France's Le Pen loses court appeal but declares she'll run for President

16:43Andrew Giuliani:This is a huge challenge. And this is something that US leaders have actually been pushing for for many years, albeit in a much less aggressive way. But when you consider the fact that Europe is not one unified political entity, that there are divisions between member states, that governments may struggle to spend more in defense, that they may wish to direct that spending to their own defense industrial base, not to their neighbors, you end up with a lot of parochial interests and infighting over. what should be spent, how and when. What we are seeing now, however, with the Trump administration's threat to actually pull troops out of Europe, I think, is that we're starting to see some of those political obstacles in Europe overcome and states starting to talk in a much more productive way about how they might actually fill those gaps.

17:30Marine Le Pen:Is there a risk, though, that if they push down that path, which they may feel is sort of wise given the direction of travel in the US, but that it actually might accelerate the US detachment from NATO?

17:45Andrew Giuliani:This has been the argument in Europe for a long time, that if you actually invest in European defences, you'll just encourage the US to leave because Europeans can do it. But I do think what has become very clear, particularly in this administration and in the previous Trump administration, is European states are just no longer sure that the US will respond to the call if and when they're actually needed. And so they have to develop their own capabilities. I think in general, European leaders are now fairly convinced that they need to do more either to try and keep the US in or to act as that backstop.

18:25Marine Le Pen:And that was Emma Ashford, Senior Fellow at the Stimson Centre. Sometimes, in fact, most times the news we cover is on the day stuff, but sometimes it's worth standing back and looking at much longer trends, especially ones that are both very difficult to turn around and have potentially huge effects. One of those is the start in recent years of the decline of China's population, a process which is only going to gather pace in the coming decades. Mickey Bristow has this report.

18:57Andrew Giuliani:Hannah is reading with her two-year-old son in their flat in Beijing. Just like his mother and father and millions of other Chinese people, her toddler is an only child and likely to remain so. I think one child is enough for me and for my family. Because I didn't see any necessity to have a second one, because I grew up in a single child family and I have many friends and classmates to play with, so I don't really feel lonely. So Anna, I'm not using her real name because every topic in China is sensitive, is happy with one child. But for her government, that's not enough. They want parents to have two or three children.

19:38Andrew Giuliani:That's because the country's population is falling. Over the next few decades, it will collapse. That seems at odds with what many think they know about China, that it has too many people. The Chinese government once thought so too. That's why it brought in the one-child policy.

20:02Marine Le Pen:The children of China may now get brothers and sisters.

20:07Andrew Giuliani:It took a while, but Chinese officials realised they'd made a mistake with their calculations, and ten years ago they abandoned the one-child policy, expecting couples to suddenly start having more children. That didn't happen, as Professor Wang Feng from the University of California, Irvine, explains. One child was an abnormal norm imposed by the government. But with 35 years of the one child policy, the only children growing up, they felt it's fine. I'm the only child. I don't need to have two children. So an abnormal norm has been normalized as the new norm. The rising cost of living is also pushing couples to have fewer children.

20:54Lauren, again I'm not using her real name, is a single mother living with her 12-year-old son

21:00Andrew Giuliani:Robert in Shanghai, one of China's most expensive cities. She's definitely feeling the pinch. Financially, it's on my own. So I have to cover everything, I have to work, and I have to keep an eye on his studies. What kind of house do you have? How many bedrooms is that? Describe it to me. No, one bedroom. So it's a one-bedroom flat? One bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, one kitchen. And do you sleep in the living room and Robert sleep in the bedroom? We actually sleep the same bedroom. Like, we have a bumpy bed. Like, he sleep up, I sleep down. A bunk bed? Yeah. Oh, so he sleeps on the top of the bunk bed and you sleep on the lower bed?

21:43Marine Le Pen:Yes.

21:44Andrew Giuliani:Lauren can't afford the extra tuition many Chinese parents pay for their children.

21:53Andrew Giuliani:The authorities have held mass weddings like this one to encourage others to tie the knot. To make childbirth less painful, hospitals have been forced to offer women epidural anaesthetics, and then there's money, cash handouts to have more children. So far, none of it has worked.

