>> hello and welcome to live from paris here on "france 24." the british prime minister heads to belfast to sell his renegotiated deal with the e.u. it hails the so-called windsor framework as the beginning of a new era for post brexit relations. fighting intensifies in the east of ukraine is russian troops step up their offensi around the town of bock moot. it comes as the top psecutor arrives to investigate russia's

caaign of missile and drone attacks on power infrastructure. florida's republican governor ron desantis withdraws disney status that -- the change is widely being seen as retaliation for stance the company took against the governors politics. ♪ good to have you with us this evening. 24 hours after the u.k. proclaimed a new era in relations with the people, it prime minister rishi sunak is standing behind the rehashed terms of his country's divorce deal. northern ireland had been a stumbling block but hoping to settle the issues on monday, he

headed to belfast to defend his new plan. reporter: rishi sunak in northern ireland, he is here to secure support for his breakthrough brexit deal, something his predecessors failed to achieve. yesterday we managed to have a decisive breakthrough with our negotiations with the e.u., reached agreement for the new windsor framework that i think is an extraordinary, positive step for northern ireland, and represents, athe president himself said, historic moment for us to move forward and resolve some of the difficulties of the past. reporter: british goods destined only for northern ireland will no longer need customs checks. instead, they will use a new, green lane. it's a proposal that has been vocal and by many mps, including the leader of the labour party.

>> the red and green lane proposal is a good one. it will make life easier for business. it will enable the people of northern ireland to participate more freely in the economic life of the u.k. it has our full support. reporter: the leader of northern ireland's democratic union's party said while the proposal addresses some of the concerns that caused its boycott, issues remain. >> i understand that we have to comply with the you laws, that's fair. but what about? ? trading within the united kingdom those are issues and questions we will examine closely as we read reporter: the legal text. reporter:this is not yet a done deal. u.k. mps will vote on the new arrangements for a province that has been without a devout government since last february. >> the situation in the east of ukraine is intensifying as russian troops are said to have stepped up their offensive in

the region. the town ofbakhmut has been the scene of fierce fighting. they do not expect rush to make significant territorial gains in the near term. western weaponhave been flooding into ukraine to help support the war effort, support nato's chief said needed to continue. >> i agree that ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time, that is the longerm perspective. what is the issue now is to ensure that ukraine can maintain as a sovereign independent nation. fraser: suspicions are running high after wave of poisonings in recent months. hundreds of iranian schoolgirls have suffered from nausea and heart -- heart palpitations,

affecting over 30 schools in at least two different cities. some iranian politicians have suggested the poisonings could've been orchestrated by some religious groups opposed to the girls education. the government's health minister said investigating the incident was not within its scope. with the u.s. presidential election next year candidates are starting to jostle for position as they prepare to announce campaign bids. one man expected to announce his bid is florida governor ron desantis. on monday he stoke the flames of the ongoing culture war in the u.s. by repeating a host of exemptions afforded to the walt disney company in his state. many analyst believe it was a retaliatory move against his stance on teaching gender in public schools. take a look. >> a kingdom seized in the name

of war against the woke agenda. potential presintial candidate ron desantis signed a bill that drastically changes how disney's florida theme park will be governed. for the past five decades, the special test district has allowed the 100 square kilometer park to operate with a high degree of autonomy, exempt from most state regulations. >> disney loses self-governing status. the state of florida is the new sheriff in town. our vision is yes, you have to ensure that all these laws are applied, you got to ensure that debt is paid, and you got to ensure the fair share of taxes are paid. reporter: the new law authorizes government to appoint five supervisors to oversee municipal services there. last year disney publicly clashed with desantis on a law that restricts classroom teaching on gender and sexual

orientation. the new law is seen by many political analysts as retaliation. it plays into a wider culture war political strategy by some in the republican party. >> florida will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. >> this anti-woke message is effective because it is certainly easy for people to understand and develop an emotional connection to. disney is a big business and republican party is now positioning itself, or this fringe of the republican party is positioning itself contrary to goals the party has long held. reporter: disney has said it won't fight the reforms. fraser: let's bring in a fellow at the brookings institute who joins us now live from washington. thank you for being here with us this evening on "france 24." what impact is is going to have

on the disney corporation and the way it runs its disney world theme park there in orlando? >> as your set up piece indicated, disney, for a very long time, has enjoyed a substantial gree of autonomy in administering theervices in the spial district that was established, at the heart of which is disney world. the disney corporation was able to arrange those services including roads and other amenities to serve not only people of the area, but also especially its own operation, disney world, and they have now lost that autonomy, that degree of control under governor desantis new legislation. fraser: is this going to hit disney's pocket, is one of the biggest corporations in america,

is it going to feel a financial impact from these changes? >> i think the financial impact will be modest at best, relative to the enormous revenues that this very large corporation derives from various sources. i don't think the principal issue here is the financial issue. it has to do with disney's stance vis-a-vis the state of florida and its governor, and vice versa. fraser: some have said this is ron desantis and political point scoring for his base. could this be his first move as we are about to see him launch a campaign bid for the presidential nomination? >> i don't know what the exact timing will be, but very few political observers doubt he will run on for the republican

