The heart ofe in the french capital and people are showing discipline. Everyone is wearing a mask. I have only seen a handful of people not to. Of course, they have to make do with the current situation. Emmanuel macron himself said he did not like wearing a mask either, that he does not have a choice, no one does given the current situation. He says he speaks of a reasonable constraint, and the situation is complicated with a surge in covid19 cases. More than 6000 infections within 24 hours. Authorities and the government want to prevent a lockdown which would be catastrophic for businesses and it will take its toll on the morale of the french people. There are some exceptions, cafes and bars, people having a meal or a drink are at the terraces and do not have to wear a mask, and there might be a good excuse shopping, who go people might have a break with quick coffee, and that might bring business, and there is the the issue of cyclists. At first, according to Police Authorities said that cyclists would have to wear a facemask, and in the mayor of paris complained said it was not a good idea. And then Police Authorities made a uturn saying that cyclists would not have to wear a facemask, so cyclists who come here are not wearing a facemask. Same going for joggers who love going to the banks of the river do not have to wear a facemask either. Fairly, good news for cyclists and joggers. Cyclists, joggers, and having are exempte creme for now. Until other news. Primes longestserving minister is resigning a year before his turn end term ends. Shinzo abe suffers from oferative colitis, a type irritable bowel syndrome. It is the second time he has had to resign. His tough economic policies won him reelection several times and he apologized for not doing able to fulfill his duties. Years, iight controlled m my chronicc disease without t any issues. I kept focusing on my job as prime minister. Last month, my Health Condition worsened and it was revealaled that it reemerge. Public, to answewer to the and i i am not reaeady to contie my mandate. Shoulda decision thatat i not contitinue my job as prprime minister. I have decided to step down. , ai amm joined by ian professor of politics of japan and the author of the state and politics in japan. Thank you for joining us. H hadof all, shinzo abebe remarkable stayiying power. Howw do you u think he mananageo stay in power for so long . Ian well,l, on one level he was successful. He t took the party into six National Elections and was successful each time. Some of the victotors could be dedescribed as lanandslide victorories. He suppressed the factioions within his party andnd kept msmself in a s small group dominated. He controlled thee party, and he controlled the electorate. He is leaving at a bit of a delicate time for japan. The coronavirus, but there is also this mounting tenension between the United States and china. Daca period do you s see a. Of a period of uncertainty . Ian n he said he had chosen ths moment becauause he thought thts was a good time e to step downw. Of course, there i isomething gf a gap that would allow a successor to take overr to control bothth domestic politits r role inert Japans National polititics. I do not thinknk there is any crisis foror the time being, the situation is not crucial. I saw a note that suggesteded tt china was promising to be cooperative with whoever was his susuccessor. No, i do nonothink that there is goining to be a serioious regiol problelem caused by his resignation today. What would you list as his biggest achievement, and which of those do you think his successor would think to continue . Ian the most important thing is that he has provided s stability since he became prprime mininisr in 2012. Beforere then there was almost e per year, and that resulted in reducing japanss diplomatic influence and meant that theree seems to be nobody in contrololf domestic politicics, other thani suppose, h he hasedefined japans defefense policy. He made it possible for japan to take on an active pacifism,m, as he calls it. T. Maintainened the alliance with the unitited stats despite the president being less reliable than in the past. Thank you very much. Ian thank you. Now justs. Election is under 10 weeks away, and donald mounting a scathing attack against joe biden. Hehe warned of anarchyhy in the strereets if the democratic Vice President were to win. He praised his own handling of the coronavirus pandemic despite the fact that 175,000 americans have died. In the numbeber is rising daily. It was an unusual Republican National convention that took place at the white house, which is governmnmt, not party property. Surrounded by a massive crowd that did not observe social distancing guidelines. That is in stark contrast to the Democratic Convention in which joe biden delivered a short speech to an empty yard tory mp. Biden had described the Trump Administration as a darkness taking over so trumpeted back. Pres. Trump america is not a land cloaked in darkness. America is the torch that enlightens the entire worlrld. T the president then falsely accused jojoe biden of wanting a shutdown and vowed that a Coronavirus Vaccine would be available to the end of the year. Despite having one of the highest t fatalilities in the wd and he congratulated his administration of the handling of the crisis. Pres. Trump not a single american who has needed a ventilator has been dull night has been denied one, which is a miracle. [applause] forceob, heading the task by our great Vice President. Thank you. [applause] trump lauded his prepandemic