genie: you're watching france 24. time for 60 minutes live around the world. i'm genie godula. these are the headlines. inecond day of protest barcelona the spanish government blocking an independent referendum for the independent region of catalonia. rescuers digging through the rubble in mexico after an earthquake leaves close to 200 dead. -- 240

hurricane maria moves past the dominican republic after a direct hit on puerto rico, knocking out power to the entire island. janet yellen keeps interest rates on hold but the fed announces its historic quantitive easing program is coming to an end. details coming up in business. we will go to madagascar are your locals are fighting to keep the iconic lemurs from the brink of extinction. first our top story live from paris. the second day of protests in

barcelona today. anger is growing over attempts from the spanish government to block an independence referendum for the northeastern region of catalonia. 14 officials were arrested on wednesday prompting thousands of people to pour into the streets. they say they are determined to go ahead with the independence vote 10 days from now no matter what. the government and spanish constitutional court have been unambiguous. they say the vote is illegal and they have taken many steps to stop it from happening. they have seized 10 million ballots. they have prevented the referendum website being accessible within the region. they may even go as far as cutting off electricity in

voting booths. if against the odds it happens and the catalan independence movement wins out the question becomes about its legitimacy. in 2014 there was a nonbinding vote on independence which the catalan independence won. if something similar happens this time around will they be given the kind of international credibility to function in other countries? genie: how much do people in catalonia really want independence or is this just anger about madrid meddling in catalonia's affairs? >> 49% of people want to remain part of spain. shrink amid a to perception that madrid is conducting a power grab and disenfranchising voters. whether they are

reacting to madrid or whether they wanted independence for a long time it's a big issue. as late as 2009 the support for independence was quite low in deed it was just 15%. we have seen a jump to apparently 41% today. there has long been a perception region that they contribute more to the overall wealth of the country than they get back in return. it is the country's wealthiest region. they contribute 20% of the overall gdp of the country and that sense of economic injustice has field that nationalism. the question is, october the first will that be enough coupled with the akoni and measures taken by madrid to let people take the risk and push the boat through. -- vote through. genie: efforts to reach

remaining survivors from the earthquake in mexico are still underway. the official death toll from leasty's quake is now at 237. many more people are still missing. thousands of professionals and volunteers are working frantically to try and help. mexicans have been following rescue efforts broadcast on live television to try and save 112-year-old girl who has been buried in the rubble of her school. >> the collapsed floors of concrete are lifted up. fewer and fewer people being found alive. time is of the essence. there are still people in there. you can hear them groaning.

we have three more floors of rubble to get through and you can hear them. you just hear the groans. >> after the 7.1 magnitude firefighters police soldier and civilians have been working to find survivors. and to secure vulnerable sites in the event of possible aftershocks. >> we are currently working to remove the debris from the site of the destroyed school. right now it is extremely unstable. we're trying to make it less dangerous. country theyin the have already begun mourning the dead.

12 people lost their lives near the center of the quake. many are unable or unwilling to return to their homes as the rescue effort continues. now to the un's general assembly where the iran nuclear deal is dominating talks. earlier this week donald trump slammed the deal and now he says he has made up his mind on whether or not he will pull the u.s. out without saying which way he will go. iran says it will not be the first to break the agreement. to jessica in new york. this nuclear deal is definitely still the hot topic. as you said donald trump alled the iran nuclear deal bad deal for the united states and indicated it's going to be under review.

he said actually he has made up his mind. he didn't give a response. perhaps he doesn't know himself. during high-level meetings with this was allials discussed. the main problem in trump size is the fact that the deal expires. everyone here in this guessing

game is trying to work out what the trump administration is going to decide to do. we spoke to the french president again on wednesday evening. be toctic appears to nurture a personal relationship with donald trump. he was asked if that is hypocritical given that he is so critical of trump's policy on the world stage. he said no, it is a crucial part of diplomacy. he is trying to make trump listen to him. perhaps you might be able to convince him to stay. stick with the iran nuclear deal. paris climate change agreement. perhaps wishful thinking. it is worth a try. genie: another big issue that has been quite prevalent throughout the week is the nuclear issue in regard to north korea. >> absolutely. another enormous issue.

the official reaction from north korea's top diplomat on -- trump speech was like the sound of a dog arcing -- barking. he called kim jong-un rocket man and threatened to totally destroy north korea. for the full reaction we will have to wait until friday. he also reportedly had a meeting with the secretary-general. a big meeting to high-level meeting with -- genie: thank you. maria has thrashed

parts of the dominican republic with heavy rain and high wind. it still went past the islands east coast. the u.s. territory of puerto rico was not so lucky. maria hit hundreds of homes and knocked out power across the entire island. brian quinn explains. the most powerful storm to hit puerto rico in nearly 90 years. hurricane maria knocked power throughout the entire island. destroyed hundreds of homes and causing widespread destruction across the capital of san juan. the storm made landfall early wednesday as a category four hurricane pummeling the u.s. territory. to rivers.e turned trees torn from the ground. >> this is absolutely the worst. we have lived in the puerto rico for the last 30 years. we have experienced some. none of them were as intense as

this one. >> at least 10 people have lost their lives since maria swept into the caribbean. comes at arico it sensitive time. the government is struggling. infrastructure already cumberland -- crumbling. passage has been downgraded to a category two hurricane. theme storm bears down on next. it's expected to make landfall early thursday morning. protests in france against the president's overhaul of labor rules. today's marches, week after hundreds of thousands of people

demonstrated across france against the plan. that is the first challenge to macron since he was elected in may. how many people are we expecting today? will it be as big as last week? >> crowds are starting to gather today. it's being led by one of the unions. things are reaching crunch time in terms of emmanuel macron's market reforms. on saturday the left wing street over on the

the weekend. emmanuel macron has said the french people -- reform. genie: we have seen this kind of thing in the past. the president wants to change labor laws. he will come out in the streets. the labor reform is dropped. is there any reason this time will be different? a repeated phenomenon here in france. presidents coming to power, promising liberalizing economic reform only to reinvigorate the economy. and attack unemployment.

