we'll bring you live analysis from across the country, on one of the most significant french elections in years. the new prime minister, keir starmer, tours the uk's nations, his first stop, edinburgh. demonstrations across israel, urging the government to reach a deal with hamas. the group is reported to have accepted a us proposal to begin talks of a hostage release. and four volunteers emerge from a small compound in texas, having spent more than a year living in conditions simulating those on mars. hello, i'm samantha simmons. people in france are continuing to cast their ballots in the second round of parliamentary elections. earlier, president macron has cast his vote in le touquet. turnout — so far — appears on course to be highest in over a0 years.

final opinion polls suggest marine le pen's far—right national rally will secure the most votes, but it's thought it's unlikely to win an outright majority in the national assembly. such an outcome could plunge the country into a chaotic hung parliament, severely denting the authority of president emmanuel macron. the anti—immigration national rally scored historic gains in last sunday's first—round vote, giving le pen and the party's leaderjordan bardella their first realistic chance of running the government and taking control of the national assembly. however, after hundreds of rival candidates from centrist and leftist parties dropped out to give their allies a better chance of defeating the far—right, le pen's hopes of winning an absolute majority seem less certain. mark lowen reports. rarely have france's fraternal founding values felt so strained. but in this polarised, angry country, they voted in the most crucial parliamentary election in decades. the far right national rally is at the gates of power

for the first time since the second world war, eyeing a parliamentary majority. but across france, opposition candidates have dropped out in three—way races, urging supporters to unite behind a single figure who can stop the far right. its hard line on immigration attracts some, horrifies others. we are completely invaded. they invade all the... everywhere you go in the provence. they are pretty beautiful towns. and they are completely not french any more. do you still believe in macron? um, i think i vote more to block the far right than vote for macron. many voters today are being asked to hold their noses and back a candidate who could stop a far right majority. the question is whether enough will do it, or whether that will actually galvanise national rally supporters, furious at what they'll see

as a stitch up to block them from power. the prime minister cast his ballot, knowing france has been plunged into uncertainty by president macron�*s snap poll, with probably either a far right majority or a hung parliament and paralysis. france, europe, ukraine and beyond are on edge. earlier, mark lowen was joined by, brian and marie — national rally and macron voters respectively — and they told him more about their decision—making. brian, you voted for the national rally, the far right. explain why. today in france, we have an amazing and beautiful country, but i think one of the main issues we have is safety. i've travelled myself, and this is something shared across the world. we need a little more safety. of course, there are flaws in a lot of the programmes, but what is the point of working

and putting your soul into the country, don't see my daughter, working every night to come back and having my wife working at home not being safe. then you get to the point we say, ok, i need something. i need my country at least to be safe. it's the main thing. marie, it is the sense of security and law and order that the national rally are promising. do you worry about some of the other promises? i worry about the far—right party, yes. i believe it's a very racist movement, and i worry for my fundamental rights and for the fundamental rights of people of colour, people of different origins, people of lgbt+, so i worry about that. i believe it's a danger for france. you voted for macron�*s candidates. do you feel frustrated

with the president of calling a snap election that could backfire? yes. it was a decision i didn't really understand and i was frustrated because i thought it was a situation that could have been dangerous if it was handing the election to the national rally. i think he is hoping to get a majority and have a renewed face from voters, but that is not really what happened here. yes, difficult situation. brian, marie called the party racist, would you accept that? i think what they are saying seems racist, but i don't agree with it, and i'm not part of it. i think safety is the number one thing. when candidates are saying you have to unarm police for them to be respected, i've travelled to the us. they've also got a lot of problems. from what i've seen in spain and the us, police are respected. i say hi to the police

because i've grown up there. i have this respect and honour to the police, and i thank them for the service. here, it's totally the reverse. police, when you say hi to the police, they want to stop you and say, is everything 0k. safety is the main thing right now, and it's not about racism. racism isjust... theyjust use it as it a counter—effect. our correspondent azadeh moshiri has sent this report from auxerre — which is a rassemblement national stronghold. we're here in front of a polling station in auxerre in burgundy. the national rally has dominated politics here, local politics, since 2020 and many people we've spoken to, like others across france, are hoping that the far right comes to power in an historic election and takes over the national assembly. now, it wasn't always this way. yes, daniel grenon, the incumbent national rally, has taken more than 40% of the vote

