democratic lawmakers to end his re—election campaign. fears for russian dissident vladimir kara—murza, who's been taken to a prison hospital. we speak to his wife, evgenia. hello, i'm carl nasman. welcome to the programme. a coalition of left—wing parties in france has pulled off a shock election victory over the country's far—right, although no group is projected to win a parliamentary majority. sunday's outcome defied expectations after the far—right national rally party won handily in the first round of voting last week. these were the scenes as supporters of the left—wing coalition celebrated in paris. translation: i really was not expecting it. i right now, it's a moment

of pure emotion and it really gives us hope again, since i was really down emotionally. it's beautiful and it makes us believe even more. the bbc�*s europe editor katya adler is in paris and has more on the reaction across the country. in a shock result for all and a huge relief for many here, the left—far—left coalition has unexpectedly become the biggest party in the french parliament, beating the far—right. translation: the vote is final. the defeat of the president and his coalition has been clearly confirmed. equally stunned by tonight's results, marine le pen�*s national rally party. so sure victory would be theirs, except it wasn't. at an absolute loss for words, it seems. this has been a huge slap in the face for marine le pen�*s party. all the polls before this election had predicted they at least would become the largest party in the french parliament. they said they were poised to govern but the french people today said

a resounding non. confusingly, their star had shone so brightly in the first round of this election. translation: unfortunately, an alliance of dishonour - and a dangerous electoral arrangement set up by this government with the far—left coalition has deprived the french people of a political recovery. so, emmanuel macron�*s gamble calling a snap election paid off — or did it? no party has a majority to govern in france now and president macron�*s prime minister hasjust announced his resignation. just ahead of hosting the olympic games, with all eyes on france, this eu and military power — key ally of ukraine — has plunged into political limbo. and when france is unstable and distracted, the impact can reverberate outside the country, too. katya adler, bbc news, paris. the left—wing alliance, called the new popular front, came together after president emmanuel macron called a snap

parliamentary election in june. it has now achieved its goal of blocking the french far—right from winning a majority. here's a closer look at the projections. the new popular front will take between 177 and 192 seats. emmanuel macron�*s centrist ensemble coalition will have 152 to 158 seats. and the far—right national rally party in third, projected to take from 138 to 145 seats. none of the groups came close to the 289 seats required for an absolute majority. piotr smolar is a senior correspondent for le monde here in washington. just talk about the fall out from this election mean, the political chaos and what france will be facing now, after the second round in this election. this is an earthquake and obviously the dust has not

settled yet, so we do not know exactly what will be the following steps but here is the problem — we know what a majority of the french said no to, which is a far—right government, but we do not exactly know what they want. and here is the thing — every side interprets this event, this major political event in a different way, so obviously, there was quite an extraordinary reaction of the french people to the threats of a far—right government with a very high turnout, but french society is also tired and even exhausted, in a way, because of the constant polarisation and the political hysteria. so this is definitely not a blank cheque to the left, to this new block that emerged, as you mentioned, just a few weeks ago. so, the celebration of the left bloc is understandable but we have to keep in mind the fact that those parties within this bloc are very divided on some major issues, despite the fact that they are united against the far—right.

they do not agree on russia. they do not agree on the war in ukraine. they do not agree on nato. they do not agree on atomic — on nuclear energy. even their economic programme is not very realistic. it's basically based on the illusion that money is free, so... given that broad umbrella that you are describing with the far—left, jean—luc melenchon, the leader, said we are ready to form a new government. we want to rule now. is that realistic? could that happen? it is absolutely not realistic. jean—luc melenchon mentioned the fact that this bloc has a list of basically 15 initiatives for the next two months and if someone wants to join, they have to take everything or nothing. this is absolutely not realistic. but here is the problem — we are facing right now two different scenarios. the first one is total chaos and stalemate in the french parliament —

