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tv   Taiwan Outlook  PBS  October 25, 2013 7:00pm-8:01pm PDT

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i am cyril vanier. in just a moment, we discussed the week's news. national dialogue getting underway in tunisia. obama has some explaining to do. revealed the nsa has spied on more than 30 world leaders. french football goes on strike against higher taxes. join the conversation in just a moment after this latest addition of world news. >> let's take a look at what is
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making headlines this hour. as european leaders discuss illegal immigration at a brussels summit, the italian coast guard says more than 700 migrants are being rescued near sicily in the last 24 hours alone. the french and german governments demand talks with washington as anger grows over america's spying on european leaders. the row undermines the global fight against terrorism. heading to the polls in the first election in madagascar since the military-backed to -- coup. first, discussing immigration in the wake of the lampedusa tragedy in which 367 people died when the boat sank off the italian island. southern u -- eu countries, including multi-, have asked for more resources to does -- to deal with what they describe as a crisis. the european nations discuss illegal immigration. a study steam of smugglers'boats
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heading -- continue without let up. the italian coast says more than 700 migrants have been rescued in the last 24 hours. five boats crowded near the island. all were rescued, except for one who reportedly fell into the sea. our rome correspondent has more. >> more than 724. a very significant number. clearly, the people smugglers, as well as those desperate people dying to get into europe, clearly think the weather conditions and the sea conditions are good enough to make the attempt. now you have a situation where all the people were rescued in several different interventions. two boats were rescued by italian navy ships. those navy ships are part of the humanitarian mission that was put in place by italy, dubbed mare nostrum, to rescue migrants
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coming on these unsafe vessels into europe. the ship was rescued by the coast guard and another by a merchant ship that happened to be in the area. clearly, we see the situation where you have the french president they may need to work with the country of origin. some of those rescued are reportedly from eritrea. in eritrea you have a situation of political repression and a dire economic situation. that is really what is forcing some of those people to make that dangerous journey across. despite the fact the winter months are coming, they believe the sea conditions may be ok enough for them to make this incredibly risky journey. so we have these arrivals continuing. >> reporting from rome. at the brussels summit, european leaders have been saying the distrust of the u.s. over spying could threaten the global fight against terrorism. france and germany are pushing for talks with washington after
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reports the german chancellor angela merkel had her mobile phone monitored by the national security agency. there are allegations of the organization eavesdropping calls made by some 35 world leaders. for more on the story i am joined in the studio by our international affairs editor. european leaders have been talking about a no-spying agreement with the u.s. what exactly would that entail? >> first of all, it was obvious from the tone of president hollande's press conference that these tensions with the u.s. have not gone away. the u.s. has stood firm, offering no apology. it was clear from mr. hollande's tone that trust has been damaged, despite excellent cooperation on mali and libya and the syria. germany is sending its intelligence chiefs to washington to seek answers. as you mentioned, france and germany are seeking a code of good conduct to be signed, they
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hope, with the u.s. by the end of this year. this has two parts. one is no eavesdropping on heads of state and government, as francois hollande said in the press conference. you do not spy on friends you meet in international summits. secondly, to clearly define the areas in which the transatlantic community can share information. >> is there any progress in the meantime on data protection in europe? >> there is some. the european commission proposed a law at the beginning of last year. this would make sure that data of private citizens in europe are not shared with authorities of other countries. this would make sure companies holding your data do not transfer it to, for example, u.s. authorities. it looks as though this legislation is probably going to go through by the end of next year. it is not as quick timing as the french and germans were pushing for at the summit.
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they were hoping to wrap all this up by the european parliament elections next spring. at least they have something walking away from the summit, with some concrete take-homes. >> thank you so much for that. moving on. ball carrier and authorities -- bulgarian authorities confirm a bulgarian roma girl -- women as being the mother of a daughter taken by authorities. the biological mother had told authorities she gave the girl to a neighboring roma family who then moved to greece. news coming in, army officials say nigerian soldiers have killed 74 members of an islamist sect in a raid in the country's northeast on thursday. the offensive targeted tax -- camps in the northeastern state where militants have their strongest presence.
