>> welcome back to the newsroom. you are watching "france 24.a" a deal between russia and beijing. they call it the biggest contract with the former ussr, and militants strike again as workers are searching through bombs one day after twin killed one hundred 18 people, and floodwaters recede in the balkans, revealing devastation. swiss -- swift

delivery of aid. we began with the signing of a major energy deal. china and russia have reached an agreement over gas supply. the $400 billion agreement comes after a decade in the making. for china, the world's top energy user, it secures a fast source of cleaner fuel, while for russia, it opens up a wider market as it is losing customers in europe over the crisis in ukraine. the details. >> the detail is signed after 10 years of negotiations. a 400 and china inked billion dollar agreement. starting in 2018, gazprom will gasrise -- supply natural every year, one quarter of what

china consumes. this will last 30 years. negotiations were delayed due to a disagreement over prices. they believe that international circumstances may have pushed russian negotiators to accept a compromise. diplomatically speaking, this comes at a very good point in time. right after the discussions gast whether or not deliveries from russia to europe would be disrupted, so it is a good thing for russia to appear more independent. tobut russia will have invest. it needs to build a new pipeline to link china to carry gas from western siberia. it will invest $55 billion, and china $22 billion. >> well, for more on this deal,

i am joined by a guest. thank you for coming in. now, let's talk about the timing of this deal. it could not come at a better moment. >> you are right. putin is a wonderful tactician, but maybe not so good of a businessman. probably less of a price than would be needed. for example, the average price of exports from russia to europe concerning gas is approximately dollars for 1000 cubic meters. whereas the deal that has been sealed today is probably more or less around 350 u.s. dollars for the same. >> so you agree with what we heard from the analyst there in that report, saying that international circumstances may have pushed russia's hand a bit in these negotiations?

>> yes, it shows that russia was in desperate need of an ally, and second, it shows the financial loss of russia is counterbalanced by political benefits. council, andrity now a long-lasting partnership, 30 years, a 30 year contract with china and probably investment from china in eastern siberia. it iswould like to add probably a tactical success for mr. putin. for europe and the united states, it cannot have this deal, this contract cannot have an impact on the situation in ukraine, because those are not the same pipes and fields, and those are probably not the same scale as in europe.

things arein europe, allocated in the western part of russia. these are in the far east regions of russia. utin hasdent clinton p hailed this as the largest contract that the ussr has signed, but many details have yet to be hammered out, so some things have yet to be seen. >> yes. many details have to be defined and settled. first, who will pay for the infrastructure, for the facility, because those pipelines, it will take time and resources to be built, and second, the long-lasting effects on the relations between russia and china. of course, mr. putin wants to show off. he wants to highlight that he is in partnership with china, whereas china does not want to be a partner.

with 1.5 be a partner billion chinese. it is a tiny country, by comparison, russia. secondly, they have a diverse affiant economy. russia has put all of its eggs in the same basket, oil and gas selling to europe, so probably the winner in that case is china, but the loser is probably not europe, and it will not be the u.s., in any case. >> all right, the deal has just been signed, and we will see how it does pan out. thank you for coming in and sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you very much you >> now, to thailand, where martial law is still in effect. he took on the role as mediator. face-to-face talks. crisis thatend the has gripped the country for more than six months, and it comes one day after the top military

commander declared martial law. in control,e army thailand is no closer to civility. >> the crisis meeting ended without an agreement. on wednesday, the army commander summoned high-profile political figures to try to break the deadlock. after just a couple of hours, however, tribal leaders were told to go home and prepare for another meeting on thursday. will conducted in a very friendly atmosphere. everyone seems to understand that terry and for right now, we have to work together to fine tune that common understanding. noticeably absent from the negotiating table was the interim prime minister. he was invited but did not attend, allegedly because he was busy with other matters. the army imposed martial law

yesterday but denies any intention of orchestrating a coup. officially, the caretaker government still runs the country, but on the ground, the army is the one making decisions. the media has been silent. the 14 satellite tv stations were shut down. they say the measures were necessary to preserve peace and security. tooaybe we have been truthful about thailand. we have made a lot of revelations and have been in support of democracy for five years now. >> the thailand army chief said he was looking at the role of mediator to avoid further unrest. thailand has experienced more clues than any other country in contemporary history, 18 in less than a century. nigeria arerkers in searching through rubble in hopes of finding survivors after deadly twin bombings on tuesday. at least 118 people were killed when two car bombs struck the central city.

