the mistake mr fillon made was to fight on the legal ground. that they are weak, so who is really francois fillon? despite the backing of his party, some of mr fillon's collea g u es of his party, some of mr fillon's colleagues are questioning his position. but replacing him three months before polling day would be a gamble as well. mr fillon won his nomination through an open primary contest nomination through an open primary co ntest a nd nomination through an open primary contest and the runner—up, alain jupper contest and the runner—up, alain juppe, has so far said he would step in. a week ago francois fillon was a man tipped for president. now a politician no longer fighting for election, but survival. the path to france's top job is already littered with casualties. he may be next. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. more than 100 works by black and asian artists from the 1980s onwards are to go on display in nottingham as part of a new exhibition highlighting their contribution to british art. one artist featured is sonia boyce, whose work

mr fillon's popularity has plummeted since allegations his british wife, penelope fillon, was paid mores as his assistant for work she may never have done. and jobs done by his two children are also being investigated. he said he made a mistake, but also said his wife's salary was justified. but in 2007, penelope fillon gave an interview to a british newspaper, the daily telegraph, in which she said: and on monday, mr fillon was asked about that interview. translation: when she made that statement it was picked up by a programme which knowingly took bits of a sentence out of context. it was in english, it was for an english audience and the focus of the interview was actually i will not be sharee blair. the journalist who did the interview actually got in touch with my wife to say how shocked she was at the use of those bits. the journalist who did the interview, though, tweeted this: polls are now showing mr fillon is lagging behind his opponents, independent centrist emmanuelle macron, a former investment banker and the national front leader, marine le pen. and with the election 11 we

mr fillon insists he did nothing illegal, and that his campaign will continue.o a blackmail attempt by hackers threatening to leak his personal e—mails. a spokesman for david beckham says the e—mails were tampered with, and are deliberately inaccurate. time now for reporters.

mr fillon needs to fight back hard if he's going to get that second place.retary of state, rex tillerson, has said america will work with russia, so long as moscow keeps its promise to try to defuse the conflict in ukraine. mr tillerson, who's president trump's most senior diplomat on the international stage, was speaking after a g20 meeting in germany with the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov. well with me now isjeremy shapiro, director of research, european council on foreign relations. in terms of that brief comment we heard from rex tillerson, that specific comment about ukraine is presumably what other members in the t20 really needed to hear. they need some reassurance. t20 really needed to hear. they need some reassurance . yes, t20 really needed to hear. they need some reassurance. yes, this is part of the reassuring store. i think rex tillerson probably doesn't really know what the policy towards russia is, since nobody seems to know it. he's been repeating what the policy has been trying to tell the allies what they want to hear. he's hoping

mr fillon insists his wife and children did the work he paid them for.ntegrity, this no time where words like integrity, this - no meaning for our this has no meaning for our politicians. - all the scandals politicians. with all the scandals between fillon and everyone else, people are more and more losing interest in politics. with three knots to the election, his main interest in politics. with three knots emmanuelon, his and| interest in politics. with three knots emmanuelon, his and marine 777 clear**::' " "”"” 44 “7 clear winners. ”if" w mg?" was 77" 7777" 7 w‘s“ was 7" thew" ’ era?f to polls. quantities of cannabis. the plant itself for medical use. our italy correspondent james reynolds has been fig g 413g approved drug fel’%§: on ""' ' " " ‘5'12‘ on his ' ' ~ ~ he has orders to roduce laboratory, he has orders to produce 100 kilograms of cannabis every year. one of his soldiers even has the title, must grow. a do a double take. glizgz £5; if: 3:53:45 24? e, 511,151 155 1:5 115111115 14? :5, some plants don't eel“; iix‘i iirri c if torsome ma'or il

mr. fillon's news conference this morning. >> live now to the campaign headquarters of francois fillon who will be addressing the french people amid allegations funds. ed francois: ladies and gentlemen, i am speaking to you and all french citizens because a legit mate sentiment has pushed me to do so. i understand the questions i will be asked. i understand the need for clarification and i will do so. i will do so because i have nothing to hide. i will do so because i cannot accept the accusations, the baseless accusations that have been targeted at me after 32 years of political life. 32 years without any judicial problem. 32 years of irreproachable, ethical behavior. i would like to tell all my

