in terms of some of the damage that's been caused to the church in the past it actually received some damage in one nine hundred forty four when paris was liberated from the nazis and we also know that there was major restoration that took place back in the eighteen hundreds because of damage that was happening inside the church as i said that restoration work has been going on since that appeal was launched by the french catholic church last year and for actually large parts of the last year much of the truth arm has been sort of coated in wires and fencing in scaffolding as they were trying to protect this building to stop it from from blowing away around eight hundred and fifty years old huge history here in paris it's been here for so long it feels like it's the city itself some peoples of north being as i'm saying that because it's just a sense of shock it's almost a sense of grief to see something this beautiful something that many parisians see

every day up been flames and to not know how much damage has been caused but as you said neal considerable damage considering the ferocity of that fire and the fact that it was ferocious for about an hour but let's have a look now at how it's coming along every time i look back at that i see that the smoke is less no no there you are we see what looks like to be more fire coming up from inside so it looks like those firefighters still have a lot of work to do to try and get this fire completely under control not just under control but then to try and dampen down the embers the wood in the structure of course this structure built up started to be constructed back in the eleven hundreds a lesson sixty nine and it wasn't largely completed until well sometime later in twelve sixty this building that stood at the heart of paris here as a status symbol of paris is. let it cool economic and cultural power an iconic

symbol ever since up in flames today and it does look like that work has still a long way to go i just want to tell you a little bit about the number of businesses that do you come here twelve million every year that's incredible that means it is the most visited site in paris more people visit here than the eiffel tower the louve you know some of those other iconic sights him paris people love not many people just come and take a photograph outside a particular on a sunny day looks beautiful and you see the statues carved in the front of that building and of course trying to get a picture of those i can't i conic bell towers sixty nine meters high and they were at one point being licked by the flames of this fire. and just to briefly to what you were saying charlotte we talk about you know why people love you know love

a building why i love a building as much as anything else just it's great beauty i mean the religious icons in there and firefighters we're hearing there are actually thirty services are trying to salvage some of them not only priceless but just much beloved the works of art rose windows very famously the stained glass windows inside the bowls of course nobody has to tell you about victor hugo's great novels we featured some of them it's something that brings something together isn't it great beauty it might just be a building for it but it touches the hearts of a lot of people from all over the world who will travel a long way some of those people to just to get a glimpse of this building. i think it's more than just a building for a lot of people people who aren't even religious just want to come and have a look gaze on the beautiful construction this french gothic architecture the finest example in the world of this pretty. type of building and it is just

a building of complete beauty i've sat there many times just watched it and looked and just try to sketch some of the sketch some of the statues in trying to get a sense of how much work must've gone into this building you know we're talking eight hundred fifty years ago people chipping away at sculptures that have no lost it through the times lasted through the first and second world war the wars that came before and it is really incredible to come and sit here particular in the summer when the skies just beautiful cornflower blue skies not a cloud in the sky and to just look up at that building a sense of peace in all of course now people will remember these images these images of that fire that engulfed the center of madame and i just want to let you know charlotte because i know from where you're standing now the perspective

obviously a lot of people behind you it's very hard to see too much of the of the blaze you said you saw some licks of flame that can tell you we've been seeing live pictures from another angle the flames are still considerable they seem to be focused largely where there's a lot of scaffolding set up for the for the renovation work that was taking place and we were just showing pictures now the firefighters we can see that are several jets of water. up at the blaze but they're struggling to bring the control ok we will let you get around and speak to some of the people there and see what more you can find out maybe get some some personal accounts of their time and what what this event will mean for their many thanks live from central paris. ok information just in a minute micron french president has arrived at the cathedral which still burn the french media quoting the fire brigade as saying that fire is potentially linked to the renovation work told you was under. these are recorded pictures i can tell you

now this is the spire of not a dam ablaze you can tell at this point it's been severely damaged and we do actually see the spire finally succumb aspire that stood over two thousand feet high humbled by the for power of natural forces a church spokesman said that the entire frame of the cathedral was burning this was just after the spire collapse these are live pictures you can see where the scaffolding work we mentioned the cathedral was undergoing a very extensive over the six million dollar renovation process. and the scaffolding still replace. we are also getting reports that the roof of the building has completely collapsed and the fire spread to other parts of the

cathedral i think it's fair to say at this point that the vast majority of the building is. a blaze another rescue operation underway as well as trying to extinguish those flames which is clearly got the firefighters busy and there is an attempt on the way to try and save some of the prize the works of art of which there are many inside not to damage the religious icons as well of being of great meaning the members of the catholic church also have substantial value prosecutors have already begun an investigation to try and determine how this fire began. the one saving grace at this point is that there have been no injuries reported according to a cathedral spokesperson entire frame of the building is. this president. we have told you is just arrived at the scene he tweeted earlier knocked down power in flames emotion over the whole nation thoughts go out to all catholics and to all

