>> welcome to the france 24 newsroom. covid-19 has of contininuing outbreaks with the prospect of reimposed restrictions. this as many traveled to their summer vacation. the u.k., belgium, and now germany has announced urgent measures to limit the spread of the virus. travelers will now be systematically tested in germany. peter has more. a second wave is gripping countries around

europe, first, belgium, where the prime minister voiced her concern. [speaking french] peter: x and provence -- aix en rise, andas seen a restrictions are tightenining. the social bubble has been reduced to five people, and health authorities are worried in germany, cases are up from an average of 360 days in mid july. a test will be mandatory for everyone traveling to germany from 130 places declared high risk, including the u.s. and

turkey. people coming back from spain have to quarantine for 14 days. boris johnson the decision. >> it's really our job, our duty, to act swiftly and , --dedly peter: spain is seeing an average of 120,000 cases a day. one tactic has not seen a come back, europe's borders remain open. an agreement has been reached with the u.k. government for a supply of up to 60 million doses of a covid-19 vaccine,, other vaccines are nearing the final stage e of testing, governments are racing against each other to secure the supply

for r their own nation,n, even before key d data has been released. the u.k.k. has agreed to buy up to 16 million doses as a vaccine isis being developed b by a freh phararmaceutic c company. they are hoping that it will hit the market, and they willll entr phase e i and phahase two as of seseptember, andnd completete p3 fofore the endnd of 2020. this is happeningng at a time wn governments are racingg to try o securere a variety o of vaccineo maximize their chances that one or more could be a solution. is noo evividence that these will be effectctive. the u.k. has procured fouou advance pupurchase a agreementsh astrazeneca,a, and pfizer among

others. in the u.s., they have purchased 100 million doses for $2 billion and intend to pururchase another 500 0 million doses through a german biotech. wes is raising fears of what are now calling a vaccine nationalism, where rich countries are really racacing to secure those doses. but what will happen with more in developing countries? that's one of the questions. back in may, the executive director hinted to the fact that --, you can really feel that ,here is an intntense competitin and i worry about who has access to these doses. annette: hong kong is facing an outbreak of covid-19. it's hospital system is under ththreat of collapse as there ia

sharp rise in numbers. hong kong, which has already had early success against the pandemic has regularly reported more than 100 new cases. it's the new normal in hong kong. residents must wear masks at all times when they leave their homes and gatherings of more than two people are banned. tough new restrictions residents say are reassuring. >> i think it's a good move. days,r the past six coronavirus infectio in hong kong have spiked with more than 100 new cases registered each day. it's provoking authorities to tighten restrictions, restaurants can now only serve takeaway meals, to the ire of this business owner. [speaking foreign language]

>> in addition to the new emergency measures, there are also plans to build a tempororay hospital with financiaial asassistance from beijing. come through has on the rest of a journalist, he was recently a france 24 correspondent, contained with his producer who recorded an interview with the algerian president. lawyers s say the charges they face are serious. several have called for their immediate release and we will bring you more details as they come. >> donald trump spall numbers have continued islam. poll numbersmp's

have continued islam. many have blamed the declining numbers on the handling of the pandemic. will reveal -- next week. commentator, our can they actually narrow it d dn , who arare the frfront runners? >> we can narrow it down but it's like picking a nobel peace prize winner. joe biden, the one thing he said is that he is going to pick a woman as his vice president. that's decided already. he said he wants to pick someone who shares his overall approach to governance. and somebody prepared for the presidency from day one. , andve heard a hint

closing the inequality gap between minorities and white so who shares the governing phihilosophy and the goals? the top of the list has remained kamala harris, the senator from california, a former candidate herself. and who notably really confronted joe biden in one of those primamaries on his school busing decisions and statements many decades back. very confrontational with him but she is a top pick. she's african-american, a woman, tough, and she can take an argument to donald trump. we also have elizabeth warren. a white candidate but very progressive, from the bernie sanders wing of the party.

