French FM tries to allay fiscal fears

Vashala Sripathma (0:01)

Coming up, warning lights are flashing over France's economy. How worried should Europe be? A cyber gang is trying to cash in on personal data stolen from the fashion website ASOS and a BBC report on the workers behind the football shirts worn by millions around the world. That's all to come on World Business Report, which is after the latest world news.

David Harper (0:30)

BBC News with David Harper. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said a deadly Russian strike on two buses in the frontline city of Kramatorsk will not go unanswered. Mr Zelensky urged world leaders to react harshly to what he called a wave of Russian escalation. Ukraine has continued to strike Russian targets, including a large oil refinery in Omsk. The US vice president JD Vance says Microsoft is among companies suspended from a key visa programme that allows skilled foreign workers to get permanent residence status in America. Microsoft said the vast majority of its US employees were Americans and that those on H1B visas were paid the same as any others doing comparable work.

US prosecutors have filed additional charges against the former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores. The new accusations which they deny relates to the alleged torture of people detained by his regime, including American citizens.

Violent protests have taken place in South Africa over illegal immigration. Cars were set on fire in Soweto and Durban, where shops owned by foreigners were also reportedly targeted. Similar demonstrations were reported in Cape Town and the Eastern Cape. Norway's main telecoms operator, Telenor, says mobile phone services are running again after the network experienced serious problems. A fault caused some calls to fail including to emergency numbers. It also saw the suspension of all rail services across Norway. The French education minister says 3,000 substitute teachers will be deployed to help in high schools as the authorities try to quell continuing nationwide student protests. Edouard Geffre told French television that the teachers would be sent to schools from Friday.

The great mosque of Aleppo in Syria has been reopened to worshippers after many years of restoration due to damage sustained during the civil war. The ancient mosque was near the centre of fighting between pro-Assad and rebel forces for control of Aleppo. And that's the latest BBC News.

Vashala Sripathma (2:30)

Warning lights are flashing over France's economy. How worried should Europe be?

Roland Lescure (2:36)

Public deficit is alarming and that's why we need to act now in order to avoid having to act forced later.

Vashala Sripathma (2:44)

It's World Business Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Vashala Sripathma. On the way is France becoming Europe's next economic headache. Investors, businesses and politicians are all starting to ask the same question. And the hacking group behind a cyber attack on one of the world's busiest online marketplaces.

So, France is under growing pressure over its finances. The government is spending much more than it brings in through taxes. And it's becoming more expensive for the country to borrow money. France's finance minister, Roland Lescure, admits the situation is alarming, but insists the country is not having trouble finding lenders. He's been speaking to the BBC's economic center, Deaf, Mised, or Islam.

Roland Lescure (3:36)

The message I have for the young children of France and everywhere else is this is a tough world. So, I understand you have questions on how we're going to manage it. Climate, social network, obviously wars at the frontier and the borders of Europe. I understand that young kids can have anxiety today. And our duty as leaders is to listen to them.

SPEAKER_4 (4:01)

You're in charge of writing the checks and finding the money. Is there the money for what these children want?

Roland Lescure (4:07)

The second budget in the budget I've just tabled in is education defense. Obviously, we are pumping up defense spending. And the second one is education school and higher university. So we're investing.

We had a tough year. We had to act on heat waves. We obviously had to act on the oil price that had an impact on the pump for the French citizens. So the reason why we're having a tough budget is to make sure that when we need to act, we can act. We don't need to be passive in front of things that are imposed to us. We want to be active.

SPEAKER_4 (4:41)

But clearly, it seems to be at root an argument about resources. You're the Finance Minister.

Is your message that it's tough out there and there may not be the money for everything that the schoolchildren are protesting for?

Roland Lescure (4:56)

Yeah. I mean, when you look at the finance, the expenditures we've had, public expenditures over the last few years, 80% is coming from health and pension.