The extra security follows the murder of a policeman in paris on thursday. In a separate incident on saturday a Man Threatened Police with a knife at the gare du nord Train Station in paris. It led to temporary panic among travellers. It all comes ahead of french people abroad casting their votes. In the lull before frances president ial vote, those out campaigning today werent supporting politicians. This rally was for the police. Chanting. Black balloons for those killed in the line of duty. Pink for the family they leave behind. Their message, the police need protecting too. I am a wife of policeman and i am very, very angry because i love him and i dont want that someone come here and kill him like that. One of the balloons was for xavierjugele, attacked on the Champs Elysee on thursday night by a lone gunmen with an automatic Weapon Targeting Policemen in the heart of paris. Xavier was on duty near the bataclan during the 2015 paris attacks and went back for a concert when the hal
Im stephen sackur. In just a few days from now, pope francis will fly to egypt to offer his personal support to egypts Coptic Christians. Hell find a community filled with apprehension, targeted byjihadist extremists, and subject to persistent discrimination and sectarian violence. Elsewhere in the middle east, in syria and iraq, the plight of christians is even worse. My guest today is the general bishop of the Coptic Church in the uk, bishop angaelos. Do christians have any future at all in the middle east . Bishop angaelos, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Do you think there is something substantively different about the nature of the threat faced by Coptic Christians in egypt today . Because they have faced threats for many, many years. Yes. We have faced threats for centuries, and particularly over the past decades, but to have Suicide Bombers in churches is is a shift, and it looks like the mirroring of attacks in other parts of the world. And think that is why it has shocked the
Since ive been gone . What has been going on. And. Hes back. Barack 0bama has returned to The Public Eye with a speech in his hometown of chicago. Im katty kay in washington, Christian Fraser is in paris. If you ever wanted an election about change, try france this weekend. French voters have just upended decades of political tradition, ousting the main parties and promoting two outliers. In almost equal numbers they voted for a young, centrist man who doesnt even have a party and an older, far right woman who captured a desire for nationalist revival. The two candidates will debate on wednesday and face each other in a second round vote on may the 7th. The meteoric rise of Emmanuel Macron has been remarkable he resigned from the Socialist Party a year ago and no one thought hed do this well. Equally showstopping is Marine Le Pen, whos transformed the Front National and made it a force in this race. The bbcs Lucy Willamson has this report. Two years ago, he was a new face in politics.