nomination and that this issue will be central to his campaign. his slogan, after all, is that florida is the state where woke goes to die. and he means it. fraser: it is a real hot button issue in the u.s., as ron desantis has been keeping his cards close to his chest. if he does decide to run, many are waiting for the inevitable showdown between him and donald trump. how would that battle look? >> mr. desantis, i think, has indicated that he is not going to take donald trump on frontally. he's not going to go down the list of policies and disagree with mr. trump on point after point. he's going to try to -- younger,

more in control self, more in control of his government, and try to beat president biden in the general election. he will argue implicitly, and probably explicitly, that his relative youth will serve as a useful contrast with president biden, unlike mr. trump, who is in his late 70's. fraser: if you had to take out a crystal ball and make a prediction for that election, what would your prediction be? are we in for rerun of 2020, biden versus trump, or could we see biden versus desantis? >> we could be seeing biden rsus desantis. recent polls indicate that former president trump maintains a healthy lead over mr. desanti for e republican nomination, on the order of 15 percentage points. any observer of american politics will tell you that the

position from which debates begin before the primaries is not necessarily an indication of where they will end up. what is clear is that donald trump retains a solid base of committed support in the republican electorate, and early beliefs, and i would say hopes on the part of many republican leaders, the support has not yet come to pass. fraser: do you think trump feels that desantis is his biggest potential contender for that nomination? we've seen nikki haley come out, she recently said she wasn't going to run against trump, but then she decided to come almost with his blessing, some would say. you think he sees to santos as someone who could potentially

take that nomination away from him? >> if he doesn't see mr. desantis as a serious threat, he certainly should. think that mr. trump is politically savvy enough to know that governor desantis is his most formidable rival for the nomination, and is likely to remain so. fraser: how do you think it would look for the house, though? the house was won over by the republicans in the midterms. since they have taken control, we've seen a lot of republican infighting, especially when it comes to speaker mccarthy's confirmation vote. do you think that can play against them in the 2024 election? >> i think what is most likely to play against him is the belief on the part of many republicans that he simply cannot win in the general election. and what they say is this. yes, he scored an unexpected victory in 2016, but it has been

all downhill from there. the 2018 midterm elections went very badly for republicans, unexpectedly badly. in 2020, of course, mr. trump lost to the challenger, joe biden, by 7 million votes. and then things went badly in december of 2021 in the georgia races for senate. giving the democrats an unexpected majority in the senate, and so it has been lost after loss afteross since 2016, and many republicans who don't disagree with mr. trump's program are fearful that he cannot prevail in the general election because his style and his conduct have antagonized the crucial middle portion of the electorate, and they believe, i

think with good reason, that mr. desantis would be a better bearer of the essential trump message than donald trump himself. fraser: it is still extremely early days and we will see how that all shapes up in the coming months. thank you so much for joining us, have a good evening. >> it has been my pleasure. fraser: following in the footsteps of the end canada, the u.s. government has given its employees 30 days to delete social media platforms tiktok from there devices. the chinese app has long been suspected with sharing data with the chinese government. reporter: is the most popular social media platform amongst young people and the one western governments are the most suspicious. tiktok, the short video sharing app, is facing scrutiny due to national security concerns. on monday, the u.s. became the

latest to ban the app, giving federal agencies 30 days to comply as congress passed a bill prohibiting the platform on government owned devices. the canadian government has issued a similar restriction. >> we are making the decision for government employees, for government equipment, it is better to not have them access tiktok because of the concerns that people have in terms of safety. this may be a first step, it may be the only step we need to take, but every step of the way, we will be making sure we are keeping canadians say. reporter: one of the main concerns is that china could use its legal and regulatory powers to obtain private user data or try to push misinformation or narratives favoring beijing. however, the band does not apply to the millions of civilian users in the country. >> as the world's top

superpower, how unsure of itself can the usb to fear young people's favorite app to such a degree? the u.s. has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries companies. we firmly oppose those wrong actions. reporter: do european commission took similar measures last week. in november, tiktok acknowledge that some employees in china could access the data of european users. it also admitted in december that employees had used the data to track journalists. however, the group denies any chinese government control or access to its data. fraser: it's time for sports. good to see you. turbulent times for french football. the heads of the football federation resigning effectively over an increase in pressure over sexual assault allegations. >> it has been a turbulent time

for french football in the beginning of a new era for its federation. after months of turmoil, the director has officially step down following an unprecedented executive committee meeting. other heads are likely to roll as part of the bid to overhaul the organization. here is more from our sports desk. >> it wa't the plan he had in mind, but the report of toxic management, sexual harassment claims have pushed him out. forced to step back on the 11th of january, after months of pressure, statements from france's sports minister and a general backlash against his presidency, he has finally thrown in the towel. a fourth mandate would have seen him remain at the top of the french football federation until 2020 four. he will be temporarily replaced by the vice president until

