Erin another day, another grim milestone set in the united states. For the fifth time in nine days, the u. S. Hit yet another daily record of new coronavirus cases with at least five states in the south and west, setettin single day records for new infection. The worrying spikes have done little to sway the trump administration, afterr framing lockckdown measures as harmful for the economy and confusing messages around masks, they made reopening schools the new battle even threatening to take fred aid from schools that refuse to reopen on schedule. Its not just about kids learning and not falling behind academically, its about all that tal Services Children receive at our schools, its about families and opening up america again. After the administration criticized the centers for Disease Control guidelines for reopening schools, the organization announced it would issue new recommendations next week. Ththough t the director added t measure should not justify keeping schools closed. With stocks of medical supplies and medical equipment decompmpleting rapidly in hospitals across the nation, officials in several states are pleading for federal assistance. Expanded testing and people paying out of their pocket for these tests and Funding CommunityHealth Workers and real Small Business benefits and unemployment, another cash payment for folks struggling and aid for state and local government. Erin even as 36 states have shown an increase in coronavirus cases over the past two weeks. The president refused to use federal powers to address thehe pandemic, leaving local officials to fend f for themselves. We turn our attention to the mexican president s visit and many they have disapapproved of. And obridor said all h he was getting from trump was respect. The first face to face meetings between them came after the new american trade pact was loss. And Justin Trudeau from canada turned down the invitation talking about the inappropriateness of International Travel during the pandemic. On the same day of those talks, mexico r recorded almost 7,000 new infections. We go to mexico city. Kind of in a peak of the pandemic maybe, carrying on, we hope its the peak and wont get any higher. We are living in mexico city with the levels europe was living in two months ago and a high death toll. However, it hasnt overwhelmed the hospitals here and kind of built up a bit more slowly and there was some preparation. Were kind of living now in a partial lockdown with people wearing sksks on the street,t, social distancing, and certain ththings reopening but still a lolot of fear and people dying. The death toll has now topped 32,000 offfficially in mexico, unofficially i it could be as high as double that and higher levels in many european countries. Day one of a new lockdown in melbourne, australias second biggest city, due to last six weeks for lockdown and is part of the response to a spike in coronavirus cases. The authoritities also d decide close the border with new south wales. We have a report. Checkpoints around the city as police enforce new Strict Lockdown measures. Its the second time melbourne residents will have to stay at home after a surge of Coronavirus Infections was detetected in the city. Victoria states leader warned people not to be complacent about the virus. If we all continue to Work Together and take this as seriously as we have to, then we wont bring stability to those numbers let alone drive them down and get for the sixweek period and recommence the process of opening up. So everything is on the line here and we need to make sure that were all playing our part. For the next six weeks, people will only be allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons such as going to work, Grocery Shopping or exercise. Schools will go back to online classes and restaurants can only offer takeout but shops and h hair salons will remainin open. For Business Owners just getting baback o on their feet, its a tough break. We are pretty lucky we dont have to do too many changes and w we had stuff nd coming in but unfortunately wont be anymore. Meanwhile, the local government has eased restrictions on the residence of mine local housing towers in total l lockdown the past sever days. After testing the 3,000 inhabitants, the officials now say theyll be able to leave their homes under the same conditionsns enforced throughou the city. Theres been more anger in serbia aimed at the government. Protesters gathering for a second night outside parliament in belgrade on wednesday in other parts of the country, too. They say the president has put his own interests before e thos of the country in his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Its not clear if alexander will backtrack on plans to reimpose a curfew ovover the weekend because e of a surge in cases. Now, the coronavirus pandemic has made an already dire e Economic Situation in lebanon even worse. Businesses across the country are closing down. The cost of food has gone up anand more and more people are going huhungry as we now have a report. Oncenown as ththe paris of ththe middle east, beirut is no the capital of a country on the brink of economic collapse. In the working class neighborhood, the effects of massive inflation are all too present. Some prices have become so volatile theyre no longer displayed, essentials