22:15Andrew Giuliani:China isn't the only place with a falling fertility rate, but the scale of its coming population decline is immense. We're talking hundreds of millions of fewer people by the end of the century. One expert thinks it could fall to as low as 330 million. Here's Professor Wang again. I think the Chinese leaders and the Chinese people have basically come to accept that China's population will get smaller and smaller. And they also, I think, accept that there isn't much that can be done. And on the other hand, we're looking at a great technological revolution. We're talking about AI and automation, robotics, that can help to increase productivity in the face of declining share of working population and to sustain economic growth.

23:04Andrew Giuliani:Fewer children and a collapsing population will have consequences, not just for China's capacity to generate economic growth, but for his ability to project itself across Asia and the rest of the world. In the future, China won't be able to rely on its vast stock of people for wealth and power.

23:24Marine Le Pen:And you can hear more on China's population challenge with Mickey Bristow on this week's edition of Assignment here on the BBC World Service.

23:40Andrew Giuliani:When you hear the phrase made in China, what do you think? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid. And together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And today on our show, we look at the origins and evolution of made in China, because it actually wasn't inevitable. What we're talking about is the world's largest communist nation is at the beating heart of the capitalist system. For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

24:13Marine Le Pen:Welcome back to NewsHour. The man whom the opinion poll suggests is most likely to be after the next general election, Britain's next Prime Minister, Nigel Farage, has announced that he's standing down as a Member of Parliament. However, the leader of the populist right-wing Reform Party He has said he's only doing so in order to force a by-election, a special election in his constituency amid a long-running row over his finances, over where money donated to him has come from and whether he's properly declared it to electoral and parliamentary authorities. Mr Farage characterised the forthcoming by-election as a people versus the establishment vote.

24:51Marine Le Pen:No, I've decided that the people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions. This will be a people versus the establishment by-election. It's a chance to stick two fingers up to the entire establishment, to frankly tell them where to go. UK political correspondent Rob Watson is following the story. What's it all about?

25:16Andrew Giuliani:Nigel Farage's finances have been in the spotlight in a way that's made him very uncomfortable, very angry, and has been threatening to undermine the way he likes to pose as being different from all those other politicians somehow in it for themselves. And essentially attention has focused on a gift that he received of just over£5 million. That's over$5 million. And for services in kind, he received from another a support. And now what I mean by services in kind is things like providing help with social media, providing offices. And although this happened before he was an MP, Tim, I mean, the idea is that you have to declare all that stuff once you become an MP.

25:58Andrew Giuliani:Anything that happened in the previous 12 months, if it could be seen to be somehow connected to your role as a politician. Now, Nigel Farage's defence has been, no, no, no, no, I wasn't a politician. I wasn't an MP. All of this stuff was personal. And he says that these stories about his personal finances are all about trying to undermine him and to undermine reform.

26:22Marine Le Pen:I mean, he has a genius, Nigel Farage, for sort of seizing the front of the political stage. And all this, presumably, is going to play out pretty much just as the next prime minister comes to power. Andy Burnham takes over as the governing Labour Party's prime minister. Presumably, I mean, this is something that could rather distract attention from Andy Burnham's first few weeks in office.

26:52Andrew Giuliani:Absolutely. And I think one of my colleagues has described this as a potential split screen moment in British politics. Right. You see Andy Burnham taking over as new Labour leader and as prime minister. Meanwhile, in the other screen, you have Nigel Farage doing his The People versus the Establishment Act. I mean, it is, of course, risky, Tim. I mean, it's possible that the voters in his constituency may say, actually, we're not very happy about this and we don't vote you back. And it is already the case that you have all of Nigel Farage's opponents, the other part, saying, look, this is all just a desperate stunt, an attempt to distract attention away from these rather large donations.

27:33Marine Le Pen:And that was Rob Watson. Much more about this on our website, bbc.com forward slash news.