and that is very likely, actually, which would mean we would have a technical government, a minority government, and maybe — maybe — a new dissolution of the national assembly by emmanuel macron because that would be allowed then. the second option is this sort of — what would be really a miracle in french political terms and tradition — which would be a rainbow coalition that would go from basically traditional left, putting aside jean—luc melenchon�*s party, to the centre—right. but we are very, very far from it right now. that is something we often see in other european governments, not so common in france. i want total about the far—right because, on the one hand, it was a huge gain for the far—right in terms of seats, but not getting that majority, not getting the control they wanted — what will it mean now for the far—right in france? look, marine le pen said tonight — and i think your

correspondent mentioned it — that the tide is rising. we should not fool ourselves — what we call the republican front was incredibly efficient to avoid the threat of a far—right government in france but the far—right is on the rise constantly and it is a long—term strategy. 22 years ago, marine le pen's father was the first one who broke the ceiling by getting into the second round of the presidential election and since then, this party has gone through rebranding, through cleaning, through a sort of whitewashing. they are trying to erase the most controversial aspects of its history. they're not really succeeding in some of that, as we saw in the last few days before this vote. but nevertheless, they have, right now, the largest group ever in the national assembly and so, this is a success for them. interesting. we have about 50 seconds left but i have to ask you.

i know you have a book coming out onjewish identity called bad jew. there were many forces at play here during the election. it was interesting, though, to see anti—semitism really play maybe a very strong role, a leading role, in the lead—up to this election. absolutely. as you mentioned, i am based in dc, so i follow this campaign from afar but as a journalist and as a citizen, i was really appalled by the very idea that anti—semitism and jews could be one of the main topics in the national french election. so, anti—semitism is obviously in play on the far—right but unfortunately, it is also developed quite strongly in the far left, especially injean—luc melenchon�*s party — and especially since october 7 and the war in gaza. us presidentjoe biden is facing fresh calls to end his re—election bid as questions mount over his fitness to run. on a leadership call convened by the top democrat in the us house of representatives on sunday, at least four senior house democrats said that

biden should step aside as presidential candidate — that's according to our us news partner cbs. that's as mr biden sought to ease concerns among voters on sunday with campaign stops in the battleground state of pennsylvania. i've been speaking with brian stelter, a media commentator and special correspondent at vanity fair, who has been following the president's re—election campaign. always great to have you on bbc. the house democrats holding this private call, basically a zoom conference. several reportedly saying they would call on president biden to drop out of the race. this is already a leaky dam for president biden. at what point do you think this might start to burst? i would say in the next few hours. i would say monday morning east coast time when congress reconvenes, when lawmakers are back physically together on capitol hill. this will be a major test for president biden. we're talking here sunday night overnight into monday morning —

the next few days are the ultimate test for the american president because many of the whispers, many of the private conversations, they're either going to start becoming public now or they may never become public at all. the fact congress is back in session is the staging ground for what could be a very real rebellion against biden. conversely, it could be a moment where this starts to fade away. my bet is it is going to be the former, we will see this rebellion take place in public, but either way this will be a decisive week for the american president and for the democratic party. while that call was taking place, the president was making this flurry of appearances. he was in pennsylvania, he's been in wisconsin, of course, he did that big sitdown interview with abc news. do you think that this strategy of putting the president a bit more out there, making appearances, is paying off? is it working to relieve the concerns of the democrats and the activists and the donors who want him out? no. those concerns are not being relieved. those are not being mitigated.

in fact, at every appearance, you can find some new reason to be worried, whether it is in his interview with abc where he had a very egotistical answer about what would happen if trump wins again, how he would feel. whether it was today, whether it was in pennsylvania, where biden�*s speeches were relatively short, where, yes, he did seem to draft off the energy of the crowd but he was not out there, creating viral moments that are going to counter the narrative about him. so, if you are in the bucket, if you are in the camp that says he has to step aside, that he should be replaced, you are not feeling any better after this weekend of appearances. however, there is this a grassroots energy —— however, there is this grassroots energy from biden�*s supporters saying enough of the elite media, enough of the donors — we are the voters and we have the right to decide. so there's very much a battle we're seeing hour by hour between these different sides of the party. you brought the word �*narrative'. what you make of the way the media is covering

