>> joe biden pleas places places kamala harris, the first black american and asian woman to be nominated for the second-highest job in the united states. antigovernment protests in the streets of belarus for the third night in a row. the -- the u.k.'s economy officially slips into a recession. official data shows a contraction of over 20% in n the second quarter o o2020.

it is good to have you with us on france 24. first, after months of speculation, joe biden has finally announced his running mate. the vice president's former democratic rival kamala harris has been normative for the job. she is the first lack and asian amamerican woman to be nominated presidential ticket. nths of speculation ended on tuesday as joe biden picked kamala harris to be his running mate. announcing his decision come he praised harris as a fearless fighter for the little guy chemotherapy responding, saying she was honored and would do what she could to make them commander-in-chief. she becomes the firirst mixed-re woman nominated for national office by a u.s. clinical party. she is also only the fourth women in history to make the presidential ticket. a former p prosecutor and state attorney general in california, harris has already become well known for r her aggressive

questioning style in the senate. >> did you have any commit occasions with russian officials for any reason during the campaign that have not been disclosed in public with this committee? can also-year-old point toto her relativively cent record on health care, background in law enforcement. >> the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us, and we have to holdld onto that knowlededge. imperfect that we may become of this country is worth fighting for. >> previously pushed her own campaign to the top seat, often clashing with biden in the process. for biden, the choice of a running mate has added significance. with his age leading to broad speculation he would only serve one term, making harris a potential defective contender for the democratic nomination in

2024. harris will be confirmed as biden set up a running mate at the democratic invention beginning next monday, where he will also be formally nominated to challenge president trump. denalo: antigovernment protesters took to the streets days after - -- in belarus. after that in a video statement, she urged supporters to avoid clashes and rerespect the law. election results monday show alexander lukashenko won 80% of the vote, securing a sixth term in office. the opposition has dismissed the result and said the -- the you has said the electionon was neither free nor fair. bristling industry line as police advanced toward demonstrators for a third night in a row in minsk. early in the day, arrests continued to be made. [shouting]

police seized memory cards from a group of journalists. allllg on, residents of agents more and for the protester killed on monday, and questioned the election results which trigger the unrest. [speaking native language] denalo: the e.u. says the presidential election on sunday was neither free nor fair and has called the response to protests unacceptably violent. , in powerlukashenko since 1994, won 80% of the vote. the opposition leader dismissed the results and has gone to seek safety in lithuania.

>> [speakiking native e languag] >> amid the unrest, several hundred people have been hospitalized and thousands detained. after having been disabled across most of the country, the internet has been partially restored. the u.k. economy has officially slipped into a recession. data shows a contraction in the lockdown in 2020, as a limited the spread of covid-19. the government hopes to reopen the hospitality sector, allowing the economy to inch its way slslowly back up. >> we were talking about this a few months ago and i said hard times are coming. today's figure shows hard times are here. hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs,

and sadly, many more will. but i will say to people, although tough decisions lie ahead for all of us, no one will be left t without hope or opportunity. denalo: british finance minister richey sirnak. -- a slowdown was expected, but this is worse than what i had predicted. yes, the size and speed of the conontraction are dark, but they are not a surprise. they reflect how the british everyy has been hit, street, town, city in the united kingdom. that is where it is not a surprise. hard times are indeed here as we just had the chancellor of the exchequer, richie sirnak, tell us. u.k. economy suffered its biggest in fact slump on record, which in april and june, one of the major factors here is the

cororonavirus lockdown. these measures thahat push t the country into officially recession, a tecechnical recession. the u.k. economy shrank by 20.4%, compared with the three months of the year. household spending plunged, unemployment went up, construction output fell, and according to the official national statistic office for national statistics, collapse in output wasas driven by the close of shops, hotels, restaurants, and the services sector, which is so important to the u.k., which posts profit of the u.k. prom -- economy. it sufuffered its biggegest quarterly decline on record. factory shutdowns resulted in the slowest car production since 1954. denalo: while t things are bad now, they could potentially get worse.

