a third of fighthting in sepaparatist region gerdau occcr about,t, pitting armenia and azererbaijan a against each othr once again -- the separatist region of nagorno-karabakh. donald trump and joe biden face-off in the first presidential debate of the campaign. america's growing coronavirus pandemic and trump's tax returns are set to take center stage. and in the netherlands, the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow. we will be talking to our cocorrespondeninin theagague in time. few m moments

also coming up, a multitibillion euro auction in france for the next g generation of supuperfast mobile networks. we will have the latest on the race to 5g in france in our business update. a new weapon in the fight against pollution, and engineered super enzyme that can help reduce and recycle plastic. the details on the wayay. firsrst, our top story, live frm paris. ♪ france says it is set to trigger a minsk group initiative to try and stop the conflict inin the separatist region of nagorno-karabakh. armenia and azerbaijan have been fighting over the region for decades, but it has had a thirid theyey have -- day of intense fightings -- violence.

airstrikes have left dozens of people dead. here is the report. >> the sound of shelling could be heard throughout the day as fighting continued. local farmers are bearing the brunt. both a arbaijan and armenia forces keene to show how they are dealing a blow to each other with airstrikes. fatalities are mounting on both sides. in the capital of pfizer by john, men are queuing up enlist for the front line -- in the capital of pfizer by john, men are queuing up to enlist for the frontline. speaking foreign language] >> on the streets in armenia, armenians are showing mixed direction. >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language]

>> the latatest flareup in the long-running conflict started on sunday in nagorno-karabakh, part of azerbaijan when the soviet union broke up, lurch and control of ethnic or median separatists. a flood war ended in a russian brokered cease-fire in 1994, but no former peace still has yet to be signed. >> the secretary-general strongly called on all sides to immediately stop fighting, de-escalate tension, and returned to meaningful negotiations witithout prpreconditions or delay. >> the un secucurity council iso hold emergencycy meetings on tuesday to try to seek a way out of the ongoing hostility. state mikeretary of pompeo has urged armenia and azerbaijan to cease hostilities as those classes continue. all of that comes as the unrest in belarus continues, as well.

people have been protesting their weekly, ever since a longtime leader alexander lukashenko claimed victory in a disputed election in august. belarusian opposition leader svetlana tikhanovskaya is now calling on the french president, emmanuel macron, to mediate. macron sat down with tikhanovskaya in lithuania, where he promised to help negotiate and secure the release of political prisoners. >> the first time in 19 years that a french president has been in lithuania on a bilateral visit. however, it is not lithuania but belarus that is at the heart of discussions. in a meeting with opposition leader svetlana tikhanovskaya, macron said france would continue to offer support to the pro-democracy movement. >> [inaudible]

>> but it is a delicate balancing act for the french president wanting to help others while unwilling to provoke more anger. >> [speaking foreign language] >> russian leader vladimir putin has said that belarus is facing unprecedented external pressure. for the moment, france is acting alone. the european union, while condemning the violence, has failed to impose sanctions. macron has called for the organization in europe to take over mediation in the conflict.

>> in the u.s., donald trump and joe biden go ahead to head in the first abrade of the u.s. presidential campaign today. that will b be a chance for the president and the former vice president to outline their very different visions for america's future. there will be lots of hot topics on the table tonight. that new report on trump's tax avoidance, the ongoing black lives matttter protests, and the pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 americans and cost millions of jobs. our correspondent has more now from the debate site in cleveland in the swing state of ohio. realis is their first face-off, the two men, and everyone will be analyzing every single one of their words,s, e y single one of their reactions to comments.nent's of course, you have to remember that the polling comes into play in these presidential debates because right now, joe biden, on average, is leading by about

seven points. nationally, he is also leading in several of the key battleground states. really, this debate is one where donald trump has to go on the offense.e. he is the one who is trailing right now, and he is the one who needs to get some points, to score some points, so he will definitely attack joe biden, probably on some personal issues, maybe on joe biden's son hunter biden who was linked to that whole u ukraine scandndal t led to the impeachment of donald trump. and joe biden, on the othth hand, he is the man who has presented himself as the calm candidate, the one w who is the stable o one that will b bring k stability to the united states, but he knowsws he has -- he has said h himself that he wororries about being drawn ininto thehe l by donald trump, but he has also said that he knows how to deal with bullies. soso we might t see joe biden

