>> the british economy shrinks by 20% in just one month because of the coronavirus lockdown. the oecd has warned that the downturn in the u.k. will be steeper than in any other european country. donald trump told to get back in his bunker as a row erupts in seattle. protesters have seseized contro of parts of the north we were city. officials warn the president not to intervenene. and syrian president assad sacked his prime minister ahead of elections, following protests in areas usually loyal to his government. the country is still fighting a

ar that has already killed 400 people. those are the international headlines at this hour. thanks for joining us at this hour. you are watching "france 24." new figures show the british economy shrank by more than 20% in april. that was the first month the country went into a full lockdown because of the coronavirus. it means the u.k. economy has shrunk by around 1/4 4 in just o months. virtually all sectors from hit and house builders particularly badly affected. brian quinn from our business desk has more. >> u.k.'s office of national statistics is callining it a historic d drop in activity. the brish economy shrank 24.4% in april compared to march. that is the deepest one month contraction on record, three times deeper than the entirety of the 2008 financial crisis. the services sector accounts for 4/5 of the u.k. economy. it fell by 19% in april.

industrial production down 0.3%. construction fell over 40%. when the u.k. started easing its lockdown measures in may, most analysts don't expecect a quick recovery. the u.k. is likely to be the developed nation that takes the hardest economic hit from the coronavirus. they're predicting an 11% declinine in economic activity. the rest of europe not far behind in that bleak outlook. here in france, the economy is is expected to lose 11.4%. italy and spain, 11.3% and 11.1%. the u.k. has put in place emergency financing measures for ailing companies. so far that's already expected to top 67 billion pounds. the government is supporting the maintenance of salaries for temporarily laid-off workers, but there are more struggles to come. the country is still mired in trade talks with the e.u. as the deadline for finalizing brexixi

approaches and the pandemic has thrown another wrench into the gears of the negotiations. business groups are warning of increased r risks o of exiting without a trade dedeal in place. >> the mayor of seattle has told president donald trump to go back to o his bunker after he e threatened to intervene in a police-free zone. police abandoned the prerecinctn the nortrthwest city on monday following clashes with supporters of the black lives matter movement. protersers have dubbed the area the capitol hill autonomous zone. trump warned the city's mayor to take back control or else he would, referring to the protesters as domestic terrorists. here is how seattle mayor jenny durkan responded. >> one of the things this president will never understand is that listening to community is not a weakness. it is a strength. a real leader would see nationwide protests, the grief in so many communities of color,

particularly our black communities, and the call to be an anti-racist society as an opportunity for america, an opportunity to build a better nation. >> it's not just city mayors in dispute with president trump. several high-ranking members of the military have also criticized the president over his threat to deploy y troops against protersers. now another general has publicly apologized for taking part in a photo op with trump oututside a hurch in washington. >> amid growing protests over the killing of george floyd, the u.s.s. president sought toto reassert his authority. after threatening to deploy the army to restore order, donald trump walked to a damaged church. his path cleared of peaceful demonstrators by federal authorities in a heavyhanded operation, surrounded by top admininistration officicials. president trump posed for photos

bible in hand before returning to the white house. among those at his side, dressed in military fatigues, army general mark milley who now says he regrets partaking in the photo op. >> i should not h have been the. my presence in that moment and in that environment c created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. it was a mistatake that i learn from, and i sincerely hope we all can learn from it. >> the incident caused malaise within the military community. some even suggesting it sparked the deepest domestic civilian military divide since the vietnam war. the secretary of defense, mark esper, his prededecessor and retired four-star marine general john allen all announced what they viewed as instrumentalizing the u.s. army. >> the option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most dire of situauations. we are not in one of those

situations now. >> former secretary of state colin powell also weighed in, accusing donald trump of drifting away from the constitution. it was apparently the final straw for the retired republican general, who announced he will be voting for democrat joe biden in november's presidential election. >> around the world. >> 21 states in the u.s. have now reported a spike in coronavirus i infections, bringg the number of confirmed cases to more nan two million. over 100,000 americans have already died from the disease. we have this report. >> florida beaches opened up to the public on may 10. restaurants in texas serving only 25% of capacity, but already back to business for the past three weeks. did the united states end its lockdown too fast? it's in arizona ththat cases ha spiked the most, with an increase of 210% these past two