27:44Marine Le Pen:This is News Hour. It's live from the BBC in London. I'm Tim Franks. The game deciding the last quarter finalist in the World Cup kicked off about 30 minutes or so ago. Switzerland or Colombia is currently goalless. One of them will play Argentina, who in a comeback for the ages earlier today, came back from two goals down and with about 10 minutes to play to beat Egypt 3-2. And of course, one of the Argentinian goal scorers was Lionel Messi. But it was a game from yesterday US time that is still reverberating when Belgium trounced the US team 4-1 because the Belgian players very openly said that they'd been motivated by the last-minute reprieve of the star American striker Falarin Balogun, whom they and everyone else had expected to be suspended for the game because of getting a red card in his previous match.

28:37Marine Le Pen:But that suspension had been reversed by FIFA after President Trump had called the boss of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, to complain about the red card and ask for a review, which then stoked international outrage, particularly among European football federations, asking very pointed questions about whether there'd been a political stitch-up. Hence our keenness to talk to our next guest, a man who reportedly rang President Trump to tell him about Balogun's red card, leading then to Mr Trump's telephone call to Gianni Infantino. He is Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the presidential task force for the World Cup.

29:14Marine Le Pen:First question then, given the Ferrari and given that it didn't help the US win, any regrets?

29:21Andrew Giuliani:No, I mean, I don't think there are any regrets over here. Obviously, look, yesterday, you know, Belgium was a better team. They came out there and played well. You know, what I'll tell you is I'm so proud of the way this US team represented the country. I think in a moment like yesterday, where obviously it was a very disappointing loss for the team, they all still huddled together afterwards in the middle of the pitch and prayed together. And I think that's very indicative of the American spirit.

29:49Marine Le Pen:Yeah. But I mean, you say you're proud about what happened and the way in which they went out. through no fault of their own though they were caught up in this controversy and it was a controversy which left one of the other major governing bodies of world football UEFA the European governing body saying as a result of what happened with this intervention from Donald Trump and then the suspension of this red card the integrity of the game is at stake it's incomprehensible and unjustifiable. I mean, do you wish you could unpick all that?

30:26Andrew Giuliani:As UEFA commented on the integrity of having a referee who was accused of match fixing and giving irregular cards out there and playing, the process was misapplied of the VAR here. It never should have been slowed down to use for a contact foul. So when you add the two of those things up, it's suspicious to say the least. Would you not admit that, Mr. Franks?

30:46Marine Le Pen:OK, so just to be very clear about this Brazilian referee about whom you have thrown a considerable amount of shade, he was investigated. He was questioned. He didn't even face any charges. There was no evidence linking him to illegal schemes. And FIFA, for its part, FIFA, for its part, says of this man throughout his career, he has consistently demonstrated the highest standards of professionalism and integrity. That apparently isn't good enough for you.

31:13Andrew Giuliani:When you add the combination of these suspicious charges against him, right? There were no charges against him. Why he ultimately did it, or the suspicious, I should say, investigation into this for irregular red cards. And then you add the fact that the process was completely misapplied and there never should have been a red card. It is suspiciously at the very, very least. And anybody who's looking at this from an unbiased perspective has to admit that.

31:40Marine Le Pen:Would you not agree that it is pretty much unprecedented for in the history of the World Cup that there have been 189 red cards awarded? Only one other time has a red card not resulted in the automatic suspension of a player for the following game. And in this case, that precedent was broken once Donald Trump had announced that he'd rung Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA.

32:08Andrew Giuliani:Well, I would point out this, right, in terms of precedent, when you actually have this suspicious incident where you have a referee, and we've seen this in other sports in the United States, where a referee may be potentially involved in match fixing. It's not precedent for the U.S. government to go and take a look at that, especially when you see the fact that the VAR was improperly applied at the same time and you add that checkered past in there. So I would disagree.

32:36Marine Le Pen:The FIFA statutes are very, very clear.

32:39Andrew Giuliani:And again, I don't speak for FIFA here. No, indeed.

32:42Marine Le Pen:But I'm just asking about the role that President Trump took, perhaps at your behest. I mean, there's lots of reporting that say that you were the person who rang President Trump to point out this great injustice as you saw it. And it was as a result of that that he then rang Gianni Infantino.

32:59Andrew Giuliani:I'm going to keep the conversations between myself and President Trump private. I've known President Trump for over 30 years, and his leadership in the United States of America has led to this incredible World Cup where we're seeing this amazing event with the world's love affair with the United States over our 250th birthday. Now, you obviously don't want to cover that. You don't want to cover how great the United States has shown over this last month and will continue to show over this. But feel free to cut me off again. Go ahead.