mr fillon was asked about that interview today. here's what he said.y a programme which knowingly took bits ofa programme which knowingly took bits of a sentence out of context. it was in english and for an english audience, and the focus of the interview was that i would not be tony blair. the journalist got in touch with my wife to tell her how shocked she was at the use of those bits of that interview. the journalist who did the interview, though, tweeted this: @kimwillsher1 "no, mr fillon! envoye special did not take the statements out of context. it didn't shock me." naomi grimley in paris told me more about today's statement. it was very combat if and only a partial apology, to say that maybe in the modern age or did not look right to employ your family members. but as you said, he absolutely stuck to his guns, that the money that his wife penelope has earned over a period of about 13 years is still hers, and that she justified that salary, and she did things like sort out his diary, his visits, and open his mail. so, he really contests the key b

mr fillon denies claims that his wife and two of his children were paid for non—existent parliamentaryreview. the telegraph leads with the decision by a federal appeals court in the united states to refuse to reinstate president trump's ban on travellers from seven mainly muslim countries and all refugees entering the us. the ft looks at proposals by german chancellor angela merkel to speed up the removal of failed asylum seekers, with other reports indicating that attitudes to migrants are hardening throughout europe as a whole. the telegraph business pages report that according to a group of large banks paris has no chance in capturing business from london post—brexit without radically overhauling france's strict labour laws. also in the ft, twitter has posted the slowest revenue growth since it went public four years ago, sending shares down more than io%. the fall comes in spite of the election of prolific tweeter donald trump as us president who failed to produce a "trump bump" in twitter‘s results. the times has carried out its own investigation into how taxpayers and charity don

mr. fillon's news conference this morning. >> live now to the campaign headquarters of francois fillon who will be addressing the french people amid allegations funds. ed francois: ladies and gentlemen, i am speaking to you and all french citizens because a legit mate sentiment has pushed me to do so. i understand the questions i will be asked. i understand the need for clarification and i will do so. i will do so because i have nothing to hide. i will do so because i cannot accept the accusations, the baseless accusations that have been targeted at me after 32 years of political life. 32 years without any judicial problem. 32 years of irreproachable, ethical behavior. i would like to tell all my fellow country men and women that over all these years, i have worked for my country without ever breaking the law and without ever contradicting my values. today, as a candidate for the presidential election, i'm facing an incredibly violent attack. to my knowledge this has never occurred before. this is unprecedented under this republic. and i would like to say strongly that it's for the preside

mr. fillon friend of the other candidates and we have to shatter that in every way. 's this wednesday, fillon campaign continues. this while call returns to the candidates camp, for now. laura: back to our top story, the british parliament has voted in favor of giving promised or theresa may the power to officially begin the process of leaving the european union. this is the second vote in the lower house and the final vote and it will now pass to the scrutiny.ords for it will either pass into law or be passed back down to the house of commons for more debate. some business news, kate moody is with us. we start in the united states. kate: we had a quote from donald trump a few minutes ago saying, how do you know i'm doing in a good? job? you've never seen so much paper on her presidents desk and four. he said is symbolic of all the deals he has been negotiating for the u.s. economy. there are indeed quite a few papers in front of him. this is that he was meeting with the chief executive of intel, a $7 billion investment to revitalize a factory in arizona. it will crea

mr. fillon but that was not the only rolled it she had. expected front runner in the campaign, fillon has said he will resign if he is formally charged. investigators will be talking to his replacement at the national assembly. fillon, payingy her nearly 11,000 euros a month. the polls show the scandal has already hit francoise fillon's campaign. he is no longer the presidential front-runner. it is now former socialist turned independent candidate emmanuel macron who is likely to win the presidency next spring. next to the united states where donald trump has unveiled his pick for the supreme court. conservative neil gorsuch. if confirmed, he will replace antonin scalia a. but as republicans blocked a barack obama's choice for the court, the democrats are gearing up for a fight. >> he wanted the country to be watching. donald trump broke tradition and named his pick for the supreme court not during the day but during the evening prime time. >> i have always felt that after the defense of our nation, the most important decision to president