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voters in madagascar are going to the polls in the first elections since the military- backed coup four years ago. candidates are contending in the election, that has been postponed four times this year. >> the people of madagascar, lining up for a chance to end a four-year political crisis. >> i waited for these elections for a long time. it is a way to secure quality and legitimacy on the international stage. it is important for us to get out of this crisis. >> frankly, i never thought these elections would take place. but today is the day. so i am very happy to be able to vote for the person i choose. >> the island nation has been gripped in a political crisis since the 2009 coup. the two men who fought for power are barred from running in this poll. after nearly three years of delays, election observers said
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the vote would help thecountry turn a new page. >> everything has been going so far very smoothly. people are very confident in the casting. >> the 8 million voters will choose between 33 largely unknown candidates, with a runoff likely in december. the winner will take the reins of the poorest country in the world. more than nine in 10 live on less than two dollars a day. >> a chance to take home their very own piece of music -- movie magic. read hundred props are being auctioned off at a special sale in hollywood. some unique memorabilia, including the most famous movie prop of all time, the multi-stop and -- maltese falcon. a contemporary art fair is underway in paris this week. an opportunity for dealers and curators to check out the
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contemporary arts and preferably to purchase them. taking a look at who is turning up and willing to for cap the cash for the -- fork out the cash for the best of modern art. >> his installation piece has already found a buyer, sold for a record price. >> i thought this was the object that could produce the strongest effect. that is often what we are looking for any a work of art, a strong sense of emotional capital. i felt the accident was something that could correspond to that. >> a body of work that has been -- by a gallery owner for 15 years. when they met, he was already known internationally. as his career has taken an upward trajectory, those who work with him have remained discreet. >> i never talk about the price. because perhaps the buyer does not want people to know how much
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he paid for it. >> keeping secrets can protect the buyer's investment, although some have digested his work went for as many -- suggested his work went for as many as 200,000 euros. e-zines and galleries, looking to acquire important pieces for to acquiheir collections, with n the long-term cultural value of the work. others are here to snap up a good deal. more interesting now that the v.a.t. on artwork will remain low at 5.5%, making an impulse buy all the more forgivable. >> my only criteria is what i like. what it communicates. i prefer art as a stage. after that i find them less interesting. >> affordable translates as between 200000 and 300,000 euros. a golden ticket granting access to the privileged inner circle of contemporary art collectors. >> that is it from us here in the newsroom. time to handed over to cyril vanier. >> thank you very much.
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welcome. it is my privilege once a week to discuss in my critique, analyze, make fun of the week's events with some of the best commentators. joining me are the paris bureau chief for "the daily pleased -- beasts." and, your first time on the panel. thanks for being with us. you are at it are and correspondent for a turkish daily. interesting to get your perspective this evening. first topic, barack obama is in hot water over the nsa's extensive spying program. the latest revelations to emerge from the trove of documents leaked by edward snowden. america has spied on 35 world leaders. we don't know the names. it would appear angela merkel is among them. the german chancellor reportedly furious.