fresh elections are held in june. >> what i wish for is that the federation continues its modernizing process, that the behavior within it is irreproachable, and its attitude is exemplary. and also to be more democratic. we are going to reform some of the positions in the coming months. >> the resignation will move some of the media spotlight away from him at the problems are not going away. an investigation has been opened by paris's public prosecutor after claims of bullying and sexual harassment, which the former president denies. the general manager is expected to be fired soon, his intentions to overhaul the organization could mark the end of the 11 year reign. reporter: he has left french football with the legacy of success on the biggest stages and good financial results, a legacy that is interim successor

has vowed to continue building on. the men's national team wo the 2018 world cup and finished at the euro 16 as well as the 2022 world cup. they also bagged the biggest football bill -- sponsored deal in football history for the same amount as the german national teams and a deal that is helped fill the coffers. the french football federation's revenues have increased under him and while he is not completely out of the world of football just yet, he remains in charge of the paris office of fifa after being appointed last year. it's not the only fire the french football federation has been trying to put out. the future of the women's coach was also discussed at tuesday's unprecedented executive committee. her position looks increasingly

untenable amid a play of mutiny come after three b players quit the national team last week. the captain was the first to walk out, saying she could no longer support the current system. others followed suit. diacre had been in charge since 2017. she previously stripped the captaincy before handing it back to her a few years later. she was one of the only backers at the fff which she's got 18 months left on her contract. her fate was decided -- will be decided on march 9. as president of a governing body that runs essentially professional football leagues in france had this to say.

>> from the outside, i feel like diacre is an honest, fair, and hard-working woman. i've heard the criticism made by certain players on the french team. either way, the committee will make a decision and we will give it to the federation in the coming days. one thing is certain. players don't run the show, at least not yet. but a diagnosis must be made, and a decision will follow shortly. selina: for the women's team, it's a question of a ticking clock for a solution because the women's world cup is in just five months time. fraser: they will have to try and get their house in order before that happens. it's time now for truth or fake.

he used to be a key anti-vaxxer and covid misinformation sharer, but recently he is focused on russia's invasion of ukraine. what can you tell us? >> the american far right influencer and host has published no less than three misleading pieces of information surrounding the war in ukraine. one of them published just two days ago shows ukrainian president vladimir belinsky and gus president joe biden climbing the steps together in the palace. we can see a man resembling zelenskyy appear following the two and then suddenly stopped. according to him, this represents a glitch in the matrix and he went on to perpetuate the theory that the man is a look-alike or double of a lot of mere zelenskyy. this is the theory we have seen

for a long time surrounding the war in ukraine. it's very visible on pro-russian accounts on telegram and on twitter. but this video actually shows bilotta mere zelenskyy's official bodyguard. this is a photo from the same visit, and as we can see, he does have a similar height and build to the ukrainian president, but it does have very distinguishable and different facial features. we can see him again in these photos published last august with boris johnson, but again, similar height and build, but they are very much different people. he also shared this tweet with his followers earlier this week and this one racks up over 17 million views. he posted these two views of the same building in ukraine, one

was taken last year in february 22 and one from february 2023. he says it would be impossible to restore the building to this time. this is a popular pro-russian theory that we have seen numerous times here on truth or fake about the war being a hoax. this buildings reconstruction has been pretty heavily documented in both western and ukrainian media, after russian troops withdrew from kyiv last march, that's what allowed the building to be rebuilt and it was discussed quite heavily in this article from ukraine's village, it was documented stage by stage in its reconstruction. fraser: what other analysis do you have on that account? >> he is the creator of a program published directly to

his personal website. he is prolific for sharing misinformation surrounding covid-19, but recently he has ventured into pro-kremlin discourse. he does still heavily post sentiments on telegram and twitter. speaking of his twitter accounts, he does have over 232,000 twitter followers. he wasn't always given this level of access to spread misinformation, his account was previously banned by twitter in august of 2021. it was reinstated to the platform in december last year and that something possibly in line with elon musk amnesty for suspended accounts. via the social analysis tool social blade, we can also see

that peters racked up over 43,000 new followers in just january of this year. interestingly, according to the study by the center for countering digital hate, this is an ngo dedicated to fighting online hate speech, according to their study, peters was one of 10 accounts of extreme far right accounts reinstated by twitter as part of a galaxy of conspiracy influencers that generate a profit for twitter. between them, they've reportedly gained around enough engagement to generate up to $19 million as a total in advertising revenue, and according to the study, the stew peters account would be bringing in around 520 $6,000 a year. fraser: very good, thank you so much for that detail on truth or fake. we are going to take a quick break, but stay tuned, we will

be back with a round up your headlines. -- a roundup of your headlines. >> they observe, they contact us, they report, film, photograph. they are the voice of the voiceless. your eyes andhe far-flung reaches of the world. the observers, a network of 5000 committed citizens working with "france 24." amateur footage and testimonials, checked by our journalist, and broadcast weekly on the observers.

02/28/23 02/28/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> this weekend "the new york times" published an expose shining a light on scores of migrant children currently working on our farms, factories, and some of the most dangerous sites of our country. amy: "alone and exploited coastal reveals migrant children as young as