>> welcome back. i'm laura cellier. you are watching "live from paris" on "france 24." the battle for the french left. the candidates hoping to -- take part in the first of three live tv debates. prime minister manuel valls is currently the favorite, but only just. after more than 40 years as a -- isd island, cyprus is cyprus on the path to reunification? talks continue in geneva. legal loophole allows a wealthy art dealer to escape jail. a french court clears him and seven others of tax fraud as

judges admit the public may be baffled by the ruling. first, with under five months to go until the french choose a new president, left-wing politicians are taking part in the first of three live tv debates. it comes ahead of the party's primary contest later this month. although prime minister manuel valls is the favorite to lead the socialist party, he expected to class tonight with arnaud montebourg and benoit hamon. will it all be in vain? and theggest the party deeply unpopular president francois hollande will be knocked out at the first round with the conservatives and the far right making it through to

the second round. i'm joined by our french .olitical editor marc perelman manuel valls is the one with the most to lose tonight, isn't he? marc: absolutely. december 1, france of alone goes on national television -- francois hollande goes on national television. he decides he will not run again. this puts the party in a crisis. his prime minister, manuel valls, decides to throw his hat into the ring. we have this very short campaign. we have three debates within just the space of one week. round one, january 22. round two, january 29. you have seven contenders, but really there are three main contenders. manuel valls is the favorite, but, obviously, the weight of francois hollande's unpopularity is on him, because he was his prime minister. it's very difficult to say you were different when you were the prime minister. ministers former

resigned because they opposed those very policies implemented by manuel valls. it will be interesting. it's a three-way race. those debates -- the first one starting as we speak -- will be really key to this race, which is wide open. manuel valls could well when round one, but in round two, there will be only one person against him. he stands a big chance to lose. that would be a major disappointment for him. laura: winning the socialist party primary is one thing. winning the election is a whole different ballgame. marc: it's a really major hurdle for the socialists, because the left, -- even only on the there is fairly strong -- are fairly strong leaders, ahead of any of the socialists in the polls. toward the center, there's another former minister, emmanuel macron, who is writing -- riding even higher in the

polls. the socialist candidate will be in the fifth position in an election where you have a runoff with only two candidates. it looks like it is "mission impossible," unless there is a very strong turnout for this primary, like there was for the conservative primary just a few weeks ago and unless there is a very clear candidate who can maybe annihilate those two other candidates. that's a lot of ifs. for now, it looks like the debate is for the person who will lead the socialist party after next year's defeat in the presidential election. laura: thank you very much. marc perelman there. moving to the united states, where russia has been dominating the talk in washington once again. one day after president-elect donald trump said he has a good relationship with vladimir putin, his pick for defense secretary has warned that moscow is trying to destroy nato. james mattis was speaking in a congressional hearing to prove

-- approve his appointment. armed forces,ur the most important thing is we recognized the reality of what we deal with mr. prudent -- putin and we recognize that he is trying to break the north atlantic alliance, and we take the steps, diplomatic, economic, military, and the alliance steps, working with our allies, to defend ourselves where we must. laura: meanwhile, trump's choice for head of the cia has been telling senators that an aggressive russia ranks among the top threats to american security. mike pompeo also singling out iran and china. reporter: the new face of u.s. intelligence could be this man, mike pompeo. he is president-elect donald trump's choice to lead the cia. his hearing before the senate comes amid growing tensions between the agency and the future president. that theonfident

central intelligence agency will play a role for this administration it has for every previous administration, providing powerful intelligence that shapes policy and decision-making inside this administration. i'm confident that president-elect trump will not only -- reporter: if confirmed, pompeo will be tasked with mending relations between trump and the cia. on wednesday, the president-elect suggested u.s. intelligence agencies may have released an unverified report on his alleged ties to russia. he called the document "fake news" and said the release would blot onote, "tremendous the agency's reputation." in a tweet, he went further. reporter: the director of national intelligence, james clapper, report -- reacted late on wednesday. trump's claimnald that u.s. intelligence had leaked the document and said he was ready to serve trump's