>> they could. so one note of hope is actually, there was better news for the economy in june, and that is whwhy. it was the beginning of the end of the restrictionons, or the ed of the b beginning, ifif you wi. so in fact, on a month-to-month basis, the economy grew by 8.7% in june, it building on a much may.r growth in but despite this, the bad news is that the gdp still remains fixedd, considerable, below its level in n february. then the virus struck. the drop in the number of people employed was the largest quarterly decrease since may to july 2009. the depthths of the financial crisis. officials revealedd 220,00000 pepeople lost their jobs. there is no guarantee the sustained -- of a sustained recovery in the coming months. we are told by analysts a dual

threat. that i is the muchch talked abot across the world second wave in the autumn, winter, and spring -- alsoyear that could the slownesss in the progress of brbrexit negotiations. it is uncertain time foror many, very worrying timemes for many, and on continue to rise. thank you for the update. coronavirus infections have nearly doubled in the past 24 hours entrance. or local authorities have made wearing a mask mandatory and crowded outdoor public spaces. the french prime minister has issued a warning that the country has been headed in the wrong direction for two weeks. ellen reports. are few and far between on many fronts streets. and some pololicy goers seem to have forgotten there is a pandemic.

the french prime minister has issued a stark warning about this relaxing of habits. >> [speaking french] days there has been an uptick in infections across the country, to about 2000 a day. despite the figures, many in france still have mixed feelings about masks. >> [speaking native language] >> mask wearing is to be made

mandatory on an increasing number of streets in france. with fines if people do not abide by the rules, and gatherings of 5000 people or more are banned since october. bad news for those in the enentertainment industry. >> [speaking native language] >> it is hoped that this toughening of measures will prevent a second wave of the virus in france. analo: paris has issued travel warning for french citizens wanting to go to niger. niger is deemed a high-risk red zone, while at the capital is an orange zone that should be avoided if possible. emergency crews continunue to pp dozens of fuel from a japanese cargo vessel g grounded i in war

off of -- the ship all is continuing to crack. there are fears that the remaining fuel will gush into the sea. according to the shipowners, only half of the oil that has spilled into the ocean has been scooped out. more than a dozen challenges to the south ever been -- the south african government's ban on alcohol. the wine industry fears for its supply. 1.5 million euros of revenue is being lost each week. -- each week the ban remains in force. after dealing with two years of drought, this is now threatened by coronavirus. >> ok, now we are going to start building and we will be excited, banb.hen v

tourism is also hitting the sector hard. group can s stanch her is one of the first vineyayards, and in people times 200,00000 walk t these hisric c pubs every ye. absence today is worrying.. >> you are not going to survive this. there are even some wineries that might have the reserves, but they are delaying maintenance costs. they are delaying the real establblishment of vineyards. is all dangerous things you are playing with. >> management has yet to fire anyone, but t employees have tan a wage cut. capital experts warned that the existential threat, even in 2019, a third of all winemakers

were operating at a loss. >> unfortunately our industry ge v very little to no government suppoport from a financial l perspective. that will have to be the next part of the conversation. we will need some kind of bailout. if there is any chance for our industry to survive beyond this. small and medium-sized businesses arere most at r risk. the future of south african political culturure depends on their r survival. dedenalo: forbes has named a cena, theestler, john highest-paid male actor. top actors combined made over half $1 billion last year. reynolds, among one of the

highest-paid actors in the world. that's it. thank you very much for watching. franceo and welcome to 24. our guest today is an iranian activist, the author of a book that w was just published in france. i will translate the title. not a crime oris coke it is published by -- is not a crime." anthe journey of upper-middle-class woman living tehran.r on to it -- in iran, obviously you were arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. for the verdict was handed down, you decided to secretly flee a round through turkey -- flee

iran through turkey and now live in exile in canada. a simple question, how does one go from being an upper-middle-class woman to an activist against the islamic veil?? livings just t fed up w with this double life, living a lie. and pretend everything is ok. for many years we were facing violence because of -- the other thing is, i knew a little bit about the women's movement in the west, the suffrage it will movement -- the suffrage it movement. now women in the west can use it and they havee most the same rights that men have, and equality. i realized that those women were successful in their movements because they eventually had to workers.

iran, women's rights actctivists did go back for 40 years but they did not go anywhere. they did notot have the susuppof us.. so when this campaign came, i realized this is the moment for me. >> the so-called white wednesday campaign. >> and a principal was to wear white and film yourself. >> to sendnd your memessage to e donor who started the campaign. the campaign was simply asking normal women and men to can forwarard and be their voioice. it was the m moment for me.. to join the campaign andnd civil disobedience and violence campaign. >> there was a turning point, however, in december of 2017.