in the first round. but before, this used to be fertile ground for the left. auxerre had a socialist mayor for nearly two decades. but people decided, as we've spoken to them, that life has become too difficult and they needed change. that feeling is spreading like wildfire across france. and what about emmanuel macron�*s politics, his centrist project? well, his candidate didn't even make it to the second round here. here's what one resident, anne, had to say about the president. translation: and the fact is, he did not take into account. day to day hardships for families and people who are having trouble, especially in small towns and the rural areas. translation: and what are those hardships? - translation: difficulty to make it to the end . of the month to pay electricity and gas bills. difficulty to find work. here it's really hard to find work. another told us he thought emmanuel macron was arrogant, thought

he believed he was a king. sensing we were from britain, said he thinks he's charles iii. we'll see tonight whether that feeling, that rejection to such a scale of emmanuel macron�*s centrist project will be reflected in tonight's results. now let's look at toulouse in the south west of france, an area where the left has traditionally done very well. in the first round of the parliamentary election last sunday, the left—wing coalition came out on top. our reporter chris bockman is there. like in paris, i can tell you that the asamblea nacional, or the far right, are pretty much contesting every single constituency that there is in this region, and there's a good chance that they're going to pick up a lot of seats. was dissolved just a few weeks ago, the centrist, the president of macron�*s party and his alliance on the left, on the centre, um, had lots of mps.

they even had a minister. the minister had to give up after the first round to stop splitting the vote. um, these other mps who are from macron�*s party are. there's a good chance they'll be swept aside. will they go to the far left and to this kind of centre left socialist tradition? or would it go to the far right? the key thing is, is that here, the further you go from the city centre, the more the far right gains in strength. in fact, when i say gains and strength, ten years ago, they didn't even get double—digit figures. now they're getting 38, 39, 40, 41%. so you really...it�*s difficult to say whether this pick up in voting that we've seen as well this time round favours one or the other. voting ends in this, the second round of french up up 20%. the turnout figure was also

up from the corresponding figure of 59.39% in the first round of elections last week. so just a fraction so far. the voting ends on the second round of the elections that seven vm british standard time. the prime minister is beginning his tour of the uk's nations today. sir keir starmer is travelling first to scotland where he'll meet the first minister and snp leader john swinney. meanwhile, the new business secretary, jonathan reynolds, says the threat to nearly 3,000 jobs at the tata steelworks in wales is a major priority for the government, and he is holding talks with the company. here's our political correspondent harry farley. last week's festival of democracy is over, and the clear—up is under way in westminster. for the new government, the difficult decisions begin. there are immediate questions about the future of steel production in port talbot after the previous conservative government agreed

a rescue package that would keep the plant open but would mean losing thousands of jobs. the business secretary says it's an immediate priority. there is more money available for the steel industry under our plans for government, but that's about making sure we meet this transition with the private sector together. but there is a better deal available for port talbot and the steel industry as a whole, i'm sure of that. are you guaranteeing those jobs this morning? well, i'm going to make sure that job guarantees are part of the negotiation that we're having. but already there are signs of tensions with unions over the rules labour sets itself on how much it can borrow and spend. we are going to have to borrow to invest. we haven't got time to wait for growth. people are literally hurting out there, and we're going to have to borrow to invest. and our crumbling public services need money. for the conservatives, the postmortem has started. two thought to be considering bids to lead the party, offering their analysis, but not quite their own ambitions. we didn't have a good enough diagnosis ofjust how broken some