meanwhile, more deadly attacks .eported in northeast nigeria it was here that over 200 schoolgirls were abducted last month by the boko haram militants. against then of war islamic militant group. mark thompson reports. >> after one year of living under a state of emergency, residents of three nigerian states face another six months of the same fate. president goodluck jonathan describes the security situation in the northeastern reason -- daunting., quote, it gives them the authority to crack down on the militant group boko haram, thought to be in the area. weapons, and the supplies of arms made available to terrorists. people, mainly00

civilians, have been killed this year alone as a result of the ongoing violence. the international spotlight has been on their fight against the islamic militant, since the girls were abducted from the school in april. the president and his administration have been under fire for their failure to rein in boko haram. >> i personally believe it will not work. >> human rights officials in the country have also cast doubts on the government strategy. post in nigeria, they have not been able to crush them. licensenly given them to perpetuate this. teams from france, britain, israel, and the united states are all assisting to find the missing teenagers.

in addition, nigeria has asked the un security council to list as a terrorist organization. >> receding floodwaters in bosnia and serbia have revealed billions of dollars in damage. the heaviest rainfall in over a century created havoc across the balkans. a promised quick and speedy delivery of aid for the countries, which are both in national morning. we are in belgrade, and we crossed to him now. us what thel situation is like where you are now. about 200 kilometers southwest of the capital, and there was a big mudslide, because when the flood came, it carried the mud in. the mud is moved from other houses, bridges, roads, and

there is a very large hole in the middle of the city. the rest in all the surrounding in the houses, people are working hard to bring this mud out. everything is destroyed. this place is considered the second most imaged. also, when you see the damage in the country, it is very hard to say who is the hardest hit, but this one, definitely, has suffered a lot of damage. ent, 49 deaths have been blamed on these rains, and officials say this will cost billions in euros. do you have a picture of the full scale of the damage there? >> the prime minister gave a press conference and said that they are working on a plan for

the country that will be ready in the coming weeks. he says that for about five years, that would be needed to restore the infrastructure of the country if everything goes everyone works to the highest intensity. it will cost hundreds of millions. it is too early to have a precise figure, but the priority is to restore the supply system and the roads, because a lot of roads have been damaged, and this will be the number one priority. to bring groups to people who lost everything. in three months, maximum. he said also that serbia needs economic growth in order to , and there is the real cost of the damages.

there is a lot of work to do. >> thank you very much for that update, reporting there from the serbian capital of belgrade. up the newized trains and checked against the latest specs on the books, but french rail engineers got to measure the distance between the tracks of the platforms, and that means a new set of regional trains are too wide and cannot squeeze into train stations. we have more now on this costly oversight. ray -- railway could have saved this if they had only taken five minutes to measure the distance between the lines and the platforms. but the railway personnel do not realize that if the coaches were bigger, they might not just fit, and they don't. the new trains are 20 centimeters too big. it was only discovered once the first vehicle entered the station. since the 4 billion euro worth

trains had already been delivered, the french railway decided to shave off the edge of the platforms in 1300 stations. this will cost 50 million euro. theceo of the company says platforms had to be renewed anyway. some french politicians want an investigation. is unbelievable that in our modern society, these people would not notice such a thing. the railway company ceo should take responsibility. >> the company that manages the railway tracks recognized there had been a blunder but said that 50 million euros is less than one percent of its yearly budget. are watching live from paris, and it is time now for a look at the latest is this news, and carlton is here. first up, we are going to take a look at the new head spin. >> hi, everyone.

russia and china, russia will be supplying china with gas, and gazprom says the contract is worth some $400 billion. this deal comes as europe is reconsidering its dependence on russian energy with the situation in ukraine. that itsnts to show economy has more than one leg to stand on. a long-awaited handshake at small-scale strikes a deal with regime. the 13 year contract should see china's gazprom supplying at a cost of some $400 billion. negotiations had stalled over the price. now, experts say china got a good deal. than whatven cheaper russia has been charging the eeo -- eu, and it should be

something around $350, so it is quite cheap, and that would suggest that russia is willing to try to appear less dependent on its supplying europe. >> in short, russia is looking to share with other trade partners further east. as some countries give russia the cold shoulder in the form of sanctions due to ongoing tensions in ukraine. yet, even a deal with china cannot make up the shortfall if european countries decide to rethink their dependence on gazprom. the eu is russia's largest trading partner by a large margin, and they cannot afford to lose it. >> russia still needs europe, because that is where the infrastructure is, and some of the structures still need to pay for themselves. the biggest market for russia is still europe. >> a large part of the pipeline that will stretch across siberia has to be built.

