molly: welcome to the "france newsroom. i am molly hall. the european union outlines its negotiating plan for brexit. lays out donald trump his priorities for the remaining european countries. rex tillerson is an brussels. he is pushing nato allies to increase defense spending. park geun-hye is behind bars,

detained on bribery charges. ♪ we begin in israel where the government has approved the building of a new settlement in occupied west bank. this is the first such official sanctioning in more than 20 years. the new settlement was given unanimous backing on thursday. let's cross to giordano miller, who joins us now. walk us through -- what is this announcement we saw? dano: basically, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, convened his cabinet last night, and they confirmed they will set up this new jewish settlement in the west bank. the prime minister had promised

to set up the settlement, from the illegal hilltop outposts, called the mona. whatis interesting here is is going on with the united states because netanyahu has been in marathon talks with the white house about what to do with settlement activity. they had not come to an agreement yet, yet netanyahu move forward, announcing the settlement. basically, he refused to renig on the project, and on the same day, announcing that israel will limit settlement activity across the west bank, before there was an agreement with the white house. the white house is basically downplaying the issue, saying netanyahu is made this promise before trump took office, but still, we will have to see how this fleshes out. obviously, the palestinians are outraged. heard toohave not much from the trump administration, but we have heard from the night of nations as well as palestinian officials. jordana: that is right.

the chief secretary of the united nations is saying he is are alarmed by this year i spoke a short while ago to an advisor to the palestinian president, who said it is totally unacceptable, someone building illegally is a violation of international law, and he told me the palestinians are going to go to the united nations security council with this and try to demand some kind of action. thank youdana miller, so much, reporting from jerusalem. two days ago, british prime minister theresa may launched the historic two-year countdown to divorce. issued,elines have been listing the negotiating plans and priorities of the remaining 27 countries. tusk: you obviously are the u.k.'s desire to establish a strong policy with us. including security corporations

for our common interests. the talks, which i am about to start, will be difficult, complex, and sometimes even confrontational. -- thes no way around it european union does not and will not pursue a punitive approach. brexit in itself is already punitive enough. " meabh mcmahon24 joined us from brussels a short time ago. she walked us through the guidelines. there are six pages, not very detailed, but they reveal the principal guidelines for when the eu is going to enter these talks. there is no cherry picking. the u.k. will not have the same status as it does as an eu member, but it will not have an cartecard access -- a la

access. the question being -- what the you once to focus on first is the right of citizens, moving in the u.k., but also u.k. moving all around the block. that is what you see in the guidelines, an idea to create favors in order to deal with these negotiations. that would deal with the citizens and also with the divorce talk, we heard from "this is not a this is al," commitment they have already paid up to come and they will pay up to it. and the third issue will be focusing on the northern ireland and republic of ireland, ensuring peace on the island and making sure there are no hard borders.

then they will be able to move on to the second space. a framework for a future agreement can then be discussed. uprade deal could be started as soon as the end of this year. molly: meabh mcmahon joining us from brussels. we are staying in the belgian capital as there is a lot going on today. haveve nato messengers who gathered for a summit, and among them, u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson feared he is set to push nato allies to increase defense spending, arguing that washington carries too much of the financial burden. for more, let's go to fear benefit a -- to pierre. what is at stake in this meeting? the first point is one that have already talk about, which is the dire financial situation of nato. i do not mean to say the financial need

that has gone faceup, but the united states today face for about 68% of the global spending nato members. it is an old request, old demand from the u.s. that the other 27 allies cough up, if you will, in since 2014, it is now nato textbooks that all allies should pay up to 2% of the militarygdp in spending, and today, only eight of nato allies do reach these objectives, and rex tillerson has reiterated this morning the call for better european spending on military aggressions, even saying the recondition sports to allies. molly: let's take a listen to

what we heard from the secretary of state speaking this friday. first iserson: ensuring that nato has resources, financial and other wise, necessary for nato to fulfill its mission. secondly, we want to discuss how we can build on nato's already imported involvement on the fight to defeat isis and other counterterrorism actions that nato can provide that ultimately bring stability to the middle east. we want to have a discussion run nato's posture here in europe, most particularly eastern europe, in response to russia's aggression in ukraine and elsewhere. we have tillerson speaking on a number of issues. finance is one of them as well as the islamic state group and russia. generally speaking now that he is there at the meeting, that was unexpected until scheduling was changed. is he reassuring nato allies, and will they comply with this

financial question? pierre: well, he is reassuring the european allies, while his isual presence in itself part of the ongoing commitment of the united states, which was a big question of them since donald trump called nato " obsolete" during the campaign. obviously, the united states want the allies to pay up, and most of them that do see the need of better military spending. inknow that the situation eastern europe has been a factor for that. it has already made sure that baltic countries have a higher level of spending, and the europeans know that they cannot default to fall back on the