how confident really are you this evening that this —— mr fillon can make it?et people and then you express yourself. this campaign should not be made byjournalists. and this is why i am confident. i even can tell you, i think the french are fed up by this kind of attacks against fillon. it has been said it was a political assassination, political murder to fillon. so be careful, when it is too much, things can reverse and i think that will do. let's return now to the words of thejohn bercow — speaker of the house of commons — who's said in the last hour he doesn't want president trump to address parliament. john bercow told mps that opposition to racism and sexism were hugely important considerations in the house of commons. i would not wish to issue an invitation to president trump to speak in the royal gallery. and i conclude by saying to the honourable gentleman, this, we value our relationship with united states, if a state visit takes place, that is way beyond and above the pay grade of the speaker. however, as far as this place is concerned, ifeel very s

mr fillon has acknowledged employing both his wife and his children while in office, but has denied any and his lawyers have claimed the french left—wing is behind the claims. meanwhile another french presidential candidate, marine le pen of the national front, has refused to be questioned by police in connection with her alleged misuse of eu funds. the european parliament alleges that more than 300,000 euros of funding was misspent by her party — a claim ms le pen denies. at least 18 people have been killed in a multiple crash in northwestern peru. witnesses say a pick—up truck crashed into a bus and motorcycle near the coastal city of trujillo. many of the casualties were on the bus, which burst into flames. chainsaws were used to free some of the victims from the wreckage. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: counting down to sunday night's 0scars. but will it be the speeches, not the films, that gets everybody talking? theresa may has said winning the copeland by—election was an "astounding victory" for the conservatives. it's the first time a party in government has taken a sea

mr. fillon has denied wrongdoing and says he will stay in the race.thousands of people are gathering in the squares of bucharest and other romanian cities for another night of protests against a governmental decree that would decriminalize some forms of corruption. more than a quarter million people demonstrated on wednesday night. the biggest protests since the fall of communism in 1989. the tokyo court has begun hearings in the case of a man who developed leukemia after working as a welder in japan's damaged fukushima site. the 42-year-old is the first person to be recognized by japanese labor authorities as having an illness linked to the radiation that leaked from the site after it was hit by an earthquake and tsunami. a zimbabwean pastor who fled to the united states after launching of popular protest movement has been charged with subverting a constitutionally elected government. arrested at the airport as he returned to the country on tuesday. he faces up to 20 years in prison. you are watching "bbc world news america." still to come, speaking

mr fillon has acknowledged employing both his wife and his children while in office, but has denied anyr bullets, tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds at an anti—immigrant march in the capital, pretoria. president zuma said the protest was "anti—crime" rather than anti—foreigner. many unemployed south africans blame migrants for taking their jobs. revellers all over brazil are gearing up for parades, balls and street parties on the first of five official days of carnival celebrations. the world famous party in rio de janeiro kicked off on friday afternoon with several street parties expected to draw tens of thousands. julia carneiro met some of the crowds. hundreds of people are taking to the streets of rio for carnival, kicking off with hundreds of street parades like this one to happen in the coming days. we are here at the hilltops of centre to raise awareness of traditional block or street parade happens every year —— sa nta street parade happens every year —— santa theresa. it is named after the order of nuns that have a convent here in the neighbourhood of santa theresa. w

mr fillon has acknowledged employing both his wife and his children by police in connection with theat more than 300,000 euros of funding was misspent by her party. ms le pen denies this. police in south africa have used rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannon to break up crowds at an anti—immigrant march in the capital, pretoria. president zuma said the protest was anti—crime rather than anti—foreigner. many unemployed south africans blame migrants for taking their jobs. the son of brazil's greatest footballer, pele, has handed himself in to complete his sentence for money laundering and drug trafficking. edinho, a former professional goalkeeper for santos football club, had been released while he appealed against a 33—yearjail sentence. he denies the charges. now, ever since the half brother of the north korean leader died in a malaysia airport last year, there have been serious questions. and they're getting even louder now. authorities in kuala lumpur say the substance used to kill him is one of the world's deadliest nerve agents. vx is classified by the un as a weapon of mass

