♪ onthanks for joining us "france 24." in operation thoususands of migrants afterer their camamp ws destroyed by fire last week. the leader ofof libya's u.n. backed goverentt says he's ready to hand over power in october. talks are underway to put an end to the conflict that has gone on for years. we will bring you the latest in

our series of controversial covid response in sweden. the numbers are close to 100 times higher than in neighboring nations. also coming up this hour, six months after france went into lockdown, we will take stock of the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic. we will also take a look at hope for recovery. an update with stephen carroll on the way at 15 p past the hou. thanks for joining us. ♪ police have launched an operation to re-house thousands of migrants who had been sleeping rough after their camp was destroyed by fire. officer started waking people early this morning to take them to the temporary center that was hastily set up after europe's

largest camp for asylum-seekers burned down last week. dressed in white protective suits, greek police tried to coax refugees into a new camp. the refugee agency has welcomed ththe move. some 11,000 asylum-seekers are sleeping rough. move believe it is a good coconsidering that hear r on the forreet it is a risk security, public health. camp has a capacity of around 8000 people. the arrivals are being tested fofor the coronavavirus with dos of so far found posisitive. greek offffials arrested six unung afgfgns in connnnection to the fire that leveled europe's

biggest migrant camp on september 8, leaving some 12,000 homeless. many are reluctant to go, figuring t they would agaiain be waiting for months to have their asylum request process. [speaking foreign language] >> they are saying everybody that they y moved to the new cap after one night they run away. moreeece have called for solidarity saying it shouldn't be left to shoulder the burden for the continent. toy germany has offered relocate some of the refugees. genie: our journalist is standingng b by. thank you for joining us. documentaryaring a

on the camp. you were doing that when this fire happened at telus more about whether -- tell us more about when this fire h happened. w was starteded early thiss morning, a about 5:0:0 a.m.. they forced hundreds of migrants to leaveve the streeeet and go o the temporary camp. migrants more than 450 in the camamp in the military zone. they are tested for the coronavirus when entering the new camp. many of the migrants were sleeping in the street, they did not have access to water. new c camp -- - the greek riot

police dropped tear gas. many children and women were injured. geninie: are the refugees going willingly to the new camp? they havave been building that since saturday but it seemsms people don't want to go in fear of being stuck again a and facig morere months of waiting. there are m more than 1500 and the c camp. the migrants don't want to go. they were telling me the greek authohority are playing wh the future of their children. right now, this new camp is a closed camp. children demand to leave the island.

geninie: do we know anymore abot the investigation into the fire that devastated d the camp?? yes. right now,, greek authorities announced they arrested d five migranants. from since march we have three acaccidental fires. right now there is no standndard in the largestst refugee camampn europe. we had a fire e accident by electricicity. right now, many migrants i -- there is an investigation from the greek authority.

the agencycy has more ththan 100 people pusushing back to t turk. we cannot put this accidenent on the migrants andnd refugees. genie: we arare in ththe midst a globalal pandemic. how badly h has covid hit the refugees? of course. this is the nininth day they a are in the streets leavig children and womenen without the access to water or hygiene. is a small clinic that are seeing patients.s. there is no assistance. the ngos are in the field. the refugees, the jouournalists,

we don't have access foror three days to this area.a. more than 10 migrants tested positive at the new camp right now we are confirming. it is crucial to protect them against the coronavirus pandemic. geninie: t thank you for speakao us.. a journalist speaking to us live there. now to libya where the head of the u.n. backed government says he is ready to resign. fayez al-sarraj says he is ready to handed over to a new government. they have been underway for a month with a surprise cease-fire announced and an election. peter o'brien reports. peter: stepping away for a fragile situatioion. ayez al-sarrrraj announces he

will step down. > [speaking foreign language] peter: earlier this month, libya's factions agreed to hold elections and appoint a new government within 18 months. in his televised speech, al-sarraj pointed this as efforts to unify the country. there are protests in cities controlled by both camps. the unrest caused tension within the gna for -- before al-sarraj announced his intentions to leave. both of these developments complicate matters for the u.n., which has been in the latest

talks between the two sides in an attempt to free libya from the turmoil it has been going through since the 2011 uprising. team of russian opposition leader of vaccine saidny -- alexeyavalny the nerve agent was detected on a water bottle from his hotel room in a siberian city. germany has said it has proof poison.was it has asked the global chemical agency to assist in an investigation. navalny fell ill on and -- on a domestic flight to support opposition candidates in local elections. russia has dismissed those results as unsubstantiated claims. protests in belarus have gone on for six straight weeks now. people have been pouring into the streets since the country's disputed election. -- authority and leader

authoritarian leader, alexi accused them of backing the unrest. repoporter: alexander lukashenko trying everything he can to put a noose around the opposition. and its the u.s. european allies as instigating the unrest. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: in a long, rambling speech, lukashenko told top officials the west had spent years talking against belarus. the authoritarian leader offered no evidence to back up his claims. they are struggling to put a lid that has challenged his rule over the country for the past six weeks.