the president right now? it seems to have shifted, now almost hanging on every word, analysing the way he delivers a speech. we even saw, didn't we, that abc had to change its official transcript after that interview — it really is down word by word now. the debate was the ultimate wake—up call. and for some people who were in deep sleep or maybe in denial, who did not want to recognise the signs of biden�*s decline, the debate made it impossible to ignore. that is why we have seen major media outlets call for his ouster, even call for his resignation. you know, let's just be frank about how incredible and extraordinary this moment is. you have editorial boards and columnists and even some democratic activists saying biden should resign the presidency now and make way for president kamala harris. this is completely unprecedented. if you had suggested this happen a month ago, most would have laughed. but it is all happening because of biden�*s behaviour. if he were able to hold a

two—hour news conference and impress the american people, he probably would have done that by now. his inability to control or change this narrative is, i think, what is driving this story at this point. overall, how do you think the media has been in terms of was it rigorous enough, was it effective enough? going back months, going back years, in the way it covered president biden and looked at his health issues or lack thereof? did it do a good enoughjob? number one, the signs were there and some of the signs were reported in real—time. i think where there was a failure by many major media outlet was to connect the dots. to say x and y and z all happened and maybe they are related. sometimes, there were stories that connected the dots — in the new york times, the washington post, the wall streetjournal — but even those stories probably were not presented as loudly as they could have been. and here's a real big factor here — the biden white house and biden white house campaign worked very hard to criticise outlets that tried to pursue the age question, to criticise outlets that pursued the health question. a lot of pressure applied

and that pressure it is impossible to say whether it had an impact or not, but it was a very real factor up until recently. now, however, the story has totally changed because you have democratic leaders now being the ones questioning biden�*s fitness for office. you know, what you said here at the top of the conversation about some top democrats in the house, ranking members, saying he should step aside — this is absolutely extraordinary and no—one knows ultimately how it is going to play out. it's a big story and briefly, about 20 seconds. i want to ask about donald trump. he has been remarkably quiet about this. it isa it is a big story. what does that tell you about the way he has been reacting? these have been the best news cycle. for once, the spotlight has been off of him, his lies, his misstatements are all off to the side. but it is not going to be to the side for much longer because the republican national convention is about to begin. and as soon as this fracas in the democratic party sorts itself out, all eyes will be back on donald trump.

ultimately, the question becomes inspired and the best method for the democrats or is it someone else, anyone else, to take the fight against trump because this election, at the end of the day, is an election about donald trump. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. the new prime minister, sir keir starmer, has travelled to scotland — the start of a tour of the uk's nations. here's scotland editor, james cook. no—one said being prime minister was easy. this was not part of the plan for keir starmer�*s third day in office. there was no handshake outside the first minister's official residence, but a chat inside, with chants about gaza drifting in from the street. afterwards, both sounded positive, with sir keir focusing on scotland's only oil refinery, where hundreds ofjobs are under threat. we discussed the economy, we discussed energy, and, as we'd expect, we discussed grangemouth, which is a cause for concern, and our governments will work together on that issue straight away. what i'm interested in as first minister of scotland is making

a difference for the people of scotland, of delivering on my objectives of eradicating child poverty, of delivering economic growth, of improving our public services, and delivering net zero. and on many of those questions, there is common ground to be achieved by working collaboratively with the united kingdom government. earlier, there was a moment to savour for scottish labour after years of frustration, even at times despair. sir keir swept out the back of bute house this evening, heading for northern ireland, then wales, before meeting english mayors. you're live with bbc news. the family and supporters ofjailed political dissident and journalist, vladimir kara—murza, are fearing for his health, after he was taken to a prison hospital on thursday. mr kara—murza's wife evgenia kara—murza said on x that prison officials refused to comment on his condition when his lawyers tried to visit him. last year, mr kara—murza — who is a dual russian—british citizen — was sentenced to 20 five years in prison —— citizen — was sentenced to 25 years in prison after criticising russian president vladimir putin and the war in ukraine. he was later sent to a prison colony in siberia. mr kara—murza suffers from a neurological condition that his wife says stems from being poisoned. he has repeatedly raised concerns about his health and welfare. russian opposition leader

