Good evening. If you are just joining us. We are going to get the latest first on the unrest sweeping iraq, where jihadist militants courted by iraq have over the past week or so overrun a large area of the country. The militants captured another strategic city, the city of tal afar and sent thousands fleeing to safety. The rapid territorial games has plunged the country in its most serious crisis since u. S. Troops withdrew in 2011. That has placed the United States and her alleys in a complicated and unexpected situation. John kerry said earlier on today that while joint military operations with iran are out of the question, there is scope for other cooperation between washington and iran with the goal of tackling the extremist threat in iraq. Philip, tell us what this cooperation might involve . Well, it is working together, whatever that might mean exactly. It is not exactly an alliance that will be formed between the United States and iran. More likely i would describe it as compare notes for now to see who might be doing what militarily in iraq. It looks relatively likely that the United States, if it was to intervene militarily would be providing air strikes with no boots on the ground. The boots on the ground may welcome from the iranian side. Both the United States and iran have said they will help iraq and are already helping iraq militarily. There are plenty of contracts in police between the United States and iraq at this precise moment. So it is about coordination between the two. How exactly would these kind of discussions happen . That is a big question. These are two countries who have very, very limited diplomatic relationship. That is where vienna comes in. Right now there are discussions on the Iranian Nuclear program, and the u. S. Deputy secretary of state William Burns is there, meaning he would be part of those discussions between the unless, iran and vienna today. What is the United States actually doing right now already with regard to what is happening there in iraq . Right now militarily, relatively little, with the exception of marines and u. S. Army personnel having arrived at the u. S. Embassy in baghdad to protect it just in case. The United States, what it is doing right now is preparing for the worstcase scenario, if you will. That is first of all that militants might make it all the way to baghdad, and to the embassy there. That is why the Aircraft Carrier is now in the persian gulf, just in case it does come to air strikes in the end with secretary of state john kerry saying that drones may well be part of that equation. We are expecting the options to become a little clearer this week here in washington. Philip in washington. Thank you very much indeed for that update. In other world news, Russias Energy minister announced today that gas supplies to ukraine have been switched off. That is after negotiators in kiev and moscow failed to come together on unpaid bills. It says that any future delivers of gas must be paid for in advance. For now this doesnt affect the transit of gas to european con stumers, but analysts say that could change. Here is more. Kiev confirmed on monday hat Russian Energy gas giant has stopped shipments to ukraine. Chronically late on payments, kiev currently owes 49. 4 billion to russia. Today starting at 10 00 moscow time, ukraine master gas is receiving gas that has been prepaid. As of this moment, no payments have been made either under old debts or under the current bills for june. There are zeros in all the columns. The cutoff comes after a long night of fruitless negotiation brokered by europe. Kiev said it was ready to pay half of its debts demanded by moscow. But only if russia agreed to cut its prices to 326 per 1,000 cubic meters, but russia said 385 was its final offer. They accuseded russia of blackmail. Ukraines Prime Minister said the issue wasnt about gas, but about russias desire to disrupt the country, a sentiment shared by the head of ukraines national gas company. It is clear that such a price is absolutely unacceptable for ukraine, and ukraine will not pay it. The ukraine says it has enough gas stockpiled to last under december. The e. U. Has warned that the current gas war may create shortsages this winter. Sabaab sabaab rebels from somalia have claimed responsibility for an attack on town mpeketoni which left at least 50 people dead. Hey singled out people who they killed on the spot. Burnedout buildings, guards began to surround bodies across the street. Many of them had been out watching the world cup when heavily armed attackers drove into their cowen. After storming a police station, the men began spring training bullets around them. It wasnt until dawn that the Security Forces gavele allclear. The interior minister said the minute tenants had been chased into the forests that border somalia. After a Fierce Exchange of fire, the bandits fled into the forest. Secure has been beefed up across the country. I want to assure kenyans that the perpetrators of this heinous act will be pursued to the full forth of the law. A witness said the gunmen ordered them to watch as they killed a man saying this is what kenyans were doing in somalia. Local authorities said the man ere flying the sabaab flag and shouting in somalian. They have carried out a string of attacks in kenya, including the massacre at nairobis West Gate Mall last september in which some 67 people were killed. The israeli Prime Minister has today spoken by telephone to the palestinian president , calling on him to help track down three kidnapped israeli teenagers. A massive operation is under way to find them. 100 palestinians have been rounded up. There has been outcry over israels heavyhanded tactics, resulting in a 19yearold palestinian shot done. Here is more. Forcing their way in, Israeli Soldiers raided this home in hebron sunday, blowing up the