if she's looking -- if wrote -- if joe biden is looking for someone to bring in the bernie sanders he might pick elizabeth warren, but she also is bright and has good policies. but the sanders people might already be behind biden so he might not think it's necessary. tammy duckworth is a senator from illinois, she has two prestigious, she lost her limbs literally fighting for the country and has been attacked on fox news for not being patriotic enough. she could be a topic. creeping up that list is s susan rice. , sheay not know that name is the former national security adviser, a black american and seen as someone with an impressive resume. she cut her teeth under obama in a high-profilile petition -- position. other people on the list, stacey

as a topic,is seen georgia not seen as much of a swing state and not as necessary. and gretchen whitmer from wisconsin was also seen as a top choice -- from michigan, a swing state, she could be up there as well. it will be a woman, but a lot of polls suggest that americans think that ray should not be a factor. four out of five said that. annette: that's intereststing, normally the p pick a vp has little influence on ththe outco. bubut this time, things are so different. about a pickd talk and we almost forget the vice president afterwards. i challenge most people to name the vice president's of several past u.s. presidents. they are often in the backdrop and you only see them at funerals.

winsis case, if joe biden in november, when inaugurated in january, he'd be 78, the oldestt president sworn into office. that raises a lot of red flags about his possible health. he has had some health issues, he seems to be healthy now. but it's far from a foregone conclusion that he wouould surve area a lot of voters could be going to the polls with that in mind, knowing this is not an abstract political choice, this would have to be a policy person and presidential. when you say the vice president is a heartbeat away, it means a lot when you're talking about this to killer race -- this particular race. is there any particular pick thahat the trump campaign dreads? >> they have a similar cookie-cutter strategy for anyone he picks. they might dread a candidate like elizabeth warren, or kamala

harris because they are sharp ton then quick on their feet, witty, they can get back in their tweets and comments, they .re not shrinking violets but the trump campaign sees all of these democratic women, all of them, from varying backgrounds and views and ideological stances, any of them from the same mold. donald trump's campaign, this is objective based on with the strategies have been saying, they will paint them all as far left radical democrats who are going to jeopardize america's national security if joe biden were to pick them and they step into the presidency as a result. all of them, the first thing they are being asked by joe biden is whether they can take the mudslinging and the onslaught they are about to come into. very appears to be a

interesting announcement. thank you. has onard discovered lost the -- unlocked the secret behind vincecent van gogh's artwork. researchers feel confident they can identify the locations. alalexander repoports. alexander: unveiled to great fafanfare, these tree roots s he taken onon a new meanining. believed by experts to b be the subject of vincent van gogh's last painting. [indiscernible] >> the site was discovered by the scientific director of the institute of van gogh, while looking through documents during law down, he noticed the striking similarity between a turn-of-the-century postcard and

painting. marking thed with beginning of a new abstract art movement, as well as potentially being a suicide note. french]g meters away from where van gogh spent t his final dadays. discovery will help historians better understand the papainting, , as well as t artit and provide a pilgrimage for the

thousands ofof others who have visited his s final resting plae each year.r. annette: that's it for this edition. stay with us. ♪ >> welcome to the france 24 interview, this week our special guest is a french heiress -- pilot,ce engineer and the first european to fly on twod the new space-x dragon which wiwill take offff from cae canaveral in the spring of 2020. thank you for being with us. it's great to have you on. my first queuestion is simple, u spent 6.5 months in space between november 2017 -- november 2016 and june 2017. are you excited to go bacack?

>> i'm excited. i've missesed the thrill of beig on board the international space station, and the general atmosphere the teamwork, the , and the feeling of having the same mission in the same goal. i have been missing this and i could not be more excited to go back. hadhe first time around you a seven year training program, how come it is so much faster? somehave managed to retain information for my first flight, and there are a lot of skills you u have to build from scratc. i had to learn russian darting from zero. this timeround i just had to maintain my russian and try to improve as much as i can but did not have to start from scratch. so the second time around you can be much more efficient. last time it was called

proxima, this time it's alpha. where did that come from? hard times ine spring, everybody is at home, sheltering, we invited suggestions from the public and we had 27,000 suggestions a and alpha came back a number of times. proxima,in sister to proxima centauri and alpha centauri belong to the same constellation. and it is the closest star system to the earth. it's a metaphor of space exploration. in 50,where wewe will go 100, 200 years, who knows. and because we are doing things in space for people on earth, it ticked the boxes. aim of thishe mission? what will you be doing for

europe in spacace? >> everyry single mission we are doing two thihings, one ofof ths realally exploration, and a step inthe path to bigger goals space. we want to go back to the moon, and mars. to do this we have to learn how to live and work in space. at the same time it opens the dodoor for things that cannot be performed on the ground, so we are doing g researchch and bring the benefits of science back to earth. , there aression almost 200 science experiments and i'm expecting this to bebe e same. so medicine, cancer drug delivery, it's interestining. you can do very different things on two consecutiveve days. space, how many

