>> welcome to live from paris. i'm rochelle ferguson. centrist presidential candidate emmanuel macron takes aim at his far right opponent and warns people in the north of france against the dangers of nationalism. this after being upstaged by marine le pen on a visit to an appliance factory. the european parliament begins proceedings to lift marine le pen's immunity over misused funds. the institution believes a fake

job scandal has cost the institution nearly 5 million euro's. amid growing concerns over north korea's weapons test, the u.s. sanctions toup pressure p on yang to resume dialogue over its nuclear program. also coming up this hour, the white house calls it the biggest tax reform in u.s. history. we will also have our campaign beat magazine. stay tuned. you are watching live from paris. less than a fortnight before round two of french presidential elections. the campaign between emmanuel macron and his far right rival marine le pen is moving up

again. macron took aim at his opponent, accusing her of pretending to represent the people while in fact being the heir to her father's political party. macron warned residents against the danger of nationalism. earlier on wednesday, emmanuel macron was heckled by workers at a whirlpool appliance factory. this followed a visit by marine le pen. she upstaged her arrival by turning up unannounced before him and holding talks with worker representatives. workers were striking amid fears that they will use their jobs next year when the clothes drying plant is expected to move to poland. we have this report. example ofc political brinksmanship.

marine le pen appeared unannounced at the picket line. to lead workers of his own where a presidential battle played out before a disillusioned audience. >> even if they know we can't -- we know they can't do anything, we want to feel more supported. >> how do you choose between the plague and cholera? i don't know who i'm going to vote for. poll, 37% ofto a factory workers nationally voted for le pen in the first round. it was never going to be an easy visit for macron, even if it is his hometown. >> why did he come to see us? because marine le pen came. he changes with the wind. >> we don't expect anything from him. >> emmanuel macron is intelligent. does he stand for the factory workers? it's time for him to prove it. it's 2017. he needs to take care of whirlpool.

>> many here are resigned to the fact that the american electrical goods giant will relocate the factory to poland. with the election fast approaching, it seems centrist globalist macron still has a way to go before convincing france's factory workers he's on their side. >> the european parliament has begun proceedings to lift marine le pen's immunity over misused funds. they believe the fake jobs scandal has cost themem nearly 5 million euro's. accocording to one s source thet of the scandal which involves the employment of assistance and bodyguards has risen considerably after new information was revealed. for the very latest we can cross live to brussels with meabh mcmahon. what can you tell us about this story? we can tell you that the form

of protest has begun to -- has beguncess - to lift marine le pen's immunity. she's the cochair of a group that is very much anti-the european union. ourlight problem with connection. hopefully we can take you back to brussels later in the program. concerns over north korea's weapon test, the u.s. has vowed to step up sanctions to try and pressure pyongyang to resume dialogue over its nuclear program. president trump's latest strategy was revealed following

a briefing at the white house. washington has defended employing a contentious antimissile system in korea which infuriated china. the white house has said it is open to negotiations. >> the donald trump administration is making the north korean nuclear situation the centerpiece of its foreign policy. we have seen this briefing of senators. a very unusual high-profile move as well as references to it in with thehis meetings chinese president and his various tweets and so forth. north korea is central to what the trump administration wants to do. the question is what is the red line?

we don't see any signs of imminent military action. we are seeing more sanctions, the attempt to build a united political front with china against north korea and so forth. i think what people are slightly concerned about now is the progress of north korea's weapons test. right now north korea doesn't have a working icbm. it is continually testing its missile technology and wants to achieve this. icbm andieves a full it already has half of one, it has the ability to put a satellite into space. it has the technology to get the system of in the air. it doesn't have the systems to bring it down. which means a reentry vehicle and the guidance systems to land the missile. will almost certainly be focusing on those technologies in the future.

if it achieves full icbm capability, that is when america may feel very threatened. i think that is the point when a red line will appear. the question is how will the u.s. administration cross that red line? presidents are judged by what they have accomplished in their first 100 days in the u.s. it is a period that has been marked by the peoples and controversy. thatnald trump hits benchmark on saturday, we take a look at how he has handled america's foreign-policy. >> america first. >> as he took the oath of office, donald trump repeated his biggest campaign promise. this policy delighted his supporters and alarmed allies, who worried it would mark a new era of american isolationism. three months into his first term, trump has done an about-face on many of his previous foreign-policy positions.

leaving friends and foes alike unsure of where things stand. >> i think what we are seeing right now is opportunism as foreign-policy. he is reacting to particular events without a coherent strategy behind it. >> take the u.s. relationship with china. on the campaign trail trump took a very dim view of beijing's policies. >> i'm going to instruct my treasury secretary to label china a currency manipulator. which should have been done years ago. >> now trump is touting the great chemistry he has with the chinese president after meeting him at his florida state. a veryre going to have great meeting and i look -- relationship and i look very much forward to it. >> another flip, the relevance of nato.

