:00:23. > :00:27.From here in the BBC Newsroom we send out correspondents to bring
:00:28. > :00:34.you the best stories from across the UK -
:00:35. > :00:46.France strikes back against IS. This all started just days after the
:00:47. > :00:57.attacks on Paris and that is what makes this mission is all personal
:00:58. > :01:01.for the crew. Japan and the whale, as Tokyo defies a ban on whaling, we
:01:02. > :01:11.find out whether the Japanese love of whale meat is really justifiable.
:01:12. > :01:20.Initially it feels like you are eating steak. Much stronger flavour.
:01:21. > :01:26.A new dawn for the South African education system. And we ask whether
:01:27. > :01:38.starting early as the key to the country's success. When the Paris
:01:39. > :01:43.attacks took place, France's only aircraft carrier was on a training
:01:44. > :01:48.mission at home. Now it is on patrol in the Persian Gulf at the heart of
:01:49. > :01:53.the bombing campaign against IS targets, as France steps up its
:01:54. > :01:58.response. The carrier's involvement has trebled France's firepower and
:01:59. > :02:02.the commander of the French air campaign has told the BBC he thinks
:02:03. > :02:07.IS is on the defensive and no longer able to win battles. We were given
:02:08. > :02:10.access behind the scenes of the Charles de Gaulle on its mission in
:02:11. > :02:15.the Gulf. We flew to the Charles de Gaulle by
:02:16. > :02:22.US Navy helicopter. America is relying on its closest ally in the
:02:23. > :02:32.Gulf. Not Britain but France. From this carrier, French warplanes have
:02:33. > :02:36.been targeting so-called Islamic state, aka Daesh. This is the
:02:37. > :02:45.choreography and cacophony before every sortie. Jets loaded with
:02:46. > :02:50.weapons. Followed by the return, often with the lighter load. These
:02:51. > :02:54.French jets have been launching wave after wave of air strikes on Islamic
:02:55. > :02:59.state targets for the past three months. This all started just days
:03:00. > :03:03.after the attacks on Paris. That is what makes this mission is all
:03:04. > :03:08.personal for the crew on the Charles de Gaulle. Everyone of us knew
:03:09. > :03:19.someone directly touched by the attacks in Paris. It is the first
:03:20. > :03:24.time it had such a big impact. The links to the capital were already
:03:25. > :03:28.close. The decks below named after Paris streets. Now the Thais have
:03:29. > :03:34.become stronger with schoolchildren sending in pictures and letters to
:03:35. > :03:37.inspire the crew. France has twice as many jets flying bombing missions
:03:38. > :03:42.as Britain. Though we weren't allowed to interview the pilots we
:03:43. > :03:47.were given this view from their cockpit, imagery French ear strikes.
:03:48. > :03:52.The word revenge is never mentioned but the French commander is willing
:03:53. > :03:57.to make a bold claim. Daesh is on the defensive posture. This
:03:58. > :04:03.organisation is now more able to win battles, to gain the territory, so
:04:04. > :04:10.that is a clear effect of the coalition. What happened in Paris
:04:11. > :04:14.may have given the crew the belief they cause is just, and a strong
:04:15. > :04:26.desire for a victory, but in reality, this war is far from over.
:04:27. > :04:31.Hunting whales is irrelevant to feeding the Japanese population,
:04:32. > :04:37.draws global condemnation and is certainly not economic, so quite as
:04:38. > :04:40.Japan still do it? The country's whaling fleet began catching Menke
:04:41. > :04:48.whales in the Antarctic this week despite a ban. Tokyo said the fleet
:04:49. > :04:52.back saying whaling is an integral part of Japanese culture that has
:04:53. > :04:56.been carried out for centuries, but as we have been finding out it may
:04:57. > :04:58.not be as much a part of the Japanese way of life as we have been
:04:59. > :05:09.led to believe. There is no else like the Tokyo fish
:05:10. > :05:15.market, by far the biggest in the world. That is because Japan is
:05:16. > :05:19.still the world's biggest consumer of seafood. The variety is
:05:20. > :05:25.extraordinary. But I have come to find whale meat and this is my
:05:26. > :05:35.guide. Today there's very little sale. This is IS we'll meet and this
:05:36. > :05:46.is from endangered fin whale. -- Minki whale meat. The owner tells me
:05:47. > :05:49.he sells at all to restaurants. The factors Japanese people do not eat
:05:50. > :05:56.whale meat any more. It has been falling for years. It gets at most
:05:57. > :06:00.four dozen tonnes of whale meat a year, but even as the number of
:06:01. > :06:05.whales caught goes down, the price doesn't go up. The Japanese
:06:06. > :06:10.government says whale hunting has been part of Japanese culture for
:06:11. > :06:13.centuries but the truth is Japan only begun large-scale hunting in
:06:14. > :06:16.the Antarctic after the Second World War when this country was hungry and
:06:17. > :06:23.they desperately needed animal protein. As soon as Japan became
:06:24. > :06:26.rich in the 1970s and 80s people lost their appetite, and today only
:06:27. > :06:33.a tiny percentage of people continue to eat it.
