Fertility Research and BBC Persian

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK This is the story of the One The one who keeps multiple buildings running smoothly, day after day Plumbing that flows, HVac that hums, cleaning supplies that keep surfaces sparkling That's why she counts on Granger. With easy reordering online and twenty four seven support, Granger helps her keep the product she needs on hand So shelves stay stocked and buildings stay ready. Call one eight hundred Ganger, clickgranger. com or just stop by Granger. for the ones who get it done When you hear the phrase made in China, what do you think? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Am Mahalid and together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And today on our show, we look at the origins and evolution of madeade 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 onbbc. com or wherever you get your podcast This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Balerie Sanderson and at Fortty Nours GMT on Tuesday the seventh of July, these are our main stories. Will Marine Le Pen lead France's anti immigration National rally party into next year's presidential election after a court ruling in Paris NATO leaders gather in Turkey as Ukraine appeals for more support. Damascus is hit by explosions while President Macron is there Also in this podcast, Kiv' intelligence service say they found the body of a woman, wanted over the attempted assassination in Monaco a week ago of a Ukrainian oligarch We start in France where a court has cleared the way for Marine Lapen, the leader of the far right National rally partarty, to run for president, but has ordered her to wear an electronic tag The judge upheld her conviction on embezzlement charges, sentencing her to three years of imprisonment with two suspended and one with the tag Our correspondent Hugh Schofield who at the courourt in Paris, told us more juridically in the law can run, the case seems to be that theg judges have given a more lenient sentence than a year ago. and in this sentence, the key question of how long she will be barred from public office has been reduced from five years in the original sentence, which would have ruled her out completely from running next year to forty five months with thirty suspended. Take away thirty from forty five, you get fifteen. fifteen has already elapsed since that judgment at the end of March last year, so her period of ineligibility is over. So juridically she can now run. you pe if you're one of her camp. But and there is a big butt here Another part of the sentence is the jail term part. No one is talking of going to jail Technically, it's called a jail term. It would be served in at the home with an electronic tag. This part of her sentence is one year. It's been confirmed by this court. It would be served at home with an electronic tag. Tchnically That means she could still run, but she herself personally has said I will not run if I am prevented from acting like a normal candidate, going about my business, going to rallies, going to meetings without, having to ask permission from the police if I can leave my home. So oreidically, yes, she can run, but under her own terms, her own conditions that she set herself She can't run We need to wait to understand what the reaction of the party will be She and Jordanne Badeella I' am sure will be meeting quite soon to thrash things out. My hunch is that still she will step down because this this electronic tag thing is a condition she set, but who knows? It may be that because thist theal court has made a more lenient sentence has moved in her direction, they may decide to rethink it and wonder whether it might not after all be possible for her to run next year. We willll know in the coming hours Remind us about Jordan Bardella. he is the heir apparent, isn't he Yes. and I mean he is the person waiting in the wings who is gradady to step into Marina Penn's shoes. if this episode turns out in a way which prevents her from running. They decide that yes, it's impossible for Marine Le Pen to go ahead with the campaign because she can't operate normally as a candidate with an electronic tag, then yes, there is his plan B, thirty year old Jordanne Badeella They are very, very close. He's utterly loyal to her. They say they are a team that is unbreakable. All that will be tested, of course, in the months ahead of the campaign if he is the candidate. But right now they say it's not a problem if Marina Penn can't Run because we have planned AB is in Badela He Schofield in Paris This year's NATO summit is underway in Turkey. W a very warm welcome from Turkey's presresident, Rechch Tab Erdogwan, President Trump, had this to say. I was very disappointed with NATO And frankly, if it weren't held in Turkey, we My friend happens to be a very strong leader. It's possible that I wouldn't have attended. We've invested trillions of dollars in NATO. And I say that's fine but you would think that they'd be very willing to do something to help us And they really were. The issue of defense spending has long dominated his conversations with America's European allies The president continues to warn of consequences if they don't ramp up military spending to five percent of GDP by twenty thirty five. NTO's Secreary General Mark Ruter has echoed those calls for defense investment to be increased R. Gspel of the transatlantic defence industrial revolution asking you to take a leap and show our people that we are ready and capable to protect them anywhere at any time And so Russia all those watching today that a transatlantic defence industrial base. is mobilising with purpose. Not anger but for our collective security The other big item on the agenda, as it has been at recent summits, is the future of Ukraine, with President Trump expected to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday. He of course, is