you're watching beyond 100 days. a miserable day to be travelling in europe. railway workers in france begin a three month rolling strike, testing president macron‘s resolve to reform the economy. making things more miserable, a europe—wide computer glitch disrupted flights right across the continent. donald trump defends his tough tactics on beijing as the white house prepares more tariffs. also on the programme — the chinese parents, reunited with their missing daughter, 24—years after she disappeared. get in touch with us using the hashtag — hello and welcome, i'm katty kay in new york and christian fraser is in london. on the world stage the young french president has done much to restore the image of his country. now comes his test at home.

from today, a three—month confrontation begins with the transport unions. the french public appears to support the strikers but there's also broad approval for mr macron‘s economic reforms. it is a battle of wills and one the president cannot afford to lose. from paris our correspondent lucy williamson reports. president macron‘s vision of france's future is bringing back scenes from the past. with almost half their staff on strike today, the national rail service was running just 12% of high speed tgv lines, one in five regional trains. platforms were so crowded that one woman fell on to the tracks at gare de lyon. her rescue at least made easier without any trains. translation: i'm really sick and tired of it. they have the right to strike, but not to jeopardise ourjobs. french railway workers, including 92% of sncf staff enjoy a special employment status, including a guaranteed job for life. an automatic pay rise every three

years, and early retirement. drivers and conductors currently retire at 52. president macron wants new recruits to be hired on different conditions. the unions say mr macron wants to be remembered at the man who broke them. a kind of french margaret thatcher, with railway workers instead of coal miners. the reform, they say, are a first step to privatising french railways. the government says they are not. president macron has promised to transform france, and there are many voters who believe reforms are necessary. but these strikers are not appealing to the country's economic head, but to its social heart. france's social model, they say, is what makes us french. it's an argument that has worked before. in 1995, a rail worker's strike brought an end to government reforms. a different ending now might benefit president macron, banishing his liberal credentials

when he is facing competition for right—wing votes. but he will need the support of other public sector workers, and the nation. he was elected to change france, but this fight is a gamble on whether france itself has changed. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. that is a long history of french president is backing down in the face of this kind of pressure. for analysis on the day's events, let's cross live to paris and speak to the bureau chief for the financial times, anne—sylvaine chassany. it is interesting that britain that big debate is the funding of the nhs but in france it is about the funding of the railways. yes, the sncf, the railway operator, isa yes, the sncf, the railway operator, is a symbol. it has been a stronghold for unions and many presidents have tried to reform the institution without any luck.

president macron is looking for his presidency's symbol, to reinforce his credentials as a reformist president. we're not talking about a huge reform here, he wants to tackle these special status of rail workers. but he's not doing this in a brutal way, he workers. but he's not doing this in a brutalway, he isjust workers. but he's not doing this in a brutal way, he isjust saying the new recruits will not be employed and the special status. but despite that, it is becoming a huge symbol for both sides, for president macron and the unions who have nothing to lose and one to reassert their power. europe wants european countries to open up railways to competition by 2023. if you are president macron pushing for reform in europe they can't do that if you can't implement european rulings in your own country. yes, the competition, the directive

of the competition is not the big issue here. the big issue is the special status because for president macron this special status is the symbol of what he is —— what is going wrong at the french economy. he has described the fact there are privileges and they have been secured by a cast of insiders and he has stigmatised those insiders see in this case, the railway workers come as insiders that have crippled france's economy for years. he is looking for this status. opening up to competition is something even the unions will ultimately accept under certain conditions. but the real issue here is the symbol of the cast of insiders. at the moment it looks like the president does have a broad

support for these reforms. there is some scepticism about the strikers. could that change over the course of the next three months? or public opinion switched from the president to be more in favour of the strikers? public opinion, the public opinion has always shifted in the past we could some shift. generally speaking, i think it is very, very different from 1995 when at the time the sncf was seen as a pretty well functioning institution. people were happy about their trains, train operators were happy about the quality of service and they were pointing to the case of the example of the uk where privatisation had not been so successful. anyway, now things have changed. the quality of service has deteriorated a lot.

