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 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
set to bring the rail network to a grinding halt from tuesday they are the biggest strikes in decades. instead of 20,000 trains on a normal day, just one in five services may run. government says children heading to take exams or patients to medical appointments will face disruption. but under pressure to take part in talks with the unions it says it won t. train operating companies have to settle this. i don t think there is any need for the strikes at all and i appeal directly to people working for the railways, you are being led down a cul de sac by the union leadership telling you there is no pay rise when there is, trying to create some kind of class war when there is none to be had. we want people to be paid more, we want to sensible reforms and modernisation of our railways so we can run it for the passengers. the government says it has spent billions propping up the railways in the pandemic and it now wants to see them modernised. the union which was part of the cost
a photo of the duke of cambridge with his children is released to celebrate father s day. good afternoon. the transport secretary says it s not for the government to intervene to try to prevent three days of strikes on the railways this week. grant shapps dismissed calls from the rmt union to get involved in the dispute as a stunt saying it s for the employers and unions to reach an agreement. mr shapps says the strikes would be an act of self harm. the labour leader, sir keir starmer, says the government wants the strikes to go ahead to sow division in society. here s our political correspondent, damian grammaticas. set to bring the rail network to a grinding halt from tuesday, they are the biggest strikes in decades. instead of 20,000 trains on a normal day, just one in five services may run. government says children heading to take exams or patients to medical appointments will face disruption. but, under pressure to take part in talks with the unions, it says it w
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