School protests send shivers down French government's spine

0:00Hello and welcome to NewsHour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesby and we start the programme today with the chaotic scenes in France where nationwide student demonstrations have descended into riots and violence in some areas. 400 schools and colleges are closed today following nearly 2,000 arrests yesterday. A number of school teachers and pupils have been injured. Many are back on the streets again today. This was the scene in one suburb of Paris. Just here what seems to be fireworks going off there will the protests began towards the end of September with students complaining, overcrowded classrooms and lack of resources, but there are claims that others are joining in these protests for political reasons and inciting the unrest. There have also been allegations of heavy-handed policing. Let's get

1:01the details with the BBC's Paris correspondent Hugh Scofield who joins us live now from Paris. Hugh, first of all, these protests started in schools with teenagers complaining about the conditions the universities seem to have joined in. Can you talk us through the main issues? It's mainly schools. It's mainly teenagers. Universes aren't really properly back yet. We'll focus on the lease. That's 15, 16, 17-year-olds complaining about lack of investment basically, about dilapidated buildings, about not enough teachers, about how they're aren't supply teachers, so that regularly they're losing lessons because the teacher doesn't turn up and doesn't take their place and that they're over-credit. It's classic complaints about underfunding, which aren't part and parcel of life in Europe these days because there isn't any money to address all these problems, which may well be very real, but which cannot be funded anymore because the French government, like everyone else, is heavily indebted. That's

2:05the background to all of this. It's not particularly worse now than it has been a year ago, which is why people are asking, why now, why are they out now? That's where these issues of whether there is a hidden hand behind all this come into play with the focus of accusations being very much the hard left and their leaders Jean-Luc Melanchard, Madwell Place for next year's Presidents of Election, who is said by his opponents to be manipulating all of this in order to create confrontation. Yes, I think that's disputed by his side though, isn't it? But Hugh, some of the scenes really do seem quite dangerous. I mean, a number of fires, and I saw that some teachers had been accidentally splashed maybe with petrol. I mean, what can you tell us about that? It is quite dramatic sporadically. I slated cases, things flare up and go down again. It's not as if the whole country is in flames, but one shouldn't downplay this either. There is an awful lot of street violence going on attached to these protests. Yesterday

3:09we saw part of a school destroyed by fire, not. Yes, the Ministry of Education is saying that sick-monthed 60 teachers and heads have been molested in some way. There are videos circulating online today of a police officer in Plain Closed being beaten so badly that he's unconscious in Belphal in the East. Yesterday a police officer, a woman, being chased down the street by people saying kill her, being tripped up and beaten on the street there. In return, yes, indeed, there are allegations of police using excessive force, and that's constant complaint from the teenagers to which the government says, well, they are the legitimate wielders of force, and they do everything in proportion to the danger as they see there is to life and property. All right, well, thank you very much for the latest on all of that. That's the BBC's Huesco field, their live on the line from Paris. Well, just before we came on air, I spoke to one university student who's joined the protest. At least is 20 years old.

4:09She's at Céon's Poin, Paris, and she recently joined the Student Union, Union Etudeon, and she's taken part in the protest in Paris, including around her old high school, just outside Paris in Valdoise. She's been telling me why she's been protesting. One of the main demand is for more fundings, fundings for high schools and universities that have to go through like a big inequality, like geographic inequality. I mean, the government is saying it has put in more money recently. I think there's been an increase to the budget of around 200 million euros. It also says it's up to spending over the past 10 years by about 30% on education. What exactly are the problems that you see in the education system where you think there isn't enough funding? There's a big inequality between places. For example, some high schools in Paris, even private high schools, receive more funding than the service of Paris can receive at times. We've seen

5:10the big increase in youth poverty over the year ever since Macron came to power. For example, as a university student, we lost around 2,000 of purchasing power over the years, and Macron has been doing a lot of attacks on our rights. We used to be able to go to in every university we wanted, and now we have to go through a big process of selection. Macron has installed racist measures against international students that have now have to pay bigger tuition fees to enter universities. You say that's racist, I'm sure Mr. Macron would say that he would prefer to favor French students over international students. I mean, is that necessarily racist? Yeah, we think it's national preference, and we are against this because it's one of the measures of Marine Le Pen, which is currently running for president for the far right in France. This was a measure in her programme for the presidential election that Macron directly took from her.