sometimes r reacting to donald trump. he has said he will be f fact checking the presidentnt through abouout the debate because he fefeels that that that she will not be fact checking the president throughout the dedebae because he feelels that is uselesess, but he e will be trad to answer donald trump, trying to attacack donald trump, even though he isis right now, as thy go into this first presidential debatete, in littltle bit of a strengthened position becacausef those poles. but he will l also be wary off ,aking a any mistakes because evenen though it really dependsn who is watchingg and how they analyzyze it, this could be make or break for both men. >> thanks for that report from cleveland, where the debate will be taking place tonight. we will cover the whole debate live for you here on "france 24." time, at 3:00 a.m. paris 9:00 p.m. eastern. in covid news, more than one million people around the world

have now died. that number doubled in just three months, with one person now dyingg every 16 seconds. just three countries, the u.s., brazil, and india make it close to 45% of all fatalities. all three of those countries have lifted social measures in recent weeks. in europe, the netherlands has heightened its coronavirus rules to try and stop a second wave there. new restrictions include earlier closing times for bars and restaurants and limited travel between big cities. to get a better object on the situation there, let's bring in our correspondent who is in the hague. talk us through these neww restrictions, which surprisingly do not include a national rule on masks. mentitioned some of it, workingg from home, bars closing at 10:00, no audience anymore at sports matches, and they reduced the number of people who you can have in your

home, only three guests allowed where previously tre were six, and the limited the number of people who can congregate, 30 indoors and 40 outdoors. but the most eye-catching thing about the measures is that there are no national rules about mask wearing, apart from dutch people have to wear masks in public transport. that there are no rules on wearing masks in stores or outside, and that is now slightly changing. the dutch government has always said there is no scientific evidence that masks would helpp and actually say thehey can give you a false sense of security if you wear a mask. now they are shifting a bit and they are saying regions like the hague, like amsterdam, like rotterdam, worth the numbers are going up in covid infections, can decide themselves to enforce people wearing m masks. -- ththey have decriminalized stores were legalllly allowed to

ban people without masks, and that is chchanging, they c can n people who do not wear masks. it is up to the stores to enforce the mask weaearing. a lot of stores and a lot of cities are annoyoyed with the governmentnt about thahat becaue ththey would like it to be a national meaeasure because there would be less debatate. stores fear they will have to debate with every customer whether or not they need to wear a mask. >> why did the government decide to put in these other measures we were mentioningng earlier? have the numbers t there been going up exponenentially? >> yes. last week we had about 1600 infections per day and we are now at 3000 infections per day, including to a calculation from the health minister. about one in 170 people in the netherlands infecteded now. there has been a 60% r rise in e infectioions and the repeproducn rate, the e number of people sik

and actctually infefected, above factor, nowe important r- at 1.3. it is rising exponentially, and they fear it will start rirising exponentially as of this week. >> thank you for that report from the hague on the coronavirus situation in the netherlands. human rights watch. amnesty international says it is stopping its operations in india. that is after indian authorities allegedly froze amnesty's bank accounts, saying it violated rules on foreign funding. let's get more from delhi. international's accounts were frozen by the enforcement director, an agency that handles economic crimes. the e group sayays this happens because they have been critical of the government. this happened weeks after a reportrt came out talking about

the complicity of the delhi police in riots that took p plae in february were 53 people were killed, mainly muslim. the organization has been targeted for about two years now, and most often every time a criticalal report comemes out, e government has been unhappy about reports of the organization has done on cashmere of human rights abuses there, especially after article 370's affirmation earlier this year. supporters of the government reacted with glee because they believe that organizations such as amnesty international have tarnished the image of the countrtry abroad. countryw is the second where amnesty international has stopped its operations afafter russia. clause the indian government has used is called a foreign contribution regulatory act, and under that, it has

