>> you are watching france 24. 60 minutes live around the world. polls have opened in america to midterm elections. all of the seats in the u.s. house of representatives are up for reelection, with 35 in the senate in play. today is the first vote since donald trump won the presidency two years ago.

is seen, the election as a referendum on the president . we will be going live with thomas burgess watson. instudents kidnapped cameroon. the military says they are doing all they can to find them. also coming up, france wants a new tax on digital giants like google and facebook in place by the end of the year. is that realistic? getting dumped on instagram is never nice. it is probably worse when you are the italian interior minister. first, our top story live from paris.

the polls have opened in the united states. all four hundred 35 seats in the house of representatives are up for reelection. many places where the seats are up for grabs voted heavily for donald trump two years ago. it is being seen as a referendum on donald trump himself. to tome, let's go live burgess watson. you are at a polling station at a school in arlington, virginia. tell us what is happening now. even up ands s not

for thee last hourur or so, thee have been a heavy strtream of peoplele coming into cast their ballots s to vote in whatat is a clososely watatched election. democratics a stronghold. republican up until the days of ronald reagan. people here seem upbeat. people have a vote on. it is a complicated process, voting. as well as the local issues, what is interesting is it is a referendum, a verdict on the

first two years of the presidency of donald trump. >> lots of names on the ballot, this idea of a referendum of donald trump. what else is at stake? going to change the lucy: course of the trump presidency one way or another. seats in the house are up for grab. 35 seats in the senate are up for house. 36 governors are set to be replaced. what everyone wants to know is can the democrats win back the house. determine whether or not he can deliver on his campaign promises. when theagrees, results come in, the c campaigng begins for the 2020 election. in withll check back you through the day and tomorrow

as we continue our election coverage on france 24. whichever way the vote goes, there has been a win for diversity. more women than ever are running. twice as many as the last midterm. >> there are 256 women running for the two main parties, hoping to win a seat in congress. 230 four in the house of representatives. 22 in the senate. femalere twice as many candidates running this november. for democrats, 15 running for senate and 182 for the house, women are 42% of the candidates. , the number has dropped to 13%. 16 women will try to go for a governorship. sexualudes religious and minority candidates.

joseph crowley was unseated. , ae surprise victories palestinian american candidate could become one of the first muslim women to serve in congress, as well as amy mcgrath. a woman used her role as a mother to strengthen her campaign. she nursed her child while she described her political program in an advert. alreadyr-old lawyer has member of the house of representatives could be the first female governor of south dakota. the polls have opened on the east coast. they will be voting throughout the day in the united states.

you can tune in for the results of the election starting at 3:00 a.m. is hot button issue immigration, donald trump putting the spotlight on a caravan of central american migrants heading towards the u.s.. trump has called it an invasion of criminals and terrorists. many migrants are making their journey on foot to get away from poverty and violence in their home countries. migrants are hundreds of miles from reaching the u.s. and are stopping to rest in mexico's the. daesh in mexico city. -- in mexico city. >> there is a constant stream of central americans arriving in mexico city. you are starting to see the sheer scale of the movement.

others have put tense up in this play area. there are all kinds of people here. ,any have left poor backgrounds fling from the violence of gangs. there are also people with university educations running from bloodshed and poverty in their homeland. >> there is extreme poverty in honduras. there are people who do not have a home to live in. expensive.is electricity prices are climbing. rent is more and more costly. there are people who go days without eating. parents who cannot eat if they want to feed their children. >> melissa plans to go to miami in the united states.

donald trump says there will be tolerance policy. that has not shaken the resolve of many here who say they are determined to keep going north. it seems like some kind of showdown on the mexico u.s. border looks inevitable. cameroon, where at least 79 students were kidnapped at their english language boarding school. three members of staff, including the principal, were also abducted, along with dozens of students aged 11 to 17 years old. thee are going to make sure

students are brought back to the classrooms. [indiscernible] >> the kidnapping came as the longtime president was sworn in , withfor his seventh term the language crisis in that country growing. uplophone regions are rising against what they see as discrimination against the french-speaking majority. french president emmanuel macron 's continuing tributes to mark the 100 anniversary of the end of world war i i. it ended november 11, 1918. the president will commemorate that day next sunday. thenow, he is visiting battlefields of northern and eastern france to honor the dead.

1.14 million french soldiers were killed in the first world war. he is visiting a town with the president of molly. -- president of mali. itscity's now famous for champagne, was defended by --ican soldiers who sought who fought alongside the french in world war i. five men, a white officer, and four african foot soldiers united against the enemy. thee has been fighting for statue to be built. it is a replica of a924 original that was destroyed by the nazis. important to remind people they contributed to the war effort. when an integral -- they were an

integral part to the french nation. men from french colonies across africa fought for france ring the first world war. some volunteered, but most were conscripted, forced to adapt quickly. they fought alongside french soldiers. .hey took part in battles by 18, they were in half. 5000 lost their lives taking the city. protectingir lives the city. >> the german offensnsive could have rolled straight to paris. they played a decisive role towards the end of the war. >> a few meters from the former frontline, that role is now being recognized. >> the southern french city of marseille was rocked by the

collapse of two building side-by-side monday. several are missing and rescue teams are searching for survivors trapped under the rubble. as many as eight are feared dead. underway totion is figure out the cause of the incident. day after two buildings collapsed, the task of removing the body of a victim, the deceased man one of several believed to have been in the building at the time of the collapse. searches continue and there is still hope. i am not optimistic about the situation. there are both between five and eight people missing, including a mother and an elderly woman who never left her apartment. thislot of people lived in