including nappies and baby formula have ore than doubled in price. [speaking in foreign langnguage] this used to be worth 60 euros and now worth 10. Speaking foreign language] today half of all lebanese citizens live below the poverty line. Political instability, corruption and more recently the coronavirus have wrought havoc on the lebanese economy. Each d day new businesses go bankrupt and scenes of despair arent ununusual. Here a man robs a pharmacy at gunpoint and leaves with a packet of nappies and last friday, a suicide in public sent shock waves through the country. The impact of the countrys Economic Situation is evenen being felt in the christian neighborhood, the capitals wealthiest. Scores of older people have come to o rely on food handouts. [speaking foreign language] with poverty and instability looming over the country, many lebanese are pinning their hopes on the International Monetary fund throwing the country a financial lifeline before its too late. The ivory coast is mourning the p president as he announced the death of the prime amadou 61yearold coulibaly died after falling ill after a Cabinet Meeting and had just returned f from heart treatment here inn frarance. France 24s mark perlman joins me now. Mark, can you tell us more about the Prime Minister and reactions s in the i ivory coas his deatath. Mark the Prime Minister was a candidate for his p party and w the clear favororite for the elections slated on octobober 3 he w was sick. He had a heart problem back in 2012 and he was in paris for two months after saying he would only stay for a few days and so there was clearly some worry about his health and whether he could run the campaign and eventually become president. However, he came back on july 2 to the ivory coast and people thought he seems to be ok and then he had this Health Problem and he could not recover from yesterday from the Cabinet Meeting and was a big shock because people thought he was out of the woods essentially so you have heard on this very rare occasion all parties, some in the oppositition and even of course the party in power, mourning the sudden death of the Prime Minister because e is recognized as someone who is not a brilliant politician but someone who could make things happen and is a big shock and obviously this means that everything is up in the air in terms of t the upcpcoming elect i was gngng to ask youou abo thatat. Where dodoes it leave his party and elelections . Clearly his party is i in trouble because the incumbent has said im m not going to run because i want a new generation to come to power and im not going to cling to power like many of my peers on the continent. So now hes fororced with a new choioice because there are no clear candidates, there are two or three names around this but there will be pressure upon him to run again and so this might change the equation for the party. He will address his party in a few days and then well know more and clearly the election is slated october 31 and you can only become a candidate until august 31. So its a little over a month and a half and it means that really his election is totally up in the air because theres a lot of uncertainty also in the opposition. The former president is before the International Criminal court. Theres an appeal, a procedure that might take too long for him to be able to run again so no one is able to tell you today what will happen and clearly his death has totally chchanged the equation in the ivory coast. All right. Thank you very much for joining us, mark. Now were getting new information about the last minutes ofof George Floyds lif this of course is the man whose death in may in the u. S. Sparked global antiracism protests. Court documents show the former Police Officer who has been charged after kneelining on floyds neck for several minutes told him to stop shouting because he was using up oxygen. Derek chauvin pleaded not guilty to charges of Second Degree murder and manslaughter. The newly released transcript shows at one point one of the other three Police Officers present suggested putting floyd on his side to no avail. Reconstruction work continues at Notre Dame Cathedral in paris after last years fire and a crane was used earlier this thursday by environment campaigners with a message for the french president macron. Greenpeace activists managed to get a banner up there 80 metete off the ground that read climate time for action. Greenpeace says the president s olicies dont match his words. And thats it for this edition. Thanks for watching. Stay tuned for france 24. Frerench colonists arrrrive thee early 20th century y but w they departed many left behinin mixed race children torn from their mothers and s set apart from sietyty. [speaking foreign language] now many are exploring their roots and looking for answers as well as international recognition. In reporters this week find out about the extraordinary fate of these orphans of a nation. Reporters plus on france 24 and france24. Com. It may an cliche but we truly are living t through extraordinary times. Covid19 climatete change and a Global Movement against racism. Here on france 24 we want to bring you the human story behind the headlines. The program is called the new normal and features original reporting every week from france 24 corresponds all around the