people can see that on a daily basis. there has been a series of incidents and accidents. with the financial crisis and the difficulties, economic difficulties, people are less and less sympathetic for the railway workers. thank you very much. good to talk to you. pity the french businessmen who thought i won't get on the train today, i will fly to lyon only to find that the enhanced tactical flow management system which is the computer system that controls the various air traffic control centres around europe, had gone on the blink. you are good at text that i was going to ask you, what is an enhanced technical flow management system ? enhanced technical flow management system? it links the systems across

europe. what happened was... you said that so well! 30,000 flights across europe were delayed and many coming into the uk. flights from heathrow was badly affected but half of french airports were affected. if you are trying to get on the flight to avoid the trains, bad luck. donald trump has had a lot to say about a lot of things recently but he's been curiously silent about financial markets. as wall street stutters amid fears of a trade war and political pressure on tech companies, mr trump who used to herald the market's rise, has said nothing. the booming dow was one of the president's big triumphs last year, but this year its his policies and his threats that are pushing markets down. today the president defended his tactic of getting tough on china and imposing tariffs. we have helped rebuild china so we intend to get along with china but we have to do something very substantial about the trade deficit. and with that, nothing is easy.

i campaigned on that, i talked about that. china won't be the only country. joining us now is eswar prasad, the former head of imf‘s china division and a senior fellow at the brookings institution. thank you very much for being with us. thank you very much for being with us. donald trump does have a point when he comes to china. they do have difficulty, us firms come in operating there. that is a glut of chinese deal on european and american markets. what is the right way to tackle that if you are not going to use tariffs? youtube administration has had gripes against china. —— the trompe administration. china has net kept to its commitments. it is very difficult for american firms to

invest in china. but what the us could have done more constructively would have been to create a common front with the many other countries around the world that have similar concerns about chinese trading and investment practices. instead, mr trump went after many of america's trading partners first. canada, japan and so forth and then took on china. it is going to be difficult for him to get these countries alongside. it does seem pretty clear from judging from the modest reaction by the chinese yesterday, they don't wa nt to the chinese yesterday, they don't want to get into a big trade war with the united states. isn't then a political risk for china? if president trump piles on tariffs, the white house are preparing more of them, isn't that going to push the chinese president to retaliate?

it has been aired interesting battle so it has been aired interesting battle so far because the chinese has been measured in their response. they have imposed tariffs on some american tropics. —— tariffs. at the same time, china has been trying to play the adult in this game by saying all countries should have globalisation. they should take on unfairtrading globalisation. they should take on unfair trading practices. what i think will happen is we will see proportionate responses from both size and event in the pleased the hope is, the reason will prevail. the overall damage from the trade we re the overall damage from the trade were given the amount of trade between these two countries is likely to be modest, but there are certain sectors of the economy in both ken tribbett will be damaged. china has signalled agricultural products, perhaps aircraft

manufacture is in the usa, could be badly hurt. if you chinese exporters could be badly hurt as well. there isa could be badly hurt as well. there is a delicate balance of leather chair. china exports a lot more but a lot of american firms operate in the chinese market and used china as an important part of their supply chain. china could make it very uncomfortable for those firms to operate in china. china might have a political level bridge here. -- pretty good level it here. thank you for joining pretty good level it here. thank you forjoining us pretty good level it here. thank you for joining us without. there's an unwritten rule in american presidential politics that you don't trash your predecessor. former presidents are generally off limits. but donald trump always likes to break rules and he did so again today. in a tweet this morning, the 45th president took aim at the aath. "thank you to rasmussen for the honest polling. "just hit 50%, which is higher than cheatin‘ obama at the same time in his administration." it's not clear what cheating mr trump is referring to

but since this tweet comes amid a string of angry missives from the president in the last couple of days, it's worth asking what's behind it all. jon sopeljoins us now. ami am i right in thinking the cheating mcadoo is a culmination of the tone from president trump we have heard from president trump we have heard from over the last few days —— cheating obama. honest polling is when his numbers are good and this honour is polling is when his numbers are bad. polling is not an exact science. it is imprecise and it was opened down. donald trump focuses on the bits that are good. as to the attacks on obama, the cheating obama, the press six is new. but his tough sentiments are not new. you could look at the last

15 months and it is to undo anything that was done by obama previously. including the accusation he wiretapped trump tower during the campaign. something that just campaign. something that just campaign had to clarify and say it wasn't true. what we have had from donald trump in the past few days is a wide range of tweets, overly burdened by facts. three main targets, one has been illegal immigrants coming in across the border and this caravan of illegal immigrants which president trump has admitted has been broken up by the mexicans. he has gone off to amazon and the favourites, fake news. that is how i'm going to do my reporting from now on, not overburdened by fa cts . from now on, not overburdened by facts. since we've got you here, let's play political ping—pong. the first person being sentenced to a prison term in the rush—hour probe. mr muller does not like people lying