targeted several ngo's in the by docking their accounts, saying they have been taking illegal foreign funding. >> that report from delhi. this is "france 24." let's look at the headlines. wildfires continue to rage across california three people were killed as flames tore through the foothills of the cascade range, about 200 miles north of san francisco. at least 29 people have now died since mid august in the california wild pharisees season --cribed as historic wildfire season described as historicic. another blaze anand winene couny has forced over 50,000 people to evacuate from napa and sonoma counties. let's get morere. >> the raging blaze scorching the e earth around calaliforni's wine country. from sunday night through to monday, a new wildfire raced across buildings and forcing the

evacuation of of 600 homes. >> we have had increasing winds, increasing temperatures, and lowering relative humidity's, which h has increased the f fire behavior, and the fire hasn't jumped and is working its way towards those more populated areas -- the fire hasn't jumped. firee blaze do the glass work out before dawn and raced towards several communities. the fire also prompted thehe evacuation of over 151-bed hospital for a second time in a few weeks. lightning sparked blazaze is swt through the area in august. with several wineries and author and, thousands of residents have been placed on alert, ready to move at a moments notice. >> i literally looked to my left inside burning. all of a sudden, we rushed to the firefighters to try to tell them to put it out. they had enough on their hands already, so i wanted to step in and put out the fire. >> it was such a relief the sum

of our houses were still l here and everyrything ---- some of or houses werere stillll here and everything, but it was crazyzy. >> california wildfireres have scorched more than 3.7 million acres in the f first nine months of 2020, far exceeding any single year in state history, while killing dozens of people and destroying more than 7000 ststructures. >> there could be a new weapon in the fight against pollution, and engineered super enzyme that can devour plastic and help it to easily be recycled. let's get the details. of toxinson tons escape into the waterways and oceans every year. that equates to enonough rubbish to start five fully loaded bin bags on each foot of cosine around the world. of the 6.3 billion tons of plastic ever produced, only 9% has been recycled. as present trends continue, there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills by

2015. scientntists in the u.k. believe they may have found a weapon in the fight against plastic pollution, and theheir inspiratn came from nature. >> we have taken two enzymes from a bacterium that lives off plastic andd at plastic c recycg dumps, cononnected them together in laboratorieies here, and this enzymeme, super enzyme, a actuay works really fast, about six times faster than the original enzyme. >> the super enzyme they have created works by breaking plastics down to t their constituent parts. in theory, allowing that plastic to be recycled over and over again, reducing the need for new plastics to be created from fossil fuels. the team is w working with ththe recycling industry to see how this discovery could be put into use in the real worldld. >> plastics in thehe environmemt cacan last hundreds of years, bt if we can t te things i into a recycling plant, we can get things done to make the process

viable. >> the researchers continunue their efforts and are currently testing hundreds of different enzymes which they hope will work even faster. their aim is to have an arsenal of enzymes to put a dent in the amount of plastics going to landfill. >> you are watching "france 24." let's lookok at the totop stori. a third day o of fighting and seseparatist region of nagorno-kararabakh, the conflict that has been n going on foror decades, pitting armenia and azerbaijan against each other once again.. france set to trigger a peace initiative to try and stop t the conflict. donald trump and joe biden face-off in the first presidential debate of the campaign. america's growing coronavirus pandemic and trump's tax returns set to take center stage. and human rights watch. amnesty international says it is stopping its operations in india. that i is after indian authorits allegedly froze amnesty's inc. account, saying it violated

rules on -- violated rules. news.or o our business hello. let's talk about business. let's start in france wherere there is a movove towardrd a new high-speed mobile network known asas 5g. >> the f french government auctionining off 11 blocks of freqequency for 5g, whihich coud see fasterer mobile networks up and running and somome french cities by the end of this year. major mobile operators are vying for these blocks which bring capacity to large 5g peer r the auction is expxpected to raise more than 2 billion euros. leader, in a global china, france is trying to phase out its equipment by 2028. a debate is raging about the company building a new factory in the east t of the country.. >> this is while way's --

