25/03/2017 Reporters


25/03/2017

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More from me at 5pm, right packet is time for reporters.

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From here in the world's news room, we send our correspondents to bring

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you the best stories from across the world.

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Richard Conway reports on Syria's World Cup dreams,

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and asks whether soccer can help to unite a country at war.

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Football coming back to Syria provides the people with a chance

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The plight of the people of western Mosul.

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Orla Guerin reports from the camps in Iraq, struggling to feed up

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to 500,000 survivors of the so-called Islamic State.

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They say they have no running water, no electricity, no access

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to medical supplies, and people in the queue are really

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afraid that the food is going to run out before they have been able

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Returning to Crimea, after three years.

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Steve Rosenberg finds out how people feel about Russian

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Moscow insists that most of the people who live

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And from the greatest show on earth - to a ghost town.

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Six months after the Rio Olympics, the organisers tell Wyre Davies

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I feel that Olympic Games in Brazil was not so successful,

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because legacy was not the number one.

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You might not think football was Syria's biggest priority

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at the moment, but you would be surprised to hear the country

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still has a national football team, and it's competing for a place

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With the country at war, they can't play on home soil,

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but the national team is still giving many Syrians

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They played their first qualifying match against Uzbekistan

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on Thursday, and Richard Conway joined them as they trained

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They are the nomads of world football.

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But Syria's players are making friends on their travels.

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With their country at war, they must play home games on neutral ground.

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Here in Malaysia, the players are preparing for the most important

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fixture in their history, while back in Syria,

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there is renewed fighting in the capital Damascus.

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TRANSLATION: The condition of the people at home is quite

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difficult and there is additional pressure over there,

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We try to forget all those things and focus on the match

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and training at two hours a day, and with a happy mind-set

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as well as winning, the match and making the people at home proud.

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Football is still being played in Syria, but six years of conflict

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has thrown the domestic game into crisis.

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The performances of the national team have already given

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President Assad's regime a propaganda opportunity.

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But facilities are crumbling, very few countries want to play

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them in friendly games, and their best players have

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Syria's coaching staff have the toughest jobs in world football.

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Six years work in Syria, six years we're training in our field,

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on not so good field, not in good condition,

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we can not make any friendly game inside Syria or outside Syria.

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Give us more, trust with us to make good result in future,

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because everybody wants to make something for Syria.

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It is hard work, hard job, hard situation for us.

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Syria's President Bashir al-Assad wants the perception

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to be his country is returning to normal and sport

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helps with that aim, but regardless of his intentions,

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it's clear that sport, that football coming back to Syria

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provides the people with a chance to forget about their worries.

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That need is all the more acute after this week's surprise attack

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by rebels in Damascus, and the Government's

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I met the most senior figure in Syrian sport and asked,

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given evidence of war crimes by the regime, if his country should

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TRANSLATION: When terrorism and Jihadis came to Syria,

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it became our duty to defend our schools and hospitals.

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If a thief arrives at your house, will you let him steal it

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or will you defend your house and your family?

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For the first time in six years, Syria's women are preparing

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to play competitively at international level.

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They begin their own World Cup qualifying campaign

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We have the power to participate and we have the hope

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With all the support we have and the coaches

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who are helping a lot, we will achieve this.

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But the war has destroyed football careers.

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This man was a promising young player in Syria,

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but fled the violence with his family in 2012.

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Now living in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan,

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he works as part of a scheme that provides football coaching

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He, however, has not given up on his own football dream.

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TRANSLATION: Of course I still have dreams and ambitions

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To be famous and play with one of the big clubs.

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I also met one player who has proven what is possible.

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Mohammed fled Syria after his brother was killed by a mortar.

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Leaving behind his career with Syrian Premier League club Al-Majd.

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He has just signed a contract with a Jordanian Second Division team.

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TRANSLATION: Yes, it is a success story.

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It was a dream to play with the club.

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I was playing for a club back in Syria, and it became a dream

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When I first came here, I suffered a lot.

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I had many problems with my documents and my passport.

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But every time I face a problem, I am more

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And this is the beginning of the road.

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Back in Malaysia, those fortunate enough to be pursuing World Cup

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hopes are focussing on the biggest game of their careers.

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But this Syrian team also had a unique perspective on why

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sport matters so much - and so little.

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Richard Conway, BBC News, Malacca, Malaysia.

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One month into the renews offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul

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from the so-called Islamic State, there is new evidence

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Thousands have fled the fighting in the western half of the country's

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second city in recent weeks, but 500,000 people are struggling

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Orla Guerin sent us this report from the edge of Al-Mansur

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In the clamour for help, many go empty-handed.

