claire: hello and welcome to live from paris. the headlines, mall manna for the's donald trump's former election campaign chief is set to begin. the f.b.i. probe into russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. vote. days before reimposing sanctions on tehran, donald trump says he's willing to meet iran's leader without any preconditions. both sides adding caveats.

and day two of counting in zimbabwe after the first election since rob mugabe's rule came to an end. nelson chamisa says he's winning esoundingly. first to the u.s. state of virginia where the first trial is set to begin later this tuesday in robert mueller's 14-month probe into weather donald trump's 2016 election campaign conspired with russia to help put him in the white house. trump's ex-campaign chief paul manna for the faces 18 criminal accounts including bank fraud. >> he was once a man in the shadows, a behind the scenes political operative who advised

wealthy clients around the world. now the spotlight is directly on paul manna forth. -- manafort. he will become the first of donald trump's aide to stand trial in the russian meddleling in the 2016 election. a turn of events his former boss says is unfair. >> i tell you i feel badly about it. they went back 12 years to get things he did things 12 years ago? >> in 2016, he was the director of trump's presidential campaign. after three months forced to resign over involvement in a ukrainian corruption case. he is accused of receiving secret payments for work as a consultant for a former pro-russia ukrainian president. he's also suspected of having had regular contact with russian officials. he notably attend add june, 2016 meeting at trump tower with russians offering damaging information on trump's democratic rival, hillary clinton.

that was enough to catch the attention of robert mueller. the man in charge of investigating russian interference in the u.s. elections. in october, 2017, he was charged with a series of financial crimes, including money laundering, tax evasion, and bank fraud. if convict on all 18 counts, he face as prison sentence of over 300 years. he has pleaded not guilty to all charges and refuses to cooperate with mueller's ongoing investigation into russian meddling. catherine: for more on this i'm joined by ian. a history professor at empire state college in new york. hello, thank you very much for joining us. this case, the paul manafort trial isn't related to the russia charges. it centers on work he did with pro-russians before he joined the campaign. yet it still seems important for the mueller inquiry and for the white house. why is that?

>> because the real question is, what exactly does paul manafort know? paul in political terms knows where the bodies are buried, so to speakak. if paul mananafort ultimately i convicted or believes he's going to be convicted and faces decades in jail it's that much more likely he'll cooperate with robert mueller and tell him what he knows about, for example, the trump tower meeting in 2016. when you look what happened last week with michael cohen saying that donald trump knew about the 2016 meeting, if paul manafort goes on the record with mueller and corroborates what he said that donald trump knew about the campaign meeting, now you have evidence direct evidence that donald trump colluded with russian officials linked to the russian government to find out information about his campaign rival and opponent, hillary clinton. that's four steps beyond where

we were a year ago where the campaign started out no one in the campaign colluded. well,, theheit become donald trump jr. met with russians and my campaign manager.r. if they are two witnesses corroborating trump's direct involvement, then you have serious concerns for the white house. catherine: paul manafort hasn't cooperated so far. what you're saying he might be persuaded to do so because of this trial if things don'n'work ouout for him.. >> clearly that's just speculation on my part. i'm not the only one saying it. that's what the real connection between this trial is and the broader issue of the president and his campaign. paul manaport hopes to avoid conviction. maybe he hopes and assumes if he is convicted the president will pardon him, that's certainly in the president's power to do so. the leverage that i think mueller is looking for in terms of manaport is the outcome of

this trial. another question is, would the president be able to get away with, in political terms, pardoning him if and after he was convicted. would such a pardon be -- would be seen as obstruction of justice? whether obstruction of justice in criminal terms or terms of politics, in terms of him being impeached by a democratic house of representatives. all these pieces will be a lot clearer once his trial is over. catherine: d donald trumpp hasa course, called the mueller inquiry a witch-hunt.t. he's not the first president to face scrutiny from a special counsel. has there ever been this type of savaging before, savaging of a special counsel like donald trump has done and is he weakening democratic institutions by behaving like this? a >> the short answer to your question, no. and yes, noer, therere's never bebeen anything like ts.