6:12So we definitely think it's a racist measure. Okay, so I mean, you've got a list of grievances, but does that really justify what we're seeing now on the French streets? We're seeing buildings being burned. We're seeing police being attacked. I mean, just seeing a video from Marseille, I think it was of a fire engine outside one school being attacked by protesters. I mean, is that acceptable to you over these issues about education funding? Isn't there a better way? I'm kind of a national student union, linear way to jobs, the biggest one. We are not calling for violence over the country, but we think the main violence has been the one coming from the police first. For example, one high school student was lost all of his teeth after being attacked by the police. Another one lost his eye after being hit by the police as well. So we think the first violence came from the police and we also see images coming from all over the country where high school students are uploading

7:13firefighters that are against the fires going on. So we don't think high school students really want to burn the buildings. They just want to protest and are uploading and helping firefighters as well as again. Right. And the main violence came from the police. Well, I mean, that would be your view. I mean, others would differ and they say that the police themselves have come under attack. But I mean, you're 20, I think. You're an adult. And some of these high school students, as you say, are very young. They're just 15 or 16 years old. Is it responsible of people like you older students to encourage them to be involved in these kinds of demonstrations? We don't encourage them. We just joined the movement after this started themselves. So so already young, like, made it enough, even if we are young, we are made it enough to make our decisions. I mean, some people are saying, you know, hard groups of, you know, far leftists are getting involved, maybe trying to manipulate trouble in some areas and exacerbate the

8:16tensions. I mean, is that something that you would condone or do you wish those people would step away from these demonstrations? I really don't think this is happening. Like this is not happening in France, what we see is just students on protestings, if I live taking over, is just a thing that the French government is saying to avoid seeing the reality that students are very angry about the lack of fending, the lack of teachers in some classrooms. That's Alice, one student of the university, they're 20 years old, where we can get a response now from the French government because we're joined live from Paris by Elia Norca, who's Minister Delegate of Forre and Affairs in President Manuel Macron's government. Thank you very much for coming on. First of all, I mean, what are your concerns here? Do these students have a case in terms of underfunding and poor conditions in schools? Well, hi, good afternoon, and thank you for inviting me. Well, my first reaction is that, of course, all grievances must be taken extremely

9:22seriously, and they are some legitimate requests that we can hear and respond to in a civilized matter. I can tell you that the budget has increased. I can tell you that the French budget for education is similar to that of virtually all of the similar European countries. I could give you figures, but when it comes to anger and movements and protests, it's not with figures that you can respond. But one thing is for sure, these kids are being instrumentalized by the far left, and there is a political party that is legitimating the use of violence, and that is totally unacceptable, and we need to stop every form of violence as soon as possible before this could potentially get out of hand. Well, according to some students, including at least there, it is the police that have been heavy-handed, and we've had quite a few students and pupils even, you know, underaged children having injuries. Well, when you have these type of situations, you may have

10:27actions taken on both sides, and I'm not here to tell you, you know, I wasn't on every single field and seen every single act. But what I can tell you is that political elected mayors from La Fossa Soumise have been legitimating the use of violence, and this is just not something that you do when you're an elected mayor. What evidence do you have for that? You're saying, but certain mayors have been legitimating violence? Yes, and elected from La Sainte-Saint-Nie from La Fossa Soumise said, it was okay to use violence if you're a student and demonstrating. This is just unacceptable, and you've had Jean-Luc Mélenchon saying it was okay for kids to express their anger in any potential manner. I mean, this is not just what the government is saying, this is what you see in their own social network. This is what they're telling the use of the police. Mr. Mélenchon has said it's fine for students to protest. I don't think he's been calling for people to be aggressive or use any violence, though, and these systems himself. Members of his party,

11:28and this is again, not the government saying it's something that you can find easily online, has been legitimating the use of violence, saying that the violence of not having enough means to receive a proper education, which again is something that I can test, and we can go into details, would justify forms of anger and violence. So, I mean, the French justice minister is saying that he wants parents to be liable for the damaged caused by children, but at the moment, it looks like the situation is so chaotic. How is the government going to bring this under control? Doesn't it need some sort of dialogue? Absolutely, and this is exactly what the government is proposing. And you know, in France, you have many instances where this dialogue can and should take place. You have unions for high school students, for students, for professors, for all kinds of groups that are represented in this protest. And instead of using those forms of dialogue, a social dialogue that exists, this perhaps spontaneous, perhaps manipulated movement started,