administration. he also apparently called president-elect to, quote, denounced the fake and fictitious reports, admitting it had illegally been circulated. this is just the latest episode in the ongoing war between trump and spy agencies. the president-elect has repeatedly criticized their flawed intelligence about weapons of mass destruction that led to the invasion of iraq in 2003. more recently, he questioned their findings about russia past alleged -- russia's interference with the u.s. election. laura: the president of mexico, meanwhile, has responded to threat to tax mexican imports and make the country pay for a border fence. speaking to a group of mexican ambassadors as the national currency recovered from its record lows yesterday, enrique opinion yet up said he would start -- enrique opinion yet oh a-nieto saiden

everything would be on the table in future negotiations. again, he told donald trump he will not be paying for that border fence. they asked him how mexico can respond. >> the mexican economy has been tanking for a long time. the border while already exists on about a third of the border. what's changing here is the discourse that the mexican .resident is using all of a sudden, he's trying to say we have to stand up to trump . from a mexican point of view, it seems like too little, too late. enrique opinion yet oh -- enrique pena-nieto is the guy who invited donald trump to visit him during his campaign. it looked like a state visit by the candidate. people are talking about the intervention of russians in the

u.s. election. that's on the table for debate. but right here in mexico, it's right -- it's more transparent. they directly participated in the trump campaign by inviting him. a couple hours before, trump was to get his big anti-mexican immigration speech -- to give his big anti-mexican immigration speech. this looks like demagoguery. he is best buddies with trump's son-in-law. they are going to work together against the mexican people. this is the big fear and the big risk. no one is really protecting us anymore from these attacks that are coming from trump. nieto try topena paint himself as some kind of nationalist hero, taking on the big, bad usa? that might end up in him becoming more popular, no? >> more popular would be a misstatement, probably.

he is not popular at all. he is the most hated president in recent history in mexico. he's going to try to use this issue to beef up his popularity, reallyreally -- it's not credible because of his way of behaving over the last two years toward the united states, specifically toward trump and his new foreign minister. we have presidential elections here in mexico also very soon. there will be a big referendum against pena nieto. there are a lot of parallels nieto,n hollande and pena both leaders collapsing in their legitimacy, and there is an up of social- an upswell movement. allah takes in mexico for the next year are going to be -- politics in mexico for the next year are going to be very dynamic. laura: ideal to reunify cyprus could be close, a heading --

according to the head of the united nations -- a deal to reunify cyprus could be close, according to the head of the united nations. cyprus has been divided since 1974 with the u.n. buffer zone separating the greek and turkish territories. >> it is my hope that there will be a breakthrough, and i think that that is what the people of cyprus deserve, and i think it's also what the world needs today. we are working hard to have a settlement that addresses the central questions that have been discussed for a long time in relation to territory, in relation to property, in relation to relations with the eu, in relation to foreign policy. laura: let's go to geneva, where those talks have been happening. we heard antonio guterres.

he's optimistic, but he's warning against people's expectations of what he calls a miracle. he's trying to play down expectations a little bit, isn't he? >> that's correct. he also said in a briefing that the press don't expect a quick fix. he is a very seasoned politician, very experienced with the u.n. mechanisms, having been high commissioner for refugees for 10 years. sending a signal he wants to do it right. they are very close to the end game here, but he does not want everything to fall apart through miscalculation or trying to exceed beyond the speed of the various parties to absorb and to move forward with the next moves. what we are hearing is that the diplomats and the ministers are trying to find a way forward on the most difficult of issues, the security guarantees. what happens in the future with the troops that are in the northern part of the island? 75,000 turkish troops.

the greeks from athens want those troops to go. so do the greek cypriots. -- british have said, though, the turkish cypriot -- for the are veryypriots, they important. for the greek cypriots, they don't want a big contingent of turkish troops. they would feel insecure. how the u.n. goes forward around that -- what we are hearing is it's yet to be determined. there could be working groups set up with brainstorming and ideas to find a solution that accommodates the concerns of all sides. the greek cypriots, the turkish cypriots. it's not easy. we are talking about military presence and how to slowly and in steps the commission -- steps decommission it. it remains to be seen whether phasing down is acceptable to