weeks. the state went from recording 345 infections a day to well over 1,000.. the state capital is the worst hihit area with hospitals appealing to the public to be careful. >> m monitor what our b bed sta is but we are going to be aggressively e encouraging peop to make sure this they're taking steps. >> in texas, positive cases are up by 73% in part due to anan outbtbreak in a prison.n. the number of d dths in relation to the population remains low, th 1,800 casualties for 29 million residents. prisons in florida have also been hit hard, with infections among inmates soaring. georgia, however, the first state to end its lockdown, with practically no social restrictions in place has seen a rise in cases of just 5%. despite the alarming numbers, the government has so far

excluded any possibility of shutting down the economy once more. treasury secretaryry steven uchin saidid it was not a viable option. however,r, stock markets have e already respondnded to the surg in infections with big falls on wall street as fears of a second wave grips the u.s. >> syria's president has sacked his prime minister a month ahead of elections. it follows rare anti-government protests in areas u usually loy to the president. people are angry about the rising cost of living, whwhich s been sparked by a dramatic fall in syria's currency. next week the u u.s. wi bring in new sanctions targeting the assad regime over the nine-year civil war which has killed nearly 400,000 people. here is our chief foreign editor with his analysis. >> assad has s sacked his prime minister who has been with him fofor the last t four years. that i think is part of t the picturure of growing frurustrat growing insecurity. sueueda.ed earlier

there have e been protesests in areas right a at the cenenter oe loyal movement to a assad. to hear voices of dissent coming from there is a really bad sign for the regime. but beyond that, there appears to be now dissent within president assad's own family, with his first cousin catching the headlines. he has been stung for tax claims, millions and millions of u.s. dollars. e says he is not going to pay. he wields a lot of powerer. he appeared on facebook warning the regime to keep its hands off. there are clearly signs that something is amiss with the assad regime. you mentioned russia. there have b been a flurry y

articles i in the russian media criticizing corruption in the regime, thee intransigence of te regime on reform, august suggesting that moscow too is beginning to get fed up with the lack of progress on pololitical reform. moscow is not going to bail out this regime. it doesn't have thee funds at te moment. iran c can't do it either. it doesn have the funds. so this all adds s up to a prpr unhealthy pick tower district picture for president t assad. things are not looking good. >> now the u.n. mission in libya has expressed horror over the discovery of eight mass graves in recent days. the majority of them were found in the strategic city soututhea f tripoli. previously it was under the control of a renegade general, their forces backed by russia, egypt and the united arab

emirates have been battling since april. the fighting leaving h hundreds dead and forcing 200,000 to flee their homes. burning barricades and d tear g are back on the streetsts of lebanon.n. the crisis has been made worse by the national currency falling to a new low against the dollar, prompting the biggest protest there since the coronavirus lockdown measures were ntroduced at the end of march. tripoli to y - -- north of beirut, in the heart of the lebanese capital, thursday saw a new explosion of anger across the country against its worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war 30 years ago. [speaking foreign language]

> [speaking foreign language] >> lebanon's national surnsy has lost 70% of its value. 1/3 of the population is unemployed, almost half live below the poverty line. the economic crisis is fueling a protest movement which began in october against the class accused of incompetence and corruption. > [speaking foreign language] >> these protesters are chanting for a secular state. they were joined by shiite residents, neighborhoods that arare traditionally pro-governmt or hezbollah. the government has responded by calling an emergency cabinet meeting this friday. >> restaurants, bars and shops

are now open here in paris as the government continues to ease lockdown measures, but cinema lovers will have to wait a bit longer if they want to see a film on the big screen. cinemas will be able to open their doors on june 22, but some cecenters have statarted gettin back to work in the capital. we look at how the coronavirus has changed the e way movies ar made. >> this high school in the suburbs of paris is still closed, but behind its walls people are getting back to work. filming was given the green light to resume in may after beingg interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. [speaking french] >> things have changed since

