england takes on slovakia. hello. we start here in the uk. with just five days to go before the general election, the leader of the reform uk party, nigel farage, has given a rally in birmingham. after a racism row embroiled his party in scandal. the prime minister rishi sunak described the incident as racist and inappropriate. speaking in front of 4,000 people, mr farage told crowds he felt compelled to come back to politics as an alternative to whom he called slippery sunak and sir keir starmer. mr farage also said he felt that the uk was in cultural decline. that aside, with a country that s in economic decline. and think about this. gdp per capita has fallen for the last six consecutive quarters. people are getting poorer. and i couldn t stand aside. in a country that is in genuine societal decline, safety, people fearful of going out at night, people scared to even go out to their local pub, knives being carried wholesale by young people in our country. so we are, i have
studio: the french prime minister gabriel attal giving his reaction to what has been quite a historic parliamentary election in france, if those exit polls are correct because at the moment they suggest marine lieutenant s hard right national rally party has taken the biggest share of the vote in the first round of france s parliamentary elections. these are the exit polls thus far, but if they do indicate that this is indeed marine le pen s hard right national rally party taking the biggest share of the vote in the first round, it is indeed a historic result. let s cross live to paris were my colleague is monitoring this. we havejust monitoring this. we have just heard gabriel attal give his first reaction to those exit polls. indeed and let me reaction to those exit polls. indeed and let me give reaction to those exit polls. indeed and let me give you reaction to those exit polls. indeed and let me give you a reaction to those exit polls. indeed and let me give you
to have taken the most votes in the french parliamentary election. but leaders of the left and centre have called for france to unite against marine le pen in the second round next sunday. in the last hour, the french president gabriel attal has called on voters to not give a single vote to the national rally. translation: night is not a night like any other, you know me, i am night is not a night like any other, you know me, iam not night is not a night like any other, you know me, i am not about to beat about the bush. the lesson tonight is the far right is on the doorstep of power. never before in our democracy has the national assembly risked being dominated by the extreme right as is tonight. our objective is clear, to prevent the national rally from having an absolute majority in the second round, from dominating the national assembly, and therefore governing the country. i say this with force, ideal to i appeal to everyone of our vultures. ideal to i appeal to ev
it s seven in the morning in singapore, and one in the morning in paris, where exit polls from the first round of france s parliamentary elections, suggest the far right have made historic gains. turnout was the highest, for forty years. marine le pen s hard right national rally party came top, with more than a third of the vote, followed by a surge in support for the left wing coalition, with around 28% of the vote. president macron s gamble to hold the snap election, saw his centre right alliance of parties relegated to third place. a final result won t be known for another week, with a second round of voting for the national assembly s 577 seats, next sunday. andrew harding, has the latest from paris. a kiss for marine le pen this morning. a politician once considered too extreme for most french voters, today her national rally is on a roll. and with le pen, her 28 year old protege jordan bardella, who s hoping to be france s next prime minister. results show their party,
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