12:35and what is actually also something that is factual is that you have elected officials, members of parliament from the French and some of these there, saying, let's make this even bigger, which again is not a responsible attitude, because it can absolutely get out of hand, and who is at risk right now? Okay, we must leave it. We must leave it. We must leave it. We must leave it. Alina, thank you so much for joining us live. Was Alina or Carol Wath there, Minister Delegate Laforene, affairs speaking to us live, coming up later in the program, an Indian pilot who was attacked by his copilot on an Israeli bound fly-do by plane recounts the moment of that attack. Look, I have been flying for the last 17 years, and I've been a captain for the last 11 years, I can tell what is happening inside a plane with my eyes shut. So when I was lying on the floor, I could feel that the aircraft was plunging, and I said to myself, while I was getting beaten, this is the last push, Smith, do it. The door is right there.

13:37We're on that extraordinary testimony coming up in about 15 minutes time. Our top headline, this hour as we've been hearing, there've been more clashes outside French universities and schools as protests against conditions in higher education continue. This is Rebecca Kesby with NewsHour Live from the BBC. Now will Europe release some of its diesel reserves to help with the global shortage caused by the war in Iran? European countries are under pressure from the United States to make available some of their stockpiles. President Trump says he's considering banning US exports of diesel, which would bring down the cost in the US, but long-term could cause problems for Europe, which relies on it. Mr. Trump was speaking to journalists. What about an export ban on diesel? Well, we're thinking about it very seriously. That can oftentimes lead to a little bit of an increase on gasoline for cars. So we're looking

14:41at it very seriously. We may do it. Well, today the French President, Emmanuel Macron, is urging G7 countries to work together to avoid restrictions on exports. US trade representative Jameson Greer said he's been working with European countries to try to find a solution. There is an eagerness on both sides to work together to get more diesel to the market. We know that France, Germany and Italy, they're sitting on reserves. I think I won't put words in their mouth, of course, but I think they would love to have a cooperative path forward with the United States on how we get more diesel to market. Getting some of that diesel that's in the reserves is part of that equation. Ellen Fraser joins us live now. She's an energy expert and partner at the energy consulting firm, Beringa. Ellen, thanks for coming on. First of all, can you explain why there's this diesel shortage at the moment? I guess the war in Iran and Ukraine having an impact. Is it a lack of fuel or a lack of refineries? It's the problem.

15:43It's very much the latter. This is all about refining capacity. Through the conflict that we've seen in the Middle East, we've obviously seen some refineries damage there. Although we've actually seen crude flows coming back through the state of Hormuz, coming almost back to pre-war levels, we haven't seen that happen yet in terms of refined products. Then you compound that challenge by the fact that actually Ukraine has taken out the refining capacity of quite a number of the Russian refiners, which are typically tuned to produce significant volumes of diesel. That means the market is really quite net short of diesel overall. What you see then is actually some other countries then stopping exports. China, for example, they tend to buy fuel. They refine that and they sell that back on global markets. They are becoming extremely reticent to sell that overseas and want to hang on to their own supplies. We've seen quite a significant tightening in the diesel market overall and that's pushing prices up. Of course, a lot of cars

16:46all over the world now are electric or petrol, but diesel is still the fuel for haulage, isn't it? Industry farming as well. If there's a shortage or higher prices, that's going to have an impact on all sorts of things, couldn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, in the Northern Hemisphere, we're coming through the main harvest season. You think about transportation, long distance haulage is all very dependent on diesel, some train networks, etc. It's very much an industrial fuel. We still have it in some normal domestic vehicles across the European region as well. And in the US, but industry will be really quite severely impacted by it and that obviously then puts pressure on inflation as well as that flushes through supply chains. And very, very briefly, Ellen, Mr Trump is threatening a ban on exports. It might help him initially, but is it sustainable on what are the problems? Yeah, it's really not a particularly good idea in the longer term. The US doesn't buy all of its diesel from itself if you like it

17:46also imports, so you would see the US being hit by the price spikes as well. And eventually, you flood your own market and then actually have to turn down your own refining capacity, which then, as Trump mentioned in that brief intro, would then start to hit gasoline prices as well. So it might be a short-term blip, but it actually creates some quite profound longer-term challenges. A lot to consider. Thank you so much for helping us explain it. Ellen, Fraser, Energy Expert and Partner at the Energy Consulting Firm Beringa. Welcome back to NewsHour. Here in London, the British Museum has issued an apology to disappointed visitors who queued for long periods to see the Bay of Tapestry only to be turned away as they finally approached the entrance to the New Exhibit. The 11th-century tapestry, which famously depicts William the Conqueror, his victory over King Harold at the Battle of Hastings, is on loan from France and has drawn huge interest. But some have complained that corporate business is buying up private viewing, leaving the public waiting in line.