mr fillon insists he did nothing illegal, and that his campaign will continue.r company representing david beckham has told the bbc it was subject to a blackmail attempt by hackers threatening to leak his personal e—mails. a spokesman for david beckham says the e—mails were tampered with, and are deliberately inaccurate. time now for reporters. welcome to reporters, i am phillipa thomas. from here in the world's newsroom we send out correspondents to bring you the best stories from across the globe. in this week's programme. i think god led this country to put donald trump in office. divided america. after week two of donald trump's unique style of diplomacy, further splits in opinion. nick bryant travels to the bible belt of tennessee and finds his supporters fully behind their new president. there are two americas right now and how you react to donald trump determines which one you inhabit. i am 12 years old. 12 years old. the children of la forced into prostitution. angus crawford gets exclusive access to the us police operation to rescue them and meets the g

mr fillon insists he did nothing illegal — and that his campaign will continue.e up to date with the headlines. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, with me, zeinab badawi. the so—called islamic state may be coming under pressure in both syria and iraq, but still, accounts emerge of atrocities carried out by them. the minority yazidi community has been amongst one of the most persecuted groups of people, living mostly in northern iraq. they have been killed, forced to convert to islam, and the women and girls have been held in sexual slavery. my guest is psychologist jan kizilhan, a yazidi kurd living in germany. he's helped bring 1,000 yazidi females from camps in iraq to germany to start a new life. ul... l!l.l.l ll. l!l.l'l!l. l...l. ll:l.. 5l} — — stay and who should go? jan kizilhan, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. what is your main goal, purpose, in rescuing these women and children, bringing them from iraq to germany? they are under pressure, psychological pressure. they have post—traumatic stress disorder because they were for moments in t

a french newspaper says mrs fillon was paid close to a million dollars. the couple deny wrongdoing.igners injapan are warning the government will breach international olympic committee rules, unless it makes tokyo smoke—free by the 2020 summer games. japanese law only requires restaurants and public places to separate smokers from non—smokers. the health ministry says it plans to submit a bill to curb passive smoking. india is concerned that a new us bill designed to limit the number of highly skilled workers entering the us will heavily impact the country's it industry. the bill introduced to the house of representatives proposes doubling the minimum salary of h—ib visa holders. the proposed new legislation mainly targets companies based in the us that bring in foreign employees on the visa quota. and how about this for a unique skill? a chinese artist has turned egg shells into works of art for the year of the rooster. sun kaifu has spent the past six months carving images of cockerels onto the surface of 100 eggshells in the southern city of guangzhou. but sun, who was born in th

mr fillon denies any wrongdoing.threat to pull the us out of international agreements. but patricia espinosa says she is confident that worldwide action to tackle the issue will continue, whatever mr trump does. she is travelling to the us this weekend and hopes to raise her concerns with senior officials. 0ur environment analyst, roger harrabin reports. donald trump will be the next president. much of america celebrated donald trump's election, but it was an environmentalists' nightmare, a president for fossil fuel, saying he would scrap rules on the industry and pull out of the un climate deal. the un's new climate chief was dismayed. i was very surprised. it felt like something was wrong. at the same time very quickly a reaffirmation of this is the more reason why we need to continue. china's massive renewables programme was one sign of the world's determination to carry on tackling climate change. china says it will show leadership if the us does pull out of the un climate deal. but even the us itself has a boom

mr fillon denies any wrongdoing.n egypt have fled sinai after a number of killings by suspected islamist militants. russell crowe reports. an exodus of christian families taking flight from egypt's north sinai province after the so—called islamic state group killed the seventh member of their community in just three weeks. families gathered with their belongings at the evangelical church in the suez canal city of ismaili. church officials say up to three quarters of those living in northern sinai are now fleeing. more than 200 stu d e nts sinai are now fleeing. more than 200 students studying in the province capital have also reportedly left. sectarian incidents are nothing new in egypt. more than 20 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a coptic cathedral in cairo last december. is said they were behind the bombing which killed mostly women and children. their tactics include everything from burning homes and crops to forced displacement. but many residents feel this latest campaign may be different. milita