>> i said it was obsolete. it's no longer obsolete. nato will takeat on an increased role in supporting our iraqi partners in their battle against isis. >> trump also signaled a shift on syria with officials saying president bush are all assad -- assad's removal no longer a priority. many of the changes are towards more conventional foreign policy. as trump has already proved, he's entirely capable of flipping again. >> turkey says it has changes as more conventional foreign policy. as trump has already suspended more than 9000 police officers over alleged ties to a u.s. based cleric who it claims for the july 15 failed coup.

the suspensions come a day after authorities detained more than 1000 people during simultaneous nationwide operations. brian quinn has this report. the largestof crackdowns since the start of purges last summer. over 1100 people were arrested across turkey on wednesday. over 3000 more are the target of arrest warrants. more than 9000 police officers have been temporarily suspended here in all of them suspected of links to the exiled cleric. presidentse ally of erdogan, now his nemesis. he is accused of having orchestrated a failed coup last july. >> we have uncovered and brought down a structure of secret imams who have infiltrated law enforcement and tried to guide it from outside. forming almost an alternative police structure.

andeachers, journalists judges have also been caught up in the dragnet. since july, over 46,000 people have been jailed and more than 100,000 fired from their jobs on suspicion of loyalty to the cleric who now lives in the united states. resident erdogan fresh off victory in the referendum aimed at expanding his presidential powers is due to meet with president trump. he is expected to repeat his demand for extradition, which has so far been refused. having just bombed kurdish fighters in iraq and syria, erdogan is looking to demonstrate that he is in a position of strength both inside turkey and beyond. >> iranians will head to the poll for elections on may 19. the economycy and are tangled together as voters try to decide between the moderate government and the more

conservative stance. alexander hearst has this report. with shouts of death to america and death to israel, supporters of the hard-line candidate voiced their desire for change in iranian foreign policy. he is the leading opponent of the moderate president and a staunch critic of his landmark nuclear deal. today americans are afraid of the name thereon. -- iran. giving the signal to our enemies that sanctions against iran have been effective will encourage them to increase sanctions. they won't give up sanctions this way. our country must become strong economically and politically. iran's economic performance is tightly interwoven with the nuclear deal under which

sanctions are gradually being lifted. many are angry about high unemployment, which challengers hope to exploit. i will vote for him because he against corruption. he is an efficient manager and he thinks about the weak and poor classes of society. we are being crushed under economic problems. >> he argues the nuclear agreement is not reversible and of the six candidates in the race, he is the best one to steward its implementation. low turnout could been a change of regime and a potential shift in direction. a quick reminder of the top stories we are following. the centrist presidential candidate emmanuel macron takes aim at his far right opponent and warns people in the northern france against the dangers of nationalism.

being upstaged by marine le pen on a visit to an appliance factory. growing concerns over north korea's weapons test, the u.s. vows to step up sanctions to pressure pyongyang to resume dialogue over its nuclear program. time for the campaign beat. our daily roundup of the news from the french presidential election campaign trail. things definitely went up a notch yesterday. marinemanuel macron and le pen visiting the whirlpool factory in the north of france. itt is set to shut down when moves to poland. yesterday it was at the heart of a media storm. the moment when the gloves really came off in the presidential campaign. initially this was an opportunity for emmanuel macron

to kick start the second part of his campaign. he had scheduled a meeting with worker representatives at the chamber of commerce. marineone upped by le pen, who stole his thunder. she staged a surprise visit to the factory. much to the surprise of the workers. she stayed for about 15 minutes. she did make a lot of promises in those 15 minutes. factoryised to keep the open and she took the opportunity to swing out at her arrival. -- rival. workerse come to see who were the victims of the economic policies defended by emmanuel macron. he is meeting carefully selected people in a hall in the chamber of commerce. two ways of seeing things and two ways of acting.

stay strong. you are the pride of all of those in france who are working and to those who have lost their jobs because of this economic policy. to be outdone, macron also visited the factory. he didn't receive such a warm welcome. doing -- greeted with booing. he didn't surrender. halfent an hour and a talking to these striking workers. at the end it seemed like some had listened to him. some shook his hand at the end. analysts say he actually managed to pull off quite a tricky gamble. quite a thorny situation for him. it certainly pumped him up. you can just listen to him later in the day speaking at a rally where he also tackled his rival. >> we will not give in.

