>> hello, this is live from paris, good to have you with us. here are the top stories we are following for you this hour. back, that's from british prime minister theresa may after she officially launched the historic brexit process. racking up the endorsements. french centrist presidential candidate emmanuel macron gets a boost. manuel valls giving him the seal of approval. ♪ french minister's graham

will to solve the crisis in french guiana arising in the overseas department amid ongoing wide strides -- widespread strike in protest. ♪ first of this hour, the countdown is on to britain's break away from the european union. prime minister theresa may has kick started the official brexit process by sending a formal letter to the eu, but it won't get quickie divorce, the country is faced with two years of negotiations. back. there's no turning they need to reach agreements on a number of contentious issues, things like trade and security that could prove to be sticking

points down the line. at london's big ben struck midnight, so begin the countdown to the deadline to negotiate a deal on brexit. thes between the eu and u.k. are expected to begin in may or june. three issues will top the agenda, citizens rights, the order and the u.k. divorce bill. staff agreement must be reached in these areas before talks can begin on a trade deal. about 1.2 million british citizens live elsewhere in the european union. there are about 3 million eu citizens in the u.k., those who have lived and worked there for five years are eligible to apply for residency. the british government is not said when it intends to cut off rules on free movement of people

but they're likely to insist the laws remain in place until the eu leaves the union. in ireland, the number has increased by 40% with many of the passport applications coming from north of the border. the border is a contentious issue on the island. the u.k. brexit secretary and the eu chief negotiator have agreed there should be no return to a hard order. the british prime minister, theresa may, also says she wants the common travel area between ireland and the u.k. to be retained. peopleement of goods and -- how the movement of goods and people will be monitored remains unknown. the u.k. may have to pay a high price to leave the eu. the european commission has calculated it may have to provide up to 60 billion euros

as part of the so-called divorce bill to cover its share of debt, pensions, and unpaid bills. the outcome of the negotiations will be closely watched. either leaders say the don't want to punish the u.k. for --ving, but without anti-e.u. sentiment rising in many member states, they don't want to be too generous by agreeing to a deal that made encourage others to follow in theresa may's footsteps. a member of 3 million, not-for-profit organization which campaigns for the rights of eu citizens in the u.k. as well as british nationals in the you -- in the eu. thanks for joining us on life from paris this evening. you are married to a british citizen. today's developments must have made brexit very real. how are you dealing after this formal triggering of the

process? disappointed, and devastated, really. richelle: what are your fears going into these two years of negotiations? >> the fears are that eu citizens in the u.k., and u.k. , our right torope carry on our normal lives are not guaranteed. we just want our right to be guerin teed. people just want to get on with and have an idea about what's going to happen to us. richelle: how is your organization campaigning to ensure the rights of eu citizens in the u.k. are protected? with have campaigned

writing letters to our mp, we've had a big lobbying day in parliament on the 20th of february. we have written to our mps and we've written to the house of we have tried to get unilaterally to guarantee our rights before the negotiations are. -- before the negotiations start. so far we have not gotten a lot of answers. richelle: british prime minister theresa may today insisted that she would fight for every single person living in the u.k., whether they are british nationals or eu nationals. do you think you will be listened to? >> we haven't been listened to

so far. but we welcomed the statement the other day that citizens will come first. and we hope that theresa may not bellow that fact and included in other negotiations about liability and trade deals and so on. we want to have our rights guaranteed separately, in a and the agreement, other issues. if the worst happens and the u.k. walks away from their negotiations, who will tell us what happens then? richelle: thank you for a much

for your time this evening here on "france 24." delivered,led, and with britain sending a letter to brussels to formally asked the eu for divorce, negotiators on both sides are faced with the mammoth task of hammering out a brexit deal. questions are raised whether an agreement can be reached within the two-year timeframe. we take a look at the main players sitting down at the negotiating table. unchartedentering waters. >> the voice of the 27 member eu's leadingis the brexit negotiating member. strucke deal will be unless the rights of the 3 million european nationals living in britain are secure and as for britain's 60 billion euro brexit bill, the former eu commissioner said it won't be

paid before talks can begin. opposite will be david davis, britain secretary state for exiting the european union says the debt is nowhere near 60 billion and the u.k. may even pay the block nothing. two weeks ago, davis stunned mps bite meeting government had done no assessment in the event of britain leaving the eu without a deal. but the former shadow home willtary said the rights be protected as long as he gets guarantees for the 1.2 million britons living in europe. promises, earlier davis distance himself from the claim that britain will secure the same benefits as single market membership and upcoming talks and suggested that playing the ball -- paying the block for access is off the table. to some: let's move on other world news, another blow for france who socialist andidential candidate,

manuel valls has not endorsed him. instead, endorsing the centrist independent emmanuel macron. profile the most high to turn his back on the party candidate. reporter: two month since he lost the socialist primary, manuel valls is breaking the promise he made to his party and falling into step behind centrist emmanuel macron. >> don't think we should take any risks for the country, so i will vote emmanuel macron within the -- with enthusiasm. i've taken on my responsibility. this is about being reasonable. reporter: like many socialist politicians who have rallied he sided low poll numbers and the rise of the far right. many reacted with outrage.