18:50Ellen Walker is an academic and illustrator. She was one of those turned away and she told me she'd waited years to see the tapestry. I mean, I've been looking forward to seeing the tapestry since I was about seven years old. I was a history nerd and a comics fan when I was young. So the Bay of Tapestry, which I do regard as being a comic in many ways, this was sort of a combination of the two great lovers of my life put together. What happened when you got to the museum? Like many of those, I'd booked two tickets when they first went on sale back in July, which cost 54 pounds in total. After about 20 minutes of queuing, people started filing out of the top end of the queue, looking rather heartbroken and disappointed and some people were in tears. And then the staff members were handing out slips of paper that were something to the effects of. We apologise for the disruption to your visits. This is due to time and space restrictions. And that was it. There was no explanation beyond that. So I mean, some people who had a similar experience to you said that they were told that the exhibition had to be closed early because of a private event, which had been

19:54sponsored by a big company that was happening at the same time. Were you told that? I wasn't told that when I was physically there. That was something that I found out about later. It was a Samsung event. I believe it was that the chancellor was attending and talk about rubbing souls in the wound. I mean, look, I can completely understand that this is one of the most culturally aesthetically significant pieces of art ever created. So an exhibition as popular as this must be a logistical nightmare to organise. And especially if you do have private events happening. But if so, then why sort of cram in as many tickets as possible to maximise profit at the expense of people that have spent hundreds to come here and why prioritise a private event? So we've been in touch with the British Museum. They've sent us a statement saying, unfortunately, delays earlier in the day meant that some visitors were unable to enter at their allotted time. We've apologise to those effective giving a refund as well as rescheduling their ticket for free. It was an isolated situation

20:57and we appreciate visitors' patience and understanding. So I mean, is it your intention to try and come back and see it another time? I haven't received a response yet. So when they say that they are rescheduling tickets, I can only say that I've not received anything from them in order to do that. And I suppose one good thing about it is that there is this enthusiasm that so many people want to see it. That aspect of it is really heartened me actually because when I was younger, I remember being obsessed with the Bay of Tacquistry and knowing now that there are people this enamored with it, that there are thousands and thousands of people rushing to see this in London. It is quite heartening that people are so concerned with it. Dr Ellen Walker, there, one of those turned away from the British Museum for that new exhibition and she's still hopeful she will get a chance to see the tapestry. You're listening to NewsHour Live from the BBC. I'm Rebecca Kesby. Now the captain of the Fly Dubai plane that survived being attacked by his co-pilot earlier this week

21:59has been speaking. Captain Smith Machar is being hailed as a hero in Israel for trying to fight off his colleague long enough to open the door to the cockpit and to call for help. The lives of all 170 odd people on board depended on him being able to do so. Smith Machar is also being praised back home in India. Many of his family live in Mumbai and earlier today he had a video call from his hospital bed with the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Captain Machar is still being treated of course in Saudi Arabia. Here's a clip of their conversation which we've voiced up as he shares his incredible story. I was fighting for my life in that moment. It was a moment when I thought because I'd fallen on the floor. I was wounded and I'd fallen down. Look, I have been flying for the last 17 years and I've been a captain for the last 11 years. I can tell what is happening inside

23:02of my eyeshark. So when I was lying on the floor I could feel that the aircraft was plunging and I said to myself while I was getting beaten this is the last push, Smith. Do it. The door is right there. Somehow I opened the door and everyone came in and everyone had an equal role in that rescue. I was trying to save myself but I also knew that I couldn't let anyone die. I'm not thinking about my wounds as if they were normal wounds because that would hinder my recovery. I'm taking these wounds like a journey which will progress slowly and it will take time but I am very confident that this recovery will happen and I will be absolutely healthy. Captain Smith Machart, they're speaking on the Renderamode's YouTube channel. The Indian Prime Minister praised the captain for his courage and quick thinking and listening to the video is our Middle East correspondent John Donnison who joins us live from Jerusalem. John, I mean just fascinating to hear those details there coming from Captain Machart. Yeah and the first time we've heard it from really one of the key

