeera. When he is monitoring reaction in beijing Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to the letter signed by 22 countries regarding the situation in shin jang province and predictably i guess it was dismissive of this letter saying that this was an attempt to politicize the issue of human rights and that this was a domestic affair for the government in china to deal with and it wasnt up to anyone outside china to comment on the situation there it also pointed out that there has been no terrorist attack in the region for the past 2 years evidence it says that this program is working remembering that the government maintains that these are not Detention Centers in province they are vocational schools with one of the main aims being to prevent terrorism and extremism and also responded to a request in the latest sign by these countries that inspectors experts be allowed meaningful access to the area the government saying that it has already organized trips involving media and socalled experts diplomats to the region and what they reported when they returned it was quite different to what has been portrayed in the western media the important word to emphasize here is meaningful in those trips in the past those trips have been very much controlled by the government controlled by the Security Forces and the government really only showing the people on those trips to shin jang exactly what it wants the outside world to see. And he 7 people are now confirmed dead after a Violent Storm hit a tourist region in northern greece it struck beaches on the how could he keep insular just southeast of the city of the saloniki 6 of the dead were tourists was the 7th was a fisherman whose body was found at sea after he was reported missing 23 people are being treated in hospital a state of emergency has been declared. One person has died in russia and 13 more are being treated for injuries after a major fire at a power station just outside moscow a faulty gas pipeline is believed to have caused the fire at Thermal Power Station 27 in the northeastern suburb of me my to she 150 firefighters were needed to put it out. European Council President donald to success russias decision to ban flights to georgia is unjustified and disproportional to his kids attending a conference on the e. U. And Eastern Europe in the georgian city of back to me relations between tbilisi in moscow have deteriorated further since the visit of a russian politician to the Georgian Parliament 3 weeks ago protesters angry about the continued presence of Russian Troops in georgia to scs is that the e. U. Is ready to support georgia to withstand current challenges. This President Donald Trump has been hosting a social media summit at the White House Trump is facing criticism for the event which includes a lineup of online personalities from across the right wing media Google Facebook and twitter officials are excluded from the gathering trump has accused them of bias against him and other conservatives and fisher has more now from washington d. C. So whats interesting about the site hosted by the president is probably who is there and whos not. Well done from believes the right wing voices are being discriminated against online he believes that platforms such as twitter and facebook and youtube dont show many of the people who support to donald trump and carry messages supporting his policy they decided to invite a lot of these people to the white house in the last couple of hours those not invited included those media giants those platforms that is perhaps because they could point to algorithms which suggest that the right way are not necessarily disadvantaged on them the economist which is largely a right wing magazine described those who are invited to attend as aggrieved. Pessimists reactionaries zealous ideological and cover with the truth donald trump actually complimented those who were in the room saying that he was grateful for and this is a direct quote from the president of the United States the crap you think up donald trump pointed to the fact that he has only just over 6060000000 followers on twitter and barack obama has about 120000000 followers he said as far as he is concerned that is a real time example of how he is being held but he says hes lost a lot of followers and when he asked twitter about it he was told that they were simply removing bought donald trump then went on an extended rant on how he has never paid for any followers but hes worried that his message wont get out in time for the 2020 election if there is one area where donald trump has done incredibly well its on the online sphere and whether or not you want to argue that the russians have helped with that certainly hes been very good with Marketing Online and using new social media platforms to get his message out its interesting though this comes this week because just a few days ago a court decided that donald trump couldnt ban people from his official twitter account essentially saying you can give out youve got to be able to take it as well. As check in it to an official thank you very much indeed. Governments and media organizations are proposing the creation of a global fund to support journalists in danger zones the proposal was made at the global Media Freedom conference which is being held in london canada and the u. K. Of cohosting the event which aims to shine a light on Media Freedom everywhere they hope other countries will contribute to the fund its focus will be to improve the safety of journalists and media workers and their ability to work without interference reducing attacks on journalists and easing state restrictions on freedom of media and expression will be a priority 99. 00 media workers were killed in 2018. And a leading rights group is warning of a severe deterioration of Media Freedom in russia Human Rights Watch says the arrest of journalists on fabricated charges is now a common strategy to silence critics of the government genista bloomin gotti f. Is among the latest to be detained in the Southern Region of dagestan steadfast in reports from the regional capital but had cholera. Colleagues of. Protest in front of the Supreme Court in dagestan permits to hold mass rallies against his arrest have been denied a cheerful was arrested on june 14th and charged with financing terrorism shortly after investigative journalist even got enough was detained in moscow on drug charges. Well over quickly released and several High Ranking Police officers were dismissed for involvement in planting trucks on the journalist their response to guy g. If case has been different. We call on our colleagues from all over russia and from around the world to support him to the us there is no difference between the 2 cases fabrication and false accusations can take place regardless of the charges. This has become a familiar image a silent protest against a new arrest of a journalist in moscow a public outcry led to the release of investigative journalist even just a few weeks ago but this time around these protesters here in. After so far not been able to free up the moment. As a senior journalist at one of the last independent Media Outlets in dagestan jenin afic weekly according to his chief editor the arrest is part of efforts by authorities to close down the newspaper he says got enough release doesnt mean freedom of the press has improved