richard nixoxon on the otherand fired a special counsel, but he -- i guess you could say that is an attack. but that special counsel was replaced by another. you had a congress willing to stand up. a democraticic willing congresso stand up to the president. we have never seen a president attack a special counsel this way. essentially attack the rule of law. i do think it's causing damage to the institutions of the rule of law. you essentially have e a presidt saying that if i see something i don't like, i'm going to say that i'm being treated unfairly. that means that i'm going to say that the law is bebeing enforce unfairly. it makes the rule of law into a partisan issue rather than seen as something that's above partisanship. robert mueller is a lifelong republican. he served -- was appointed by george w. bush. he served under republican and democratic presidents. republicans in and out of the administration praised him as a

nonpartisan figure when he first began. but the fact is that donald trump has a core of partisans, maybe one third of the country, who now see essentially the rule of law as something that's being applied unflare. that's very dangerouous for democratic institutions. catherine: thank you very muchc for your time andd your analysi. in other news, donald trump says he's willing to meet his iranian counterpart without any preconditions. this just over a week after warning iran of serious consequences if tehran continued issuing threats against america. the u.s. secretary of state, mike pompeo, says there are preconditions, including reducing, quote, their maligned behavior. an advisor to rouhani said in order for talks to happen the u.s. must return to the nuclear deal. a >> after a week of threats and rising tensions, donald trump changing his rhetoric toward iran. speaking during a press

conference with italy's prime minister at the white house, trump offered to hold talks directly with the iranian president. president trump: i'll meet with anybody. i would certainly meet with iran if they wanted to meet. i don't know if they are ready yet. >> asked if there would bebe an preconditions before a potential meeting, trump replied -- president trump: no preconditions. no. they want to meet, i'll meet. any time they want. any time they want. it's good for the country. good for them, good for us. and good for the world. >> no american president has met with an iranian leader since washington cut diplomatic ties with tehran a year after the 1979 revolution. relations reached a low in may after the u.s. left the iran nuclear deal. -- on twitter an advisor to rue manny responded to trump's offering saying reducing hostilities and the u.s. returning to the nuclear deal is needed to reduce tensions.

trump's statement may be a change in tone, but there is no sign that his willingness to meet his iranian counterpart changes the administration's stance on the iran nuclear deal or reimposing sanctions. claire: turning our attention to zimbabwe's historic general election. countingtowns after voters on monday chose between president emerson mnangagwa, and nelson cham see ya, it's expected to be a tight contest. official results are due in the next few days. both frontrunners say they are confident. >> zimbabweans bursting with joy as early election results are poposted outside polliling stat. votete counting is ststill unde in m most of the country. but that hasn't stopped some supporters from celebrating victory.

>> i'm very optimistic that the candidate i voted for will win, because when i checked this morning at a couple polling station, you could see huge difference in the margin. my candidate was leading. >> observers say the race between emerson mnangagwa and opposition leader nelson chamisa is tight. the two presidential candidates have both hinted at victory, but zimbabwe's electoral commission has warned final results may not be known before the 4th of august. >> we're absolutely confident that there was no cheating. we're absolutely confident 2w4r was no rigging. we would like to assure the people that we as an electoral commission will not steal their choice of leaders. >> according to preliminary figures, monday's vote attracted a high turnout at 60% to 78% in some areas. the election was also the first to allow international observers in 16 years. amid concerns of fraud and voter

intimidation. >> a the process of collating those results ward by ward, constituency by constituency and then having them sent to us for the presidential results, this is why it will take us a few days. >> if no candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held on the 8th of seseember. claire: mali's election might go to a second round according to the opposition party. he's set for a runoff against the antetokounmpo. sunday's election was calm in the capital but there was violence in the center of the country and in the north. insecurity meant hundreds of polling stations weren't even to open. cato has seen his popularity wane over the security issue. now the latest on the deadly carr wildfire in northern california. while the thousands of firefighters tackling the blaze which started more than a week ago have made progress, it's now

about 23% contained. but there are more than a dozen wildfires currently burning in california. and the two i in mendy seeno an lake counties threaten some 10,000 homes. >> scenes from the redding inferno show how difficult the firefighters' battle is. surrounded by the blaze, these men had to pull out fast to survive. dry vegetation, record heat, combined with strong winds are the reason the blazes are moving so fast. authorities are optimistic about a after ion in redding some containment. but fires conontinue it bururn elsewhere like in the coastal lake county where thousands have evacuated their homes. near redding evac ewees are anxious to get back to their