24:08protagonists in this and when you combine what he's saying with the images which we've all seen of him in that cockpit covered in blood having been stabbed multiple times it is really quite remarkable that he had the presence of mind to open the secure cockpit door to allow assistance to get in and given that obviously since September 11th what 25 years ago as measures have been taken to make it incredibly difficult for passengers to get inside a cockpit he obviously knew that the only chance was to get this door open and he did it as the plane was plummeting thousands of meters downwards. Yeah I mean chilling to think what would have happened if he hadn't managed to do that. In terms of where we are with the investigation now though John, have we got any more details as to what was behind this incident? We don't have it yet I mean we're getting a lot of comments coming out of Israel including from the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he actually said that the

25:13actions of Captain Machart and the passengers who intervened had averted another 9-11. Both pilots, the pilot who's been arrested and Captain Machart have actually been transferred now from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates and I think the Israelis will be happy about because Israel of course has diplomatic relations with the UAE, doesn't with Saudi Arabia and obviously Israel will be incredibly keen to be involved in the interrogation of the arrested pilot. Now as for the motives, I mean Prime Minister Netanyahu is getting quite close to saying what the motives are but he says it's still too early to say but he says the initial investigation suggests the pilot had undergone Islamic radical indoctrination, he didn't present heavy evidence for that and he said the focus was on seeing whether the detained pilot had any connections with Iran. Interesting all right thanks for the latest there John Donerson for the BBC

26:18in Jerusalem. Now President Zelensky says Ukraine has successfully fired its first homemade tactical ballistic missile in combat though it didn't specify where his statement read next production the FP or Firepoint 7 is being developed as an interceptor we're told there's a global shortage of interceptors particularly after the US is really war with Iran and Ukraine is desperate for air defenses as the Russian drone and missile assaults continue but the FP7 can and seemingly has been used offensively and the range is about I think 300 kilometers but let's get the details with Katie Livinstein. She's Ukraine correspondent for Defence News and Military Times she joins his life from Kiev. Katie tell us about this more rock more about this rocket is it a game changer? Absolutely this is something that Ukraine has been waiting a long time for and that it's produced developed and produced in record time really. Now we don't have any independent

27:21confirmation of what it hid or how well it hid whatever target it was but the statement by President Zelensky already says a lot and these you know are really important both as interceptors and an offensive capacity and also as a replacement for attackums that would allow for Ukraine to do more of its long range and good range strikes. Yes now I mentioned there 300 kilometers I mean I'm clearly not a rocket scientist maybe you can help us in terms of what options that gives the Ukrainians and how much of a concern will this be for Russia? Absolutely yeah this is I mean on the record it goes about 200 at 250 kilometers range and it can go 50 meters per second mock 4.3 I mean it's really something that you know the rest of the world has taken years and years to develop and produce so it's incredible how quickly they've done it and it's something that Russia is absolutely seems concerned with right because this enables Ukraine to really target its military

28:25infrastructure and all of its military logistics and it's something that even United States President Donald Trump seems concerned with and that recent reporting for the last couple weeks showed him asking President Zelensky to pause some of these strikes on energy infrastructure that were influencing global oil prices. But we're clearly seeing something of an arms race and all sorts of developments in munitions at the moment I mean we've been talking a lot about the Russia's Russia's new jet-powered drones which are causing real problems for Ukraine at the moment but they're also developing other ballistic missiles aren't they? Absolutely both sides are constantly head-to-head in the technological race and this is something that both sides are always trying to to stay ahead and you know as soon as one one side debuts something the other side can quickly learn from it and copy it. So right now already Ukraine has adapted and developed its own jet-powered interceptors and similar to these FP7 ballistic missiles we don't have too much

29:26independent verification of how these would other than statistics from the Ukrainian Air Force that have shown better interception rates of these jet-powered drones. Very briefly next is production says Zelensky but that's also quite a difficult thing isn't it? Absolutely and it's only becoming more and more difficult with the air defense shortage of weapons to protect the skies and protect everything on the ground right because there aren't so many facilities that are safe from Russian bombing so not only is there the monetary choke point of having enough funding to get what they need and the export import problems there's also the very real problem of simply getting blown up if it's not a good place. Good to speak to Katie thanks so much for that sorry about the line everyone that's Katie Livingston there Ukraine correspondent for Defence News and Military Times live from Kyiv. Now the huge palm house at the Royal Botanic Gardens Q in London is about to undergo a complete