of our public services were, and we didn't have the willingness to take the tough decisions that were necessary to deliver for the british public. the reason i came on today was genuinely not to talk about leadership, because this is not the moment for this. we need to show the public that we understand, they have sent us some very, very loud messages that we are listening, that we are reflecting, and then we, as a party, need to get together and unite and work out what we want for the future. the tory leadership battle will take shape in the coming days. for labour, they face the tough decisions of government as they decide how to use their large majority. harry farley also gave us this update a little earlier. one of the things, though, that we've spoken about is the relatively low proportion of votes that labour won, given the scale of that majority. but what sir keir starmer argues is that he won a majority of seats

across england, wales and scotland, and particularly in scotland. as you say, he's using that to make the argument that there is an opportunity for a reset, a different and better way of those different parts of the uk interacting with each other. so he's visiting john swinney, the snp�*s first minister in scotland today. he's going to offer them 0ffer scotland a seat back at the table and said what he says is putting scotland back at the beating heart of everything the uk does. then it's off to northern ireland tomorrow and wales and sir keir starmer, isuppose, hoping to demonstrate that his labour government is, is hitting the ground running and making the most of that large majority that they did win last week. hello from the bbc sport centre. let's start at wimbledon — and another delay to the outside courts today, due to the weather. the men's defending champion carlos alcaraz is being tested. but drama in the women's round of 16 tie featuring french open finallist jasmine paolini. chetan pathak is there for us. quite an eventful match for paolini?

rain might be hampering rain on the outside courts, but on the show courts, that's not a problem with the roof. we'll start with that extraordinary match between paoli the and madison keys. it was brilliant, but unfortunately madison keys felt something in her leg. she was 5—2 up in the deciding set. she appeared to feel something at 5—4 and then took a medical timeout. she returned with strapping on her leg and was immediately broken by paoli and was immediately broken by paoli and e. keys could not continue, so in tears and high emotion, she had to leave the court. not the way paolini would want to do it, but the italian is through to her first quarterfinal. 0n centre court, the defending champion carlos alcaraz

dominating. credit to humbert, fighting back. temp one is —— alcaraz is trying to hold onto his serve at the moment. he could take a leave there. and try and take us to a fifth set if we can. ya nixon is the world number one against the very entertaining ben shelton the american. yannick senna seems to have taken a break in the first set. he has broken shelton so trying to see out a 4—2 lead. we are going to see out a 4—2 lead. we are going to see emma raducanu later. she is up against the new zealand qualifier. emma raducanu had issues with her wrist which caused her to pull out of their mixed doubles with andy murray so she could focus on her singles run. coco gauff to come

later as well. she's up against m navarro. so much still to be decided here. after england and the netherlands finalised the last—four lineup at the euros in dramatic fashion on saturday. attention now turns to the first of the semi—finals on tuesday, which is an eye—catching match between three—time winners spain against two—time champions france. it'll be a clash of styles in munich. spain have been one of the most entertaining teams in the tournament, whilst france needed penalties to get through their quarter—final against portugal and have been criticised for not scoring from open play. translation: personally, i don't | care, because in the end we are| semifinalists. i don't know why we would go looking for that little bit extra now we are in the final four and now we have to all get together, translation: personally, i don't | care, because in the end we are| semifinalists. i don't know why we would go looking for that little bit

extra now we are in the final four and now we have to all get together, including the media and especially the french media and moving in the right direction to lift the trophy and not say that the style of play is not good, because in the end it's been sufficient. stage nine of the tour de france is nearing its final stages and also the british grand prix is ongoing. lewis hamilton is currently leading. follow all that on the bbc sport website but that's all your sport for now. with ongoing conflicts in ukraine and the middle east — foreign policy is high up the agenda for the new prime minister. he's been busy speaking to a number of world leaders — including president biden — and this morning keir starmer spoke with both israel's prime minister and the palestinian president. while reiterating his condolences for the tragic loss of life following the october attacks with benjamin netanyahu, he also set out the urgent need for a ceasefire, the return of hostages and an immediate increase in aid reaching civilians. meanwhile, a senior hamas official is reported to have been killed

