It turns out articles in France and Britain (5)
I believe the answer is:
lathe
'it turns' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'articles in france and britain' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'articles' could be 'athe' ('a' and 'the', indefinite and definite articles) and 'athe' is found in the answer.
A single letter 'l' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'out' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lathe that I've seen before include "8 [TURNER]" , "Turner's tool" , "Machine for cutting, drilling or polishing" , "This is turned out" , "Rotating machine tool" .)