hundreds of thousands holding mass rallieses, protests brorokt in august when the opposition accused the government of rigging the presidential election. since then, authorities have moved to detained he opposition wasres including one who charged on wednesday with undermining national security. she has been in jail for a week already after reportedly tearing up her passport at the ukrainian border to avoid being depororte. if convicted, she could face up to five years behind bars. genie: in the united states, huhurricane sally made landfalln alabama wednesday. the ststorm hass been n pummelig paparts of thehe gulf coast. fourur months of rain falling in florida in just four hoursrs. sally has been downgraded to a tropical storm but it is still bringiging with it, hisistoric flooding. reporter: roads turned into rivers. a meter and a half of flooding. those streets not underwater,

ranch limbs and fallen trees. residents of pensacola, florida emerged from hurricane sally to survey the damage. the storm and the rain that came with it hit the gulf coast city hard. >> it is underwater. it is crazy. reporter: in neighboring mobile, alabama, residents are counting a longng night of piercing winds and hunkering down. >> we got t on the first floor d started hearing our windows pop. the sididing wasas ripping. we wrorote it out -- road it ou. reporter: sally was the second hurricane to hit the coast in less than three weeks. one of the most active storm seasons on record. making no mention of climate change, which scientists say is creating this onslaught, donald trump said rescue workers had

things under control. president trump: they have a tremendous sense of working on hurricanes. they have gotten very good at it. we have had d a lot ofof them. the number of back-to-back storms has concerned residents. there are still 2.5 months left to go for the season. genie: it is time for the third in our series of reports on sweden's unique approach to the covid-19 pandemic. unlike many eu countries, early on sweden decided that all schools would stay open. critics say the move may have helped the current covid numbers they might have caused the spike i in the curret numbers which are around 10 times higher than in some neighboring countries. here's is more from stockholm.

children goswedish into schools as they have throughout the pandemic. running compmpulsory with all students up to the age of 16 with no face masks. >> i think it is good they don't wear masks. i have three kids and it is important that they go to school. me to work.ult for reporter: measures have been ramped up. they are keeping open with essential, especially forr struggling students. >> they need a a physical presence. they need a teacher in the same room as them to cheer them on and to clarify things. most of the time those students will not ask for help. they will sit and wait until someone comes up to them. reporter: unlike most scschoolchildren, these swedish

children have not missed a day of class due to the coronavirus. the health authority made the decision to keep schools open and stuck to it. even when the death rate was 10 times higher than in sweden. my dad had d corona when it first came to sweden. weeks.w was ok for eight hadhe beginning when people to quarantine i didn't understand why we didn't quarantine. i don't feel at risk because i'm not old. reporter: 20 out of 7 70 teaches caught coronavirus, as did the assistant principal. i couldn't eat, i couldn't sleep, i could not walk.

our children are the most important thing we have. reporter: many argue it has been a risk worth taking. an opinion published this week 60% trust the authorities handling. genie: cases and france continue to rise. there were 10,000 new cases yesterday. the third highest number of daily additions of infections on record since the disease started to spread early this yeaear. stephen carroll has been looking atat the effects of coronavirusn the french ecoconomy. stephen, it has been six months since france went into lockdown. that had huge consequences onn the economy. essentially all but essesential opops were closed. it was something that had an immediate effect. even when the strict lockdown measures were lifted up for two

months there were many sections back to pre-pandemic activity. gdpism, 7% of france's disappeared overnight. back,ave not come particularlyly from m places lie the united states or asia. key markets that sustain the whole sector. those sectors have not seen any recovery. the shock was so seismic we saw it in the economic data almost immediately. it is connected in three-month periods. accounted, we of saw the economy shrink by 6%. the following three months we knew it was going to be the worst part of this crisis. a 14% contraction in the french economy y over those three monts from april to june. the prediction here from the french central bank that from 2020 it will be 9% smaller by the end of the year compared to it was. ththat is the worst recession since woworld war r ii. the french ministeter thininks t will be even worse. he things it is a 10%

contraction. the bounceback next year, the central bank says it will be around 7%. we will still be left with scars of this crisis for years to come. this hadat effect has on jobs during the time? extending the partial unemployment or furlough in france to all employees. that meant the government was stepping in to pay the wages of private sector were injnjured -- workers who were not able to work. it is important in maintaining incocomes and in turn maintainig consumer spending, the most important driver of the french economy. it cushioned the blow a lot of people had. we saw consumer spending drop with consumer shops closed. it could have been so much worse if more e people immediaiately t theieir jobs.. at the peak, they were paying the wages of private-sector sector workers i in franance. it has been expended to the end of the year.