alexei navalny died in an arctic prison earlier this year while serving a three—decade sentence. joining me live is evgenia kara—murza, the wife of vladimir kara—murza. what more have you been able to find out about your husband's condition and his health? good evening and thank you very much for your invitation. the problem is we do not know anything. the lawyers came to visit my husband at the prison colony where he is serving his 25—year prison sentence for so—called high treason, for continuously denying the crimes of the putin regime against the population and against ukraine, and they were denied entrance and told vladimir had been transferred to this prison hospital on thursday. so, they rushed to the prison hospital and again, they were denied access and given all ridiculous pretexts to let them in,

such as that vladimir had not arrived yet or he has arrived but has not been registered into the system yet and so on. so, they spent two days — thursday and friday — trying to get to him, trying to make sure that he is alive and as well as can be expected under the circumstances. and they were continuously denied access and then everything closed down in russia for the weekend so the earliest we will find out something, hopefully, is either tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when his lawyer will try to get access to him yet again. 50, his lawyers really not been able to get in touch with him. no. have you been able to speak to him? when was the last time you are able to communicate with your husband ? well, the last time i was able to speak to him was last summer, almost a year ago — well, a year ago. wow. yes. under the strict regime in which vladimir is serving

his sentence, he's not allowed any phone calls and any visits by family members. he's been kept, actually, since the 21st of september last year. that means over 270 — 280 days he has been kept in solitary, in solitary confinement in a small cell that measures about six square metres with a bed that is attached to the wall, from 5am to 9pm. in all this time, since the 21st of september, he has not seen or talked to one single other prisoner. he's always has been in solitary even though under the un nelson mandela rules, keeping a person in solitary confinement for over 15 days is considered torture. the only human contact he gets is with his lawyer. he still gets to see his lawyer a couple of times a week — or as often as the lawyer is allowed in. either than that, vladimir does not have any human contact.

he can still communicate through prison mail but, of course, all that mail goes through censorship. we need to understand this. ——we need to understand this when we write letters to him. everything goes through censorship. he was criticising the russian regime and vladimir putin and speaking out against the war in ukraine. what does all of this say about the state of russia underneath vladimir putin? well, i can say that anyone who dares oppose the regime in our days and who dares publicly denounced the crimes committed by this regime is being portrayed by the resume as extremist, as a spy, a foreign agent, a terrorist, a traitor, like my husband. my husband was accused and sentenced to 25 years for high treason and for dissemination of false information about the war in ukraine. thousands and thousands

of people in russia today are being persecuted by the state for the exact same "crime" — so—called crime of telling the truth in the face of atrocities committed by the state. we've also, of course — in the us, journalist evan gershkovich is behind bars in russia as well, and he denies those charges. the wall streetjournal, his employer, says he is innocent of those charges. when it comes your husband, what would you like to see the world to for those like him and evan gershkovich and others in russia, to work toward their freedom? i believe that it is an important time today to send a very clear message to the kremlin that the world understands — the free democratic world understands that the vladimir

putin and the regime he has built, the system of government that he's built in the country that is oppressing the russian population and carries out aggression against its, russia's, neighbours. and i believe it is very important for the world to stand with those who oppose the putin regime today because if we want to see russia a democracy one day — and that is the only guarantee of peace and stability on that continent, surely — because as long as there is some kind of regime in the kremlin, this aggression will continue and it will spread. so, if we want to see russia a democracy one day, we need to send a message of support and solidarity with those russian citizens who risk their freedom and their lives to stand against the regime. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu insisted on sunday that any ceasefire deal in gaza must allow israel to resume fighting afterwards, until its objectives are met. he has previously defined these objectives as dismantling hamas's military and governing capabilities, as well as the return of hostages. hamas officials told