in a strike on a school housing displaced palestinians in gaza city. hamas media said ehab al—ghussein was killed alongside three other people. the news comes as sources from hamas say the palestinian armed group has accepted washington's proposal to begin talks on releasing hostages also dropping their demand that israel first commit to a permanent ceasefire. 0ur correspondent injerusalem, sebastian usher, told me more about the protests and hopes for a deal. well, the protests have been going on since this morning. they started at the symbolic time of 6.29, local time. that was when hamas launched its first rockets on october the 7th. this is the nine—month anniversary of that. there's going to be a week of protests, all of which are putting pressure on the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to act now to have a ceasefire. there is anger, grief and pain. president herzog, the israeli

president, has just made a statement on twitter saying the state will do everything it can to get the hostages back and that the majority of people here want a deal to do that. so the pressure is building. there has been some hope. the sources from hamas suggest, although no official announcement, that they have made a key concession in line with the three phase proposal that president biden outlined more than five weeks ago. that suddenly reenergised the ceasefire process, which had been in the doldrums. we have seen false starts before. this time, it looks serious, but the israelis are at the moment keeping expectations in check. there will be an israeli delegation sent to talks in the coming days, possibly in egypt, possibly in qatar or both. those are two of the main mediators with the us. we have also heard that the head of the cia will be attending these talks. we have heard that before and they haven't resulted

in anything, but the signs are better this time than we have seen for some time. 0n the ground, we have heard in the past half hour, according to palestinian sources, an israeli strike has killed a member of the civil administration of hamas, the deputy labour minister in gaza city. we have asked the israeli army for comment. they say they will get back to us, but that shows, as other incidents continue to show, that israel has continued to carry out strikes where and when it believes it is necessary for what it sees as its battle to denude hamas of notjust military, but political capacity. that is what israel will still be wanting after the ceasefire. that is where compromises still need to be made. leading us democrats are reportedly set for emergency talks after president biden insisted he won't drop his bid for re—election. it comes amid growing unease amongst party colleagues after mr biden�*s

poor tv debate against donald trump. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes has the latest. if the lord almighty came down and said, "joe, get out of the race," i'd get out of the race. the lord almighty is not coming down. a high—profile tv interview but the uncertainty goes on. unless the lord almighty convinces him to step down, joe biden told abc news�* george stephanopoulos in this exclusive interview he's going nowhere. and if you stay in, and trump is elected, and everything are you're warning about comes to pass, how will you feel in january? i'll feel as long as i gave it my all, and i did as good a job as i know i can do, this is what this is about. but since that interview, a fifth member of the house of representatives has urged mr biden to call it a day. this was angie craig from the state of minnesota after donald trump's awkward debate performance. the president needs to get out there and show the american people he is up to it. but now she says he has to go,

explaining in a statement... the next few hours could be crucialfor mr biden. the leader of the democrats in the house, hakeem jeffries, is reported by us media to be planning an emergency meeting with senior colleagues. if they decide to try to convince him to drop out, the president could be facing a clarion call rather than the current low—key pressure to rethink his position. donald trump, meanwhile, has taken to social media to mock mr biden, suggesting he should... there are now less than four months till the election and if the democrats are to change their candidate, time is running out to launch an effective campaign with a new man or woman up against donald trump. peter bowes, bbc news. the funeral of the former

leeds rhinos player, rob burrow has taken place in his home town of pontefract. members of the public lined the streets of the west yorkshire town to remember burrow who died last month, after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2019. he had gained a huge following of fans, who were inspired by his work as a campaigner, raising millions of pounds for mnd charities. 0ur reporter phil bodmer sent this update from featherstone lions rugby league club where rob burrow began his career. well, they came out in their thousands to pay their final respects on rob burrow�*s final journey between his hometown of castleford, where he was born, through the streets of featherstone and on to pontefract crematorium. this is rugby league heartland. this is where, although many teams here are great rivals, they are also united because they share a common bond and rugby league really is a community. the number of people who talked

about what rob burrow meant to them, about what rob burrow meant to them, not only for his playing career and his achievements during that long career, especially with the leeds rhinos. but the work he's done in more recent years after that diagnosis of motor neurone disease in 2019, shortly after he retired from the sport and the amount of fundraising together with kevin sinfield, his former team—mate some £15 million in order to try and build a motor neurone centre at leeds hospital at seacroft hospital. many people really respect him and admired him for that work, and the fact that we're all much more aware of mnd now, and the fact that many more people are talking about it. today was a poignant day, but it was also a celebration of a life lived and a huge achievement for a man who was held in such great affection and regard by those who knew him and admired by those who didn't. rob burrow, a legend whose legacy will live on.