calling for more funding for missile defensces to intercept Russia's ballistic attacks While this work continues, please help us get more air defence Missiles This is our top priority right now We are capable of doing everything else ourselves. But when it comes to air defence, we need our partners determination. Please Let more determination and more decisions for air defence be one of the key outcomes of this NATO summit in Akara Our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams gave the BBC's Reginie Vijinathen his analysis of what President Zelensky had to say This has been his refrain now for the best part of two or three years He says, and there's quite a lot of evidence for this, that in all sorts of other ways, Ukraine is on the front foot. It is gaining real advantages on the battlefield. It has become a drone war superpower to which other countries are looking for all sorts of opportunities But ballistic missiles are in his words, Russia's last major advantage in some of the recent attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, The Ukrainians have really struggled to shoot ballistic. missiles down And so they need the Patriot, the PACI missile, as it's known. that is only basically made in the United States One thing that he would like to see, President Zelensky would like to see would be for the United States finally to grant licenses so that Ukraine can build those missiles in Ukraine or at the very least, elsewhere in Europe Now there are all sorts of issues to do with you know, the transfer of technology, export licenses and so forth. It is a discussion that has been going on for quite some time I'm sure President Zelensky would love to have some more positive news on that at this summit. There's no immediate prospect of that I mean, you talk about all the asks he has. Many of them involve the US. He's due to be meeting President Trump. Their meetings haven't always gone the way he's wanted them to, have they? No they haven't. And know that's a relationship which remains and difficult I think President Zelensky still finds it really hard to understand why Donald Trump seems to favour his relationship with Vladimir Putin he would like to see more overt signs of pressure. Donald Trump has said that he's having conversations with Putin. The Russian leader is anxious to bring this war to an end. That an end is in President Trump's words, getting much closer than people recognize. But again, we're not really seeing much evidence of that. And Russia's recent ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine suggest that very little has changed in terms of the Kremlin's thinking Let's talk about the other main agenda point on the summit, as we mentioned there, and that is, of course, defence spending. We heard Mark Rutter there speaking about an industrial revolution in NATO. What does he mean by that? and what is the challenge there? I think this is all bound up with the question of America's commitment to NATO and the realization among America's European NATO partners that it is time for the Europeans themselves to do a lot more of the heavy lifting And so we are seeing, whether it's in terms of the way NATO is organized and command structures and so forth, a greater emphasis on Europe's role and crucially, a move towards some kind of greater military industrial effort. And just briefly, Paul, President Trump warning of consequences if European allies don't cough up, what could they be Well, perhaps an increasing drift away from the commitment to NATO. I mean It is clear that Donald Trump and the US administration feel that Europe needs to take more responsibility for the security of the European continent. That is something I think that most European members recognize now. but there is a fear the drift of Washington away from NATO could become too fast for the Europeans to keep up with Paul Adams Before heading to that NATO summit, France's President Emmanuel Macron has been completing a high profile visit to Syria, the first by an EU leader since the fall of the Assad regime. But videos coming out of the Syrian capital Damascus show it's been hit by explosions The French president is safe, and we're told that talks with his Syrian counterpart, Ahmed Al Sharah went ahead Huguaega is monitoring the situation from Beirut. So a security source in Tamascus has told us that these were explosions caused by two devices. One had been planted inside a rubbish container and another inside a vehicle. and they were detonated both of them after President Macron had already left his hotel in Central Damascus for this high profile meeting with President Ahmed Al Shara at the presresidential Palace in Damascus. and indeed, shortly after those first reports emerged Syrian State television reported that Mr. Macron had already been welcomed by Mr Sarah and French officials are saying that President Macron did not hear any explosion as he was on his way to the presidential palace. But I think this underscores the major security challenges that the Syrian authorities face, the fact that two devices were detonated during a visit by a major Western leader near the hotel where he was staying at the heart of the Capitol is an indication of those challenges. Do you have any idea who might behind this? Yeah, we haven't heard any claim of responsibility. any group has said it was behind this attack. I've got to say that even though the situation in Syria has been relatively stable in terms of security, there have been these sporadic explosions, sporadic attacks, particularly by people and cells affiliated to the Islamic State group. And we've seen a rise in recent months of these attacks that have been happening not only in Damascus, but also in other parts of the country. And just last week there was a huge deadly explosion in central Damascus again near the Justice Ministry, which Again, gives us an indication of the