33:28Marine Le Pen:Would you not accept that given that there are very clear statutes that govern world football about the importance of no political interference, it does take a heroic leap of imagination to think that Donald Trump, the most powerful man in the world, ringing his mate Gianni Infantino to complain about the red card, did not in some way.

33:56Andrew Giuliani:I'm not going to speak to the conversation. You're getting the conversation wrong. But go ahead. You can base it on a false premise.

34:04Marine Le Pen:OK. I mean, he very clearly said, I asked for a review. Everybody could see that it wasn't a foul. I mean, Donald Trump has said that in terms. So I'm not entirely sure what I'm mischaracterizing here. But anyway, Trump calls Infantino. And then what we don't know is what the process then was, which made the disciplinary committee then decide to review this red card and for the first time since 1962 reverse a player's automatic suspension. Do you not see that that, as far as much of the rest of the world is concerned, looks like political interference?

34:40Andrew Giuliani:Well, you're assuming that a conversation between President Trump and Johnny Infantino, of which they've had two or three a week throughout the course of this World Cup, because they both have the same interest in making sure this World Cup is as successful and as safe as possible, which up until this point, it has been. It's been an amazing boon for the United States. Everything from just the economic impact that it's done here all across our 11 cities to the incredible job that we've done from the visa perspective.

35:09Marine Le Pen:Donald Trump, just to repeat the quote, I did call Infantino. I asked for a review because I didn't think it was a foul. Do you not think that that looks like political interference as far as much of the rest of the world is concerned?

35:23Andrew Giuliani:People always like to assume different things about the president. What I can tell you is his leadership has been amazing. It's one of the reasons why we've seen the United States, really the world's love affair with the United States through this World Cup.

35:36Marine Le Pen:Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the president's task force for the World Cup. A BBC investigation has verified the existence of 195 detention centres across occupied Ukraine and Russia where Ukrainian civilians are being held. Prosecutors and survivors say that torture and conflict-related sexual violence is endemic. Since 2014, 16 ,000 have been detained or disappeared in Russian-occupied areas. Tanya Khashenko has this report.

36:07Andrew Giuliani:For three years and 13 days of my life, my soul and body were crippled. I don't remember what an ordinary life is anymore. Людmila Huseynova is one of many former detainees from Ukraine speaking publicly about what can happen to civilians inside these Russian backcenters. We are talking about rape, sexual slavery, torture, and that these are not accidental acts of violence, but a clearly organized policy, which Russia uses as a tool of war.

36:43Andrew Giuliani:She was detained by pro-Russian authorities and held for three years. She was accused of spying, but she says she had been helping orphanages and taking food to Ukrainian soldiers. Along with many others, she was held in the notorious Isolatsia prison, one of 93 detention sites PBCI has verified in the occupied part of the country, along with 102 in Russia, where Ukrainian civilians are held. Lyudmila was freed in a prisoner swap and campaigns for other prisoners, but the memories of that time are still raw. Someone started pinching me, turning me and saying, it's not a peach, of course, not a dried apricot either, a raisin.

37:25Andrew Giuliani:That's how they judged my body.

37:30Andrew Giuliani:Along with the trauma of sexual assault, she also struggles to eat. She was forced to consume and cooked food mixed with soil and garbage. They told me to sit under the camera and eat. I put it in my mouth, I spat it out. But there was some left. The taste of this food will stay with me for the rest of my life.

37:52Andrew Giuliani:The BBC worked with Bohdan Kosuhatko, an investigator who uses open-source investigation known as OSINT to find Lyudmila's alleged abusers. Bohdan found information on the man that Lyudmila thinks arrested her and was present when she was sexually assaulted. His name is Temerbek.

38:11Marine Le Pen:We were able to establish all his phone numbers, including the ones he uses now. He hides his digital footprint the best he can.