united states every time they have a concern. they now recognize that the situation is not as easy as it looked 20 years ago when the wall fell down, and they know that they have to spend. they have a better economic situation today. we just need to see how the future military budget will look like in france and germany after the oncoming election. molly: pierre, thank you for that, pierre benazet reporting from brussels. pakistan, awest of deadly blasts, at least 22 people killed and 70 others wounded when a bomb tore through parachinar, the capital of the koran tribal district. next, from president to prisoner, the unprecedented fall

from grace for south korean leader pargo hey. -- park geun-hye. andcharges include bribery a wide-ranging corruption scandal. our sarah morris has the story. after nine hours of questioning, south korea's former president was arrested on allegations of bribery. she was driven to a detention center in seoul where she will be held for allegedly abusing her office. the 65-year-old was force-out of the presidency for having allegedly extorted big businesses with friend choice. park is the country was the first in the critically elected leader to be thrown out of office. a board in seoul approved her arrest, saying she may try to destroy evidence in her case. as part headed to the detention facility, supporters rallied outside, shouting "president." demonstrators also gathered at

her home and she made her way to court. some also clashed with police. the corruption allegations sparked months of mass protests in south korea. with many calling on part to stand down. parliament and peach to in december, and the constitutional court dismissed her in march. prosecutors can hold park in a detention center for up to 20 days before formally charging her. in south korea, a bribery conviction can carry a sentence of up to life in prison. molly: next, we cross to venezuela where the opposition is accusing president nicolas maduro of staging a coup after his royalists in the spring powers from the national assembly. read above us -- rudabah abbass has more.

rudabah: on thursday, if these powers from the national assembly. the opposition holds a 2/3 majority. president maduro secured a landslide victory by promising to oust him. the supreme court accused him of contempt after three politicians had earlier been suspended over a legend electoral fraud -- alleged electoral fraud. >> these are people voting for a change in their country, and the supreme court believes they can step over the venezuelan people. the people believe they can use the majority to limit maduro, but the supreme court has overturned every law they have push for. >> the supreme court approves that we are in a dictatorship, and the government do not recognize the people's well. rudabah: maduro has been accused

of treason for violating democratic norms. this can lead to prison sentences of up to 30 years. molly: next, spacex has successfully launched a reusable rocket. elon musk hailed the achievement as a revolution, saying it brings the world one step closer to commercial space travel. >> 3, 2, 1. reporter: it is no ordinary rocket launch. the falcon nine booster made its first launch a year ago, but after being recycled and reused, it took off for a second time on thursday afternoon. a first for the space industry, which could lead to major savings. to be a huge going revolution and a spaceflight, a difference between if you have airplanes where you threw away an airplane after every flight,

but instead, you can reuse them multiple times. it has taken 15 years to get to this point. , a lottaken a long time of difficult steps along the way, but i was just incredibly proud of the spacex team for the ultimate achievement. incredible milestone in the history of space. reporter: by reusing rockets, spacex hopes to eventually cut costs by about 30% pure to the company is also working on a commercial spaceship with a long-term goal of flying passengers to mars and back. coming up, it is 15 minutes past 1:00 p.m. here in the french capital. time now for a business update. i'm joined by charles pellegrino. charles, we will discuss the economic impact of the syrian war. charles: syria has been in a state of unrest since march 20 11th. the conflict has killed over

28,000 people, and since 5000 peopleore than have fled the country. in addition to representing a itself,anitarian crisis on thursday, the one called for over $4.5 billion to support the displaced population. it is also proved to be an economic burden for the population. of overhas a population 4 million people come over one million people of which are syrian refugees. here to tell us more about this topic is the deputy director for .he middle east thanks for joining us again. how would you say the influx of discs -- of displaced people affected the economy of serious neighboring countries? >> these three countries -- turkey, jordan, and lebanon -- have already been facing difficulties because of the

international financial crisis since 2008. on top of that particular they've seen a major influx of refugees. unlike refugees to europe, have been a much larger proportion of the population of these countries. costsave had significant for the budget of these countries. they have had significant cost, in terms -- together in turn with the regional conflicts, with the investment climate. charles: would you say that is necessary a burden, having these refugees come in? isn't it sometimes an economic opportunity as well? ei: refugees could bring economic opportunities in some cases. terms of lebanon, their refugee population is very large, so it is a significant shock to the labor market of these countries, so it is not very clear if it will be

entirely positive, especially in the short run. is the imfat specifically doing to help these countries alleviate the burden? mr. mazarei: we have an economic program with jordan where we are supporting them with over $700 million. we offer them also policy advice, technical assistance to raise the capacity of the government to meet them. and lebanon and in turkey, we offer technical assistance and policy support. isrles: most of the focus obviously on the human toll of the conflict. but if one were to look forward to a time when the war ends, even if that is far away, what would syria look like from an economic standpoint in terms of structure or education? nationalei: syria's output has declined by about 70%. much of the infrastructure has been destroyed. considerable losses of

foreign-exchange reserves. so it is very important for them to develop very quickly a vision of how to put the country back on track. it is a region that is seen to be fair by members of the country, irrespective of national or subnational identities or regions, but also the international community has to step up and be very supportive of this financial aid. charles: what about the so-called "lost generation"? how does the country deal with a generation of people who have dropped out of the school system? how do you rebuild when you do not have human capital anymore? mr. mazarei: as many of our international partners -- for example, the world bank and others -- have suggested, there is critical necessity of putting emphasis on education. for example, some of the support for the refugees in jordan and lebanon, and that has been to provide education.