challenges that the authorities are facing in Syria right now. You said this was a high profile visit, the first by an EU leader since the fall of the Assad regime. What were both countries expecting to get out of it I think this is obviously a meeting designed to show Western support for this administration in Syria to symbolize Syria's return to the world stage after years and years of international isolation during the five decades of the Assad regime, particularly during the devastating civil warar So security issues, as I say, are obviously a key topic. And I think another key topic here is the economic situation in Syria. So I think one of the goals here of this visit is to give economic support for the country. A number of businessmen have joined mister Macron on this visit, and reconstruction of Syria is obviously a key priority after that devastating civil warar Youu go but Chiga Slta comeum in this podcast, research from Italy on the fertility tipping point for women. We thought it was going to be so easy to get pregnant as an older woman and it's really not When you hear the phrase madeade in China, what do you think? I'm Tristan Redman. And I'm Amahalid and together we host the Global Story podcast from the BBC. And today on our show, we look at the origins and evolution of madeade 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 podcast. You're listening to the Global News podcast. Ukraine's intelligence service says the body of a woman wanted over the attempted assassination in Monaco a week ago of the Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Yamalev has been found Anastasia Berzovka who was from Ukraine was found near the capital Kyiv with gunshots to the head The correspondent Sarah Rainsford is there I should say from the outset that there's a lot of things we still don't know about this case, but what we do know is from a statement from the SBU, which is Ukraine's main intelligence service. and they have said that The body has been found, as you said, with gunshot wounds to the head and it was found because When Anistasa Abyzovska returned to Ukraine from Monaco, there was an investigation underway. Her contacts were followed and they show that she was in contact with two men. One of them is a ing officer of Ukrainian military intelligence and another man is described as a former laaw enforcement officer. Now these two men have now been arrested, O of them, the current member of the intelligence service here has apparently confessed to killing B is Oscar, and he has implicated the second suspect as well. He has said, so the SPU statement stresses that he was acting on his own initiative and that his superiors within Ukrainian military intelligence knew nothing about what he was up to. and there is no information, no suggestion, no hint, even of any kind of motive. But of course, remember that Anastasia Birzovska was the main suspect in the attempted assassination of a Ukrainian multim millionaire, Badim Mrmalayev in Monaco just at the end of June. She is suspected of having left a rucksack full of explosives outside his residence in Monaco, which deconated and then caused really catastrophic injuries to Mr. Edmanv's partner and injured him and his son as well. All of them survived, but she was suspected of attempting that assassination Well, since we spoke to Sarah, the prosecutor's office has released a video of a basement in a house near Kyiv where Anastasia Barzovska was held before her death Here in Britain, Nigel Farage, the leader of the right wing partarty Reform UK, has announced he's resigning as an MP, but will stand in the by election that decision triggers in what he called a peopleople versus establishment by election. For months, Mrter Farage, whose party is leading in the opinion polls, has been facing questions over donations he received in the run up to his election to the UK Parliament in twenty twenty four Over the weekend, this intensified, with the Sunday Times newspaper reporting he'd failed to declare benefits from a man who'd been convicted of fraud in the US Speaking at a news conference to which no members of the media were invited, Mr Farage insisted he'd done nothing wrong I thought about it hard And I've decided today Today I will resign As a member of Parliament for Clackon on Sa thereby forcing A by election which should happen, I hope in short order No, I've decided that the people of Clapton 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 Wh? to go. And that is why I will be putting my name forward to stand in this by election. I will fight to win, I will fight to continue The political revolution that reform has started. Our political correspondent, Rob Watson spoke to Reginie Viinathen Well, it's hugely significant because reform is the party that is disrupting British politics, threatening the two main parties. And of course, it's led by Nigel Farage, who has led it for some time and who is an absolutely key player. Now, as you said, he's been facing all these allegations that he had these undeclared personal gifts, which he should have made public when he became and an MP And he was essentially facing two choices that maybe he could just walk away from British politics. Some people maybe thought that that was what he was going to do or Regini drumroll. He could come out fighting and say this is all some massive stitch up by the establishment, the other parties, the media against him, and he was going to come out swinging. And that is what he has done because essentially he's resigning I've done nothing wrong. All of this stuff, it's a massive stitch up. I'm going to let the people of my constituency decide it's going to be the people versus the establishment in his constituency, which I know rather well it's on the East coast and it looks like I'll be going back there, Reenie Yes, on the sea isn't it It is. Rob, just tell us more about this investigation