has fallen by the wayside. the last three presidents. sarkozy in the end his work was more impressive than his bite. emmanuel macron is determined to break that mold. he says after a major victory in parliamentary elections he has the mandate. verys been using authoritative language. he is very determined. protests getting underway

in about an hour's time. let's take a look at our business news. you're starting with the announcement from the fed which is keeping interest rates on hold. >> that's right. expected from the fed giving the devastating impact on hurricane harvey and irma. yellen laid out plans on what the fed will do to fix the balance sheet from october. quantitative easing wasn't designed to be permanent. now there's an official timeline. since 2008 the federal reserve has purchased about $4.2 to protect theds economy after the financial crisis. it will start trimming its -- we will begin the balance

sheet normalization program outlined in june. the program will reduce securities holdings in gradual and predictable manner. >> the fed says the time is right to start cutting because the economy has fallen enough and unemployment is down. it says it will act cautiously. >> by limiting the volume of securities that private investors will have to absorb it will reduce our holdings. >> by the end of 2019 the federal reserve will have $3 trillion in holdings. more than three times the amount before the crisis. genie: how are the markets

reacting? >> in europe stocks are in the green. around half a percent. the dax and frankfort also in positive territory. the securities and exchange commission in the states has revealed that its filing systems were hacked in 2016. the sec is investigating the breach and possible concert once is very the agency says the breach may have divided the basis for illegal trading last year. genie: google has picked up a stake in taiwan's htc. >> they are buying the team that built the pixel smartphone valued at $1.1 billion. theighlights how serious company is focusing on expanding into hardware.

lessll make the company relied on samsung, the smartphone maker that has become the dominant supplier of google's android operating system. emmanuel macron along with his british and italian counterparts told u.s. tech forms that he would hold them to account. as for failing to block online and extremist content. he threatened to name and shame companies that failed to take action. listened even though they did not send their executives to meet with the head of state. facebook sent lower ranking executives. singaporeorker at airport has been charged with making mischief. >> the 63-year-old man in question was a baggage handler. mischief 286 counts of

for swapping baggage tags on a daily basis for three months starting from last november. passengers flying with singapore airlines were affected. if you are one of the unlucky ones your bags destined for new york city or paris landed somewhere else. we don't know where they landed. genie: do we know why he did it? >> we don't know why he did it. his punishment is likely to be very harsh. genie: time for the press review. we are taking a look at what the papers have been saying today. you're going to start off with a lot of coverage about what's been happening in catalonia where the referendum for independence is provoking a lot of discussion as well as the rift between madrid and barcelona. a the spanish paper shows

photo of the spanish police trying to clear out protesters. they came out by the thousands after the spanish civil guards and nearly officials 10 million ballots. -- says his regional government is under attack and has been shut down by madrid. the main spanish daily disagrees. the regional government activities regarding the referendum or halted. some of the other papers are painting a different picture of the increasingly hostile relations between madrid and barcelona. >> the pro-independence papers called the actions akin to a coup d'etat. barcelona paper has an

immigrant -- and image of the barcelona government. a rather politically active media outlets as the government strong-arming wasn't a well-thought-out move. they argue that madrid's usage of police and judicial force have begun to turn public opinion toward supporting secession. genie: the french paper has a story about a french company that has been giving payouts to the islamic state group. >> the french daily is following up on the story they broke in june. they discovered the french cement manufacturer lafarge paid the islamic state group to keep their factory in syria open after the jihadist group took over the region. it's a very expensive factory to

build. they wanted to get money out of it. the french government investigation found that the government knew about the payments to the islamic state group. lafargend point was didn't tell the government exactly how much cash they were giving to the jihadists. the investigation says around 20,000 euro's were being paid per month to the group. the work of photojournalism about chocolate manufacturing in africa. the images are incredibly striking. and the story that goes with them as well. four years ago a photographer started documenting women who make charcoal in senegal. it is backbreaking work. the photographer explains she didn't last a single day trying to do it before falling ill

because of the dust and the smoke and horrible conditions. makinglains the job of charcoal was once the work of men but now women are doing it to support their families. they join together and created the collective among the women to help each other financially. genie: charcoal used in fires. you have found an article about what is often called the bible of french gastronomy. >> the best restaurants of the country all provide to get into the big red book. the michelin guide. for one. that he no the paper longer wants to have his three-star restaurant in the guide. his restaurant was greeted by and has runn 1992

for 18 years. the pressure of maintaining the ratings is just too much. he wants to keep cooking without the extra stress of holding on to the stars. in france it is well known that the michelin stars are hard to keep and there's a lot of aessure because in 2003 friendship chef committed suicide after he lost one of his stars. genie: you've got a story about female vikings. >> since the middle ages there have been rumors that there were female vikings. until now it had never been proven. recentcle explains that dna from a viking warrior's tomb found there was indeed no y chromosome. the year 1850 some women

were honored for being worriers. thank you for watching france 24. you can get a closer look at the press review or any of our other press reviews from the week on our website. france 24.com. connections is coming up in the next half hour of the show. this week we will focus on the inside workings of the french senate coming up.

man: it's been whwhile. sami:ure has. let's go.