front door when the occupants refused to let them in. One was injured. Israel is expanding the search for the missing students, rounding up dozens of palestinians over the weekend. Terrorists carried out the kidnapping of three israeli teenagers. We know that for a fact. We will do whatever insides to be done to protect our people. Three students aged 16 to 19 nt missing after hatch hiking. This was after the establishment of a new Palestinian Government backed by hamhuis. That angered israel, with netanyahu calling off peace talks in response. Hamhuis is considered a terrorist group by israel and the u. S. It says it had nothing to do with the disappearance. We condemn all the things undertaken by the Israeli Government and arm as a collective punishment against our people. As israels manhunt intensified, one Young Palestinian was shot dead during a raid at a camp according to witnesses. Back here in france, for a week now industrial action has left Rail Services severely disrupted, making this one of the longest public transport strikes in many years. It says the disruption has cost the rail operator tens of millions of euros. But for students who face crucial exams, the timing of the strike couldnt be worse. Its a stressful day for School Leaders in france. The beginning of exam period. But it is not just the tests making them anxious, rather also the journey to take them. She lives in a small village miles away from her school. With the train operator on strike, she is not sure how she is going to get there. It is a bit selfish of them not to think about the consequences, especially for people who live far away like me. Exam centers have had to make allowances. Normally students would be penalized for lateness. But there is some lean yeanls. The exam board has instructed us to tolerate up to an hours lateness, meaning those stunals will have time to prepare on arrival, and their exam will consequently be pushed back. It defends its decision to keep striking, saying government reform of the rate network will lead to job losses. They say they are doing their best to help students. We are running special trains for students with exams. We are doing everything to make sure they get there. We have also given people advanced warning so that they can make plans. These agents are handing out 150,000 priority passes for those who can prove they have exams to get to. But with hordes of frustrated commuters, they may be hard to spot. We are going to stay with that theme for a moment. Most of us at one stage or another found ourselves in an intense of school and university exam. The franchise baccalaureate is renowned for being a particularly grueling program. Here is a taste of it. 7 00 a. M. And students are already starting to gather, trying to cram in lastminute preparations or a cheeky lastminute cigarette to calm the nerves. And for good reason. The first exams to kick off baccalaureate test season is the dreaded philosophy exam. Nervous students keep their fingers crossed for the questions they hope to come up. What are you looking for . Desire, happiness, pleasure. It is a topic i like very much. I really like the desire. I know writings on the subject. The other topics, not so much. Political and institutional themes are much less popular. The philosophy exam is a particularly grueling test. For four long hours, every student in their last year of high school is asked to answer one philosophical question. Up for consideration this year, should you do Everything Possible to achieve happiness . These are classic questions. Those who have worked hard will easily do well. To pass or not to pass, these students will become enlightened after their success this july. Lets get a reminder of top stories here on france 24. No deal is reached between moscow and kiev over unpaid bills. Russians Energy Minister says gas supplies to the ukraine have been cut off. Making gains, jihadist militants captured the city of tal afar. And claiming responsibility, rebels supersabaab sabaab say they were behind the attack on a kenyan coastal town which left at least 50 people dead. Time now for a check of the Top Business News stories. Marcus joins me. We are going to start with the race by the french Engineering Firm heating up. Mitsubishi heavy industries of japan have ironed out details of their joint bid for the company. It puts them on a collision course with the american giant General Electric, who has offered 12 been 3 billion euros. The two pledged to keep jobs in france, and they are offering a cash component worth seven billion euros. Like brown looks at what the german and Japanese Companies are putting on the table. The price for one of the jewels of frances industrial sector alstom look to its future. The german giant focusing on the energy branch. It is offering 3. 9 billion euros to buy the gas turbine operations. Japan is offering to inject 3. 1 billion euros in cash. In all the Japanese Partnership is putting seven billion euros in cash on table. That is less than the offer of 12. 