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barack obama called her to explain, just as he called francois hollande earlier this week. millions of french citizens have been spied on late last year. among those french citizens, perhaps you -- do you care you are possibly spied on by the nsa? >> i think we just avoided a crisis between france and germany. the germans being spied on and not the french? it is a problem. >> no one has to be jealous. we are both equally important. . >> business is business. the business of snooping and snooping on each other is part of the game. it is expected. it always has been so, from world war ii. i think what is shocking to the french and the europeans is not the spying. it is the extent and the systematic character of the spying which they did not suspect. >> that is the senior
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correspondent. you know how the world works. but as a private individual, do you care? in any way, shape, or form that your sms's sent to your family or your businesses may have been intercepted and read? >> you see, a british colleague of mine wrote a long piece on that. what i remember is that i could not avoid the conclusion. he said, unless you want to go back to the caves there is no way you can avoid it. >> so if you can't beat them, just except it? -- accept it? >> it is also true a lot of coverage is misleading. talking about 71 million french people being monitored, we are not sure what that means. it does not mean there are little gnomes listening to 71 million conversations. it means the cia, or the nsa in this case, was collecting everything it could in terms of what they call metadata, phone
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calls that were made in what numbers, from as many sources as they possibly can. why is that? the reason is that as communications move from copper wires to satellites and now to fiber-optic cables, fiber-optic cables are like enormous rivers of information, with billions and billions of bits and bytes, and the only way you can find anything in them is to capture just about everything and then filter it out. quite this has been -- >> this has been the tone of much of the coverage. it is also what jean-marc seems to be saying. it is the way of the world, what can you say about it? >> there are two different things going on. one is the general program to capture lots of information and filter it out. then you go to google and other companies and you say, can we had your data so that we can filter better? that is essentially what was happening. is that sinister? i would rather people were not doing it to me, but i am sure
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the american have been doing it to me. i talk about terrorist on the phone all the time as a journalist. >> you probably have confidential sources. >> i try not to talk to them on my cell phone, especially. when it comes to blogging -- bugging angela merkel's business phone, that is a whole different thing. that is a question of real overreach by the intelligence. >> private individuals is ok, angela merkel is off-limits? >> it is not the same thing. they are not listening to conversations. they are not listening to most people. in fact, they are trying to get rid of your calls. they are trying to filter them out. trying to catch fish in niagara falls. a huge lot of stuff coming over, and they are trying to say, we want these one or two fish. they are going to get a lot of water and a lot of fish in the process. >> yusra ghannouchi -- the
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report, you talk about outrage of the german and french governments. i do not think they are outraged or shocked. i think the reactions were quite weak, actually. they are weak because the country also spies on other countries. >> they didn't get caught. >> what if tomorrow, the u.s. media discovers that the french government spies on them? the african countries, the african leaders, it is possible. >> possible? >> for example, expressed this week, they said in an interview with "le figaro" that the u.s. spies on us and we spy on them. >> there is a very interesting quote. "the guardian" has released
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information that the american secret service, the nsa, was targeting the phones of 35 world leaders and they published a part of the actual document in which they got that information. part of the documents leaked by edward snowden. let's read a few lines. in one recent case, a u.s. official provided the nsa with 200 phone numbers to 35 world leaders. operations staff at the nsa supplied this information to the production centers. the production centers have noted little reportable intelligence from these particular numbers, which appear not to be used for sensitive discussions. however, these numbers have provided lead information to other numbers that have subsequently been tasked. tasked in nsa language means monitored in one way or another. it is interesting, the way this works. what the document reveals, the nsa essentially turned to the white house, the state department, and other high- ranking officials within the american political elite and
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said, if you want to give us your contact -- >> they call them customers. customers for our intelligence product. you are our customers, you talk, luscious ava the sake of argument, dick cheney, -- let's savor for the sake of argument, dick cheney, you talk to all these world leaders, make our life easy. give us the private numbers and we will figure out what is going on. that is what the memo says. i think it is fascinating that they got 200 numbers from one guy. 150 seven numbers were already public information. 43 of them were more or less secret. from those 43, they got in terms of intelligence basically zilch. >> they sift through massive data. >> this is a thing where they specifically target those numbers. the way they would pick up those calls is to have this huge lot of information coming into their computers. then they have special programs at computers that filter it out and they, we want this number,
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we want this number. by the way, a lot of that software and hardware is designed by the israelis. the united states depending of the israelis to give them that kind of technology. whether they can trust them is another question. >> we here at france 24, like many of the rest of the mainstream media, have made a big deal of this. it has been in our top headlines and the beginning of the week. what i hear around the table is essentially it was to be expected. should we put this at the end of the news, perhaps? >> as usual, you have a difference between people who write editorials and people who have field experience. for example, today, intelligence , the perceptions are different. how could you be surprised at spying on france? if you are a political editorial writer you say, this is a hell of a story. this is on acceptable.