houses to find out what has and has not been destroyed. >> right after it started, i grabbed my computers, wish i would have grabbed a few other things. i was thinking it wasn't going to get up there. this was a just in case thing. and it did. i'm in limbo. total limbo as to what's going on up there. >> the police officers in the park come by and told them, we have no way out. me and my nephew and my dog, he's my dare giver, too -- caregiver, too. he got on the radio and found an ambulance coming from mount shasta, they brought us over here to the shelter. >> not everyone was fortunate to flee before the places ripped through their homes. reddining is so far the deadlie fire in california this summer. firefighters warn residential to remain vigilant. 17 fireses are r raging across ststate.

claire: you'rere watching live from paris, a reminder of our top stories. the trial of paul manafort is set to begin. it's part of the f.b.i. probe into russian meddling in the 2016 u.s. vote. days before reimposing sanctions on tehran, donald trump says he's willing to meet iran's leader without any preconditions. both sides adding caveats before any talks could happen. and day two of counting in zimbabwe after the first election since robert mugabe's nearly four decade rule came to an end. opposition candidate nelson chamisa says he's winning resoundingly. business news now. i'm joined by steven carroll. we'll be paying close attention to what happens to technology shares when wall street opens in a few hours. >> we will. tech shares have now entered

correction territory on the fine plus index. that's what we use to describe facebook, amazon, netflix and google. but it was a fall that started last week when facebook warned of slowing growth. it spread across the sector now wiping some $300 billion off the value of those companies. this was the picture at the close of wall street yesterday. falls across the board. twitter particularly bad hit there. could be news later for the sector. apple is publishing its results. >> new economic data showing a slowdown in the growth of eurozone. >> it zame in at 0.3% for the three months between april and june. that's the lowest level it's been in two years. in spain, growth was the slowest it's been in four years at.6%. while in italy it was .2% growth for the last quarter. if the trade tensions were to erupt again with the united

states, it's woworrying economists. claire: how is that going in the markets today? >> we have the european markets trading pretty flat. the summer recess is swinging in for traders as well. no great reaction to those figures. shares in oil company b.p. up about.9%. a surge in profits earlier. claire: here in france, hotel owners are taking steps to fight back against negative comments online. >> it's one of those things we have come used to. before we book something we tend to look at re news onlynn and perhaps the bad one can can put you off booking. the problem s. those are marked when they are published online are not verified and they can do huge damage to businesses. most is one of the prestigious hotels, but she said business has slowed down in recent years thanks in large part to neglect turf online

reviews. the last review got on trip advisor criticized the size of the room. it's 25 square meters. which is more than standard for a four star hotel. >> despitete being written by ordinary customers, rather than professional critics, the impact of online reviews on the service industry has skyrocketed in recent years. studies show an estimated 90% of french people now brows through these reviews before making a purpose. >> we see them stop in front of the door and leave after looking at their smart phones. i'm sure it's the reviews that scare people off. >> but some business owners have decided to fight back. this person signed up for a professional training course how to deal with negative comments. euros.nost up too $11,500 the best defense is to reply. >> replying is a a powerful

marketing tool. you shouldn't abuse it and should remain honest and sincere. but like in marketing you can manipulate people's perception. >> a well written answer could even bring in new customers. only 14u7bd or sojo tell professionals signed up for the training last year. the demand is likely to increase as the influence of online reviews on the service industry continues to grow. >> business headlines for you now. the british retailerr dixon say that nine million more customers were affected by a data breach than previously thought. it was discovered in june. names and addresses were hacked but not bank detetails. they originally estimated that 1.2 million custotomers were affected. they now say that closer to 10 million. germany's luftansa has sow the hit by higher fuel costs and strikekes.

fuel costs rose by more than 200 million euros or around 8% because of higher oil prices. in april they were forced to cancel hundreds of flights as airport workers went on strike. durak has recalled condoms over years they may fit. brands are real feel and latex free. only a limited number much batches were affected but asking customers not to use them. claire: the world's biggest spending spree on toilets has created a dream for businesses in india. >> this is part of the clean india campaign. 11111 ims to install million toilets by next year. that's like an 830% jump in sales of concrete building materials and almost 50% rise in sales of bathroom equipment. the likes of consumer goods group bank hieser are benefiting as well. they include brands including hartic, sales of which have risen by 11% in the past year.