him -- mr muller does not like people lying him —— robert muller does not like people lying to him. the person concerned is a young dutch lawyer called gerard collomb. was he closed the donald trump? a young dutch lawyer called alex van der zwaan. his crime was to lie to the fbi, liked the special counsel. the reason this prosecution has taken the reason this prosecution has ta ken place the reason this prosecution has taken place the fact this guy, his legal career, he is only in his 305, has gone up in flames, he will be spending days in prison before being booted out of the usa, is robert mueller saying don't mess with me. if you mess with the special counsel they will be consequences. he wasn't

an integral part, you can't say there was collusion allegations. you can't say any of that, it just shows that robert mueller has got muscle and he is prepared to flex those muscles. i say that to you but you... you to! i get top lines flashed at me from writers and i wa nt to flashed at me from writers and i want to ask you, you won't have seen them, i want to ask you about the sea mless them, i want to ask you about the seamless messaging that happens in the white house. this is courtesy of writers, us will complete the mission. followed immediately by a statement from donald trump who is ina statement from donald trump who is in a press conference saying, we wa nt in a press conference saying, we want out of syria, we bring the troops home. which is it? which is it? this is the problem we have with

this administration. the pentagon will think this is the agreed line and then you can the president saying something different which makes clear the agreed line is no longer agreed and has moved to something different. we saw this over afghanistan with donald trump saying he wants to pull the troops out and sign the document to let the troops stay. it'll be interesting to watch this tussle between the department of defence and the president who seems to be on different pages. sorry to drop that one on you. by the way, the secretary of defence under president we re secretary of defence under president were sitting next to each other during press availability earlier today. i read that the pentagon is sending more troops to syria. the un secretary—general has called on warring parties in yemen to restart peace talks, saying it's the only way to resolve the catastrophic situation there. addressing a donor conference in geneva, antonio guterres said women and children were bearing the brunt, as the conflict in yemen enters its fourth year.

the duke of edinburgh has been admitted to hospital ahead of hip surgery planned for wednesday. prince philip will undergo the scheduled surgery at king edward vii hospital in london. the 96—year—old retired from royal duties last august. an eyewitness has caught on camera the dramatic moment a freight train slammed into a truck that was stuck on a railway crossing in acworth, georgia. luckily no one was seriously injured with the driver of the truck exiting his vehicle before impact and one person aboard the train being taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. russian president vladimir putin and his turkish counterpart president erdogan have inaugurated the construction of turkey's first nuclear power plant. the project is being funded by russia, having been revived since relations between the two nations started to improve.

talks between the two leaders focused on security and trade. mark lowenjoins us from ankara with more. one of the lies that came out of this was that the russians have agreed to sell an air defence missile system to turkey which will puzzle some people because nato, turkey i should say, is a nato ally. turkey i should say, is a nato ally. turkey signed this deal a few months ago but today in discussions between ed began and president putin, russia wanted to speed up the supply of that missile defence system. it has caused more than a few raised eye brows caused more than a few raised eyebrows because it would mean nato '5 second largest army buying a missile defence system from their nemesis, russia. it has led to various diplomatic visits from the us to ankara, delegation sent from the white house and the pentagon to try to polish a different

alternative on to turkey. there is a sign of how turkey is pivoting away from the west on a whole range of issues, from trade, security and syria where russia and turkey have on different sides but they are cooperating closely indeed. there is a shift away from turkey's trajectory towards the west. its decade long dream of being in the eu deadin decade long dream of being in the eu dead in the water. it is closing up to russia in many ways. this is the ninth meeting between the two leaders today injust ninth meeting between the two leaders today in just over a year. good to see you, one to watch. our next story starts in the year 1994 when a little girl disappeared from her parents' roadside fruit stall in china. and ever since, they've been searching for their daughter, never giving up hope that she would eventually be found. so, how does this incredible story end? with a reunion a 2k years in the making, as our correspondent, stephen mcdonnel explains from hong kong. after 2a years, a once little girl who disappeared, now a woman, is heading home.