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then, as some politicians confide, we have to react because you guys knew. it seems to me it didn't work. analysis from day to was, france pretending to be angry. angela merkel, slightly angry her personal phone was tapped. she was not angry two months ago. >> the germans, they have this stasi experience, so they are nervous. >> there are cultural reactions, cultural factors. the french are very touchy on national pride. they say, big brother wants to run the show. we can't be perceived as being weaklings. we have to put up a fight. of course, in between, the word community says it all. all these people may be
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adversaries, but they are a community. they work together. they know how to deal with each other. >> and against each other. >> they know where to help each other, where to fight each other. this is part of the game. the intelligence game. so the people who are in the game or in the vicinity, on the outside, they know. a lot of people don't. they react very slowly. >> what we call adversarial cooperation. there is a guy who used to be -- >> friends and enemies at the same time. >> the guy who used to be director of operations for the cia, once said one does not share intelligence, one trades that. that is essentially how they work. in this game of trading intelligence in the name of sharing, you want to know if you can what they know before you go into the business of making bargains. it is a complicated, murky,
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shadowy business, which is why everybody -- >> madeleine albright actually was quoted in the news today saying the french had spied on her a couple years ago, and the french representative at the u.n. walked up to her and demanded an next donation as to why she made such and such a claim, which he had got from illegally tapped conversations. >> i read somewhere that even susan rice admitted she was privy to the french political stance at the united nations on the brazilian proposal to find a way to deal with nuclear policy in iran. the french pretended for political reasons that they were following on the brazilian proposal, when the united states had learned by their own means that they were just using this stance to get a deal with the brazilians.
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she practically admitted to that. nobody was really mad about it. >> let me ask you, the question i have been wanting to ask since the beginning of the week, is there in your opinion a red line? you all seem to think this is par for the course. is there something the nsa should not be doing, something that would really get you upset? >> getting caught. the real problem is we need a convention with new technologies. the fact the geva -- indications strategies, companies are dominated by u.s. companies, google, apple, amazon, facebook. it poses a real problem for other countries. so we need as much as a nuclear convention, a chemical
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convention, we need a convention for regulating these problems. >> let's move on to the next topic. obama's weapon of choice, drones , got him into more trouble with another set of allies. according to reports, america's secret drone strikes against terrorism targets in pakistan and yemen have killed innocent civilians. perhaps not that much of a surprise, but the upshot, oafish lead pakistani -- unofficially pakistani prime minister nawaz sharif looks -- wanted all to stop. look at these numbers, collected from various websites. difficult to get official numbers, all this information being held secret. from the bureau of investigative journalism. number of drone strikes in pakistan starting in 2004, over the last nine years, most of which carried out under the obama administration. 316 strikes under obama. number of deaths, between 2500
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to 3000. number of civilian deaths, between 400 and 800. that is just pakistan. reporting that hundreds of innocent civilians essentially are being killed. the question, let's first listen to nawaz sharif, pakistani prime minister. >> daily drone attacks must stop now. we respect the sovereignty of others. they should respect ours. it is not fair that we respect others'sob and they do not respect ours -- sovereignty and they do not respect ours. >> presumably -- let me ask this as an open question. is this once again political theater? there have been countless reports pakistan knows full well what is going on in tribal regions. >> we can say, pakistan, there has never been a stable or
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pakistani government since 10 or 15 years. it is not shocking. but it is pretty clear that drone attacks are illegal and counterproductive for the united states. >> what about the american argument that drones are more humane because they are the most precise weapon that exists right now if you want to take out targeted killings and minimizes collateral damage? the american argument is this is the cleanest possible war. >> the easiest solutin to the problem. but first of all, it is a breach of international law. it is an assassination. and the pakistani and yemeni
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governments are in difficulty because of these drone attacks. the u.s. administration gives radical elements in these countries much more powerful because of these drone attacks. >> the international law argument is fuzzy, not that clear-cut. we had an international law specialist earlier this week to explain to us, as far as international law is concerned if there is, if the u.s. is at war in one of these countries, and it is debatable whether they are at war in yemen and pakistan , you could argue it both ways. if the u.s. is at war and there is a high-value target that is sought and they minimize civilian casualties, it can be legal. they killed two innocent civilians, that can be legal. 2000, that is illegal. there is a very gray area. >> the drone attacks kill innocent people. not always --
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>> all wars kill innocent civilians at some point. >> it is a little embarrassing to have to say that. what do you choose? bush invading a country and provoking tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of deaths and distraction, or pinpoint operations to try and possibly kill somebody considered, rightly or wrongly, a terrorist and all that. >> the drones are more humane? >> a full-fledged war, which nobody can do anymore, or do you resort to the technological equivalent of terrorism? >> real quick? >> obama had a problem. he did not want full-fledged wars. he wanted to end the full- fledged wars the bush administration launched, but wanted to keep america was secure -- secure.