so somebody in jordan, for example, there are other shifts. education, health, and meeting the immediate need of the populations. charles: thank you for a much, deputy director of the imf for the middle east and central asia, here to talk to us about the economic impact of the syrian crisis. before leaving, let's take a quick look at how the european markets are faring this hour. european indices are trading lower at the moment. investors are digesting the new guidelines for the potential brexit deal shared by donald tusk this friday. they are taking in the cabinet reshuffle taking place in south africa with the prime minister being dismissed by president zuma. the ftse is down .07%. molly: charles, thank you. it is time now for our press review. by allison here

sergeant. hi, allison. you will start off with reaction to the u.s. secretary of state's visit to turkey. he is in brussels for the nato meeting, but ahead of that -- or i should say prior to that, he was in turkey. allison: that was the highest level state visit between the two countries since the election of president trump. you can see the hand-check -- handshake along with turkey's new hope for energy and u.s. ties. turkey has been hoping the trump administration would bring new energy onto issues in particular, one is the u.s. alliance with kurdish troops in syria, who turkey says as part of a terrorist group, so they want that alliance to stop. the other is the extradition of , and thesh cleric paper said he beat around the bush during his press conference , and they give us analysis from

a turkish academic who says the current administration has come into power but has not become competence, meaning they do not completely reflect their own policies. in the u.s., "the washington post" says tillerson was working hard on his visit to appease turkey, described as a frustrated ally, but the paper reports there were many flashes of tension during the visit. molly: it does not appear to mention what appears to be the u.s. policy shift, they will no longer make it a priority to force bashar al-assad out of power. alison: yes, this signals a shift in the region in general on u.s. policy. rex tillerson does not mention it, but the editorial is expressing worry in general over changing policy in the middle east and in particular how that will impact civilians. there was the recent bombing by the u.s. in most all that killed some 200 civilians, and the "new york times" says the trump administration has so far displayed a reckless attitude in the middle east and does not have a strategy for long-term stability in iraq or syria.

molly: let's focus on friends or to two weeks away from the presidential election, and one paper says things are not as bad for the former front-runner, fillon.il francois who arethat is people not admitting in polls so they are going to vote for. that path is most often associated with the national front, but due to the numerous scandals, that has made it so that people are now fighting -- hiding the fact that they're going to vote for him. according to "l'opinion," fillion may be in front of a .emmanual asking are you going to choose the strategic vote, the hidden vote, or the professional vote? molly: all right, we do have a

focus, the winter truth. truth" is a winter measure that prevents landlords from kicking other tenants of they cannot pay rents during the cold winter months. it goes into effect in november and ends tomorrow on april 1. this means the start of every stressful period for families who are facing financial difficulty. according to the communist paper on their front page, they're asking -- do we want to stop this, or are we going to keep it up? molly: a controversy in the u.s. regarding gender, americans debating whether or not it is ok with aan to eat alone man he is not eating with. if you ask american vice president mike pence, he would say absolutely not, he does not elite alone with women

other than his -- does not eat alone with other women other than his wife. the "washington post" says for americans with conservative christian values, it is totally normal, and this is not shocking. the backlash just in once again that liberals are very out of touch with many of their countrymen and how americans live in separate worlds. meanwhile, the huffington post does make a strong case for why this does matter and we should care about this, they say mike pence's, support and archaic worldview that men have no self control and women are temptresses. so they are wondering if the vice president can see women as an equal and not just as a threat to his marriage. molly: for more, go to france24.com/inthepress. all right, stay with us. we are going to take a quick break, but the news continues here on "france 24." ♪

love watching "france 24" in english. mark: i i am m mark owens. >> in syria -- >> huge lines to answer that question. >> but "france 24" is also available in french. in arabic. featured on cable and satellite systems and online media in france and across the world. ♪

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there is something that happens in a creative city where creative people feed off of each other. painter, but are a you are looking at a movie. you are a movie maker but you were looking at a piece of architecture and design. there is this idea if you get a bigger idea, it is better because those ideas circulate. >> the city is diverse. it is big. it is s constantly morphining. it is constantly changing.g. this healthy tense and -- tension