huawei's biggest factory in china, and they are set to build one like it in strasbourg. the chinese tech giant has been holding talks with officials to find the right space to produce 5g antennas. >> [speaking foreign language] >> but not everyone is happy about the proposal. the mayor is worried about the environmental impact. the president of the urban area says there are security concerns to consider. >> [speaking foreign language] > whilele the frencnch govert

has not prohibited telekom companies from using huawei's technology, they have said they will not be able to renew licenses for the gear once they expire. such a move would see the chinese firm phased out of mobile networks by 2 2028. >> [speaking foreign language] >> if >> if huawei moves a ahead withth the plant, it c could cre overer 500 jobs in the l long-t. >> a frerench luxury group has lasheded out at what they s says mimismanagemenent schuler tiffanany's, p part of a legal d to walk away from the takeover of the company. they say the performance has been catastrophihic since t the start of the pandemic and prospects for the future are dismal. that is according to court documents filed as part of that

legal battle. according to the financial times, they claim tiffany 's since march is a different business from the one they richly agreed to buy. >> next, uniononor meetingng magegement at a carmaker today to talk about job b cuts.. >> the comompany announced it would cut 15,000 jojobs wldldwie baback in may. more than 4000 of those in france the goal is to save more than 2 billion euros a after the carmaker saw massive losses earlier this year. according to reports, unions at today's meetings have rejected the cost cutting plan, but it does not mean it will not happen but it makes life more complicated for the recently appointed ceo. renaud has promised no compulsively redundancies as part of the cost-cutting measures. >> there has been a warning from the worlrld bank about the efffs thpapandemic is s having on asan ececonomies. >> the number of people liviving in povoverty acrcross asia will increase for the first time in 20 years, the world bank says.

it expect up to 30 million people will either remain stuck or pushed below the poverty line this year the report says the worst will be seen in myanmar, indonesia, and cambodia come over 80% of households are worse off since the pandemic h hits. now let's s look at ththe markes next f for you. european trading i in the red, continuing the trend we have seen since the opening of trading this morning, despite gains we saw on wall street on monday. investors and many other people will be watching that trump- biden debate later to see if there are any hints on what the election might made for tax or economic policy. >> let's go back to france now where, despite the economic situatation, many pepeople are l choosing to set up t their own businesses. >> t the number of companinies created in france rose slightly in a august, despite the gloomy economic outlookok. it is not an easy timee to start a business, but determined entrepreneurs are pressing ahead with their plans.

walksxandria marshon through the dorm of the dome restaurant, he planned to open in may but because of lockdown measures, he had to wait until the end of the summer to put his eight employees to work. >> [speaking foreign language] income andhaving no renovations taking an extra four months, he rented the 120 meter space, taking out several loans, a gamble the 34-year-old believes will payoff. >> [speaking foreign language] >> an optimism shirt by -- shared by these two, who are

getting to see their products on pharmacy shelves for the first time. they launched their dental water jet floss or in the midst of the pandemic, which delayed its rollout. with more than 300,000 euros borrowed, they are not presently earning a salary and are now seeking financial help from the local chamber of commerce, and they are not alone. >> [speaking foreign language] >> despite the pandemic, nearly one out of two french people say they are tempted to start their own business. at a cafe and save petersburg offering diners s a littlele extxtra with their mea. >> all-you-can-eat at the soup station. even the plates and cups. it is baked from dough in the ov en. cook it in a

certain way so it is hard enough to hold liquid, but it is part of an environmental push on the cafe's owners to cook on these disposables. as i said earlierr to a college, i have never met a bread i did not like. >> i hope it is more like bread and less like cardboard, which is what it looks like a little bit. to her for that business news peer coming up in the next half-hour, hong kong is fighting turningrel space by loved ones actions into an everlasting diamond. details on that in the press review after the news. ♪

host: it swept down the mountain like a vengeful god. cars were burning? woman: cars were burning. people was in panic. people were injured. it was chaos, yes. yes, many people died here. host: this was the world's deadliest bushfire since australia's black saturday, , 9 years agago. but mati isis not a vast or remote bushland region, it's a resort town just 30 minutes' drive frorom athens. man: i cannot thinknk of a singe part that went right in this disaster. one wonders that