>> welcome back to the france 24 nusrsra. begin in london. there are signs of a growing revolt within the british conservative party after dominic cummings, special advisor to boris johnson, said he had no intention of resigning. this after breaking lockdown restrictions and traveling the length of england when h he and his wiwife are showing symptomsf covid-19. resesigned from the view isnt, saying his not shared by the majority of his party. a number of deaths involving covid-19 and great britain have topped 47,000.

olivia has more. reporter: no apologies, never regrets and certainly no resignation. dominic cummings stands accused of breaking lockdown rules, give boris johnson's special advisor maintains his actions were necessary and fell within the government guidelines. he told reporters at an unprecedented briefing in the garden of 10 downing street. >> in this complex situation i tried to have my judgment the best i cou. i believe i have behaved reasonably and legally. i ununderstand somome people ari should have stayed my london flat. i respectfully disagree. the legal rules do not cover all circumstances, including those i found myself in. reporter: cummings confirmed he drove the 260 miles from london to durham where his parents lived accompanied by his wife and child. he argued the trip was necessary because of "childcare issues,"

while both he and his wife are suffering from coronavirus symptoms. he did point out he should have spoken to boris johnson about the decision. man credited with masterminding the leave campaign and the government position on brexit, he says within the prime minister's innener circle and seems to have his unwavering support. >> i believe in every response he has acted responsibly and legally and with integrity. reporter: other members of the conservative party have been open and their condemnation of the incident, with many calling for cummings to resign or be fired. a political scandal that may well bend force johnson's popularity - -- ris johnson's popularity. the u.k. recorded the highest death toll from the virus among its european neighbors. >> the world health organization has announced it has temporarily

suspended clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine for treating covid-19. who says potential dangers of the drug normally used for treatment larry have prompted it to err on the side of caution. donald trump telling reporters he has been taking the drug. this is what the who director general had to say earlier. >> the group is implement a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm and the solidarity trial while the data is reviewed by the data board. the other arms of the trial are continuing. >> the d debbie ho has warned te warned -- who has countries can still face a second peak if they are to let too soon.

the organization's emergency chief said epidemics often come in waves, which means outbreaks could come back later this too r after the first wave has subsided. party politics continues to color the debate over measures to stem the threat of covid-19 in the u.s. president trump threatening to cancel the republican national convention in north carolina unless the state's democratic governor changes his stance on banning large gatherings. american death toll is 100,000. in the last two days alone, north carolina has seen its largest daily increase in cases. the wearing award not wearing of masks has become a political statement in the u.s. the difference was more striking than ever on memorial day. donald trump appeared again without a mask. joe biden was largely -- who has largely remained at home or a

large one. republicans and democrats are divided over m measures meant to stop the disease, but republicans wanting to gradually drop those measures, saying they want to restart the economy. democrats sticking the safety measures. thatat gap appeared at the latat tweets by president trump pushing for a packed hall in august's republican convention in north atlanta. "many thousands of enthusiastic republicans and others must be immediately given an answer by the governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. if not, we will be reluctantly forced to find another republican national convention site." person repliedkes north carolina is relying on data and science for public health issues. tensions are not limited to elected officials. these appeared soon after the measures were imposed. people have protested against

masks in several areas. >> is communism. socialism. that's not right. it is our right to void put on our bodies. reporter: sermon turning aggressive, coughing on employees trying to enforce sanitary rules. that tension even led to the killing of a security guard. sayof democratic voters they will keep wearing masks. half of republicans say they will to stop the spread of the disease whose death toll nears 100,000. spain has urged its eu partners to set up common rules to open borderers and reestablih the freedom of travel within the zone. different lockdowns s are beinig phased out a across the block. it comes as denmark k is easy controls with other nordic countries, allowing cross-border couples to meet again. germany is planning to end its travel warning to 31 countries on june 15.

the french foreign minister telling french radio earlier today by june 15 the french government itself will also have a clearer picture of lifting border restrictions. >> [speaking indigenous language] >> the prime minister of france said health workers could soon get hefty pay rises as part of an overhaul of the nation's hospital system in response to the pandemic. he made the comments kicking up consultations yesterday with

doctors and nurses expected to conclude in july. in the meantime, the french government said it's tracing app is ready to be rolled out this weekend. some groups are urging people not to use the application over privacy concerns. finally ready after months of development, france's coronavirus tracacing app stotop covid could d be availablele as early y as this weekend if accepted in parliament on wednesday. the application worksks by using bluetooth. after downloading it, a person can report themselves as positive for covid-19 with a code from their doctor. then any devices within a meter of the person for r more than 15 minutes should receive an automatic alert. faced with criticism about risk to privacy, the government defended the technology. >> its installation is voluntary.