record o on jobs in the economy before focusining on a key issue of the campaign, the at times violent protesests sweeping the country. Trump did not mentntion george floyd or any other victim of Police Violence by name, but vowed to stand by law enforcement. Pres. Trump we have to give law enforcement, our policice, back their power. No one will be safe and bidens americica in bididens ameri. My administration will stand with the men and women of f w enforcemement. The president said he wanted to unify the country, but manyny of the issues are likely to be as divisive as ever. At least six people have been killed after hurricane laurara batterered the state of louisia. Wind up to 240 kilometers an hour caused severe damage. There were twisters and heavy rains hundreds of miles inland, but it could have been worse. There were f fears of f a six mr storm sururge, which was avoided as the hurricane tracked east. Laura has been drought downgraded to a tropical storm. At themamerica remains epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic with more than 7 million cases across the region. For half acounts million cases, and was one of the first countries to enforce a lockdown. Restrictions are gradually being lifted as our team reports from the capital. 8 00 a. M. , she has just finished her night shift at a hospital. Without sleeping she goes to a private clinic for another shift. [speaking foreign language] as the lockdown comes to an end, much activity has already resumed. [speaking foreign language] the number of covid19 cases has skyrocketed. Lockdown,ve months of this is a paradox. She works as a substitute in an intensive care unit. This man has learned that his brother has died from the coronavirus. [speaking foreign language] the pandemic is at its peak and theree is a divorce between public authorities and medical professionals. [speaking foreign language] today, the economy has drained anand thehe lockdown mut end. Doctors fear a a rise. They are at their wits end. [speaking foreign language] reopening will begin september 1 in columbia. Be prohibitedl and teleworking is recommended. But everyone will be able to move around freely and the infected will have to stayathome. It is a risky bet at the height of the pandemic where tests are scarce and the Health System is fragile. That brings us uptodate to date with the international news. Stay with us. You are watching france 24 how are friends businesses French Businesses coping with covid19. Gatheringthe annual of the French Business association, which is taking place outdoors. Coming up, waiting for a brewpub Recovery Plann as the french government prepares to unveil fresh stimulates. You will hear from entrepreneurs on how they will how they navigated. Plus, the big shift in doing business. What will the lasting effects of the pandemic be . Trying to beps are optimistic about the future, but the outlook is bleak. The oecd expects the economy to shrink by 11 . Any companies are surprising thanks to government help but there are warnings of an avalanche of grub sees. One says that as many as 90,000 could go bust, and increased of 80 , and then there is the impact on jobs. The organization that runs the Unemployment Insurance says that 900,000 jobs could be lost by the end of 2020. How are entrepreneurs feeling. I have been speaking to some of them. 2020, it was certainly not a normal way, normal year the put it that way. I believe it is a special year. I will not forget until i die. It was a lotot of stress and changes, and a lot of fights to get things done. Very difficult year because we are in tourism, culture, and Event Industry and we have been down 100 for three months, and now we are trying to get it back, in a way. We should end by a decrease around 50 . 2020 has been quite good for me. A one year of business in two months. It is good. It was really not a didigitized life, but they wantd this to continuing their business. We hope that the end of the year will be good, that was that dynamic created. That this was going to last. Are very careful, because of the months that we were closed and the impact on our activities. I get the sense you are not optimistic about the future . The future . [laughter] months or twos two years. Two months is difficult, the two years, i think it will come back and they will have some exhibition smore, and so sosome more, and i hope as an entrepreneur that we will always have hope. I am joined by the Vice President and spokesperson. Thank you for joining us. This is not an event like previous years. We are wearing masks. Why did you decide to go ahead with this event in person instead of virtually . Because we want to be optimistic. Why . Because we see signs of the economy recovering right now. The level of activity is now nearly the same before ththe crisis. We want to show that the entrepreneurs have a vision of the future. The members of companies that create activities, the private investment, the number of unemployment is decreasing, and everybody says it will be a catastrophe and we will have one Million People without a job before the year ends. Lot from is 50,000, a the people who suffer from the situation. But it is not one million. We want to say take time to think about the real situation, considering frfrom wherere we ce from, the lockdown. With, the complete slowdown of the economy, it is good, the recovery has been fast. Of course there are sections that suffer, but we have this duty for bringing optimism. If the economy if you do not trust the future, it is worse. You create the