The Economist.

Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist.

I'm your host, Rosie Bloor.

Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Thank you. Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. Home rental costs have been going up and up in recent years.

Our correspondent explains what's going on and asks whether those of us who can't afford to get on the housing ladder have any chance of respite.

And Oleg Gordievsky came from a family of spies, so it made sense when he became a KGB

officer, but he also ended up spying for Britain and later defecting. Our obitaries editor

remembers his extraordinary double life.

But first...

It was a political earthquake.

Marine Le Pen's outspoken views on immigration and Islam have made her one of the most popular politicians in France.

She brought the hard right party her father founded into the heart of the country's political system and had led the polls for the first round of the 27 presidential election. Yesterday, she was banned

from running for any elected office for five years. A criminal court in Paris found Le Pen and a number

of other members of the National Rally Party guilty of

misusing four million euros of European public funds to finance their party.

The penalty was unusually and unexpectedly harsh. It ruins Le Pen's bid to succeed in Manuel

Macron as president and leaves the National Rally Party in disarray.

Marine Le Pen seemed absolutely livid yesterday. She left the courtroom before the

presiding judge had even read out her sentence. She just walked out, carried her handbag,

disappeared into the car and was off. She muttered under her breath, unbelievable.

Sophie Pedder is our Paris Bureau Chief.

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