turkey. turkey wants to remain. the second issue is territory. the two sides, the greek cypriots and turkish cypriot leaders presented a map on how they will adjust to territory that will be under greek cypriot administration and turkish cypriot administration. the difference between the two is roughly 1%, so there is a possible deal there. on the political front, it looks more positive than on the strategic and security domain. laura: the presence of turkish troops and some other issues there. are there any other real major speaking points at this point? john: the question is a timetable. how do you get this to happen? you have to get a political deal. down the road, whenever they get twohatever they get, the communities have to approve the referendum. proposed annan

solution, the greek cypriots rejected it by 75% while the turkish cypriots accepted it by nearly 2/3. we've got this situation where, from the bottom up, to prevent a repetition of what happened in 2004. whatever the politicians and ministers can prepare here might be rejected by a referendum. we've been surprised with referendums recently in europe. laura: we certainly have. john's era kostas -- john zar acostas in geneva. representatives from 70 countries will be in paris this sunday to try and solve the conflicts between israel and the palestinians. only one side of the conflict will be taking part in the talks. benjamin netanyahu says the meeting is rigged against the jewish state. hopeter: a message of ahead of sunday's middle east peace conference. peace can only]

be achieved by israelis and palestinians together. bilateral negotiations are necessary and sunday's meeting must reiterate the will to achieve a two state aleutian -- solution. reporter: an inclusive approach that was rejected by benjamin netanyahu, who said israel will not participate. >> there are other such efforts that render such piece hopeless, and one of them is the paris conference -- such peace hopeless, and one of them is the paris conference. it is rigged. reporter: over 70 countries will attend sunday's conference, which aims to restart stalled peace efforts in the middle east. the obama administration has grown increasingly frustrated with israel's perceived lack of interest in the peace process. the u.s. president recently policies,tanyahu's saying they prevented a two state solution. the united nations passed a

landmark resolution last month, calling for a halt to israeli settlement building. yet obama's decision not to veto the proposal was seen by many as his final act of defiance before donald trump takes over. >> the u.n. resolution that was passed, in my view, is not helpful. i think it actually undermines a good set of conditions for talks to continue. reporter: donald trump said that he wants to recommit to israel, implying he would also support the construction of new settlements. israeli-palestinian peace efforts have been at a standstill since the u.s.-led initiative collapsed in 2014. laura: a billionaire arts dealer has escaped jail after french court cleared him of tax fraud. wildenstein, heir to a multimillion euro fortune, was accused of hiding valuable paintings in order to dodge paying taxes. he had faced up to 10 years in prison, but was saved by a legal loophole.

a surprise victory in french court for the billionaire art dealer, wildenstein. he did not attend the trial to witness it himself. the 71-year-old art dealer was accused of hiding much of his billion-dollar inheritance from french tax authorities, accused of fiscal fraud and money laundering. he faced up to 10 years in prison. but the judge cleared him and his seven codefendants of all charges, citing shortcomings in the investigation. a surprise decision for everyone but his lawyer. [translating] i'm not celebrating. first off, i'm not the type. i don't rejoice in a decision that is totally justified. at the time of daniel wildenstein's death, there was no certainty that taxes were due on these assets in trust. so, this decision which goes against public opinion is perfectly logical. reporter: the wildenstein's have

been embroiled in candle -- scandal since the death of guy's father. guy and his family were suspected of using tax havens to avoid paying taxes on the multibillion euro estate. the french government demanded the wildenstein's pay 550 million euros in back taxes. the authorities wanted to make an example of wildenstein to crackdown on tax fraud more broadly. the prosecutor's office has 10 days to appeal. laura: kate moody is in the studio with us. kate: we all remember the volkswagen scandal. now another major carmaker has been accused of cheating in missions tests. this is in the united states. fiat-chrysler coming under fire as america's environmental protection agency accused the company of using cheating software in 104,000 diesel vehicles sold in the united states.