french people like all our compactor it's i am sad tonight to see this part of. we do anticipate to hear. public address from the french president a man your mark drawn with comment from the mayor of paris and or from the also from the deputy mayor of paris who says that the crisis room has been set up at the city hall police are unaware of the cause of the fire at the stations i mentioned an investigation has already begun. when speaking to our correspondent there we talked about why why does a building mean so much to people why is it the hearts of people it's just a construction some might say not the case for a new anyone who's ever been there to appreciate its history and its p.c. president donald trump has been on twitter. saying quote so horrible to watch the massive fire not to down cathedral in paris perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out he said must act quickly. present a minor across canceled

a major policy speech because of this fire he's cancelled his plans to talk about the yellow vest protest and instead is headed to the same of the fire he will be making a public address shortly we anticipate america paris and he said the firefighters were trying to contain the quote terrible fire without a word residents of the french capital to stay away the authorities have set up a security perimeter around the historical gothic architecture construction at the security perimeter to keep people safe because the fire is still running wild fire fighters have been at this now for the best part of two hours they look like they're perhaps getting a handle on it now but the fire is still considerable you can see from these live pictures at least three four jets of water constantly popping thousands of gallons of water onto it but it's holding its own it would seem from the pictures that we

are seeing. this is said that firefighters are doing their best to save the masterpieces of course human life was the first consideration your thirty's very quickly evacuated people. and set up a security perimeter the. the task at hand at the moment though to try and put out that fire and try and rescue those icons of religious and historical value. so of course we'll be keeping you across developments from paris as the evening progresses let's go to some of the day's other stories now though the chinese tech giant well way has been making headlines for the wrong reasons in recent months and it claims that its products help spy on countries for beijing now the belgian sent of a cyber security saying that it's found no evidence the company's technologies pose any sort of threat r.t. correspondent peter oliver explains. the belgium center for cyber security the

c.c.p. of completed well the main part of their investigation into chinese telecommunications giant who are way they say that they pose no threat to the security or in belgium to cyber security in belgium they say they will continue monitoring the situation however this whole investigation was started amid allegations that who are way products could be used for spying to date we do not have sufficient evidence to establish any threat coming from a final report on the issue will not be produced as yet because this edition is still going more neutered. prime minister sharon's michel hasn't made any statement as of yet he had said he would hold back comment until he heard from the c c b a that comment seemingly at the bottom of his to do pile right now but the one group that have been very vocal against while way continue to be very vocal is the united

states now allegations coming from the u.s. leveled at the chinese telecommunications giant include that they are spying on governments for beijing that they're stealing intellectual property that they used in money laundering and in bank wire fraud as it stands across the e.u. there's no unifying attitude towards who are way products here in germany there was draft legislation put forward that would make. a increased standards on telecommunication companies operating within germany and as it stands that could push out of the market that prompted applause from the united states saying we need more like this police it's hard to see how chinese technology would meet that standard at this point we're looking for governments to adopt security standards like we're seeing in germany however the standards laid out in the draft proposal

by the german government aren't that difficult for the way to live up to and then of course there was also the incident that followed the u.s. telling germany that they shouldn't use a product that prompted i'm going to merkel the german chancellor to say you don't tell us whose products we should be using for our own security methods what we're hearing though from the chinese side from the wall way themselves is they deny all of the allegations and charges that are being brought against the. british and this is. just. the. yes. so. this is going to continue for some time yet though the big question that's being asked is all these concerns that are being raised by the united states

a genuine concern for the security of their european allies or is it more along the lines of they want to cut the chinese telecommunications giant out of the market it convince the european partners that for security services they should buy u.s. products. political analyst joseph chang thinks the finding spy the cyber security center could mean that he doesn't now follow the u.s. plan. well. then purple it would be the three he held in the. country not. the american boy court of law way at the moment he brought in. if you. know and arrive at an agreement. on a pivot even. allowing your union we.