that time around? >> i don't know exactly because they're so many factors. technology, the specifics of the new capsules, they are new and we have to get the data from the first test flight. this is coming into play. i cannot give you an exact number. >> do you ever get scared? >> we get scared all the time. i think if you don't feel apprprehension from then your brain is dysfunctional. and a normal reaction courage is notot not being scar, it's being scared but doing what you want to do. everyone is scared when you climb on the rocket, it's maybe a little less impressive the

second time. the first time around very scary. theave to focus a and spacewalk could be scary to look down a and let go of the iss. you are always tethered. you are scared but you fightht through it and do your job. >> it must be an adrenaline , and you have been quoted as saying life on earth is much , howcomplicated complicated is it? >> even though technically it is the most complex man-made object ever in history, i'm convinced of this, any flight in the most hostile environment, it has been isd that life on the station

simple in terms of what you are trying to achieve. is toly goal you have achieve this goal. it's like being on a sports team. their only goal is to win a championship and the rest is managed by others. it's actually very simple life area when i came back to earth, there's a lot of people interact with. a lot of different expectations. being on an expepedition is simple. >> and you have a lot of physical training on board, and on earth you are also very sporty. is that essentials doing the job well? >> it is part of the job. you don't have to be a world-class athletes, i'm far from being one, but you have to and enjoy it because you are going to have to be in good health. that includes physical fitness.

the space environment is harsh. you get a sense of weightlessness and it takes a toll on your body. you lose muscle mass and you will be deconditioned. it''s the equivalent of aging by 10 years. wewe are hoping it's reversible. you have to be in top physical safe -- shape that you can obtain because you will lose your fitness during the mission. american space agency, nasa says it wants to get back to the moon by 2024. why is the moon important? they've already been there in 1969 and we know what it's like. why is the moon a place to go tok to, is it a place explore furtrther afield? >> i it exacactly that. this time around we d don't just want to win the race, we want to

stay a little longer and use the resources. we want to make it more sustainable. we want to refefuel our module d make the fuel for map -- from whatever is available. and we know that mars is much more interesting. the moon is interesting but mars is the golden ticket. right now we are not in the position to do it technically. thatnly way we can do you're not able to do this until you cross the channel and then you go across the mediterranean and then the technology is ready. >> there are rumors that the landing on mars has been scheduled for 2033, will it

happen in our lifetime? will you go there yourself? >> it crazy. when i started my career as a young astronaut, the youngest of the bunch somebody told me you are too old to go to mars. and i was shocked because i had we will see it in our lifetime. the comparison could be made between what is happening on , and with the environment the moisture around earth and what has happenened on mars and how that could affect earth later. >> absolutely. you can see martha and the earth -- mars and the earth as twin sisisters in terms of shape and weight. not exactly but much closer, and they were closer in the past. there has been liquid water on the surface of mars he had mars lost -- on the surface of mars.

mars lost its atmosphere. and there's a question as to if that c could happen to us.s. we are destrtroying our environment, can we push earth to being un-habitable? it's extremely interesting. that's why we want to go back. >> you have become a hero for so many millions of people all over the world and here in france especially. peskay been called the generation of young people. is that one of your aims or is that just a resulult of seeing u in space andnd giving the impression that you're just a normal guy enjoying yourselflf d face -- - in space. >> it was not something i tried to achieve. one ththg i wanteded to do was share the adventure. as a kid i was starved of information. there was no social network back in the day, we would go to t the

librbrary and read books.. were, andthere was realized that space appeals to , that, makes them dream hahas what worked really well. i was trying to tell things like they are. people are asking me, are you scared, i am, i was. i will be the second time around. a b can relate. >> thank you for coming. >> thank you for watching, more news coming up. >> the stereotypical french stripedas a beret, a

shirt,t, and a baguette. >> people take bread very seriously. >> they will go very far to find the perfect baguette, but what makes french bread so good? >join us for this episode w

claudette zepeda-wilkins: american is a relative term. what is american? personally i think the border is, you know, just a speed bump in between two countries. as a child, i think we took tj for granted not because it was a different country to me. to me, it was just like, "oh, it's just tj. it's where the other half of my family lives." and even if i i was in tj my entire lilife, being this far n north,u aare sort ofof removed f from te other parts of f mexico and the cultuture. youu're mexica b but you don'n't really know. my last restauranant was mexica,