30:28refurbishment the hot and hubanth conditions inside have taken their toll on the iron work and the glass of the Victorian structure the 87 million dollar restoration will begin next autumn and the palm house will be closed for up to four years but before it can start the glass house has to be completely emptied of the 1,300 tropical plants and trees it contains and our science editor Rebecca Morel has been to queue to find out how they're going to shift all these plants. I'm inside the world famous palm house at Kyiv Gardens it's more than 175 years old and it's about to one's ago a makeover on a massive scale but standing here at the moment is looking a bit more sparse than usual and that's because the 1,300 plants that are in here are all going to have to be shifted for the renovation. So we started actually containerising plants in the palm

31:31house a little over a year ago now and we're roughly cleared about half of the collections in here. Tom Pickering is head of glass house collections at Kyiv and he's looking after this huge plant move. It's a really daunting task emptying the collections from the palm house some of them are historically really significant so they're actually older than the glass house itself while other plants are kind of really important conservation species. How are you going about the process? So at the moment we're really focusing on the smaller herbaceous and medium sized woody plants those are going to be cleared first and then hopefully we'll have the space in which to work where we're going to be using heavier lifting equipment in order to contain right some of the really big plants. One of the plants being moved today is a cycade it looks like a sort of short palm it's not that huge but it's still taking a team of three to move it. The plant is taken about 50 metres away to a temporary greenhouse it's about a quarter of the

32:34size of the palm house. We've had to reshuffle a lot of times as you can see we're limited on space so we're having to put certain parts next to each other just to maximize the amount of space we have here. Leafs Darky is a horticulturalist at Kyu the renovation which will start in autumn next year could take up to four years so the plants will be in here for a while. We're in here every morning watering the plants checking the condition we're trying to limit the sort of growth because we don't want to get too big before they move back into the palm house. How do you do that treat the me? Well yeah try and keep them in relatively small size pots. But as anyone who's attempted to move a plant knows some really don't like to be shifted with so many precious species Kyu isn't taking any risks. I've come behind the scenes to the propagation glass house where the team here have been busy growing back ups of all of the plants. Basically if any of them don't survive the move it means there's a botanical plan B. It's quite challenging because we have to propagate around 1,300 species

33:39with very different coloraturistics. Angelica Gentile leads the propagation team for the palm house project. Some species have proved very tricky particularly Ebony. We have been trying so many cuttings. How many cuttings did you take? Hundreds of cuttings and so far this is the only one that rooted. That was the most exciting moment for us. I can still remember the morning when I spotted two tiny black roots coming out of the pot. So we'll take a bed in a section. Back in the palm house in Tom Pickering and the team still have a lot to do. In the next six months everything that's left is going to have to be removed. But as the beds thin out Tom says it's revealing the glass house in a new light. It's quite incredible to see the structure as you remove the plants and you open up this space at this incredible feat of engineering. I think it will feel more like a cathedral.

34:41Rebecca Morelle reporting from Kyu Gardens in West London. This is Rebecca Kesby with NewsHour live from the BBC. Next to it a rather distressing story at prosecutors in the US state of New York are reopening an investigation into a case of a alleged gang rape at Cornell University in 2024. It comes after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month by a woman who claimed she was drugged and raped for hours by several men at a student house. We're joined live now by Netta Feet the BBC's North America correspondent in New York. First of all, Netta just remind us to the background of this case. Yeah absolutely. This all started with an evening back in 2024 in October at a fraternity house here on Cornell's campus the Ky-5 fraternity house. And this woman just over two weeks ago,

35:42she's anonymous being referred to as Jane Doe sued not only the Ivy League University but seven men at that fraternity alleging that two years ago she was gang raped that she was pressured into snorting ketamine, applied with other drugs in alcohol and sexually assaulted and raped for hours. And in that lawsuit she says that she had arrived at that frat house visibly drunk incapable of consenting to sex. And the complaint includes some vulgar messages that were sent from some of the men to a Ky-5 Snapchat group with over 50 members in which one of the men who is accused says that she is upstairs and free for sex. Another later writes is the shop still open. So those vulgar messages have really caused outrage. And after that incident two years ago Jane Doe went to university police three weeks later and told them that she was 100% confident that she was raped.