world. The new normal on france 24 and france24. Com. Hello and welcome for our france 24 interview. I hahad the honor of being with the mimichelle mayor who g got nobel prize in physics this year and thank you for this exclusive interview here at the again eva observe he geneva observatory where you carried out your research 30 years ago and continue teaching here as well as at Cambridge University and youre an honorary professor there and youre awarded the nobel prize last october for having discovered the first xo planet which is beyond our solar system gravitating around another sun and you d discovered that 24 years ago. Were you still expecting the nobel prize . Yes and no. We knew wed been nominated for the prize on a number of ococcasions. But t was actually quite did not to think ababout it. Actually, i learned thahat more than a hundred people werere nominanated every year for the prize and there was a chat, also, in the u. S. Scientific journal that shows the time it takes from m the discovery and getting the prize. On average it t takes 30 years 24 years. Were a bit early. Coming back to your discovery, for a long time, your physicist thought thehere could be planenets outsidede ou solar syststem but yououre the first on october 6, 1995 to prove the existing planet is called 51 pegasus b and is in the consolation 51 light years away frorom r sun. How did you know it exause an xo planet . One of the challenges to know whether its a planet or not is t that youre very close to a very bright star. You have to use a trick to figure things s out and the tri we used was that you look at the effect the planet t has on the star that it is revololving around. So we wanted to look at the regular changes in the stars velocity because when you have a planet revolving around a star it changes the stars velocity ever so slightly and the challenges lie in the fact these changes are very minute and hard to measure. E use i instruments called spectrographs emitted by the star and use the doppler effect that uses the spepectral lines, the l lines you get when you break down the lights after star and use that to detect movement and thats how we found the planet. What was a big surprise for us and everyone was that the planet that we found was completely unexpected a and was actually very closely orbiting around a star. In fact it onlnly t takes four for it to rotate and orbit around the star. And the planet looks very much like the giants in our solar system jupiter but there really is nothing like it in our own solar system and was hard to convince the Scientific Community and took them a great deal of time to embrace our discovery. And if you look at the contribution of this discovery, theres obviously the philosophical approach, yes, we can discover planets and thats been confirmeded there are more than 4,000 that have been found. And also, theres the fact that the giant planet such as jupiter can exist revolving so close to the star. Theory didnt provide for that. And this has in fact shown something known as planetary migration and that are plplanet are born far away from the star and by a Spiral Movement come closer. Any scenario to explain a planetary system taken into account. Today there are over 4,000 xo planets and the last was discovered very recently the beginning of january by the test satellite called t. O. I. 700d and its about 100 light years away in w whats called t habitable zone. Whats a habitable zone . Could there be life on this planet . It could but doesnt mean there is a any life. Its 1. 2 times the mass of the earth a f few years ago, there was one that was. 7 the weight the mass of the earth around a type casase star, a little more massive. These are e within t the habita space. The next generation of scientists will have to look at trying to identify whether there is any life there. Inhabitable is one thing, that means the conditions are auspicious to support the complicated chemistry of f life. It doesnt mean it has happened. You still have to look into that. W what are the conditions th are necessary for life on another planet . One obvious c condition is temp. If the teach if the temp is too high, life cannot be transmitted, this long molecular chains that encode the functioning of life actuallyly break down. If its too cold nothing much happens, its too slow. If you have liquid water then you have a solvent that supports a Chemical Reaction so there are a number of conditions more, maybe many more but we have to find the right kind of plananet at the right distance from the star r the inhabitable space. So life elsewhere for a long time was a fantasy but is it possible now . Possible, y yes, maybe. There is almost not a question now for astronomers but biologists and chemists to go any further. Anyone can have an opinion but then you have to prove science. So you have to o develop the right kind of instruments that will give evidence that life exists elsewhere and thahats also a trememendous philosophic question and goes well beyond the actual technicalities of this. The ququestion is, is life uniq in universalal in the milky way or i is it compulsory byproduct of the evolution of the universe . So what youre talking about here are these major issues, and its quite impressive and nice there are these great issues for future genenerations. So it is impossiblble