into allegations over his finances and of course what he says about all of that But briefly, it's two main things. He received a gift of five million pounds, which is over five million dollars from a sort of crypto billionaire. in Thailand just before he became an MP. And he'd also received, if you like services in kind from another one of his supporters for running things like social media, lending him and offices. And the way the rules work in Britain is that even if you receivive payments before you became an MP and the year before you became an MP, you're supposed to declare it if it's got anything to do with politics or could be perceived that way. Nigel Farrag just said, look, none of this stuff was about politics or reform at the time. I wasn't a politician, so I didn't need to declare it Let's talk more about of course, the wider context to all of this reform UK, an anti immigration party here in the UK that, as you say, is fashioning itself as one of the main opposition parties now Yes, absolutely. I mean, it is the most extraordinary force in British politics because it takes support away from both the conservatives and labors. It's entirely in some ways destabilized them. It leads in the opinion polls. It doubled its share of the vote at the twenty twenty four election from about fifteen percent up to thirty percent. It's been struggling more recently, but I mean, undoubtedly,, it has set itself up as plague on the system. We need to throw everything up in the air, remake it. And that of course, has really rattled the two main parties. And they had been hoping that maybe maybe Mr. Farage was on the run, maybe the party is sort of piaked in its support. And certainly all this shenanigans about his finances has no doubt tarnished his appeal. But I mean what's really interesting is that far from walking away from it all, he's going to stand and fight Robson New research from Italy suggests women hit a fertility tipping point at forty nine, even if using younger donor eggs during the process of IVF fertility treatment in which eggs are fertilised with sperm outside the body and then implanted The researchers from a fertility Institute in Verona say the findings challenge the idea that donor eggs can fully reset the reproductive clock but should not put older couples off trying H House repeporter, Michelle Roberts has more Even with young donor eggs, older women using IVF had a much lower chance of their fertility treatment working, with a marked drop off at around age forty nine Women in their mid to late thirties had a fifty four percent chance of getting pregnant with donor eggs. that fell to around forty three percent for those aged forty nine or older, while miscarriage rates increased from twenty four percent to thirty eight percent In the older women, the researchers also noticed age related changes to the womb lining, or endometrium, where a fertilized egg or embryo implants to grow. While the thickness was similar, the condition declined with age. Experts say this shouldn't put older couples off trying fertility treatment. Sharon Marshall went through six years of IVF attempts in her forties before giving birth to her daughter, Betsy. We thought it was going to be so easy to get pregnant as an older woman, and it's really not. I think as an industry, we sometimes need to talk about Failure We need to be honest about the fact that more cycles don't work than do And I think women deserve Research like this may help improve fertility success rates. Experts stress the health of the womb and ovaries differs from woman to woman. Michelle Roberts On the last edition of this podcast, we heard a report from the BBC's chief international correspondent, Lis Dussette She was in Tehran, where the funeral procession for Iran's late Supreme leader was taking place. It prompted a listener, Jane, to get in touch with us She rightly observed that every report from inside Iran is always preceded by the following caveat, that Lis is reporting there on the condition that none of her material is used on the BBC's Persian service and that the restrictions apply to all international media organisations operating in Iran. Jen wrote that this made me wonder what kind of reports do go out on the Persian surface It might be an interesting window on life in Iran during such a complicated time We have someone who can answer that. Ja Gol is from the BBC's Persian serervice and we put Jen's question to him Well, I just want to thank Jen for the question. I think it's a very valid question And thank you for the opportunity, let us explain exactly what's happening. So the Iranian government is very strict on journalist We don't have an office in Iran. We are not allowed to operate in Iran. But despite this, we have around twenty million. viewers weekly. And if you just look at the our Instagram has more than twenty three million followers and so many more who are afraid even to follow us inside Iran, because the regime, even some people, if they give us an interview They could be prosecuted. The Iranian regime trying to control the narrative only allows International journalists go to the country when they think they can show the unity in the country And in fact, in January this year Thousands of young protestters, men and women were killed. simimply they went to the streets They didn't allow any journalists to go there. And obviously, we as a BBC Persian We have networks of trusted inside Iran, we can rely on citizen journalists also And obviously, we have a lot of pictures from the state television itself But what we do normally, we bring experts peopleeople who have a real knowledge. give a accurate picture of what is going on inside the country. You may be surprised even we have heard some of Iranian officials power. they don't trust their own state media because it's all propaganda Tune into BBC to see exactly what is happening inside the country