it is not identifying. the installation is temporary. six monthserased after the state of emergency. reporter: the reassertion si -- the research and -- ththey se the project as the beginning of widespread surveillance. if parliament does not approve the launch, the governmentt promisises thehe app will not se thlilight of day.. m macron is trying to shore up the auto industry stung by the coronavirus crisis. eight weeks of lockdown have messily reduce the number of car sales and left tens of thousands of jobs at risk. jean-pierre, a specialist on the french car industry. thank you for your time. just how badly has the car industry been impacted by this pandemic? worse t than the 2008 8 isis.

t thes than three months, european car industry, and 2.5 million vehicles will never be recovered. months the three retail sales were 76% everywhere in europe. the automotive industry up to 7% of the european gdp. employed ineople the automobile industry. the industry is facing major challenge because they have lost clientnts. they have lost produduction. renewing contact with the offer to suit an the needs of consumers, which

have less money to buy a car. the industry is facing a paradox. arene side more people about to take the car to go to work, to commute. clearso, they have no vision of the evolution of the technology and of the market in europe. --ryone is talking about president micicro will make cocomments about the elelectric. there is no real massive m markt for r electric c cars. ththe problems for the governmet -- the i industry is defined defined the possibility of the customer to buy the new cars. >> with what the government is

proposing, is that going to be enoughgh in order for the indusy to survive? >> i am not sure of that. nobody knows about the future. the level of sales for electric cars is low in europe. despite the good result at the beginning of this year. the problem for the government is to face the needs of short-term cash for the industry. they will have to change their organizations, their layouts. this is clear. thatovernment will help because it has a high social impact. at the same time, the market is the only judge. are people going to pay for n nw

cacars? this is an uncertainty today. >> john pierre, thank you so much. >> thank you v very much. >> authorities are planning to release 900 more taliban prisoners on tuesday as calls grow for the militants to extend the cease-fire on his third and final day. the fighting came into of -- the pause in fighting c came into effect on sunday and is in most part holding across the countrt. has how much the pandemicic affected negotiations between the government and the taliban. the situation in afghanistan is getting bad. one person out of three in the city might be affected by the covid-19. today the director of public health and the north of the country said 80% might be infected.

these are alarming figures. ago, said few weeks they wanted to keep the residence -- prisoners and kill them by covid-19.9. this is a new stetep towards the peace process. it adds to trust building between the taliban and the government. past not forget in the month, even with the pandemic hitting the country and afterer the u.s.-taliban deal, the taliban continued to attack the government. the month of march was the most bloodied month where there were 50 attacks on government forces by the taliban. >> do stay with us here on france 24. >> welcome to the france 24

interview. our guest is a special advisor and spokesperson for turkey's president erdogan. he joins us from ankara. thank you for being with us today. >> glad to be here. 150 6000s over confirmed cases of covid-19. some 4340 deaths. do you believe the epidemic is under control in your country? we went to add the authorities have declared a nationwide curfew during the celelebration. >> the numbers are going down. we have the e situation under control mostly but we arare beig careful becacause they don't knw the exact pattern of behavior for this virus. you have to be ready for a second wave. that is why we are emphasisizing measures to be of limited carefully. compared to other countries i think we have done extxtremely

wewell in n terms of taking thoe memeasures early on, implementig them. our people have appropriated these measures and are abiding by them. going into the gradual phase of easing up some of the restrictions. we are going to be carefeful because i think a common trait of this covid-19 period in which we going into live is we will he with it for some time. >> right. i want to turn to turkey's libya and give the upperhand to the government against his archrival. had been holede up in the capital of tripoli. it seems now his troops and allies are fleeing. is this what i is happening as e speak in libya? >> the situation remains critical and fragile. we signed an agreement with the

lilibyan government, which is rerecognized by the u.n. as the legitimatete representative of e libybyan p people back in decemr of 2019. upon the request of the e libyan gogovernment we providededhem advice, andnd we have sent advdvisors there h hp them bring a degree of balance to the conflict. our intervention an agreement or with the natational accord government and brought a degree of balance to the conflict there. if you look at his behavior over the last two years, he has broken everyry single agreement, every single cease-fire put together and hopoped to be implement it by the international community. he has not recognized any u.n. mandates. he broken the cease-fire. he continues to attack is on people.

we believeve it is time for thee international commununity to recogngnize what he is. he is not a legitimate representative of the libyan people. he has brought moree suffering and accelerated d the violelencn libya with the suppo of a number of countries from the gulf region, and most recently from russia. we believe the military solution is not a solution in libya. the u.n. laid out a number of principles the berlin conference put togetheher, the framework. we support it. the government has been very respononsible and constructive from the very beginning. they have i implementnted the cease-fire. they have worked with the internrnational communityty. now it is time for his back us to understand he is not a reliable partner in libya. >> it is not so much a political solution as a military one being pushed. there are reports of russian mercenaries, syrian mercenaries

fleeing away from tripoli. reports from russia sending warplanes. isseemsms the government pushing for an militarary victoy agaiainst him. >> they are defending their positions in tripoli, libya's capitatal. they are responding to aggressive behavior. the mercenaries brought to o lia from the sudan, frfrom syria mot company, the russian they all fought on thehe side of him. that hisare realizing backers s realize ththat is nota solution a and is not working. the governmentnt has said d many times they want t a political sosolution, nonot a military solution. thth have a riright to defend themselves. >> are they ready to push on to territory controlled by hoftar s far as benghazi?

