The party itself and marine Le Pen, of course they deny all this. Its going to be a long trial, a couple of months as they go through all the evidence. At the end of it, though, whats crucial and why this trial matters is that it is marine Le Pen s political future which is very much at stake. Why . Because one of the potential penalties she could suffer if shes found guilty is an ineligibility for office. She could be banned from standing for public office for a period of, say, five years. And that would mean she couldnt stand in the next president ial election in 2027. Marine Le Pen is Riding High right now in french politics. Her party did very well in the last elections. It can make or break this Sitting Government of michel barnier. Her next step is this bid for the presidency again in 2027. But if this guilty verdict, if its a guilty verdict and it ends in an ineligibility for office, that obviously means that that plan is up in smoke, and she will need urgently a plan b. We have
our response. at least one person is killed as russia bombs ukrainian cities overnight minutes after its self imposed ceasefire ended. few expected the ceasefire to hold in any way. it was announced by russia in the first place and russia was never going to engage. but there is still heavy shelling coming down from the russian side. tens of thousands of orthodox christians in ethiopia celebrate christmas at churches in the historic town of laleebella for the first time since the conflict in tigray began in 2020. hello and welcome to bbc news. the uk prime minister rishi sunak has given his first tv interview of the year to the bbc s laura kuennsberg. mr sunak addressed concerns over nurses strikes and said he will talk to the royal college of nursing union about pay but does not commit to increasing wages now to end their strike action. he also defended his economic policies as being deeply conservative . our political correspondent damian grammaticas has been listen to
gathered at border crossings between hong kong and the mainland on sunday to take advantage of the latest relaxation. here s what some of them had to say. translation: i m so happy, so happy, so excited. - i haven t seen my parents for many years. my parents aren t in good health and i couldn t go back to see them even when they were ill, so i m really happy to go back and see them now. i can t wait to go back to the mainland. it s been three years. we have no time to delay now the board is unimpeded. the boarder is unimpeded. last time i came to hong kong i had to wait for two weeks. in the end, i had no choice but to go back to turkey . because i couldn t enter china. our reporter, martin yip is at the hong kong zhuhai macau bridge checkpoint. martin, you are there where people are boarding shuttles to get into mainland china. is it that simple now the quarantine has been dropped, are there no test can theyjust head