mr fillon insists he did nothing illegal, and that his campaign will continue.r company representing david beckham has told the bbc it was subject to a blackmail attempt by hackers threatening to leak his personal e—mails. a spokesman for david beckham says the e—mails were tampered with, and are deliberately inaccurate. now on bbc news, it is monday in parliament. hello and welcome to monday in parliament, our look at the day at westminster. the headlines: the speaker of the house of commons has told mps he doesn't want president trump to address the houses of parliament. our opposition to racism and to sexism, and our support for equality before the law, and an independent judiciary, are hugely important considerations in the house of commons. by comparison, slightly more measured tones from the prime minister on the special relationship, as she reports back from an informal eu summit in malta. we should engage patiently and constructively with america, as a friend and ally. an ally which has helped guarantee the longest period of peace which europe has ever k

mr. fillon? >> at the moment, he says he is maintaining his presidential bid. these allegations starting to impact his popularity. today, for the first time, one that theoll shows independent candidate could in the firstlon round of the presidential election. we have to be cautious, as you can see, marine le pen still leading in the first round with 27%. fillon's 23% and andlarity dropping to 20% if we believe the polls, that would mean marcon could beat marine le pen in the runoff of the presidential election. he is the favorite to become the next french president. mark: a very exciting race, if fillon dropped out, what his plan b? >> the first time in the history of french politics, a republican nominee dropping out but a scenario that we now have, we cannot exclude any more, if you look at the front page of le monde, fillon, can he still hang on? at the moment, this is a real question. lawmakers publicly questioning his situation. b's are being discussed, one option would be the runner up in the primaries -- hevember, the mayor said he did not want to step i

mr. fillon, you said on the 28th of august, last year, that there is no point of talking about authority when you have nothing to reproach yourself. today, given the excuses you just have given to the french, do you consider yourself still as somebody who is irreproachable and do you think you have the legitimacy to ask the french to make any efforts? >> translator: yes, i have complied with the law. i was elected for the first time to parliament in 1981. i perhaps took more time than necessary to understand the changes that have occurred in french society. and yet i have not broken the law at any time. i have nothing to reproach myself in terms of complying with the law. yes, i consider myself today to be able to implement a project including a project which requires at its base on the authority of the president of the republic and the -- do i have the legitimacy to ask the french to make an effort? i'm not asking the french to make an effort. i'm asking there should be work for all french people that the french people should have more purchasing power. i want them to increase their sec

mr. fillon and madam le pen.'s look at broader markets. >> a plus for pronunciation of the french politicians. oil is rising sharply. wti up about 1.5%. so is brent. brent below $57 a barrel. wti above 54. maybe we'll see relief for the energy shares after they got slammed yesterday. the dollar index, after the federal reserve was out with minutes from the last fed meeting, they're thinking of raising interest rates gradually and soon, though that didn't increase the march rate hike, but increased the probability of a may hike. political risk out of france has weighed on the euro lately. dollar is down to 113.16 against the yen. a lot of that is the yield story. we have yet to see yields rise in a meaningful way in the last few sessions. that's leading the dollar to languish here a bit. the pound a bit firmer here, 1.247. let's show you what's happening with gold, dollar sold off yesterday, helpful for gold, up $5.20 an ounce. >>> moving on to the agenda weekly jobless claims out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. claims have

financial prosecutor has announced that an investigation into fake work allegations surrounding mr fillony claims, which he denies, that his wife and two of his children were paid for non—existent parliamentary work. we can get more on this story from our paris correspondent, hugh schofield. something of a disaster as campaign for francois fillon. it could be worse as a definitive decision has not been issued, which he fears, that says he has to go to court or be put under official investigation. then he would have to step down. but it hasn't done what he was hoping for witches to review the evidence and say there is not enough. they have just said they will look further so it drags out the agony for him and his campaign. it is more likely they will decide there is something they are, probably, because they have effectively said they have to keep looking. it does not look good so the pressure will grow and out in the constituencies the grumblings will grow with all of his agents around the country saying it is hard to campaign for him because people do not want to listen to anything about