a woman goes in a very well-known place in the center of tehran, decides to take her veil off, put it on a stick, and this created quite a stir for her for the you, this was a turning point. this was not only about wearing white, it was taking the hit job and putting it on -- t the on a and putting it stick. >> sure.e. performed. lady, she she was standing there quietly and sending a message to the government, to the authorities, that i am peacefully protesting this law. it was very beautiful for me, the most beautiful and peaceful picture of civil disobedience in the world. followed, half

past. started -- >> you started doing the same. eventually what was bound to happen happened, you were arrested by the police, you recounted several of those arrests and also the humiliation, the violence. also accusations of spying. i never went to that spspot in the center of the city. i did not want to -- at the same women andnted otheher men to join her campaign, to see me in my neighborhood and join us but yeah, the euro integration i faced the most horrible things in the world. the scariest thing is that youou realize thahat they can do anything with you when they capture you.

you were lucky, if i may say, because you were well defended by a lawyer, who defended you and is now herself in jail for a very long time, shortly after defending you. but this allowed you to have someone on your side telling you what to do, because i imagine there is a lot of intimidation and you don't know what to do when you face e those situation. the boko she was my only hope. to talk w was n ablee to her or cocontact her during e detained, the thing tot she had done for me was adjust in the public eye. and also the other women. my life to her, my family's saved into myself.

so you were arrested three times, and at some point you decide, because you have a husband, obviously. you have a young son. and you say in the book that you realized that if i stay i'm going to die, so you decide to flee the country through a smuggler into turkey, at now you are in kind of thehe -- d do you regret leaving thehe couryry? or was it the best decision you made? >> it is very complicated for me. at the same time, i'm able to advocate for women's rights, and for my friends and my lawyer, which is great. but i am not happy. i cannot enjoy freedom as much as i'd want because my mind is in iran and my heart is with my friends and my lawyer. right, because the sentences may be after you fled have become harsher and harsher. there is a group of three women

who decide on women's day last year to hand out flowers in the subway in tehran. they headed -- they are arrested and now have very long sentences. is it may be a consequence of what you did? >> they were my friends, my close friends, who was advocating f for me during the time i w was arrested, wasas onf women, they areth getting braver. even though they see that what they have done to me or -- - otr remix, and government wanted to send an message to all the women , irani and women, but at the news,ime, if f you see the even though we are at 2424 and , women are getting border -- bolder and braver,r, they want o compulsory -- an online

even the police officers asked them, tetelling to their face tt i don't believe in this law and i'm not obeying this sexual discrimination. >> do you believe it is still going on or has the movement stopopped because of intimidatin or the other things? >> it is n not like that. but they are doing another campaign just to make -- to record the -- the police officecers who wants to ararrest them, they are brave enough. in 201313.f for - yoyou uld d not do thehe same t. >> of course not. >> why n not? >> the timee i voted two years ago, i didn't believe in any reform, even back then.

it is just because i was an animal supporter and they promised to have this right for animals. but i had believed in reform before 2009. who said of the people there are going to be some changes in the government. but after 2009 and the demonstrations, i realized there is not going to be any reform in my country. and people were just choosing between the bad and the bad party and the worst t party. demonstration in dedecember 2017, when the reformist party killed people, killed innocent protesters, and they that in 2017, suppressed all the labor movements. teachers movements. women's movement,t, and also lat

november, if you saw this horrible news from iran, they killed, based on the reuters protesters than 1500 , arrested thousands of people in just three days. so you see, there is no different betweeeen the reformit or the fundamentalists. just -- >> just the last quest and because we are running out of time. obviously you are advocating regime change, and some are saying you are allowing yourself to be used by those especially in the u.s. pushing for regime change. are you being used, do you think? >> i haven't been in touch with anywhere from u.s. this is the mindset of everyone me.-- this is i was always believing in change and wanted change in my country

within other arenas, but i didn't have the chance. now i have the chance, and you see the human rights situation, the violation of human rights are getting worse and worse in my country. what am i supposed to do? do nothing? now i have a platform as a human rights activist, is a women's rights activist, and i am going to use that to just tell the world that these are happening in iran, and open your eyes to the violation of human rights in support the uranian people and not the government. thank you very much for coming on the france 24 interview. your book is published in french right now. english atblished in some point. thank you very much for watching this interview. stay tuned for more news.

donald d trump: i'm establilishg new vettining measures to keep radical islamamic terrorists out of the united states of america. we don't want 'em here. larara kiswani:i: there's a stia of ararab people, , muslim peoee in ththis country designed to perprpetuate andnd justify t thr on teterror, and that's what a lot of arabs and muslims are facing today, sort of a really undignified struggle to just live. dr. raramzi salti: it takess courage e to be able to stand dp to racisism, turn itit into a positive moment a momoment of learning g where you u actually use that momement to educate, to let people know about the rich diversity of your culturere. lamees dahbour: we e want our community,y, like, sanan francio