they will not go through. i don't want that. those have decided to be the sleepwalkers of the 21st century. shame on them. strong.tanding we are moving forward and we will hold on until the end. responsibly. i want something else from my country. not that. not that. >> yesterday's surprise face-off may have spiced up the campaign but it hasn't convinced all voters. some are tempted not to go to the ballot boxes at all. aboutwere talking undecided voters. now we are talking about voters tempted by abstaining. was 23%.rst round it that could really climb in the runoff. with only 11 days to go until the second round of the french

election, the specter of abstention is looming. some voters are making the decision to choose neither candidate. we don't agree with either candidate. we will abstain. a sentiment that has been trending on twitter. far left candidate jean-luc melenchon has surprised many by refusing to endorse either candidate. instead asking his supporters opinion using an online survey. option one i vote with a blind ballot. i vote for macron. i abstain. >> even former president nicolas has called on his supporters to vote for emmanuel macron in the second round. >> we don't have to follow them.

we are old enough to make our own decisions. to know who we want to vote for. >> in the final days of their campaign, marine le pen and emmanuel macron will have to keep battling for every vote. >> that report mentioned that jean-luc melenchon came in fourth in round one, drawing 7 million votes. that's a lot to give away. >> he has drawn a lot of criticism for not endorsing macron or at least telling his voters to block the national front. when marine le pen's father made it to the second round, he was very vocal about the fact that voters should block the far right. listen to him in 2002. his voters today are divided about what to do. >> on may 5 you shouldn't hesitate. wear gloves, hold your nose or whatever. it's important to keep le pen as low as possible. >> i can't vote for them because of my values.

could you vote for marine le pen? >> i don't know. i need to think about it. she's right about a lot of things like unemployment and immigration. in france we have no jobs. nothing left. about whether to abstain or not is playing out on social media. people are seeing this debate about whether or not to abstain. it's actually a very emotional debate. you can see people in favor of abstaining. can see this person comparing le pen and macron. comparing hate, finance, nationalism, neoliberalism. some people were outraged by this kind of thing. to think that in certain

countries people die to have the right to vote and to hear people are thinking about abstaining in the second round. there is real debate online. perhaps people will be encouraged to vote by these new campaign posters. quite a lot of similarities. their party's movement isn't on the poster. they have chosen the word france. they are both wearing blue vests. these candidates are really polar opposites. >> absolutely. thank you very much for the campaign beat. that's all we have time for. you can check out this episode of campaign beat on their website at france 24.com. -- our website at france 24.com. let's have a look at the business news. start with donald trump's tax plan. that has been receiving some rather mixed reaction. his administration calls it

the biggest tax cut in history. the proposal is light on detail and has raised concern it would illumine the budget deficit. they are happy with the proposed plan to cut corporate from 30 5% to 15%. shop inis flower chicago donald trump's tax cut plan came as great news for its owner. the proposal could potentially cut his business tax rate i more than half to just 15%. >> as a small business owner, is challenging. if we can keep more money there is more money for me to spread around. with the decrease in the tax rate i may be able to reinvest the money. >> the owner of this cookie company in atlanta is also hopeful. she wants to give her staff raises. she thinks the plan will increase economic growth.

people will spend money so it will give me more money to be able to expand and come up with new products and more people. administration is saying tax cuts will help small businesses hire more. some believe that may not actually happen. that the proposed tax cuts will benefit big corporations and the wealthy. most directis the impact is going to be for the owners of corporate shares and they are owned by the upper brackets of the wealth distribution. isn't a's tax proposal done deal because it would likely reduce government revenue by trillions of dollars and that could illumine the deficit. lawmakers will likely push for a more moderate cap -- modest tax cut package. trump white house says will not pull out of the north

american free trade agreement just yet. spoke with the leaders of canada and mexico by phone and told them he wouldn't terminate the deal that would still want to renegotiate. this after reports he was considering an executive order to withdraw from the deal. $1.1year nafta generated trillion in trilateral trade. trump once called it the worst trade deal ever. let's take a look at how the markets have been reacting. mexican pesto and canadian dollar bounced back after trumps announcement to stay in nafta. the decline comes ahead of the european central bank's policy decision due out later today. of take a look at some other business headlines. giant has and gas reported a better-than-expected results for the first quarter of the year.

the company has also approved a major project on a show gas site in argentina. -- shale gas site in argentina. airline carriers have increased boost tax profit. the company is remaining cautious, saying it has to see how the summer travel season pans out. sales of the french luxury grouped jumped by 11% in the first three months of the year. the demand for leather goods grew 15% thanks to the success of handbags. the rising sales are thanks to the expanding chinese market.

know what message a girl has underneath her clothes. >> a japanese underwear maker has released prototypes of what it calls premium friday bras.

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