exit polls predict it will take as much as 34%, about 6% more than the left wing coalition new popular front. trailing in third is the centrist alliance of president emmanuel macron, withjust over 20%. national rally s leader marine le pen says macron s camp has been practically wiped out . here s what she told her supporters on sunday. translation: the people of france have thus - demonstrated unequivocally in this vote their desire to turn the page after seven years of the exercise of contemptuous, corrosive power. we thank the voters warmly and welcomed the result is a first step towards demonstrating a sign of confidence in us, which is an honour and an obligation. an estimated 65.5% of eligible voters cast ballots in the cast ballots first round of france s parliamentary election, according to polling company ipsos. that s the highest turnout in a french parliamentary vote since 1997. now, some party leaders are urging citizens to vote tactically in next week s second r
and that is deeply annoying. and it seems to be that the afghan military was not being consulted either as to what could a withdrawal mean for them and how it would be carried out. and what we had was this agreement between the americans and the taliban that the americans would withdraw their troops and equipment as swiftly as possible. and there was, i think, the military, the us military nato, a lot of diplomats were all hoping for a more staggered withdrawal, perhaps over three months or six months or a year even. but what was the result of president biden s decision was a very quick, hasty withdrawal, which, of course, created panic in afghanistan, strengthened the taliban and allowed them to sweep through the country and telling the government soldiers that they should leave or be
initiative and other things, and so president biden, when he attends this conference on wednesday is going to have to come up with more than just the admonition, we don t want you to do business with china, he is going to have to come up with something tangible in order to basically rekindle american influence in the region. one of the tangibles as i understood it was the initiative to tackle the migration challenge which is a very hot topic for the united states and that goes nowhere without the cooperation of neighbouring states, so where is that left? absolutely right and although the mexican government is sending its foreign minister, the absence of the president, the mexican president, is a huge blow, particularly involving discussions of that sort of subject, immigration a key
topic at this summit of the americas of course, mexico is one of the countries that contributes a lot of the illegal immigrants that form the basis of the contentious immigration argument in this region, so the white house, i think, struggling to put a positive spin on this, they are making the point that the president is to have his own separate meeting with president biden at the white house next month, they say that some key leaders from the region will be attending including the leaders of argentina and brazil along with 21 other heads of government and also ten us cabinet members, but this is a real blow, mexico s absence from this gathering. thank you very much indeed david willis. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: why the makers of the latest movie blockbuster top gun: maverick are being sued.
during a recent tour of the country. he insisted he had no idea he was breaking iraqi law. the mexican president manuel lopez obrador has pulled out of this week s summit of the americas in protest against a decision by the us not to invite countries they consider undemocratic namely cuba, venezuela and nicaragua. the white house spokeswoman explained president biden s decision. we have had candid engagement for more than a month regarding theissue for more than a month regarding the issue of invitations to the summit. it is important to acknowledge that there are a range of views on this question in our hemisphere as there are in our hemisphere as there are in the united states. the president s principal position is that we do not believe that dictators should be invited which is the reason that the president