5 billion euros in cash proposed by General Electric for all of alstoms energy brang. Promising to create 100 jobs, similar to g. E. The french government wants to have its say. It is a Vital Company employing 18,000 people in france. The french president is meeting with the c. E. O. s of the companies on tuesday the fresh state has indicated its preference for the creation of a European Energy giant. T the germanjapanese bid is seen as cherry picking. Moving on now. There is enough natural gas in europe to cover the European Unions needs, at least for now. That is the message from the European Commission following russias decision to reduce natural gas supplies to ukraine. Ussian Energy Company gas krom said ukraine needed to begin paying. They were negotiating until early monday morning to try to find a solution. The European Union gets about 15 of its natural gas via appliance from russia. They downplay all the gas shortages in the short term. Lets listen in. There is no reason to be afraid in the next few weeks. We have sufficient amounts of gas for europe. The coming weeks should be used to fill our storage tanks because during cold winter days, there wont be sufficient gas production. Therefore we need full tanks in europe as well as in ukraine. Lets take a look at the stock markets. Investors there are eyeing the situation in iraq as well as the gas standoff between russia and ukraine. Those two hot spots seem to be putting a damper on european trading this monday. The market in paris was down. 75 . A look at american shares, we have seen American Industries going in and out of positive territory this section. This hour we are seeing the nasdaq in positive territory, where the s p 500 and the dow jones are below that flat line. American investors are digesting events in iraq as well, and the latest mergers and acquisitions actions out of the United States. Medtronic has agreed to by its irish rival. There will be a string of health deals. It will place its headquarters in ireland in a bid to avoid American Corporation taxes. Looking at other news, argentina has suffered a legal defeat in the u. S. Supreme court. The court has ruled that argentina must pay pack at least 1. 3 billion to some bondholders. It goes back to 2001 when argentina defaulted on its debt. Most agreed to a huge writedown to help them out, but some refused, and the u. S. Supreme court has now ruled that they should be paid back in full by argentina. We are going to finish up with this. Pizza Delivery Companies dominos is urging online account holders in france and belgium to change pass words. It admitted that hackers had stolen the details of around 600,000 customers on line. Details like customer names and pass words had been stolen, but not any payment details. An unknown twitter user tweeted to publish tening the Details Online unless dominos paid 30,000 euros. Dominos said it would not pay. With that, i am going to hand it over to you, tom. Thank you very much. I am going to stick to making my 0 o own pizzas for now. Lets take a look at what is happening online. Web news is next here on france 24. Hello there. Welcome to the web news with our pick of the stories making your main headlines. Coming up on todays show, campaigning to end Sexual Violence in conflict. The world cup from the weapon from the web. D futbol Actress Angelina Jolie opened the global summit to end Sexual Violence in conflict last week. She cohosted with the u. K. s foreign secretary. The goal is to shatter impunity for those who rain during war. Campaigning is well under way. Just like the fashion designers, singer m. I. A. , and other usesers posted under the key words denouncing Sexual Violence. British ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged employees to take to twitter to join the campaign. As we can see from these shots posted online, staff from various ray emeries across the glob have done that. Other workers have added their voice to the movement. Angelina jolies campaign has received a great deal of online support. Some say it is just the first step to end Sexual Violence. They say now the online campaigning has begun, that politicians and World Leaders have to confront this problem head on to protect women in war time events. World cup fever is sweeping the globe, and the net. Social networks have been buzzing with futbol chat, with fans commenting on individual performances, praising their teams and sharing their thoughts on the tournament as a whole. One of the most popular topics has been the netherlands 51 victory over spain on friday. And in particularly, dutch rward Robin Van Persie and his stunning display. Scores of fans have copied his header. E has inspired a brand new internet them, a practice called van persieying. The referee bore the brunt with a video controversial penalty awarded to brad in the world cup ep other on thursday. Here for example he is being kidded in the brazilian strip. The goals against cameroon caused many sarcastic comments. Online comedians are aiming most of their jokes at those actually taking part in the world cup, some have turned their attention towards a specific demographic. Women. Some have been posting under. He girls female fans pointed out that futbol isnt exclusively for men. Posing with your leg raised and pointing like a rifle. By a ew craze was started chinese artist. He posted the leg guess pose to his instagram last week. It has become a topic of lively debate on line. Some see it as a si tir cal comment. Others say it is quite simply art. The Google Cultural Institute has launched a new platform called streit art project, which means you can view works by a french artist and others in an online gallery. There are some 5,000 images and High Definition videos available in the database provided by organizations from ll over the world. In this collection called doughnut doubles, this brand s created a serious of human doughnut doppelgangers. This is truly ridiculous and available to view. In this video we see japanese futbol freestyle champion showing off his skills and battling with locals dressed as a samurai. This was filled in brazil for the 2014 world cup. You can watch it in its entirety on youtube. Gg99nnwccac 06 16 14 06 16 14 [captioning made possible by democracy now ] from pacifica, this is democracy now what we are going to have to do is combine selective actions by our military to make sure we are going after terrorists who could harm our personnel overseas or eventually it the homeland. As sunni militants continue their offensive in iraq, president obama threatens to take military action but ruled out sending in ground troops. Well be was carryout drone strikes in iraq