her parents never stopped searching for their missing three—year—old, qifeng. thanks to a relentless social media campaign, the 27—year—old, now called kang ying, found them. translation: i never thought this was possible. it's like somebody in a dream has appeared before me. it's unbelievable. “119911, her father and mother briefly lost sight of their daughter while running a busy fruit stall and she was gone. wang mingqing became a taxi driver asking customers to find her via online chat platforms. it worked. their dna matches. today's dramatic reunion has captured the hearts of chinese people. they know that thousands of children in their country are kidnapped every year and many sold into adoption. but unlike other parents

still grieving for their lost children, this family is finally together again. steven mcdonnell, bbc news, hong kong. how would you know 23 years later? 50 years ago tomorrow, martin luther king stepped out on to the balcony of the lorraine motel in memphis, tennessee and was shot by a white supremacist. just a few months later, robert kennedy met a similar end it often leads to the two men being compared. but a new photo exhibition here in new york suggests these two icons of american history didn't actually get along. it's called rebel spirits: robert f kennedy and martin luther king jr — we went to take a look. over the years we've sentimentalised

the two of them and brought them together and made friends of them when in fact they were not. this exhibition is the untold story of bobby kennedy and martin luther king from the inception of the civil rights movement, through that assassinations in 1968, only 60 odd days apart. these are two men who came at the civil rights movement from different political and philosophical directions. king dedicated his life to civil rights and was a man of the cloth, the kennedys were always looking over their shoulders to see the political implications of whatever they did. they were careful about being too far ahead of public sentiment. king was always pushing them to go faster than they were willing to go. that is a natural source of friction. the most

surprising pictures are those around martin luther king's assassination in his hotel room with his suitcase still open, his assassination being broadcast on a television set which is screwed to the wall. there is an extraordinary picture i did of bobby kennedy looking out of the window of a plane, it is a special moment because king had been assassinated and what was laying had? sadly, we're still struggling with the same issues of the 505 and 605. civil rights has made progress, integration in schools, in marriages but we still have a way to go. we need to be reminded of two heroic characters who were on the earth at the same time, to people who will inspire ring vast swathes of america. these guys are more releva nt america. these guys are more relevant more than ever. america would have been a different country

had they lived. it is a tragedy the us has never recovered. it is a tumultuous period and it still marks this country. and tomorrow we'll be in memphis remembering the civil rights movement, 50 years after the assassination of dr martin luther king — and our political analyst, ron christie, will be there that's beyond 100 days, here on the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news — a sobering and grim statistic for londoners as the city overtakes new york for the number of murders in recent months. and the company donald trump accuses of ripping off the us postal system, why the president isn't letting this one go. that's still to come. (katty) . well we saw the billowing clouds

today in lincolnshire we've got temperatures and the sunshine between them up to about 15 degrees. compare that to northern scotland where winter remained, 4 degrees the hike in aberdeenshire. that contrast in temperatures continues into tonight. even in a little bit over the next couple of days. by the weekend, we see a surge of milder air pushing its way back in especially for the eastern half of the country. tonight, we will remain frost free across england and wear because after clear skies showers return through the night from the south—west. some heavy and thundery. more still across the scottish mountain. a touch of frost cannot be ruled out. low—pressure rules the roost on wednesday which means they will be the rain and snow. cold air pushing its way in showers developing widely through the day across england and wales, a day to

ta ke across england and wales, a day to take something with you. brightening up take something with you. brightening up to shetland and hebrides, not a bad afternoon to come here but still some snow over the grampians. temperatures drop and northern ireland will see some clear the skies around. for england and wales, showers fairly frequent across the country but they will ease from the south—west, the channel islands and wales later. the wind will transfer to the eastern part of england as you go into thursday. the ridge of high pressure for thursday. the dry yesterday of the week. a few isolated showers, most will have some long, sunny spells. temperatures lifting into double figures for the vast majority by the afternoon. the sunshine turning hazy in the west. into friday, low— pressure in the west. into friday, low—pressure to the west and that will scoop but that warmer air from iberia. most places across england,

wales and eastern scotland will be dry and the best of the sunshine in the morning. rain developing in the west particularly for northern ireland. it'll be a blustery day but we could see highs of 16 degrees. a quick look ahead into saturday, sunday and monday, a bit of rain around the temperatures in their teens and most in double figures. this is beyond one hundred days, with me katty kay in new york — christian fraser's in london. our top stories. france's finance minister says the government will press ahead with controversial reforms to modernise the economy, despite paralysing rail strikes across the country. a dutch lawyer is jailed for 30 days for lying about his contacts with the trump campaign — as part of the investigation into russian interference in the us election. coming up in the next half hour. is president trump anti—amazon? he's accused the online retail giant of ripping off the postal service — but does his gripe go deeper? music to the ears of spotify‘s founders as the swedish streaming service makes its stock market debut — is it worth

what investors are paying? let us know your thoughts by using the hashtag... ‘beyond—one—hundred—days'. the world was never enough forjeff bezos. his company grew from an online bookstore into the world's biggest retailer — and now has ambitions fora lunarlanding. it's the kind of american success story an american president might usually celebrate. not this one. today mr trump stepped up his attacks against amazon — accusing them of ripping off the us postal service. "i am right about amazon costing the united states post office massive amounts of money for being their delivery boy. amazon should pay these costs (plus) and not have them bourne by the american taxpayer." earlier anti—amazon tweets helped fuel the recent market dives.