have. nothing no treatment the united government who. despite the fact that no american agreement. who the president of the war is very likely. a prominent palestinian activist has been prevented from flying to the u.s. from israel despite having a valid visa. is the co-founder of a movement to boycott israel and what it considers the jewish state's oppression of palestine we spoke to him to get his story. i was. prevented from boarding a flight of eve airport because under instructions from the u.s. consulate u.s. immigration have burned me from entering the u.s. despite having a valid visa and valid travel documents we see this as outsourcing it's

mccarthy antidemocratic repression against the b.d.s. movement for human rights in palestine to the united states the us administration has been mobilized now to do israel's bidding in trying to silence the list to me an israeli and international human rights defenders who are active in this extremely important and very effective nonviolent b.d.'s movement. human rights groups have expressed outrage at washington's decision calling it the politicization of borders so far american author refused to comment insisting all information relating to the case is confidential barghouti was travelling to the us to take part in a speaking tour of several prominent universities including panel discussions with policymakers and journalists. barghouti co-founded the boycotts divestments and sanctions movement known as b.d.s. back in two thousand and five it calls on the international community to stop supporting israel and its companies it also seeks to return west bank territory to

palestinians in turn israel accuses the movement of being anti-semitic done director of the jerusalem center for public affairs says the decision to deny barghouti entry was not arbitrary. think that is the that's the argument that we're hearing all over the place is that this is what they call the shutting of mouse in the and the closing of free and the prohibit a prohibition of free speech but this is not the issue of omar barghouti omar barghouti from the united states point of view as a foreign agent with terror links the islamic jihad p f l p how mass and other designated terror organizations by the united states and europe so they don't like to have those types of terror linked individuals coming into the united states. to date over half of all u.s. states of introduced laws penalizing boycotts against israel earlier in the year the senate passed a bill that allowed states that terminate contracts with entities which support the

boycott movement is omar barghouti again he says that this legislation comes from fear of the movement growing in popularity. the u.s. supreme court ruled that boycotts for political social and economic change are considered free speech protected by the first amendment of the us constitution so all those twenty seven states are following israel's orders basically but they're violating their own u.s. constitution we will challenge that we are challenging that in u.s. courts a.c.l.u. is challenging at least three states on their antidemocratic. laws and we think we will prevail in their struggle israel is trying to suppress b.d.s. from above by passing laws because it has miserably failed to stop the immense growth of the movement at the grassroots level among the unions churches women's groups energy beauty groups and so on and so forth. let's go back to our breaking

news story this hour the huge fire that some of the world famous not done cathedral in central paris president has now arrived at the scene here earlier declared this a tragedy french media quoting the fire brigade as saying that the fire is potentially linked to renovation work which was under way on the building you can see the much of the scaffolding of that renovation work there still a blaze reports say the roof has completely collapsed short time after we've shown you video of this the famous byre. toppling down. one of them parachutes then bringing us the latest shallow dubin skate is. we've seen huge crowds gathered around. some of the huge plumes of smoke up in the background what's more of the information is coming through at your end and how are people reacting to this around your huge crowds. well we've just spent the last ten minutes chatting

to people here in the crowds about their views of what's happening tonight people saying this is a tragedy for an iconic building people wondering water on earth has happened and how this fire has been able to start as you said president matt brown has already come to visit the cathedral to find out what's happening here but that fire looks like it's still raging from the angle that we are it does look like it was dissipating but as you said neal you're seeing the pictures from of angles and those other angles are suggesting that the fire is still quite ferocious hearing reports from some people here who say that they're aware that they've read the entire roof of not cathedral has collapsed people saying that from the rafters down this cordon has been put in place by the police trying to keep people away trying to keep them at a safe distance not just from the fire to allow the firefighters to get in to do

their work but also because when the fire was raging at the beginning the plumes of smoke were actually bringing as close as where i am in fact my hair at one point i could feel some of the ashes from that smoke descending on it and i even saw some embers from the fire landing on a vehicle just in front of me that was still tinge dread that's how the inside of that fire was that even after being blown a hundred and fifty meters away. they basically were a still scorching hot so yes that's the news on the ground president gone has come to visit to see what's happening here not to damn this icon hornick building in the center of paris a building that's around eight hundred and fifty years old and was on going extensive restoration that restoration has been taking place after the french catholic church launched an appeal last year to ask people for donations to try and

stop the church from crumbling any further this is of course an exemplary. example of french gothic architecture sorry just caught my breath there as of turned around and you could still see what looks to be the raid of flames from the fire from inside not to dharm it did look as if the firefighters had gotten this under control it doesn't look like they have it looks like it's still raging in the eyewitness saying to me that not only did they see the roof collapsing but also i would have the most famous spires in the side that cathedral the damage is going to be considerable and it could take many days many weeks before the firefighters and the workers are able to sift through all of the damage to see exactly what's happened and how much has been lost but it's not

just about money and the cost of this this is about history this is about the history of paris this is a place where somebody was just saying to me and i'm not sure if this is correct but they were telling me that this is where the first king of france was actually crowned will have to check back on that but needless to say this is an iconic building the most visited building in paris and the crowds have formed here just in sheer shock that. this is unfolding on this night. as i correspond to central paris bringers the scene how people have been reacting live pictures we'll come back to charlotte in the next hour just to bring you the latest information. on the blaze to say that firefighters still cannot get inside the cathedral the entire structure is ablaze let's move on to other news now twenty twenty u.s.

