america becomes the first country in the world to approve covid vaccines for babies. hello and welcome to bbc news. polling stations have opened across france in the final round of voting for parliamentary elections. at stake is control of the 577 seat national assembly, where the liberal party founded by president emmanuel macron has held sway for the last five years. but, president macron s candidates are facing strong opposition in the form of an alliance of left wing parties. i m joined now by our correspondent hugh schofield. only two months since emmanuel macron won the presidency convincingly, much of a challenge that he face this time round? it is that he face this time round? it is a big challenge. that he face this time round? it 3 a big challenge, surprising challenge, not from the far this time. but from the left. this coalition which has been created by the force of will of one man, jean luc melenchon, the man who came third in the presidential election, who ca
hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. polling stations have opened across france, in the final round of voting for parliamentary elections. at stake is control of the 577 seat national assembly, where the liberal party founded by president emmanuel macron has held sway for the last five years. but, president macron s candidates are facing strong opposition in the form of an alliance of left wing parties. our paris correspondent hugh schofield told me more a big challenge, surprising challenge, this time, but from the left. this coalition which has been created by the force of will of one man, jean luc melenchon, the man who came third in the presidential election, who came from the far left of french politics but by dint of personality and tactical genius has got all of the left or most of the left into his camp and persuaded the very demoralised socialists, communists and greens to fly under his banner, and together, as a group, they are set to
hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. polling stations have opened across france, in the final round of voting for parliamentary elections. at stake is control of the five hundred and seventy seven seat national assembly, where the liberal party founded by president emmanuel macron has held sway for the last five years. but, president macron s candidates are facing strong opposition in the form of an alliance of left wing parties. our paris correspondent hugh schofield told me more about battle facing macron s party. the big challenge, the surprising challenge, not from the far right, this time, which he faced in the presidential election, but from the left, this coalition which has been created by the force of will of one man, that isjean luc melenchon, the man who came third in the presidential election, a character from the far left of french politics, but by dint of personality and technical genius, if you like, has got all the left or most o
hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. polling stations have opened across france, in the final round of voting for parliamentary elections. at stake is control of the five hundred and seventy seven seat national assembly, where the liberal party founded by president emmanuel macron has held sway for the last five years. he held sway for the last five years. is just voting here placed he isjust voting here. he has placed his vote and we saw earlier marine le pen and jean luc bell on show, his two main rivalsjust two months ago, also placing their votes. the situation with the presidential election was that in the end, emmanuel macron won with a fairly decisive victory, but marine le pen had a lot of popular support and it was predicted that the vote may have been tighter than it was in the end, but the issue at stake there was the cost of living and french voters voicing concern that emmanuel macron was not focusing on it in the same way that mari
victory over saracens at twickenham. good morning, a precious story across the country today. cloud and across the country today. cloud and a few showers across england first thing, but there will be sunny spells around. i will tell you when and where, injust a moment. it s sunday 19th june. our main story: the transport secretary grant shapps has accused the country s biggest rail union of punishing millions of innocent people after it confirmed it will go ahead with series of crippling strikes. mr shapps said the travelling public faced a week of misery because the rail, maritime and transport union had refused repeated appeals to call off their action due to start on tuesday. our political correspondent nick eardley has more. for nick eardley has more. anyone who relies on trains next for anyone who relies on trains, the next few days are going to see significant disruption. the biggest real strikes in decades are happening and the government says it will cause misery for