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he was told the cia and the nsa could do it. the cia and nsa have overreached. they have killed too many innocent people with drones and listened to too many phone calls with the monitoring. >> hold that thought. we will get back to the second part in just a moment, after the break. we will be talking about tanisha's political dialogue. -- tunisia's clinical dialogue. a quick reminder of the headlines on france 24. as european letters discuss illegal image -- immigration, the italian coast guard says more than 700 migrants have been rescued near sicily in the last 24 hours. french and german governments demand talks with washington as anger grows over america's spying activities. european leaders say it undermines the global fight against terrorism. voters in madagascar had to the polls in the first election since the military backed coup four years ago.
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>> part two of the world this week, commenting on the week's news. tunisia at a crossroads. the islamists-led government has promised to step down, which means the political elite has about a month to decide on a new government, constitution, and new elections. what is interesting about this, let me introduce our guests again. christopher dickey, paris bureau chief of the daily beast. a former correspondent for france 2 tv, and a correspondent for a turkish daily. what is interesting about tanisha, it was -- tunisia, it was the country that started the arab spring. like many other arab spring countries, it eventually voted in an islamist-led government. unlike the other arab spring countries, the same government is willing to step down, apparently without any violence. >> the tunisian talks have
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captivated the muslim world. with the hope that at least one arab spring country tries to end this political deadlock with negotiations, talking, a nonviolent way. we saw the country -- we saw examples in egypt and libya. the problems, it is not between the islamist and the secularists , but it is between the moderates and radicals. we have hard-liners in both camps. the problem comes from hard- liners in both camps, in the secular parties and islamist party. >> let's listen, perhaps, to the secretary-general of the ennahdha party.
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his point of view is resignation is not what really matters. >> what is important is to set deadlines, specific dates, and repair the constitution. the aim is not to force ennahdha out of power. >> be that as it may, one of the things that the tunisian protesters had been asking for, they blame ennahdha for rising unemployment and economic insecurity. i saw you raising your eyes when i said this was happening without violence. >> there were just several family -- policemen killed. i think their families thought it was pretty violent. >> not violent on the scale of egypt, i should say. >> not what we have seen in egypt since the military took over. most has been filed -- most violence has been imposed by the military in egypt. the numbers are unbalanced. in tunisia, i actually interviewed the former president of tanisha -- tunisia.
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he said he was on his way out, but he is still there. i interviewed him last month. he was very shaky in a very public interview. he was talking about the threats of terrorism. he said he was afraid to release one of the people they jailed for insulting the president because he was afraid that guy would get killed by fundamentalists. a very, very nervous environment. >> shaky because he was afraid of the security environment? >> the whole future of the country. i think a lot of tunisians feel that way. and that they are looking for a way out. they may find it. one of the things that is going on is that ennahdha, which is basically part of the brotherhood, is under a huge amount of pressure because the muslim brotherhood across the muslim world is under a huge amount of pressure, mainly from the saudi's, who were very
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supportive of the military in egypt, who are trying to support anybody fighting against the muslim brotherhood. at the same time, they are fighting against assad in syria. the saudis are playing a competent game, and i think ennahdha feels a little that under pressure and corner. -- cornered. that is probably helping the situation. >> the transition, they didn't deliver on the transition promises. two years in the making. >> exactly. promises of the negotiation of national dialogue, they have been the same for the last several months. their latest commitments today, exactly the same. in three weeks time, starting from today. apparently national dialogue has finally begun. >> the clock is ticking.