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The gunfire from Iraqi soldiers trying to control the crowd

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Survivors of the Caliphate now at risk from hunger.

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Troops not keen for the chaos to be caught on camera.

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In the distance, smoke from an IS car bomb.

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But those who flee the fighting here end up in overcrowded camps.

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There are no good options for the people of western Mosul.

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Well, you can see here the utter desperation in this area.

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Local people here tell us this is the first aid supplies

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They say they have no running water, no electricity, no access

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to medical supplies, and people in the queue are really

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afraid that the food is going to run out before they have been able

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Barely able to walk, but with many mouths to feed,

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Hamda Mohammed, whose family is living on bread and water.

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"I am crying", she say, "because my children don't

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This woman has suffered a double loss.

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"IS killed two of my sons", she says.

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As the troops keep watch, there is tension in the crowd.

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With the frustration building, this man compares the security

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"What's difference between the IS police and these guys?", he asks.

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"The IS police beat us and they beat us, just for asking for food."

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"Is this the liberation they have brought us?"

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Nearby, some are returning to this battle scarred neighbourhood.

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His home was occupied by IS for three months.

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He says they threatened to hang his wife because she

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IS knocked through the wall, he tells us, so they could move

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Their reign of terror has destroyed the fabric of his neighbourhood.

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"We can never live again with those who collaborated with IS", he says.

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"If I catch the man who informed on my wife,

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The battle for Mosul may now be in its final phase.

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This ancient city emerging from modern day barbarity.

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When the Caliphate crumbles, there will be much to rebuild,

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Orla Guerin, BBC News, western Mosul.

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It was a move that sparked sanctions from the west and a revival

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Three years ago, Russia sent special forces into Crimea

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The take over was followed by a separatist conflict in eastern

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Ukraine that has claimed tens of thousands of lives in nearly

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Steve Rosenberg has been back to the region to find out how people

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are coping with life under Russian rule.

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Blessed by nature, beset with contention.

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It's three years since Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine.

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Pushing east and west into a new Cold War.

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Today, Moscow is cementing its presence.

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With a bridge that will bind Crimea to the Russian mainland.

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With its military, too, Russia's moved its most

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powerful weapons here, and where ever you go

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in Crimea you'e left in no doubt who's in charge.

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She chides western leaders who disagree.

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We don't understand them because we are already for three

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We changed our rules, our documents, everything

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I even have the T-shirt, T-shirt with Putin, and the words

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are "In Putin we trust", like "In God we trust".

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Moscow admits its take over of Crimea was a military operation.

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Days later, after a referendum, not recognised initially,

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Svetlana had opposed the annexation, but three years on, her perspective

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They were expecting us, they were happy to have us back,

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Ukraine are not, they really hate us, they think everyone

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Even if you were ever pro-Ukrainian or you are now pro-Ukrainian,

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you are still a traitor because you didn't leave.

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The White House says it expects Moscow to return Crimea.

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It's almost inconceivable that Vladimir Putin would perform

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a U-turn on Crimea and hand this peninsula back to Ukraine.

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For one thing, the Kremlin doesn't do U-turns, and reclaiming

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this land for Russia, well, President Putin will regard

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that as part of his legacy, and Moscow insists that most

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of the people who live here are happy to be in Russia.

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Since annexation, the Crimean Tartar community has come under pressure.

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Its governing body, which had opposed the 2014

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Human rights groups accuse Moscow of creating a climate of repression.

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This man is desperate for information about his son, Edvin.

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A Tartar activist, Edvin was abducted ten months ago.

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CCTV cameras caught the moment he was seized by men in uniform.

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Not knowing where his son is is driving him to despair.

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His heart, he told me, isn't made of steel.

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And yet this Crimean spring feels calmer than three years ago.

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Most people here don't think about sovereignty or sanctions,

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They can't predict the future, so navigating

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Can Marine Le Pen do what her father failed to do and win France's 2017

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Her party, the Front National has long had significant support

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and could now win the most votes in the first round of the election.

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It struggled in the past due to its reputation for extremism.

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Its attitudes to issues like immigration, homosexuality

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As Lucy Williamson has been finding out, Marine Le Pen has been credited

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with detoxifying the image which her father had

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A year ago, Boris and his husband Eric left the urban rat race

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With an orchard, a vegetable garden and pet chickens.

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Named after President Holland's girlfriends.

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Boris describes himself as an orphan of the Socialist Party,

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pushed away by what he sees as the left's cosying

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Now he says he feels most at home with the leader

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of the Front National, Marine Le Pen.

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If it were her father in charge, it would be no,

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Back then there were skinheads, thugs and fascists in the party.

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With Marine it's not like that at all.

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There's an elegance, a bit of restraint.