they were last at work. a medical team is now on site every day, including a nursese o takes temperatures and carries out coronavirus testing. technicians need to thoroughly clean the camera equipment. ast and crew must wear a mask. [speaking french] >> today's scene is a basketball match between teachers and students. the health restrictions meant the script needed to b be rewritten. > [speaking french] >> unlike any film they've made before, the team will be hoping this one is a welcome

distraction from the coronavirus papandemic. >> good to see french cinema getting back on its feet. please stay with us. much more still to come on "france 24." >> welcome to the interview on "france 24." our guest today is martin luther king iii, the son of martin luther king jr. he joins us from atlanta, georgia. thank you very much for being with us, mr. king. >> thank you. >> like your father, you are yourself a human rights activist. obviously your father had famously a a dream, but upon discovering the footage of george floyd under the knee of a police officer in minneapolis over two weeks ago, america actually woke up to a nightmare.

hat was your reaction? my reaction when i first heard about the killing of george floyd, actually the murder, i should say, it was may 25, which happenened to be a holiday in the u.s. and my daughter's 12th birthday. the first thing that it evoked for me was wow, this sounds juss like ec gagarn in n new york,, who wawas held with a chokehold scenario and was killed by a police officer, police officers in new york city. so that was the first thing, and then the second emotion was anger and frustration and hohostility. whatat are we going to do so th this neverer, ever happens to another human being? it was several days later before i saw the actual video, and the

video reinforced my feelings. i had to exflflain -- my we e a i had to explain to our daughter why this kept happening bececau in her m mind heher grandfather grandmother have devoted their lives to ending this kind of behavivior, bubut yet it keeps repeating itself. now, mind you, we had seen on february 23 a man here in georgia by the namame of f ahma arbebery killed by a former policen and his son and we saw 3 1/1/2 weeks ago, maybe fofour weeks nonow, breononna taylolor kentucky killed by police.e. we didn't see video from those two until later o on, but we sa grgraphicallyy this videoeo of e flfloyd and we saw the inhumani of a person and we saw a police officer become judge, jury and

executioner all in one. and so we began to say what can we do? this h has got to stop. ththen to see t the nation galvanized and ultimately the woworld galvanized a a to see these protest demonstrations, most of them peaceful by the way, some violently.. my dad used to say that riots are the language of the unhnhea and yet while he never condoned violence, he understood what causeded some to e engage in th kind of activity. but he always hohoped that wee would haveve peaceful protests. as i said, by and large, that is what we are seeing all over the world. >> right. the brother of george floyd went to testify before congress. he said he wanted to make sure that his brother, quote unquote, is more than another name on a list that won't stop growing. he said those words, i am tired of the pain i am feeling now and

i am tired of the pain i feel every time another black person is killed for no reason. do you think this could really be different this time around? yoyou mentioneded the fact that there was not a lot happening to change it. will this be a sea change? >> well, i certainly hope and pray that it is a sea change because i think that if we do not see change, none of us can predict what is going to happen and in addition to that, black people am america spent over $ trillion last year in this -- $1 trillion last year in this s economy and if black peoplple me the decision we are going to stop exercising our buying popor withth certain consumers, that would be a dramatic incident. that is where some of the didiscussions are going r right ththis moment. so if we don'n't see appropriat

responsible changes in a very respononsible period ofof time, that's one of the things that may happen, in addition to others that i don't know. but i really y believe that thi time is unusual. we have nevever seen soso many demonstrations where whihite people are almost in the majoririty of leading those demonstrations. we nevever had in evevery state the nation -- ththis is the fir time i think in history that every state -- there have been a lot of states but there's never been every, and then of course the worlrld has been captutured this and is standing up, saying black lives matter. finally the veil has been removed and those who were asleep are awakened and therefore it made the senate and the united states congress will have to act. they already proposed legislation. i think this is the moment, this is the time and i think we will see action and i think we will