enough already before us to recommend that he be placed under formal investigation, at which point mr fillon and from the constituencies are coming reports from his agents out in the field, saying it's absolutely terrible for us out here, no—one wants to hear about your proposals, they just want to hear about whether you're an honest man or not. what it means is that francois fillon, the centre—right candidate, has slumped in polls. he's now in third place in the polls, which is all significant, because remember in the french system it is number one and two in the first round who go through to the play off, the second round, and right now, those two people will be marine le pen for the front national, and this newcomer, the young emmanuel macron, the centrist who is number two. francois fillon needs to fight back hard, if he's going to get that second place. the leader of the uk's biggest union has called on the government to intervene in a possible takeover of car manufacturer vauxhall, in order to safeguard british jobs. unite's len mccluskey has been meeting the business secretary, greg c

at a news conference in paris mr fillon apologised to the voters, for what he said was an error of judgmently worked for 15 years as a parliamentary assistant. and he announced the relaunch of his campaign. let's take a look at the candidates for this unpredictable race starting with monsieur fillon, the centre—right candidate. he's a social conservative, traditional on issues like abortion, and he wants closer relations with russia. but those claims about alleged mispayments have threatened to derail his campaign, leaving the race wide open. his socialist rival, benoit hamon is known as the ‘french bernie sanders' on account of his left—wing views. among his key policies: a basic state income paid to every french adult. he wants to make it harder for businesses to fire staff too. ahead in recent polls is marine le pen, the leader of the far—right front national. she's the daughter of the former leaderjean marie le pen, and has tried to soften the party's image. she says she wants to bring back the french franc, place more controls on immigration, and wants a brexit—style referendum on eu m

put him in second place behind marine le pen, and ahead of the centre right candidate francois fillon. mrago, thanked the crowd in lyon, which he claimed numbered more than 10,000. his message focussed on the need for equality of opportunity. our correspondentjonny dymond is in paris and he described what makes emanuel macron an interesting presidential candidate for the electorate. i think it is what he is not promising as much as what he is promising as much as what he is promising that makes an interesting. it had the guy and being too unfair at the moment, these are early days in his campaign. he is an independent and not from the socialist party or the republican party or the national front and that's probably why there is not a buzz around him and a good buzz there is, hugely enthusiastic crowds at this meeting in lyon. 8000 side the wall and 8000 in the overspill every. there has been criticism that the speeches are high on philosophy and low on policy detail. —— overspill area. it has followed the pattern, he has tried to work through some of the big themes dash the lipstick —— li

mr le pen was even more right wing. and one thing that was really working for her was that fillon, who was the republican candidate who everyone saviour who would get us out of getting le pen elected, he had a scandal involving payment to his wife and two children as his staffers, and overpaying them. so with fillon gagged, she is ina them. so with fillon gagged, she is in a better position. but macron, who is an independent who came out and one would usually say it is very bad if you are independent and have never run a campaign but you know what? in these days that may be an advantage. so what is going on with china, what is the ft‘s take? advantage. so what is going on with china, what is the ft's take? this isa china, what is the ft's take? this is a report from baker mckenzie talking about foreign investment from china from the rest of the world, and there are two ways of looking at this. a huge amount of money invested once again in 2016 but the financial times looks at the huge amount which was blocked, which wasn't invested, which was intended for investment it wasn't. and part of it was blocked because the chinese sai

mr trump last month. however, the mexican president's overall popularity has sunk to a four—year low, according to the same poll. it's been a tough old week for french presidential candidate francois fillonidate is facing further allegations about payments to his wife, penelope. 0ne newspaper alleges her husband paid her nearly $48,000 of taxpayers' money in redundancy payments — not once but twice. mr fillon‘s dismissed the reports as lies. following the dramatic events in the senate on tuesday, during which the vice president had to step in to vote on betsy devos as education secretary, donald trump has taken to twitter again to voice his frustration the president said, "it is a disgrace that my full cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country. 0bstruction by democrats!" so how hard is it going to be for the new administration to get things done? bbc newsnight‘s diplomatic editor, mark urban, has been taking a look. you can come here, promising to drain the swamp or dethrone the establishment, but this city has a way of protecting its interests, slowing down those who challenge its ways. so the trump administration's process of nominating a cabin