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Marine Le Pen has tried to rid her party of the racist,

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homophobic image it had under her father, Jean-Marie.

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Several of her closest advisers are now openly gay,

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and she expelled her father after he described the Holocaust as

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Where Jews and gay men were once seen as outsiders,

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the party's target now is immigration and radical Islam.

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Marine Le Pen is presenting herself as the defender of minorities,

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against what she says is a growing threat from political Islam.

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Gay voters, jews and women all have something to fear, she says,

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and the Front National is the party to protect them.

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Analysts say the party is now being pulled in two directions.

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They have said there is a red line we shall never cross any more.

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It's anti-Semitism, and there Marine Le Pen

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is definitely different from her father.

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But if she goes too far, on that line of de-demonisation,

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she will lose the voters for whom it was a party that,

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that knocked on the tables strong, that wanted to shake the political

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system, and her father put it very well.

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FN traditionalists these days look not to Marine,

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but to her 27-year-old niece, Marion, a star of the party's

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conservative wing, whose members often say they preferred things

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the way they were, under Jean-Marie Le Pen.

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TRANSLATION: I think that Marion is more like her

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France really needs strict leadership.

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It's not OK to say "Let's carry on as we are."

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And Marion is better able to do that.

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Marion has much tougher views than her aunt on issues like gay

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marriage and abortion, and she's made it clear

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she is a fan of Donald Trump's immigration policies too.

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TRANSLATION: The famous Muslim ban, as Donald Trump's

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It's not in our programme right now, but if it turns out there's

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a particularly high threat coming from a country that is identified

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with or infiltrated by radical Islam, yes, we could temporarily ban

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Some say Marine and Marion are a useful double act that allows

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the party to keep all its members on side, but the glue

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may only be as strong as the party's electoral score.

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Power is attractive, even to those who see popularity

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At the time it was billed as the greatest show on earth,

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but several athletes and officials involved with last year's Olympic

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and Paralympic Games in Rio have told the BBC they are angry

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and frustrated by the failure to provide any meaningful

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It is six months since the 2016 Games came to an end,

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and while Brazilian officials insist there were tangible benefits

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for Rio, others feel the games were plagued by broken promises

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and lost opportunities, as Wyre Davies has been fining out.

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For five weeks last summer, Rio de Janeiro was the centre

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Host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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Exactly six months later, the stage is empty.

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Rio's Olympic Park, which should by now be operating as a sporting

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centre of excellence, is eerily quiet.

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Arenas where medals were won and lost are little

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Venues that should have been dismantled, some to be rebuilt

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If there is a legacy here, it's not the one that those

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who campaigned for Rio to win the games had expected.

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I feel that Olympic Games in Brazil was not so successful

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because the legacy was not the number one.

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We delivered good games, we had a lot of problems and we keep

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with them and nobody's doing anything for changing,

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This is the Olympic tennis arena, where Andy Murray won his second

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For now, this is being run, like many other venues

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in the Olympic Park, by the Brazilian Sports Ministry,

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because no private company, nor the local authority,

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can afford or want to take on the huge running costs.

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Team Brazil missed its own medal targets at Rio 2016.

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Archer Ane Marcelle came a creditable ninth place,

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but has since lost her funding and her coach.

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Improving on Rio and even making the Tokyo Games will be tough.

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TRANSLATION: A month after the games they cut everything.

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My health insurance, my salary, everything.

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We made history in archery but it's all over.

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It made me think my sacrifice wasn't worth it.

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Such was Rio's desperation to get things ready on time,

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legacy was the last thing on anyone's mind, says one official

:22:51.:22:53.

who had worked previously on the London Games,

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I never once had a conversation about legacy, at any point or in any

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discussion I had working on the games.

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You have to remember, this was the games where

:23:09.:23:10.

we were scrambling to put the event on on a day-by-day basis.

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There was no time to think about what was going to happen

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the day after the games finished in September.

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There were undoubtedly improvements in Rio,

:23:21.:23:21.

In public transport, some infrastructure and the opening

:23:22.:23:26.

I think that there are a few promises that need to be delivered,

:23:27.:23:33.

but I do believe we should have time to work on these promises,

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and the promise we need to be first of all is the delivery

:23:39.:23:41.

of the Olympic Park, and improvements in the sports legacy.

:23:42.:23:45.

A brand-new velodrome built at huge expense, barely used.

:23:46.:23:48.

A state-of-the-art whitewater course, meant to become a public

:23:49.:23:56.

Wyre Davies, BBC News, Rio de Janeiro.

:23:57.:24:02.

I'm Philippa Thomas, thank you for watching Reporters.

:24:03.:24:29.

Hi there Will Britt is summertime officially starts tomorrow morning

:24:30.:24:31.

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