calling for all parties on the left to join forces. valls.sage for manuel >> the voices and the mind behind the measures that did so much harm to the socialist party , stripping convicted terrorist other nationalities and the labor laws have found a well frown -- well found refuge in man will macron. >> first of all, i would like to thank him for what is to come next. i've already said that i will ensure new practices. >> which means you won't necessarily govern with him if elected? >> that's right. pushed toised, he have him named economy minister in 2014. theyuel macron's image --

both been accused of betraying françois élan -- on swap hollande. richelle: in a bid to restore calm and find a solution to end the unrest, to government ministers were dispatched this wednesday. anger is boiling over in french guiana amid the high cost of living and the fate of social services, with many people accusing the government of failing to live up to its promises. >> during his presidential campaign, franãois hollandee made 30 promises. first to lower the cost of living by requiring supermarkets and other distributors to negotiate with the government over the cost of a typical cartload of groceries. the french government adopted the measure in 2012. another promise, to lower banking ease and the price of telecommunications.

>> a promise before you get the cost of communications on , andine and mobile phones both directions, the prices will be harmonized at the start of 2013 so that calling anywhere cost the same as a call within mainland france. >> the french service provider was found guilty of charging abusive rates, but internet still cost 40% more overseas than a dozen metropolitan france and bank these are 80% more expensive. another promise, to create more housing. .500 public housing units were built over four years in french guiana, but it was not enough. 13,000 people are still waiting for a place to live. hollande also promised to increase security. security forces have been beefed up, but people have not seen the results. the department still has by far the highest murder rate in france. richelle: four towns in syria have been thrown a lifeline. the besieged towns are set to be

evacuated next week when at least 30,000 people are given safe passage, after pro-government forces and rebel fighters struck a deal brokered iran.ar and meanwhile, a cease-fire for those towns has begun and is hoped this partial truce will last nine months. according to the u.n., at least 600,000 people are living under siege in syria. there was once a vibrant and bustling town in iraq, but nearly completely destroyed when the islamic state group captured it in 2015. although the militants were fleshed out last october, it's something of a ghost town today. a handful of residents have trickled back in, but life has yet to go back to normal after the i.s. carved out a devastating trail of destruction. vibrant: in this once christian town in northern iraq,

time stand still. islamic state group seized it in 2014, laying waste to churches, icons, and crosses. it was recaptured by iraqi troops last october but the town is still eerily quiet. many of those wandering the streets are members of a small christian militia. >> i feel beyond sad. i can tell you that i'm destroyed. even my emotions are destroyed. we would like the people of the town to come back. a lot of us have left out of the country. some went to australia, some to the u.s., and others to france. thehis church was used as firing range by the jihadist during the rule. yet another example of the devastation of iraqi towns once held by the islamic state group. many former residents like this family in a nearby city still long to go home, but with basic services yet to be restored, returning remains afar off

dream. left, we didn't take any of our belongings. nothing. i cleaned house, closed it up, and left. we thought it would be a day or two and we would go back, and the situation has been like this for three years. liberate for them to the town, so we could go back, and now this is liberation. >> christians who fled are living in scattershot camps like this one. about onence home to point 5 million christians. there are now thought to be less than 200,000. richelle: an anti-apartheid activist was laid to rest. closely alongside nelson mandela. he died on tuesday at the age of 87. he was a vocal critic of the country's current leader in speaking out against the ruling

anc. zuma to stayld away. screen authorities say the damage done by cyclone debbie was less severe than originally anticipated. the fierce category for storm slammed into the northern queensland coast on tuesday, packing winds of up to 260 kilometers per hour. the cyclone was later downgraded as it moved inland but not before forcing tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. >> homes ripped apart, trees uprooted, roads flooded and cars adrift. a trail of chaos lies in the wake of cyclone debbie, as residents emerge from their shelters to tell the tale. pop andher the windows we felt the pressure in our ears.