building. there were families with children. nobody knows where they are. there was also an old lady. everybody knew her. she would even say she would die in her apartment. buildings, gave way at around 9:00 a.m. monday. they stood side-by-side on a busy street. firefighters brought down a third building for fear it might also collapse. residents were in shock. >> they are letting our neighborhood die. my friend is under the rubblele. >> it is not clear what caused the incident. an investigation is underway to determine whether it could have been prevented. let's look at the top stories. polls have opened in america's

midterm election, with voting kicking off at 6:00 in the morning on the east coast. all 435 seats in the house are up for reelection with 35 seats in the senate in play as well. these are the first nationwide votes since donald trump won the presidency. he is not on the ballot, but for many, the election is seen as a referendum on the resident. -- on the president. close to 80 students kidnapped cameroon.n of the military says they are doing all they can to find them. time for business news. you have been looking at how social media companies have been preparing for the elections. >> facebook suspended 30 accounts on its main platform and 85 on instagram over fears of an attempt to influence the vote.

facebook has set up what it calls a war room to root out false information and to stop it from spreading. other platforms like twitter have beefed up their monitoring. facebook's head of cyber security policies said they would not make an announcement without being further along in their analysis of the out, but they want to let people know about the facts today. he wants an eu wide tax by the end of the year, the current proposal for a 3% levy on sales over 50 million euros was a good start. he is finding plenty of oppositition from his coalition members. on the revenue of digital giants in europope.

it i is a bold ididea. france led the charge in the french finance minister believes it can be pushed through by the end of this year. step is to work on the commission, which is a good problem, which might be improved. there might be technical problems we can fix in the coming weeks. >> they need to be unanimous before the tax kimberly -- can be implemented. ministerh finance states the u.s. would retaliate for a levy of their own and that the proposal remains unclear.

>> we have to ask a lot of questions about how the agreements are and we have not had clear answers. another vocal opponent. how are facing questions on it would be collected and the ministers have not answered. financeay, germany's minister wavered, saying it needed revisions. france's deadline is close. >> you are going to focus on amazon and its new headquarters. .amazon's h2 q according to various media reports, amazon is going to pick two locations. local authorities have been offering tax breaks and other

incentives to entice amazon in. >> what is happening on the markets? >> dipping in the midpoint of the trading day. keeping an eye on several companies. lots of clothing retailers being hurt by the long and warm summer in europe. on the currency markets, euro 88.ing just under armour cans at under no longer charge visits to strip clubs on the company credit card. that sounds reasonable. internal email.

no longer get charges reimbursed for adult orertainment, gambling, limousines. the company does not condone the usee o of adult entertainment fr business. responded to this story in an internal email and said it was difficult to read. that is potentially an understatement. >> thank you for that. a look at the business update today. a look at the papers today. they have fired up about the u.s. election. >> these are always seen as a referendum on the sitting

president. according to the independent, indications show the turnout will be high and there are more diverse candidates getting in, perhaps enough to curb donald trump's influence. it is unlikely to translate into the wipeout previous presidents have faced. the democrats lack an iconic leader to lead the party against the republicans and a story that can win back the vote they lost in 2016. theill be hard to fight up enthusiasm there is for what many see as the president's advances on the economy. >> there is talk about what these elections mean. this election will provide checks to donald trump's

presidency that party members have not done so far. they had not held him to account. this midterm election is a referendum on the state of american democracy. it is epitomized by this cartoon. this is not a gun store, but a democracy store. >> that attitude is different when you look at the conservative press. >> they urged voters to separate trump from the republican party. voters should not switch to the democrats by default. to sweep out a good man or woman and replace him or her with someone who does not share your values is a sign of political decay.

>> in madagascar, that country is preparing to elect its new president. >> they have put together 10 election andhe what you need to know, 35 candidates trying to unseat the sitting president. it is the second election since the 2000 and nine -- the 2009 coup. >> to pakistan, where they find a deal with the government fromnting asia bibi leaving the country. >> she was acquitted. led widespread protesting. ae hard-line parties signed

deal with the government preventing her from leaving the country until an appeal. france has positioned itself as willing to welcome her and her family into france. >> pamela anderson has spoken out about what she thinks of the me too movement. >> she has gone from playboy advocate.nimal-rights she has never been afraid of going against the grain. in her latest interview, she slams the me too movement, calling it a bore that paralyzes men and lacks common sense. she does consider herself a

feminist and talks about her personal us -- personal life. she finds marriage difficult. interiorly, where the ennister has been giv marching orders by his girlfriend. his tv starmped by girlfriend. she posted this picture of the two of them in bed saying, it is not what we gave each other that i will miss, but with we could have given each other. is welllationship documented and followed on social media. many consider cell vini to be the real leader of the country. photo.e outraged by that what vanity fair calls a

postcoital selfie. >> getting dumped on instagram. >> it is always hard. closer look a at that on our r website. a quickoing to take break. i will be back with coverage on the high-stakes midterm election in the u.s.

[people shouti indistincnctly] female narrator: remember this? pepe has beco kind of a a sym-- [crowd shouting] narrator: a year ago, left-wing activists venting their rage at donald trump's inauguration... man: stand up. . come on up. narrator: the beginning of a presidency that'brought extremists from both sides out into the open. protestors: white lives matter! white lives matter! white lives matter! white lives matter! narrator: what's wrong with having a multi-cultural amameri? mman: we have a a right to this land. we e paid for it t in ourn blood anr