cause a surprise. hello. in a rare interview, a senior north korean official has told the bbc his country is prepared to launch a nuclear strike and all out war if the united states decides to attack it. he also said missile tests would continue, weekly, monthly, yearly, despite international condemnation. president trump has suggested the leadership in pyongyang needs to behave , and vice president pence warned pyongyang not to test the us. the north korean vice foreign minister was speaking to our correspondentjohn sudworth in the north korean capital, where his movements are being closely monitored. north korea is all about shows of strength. the first today came in this tae kwon do demonstration. the next, in kim il sung square, close to the centre of power, by way of a rare interview. translation: if the us is reckless enough to use military means, it would mean, from that very day, an all out war. our nuclear weapons protect us from that threat. we will be conducti
of france? as the country prepares to elect a new president bears record levels of apathy and delusion among french voters, a spate of terror attacks has sown in security and has sparked debate. my guest todayis and has sparked debate. my guest today is a writer and public intellectual in the grand french tradition. is france living through an age of decline? pascal, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. we are talking with a french presidential elections very close, does france feel right for the sort of political shock that we ve seen in recent times both in the uk over the brexit vote and in the united states with the victory of donald trump in the presidential election? i hope not, with all my heart i hope we won t face the same electoral results that you had with brexit and that the americans had with trump. so we re doing everything to avoid the passage to the far right with marine le pen. but at the present time we have two opposite candidates, marcha nt, time we have two op
told the bbc his country is prepared to launch a nuclear strike, all out war, if the united states decides to attack it. he also said missile tests would continue, weekly, monthly, yearly, despite international condemnation. president trump has suggested the leadership in pyongyang needs to behave , and vice president pence warned pyongyang not to test the us. the north korean vice foreign minister was speaking to our correspondent, john sudworth, in the north korean capital. john is being closely monitored there. north korea is all about shows of strength. the first today came in this tae kwon do demonstration. the next, in kim il sung square, close to the centre of power, by way of a rare interview. translation: if the us is reckless enough to use military means, it would mean, from that very day, an all out war. our nuclear weapons protect us from that threat. we will be conducting more missile threats on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. today, the us vice presiden
the government says standards will go up because the content is more rigorous, and that bright pupils will have a better chance to shine. our education editor, bra nwen jeffreys, reports. the new system has more grades and replaces letters with the numbers nine to one, with nine being the highest grade. it s all change for gcse maths and english this year. numbers, not letters, for grades and new, tougher content for the exams. would that be ok, to do that? so, umi is getting extra help from her tutor, something many families can t afford. even so, she s anxious about the exams. it s quite daunting, because lots of my teachers don t. they ve never taught it before, so they re not used to the new syllabus that s coming in. her mum, kelly, is trying to get her head round it all. a grade 4 will be the same as a c or above. and a top grade of 9 will be higher than an a . she doesn t mind the exams content being made harder. but to bring in a new grading system and make the whole