to imagine going to even the closest xo planet . Science fiction has done marvelous things to show men going on to other planets in the galaxy or even other galaxies, its fabulous and marvelous. It takes you on a dream but completely unfounded, taken a habitatable planenet, a good candidate, say, 30 light years away from here. 30 light year is about one billion seconds. Remember it takes light one second to go to the moon it. So one billilion times further than that. Thats a long time to spend in a box. People say you could just beat it up. Well, no, in physics if you want to gogo faster, then the amount of energy to use is just tremendously high. So you have t ttake this s into account t and look at earth and remember that you cannot just leave earth once weve wasted it. We wont be able to move on to another planet. Astronomers might detect inhabitable planets butut w we wont be able to go and settle there. Thats something to remember. Our planet is nice, isnt it, we might as well care for it. Coming back to these planets, the first swiss satellite of the European Space agency was put into orbit on december 18. To study the composition of about 1,000 xo planets. You started that project. Whwhat is it goioing to do . Its born out of a frustration because we developed it a numbeber of year ago and identified a lot of planetets that were very close stars but werent able to measure what we call the trtransit so we had a large number of objects but very little infmation abobout them. The satellite is based on the idea we wanted to be agile and point to almost any direction in space that we can have fine, detailed instruments of its transit and its the point a planet passes in front of the star and gives us information about the size of the planet, precise size of the planet. You can get the mass as well by using the doppler effect which what we used for the 51 pegasus and give us information about the overall structure of the planet and moreover can help us detect the presence of rings and satellites around these planets and m maybe can detect the light reflected off the planet. It gives us the ability to do so what we can from a technical point of view but is do it systematically on the objects that are most interesting, the brightest shiniest bodies and well look at the most interesting bodies in the sky to try to understand and the reason is these are ones well mostst likely to get the more data on these things and the more data we have the more you understand them and means you can have a very general understanding of how plants a a formed. I imagine you have other plans in the works . Well, the signs of f xo plplanets have literally boomed the last few years and i mean by that a great wealth of knowledge, about 20 years or a hundred people working in it now. There are thousanands of people huge numbers of people working in this field and new Space Programs being launched as well and opening up a new field of knowledge within astrophysicalics. To go back to one of the earlier questioions you asksked about the life in the universe, well, this is a field gaining ground. Because currently were in a field where were really starting to collect data and talking about expiration missions to mars where well bring back samples to earth and missions to venus, missions where were going to be studying the satellites of the great gigiants of our solar system to see life there. Really were going to see the atmospheres of these planets and see what we find. With all this increase in data, were really seeing the birirth of a new form of science. We can call it the questions of light in the universe. One last question on a more personal level, what did this nobel prize change in your lives . For m me it was a huge chang from overnight you become a rock star. Its quite a change, you get invitations to go here and there and a huge visibility for our workrk. But for me its almost a duty to answer all those requests and have to try best to do that but keep track of our workers, teachers and researchers. Its quite a major change from my daily work. The number of invitations to talk, to teach here or there in the universe or rather on earth is tremendous. Its 10 t times at least morere thanan what wewe can a actually handle. But theres no reason to come to plane. Working in a field of science which interests people is fafascinating, so yes, of cours we have to manage this but its quite satisfying. Were coming to the end of our interview, thanks to both of youou for this exclusive interview, the first youve given since you were given the nobel prize. Thanks to the geneva observatory and stay tuned, more news to come on france 24. Hey, im darius rucker. Coming up onreel south. Jump up outcha chair, holla ba [darius] in bessssemere, alabama, its the blulues that put this small town on the map. [harmonica] but whwhen this iciconic juke joint faces troubled waters is music enough to bridge the divide . You cacannot decidide that were going to obesosome lawss anand not other laws. Thiss your house, hi hoe, m my use, h h house, and everybody come here. [darius] the blues play on at gips place on reel south. [female narrator] support for this program is provided by south arts, sponsors of the southern cirircuit tour of independent filmmakers, with funding from the national endowmenent for the arts