so why is the president risking market value to attack jeff bezos' company? a man that knows a thing or two about amazon is brad stone — author of the everything store. hejoins us now from san francisco. is this really about amazon and the post office and taxes or also about the fact that amazon are ratherjeff bezos owns the washington post newspaper which the president does not like? i don't think we even have to speculate about that. if his own tweets over the last few years president trump has spoken about the washington post and amazon, lumping them together. suggesting the washington post should register as a lobbyist because the claims it has been supporting amazon, hard to see

in the coverage in newspapers. i think there is a personal grudge here, a political groucho club president does someone who does not like to be criticised by free press andi like to be criticised by free press and i think it is not difficult to see this attack on amazon and its relationship with the post office as probably a way for him to vent his frustration. and you know the company well and its reputation, often when the president takes on a target like this he is tapping into some kind of constituency that opposes that thing. is there a group of people around the world or here in the us who do not like amazon and to the president is rallying as a base call? that is a great question because political and it doesn't make much sense. amazon recently has ranked at the counter top of the most trusted brands list. to the extent that president trump still has support among the right wing, republican base, that is really a

free—market constituency. and here the ears taking on one of the tech innovators that has powered the american economy. they beat wicker look at the kind of midwestern think is the constituency here that might see amazon is responsible for something shakedown in traditional retail. that is possible. but there are other culprits blamed for the pain in the retail world may be starting with walmart which is a much bigger company in terms of retail sales and has been added for much longer than amazon. so hard to make even much political sense out of this. and looking at the critique of this. and looking at the critique of the post office, and look it is unprofitable in the us but it has larger problems starting with the decline of people sending post. the european commission outlined proposals last week for additional tax and commissioners in europe said that amazon is destroying some of

the tax base in europe, that is one of the points that donald trump has been making. i just of the points that donald trump has been making. ijust wonder if the american president is playing into the hands of the europeans because this additional tax has not actually been constructed yet and perhaps they will take seventh arrangement when the president himself saying they're ripping off american high companies. perhaps, there are two separate issues. amazon and all the us tech companies as you know have constructed their european operations to minimise tax, racing them in places like luxembourg, being strategic about that, coming up being strategic about that, coming up with creative loopholes to avoid paying european tax. that aside, in the us amazon really rose to prominence by avoiding having to collect sales tax for its first ten 01’ collect sales tax for its first ten or 15 years and then went tax collection efforts began in earnest ona collection efforts began in earnest on a state—level amazon for that for a bit but then kind of agreed and

the it has been a proponent of tax collection efforts and has actually exploited that to put warehouses in every city for the something they could not do on the previous tax regime. so amazon really is a proponent of a national sales tax in us. there is a separate issue of whether it should collect sales taxes from third—party merchants. but overall amazon is just good at exploiting any tax situation that the government sent its way. so i do not know of a change in tax law will necessarily hurt the company. thank you very much. i think someone else busted in the past about exploiting tax loopholes. oh yes, donald trump. the problem is when any president sta rts the problem is when any president starts tweeting about public listed company is whether good or bad, it affects the share price and the problem is an ethical one because

many people, wealthy people, but donald trump talks to every day, and if they know that he is going to tweet about amazon and the share price is going to fall then there is an incentive for people to start short selling author so a big ethical question there.|j short selling author so a big ethical question there. i think as we have said many times, this is not normal, not what presidents normally do, to take on individual companies like this. donald trump is right that the rise of amazon has helped to fuel the decline of retail shops around the world. in the us, the iconic department store sears is one of them. last week the company's ceo says it's struggling to survive. in the past decade, sears has been a story of store closures, layoffs and the gradual decline of an american fixture. the bbc‘s mat morrison has more. put an end to tragic fears, it's very easy to get to sears! sears, a giant spectacular...

where america shops for value. it was the american retailer for much of the 20th century. an amazon for its age, sears sold everything under the sun from home goods to actual houses. at one time it was the world's largest retailer in terms of sales, profits and employees. it was the number for employer in this country. that was then. today sears is a corporate zombie, another victim of the changing american retail landscape.