38:20Andrew Giuliani:He's married with a daughter and a grandchild. The man who forced Lyudmila to eat garbage is known as Yermak. Lyudmila heard his voice many times, but never saw his face. That time when Yermak came to meet me, I wore a bag on my head and turned to face the wall. My hands were behind my back. He shouted, are you for Ukraine? I said, I'm for justice. After that, he began to beat me. Yermak is from the Donetsk region. It's not clear whether he's working in isolation today, but still lives in the area. The photos of him and his family show him apparently enjoying life. Anna Sasonska leads the general prosecutor's team working on conflict-related sexual violence.

39:07Andrew Giuliani:Our youngest victim, when she was subjected to sexual violence by the Russian military, was four years old. The oldest was an 82-year-old woman. There is a very small difference in numbers between male survivors and female survivors. This shows us, in fact, sexual violence is a weapon of war, and as I keep saying, the cheapest, most effective and efficient way.

39:35Andrew Giuliani:In response to the BBC's allegations, the Russian embassy in the UK said that Russia has consistently advocated respect for the rule of law, and allegations of war crimes being committed are investigated by the Russian authorities. Even though Lidmila is free, she cannot forget what is still going on. I was lucky that the exchange actually happened, but my knowledge of how many girls remain stops me from enjoying freedom and being at peace now. She hopes that her perpetrators will feel the full force of the law one day. For me, justice is not revenge. For me, justice is the decree that these people intentionally, deliberately did what they did.

40:23Andrew Giuliani:I want them to be punished by law. If Tamerbek isn't imprisoned, then justice for me will be their names as criminals and torturers will be known to their children. That would also be justice.

40:38Marine Le Pen:And that report from Tanya Khashenko. This is NewsHour from the BBC World Service. Ukraine's intelligence service, the SBU, says that the body of a fugitive Ukrainian woman suspected of carrying out a bomb attack in Monaco has been found near Kiev. Three people, including the wealthy Ukrainian-born businessman Vadim Yomolayev, were wounded in last week's attack. Two men have now been charged with the murder of the woman. I've been finding out more about her from our Eastern Europe correspondent in Kiev, Sarah Rainsford.

41:12Andrew Giuliani:Her name was Anastasia Birozovska and she was 39. And essentially what we know about her is what happened to her, which is that her body has been found buried in a forest outside Kiev with gunshot wounds to the head. Now, we're told cartridges from a gun were buried with her. We've been speaking to the general prosecutor's office here in Kiev and they've told us a few more details. We understand that she had taken a bus back to Ukraine on the 1st of July after she was suspected of carrying out that attack in Monaco. And then two days later, she was picked up from the road in a car by the two key suspects.

41:56Andrew Giuliani:They, it is alleged, then drove her to the forest and that is where she was killed. so the two suspects have been named now and they have been identified by the authorities here one of them i think most strikingly is a serving officer with the military intelligence agency here gur and i think that is a real kind of key detail in all of this although the statements that have been issued so far are trying to underline the fact that he has said he was acting on his own initiative and without informing anyone else in his agency in GUR.

42:32Marine Le Pen:Right. And are there any details from that investigation about what he said about what his motive may have been?

42:41Andrew Giuliani:Absolutely nothing at all about any motive, either for killing Anastasia Berezovska, allegedly, or for why she might have been sent, we assume, to allegedly carry out the attack in Monaco. Now, we know from the investigation that the reason that investigators here found the two suspects is that they identified who Mrs. Berezovska had been in contact with after she crossed the border back into Ukraine. They also noticed transfers of cash and also cryptocurrency to her accounts. And that is what led them to the two men have now been charged, in fact, with her murder. So big, big questions about why on earth all of this happened.

43:29Andrew Giuliani:What we do know is a little bit about the man at the heart of it all, which is the businessman, the multimillionaire from Ukraine originally, who was targeted in Monaco. His name is Vadim Yirmalaev. We know that he made his money, many millions of dollars in eastern Ukraine, primarily in Dnipro, but he actually renounced his Ukrainian citizenship a few years ago. And he now has a Cypriot passport and was living in Monaco. We know that it was him, his mistress, his partner, and his child who were caught up in that bomb attack in Monaco a week ago. And that the woman, his partner, was extremely seriously injured in that attack, but all three of them survived.

