>> on "france 24," as we cover the race for the white house. hello and welcome back to the "france 24" newsroom in paris. these are the headlines this hour. polling stations have opened their doors across the americas east coast as elections get under way to elect the country's next president. has a host ofn celebrities. donald called on americans to dream big. try to break the

republican majority in congress. they need five seats to get back the senate, 30 two control the house of representatives. is retaken from the islamic state group. the battle for mosul rages on. government forces make a gruesome discovery, the bodies of some 100 people, many of them decapitated. business, wer, in will be going to lisbon to get the latest from the web summit, an annual gathering of some of the biggest names in the technology industry. do stay with us for that on "france 24." there is much more coming up. first, the ballot boxes are out.

polling stations are open across -- across america's east coast for the much-anticipated presidential election. hillary clinton and donald trump are in new york. they will be casting their ballots later this tuesday pretty in her closing remarks, clinton urged people to look for a hopeful, inclusive, and bighearted america. her republican rival ended his campaign with a foul to reunite to country -- with the vow reunite the country under "america first." philip crowther is standing by. the big day is finally upon us. philip: we cannot quite believe that we finally managed to get to this spot after almost two years of campaigning, from the primaries all the way to now, the day when america decides rid voting booths on the east coast are now open. that includes washington, d.c., importantly, the sum of

the swing states. be first ballots will counted and first projections will be made tonight, including a washington, d.c., north carolina, and florida in the south. these are three of the battleground states that hang in the balance that could either go to republicans or democrats. a very stark contrast on the campaign trail, between trump and clinton during the whole election season, but also less night, during their closing arguments. i was in philadelphia a few hours ago. hillary clinton on stage with her husband, former president bill clinton, her daughter, u.s.ea, the current president, and the first lady as well on stage, giving a show of unity not just for the country but certainly within the democratic party, something donald trump has never really managed to do. speaking of closing arguments, his was a rather bizarre one,

saying that if he was to lose, or if the movement was to lose the election, it would be the biggest single waste of time, energy, and money in his life. that pretty much is the closing argument from donald trump, who will be traveling around, having campaign rallies on the day itself. it is going to be a long day of voting throughout all the time zones in the united states. it will be a long night of vote counting. hillary clinton is the favorite to make it to the white house. puts heryork times" chances around the 80% mark. philip crowther, in washington, thank you very much for that insight as the polling stations open. for those of you still lost by what the vote means, those of you planning and election night

party need a little guidance as tricklehen the results in. we have this report that should answer questions. >> after months of campaigning, the oval office is almost within reach for either donald trump or hillary clinton. over 200 million voters are registered for the 2016 election . many will have cast their votes ahead of november 8. early voting accounted for almost a third of ballots at the past two elections. with so much at stake, it is a costly affair. rallies, radio and tv advertisement, as well as campaign aircraft all wrapping up. -- obama clinton and trump are not the only candidates on the ballot. the libertarian gary johnson and the green party's jill stein, as well as a host of independents,

are vying for votes. in a close race, those candidates can play a dramatic role. enough, ralph nader won votes in florida to cost out for the presidency. november 8 is not just about the white house. with a future in congress also in the balance, especially the senate. although 435 seats in the house are a for grabs, the republicans are likely to keep their majority there. in the senate, 34 seats out of 100 are being contested, making it a closer race. 24 of those senators facing election are republicans, handing an advantage to the democrats. with their outgoing majority -26, many things -- voters will also validate over 100 ballot initiatives nationwide, voting to decriminalize marijuana, or raising the minimum wage.

in over a dozen states electors will choose their governor. the new president is not sworn in until january 20. thomas: for more on the white house race, i am joined by nickel back erin -- by nicole backaran. leadon might have a narrow currently, but the polls are still tight. this is a campaign that has split america down the middle, hasn't it? >> very much so. the whole atmosphere in the country is very divided. if you compare what is going on today with what happened in 2008, the voters were split but there was not the optimism and and and something warm importing. -- and comforting. it is quite gloomy and sad this

year. and trump are, sadly, two of the most disliked candidates in recent history. will the turnout today make a difference? turning in very much large numbers to vote. i do not think they are motivated by hope. many of them are motivated by fear of the other side. it is quite striking to see that voters on either side are shocked and appalled, but voters on the other side can vote for the other candidate. split, andvery deep people are taking this very seriously. thomas: now more of a technical question. in terms of the states and demographics, who needs to take what to win? >> basically, donald trump needs to win all of the states that mitt romney won in 2012, plus

that are slightly leaning republican but not entirely. he has to win them all. and in secretary clinton, the -- if sheictories manages to get a couple of swing states -- if he gets florida, nevada, new hampshire, that could be enough. -- if she gets florida, nevada, new hampshire, that could be enough. she has many more roads to the white house and donald trump has today. thomas: how important is this secondary vote for congress today? >> it is essential to the future of this presidency. what a presidency can be. termsf barack obama's two , he has been blocked time and time again by a hostile republican majority in congress. so the president needs a congress that will go along, to an extent.