:06:34. > :06:44.This is all raw. People like my old friend, he grew up in western Japan
:06:45. > :06:53.and as a child he loved eating this, but he'd never tasted beef or pork.
:06:54. > :07:00.In my childhood. Every day. Meat means whale meat. It is with some
:07:01. > :07:12.trepidation that I take my first mouthful of whale steak. Initially,
:07:13. > :07:17.it feels like you are eating steak, but much stronger flavour and very
:07:18. > :07:24.gamy. It is certainly not what I'd call delicious and even he agrees.
:07:25. > :07:28.The last time he ate whale meat was almost five years ago. I don't need
:07:29. > :07:36.to catch whales any more because there is no custom to eat the whales
:07:37. > :07:46.in Japan, the beef is much better taste. And yet Japan is back in the
:07:47. > :07:51.Antarctic hunting whales again. This annual hunt costs Japanese taxpayers
:07:52. > :07:52.tens of millions of dollars, but it has nothing to do with Japanese
:07:53. > :08:04.culture. If you have limited resources which
:08:05. > :08:13.level of education should you invest in? It is a question countries are
:08:14. > :08:17.grappling with around the globe. In poorer countries preschool education
:08:18. > :08:22.often get left behind but some countries like South Africa and
:08:23. > :08:26.investing more in nursery schools. We report now from Johannesburg were
:08:27. > :08:33.starting early is now being seen as the key to success.
:08:34. > :08:39.The DA begins with player and the national anthem. Teaching
:08:40. > :08:45.preschoolers to be patriotically vote is important that this school.
:08:46. > :08:50.Social values are the basis on which this was built in 1963. Across town
:08:51. > :08:59.lies the privately owned Buttercup preschool. It caters mainly for the
:09:00. > :09:06.children of a new middle class. They produce their creative work which is
:09:07. > :09:08.the cutting and pasting skills and they are experimenting with colour
:09:09. > :09:16.and shape and form an different textures. At $3000 per year, fees at
:09:17. > :09:24.the Buttercup preschool are ten times higher than those in Soweto
:09:25. > :09:28.but the curriculum is quite similar, but this is funded by government
:09:29. > :09:37.subsidies and borders. Unemployment in the area is highly. They give us
:09:38. > :09:43.ten children who are paying nothing, just take your child the street.
:09:44. > :09:47.South Africa's National education system has been described as a
:09:48. > :09:50.national catastrophe and even the minister in charge concurs. In
:09:51. > :09:54.trying to develop the problem aim of the money has been directed to a
:09:55. > :09:58.high school education but now there is a recognition that perhaps the
:09:59. > :10:02.best place to start is at the school. Education makes up a
:10:03. > :10:06.sizeable portion of government spending, nearly per 10% in total.
:10:07. > :10:13.What they are doing at the moment is to focus on the quality. We want all
:10:14. > :10:21.our centres to teach the same thing and eventually we want to produce
:10:22. > :10:28.30,000. The government's solution is to create a skilled workforce so
:10:29. > :10:31.that -- because investors said they training of productivity are the
:10:32. > :10:35.biggest weaknesses in the South African economy. So as the Lord's
:10:36. > :10:38.play they are not aware of the challenges ahead of them and trust
:10:39. > :10:46.innocently that their future is guaranteed. And that's all from
:10:47. > :10:50.reporters for this week, from me, goodbye for now.