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they have to run a constitution, change electoral law, and create an administration, and institutional authority that will oversee elections. that is a lot to do. >> all of that was supposed to be done literally years ago. >> they have three weeks to done -- to do what they have not done in three years. >> tunisia is pretty unique. it is something that all of the muslim world is watching. because, for example, in qatar there is a person who was jailed for 15 years for writing a poem called "tunisian jasmine." the authorities perceive this as to be a spur. he was criticizing be a leads --
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you leads -- elites. he said something like indiscriminate corruption. tunisia has been very much looked at as a country that is ahead of the rest of the bunch, because tunisia lived for so long under first i would call a liberal autocracy, with religious tolerance. then tierney, but the -- tyranny , but the people born into a civil society never stopped fighting. >> there is more maturity. >> the civil society is strong, and led by women. women are exceptional in tunisia. >> i'm wondering, there is growing discontent at ennahdha. there is the security issue. we saw the rise of salafist-led
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violence. let's look at the numbers that were published by the imf in terms of unemployment, economic growth. with this year's numbers and numbers projected for next year. unemployment stands at about, the bottom of your screen, 16.7%. still extremely high this year. expected to go slightly down, 16% next year. growth rate expected to go slightly up. the trend is positive, but the economic situation is not that good. although the growth rate is three times higher than what we have in france. in terms of the unemployment, that has been fueling a lot of discontent. my question is, do you feel that whoever emerges after ennahdha as the new leaders of the country, can they do a better job? >> i think they will have a greater ability to recruit people without religious or ideological constraints to put them in jobs where they can
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handle it. because the muslim brothers have been noticeably in competence, not -- incompetent, not only in egypt, but tunisia. i think they are aware of that. the problem is more political. they are all united in their hate of political islam because of their long history of relative freedom. however, when it comes to making a unified government and an economic program, that will be something else. >> perhaps let's turn to france's immigration policy. very interesting topic. the french like nothing more than a good immigration debate. this latest came courtesy of the unp -- ump, the opposition conservative party. but see what sparked the controversy. >> is it normal that a child
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born in france of parents whopcn become french? the answer is no. >> saying that children born to a legal immigrants -- illegal immigrants should not automatically become french by virtue of being born here. let's get the facts. currently the system is as a foreigner, if you are born of foreign parents on french soil then you automatically become french at age 18, provided you have lived in france at least five years between age eight and 18. so there is some form of getting the french nationality automatically. what the ump has proposed is foreigners born in france no longer automatically become french. in particular, they do not get citizenship if, in the event of children born to undocumented immigrants, and also for delinquents sentenced to six months in jail before they were
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18, at some point during, -- do you see this? what is your perspective on the latest immigration controversy? >> it is strange that we live in a country governed by socialists but the political landscape is largely dominated by the far right politician marine le pen. >> the election is just five months away. >> before the european parliament collection -- election. the position of the far right leader is crucial in the political landscape today i might even in the socialist -- today. even in the socialist government we have an administrator, the most popular minister in the government -- >> the right wing current within the left-wing. >> so, i find it pretty strange
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that francois hollande, a socialist president, and marine le pen dominates all the political debate. the automatic citizenship debate was one of the key promises of marine le pen before the presidential election. >> everybody is to play catchup with the national front? >> it was physically about the ump, sarkozy's old party. president sarkozy when he was president was taking the ump so far to the right, that is one of the reasons he lost the election. >> in particular during the campaign. >> his infamous grenoble speech. he talked about taking away the french nationality from some people, which in terms of these a good rep -- sacred republican values of france is not something that is done. it positioned him and his party