and allow him or her to pass through his main reforms. the other side, the other branch you cannot doent, anything if i was blocks everything, which is the case right now. thomas: what are the other challenges lying ahead, given that america today is very divided? >> the first challenge is a plane democratic one. plain democratic one. the key to a stable democracy, we know that if hillary clinton will lose, she will not fight it. but donald trump has already said that if he loses, the vote israel. that is a challenge. thomas: thank you. two other world news, iraqi forces every taken yet another town from the hands of the islamic state group on mosul.

three-week operation is still ongoing. the iraqi investigators are examining a mass grave discovered by government troops on monday they likely holds 100 body, -- holds 100 bodies, many decapitated. reports ofte havetions -- of abductions been made to washington has announced that the attempt to recapture mosul has ended up in fewer refugees than expected. it has displaced 33,000 people, that aid agencies say several hundred thousand would flee the combat. food and medicine is being brought daily to those in need. we have more in this report. -- theseng with them residents make their way to

eight iraqi army base on the outskirts of the city. displaced0 people are since the military operation began to retake the islamic state group stronghold. >> as soon as he tried to leave the house, one of his snipers would open fire on us. but as soon as i turned the lights on, they started shooting. they do not even respect the kids, and they call themselves muslims. >> will than one million people are still thought to be living in mosul. bring withade itself them stories of life under the rule of the jihadist militants. >> if a woman even looked outside, they would take her. they would summon her brother or her husband and asked them for money. those who could not pay were told to find a way. why would they behave like this? it was even for been to watch tv. we were afraid they would hear it. forces were greeted with cheers from residents in eastern mosul.

with the pressure increasing on the islamic state group, the iraqi army says it is on the lookout for jihadist fighters attending to disguise themselves as civilians. >> we have be sure about the names and identities, getting rid of the islamic state group terrorists. the united nations has received reports of atrocities being carried out by the islamic state group since the government defensive on mosul began three weeks ago. iraqi soldiers have found around 100 decapitated bodies in a mass grave south of the city. thomas: over the border, kurdish-led syrian fighters are pushing on with their offensive othere over the stronghold held by islamic state, the city of raqqa. france and the u.k. have also pledged their support for the

operation, which was launched on sunday. next, hungarian lawmakers have blocked prime minister viktor to change the constitution to ban the resettlement of refugees there. of 131 members of parliament his ruling initiative voted in favor. it failed to reach the two thirds majority at the the radical right wing majority refused to give support. , -- in an referendum october referendum, 300 -- let's move to business update -- let's move to the business update now. lisbon,carroll is in rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in the technology industry. many people think of technology is being a bit dry and dull, but where you are, there is a schedule that looks more like

eurovision at the opening monday night ceremony. stephen: there were certainly lots of glitz and glamour overnight here. you can get an idea of the scale of this sort of event. there is a discussion happening about artificial intelligence on the stage behind me. you will be relieved to hear that humans are not irrelevant yet. there is still plenty of space in the tech world for human innovation. takingthe discussions place here -- earlier on we had a panel discussing how government and entrepreneurs could work together, including the former european commissioner landed inarroso, who controversy after going from his job in the commission, moving on to a new job at goldman sachs. he dodged the question, saying that it illustrated the cultural issues relating to the finance industry in europe. lots of different types of events here. there are hundreds of startups

that are hoping to catch the eye of some investors, perhaps to make the big break for their ideas. there are some 15,000 companies represented here from all over the world. -- 627 countries represented 157 countries represented. among the figures, we spoke earlier to the former u.s. navy seal who is the founder of a company called silent circle, which specializes in communications. i asked him what he viewed, because of policies on privacy. boththink they are horrible on privacy. generally in technology as a whole, we have not seen any coherent stance from either one of them. not might be ok, so they do disrupt the status quo. but i do not think anybody in the valley or other parts of

europe think either one of them have a coherent policy on privacy as a whole. stephen: so are we worried about that? >> that should be something that we should be worried about. but at the same time, it is not unusual. most of the politicians that we work with or that you run into, in the eu and in north america, they are way out of date and have a big misunderstanding on what personal privacy is, as related to the security issue. is the essential message that is not getting through to those politicians? >> that is a great question. it depends on where you are at. studioied, the startup -- data tribe, the startup we ask thoseted -- questions. whether it is stopping a nationstate from shutting down your power grid to personal privacy -- when i talk about personal privacy from the silent

circle and the black phone perspective, most of them kind of gloss over and say we do not understand the problem. they are very distant from the personal privacy conversation, but they are definitely engaged in what i will call the cyber security. they understand that. because it is dollars and cents. stephen: that is the part of the issue that we are focused more on, cyber security issues. we have seen high-profile hacks of sony and yahoo! our companies dealing with these, and what do they knew that whether they need to do to protect themselves? >> the monetary damage as well as a reputation damage that you are seeing happening from yahoo! and some of the others, both in europe as well as north america and south america, as increased literally 200%. so hospitals that are being held with rent somewhere, people are voting with their feet. consumers are voting with their feet, but we are seeing it in

the cyber security world. new startups,ms, new technologies being applied to it. but it is still a last-mile race. we are always addressing problems happening now, and it is very hard to be proactive. that spendsion millions of dollars to protect itself is still behind the curve. janke ofthat was mike the privacy from silent circle. time for a look at what is happening on the markets. we have european shares treading water ahead of an outcome of the u.s. presidential election. polls are open. the market is waiting to see what will come out of the decision. we will be watching as it develops in the market overnight and through the day tomorrow as well. the -- is thee of stupid or?king us with that, i will hand it back to you in the studio. thomas: lucky you.