the reuters news agency —— hamas says it is waiting for an israeli response to their requests. the militant group is reported to have dropped its demand for a permanent israeli ceasefire before any agreement is signed. meanwhile, palestinian sources say an israeli strike on a school in gaza city on sunday killed a senior hamas official and three other people. the israeli military has issued an evacuation order for parts of gaza city. 0ur correspondent injerusalem, sebastian usher, has more. the israeli army has issued another evacuation order for the people of gaza — this time, it's for palestinians in the centre of gaza city, several districts there, and people are already starting to gather their belongings and to move to try to find somewhere safe. we've seen these images before. these evacuation orders have been issued regularly. we've had one just in the past few days down further south, in gaza's second city,

khan younis, where people in areas to the east of the city were told that they had to leave. this was after several rockets were fired into israel from that area. the un said that around 250,000 people there would have to move, potentially, because their districts were included in that order. and we've also seen in gaza city, in another district where fighting is still continuing, an evacuation order there a couple of weeks ago. so, this is something that shows that the israeli military is still continuing its operations across gaza. this comes as moves towards agreeing a ceasefire have shown again a new momentum. we've heard from hamas sources that they have potentially dropped one of their key demands, a big stumbling block — the demand for a permanent ceasefire. but we've just heard from the israeli prime minister's office, from benjamin netanyahu, that he has non—negotiable demands, and one of those is that israel must still have the right,

the freedom to go in and carry out military operations after any ceasefire. that might be enough to put real difficulties in these discussions, which are due to resume in the coming days. i'm carl nasman in washington. 0ur colleagues in washington will have all the latest news coming up and, of course, you canfind all of coming up and, of course, you can find all of the latest on our website. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. sunday brought a volatile mix of weather across the uk — sunny skies one minute, thunder clouds the next. ominous—looking skies across lincolnshire through sunday afternoon. most of those showers are actually easing away and we've got clearing skies and that's going to allow those temperatures to fall away, so a chilly start to monday morning but lots of sunshine around. however, this cloud will arrive

later on in the morning. it's going to bring some rain, some of it heavy across south west england. the cloud gradually drifting its way steadily north into south wales and the midlands but further north of that, we keep the sunshine for much of the day. there will be a scattering of showers and some of these slow—moving because the winds will remain light, and it's still a disappointingly cool story across the far north of scotland — only 12 or 13 degrees. highest values perhaps close to the borders of 19 degrees. a few isolated showers into northern ireland and northern england but mostly bright skies, sunny spells coming through. so, there's our showery rain, just pushing into wales and the midlands and south east england by the end of the afternoon, so that means there's a risk of further showers to come for wimbledon, i'm afraid, for monday. maybe some thunderstorms to come for tuesday as well. the thunderstorms tuck in behind this low pressure as it continues to move its way further north during the early hours of tuesday morning, so we will start off with cloud and some heavy bursts of rain during the early hours

of tuesday and by the morning rush hour, it'll be sitting across northern england, north wales. so, cloudierskies, perhaps, close to the scottish borders. not quite as cold a start on tuesday morning. so, we've got that rain to continue to drift its way northwards on tuesday. should stay largely dry for much of scotland through the day and then, behind it, a southerly wind dragging in slightly more humid air which could trigger off a few thundery downpours as we go through the afternoon. top temperatures around 21 degrees across england and wales, perhaps. we're looking at around 16—18 further north. that low pressure will continue to slowly ease away and then, as we go later into the week, desperately trying to build in is this high. there is still a level of uncertainty as to whether that will do so but hopefully, as we move towards friday and into the weekend, the weather story mightjust quieten down just a touch.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.

london is a melting—pot city. you see it on the streets, you see it in the restaurants. there is an almost overwhelming variety of international cuisine on offer here. the brits have a particularly ardent and long love affair with south asian food, and my guest today is the renowned indian—born chef asma khan, who is also a pioneer. she created the first all—female, high—end indian restaurant in the world. she says she was born to set the world on fire. how does that work in a professional kitchen? asma khan, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much.

well, it is a great pleasure to be in your restaurant.