the extensions are two to be co-funded by beijing. the stockking at market figures next, trading higher this session after we saw a drop on tuesday. the federal reserve is in focus as the minutes from the latest fed meeting show that officials discussed how to start raising , and hikes are still some time off. the u.s. markets are closing in on the one percent mark. in europe, the spotlight over in london as officials within the bank of england are signaling that some of them are ready to start thinking about hiking up interest rates. let's talk you through some of the companies in the spotlight this session. shares of netflix are trading

higher. they have plans to expand in europe. the online streaming service said they would launch, germany and other european countries before the end of the year. and they have an existing customer base of some 48 million people, and it is already present in some countries, including the u.k., ireland, and scandinavia. ebay is also in the spotlight after it revealed details of a cyber attack. it is asking all of its users to change their passwords. toy says hackers were able access the personal details of its users, including phone numbers and passwords. it says the hackers were not able to access financial detail -- details like credit card numbers, and that might be their saving grace. the shares were trading down this hour. and let's also look at shares in bnp paribas.

they sell on wednesday on reports the french bank is facing a hefty fine in the united states. the u.s. says authority is seeking more than $5 billion or 3.6 billion euros. officials are discussing a settlement over allegations the bank violated u.s. sanctions on countries like iran and sudan. and that is the business news for now. back to you. >> thank you very much for that update. ourit is time now for caught upate, and we with american actor john q sack. take a look. >> hello there.

cannestime for another rendezvous. this attracts thousands of fans from all over the world. this year, the official selection, and there is the david cronenberg map to the stars. money grubbers and more. it gives us a vision of hollywood that not as we know it. john q sack. >> i hate to be leaving this on but i know and respect the reasons. >> it is amazing. >> this is not a very glamorous job. >> i was in a fire. our lives, randomly.

>> john, thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. have been working in hollywood for the past 30 years. is hollywood as terrible as it be?ish -- as it is made to >> it could be anywhere. it could be silicon valley, it could be the financial district in new york. it could be washington. it could be anywhere where people are ambitious or afraid or where there is fear, and , and theyn ecosystem are always trying to get an edge. always trying to get an advantage. >> this is about glamour and celebrity. this is maybe the most glamorous and famous festival in the world.

think cannes is the perfect place for it. auteur filmmakers, and aggressive filmmaking, i think the culture of hollywood and l.a. has such a specific field to it that it is a perfect place. never believed in this culture. >> no. >> how do you manage to stay out of it? >> you just do not actually go. but i have a place in los so ies and in chicago, have always felt like an and there in a way, are people that i love, like bruce wagner.

it is very hard to retain your soul. >> what was it like to work with julianne moore? tell us about that. >> we had met socially a few times. my sister had worked with her. was hert scene we did confessing and weeping and baring her soul on manipulating her, which is strange. you do not know what he is doing. it is an odd start. it is wonderful. i have been a fan of hers for a long time. >> it is the first time you are working with david cronenberg. what kind of director is he? he is a formal list, but he is always looking to reduce things. in a way, it is reducing things, and it goes out. he is trying to get the essence

of it, and he is concentrating on it, but it is all very fluid and one or two wr shots. so he is very precise, very intense, and very open. him isre of bruce and very interesting. or the roothe dna of a certain kind of a sickness or an intensity, and then when you put them together, there is more than each of them, so i think ruth and david is a remarkable aesthetic combination. >> 5 million? >> what is being asked? >> eight. >> what do you think? >> i think we have their ball. are you going to eat? >> i was listening to a very

interesting tape of the dalai lama on the way home. say what you like. what was it likw?q?q?q?q?q?gg9c

05/21/14 05/21/14 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! striking events that occurred in guantánamo was the death of three prisoners in the evening of june 9. the question has been, were they suicides, were they homicides? these documents show more clearly than ever before that these were most likely not suicides, but rather homicides and are tied to the cia. >> we'll look at one of the great mysteries of guantánamo human rights attorney scott