the un tells the taliban to reverse its decision banning afghan women working for humanitarian agencies after five major organisations suspend their work in afghanistan. hello and welcome to bbc news. we start in america where at least 50 people are now known to have died due to the severe arctic freeze, that continues to affect the us and canada. one of the worst hit areas is the city of buffalo, in new york state, where the governor called the storm an epic, once in a lifetime event . the bbc s, emily unia, has the latest. the arctic storm pummelling the us and canada caused christmas chaos for millions. thousands of flights were cancelled, and roads and railways were closed or impassible, preventing people from reaching friends and family. emergency services battled treacherous conditions to carry out rescues. fatalities have been confirmed across the us. one of the worst hit areas was new york state, especially in buffalo and hamburg in erie county. snow blanketed st
in france in the first round of parliamentary elections. the election, called to widespread surprise by president emmanuel macron, has thrown french politics into disarray. support for the anti immigration and eurosceptic national rally party has surged despite president macron s pledges to stop its rise. the far right national rally is widely expected to come in first place. in the 577 member national assembly, pa rliament s lower house. but it remains unclear if the party will secure an outright majority. the shape of the new parliament will become clear after the second round of voting onjuly 7. i am joined by prof jonah levy, vice chair of the department of political science, specialising in french and west european politics at the university of california, berkeley. thank you forjoining us. first of all, remind us, why did president emmanuel macron call this snap election? this snap election? president emmanuel this snap election? president emmanuel macron this snap
this time last year, we were seeing clear signs that ukraine s much heralded summer offensive wasn t doing very well. russia had had plenty of time to prepare its defences and ukraine simply couldn t break through them. the next phase, inevitably, would be a russian spring offensive, after the snow and mud of the winter gave way to firmer ground under the tracks and wheels of the tanks and armoured personnel carriers. ukraine s supporters around the world were nervous. might this be the moment when russia came crashing back, recapturing the ground it had lost and even maybe threatening kyiv, the ukrainian capital? the delays in getting the big us support package through seemed to make things much worse. and yet it hasn t happened. russia has made some gains, admittedly, but there s been no actual breakthrough. the bbc ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse, is back in london briefly, and i asked him for his view of what was happening. after ukraine weathered that initialstor
of that competition. this time last year, we were seeing clear signs that ukraine s much heralded summer offensive wasn t doing very well. russia had had plenty of time to prepare its defences and ukraine simply couldn t break through them. the next phase, inevitably, would be a russian spring offensive, after the snow and mud of the winter gave way to firmer ground under the tracks and wheels of the tanks and armoured personnel carriers. ukraine s supporters around the world were nervous. might this be the moment when russia came crashing back, recapturing the ground it had lost and even maybe threatening kyiv, the ukrainian capital? the delays in getting the big us support package through seemed to make things much worse. and yet it hasn t happened. russia has made some gains, admittedly, but there s been no actual breakthrough. the bbc ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse, is back in london briefly, and i asked him for his view of what was happening. after ukraine weath
from the bbc s headquarters here in sunny london. in our programme today: is russia s summer offensive turning out to be as successful as ukraine feared? this summer, notably, for the first time, they are saying things like, we don t really know what our goal is other than to stay alive. the idea of pushing the russians to the border, certainly in the east, feels far fetched to them. who owns the moon? and what are different countries planning to do there? you look at pictures of the moon, and it looks as bare as anything, but people have valued what s up there as being anywhere between sort of billions of dollars and quadrillions of dollars. and with the euros in full flow, who stands to gain from football success? if you get to a stage, and we ve seen this in certain leagues in europe, one team dominates too much, then perhaps that will begin to affect the popularity and the appeal of that competition. this time last year, we were seeing clear signs that ukraine s much he