good business, toilets. claire: thank you very much. time now for the press review. >> joining me now to take a look at the papers is deptee. we start in zimbabwe. >> it was historic because it was the country's first election in nearly four decades without robert mugabe. you do see him on the front page of the guardian today. he was voting on monday. apparently not for his former protege emerson mnangagwa. but he made that announcement on sunday. both mnangagwa and younger partner, chamisa have hailed the smooth process of the ballots. the chronicle in zimbabwe are urging that political leaders

continue in this same spirit. to quote, let zimbabwean electoral council do the work. to the people, accept any result with grace. claire: nelson chamisa also saying there were attempts to stop people from voting in his party strongholds. >> that's a claim he made on twitter yesterday. casting some drought on the democratic nature of the vote. observers have also spoken of quote, shortcomings, and echoed in this cartoon from the times. the way to a free and democratic zimbabwe is perhaps by crossing the crocodile, that's a nickname given to chamisa's rival. claire: a lot of papers today are critical of that new report released on the fate of the malaysian airline flight mh370. >> that's right. that report coming after a four-year investigation by the malaysian government into what really happened. what caused the flight to crash.

that report points to criminal third party interference, but largely exonerates the two pilots of any blame. they did say for the first time that the flight's sudden change of course, the turning off of communications equipment had to have been done by somebody, by a a human, by a person. this supposedly new finding has been slammed by a a former royal australian air force pilot. australiaa has played a central role in trying to find the wreckage. in this article for the australian, it is written, i quote, any airline pilot with half a brain would know if a plane doesn't reach its programmed destination, it's due to human intervention. hically's it's nothing new. he calls it a cover-up and cold-blooded murder. kwlare: here in france the massachusetts crone government has been at issue over the

benalla affair. >> a that's right. he was macron's bodyguard seen manhandling a protester back in may in a video. last week macron told his detractors if they are look for someone to blame, they should come and find him. in comments largely seen as a dare, provocation. hence the mocking headline here, let them come at me with this confidential motion, that's what the left leaning paper says on the front page. motion that is probably won't rattle macron's government since it already holds the majority. but it is nonetheless a, quote, serious warning. from the right leaning paper, this motion is much more about -- is about much more than a scandal. it's an indictment in a way on macron's reforms and the way he governs and communicates. but for many is increasingly arrogant and flippant. claire: the u.s. donald trump's

former campaign manager goes on trial. >> goes on trial for bank fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy, risking over 300 years in prison if convicted on those accounts. of course it was his decision to risk trial rather than cooperate with robert mueller's investigation into possible collusion with russia. there is an interesting article from "usa today" that really says that this trial will also test the credibility of robert mueller and his investigation. if mueller wins the conviction t. will severely undercut donald trump's claim that the mueller investigation is a politically motivated hitch hunt. writer also says we should look out in particular for the testimony of rick gates. he was manafort's deputy and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution back in february. his testimony will be, quote, damning evidence against manafort. claire: an unusual auction takesing place in the u.s. beemcy. >> they are moving to a shinier

location. as they do they are selling off some the things they don't need n this case it might be a lot of things nobody else will need, either. we have rolls of toilet paper or paper towels. i think one pallet has about 1,200 rolls of toilet paper. broken dyson vacuum cleaners, damaged coffee table, and broken down photo copier. the guardian reports that similar auctions are taking aplace across the world in u.s. embassies. in armenia you can pick up rugs and office chairs with stains on them. also get a broken bridge. in albania you can get a few generators. in ankara, turkey, you can get mattresses but they don't say if they are used o or not belgrade, unused eight foot ladders. there you go. donate to charity. that might be what you're wondering. u.s. foreign policy allows for property abroad to be sold for profit. in this case better the money

than charity. claire: if you live in paris, chances you don't have the room. thank you very much. if you missed some of that press review, want to watch it again, check out our website. you'll find itçç??ñññqñqñqñqñqñ

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