see the kind of action we are never seen before. >> one precedent was obviously tragically for you, you were 10 years old at the time, i believe, when your father was killed in memphis in 1968. there were huge demonstrations, but after that, the momentum was somehow lost. richard nixon won the election. aren't we seeing maybe the same thing happening maybe with donald trump campaigning on law and order and actually bringing down this momentum that you are describing? >> well, i think there are a couple of factors in a are different. in 1968, mosost of the demonstrations -- acactually a t of thehe demonstrating was lootg and violence and a lot of rioting. there were over 100 cities that were engaged but it was mostly black people. i would say that the overwhelming large number was black people. these demonstrations are

different in the sense that many of them are overwhelmingly white. we have never seen police officers take a knee in support of protesters. we have never seen a sheriff march with the demonstrators, the law enforcement, top law enforcement person in that community in flint, michigan. we have never seen a large number of white people who are taking a knee and apologizing for years of f mistreatment o o blblack people. there is a diffeferent energy ts titime than ever beforore and a lalarger number ofof peoplple, i said there are huge numbers of whites who often maybe have felt the e sentiment butt were silen. so people have become vocal. people have become engaged. young p peoplee are engaged.. i think thisis is different. this is the most -- i h have ner seen a anything quite like thisn my life. >> what would your father say and do today if he were there?

>> well, f first of all, if m m father had l lived and he wante to remove from our nation what he called the triple eagles ofo poverty, r racism and he said militarism at the time that he was talking, but i change militarism to violence. poverty, racism and violence he wanted to eradicate from our society. my mother worked throughout her life and lived 30 years or 40 years longerer than my father a she wananted to w work to o era those evils. well, i thinink if my father we here today, he would be greatly disappointed i in the leadershi of the president and of the government. but he would be very proud of all l of those or pleased that people are demonstrating in a peaceful w way to bring about change and feeling that change was imminent. people are empathizingng with wt

you are going thrhrough, that people are talkingng about blac lives matter, and that -- oftentimes people thought black lives matter was saying something different. there are some who still believe all lives matter. of course, we know that, butut black lives matter also. that is what black lives matter. no one has evever said that no other life is important, but it seems like the treatment that black people have been getting over and over again feels like black lives do not matter so we must ensnsure that all lives do matter and certainly nowow it's focused on black livess because black lives are disproportionately mistreaeated. 16% ofof the population black people represent but 70% of the jail population. how is that possible u unless policemen are profifiling black people? that has to o change. there are a number of changes ththat we expect to see in a ve short periodod of time. >> donald trump, is he a racist?

>> donald trump's activities notion. to bolster that yesterday one of the largest race car entities in the nation, the nascar, basically said its confederate flag can no longer be brought to this a actual rac this car race, and military installations that have confederate persons who represenent those bases and for, donald trump reinforced to that element of the population that we are not going to do anything about that. as you see statues are coming down in the united states and even in europe, those who advocated for slavery and slave owners, people are pulling those statues down. maybe there is a better way for that to happen, but it's interesting to see the people

are doing that all over the world. soso donaldd trump c continues exhibibit behavior o of a racis terms of his rhetoric, andnd i don't t know that he is is goin toto changee that. i hope that he -- he doeoesn't seem t to u understand that he the e presidenent of the u unit states of america, not the president of one segment o of t population. . and i thihink that these statue and thehese monumentsts b belon museums. they do not belong inin the sque of a citity where eveveryonee h come and they should not be put in a sense of uplifting them becacause of what they represented. they represented is something destructive to a large percentage of peoplele, and tha is black people, and that doesn't mean that they don't need to bebe acknowledged in a museum because a people that do not know their history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. yes, donald trump does exhibit behavior of a racist and i hope and p pray that at some point h

changes that. i don't expect that, but i am always going to be hopeful. >> thank you very much, martin luther king iii, for granting us an interview from georgia. stay tuned here

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