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not only in the same territory as marine le pen, but in some cases to the right. they are still over there, and indeed trouble. the socialists may not win, but the ump is not going to do very well. as marine le pen says, why would you want the imitation when you can have me? >> a new law at the french parliament, not only because it runs against the french republican constitution -- tradition since the 1st constitution, but also the real problem is not immigration. it is the migration of the middle class toward the right. they are putting on this political show, trying to prevent the middle class from migrating to the extreme right. that is the real reason of this debate. >> do you think it is going to work? it seems both the left and the
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right are highly concerned about the rise of the, at least the momentum the far right appears to have right now. >> both the right and the left, the conservatives and the socialists, are at the moment so discredited that the feeling is electors, voters in municipalities, will go for the real mccoy instead of trying to get another air sets -- ersatz version of what should be done. >> this is also, due to the inviting inside the ump party, you have several leading figures trying to assert themselves as the natural candidate. >> sarkozy wedding to make a comeback. [laughter] >> that is the fun thing to watch. it is not if, but when sarkozy will try to make his move to take over again. >> do you see this as a move to
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the -- eat into his political space? >> i think you -- he wants to consolidate his position. if the party loses badly in municipal elections, which i think is pretty likely, he will lose even worse in terms of party hierarchy. that will open up the game again. >> you think the ump will lose badly in coming elections? >> very badly. the socialists are worried, too. >> a lot will depend on the extent to which marine le pen has been able to build a organization that can function at the municipal level. that is what the national front was always lacking before. they could always make headlines. they would always have a certain amount of sympathy in the polls. her father even made it into the second round of the presidential elections. but they did not have the grassroots organization to win municipal contests.
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i am not sure they have that now. that really is the biggest question of all. >> the real difference, at that time, 2002, the other letters were ashamed. they did not want to say, yes, we voted for le pen in public. today she is a political figure with large legitimacy. people are not ashamed to say, yes, i voted for le pen. >> says she has able to wash off the old extreme right nazi world war ii reputation. a poll said a majority of french voters consider the national front was a party of government, which in french government means they are able to govern. which is not something you can
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overlook. thirdly i'm a there is such a state of exasperation in the country today that the french just may be tempted to vote for the national front just as a protest vote. >> do know what, the french are exasperated, you are right, at parts of their political elite. they are also exasperated by something else, french football clubs. which have decided to go on strike. >> moving right on to the next topic. french football clubs have decided to go on strike. there is pray good reason for that. the french socialists want to vote in a new tax for people earning over one million euros a year. the wealthy tax treated 75% of their income above a certain level of earnings would be taxed. that is the case of about 115 french footballers and eight french coaches. french football clubs have said,
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they're killing us. we are not going to be able to hire the best players. the french football clubs are paying the tax for the players. the clubs are going on strike. could this happen anywhere else in the world? do you see turkish football club going on strike? >> it is impossible. it is curious we have this new tax just after -- >> monaco is russian-don't. the two richest clubs in french football -- >> they are in monaco. >> they are concerned by this -- are not concerned by this debate. >> so i think this decision is related to newcomers of french football. >> it is an example of the french tax system not being able to shoot straight.pinstead of ae
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football players, they are aiming at the clubs. two big clubs. most of the others are middle- size clubs that do not have the money to hire and pay taxes at the same time. >> currently the constitutional court made it impossible for them to tax the players. this is one of the difficulties they had. it is the way any government, but particularly this government, gets trapped by its own rhetoric. they may be 75% tax a big deal in the last campaign. now they have got to see it through somehow, with somebody. i think when they came up with this, they did not think, we are going to tax all these football players and they will quit playing and people are really going to love the socialists. >> even if the majority of the french in the polls agreed and support taxing 75% of people over one million euros, even if
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they disagree with the possibility of a strike among football players, on a local level sports and football is very powerful in terms of political networking and local politicians have to pay attention. there may be a difference between what public opinion thinks and what the people running for city hall will actually do. >> football fans, they are going on strike 29th of november. into the first week of december. that weekend, they will not play any games. interestingly enough, the games scheduled are postponed and they will be played. so no games will be missed. they will just be postponed. this is really political theater, once again. do you watch french football? dexia. >> who do you follow? as you said, this is one of the