effects that you are scared of. You mentioned t the figure so far, but there are warnings of an avalancnche of bankruptcies later in the year. Is that is what you are expecting . Challengenot here to that the situation is difficult, we just want to stay very state very clearly that you speak about bankruptcies for now , it is not bigger than before. Has aow that the state huge amount of loans into the economy, around 140 billion with a state guararaee. Only one third of the companies have used these amounts, which means that all of this money is in the accounts of the companies. It is a precaution. If the activity does not come back, they are loans, so Companies Need to make money to survive. You have a good point. The most important now is to have the economy going up again at the level that we knew before. We are not so far. We are around 90 . The 10 gap means a lot of problems for the companies that suffer from this and the economy as a whole. Need that thewe economy is handled, and this is thanks to the intelligence that will manage this with the protection and Safety Measures with the vaccine, and research. It, it willt about have an end. We are prepared. The second point is to have some measure like the states will suggest, or in the recovery package to have less tax for the companies that produce in france. You know that we are unbalanced compared to the other countries. We want to find the s same level of competition, and we have this announcement from the government that the trajectory of the tax, and the decrease of the tax on corporations will still go on, which means still reduced as expected, and it is important to have stability. Businesses have gotten a lot of help during this crisis. Have businesses been good partners up until now and will they be good partners in the future . Somewhat will have to pay for these measures the future. Everybody will say we could have done this or this. The reality is that the partial activity scheme in france supported the salary of many. The states state and to pay for the people when the lockdown was active, and this allowed the people to keep some bargaining and money and to have the power to purchase things remain safe. Secondnd, all of the money that has been lended to companies has helped the company overcome the crisis. So, tremendous things have been done. Grow,s important is to because you cannot have a healthy economy only by supporting companies with the states. Theo not have help from state, we want to be free and earn our own money. For this we need a very big Recovery Plan that we have to stimulate the economy to find the basics of an economy that is not administered by the state. Thank you for speaking to us. Let us go back to the entrepreneurs and i have been asking them about the biggest shift in business. People have been found that the Company People found that the company is not a way of earning money, but also to learn new things and to progress in life. Workhis relationship to might have changed to a better way of working together. Everyone is working at home. And we are going to do a kind of is ahing in corsica, so it big exchange for businesses and how we work. Ifit is difficult to know they wanant to come back to wor. Some people, i think, they will not come back. Regional,g on local, and National Businesses is something we have rediscovered, and i think you got people to rediscover their country and region. I believe the main lesson, we need to digitalize more. And, in order to be better prepared for covid 25, and 30, etc. And etc. That is it from us. You can get into us with your thoughts on social media. Until next time, thank you for watching. For many of these kids, it is their first taste of the ancient sport of chess. Every week, 100 gather at this club in a rundown area to learn the basics of this board. They are poised, they learn the values, then how many squares are on a chessboard, and how to move and attack. Under this tent set up in the courtyard of a bar, she is handing out he is handing out tips. He grew up in this deprived area and went on to be a chess player. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. The mark of a champion is being able to rise. And slumsup the chess project to introduce disadvantaged children to the game. Andsome off the streets doing something productive with their time. He says these lessons can be applied to life. The lessons from playing chess, good thinking and communication skills, and creativity, and how to think strategically, and problem solving. Lessons in, the children are happy with the results so far. You understand something quickly. make me learn calculus fas. For the most dedicated players, chess might be able to provide a ticket to the better life, helping them get back into education. He is one of the clubs best players lives in this town with his disabled mother. After he won a tournament, a donor sponsored his secondary education. I would like to thank you for sending me to school, thank you so much. And so, the sport, which can be traced back to sixth century is proving its longevity by transforming lives in the slums. Man ive already had a rewarding career representing artists writing the first review of basquiat, being the first person to buy his work, being jeff koons dealer during the nineties. Ive already done very rewarding things like this. Im a stealth bomber. I can walk the walk and talk the talk of money people but im using the structure to put out some very progressive, radical ideas. First the challenge was economic survival. Now its how do i survive the