the wind came through the garage here and popped the back windows as well. we thought it's not safe anymore, let's escape, so we went over to the neighbors place. >> we have an open bar now. deckso have trees on our weary trees and agree are absolutely everywhere. coast wasortheastern battered by winds of up to 260 kilometers per hour, leaving over 60,000 homes without electricity. some remote communities were left entirely cut off by the storm. rescue workers set out to reach them as the military sent vehicles, aircraft and supplies. state authorities urged residents to stay indoors as emergency efforts got underway. >> there would be nothing more tragic than waking up and seeing walls that are coming from your houses, groups that are blown off, and debris lying across the

road. storm weakens and moves inland, residents along the northeast coast get ready to face the long cleanup that lies ahead. latest istime for the this news with kate moody. you have been following the market reaction to article 50 being triggered. how are investors responding? relief as a sign of the long-awaited process finally begins. much of the brexit related turmoil seems to have subsided. we saw gains of .4% across the board for the major european indices including the london ftse 100. there were some loss in the banking sector but overall a positive session. a mixed picture over on wall street. stocks paring back from tuesday's gains after strong consumer confidence was

released. the nasdaq leading gains just under five percent. the currency markets are fairly this wednesday. £ sterling dropped against the dollar, strengthened a bit now, trading down about $1.24, rising slightly against the euro. earlier i ask the market analyst what was the top priority for the u.k. economy as it heads into the brexit negotiations. take a listen. >> the top priority is to really get a handle on the low hanging about so really it's getting the right to eu nationals in the u.k. and u.k. nationals in the eu sorted out and agree first off. then you have the matter of the brexit will, there are significant differences about that. we really need to get that sorted out first. angela merkel had suggested that once a framework has been put in

aace, there is scope for parallel trade deal. we are not really going to know much about the eu response but before the 29th of april. unless there is an eu summit where we will get some idea of a codified and coherent eu response. we will get guidelines in the next couple of days, but a broad-based eu reaction, we will have to wait a little bit longer for. but i think a quick trade deal is a high priority for both sides. sectors orspecific industries have the most to lose as we head into an uncertain future? secretll think it's any the city of london here's going to be quite high on the list of priorities, not only for the u.k. but for the european union. mark carney, governor of the bank of england, highlighted the fact that the city of london remains the investment banker for the european union. while the eu suggested there will be no special deal for the city of london, given the

problems that europe currently has with respect to the italian banks, and more broadly with some big german banks, i think it's incumbent on both parties to try to hard out -- sort of the city of london status quickly. the european economy requires the free flow of money to flow unencumbered. i think the role of the city of london and the framework for financial regulations for banking needs to be a high priority. one decision making waves on the markets this wednesday is the formal refusal to greenlight themerger, the third time operators have tried to join forces since the year 2000. the deal had already been burned out by the u.k. decision to leave the european union. some saying the tie up would

have stifled competition. markets, it provides the same services. markets, they are essentially the only players and the merger with their or led to a de facto monopoly. a nuclear energy firm owned by the shiva has filed for bankruptcy protection in the united eights. westinghouse a struggled for years as the global tide turned away from nuclear energy. the parent company is expecting record losses of nearly $9 billion. we have this port. >> it looks to be the end of an era for one of america's nuclear giants. westinghouse electric filed for bankruptcy protection on wednesday. its parent company, tokyo-based toshiba, has decided to cut its losses on the subsidiary that

has racked up debts of nearly $10 billion. want to make this our first step toward recovering are solid business by firmly eliminating risk in the overseas nuclear power business. >> westinghouse's demise can be traced to factors including falling gas prices, the fukushima nuclear accident, and spiraling costs at its planned south carolina and georgia plants. toshiba has felt the effects. in march,ar ending expects a net loss of $9 billion, one of the biggest annual losses for a japanese company ever. in addition to the injection of external funds into our memory chip businesses, including a we will transfer, continue to review our assets without exception and continue to sell off assets with low value.

>> complex negotiations with creditors are set to follow. they could also involve the american and japanese governments because the u.s. government offered over $8 billion in loan guarantees to help finance the as yet unfinished nuclear plants. kate: samsung has released its first new smartphone since the debacle over its exploding phones. it features large displays an artificial intelligence assistant. in september the company was forced to recall its galaxy note seven at report the batteries overheated and burst into flames. the scandal damaged the firm's reputation and cost the company over $5 billion. samsung is anxious to regain its status as a trusted electronics brand and the world's number one smartphone company. >> it was definitely a challenging time and we took a lot of lessons from it. we also implemented, thanks to the lessons we learned, a lot of new things in the way we designed the phones and test the

battery. we will make sure this never happens again. on the other hand, we know that customers have remained white loyal to us and we had very nice demonstration of people keeping faith in samsung and being very loyal to our brand. richelle:e[>@o vp

03/29/17 03/29/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracacy now! >> i have said it from the day i got here until whatever -- there is no connection. you have got russia. if the president puts russian salad dressing on his salad tonight but somehow that is a russian connection. amy: as the white house fights back over questions of the trump's campaign possible ties to russia, republican lawmaker devin nunes is facing growing calls to step aside from leaving thho