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clubs brought -- bob by qatar, the richest club by far. jean-marc's argument is that it is not those richest clubs going to suffer the most. it is the middle-sized clubs that will have to pay millions in taxes for their millionaire players. what are they going to have to do? let go of some of their star players. as a football fan, french football is going down the drain, or? >> if you, the spanish league, create a league dominated by rich teams. >> chris, you don't seem that worried. >> i don't really follow -- >> you don't follow football. >> i'm an american. i'm kidding. a lot of americans follow
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soccer, as we call it. >> you know have, for the american speaking on set, you now have french commentators saying we should have a system based on the nba system, where that simply could not happen. though they have had lockouts in the nba. >> find you lockouts. find your strikes. -- clancy of -- plenty of lockouts. plenty of strikes. this is a tax story. a socialist government story. >> pretty depressing. >> thank you very much for coming on set. thank you very much. we will have you back on another one of these fridays, i hope. thanks for watching. let's go straight to james green -- creadon for media watch. >> one of the stories that has french media talking.
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french footballers striking. that would have paris st. germain the hardest. what is curious is the degree of support from the public on francois hollande on the issue. people in favor of the tax. it is more against the footballers getting lots of money. there is a saying in france where people tend toward -- to resent people earning lots and lots of money. at least that is one point of view. 85% of french people, according to one poll, are in favor. what is going on as they are in favor of it being applied across the board and there not being any exceptions. >> you have to point out to her foreign viewers that french football these last couple years, since the last world cup, has not had a very good reputation. they went on a strike of iran and missed out on a practice session and then miserably failed.
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>> they are not benefiting from a lot of support from the public. take a look at some tweets expressing this. why don't these footballers go work in a factory and learn some decency? that is the kind of tone you are seeing across social media. under the hash tag football strike. it reminds them of this cartoon. it shows a -- fleeing on a raft of banknotes while someone else is going the other direction. an unbearable degree of taxing. elsewhere, wondering, will there be a protest with porsche cayennes? someone saying, they will go on strike, does that mean they normally play? showing a massive degree of, what would you say, not much support. >> not much love lost between
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french public and the football. >> that seems to be the case. i did find one tweak --twe -- tweet. >> i went to school with this guy. >> small world. he is pointing out that in spain people who have been residents less than five years have a favorable tax rate of 24%. bear in mind the 75% tax rate is only for people earning over one million, which would affect mostly paris st.germain. much more favorable tax rates in spain, which has a much more favorable football. >> thank you very much. thanks to all our viewers. stay tuned. we are back in a few minutes.
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>> after six years of recession and the biggest rescue program in history, greece remains the epicenter of the eurozone crisis. the country is teetering on the edge. the country says there is light at the end of the tunnel. the country will start to grow again next year. in europe, see how greeks are coping with this never-ending crisis.
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>> there are a lot of ways to use mobile phone equipment, and can't be recycled. i would like to find a way to make it go away. >> in a few seconds this chip will self-destruct. a few drops of water is all it takes to make it disappear. this breakthrough could soon be applied to all our old electronic devices, phones, and computers. >> a challenge in materials. what kind of materials can you use that are water soluble? environmentally benign but still allow you to build a circuit that has a useful function. >> the team uses different materials, like silk, which become soluble in water. the result, a functional and fully biodegradable chip. >> we are not talking about unreliable electronics. we are talking about electronics that is specifically engineered, has excellent properties, time- dependent, and until the program to moment when you do not need
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the device anymore. that is the trick. >> soon are discarded mobile phones and other electronic waste could be made disappear before our very eyes.
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>> there is trouble on the horizon. mexico cutting interest rate's to fight a slowing economy. >> th exacting a tragic toll on its people and economy but some businesses are finding a way to survive.

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