euros being30 billion spent on that program. genie: how effective has that program been in saving jobs. ? stephen: for the most part it has done a jobs -- it's job. there were still jobs lost over this. 650,000 in the last six months. they expect the unemployment rate to rise to 9.5% by the end of the year. it is currently just over 7%. the french central bank sees that unemployment rate rising further next year to over 11%. telling us things will get worse before they get better. genie: one of the sectors worst affected has been air travel. questionsraising about a neww tax on the e indus. stephen: they arere talkingng at dramaticically increasining an enenvironmenental levy on fligh. the bibitax increaease wldld hut the sector thatat is alreready n crisis.

sector already battered by the pandemic, another worry, france's eco-tax. the citizens convention on climate proposed a drastic increase to the current amount. -- go up to 30 euros. an increase of 1900%. that is a proposal that has divided the government. [speaking foreign language] reporter: francis environment minister wants the debate to go forward. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: the division worries that theytal groups

could wind up scrapping the proposal. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: the airline industry is anxiously watching. france's cicivil aviation taxority says the revised plan would revise to 4.2 billion euros in annual c costs for freh air transnsport. it could put 100,000 jobs at risk according to this airline chairman. >> [speaking foreign language] reporter: according to some aviation experts the proposed tax crcrease couldld spell the d for some a airlinenes. stephehen: staying in francece,e finance minister says the government will fight the decision by bridgestone to close its factory in the north of the country. to shut the factory was

revolting. more than 86860 people work at e plant. it is closing because of the drop i in demand for its tires. genie: tik tok's troubles in the united states might not be overr despe e thatig d deal on the table with software giant oracle. stephen: president trump will be briefed on this later. he already said he doesn't like the u.s. opepetions of t the vio apps are not being sold entirely to oracle. the current proposal would put the americans take a minority states in the tik tok global company. china's still have company be the majority shareholder. bey say the deal will also neededing the approval of f the chinese authority.y. let's s take a q quick look at t is happenining oththe markets.s. europeanan shares in the red. that is after the federal

reserve statement that it wouldd keep i interest rates low until 2023. that seems to have disappointed investors in the past few minutes. they're keeping interest rates at 0.1%. also maintaining the stimulus program. no surprise, shares still trading down. genie: we were talking earlier about that new tax on the air travel industry in france area aboutll talk now australia. the pandemic grounded almost all of its international flights. ofphen: the scenic tour australia, the flight will take thefrom sydney and go over great barrier reef. australianrom 787 dollars. papassengers will also get a set of the airlines famed pajamas. this, in an effort to stem the massive loss in recent months.

australia's strict quarantine rules have forced airlines to ground aircraft and cut jobs. the idea of getting on a plane for seven hours and landing in the same place is something i cannot get my eye around. genie: how doo you make sure everyone gets a wiwindow seat? stephen: everyone -- very f few people will be on n the planane. geninie: if you have your binoculars, maybe. a quick question before we go. you think the french complain a lot? stephen: i couldn't possibly say. genie: there will be up in the next french connection to talk about what she talks about is one of france's great pastimes, complaining. be upup in the nexext half hour. stay with us. ♪ >> after six months of covid that included three montnths of

lockckdown that crush the tourim industry, how has it changed? join us to find out. >> as a field reporter you get a sense of just how important it is to be able to go and check out things for yourself on the ground. one example in my mind is when i went up to northeastern nigeria with my colleague and we went to report about the impact boko haram left on the community there. we were told by the nigerian army that they had won the ground war, that the militants no longer posed a threat. as soon as we were in the zone for ourselves, we could see that was clearly not the case. we were flown out by helicopter because we could not drive.

was still fighting going on. we even located in active boko haram member living in a refugee regular said he was in contact with fighters in the woods. that highlighted to me how important it was to go see for ourselves what is happening and not believe what an official statement communicates.

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