44:15Marine Le Pen:And that was Sarah Rainsford, our Eastern Europe correspondent speaking to me from Kiev. A glorious and extremely rare manuscript is due to be auctioned on Wednesday in London. It's a 700-year-old book telling the story of King Arthur and his court, written in Old French and richly illustrated. And up to now, it's only been held in private collections. It's being auctioned by Christie's with an estimated price of getting on for$3 million. Christie's director of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts is Eugenio Donadoni. And when he came into the NewsHour studio, after I'd berated him for failing to bring the book with him, I'm joking, I asked him to give me the sales pitch.

44:54Marine Le Pen:Why is it so special? It's a fantastic manuscript, 13th century manuscript,

44:59Andrew Giuliani:of some of the greatest stories ever told, one of the greatest medieval romances, you know, the Lancelot's Grail cycle. So, you know, you have the stories of Joseph of Arimathea and his companions, his son Josephus, and Nassian and Selidouane as they take the Holy Grail to Britain. And then you have the story of Merlin,

45:20Marine Le Pen:who's a druid and mage and wizard and shapeshifter, born of the devil. Born of the devil and this extraordinary, as you say, shapeshifter, and illustrated as such. Illustrated as such throughout. So, I mean, there are over 126, 127 miniatures,

45:38Andrew Giuliani:illustrated letters throughout the manuscript, and they all illustrate the various stories in these tales.

45:44Marine Le Pen:And yes, Merlin is depicted as a shapeshifter. He turns into a hermit. He turns into a black knight. He turns into a stag. And that's the picture that we've got in front of us right now, this leaping stag going through this arched doorway, but with people looking on in shock and surprise, one of them brandishing a knife rather alarmingly. Well, they're all at dinner. I think they're rather upset that he's knocking over all the plates and dishes.

46:12Andrew Giuliani:You see the chalice falling off the table. This is Merlin when he's in Rome. He's in the forests around Rome. And the story is that Julius Caesar, so a little bit anachronistic here with the story of Merlin, but let's not worry about that. Julius Caesar has had a dream, and that's a large part of these stories, also his dream interpretation. But he's had a wacky dream about a sow with a gold crown on her head,

46:36Marine Le Pen:suckling 12 wolf cubs. He doesn't know what it means. And Merlin happens to be in town. He transforms into a stag, goes bounding through the streets of Rome, bursts into the imperial palace. And that's the image we see here.

46:49Andrew Giuliani:He's bursting into the imperial palace, knocking over cups and saucers and so on. And he proclaims in a loud voice that the only person who can interpret Caesar's dream is the mythical wild man, who incidentally also happens to be Merlin. Merlin transforms then into the mythical wild man and uh interprets caesar's dream and the interpretation is that the the sow is rather rudely caesar's uh wife and uh the 12 wolf cubs that it was suckling were the 12 attendants who caesar thought were were lady attendants but are in fact lusty depilated young men so there's an accusation of lechery there gosh what a what a remarkable story and

47:31Marine Le Pen:And that's just one of presumably very, very many stories in this thick, green, leather-bound book, is it? It's velvet. Velvet. Yes, velvet over oak boards.

47:43Andrew Giuliani:And it's a very remarkable binding, as you've pointed out. And it's made for Henri de Clermont-Tonnerre, after which the manuscript takes its name. He had all his books and manuscripts bound like this in velvet with these wonderful corner pieces, these brass corner pieces that you see on the corners. One of the beautiful things about having an illuminated book like this is that often it's kept shut on a shelf. So it's not exposed to the elements, to direct sunlight, to humidity, all the things that make paintings fade with age. So all the images in this manuscript, all the colours are as vibrant and the gold is as rich and burnished as it would have been for the original owner.

48:22Marine Le Pen:And that was Eugenio Donadoni, Christy's director of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts. That's it from this edition of NewsHour. From me, Tim Franks, and the team here in London, thank you very much for listening.

48:44Andrew Giuliani:When you hear the phrase made in China, what do you think? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Asma Khalid. And together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And today on our show, we look at the origins and evolution of made in China, because it actually wasn't inevitable. What we're talking about is the world's largest communist nation is at the beating heart of the capitalist system. For more, listen to The Global Story on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.