presidential hopeful bernie sanders is lashed out at a think tank belonging to his own party is accuse the center of american progress of stirring up infighting and damaging the democrats' hopes of taking back the white house. other democratic candidates are running campaigns based on principles and ideas and not engaging in mudslinging or personal attacks on each other meanwhile the center for american progress is using its resources to smear the senate's a book or so mr warren and myself among others this is hardly the way to build unity or to win the general election. the center for american progress promotes non left candidates within the democrats in two thousand and sixteen through its weight behind hillary clinton presidential hopeful arvin vora from the libertarian party thinks that the center is establishment through and through. in all parties you're going to see something tanks there are basically designed to promote the

establishment values center for american progress certainly does that they're very cautious about pushing the agendas that are going to be frightening to powerful lobbyist to moneyed interests because that damages their own funding and they're going to keep on trying to do everything they can to push the establishment interest and so it's not necessarily about hillary clinton specifically but rather promoting establishment candidates generally. well first on bernie sanders has complained about the way the democratic party while minutes its presidential candidate his criticisms of so-called superdelegates led to reforms last year of us could have more been explained now they are unlikely to have much impact. it's campaign season once again in the united states and with trump as the presumptive nominee for reelection on the republican ticket it's the democratic primary that is the focus so far there are eighteen different candidates running for president as

a democrat and at this point it's expected that the number may increase. as i'm running for president and i'm running to serve you as the next president of the united states of america i am a candidate i announce my candidacy i now see my candidates same i'm running for president i'm filing an exploratory committee for a city i stayed. last time the democratic primary was a bit of a circus with bernie sanders supporters declaring that the process was rigged against them there will be threatened bernie sanders supporters clashing in nevada angry bernie sanders supporters fighting over delegates in nevada tonight coming to represent a nasty few shaking up the democratic party now not every vote counts the same when it comes to nominating the democratic party's candidate the infamous super delegates appointed by party bigwigs have the ability to overturn the popular vote over four hundred of these superdelegates in their k.

did their support for secretary clinton before everyone else was in the race but now the democratic party has changed the rules to make everything fair well sort of we passed major reforms that will not only put on next presidential nominee in the strongest position possible but will help us elect democrats up and down the ballot across the country these reforms will help grow our policy unites democrats and restore voters trust by making our twenty twenty nominating process the most inclusive and transparent in our history now this time around the superdelegates won't get to vote at the convention unless there is no clear majority in the first ballot however at this point with eighteen different candidates in the race none of which are polling above. thirty two percent it's pretty likely that will happen and that might actually be part of the plan for twenty twenty democrats jampacked field is already on track to surpass the republican seventeen way rumble of twenty sixteen and lacks an obvious front runner at the dizzying pace small and large

dollar donors are bankrolling their favorite hopefuls many democrats could have the financial wherewithal and even pressure from their backers to campaign deep into the primary calendar dramatically increasing the odds no candidate will capture a majority by the convention if the superdelegates do end up voting it's not clear who they would support however it's pretty clear who they would not support at this point bernie sanders is favored and leading in many polls among rank and file democrats however he's pretty hated by the party elite a socialist candidate is more dangerous to this company country as far as the strength and well being of our country the donald trump i would vote for donald trump a despicable human being twenty sixteen was not the first time that things got messy at the democratic national convention back in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight when the democratic party selected a candidate who supported the vietnam war things got ugly outside the convention on the streets of chicago. so what the democratic party still stinging from tribes

upset victory and with a lot of internal strife and divisions it's starting to look like primary season might become a little bit chaotic for the oldest party in america the changes that we're seeing in the democratic primary are basically joke changes it this is purely an empty p.r. move in two thousand and sixteen the democratic party had to resort to pretty extreme maneuvers take hand the election to the establishment candidate but note the way that they did that was not just about superdelegates they also gave for example clinton the debate questions beforehand the democratic party will be able to do this just as long as democratic voters let them. get away with it. fortunately internationalists go back to our breaking news story you can see on the screen the iconic not cathedral in paris a blaze the spire is reported to have collapsed in fact we're showing you video of

that actually happening a little early this evening the fire is engulf the entire building these are live pictures for you according to a cathedral spokesperson the entire frame of the gothic style building is burning this is the same right now no reports of injuries thank goodness emmanuel micron the french president. already called off his business that was planned for today and has arrived at the scene. ok let's go to central paris now not far away from the place itself our correspondent charlotte due to speak. is right in the middle of the action you can see lots of people gathered around because everybody sadly it's a bit like a moth to a flame people want to see what's going on and it's all the people's hearts shall i know you've had a chance to speak to a few people as well.