>> there needs to be a political solution which willl apply to al of libya, nonot just a single or certain part of libya territories. not only tripoli, bubut benghazi and other placaces. the recent actions by the hofta forces have turned people in because he againsnst him -- benghazi against him.. they a are entitled and i see tm determined to defend themselves against hofta if needed militarily. >> you are encouraging the government to defeat him militarily if he doesn't want to listen to conciliation, correct? >> we have been encouragaging tm topppply the pnciples s of the berlin conference, a as well as the u.n. plan. >> also military force? >> no, the e berlin conference called for a cease-fire for a politica resolution.

it was out of the berlin confererence that t a militaryry councicil decisionon was t takee esestablished. fifive from each side to talk about deconflicting. hofta's side refused to send representatives to the council. theyey increased their military attacks. in response, the government is responding to them to push off their military offense. >> i want to ask you about some news that just came out from the u.n. experts talking about private western forces that had been sent to libya of humans ago to prevent turkey from giving some military help to the government. it said this was coordinated from companies based in the united arab emirates. what is yoyour reaction to this report? >> the abu dhabi government hass been provididing a lot of mility and financi s support to hofta.

itit is no sececret they are financing this war. prprobably by using oil momoney coming from the libyan oil fields. himself.ed by hoftaa they are providing money for the wagon g group, the russssian memercenaries and other mercrcenaries comingng from cha, niger, sudan anand others. >> western mercenaries it appears? >> yeah. it clearly shows he was escalating the violence there. >> right. there have been some tensions with france over libya, over syria. in a statement two weeks ago, the foreign ministry of turkey accused france of being the patron of the axis of malice. what is the situation with france? is it still lay-ins relationship because of disagreement over libya, syria and other things? >> in lilibya we had extensive

discussions withth the berlin conference. our presesident t had a number f discussions with president mccrone --presidedent macron. unfortunately france continues to support hofta. >> francnce was wrong to support him?m? >> of course we believe that. we believe anynyone still supppporting him i is on the wrg side in the libyan conflict. in syria we have disagreements. not only w with franance but alo with the united statetes because pkkkkre supporting the syriaa branch, recognized as a terrorisist organization i in francece. supported them in the fight against diash was the jujustification a couple yes ago. -- they continue toto support them. we have to support their main

agagenda is toto create theieirn kurdish enclave in syria. they goes against the verery ida of s syria's territory andd uni. chrhristian, muslim, sunni, everyone should be at the negotiating tabable against the assad regime and its aggressive and brutal war. you cannot pick and choosose one particicular ethnic or idedeolol grgroup and d give them some privileges. it undermines all the efforts we are tttting together to keep syria together, make a transition possible in syria. pkk's agenda is clear, t to cree their own secessionist state. we will not allow w that because that poses a national threat for our nationonal security.y. and it undermines s the basic gl ofof the u u.n. resolution 2254, which calls for syria's

territorial integrity and unity. >> presidents erdogan and trump spoke a few days ago. it grew quite tense because turkey acquired russian s400 air defense system. they were supposed to be activating it in april. it did not happen. is this a sigh the relationship mightt be on the mend with washington?? >> our presidents have good relatitionship. they had a conversation ababout libya, syria, covid-19, bilateteral relatations. they said thehe goal of reaeachg $100 billion. wewe are working on all of these areas. we have disasagreements o over o the united s stes is supporting in syria. the s 400, i it came as a rerest ofof our many years of efforts o acacquire missssile-defense sts. unfortunatately nce the obobama presidency it did not happen. we have nono choice but to l lok for alternatives. our prpresident made this clear and has been transpaparent rougughout the whohole process.

he has not blackckmailed anybody or anything. hehe is clear about this. if we cannot get the missile-e-defense system f frome unitited s states or nato alliee wiwill look for alternatives. we signed s400, but the agreement for ththe s400 beforere congress passed the resolution which called for sanctions for anyy country acquiring s s400 four r russian militaryry equipment. we said we can n work together o address any security concerns our allies may have about s400 being cocompatible or not compatible with the nato defense system. our president said we are prepared to acquire patriot missile missile-defense systems from united states. >> they is still the possibility those air defense systems might not be activated in the negotiations continued, right? >> t the plalans are going as planned before in regards to the s400.

because of covid-19 things have been delayed but we are sticking to our agreement on the s400 as before. >> special advisor to turkish president erdogogan, thank you r being with us on france 24 france

reporter: we all know italy is a special place--the beautiful streets, the history, the romance. they really do know how to live the good life here. lately, the country's been doing it tough, especially young people. youth unemployment here sits at a whopping 35%. but ever so slowly, something is changing.