here in the uk, 2022 saw the highest number of excess deaths outside the covid pandemic in half a century. and france tries again to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. it s an unpopular reform that didn t go well last time it tried. we ll be live in paris. we start in ukraine. president volodymyr zelensky has said ukraine s army is facing an extremely difficult situation as fighting continues in the eastern donbas region. the focus is the salt mining town of soledar. the uk defence ministry says it s likely that russian forces including wagner group mercenaries now control most of the town. we ll be taking a look at why it s become central to this conflict. but first, here s president zelensky. translation: and what did russia want to win there? i everything is completely destroyed. there was almost no life left. thousands of their people are gone, the whole land in soledar is covered with the corpses of the invaders and scarred from the strikes. this is what madness loo
if you wish to serve, who here would be happy to have borisjohnson in the cabinet? please, raise your hands. not a single hand raised. we ll take a look at what this says about the leadership race so far. and jenny from the block becomes mrs affleck. nearly 20 years after they first dated, jennifer lopez and ben affleck tie the knot. hello and welcome. britain s first extreme heat warning has come into effect with parts of southern england expected to reach a0 celsius later today for the first time. the government says it s treating the unprecedented red alert as a national emergency. western europe is experiencing its second fierce heatwave in recent weeks, causing wildfires and mass evacuations in several countries. mark lobel reports. almost a week on, the wildfires in the south west of france continue to spread. more than 14,000 continue to spread. more than 1a,000 people have been evacuated as two forest fires and golf over 11,000 hectares of land. the development are no
Hungary's maize harvest is expected to reach 5.3 million tonnes this year, the Agriculture Ministry said on Thursday, citing the latest data from the National Agriculture Chamber (NAK).