stephen carroll there in lisbon. you are watching "live from paris" on "france 24." police stations have opened their doors across america's east coast, as america gets ready to elect its next president. after a marathon final day of campaigning, hillary clinton got the banking of that's got the backing of a host of celebrities. -- got the backing of a host of celebrities. democrats are trying to break the republican majority in congress. they need five seats to take the senate, 30 to take control of the house of representatives. town is retaken from the grasp of the islamic state group as the battle for mosul rages on. this as government forces make the gruesome discovery of a mass grave containing the bodies of some 100 people. many of them decapitated. for a flipnow

through the data papers. -- through the day's papers. how to take a look at what is grabbing headlines around the world. i am joined on the set by florence villeminot. there is only one story coming out today, and that is the u.s. presidential election. "d-day," according to "the wall street journal." you can see the main options on the list for voters in the united states. "the new york times" is focusing on the final, frenzied hours of the campaign in i guess what you could call the closing arguments for both hillary clinton and donald trump. they say it was optimism from hillary clinton and -- thomas: it has been an unusually race oversidential the last 18 months, and state officials are bracing themselves for possible chaos at polling stations.

post" talksshington about state leaders and voting experts expecting an unusual level of confusion and chaos at polling stations, whether it is long lines or even threats of voter intimidation by particularly trump supporters. some states have printed signs what voter intimidation is and what you could risk by intimidating a voter. you could face up to 10 years in prison. you can read all about that in "the washington post." there will be a lot of , -- there is an article about the turnout, which tends to be 53%. it has been remarkably stable for the last 40 years, but it is one of the lowest in the developed world or in experts say more than 80 million americans could not vote in this election today. why don't people vote? there are various reasons.

registration is often difficult in the united states, and many americans think their vote does not count. several people like me are playing the betting game on who will win the tight race. told -- talkede about who we are voting on. this is bookmakers in the u.k. that say people are rushing back to hillary clinton, and people are betting in record numbers, according to "the independent." thomas: lots of money at stake. is getting a final boost in polls, thanks to hispanics. the high voter turnout amongst latinos is kind of a backlash toward comments that donald trump has made about immigrants, and it could be crucial to the final results in this election. you can see the title here. are showing trump

what it means to be an american." --mas: other papers are take other papers are paying close attention. about clinton's mexico, terrified by a truck victory. they have -- by a trump victory. in moscow, you can read more in "the moscow times," talking about russian state media and how they are depicting the election, calling it an unfair election. they are talking about a story of the sinister and corrupt hillary clinton standing in the underdog, billionaire donald trump. "liberation" has clearly decided who they would like not to win, and you can see that donald , it is kind of a slang word, "the horror, the anguish." not only for america, but for

the world, according to "liberation." saying trump" is is a threat to america and the world. and talk about something we have seen in the wake of this bitter campaign, that is the image of the united states. it has taken quite a beating. it talking about "the american dream" with a question mark. thomas: very cute caricatures there on the cover. moving back stateside, many are happy that the whole campaign is coming to a close. yet?" s it over talking about pre-election jitters. keep calm and take cover here. jitters could continue after the results come out. you can see the front page of "the new yorker" this week. this issue has come out before, and what is interesting is it

can work regardless of who wins. , "sweet jesus, please god," but that could apply to both caps. camps. thomas: whoever wins the election has to do with a very divided nation. flo: that's right, and several papers are trying to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. you can see "the washington post" trying to figure out how the next president can heal a broken america. this article says that whoever is elected will need a lot of empathy with voters. that is a liberal paper. conservative papers are trying to see hope here. seeswall street journal" hope in the ruins of this dispiriting campaign. if you are not sure how you are going to get through the next 24 hours, there are several options in several drinking games you can check out. yay, we love a drinking

game. flo: you will probably get quite drunk if you play this game. any time one of the swing states is called, take a drink. there is a healthier option. you can do the workout game, which has the same rules ee?úaa a

>> this is a production of china central television amererica. >> a barrier is something that can keep people apart. it can prevent communication or even progress in one's life, but breaking barriers is often where growth happens. this week on "full frame," we talk with those who are breaking barriers and taboos in the world of arts and culture, from embracing creative expression new to their society or building awareness around issues people just don't want to talk about. i'm mike walter coming to you from the heart of new york city's times square. let's take it full frame.