let's return to our stop top story. the second round of parliamentary elections in france. this is a polling station in toulouse. in the last 20 minutes or so, the interior ministry in front saying that the voter turnout in this round stood at 59.7%, up significantly from a corresponding figure of 38.11% in the last election of 2022. the highest turnout in a0 years. we have live coverage of the elections. two and a half hours to go in voting, and a half hours to go in voting, and we will have full coverage is those results come in. stay with us on bbc news. hello there! it was a promising start to our sunday morning. lots of sunshine around, but the showers have been developing, some of them turning out heavy and thundery. and that's how it's looking for the rest of the day.

these heavy and thundery showers pushing from west to east. england and wales, which will see most of these torrential downpours because of this weather front, which is enhancing them as it's moving across the country, fewer showers and lighter winds further north. in fact, parts of western south west scotland could stay dry altogether today, quite pleasant in the sunshine and maybe turning a bit dry behind the heavy showers for wales and south west england too. now winds still a feature across southern areas. quite breezy. a strong westerly breeze further north. much lighter winds, but the temperatures still disappointing for this time injuly. mid to high teens from north to south across the country. so, yes, there will be some disruption to play at wimbledon today and again tomorrow, courtesy of a new area of low pressure moving up from the south. now as we head through this evening, the showers fade away quite quickly, in fact, and overnight skies will clear widely with light winds. it's going to turn quite chilly. temperatures in single digits

in towns and cities even lower than these temperatures suggest out of town, but recovering across the south. and that's because we've got a new area of low pressure moving up from the south that will introduce more cloud outbreaks of rain and southerly breezes from the near continent. so we start cool, but fine. lots of sunshine around for monday morning quite quickly though, rain and cloud will be pushing into southern britain, spreading northwards, probably reaching mid wales, the midlands later in the day. further north, a few showers developing, the odd heavier one but some good sunny spells continuing and i think with more sunshine around tomorrow, central and eastern parts will see highs of 20 or 21 degrees, but for most it's the mid to high teens. a bit of a grotty looking day on tuesday. that rain pushes northwards monday night into tuesday, the heavy rains pushing into scotland and northern ireland, some strong easterly winds as well. england and wales will see the winds turn lighter and we'll see a mixture of sunshine and scattered, potentially heavy, thundery downpours. top temperatures around 20 or 21 degrees once again. unfortunately, it does look unsettled as we move

through the rest of the week. low pressure always nearby, bringing showers or longer spells of rain. temperatures remaining just below average for the time of year.

this is bbc news. the headlines: voters cast their ballots in france, where a second round of parliamentary elections is under way. turnout appears on course to be the highest in over a0 years.

centrist and left—wing parties mount a joint effort to block the far—right national rally. the british prime minister, keir starmer, is travelling to scotland which is led by a pro—independence party. sir keir wants to improve relations between the central government and other parts of the united kingdom. protests in israel, with demands the government reach a deal with hamas to ensure the release of the remaining hostages in gaza. the palestinian armed group is reported to have accepted a us proposal to begin talks of a release. and four volunteers have emerged from a small compound in texas where they've spent more than a year in conditions simulating those on mars. the american space agency, nasa, wants to find out how they've coped. the new business secretary has said "job guarantees" will form part of the negotiations with steel giant tata about its port talbot site. jonathan reynolds said there was "a better deal available" on the future of the plant, but said newer technologies would employ fewer people.

we see this as a major priority.