regulators said the cars and trucks limited more nitrogen oxide than -- cars and trucks emitted more nitrogen oxide than reported. they could be subject to a fine. fiat-chrysler has denied the charges, saying it did not cheat anymissions tests and irregularities are not comparable to the widescale reading that volkswagen itself admitted. shares on both sides of the atlantic plummeted by about 16% in the wake of that announcement. suspended briefly. trading of its u.s.-listed shares has resumed, trading down about 10% this hour. that announcement did weigh down the auto sector on the markets. it pushed -- pushed milan's stock exchange to close down about 1.5%. the cac 40 down about 0.5%. the ftse 100 defied the trend, once again hit a record high, ending the session just above the flat line. we are seeing losses on wall street as well, trading down

about 1/3 to 1/2 of 1%. analysts say donald trump's press conference did not reassure investors enough. we are seeing losses trickle over into this session. the mexican peso hit a record low on wednesday in wake -- the wake of the president-elect's address. it is still trading around 16% lower than it was before trump's election in november. a sign of just how vulnerable mexico's currency and indeed economy is. many mexicans are worried about how the incoming american president's policies will affect them. nowhere is that more the case then -- than where ford had planned to build a huge new factory, which was criticized by trump via twitter. a would be economic engine is now just the site of dashed hopes. ford's decision to cancel the $1.6 billion auto plant here is

reverberating around the region. [translating] now you can see that the equipment is being taken away and that there is nobody working here. slating] i have an uncle who was going to work at ford. now he is unemployed. reporter: the ford story is indicative of mexico's broader economic concerns. since nafta was signed in the mid-1990's, manufacturing has broadened -- brought an economic boom. they have become home to firms that provide tens of thousands of jobs. mexico's economy has reacted negatively to donald trump's promise to put tariffs on u.s. firms that produce goods across the border. half of all foreign investment in mexico comes from the united states. the peso has dropped 16% since november to record lows over worries that that investment could decrease. the economic loss from ford's

decision alone could be in the billions of dollars, and that might be just the beginning. >> [translating] undoubtedly, it is bad news for sam luis, for the central -- for san luis, for the central baja region. it was supposed to affect the overall environment. reporter: mexican politicians have sought to downplay trump's influence. the president said he would negotiate broadly with trump, but rejected attempts to -- laura: the obama administration has filed a new complaint against beijing at the world trade organization. it accused chinese government of artificially expanding its global market share of aluminum production through illegal subsidies and loans. accused and its allies china of flooding world markets with underpriced aluminum, steel, and other commodities in recent years. the move will further raise tensions between the u.s. and

china ahead of donald trump's inauguration. iran has received its first new western built airplane in decades. the airbus a-321 landed in tehran to an official welcome ceremony. symbolic of a new era in the country after most international sanctions were lifted. iranair has ordered a hundred planes from airbus and 80 from boeing as it seeks to upgrade its aging fleet. >> this is the first aircraft that we have delivered, and it's the first new claim that iran air-- new plane that iran can fly in many years. this is a historic moment. it's the rebuilding of the rainy and airtran -- of iranian air transportation. laura: moving on to some of today's other business headlines. amazon says it will hire 100,000 full-time workers in the united states over the next 18 months. say it is a sign that

the online retail giant may be planning to expand its budding network of physical store locations. -- a spokesmand for donald trump said the president-elect will be happy to have played a role in the decision to create new jobs. amazon's ceo was among the tech leaders who attended a meeting at trump tower last month, although there is no confirmation of any link. cvs has begun selling a generic alternative to the epipen for 1/6 of the price. the rival will be sold for $109, compared to $600. it comes just months after mylan came under fire for drastically raising the price of its life-saving allergy treatment. and apple is to start developing original tv content and possibly feature films. that's according to "the wall street journal," which says the tech giant is looking to make up for declining ipad sales and boost its apple tv service by putting it in direct, edition with streaming giants like netflix, hulu, and-- in direct

competition with streaming giants like netflix, hulu, and amazon. with us.ay we will have headlines for you right after this. >> hello. this is "live from paris" on "france 24." >> get connected. take the first step. tweet, like, become a fan of. breakaway from your tv. find another dimension. up to even more linked the news with france24.com, together with our mobobile and tablet app. "france 24." get a connected view of the world.

01/12/17 01/12/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! interest: conflict of provision as president. it was many, many years old. they do not want residents -- i understand, they do not want presidents getting tangled up in the new show. i could actually run my business. i could run my business and run government at the same time. government,