36:46But the lawsuit says that the men were not punished, two were expelled but others were able to lessen their punishments by doing things like writing essays. And that the district attorney determined criminal charges weren't warranted based on information given to them by Cornell. Well, I mean it's been a huge case hasn't it, NEDDA? And as you say there's been a lot of criticism not least for the local prosecutors office. What have they had to say about all this? Yeah, you know, as you say the outrage has really stemmed from students we've been speaking to on campus. I mean they told us overwhelmingly they fear they have anger at the university for the way this was handled. They feel shame that this occurred on their campus. You know, what we heard from the local district attorney who did several interviews and very strongly defended himself was that a six page statement he was given from Cornell's police department from Jane Doe established in his view no criminal wrongdoing that she had consented to taking

37:47the drugs and had consented to the conduct and was conscious throughout. Now we've just heard from New York's governor Kathy Hockle. She has criticized Cornell Cornell, you know, in a statement defended their investigation. They said there were 12 hearings held that they'd deny that essay writing was the sole consequence for these men. But New York's governor says she has lost faith and everyone involved. So she's asked for an independent investigation into Cornell. And now she has replaced the local prosecutor saying that new revelations that have come to light mean that a special prosecutor is warranted in this case to have a fresh set of eyes to look at it. Good to speak to you. Thank you. Netta Fick there with the latest on that story there from Cornell University in the States. Finally to football and Manchester City have confirmed they've logged an appeal after an independent commission found the club guilty of all charges relating to breaches of the Premier League's financial regulations. In a short statement the club said the

38:51commission's ruling contained clear material errors of law principle and fact and is unsafe. It follows an independent commission that found the club had used sham sponsorship agreements to artificially inflate revenue. Let's speak to Sam Lee who's been covering this story for the athletic sports news website which is owned by the New York Times actually and Sam joins us live. How tell us about this appeal and what Manchester City is saying? Yes. So as you say city are very strong in their statements ever since this verdict was officially conveyed on on Tuesday. Like you say they say there's clear errors in the judgment by the independent panel that made the decision to find city guilty. In terms of the appeal since they logged it last night there's 12 weeks for it to be completed. It would be a five day hearing. The deadline for it to be completed is Christmas Eve and then once it's completed the new

39:51three person panel has got 30 days to make their decision. So yes city are likely to argue that there were a number of flaws that led to the independent commission's original decision and that's basically what's going to decide whether city received huge punishments or if they were able to overturn the verdict. But Sam at the time being for the time being things carry on don't they? I mean the the club still playing football aren't they? Yes they will return funnily enough at Anfield next weekend which Anfield is a very difficult place to go in football at the best of times and with the kind of righteous indignation that'll be swirling around it's going to be some atmosphere but yet they're not playing until next Sunday so they've got over a week to go. But yes the world keep turning until then there are all these talks about huge punishments like a massive final being deducted enough points to be relegated down the divisions transfer bands so they can't sign any new players for the foreseeable future all of these things and that is the backdrop for yeah what will be the usual Premier League calendar once it resumes next weekend. And even here in the

40:55UK obviously Manchester City is a global club but even the prime minister who's famously a football fan and of course was mayor of Manchester he's been drawn into the rower as well in the past couple of days he has yeah he gave a comment the other day where he said it will it will be a shame if the owners which is shake man saw and but they're largely represented by Caldona Mabarak who is you know a global businessman he's on Donald Trump's board of peace to give an example of his global influence Andy Burnham the prime minister said it will be a shame if they were forced to start running the club which has led to some backlash that he's he's been commenting on it and also that he seems to be sympathetic to a club that has for now been found guilty of all these breaches and then yesterday I think it was he had to issue a clarifying statement to say that you know the process is ongoing and that you know he didn't mean to to show any favour basically so it's funny because he's I think he's made a good solid start to life as prime minister but the first thing is really for or tripped upon is his football which is obviously an issue that's dear to his heart.

41:57Well it's a very serious business of course football just briefly I mean do we think this is an isolated incident or are there concerns that this might go deeper actually. Well you know the verdict did find city guilty of all lots of breaches and a lot of cheating going back to the 2009-18 season up until so up until the 2018 season so there's a lot in there already I'm not sure how much deeper it could go but yeah you know hyperfetically speaking if if the Premier League could prove that then maybe they could prove that that more has happened but I'd say there's a lot in there already. Sam Lee thank you very much for joining us live that's Sam Lee who writes for the Athletics Sports News website that's it for this edition of News Out from me and the whole team in London thanks for joining us.