hugh schofield there _ is for them unimportant. hugh schofield there in _ is for them unimportant.ank| schofield there in paris, thank you very much. let's close this half hour, we started in the middle east with the pictures from beirut, still the smoke rising from one of the sites that was attacked a little earlier. i can tell you that the german air force is seeking to fly out some agency staff and their dependents as foreign governments really are concerned and getting more anxious about the situation on the ground in lebanon. more on that in the next half hour. it is another wet day with low pressure firmly in charge bringing some quite windy weather conditions as well for some of us, and we have still got some problems with flooding as well. this month has been extraordinary in terms of rainfall. south newington, over four times the average rainfall, and not far off double the rainfall record. it has been exceptionally wet and we still have a number of flood warnings in force. a couple of clusters, really, one down towards the south—west and another cluster of warnings in the

our correspondent hugh schofield has the latest. the coast from boulogne this morning, another group of migrants makes haste to get aboard. french police give chase, but once boats are loaded and in the water, policy is not to intervene. so, another human cargo sets off for the english coast. yesterday, that's how things would have started, too, for the group of mainly eritrean migrants. but theirjourney ended not in an english el dorado, but in disaster and death. their overloaded boat started to come apart. the swift arrival of french rescuers saved many lives, but 12 drowned, most of them women. hungry for a new life, migrants keep arriving here on the french coast, bent on crossing the water to england, and they don't seem deterred by the growing number of boats that are sinking and people that are dying. so far this year, more than 21,000 people have made it across the channel in small boats. that's more than in the same period last year, but fewer than in 2022. the number of people drowned this year is now at least 37, compare

i'm joined now by bbc paris correspondent, hugh schofield.ho has been testify, tell us more about what he has been saying. tell us more about what he has been saying-— been saying. this is the third week of the _ been saying. this is the third week of the trial, _ been saying. this is the third week of the trial, there - been saying. this is the third week of the trial, there will l week of the trial, there will be many more weeks because there are more than 50 men on trial but dominique pelicot is the centralfigure, trial but dominique pelicot is the central figure, accused trial but dominique pelicot is the centralfigure, accused of having arranged for his wife gisele to be raped, for arranging for men to come and raped her while she was drunk. today was the first time he was speaking, he was due to speak last week but he was ill but today he took the stand and said straightaway he admitted the totality of the charges against him. he said, i am a rapist, as are all of the other defendants in this courtroom. this provoked a hubbub and genera

hugh schofield, thank you very much.icion of murder after an 80 year—old man died in leicestershire. bhim kohli was attacked while walking his dog in a park in braunstone town on sunday evening. four other children aged between 12 and 14 who were also arrested have been released with no further action. a british hiker has been found dead and another has been reported missing on the spanish island of majorca. both were reportedly swept away by water and disappeared when a storm hit a mountainous area. emergency services have been looking for them since monday. sir keir starmer and rishi sunak have clashed over the decision to scrap winter fuel payments for some people. our correspondent iain watson has this report. sir keir starmer made its way to the commons for only a second pm accuses prime minister and now has to answer the questions rather than ask them. this afternoon conservative mps begin the long process of choosing a replacement for rishi sunak as leader of the opposition. in the meantime he wanted to turn up hi

our paris correspondent hugh schofield gave us his assessment of the new prime minister, michel barniere minister, michel b we er. absolute majority. we succeeded, we are 21 days, we did a crazy marathon the activist and we succeeded in stopping them and what have we got here? a far—right government. this summer's inconclusive election in france left the country in a political deadlock — the left—wing bloc winning the largest number of seats but falling short of enough to form a government. president macron defended his decision to appoint a right—wing prime minister by saying the leftist candidate, lucie castets, stood little chance of surviving a confidence vote in the national assembly. our paris correspondent hugh schofield gave us his assessment of the new prime minister, michel barnier. i wouldn't say he is a controversialfigure. but his nomination is controversial, that's for sure. he is a fairly consensual figure, not an extremist by any means, he is from the centre right, but the fact he is macron�*s nominee, he is from the centre right, and the left have been protesting today,

hugh schofield, bbc news, boulogne in northern france.stions after the summer recess. our political correspondent iain watson sent this report. his political honeymoon over, sir keir starmer made his way to the commons for his second p and q is premised. he now has to answer the questions rather than ask them. question one. they begin the long process of choosing a replacement for richey to mark about making choices and the new prime minister has made a choice, he has chosen to take winter fuel allowance from low income pensioners. to give that money to certain unionised workforces and inflation busting pay rises. g and inflation busting pay rises. �* , and inflation busting pay rises. , ., rises. a first “ob was to order the books, — rises. a first job was to order the books, what _ rises. a first job was to order the books, what we - rises. a first job was to order the books, what we found . rises. a first job was to orderl the books, what we found was rises. a first job was to order i the books, what we found was a £22 billion black ho

our france correspondent, hugh schofield, has sent this update about the implications of the case.ont as was, the national rally as it is now, put in place about ten years or so ago now at a time when it had a big haul of meps, european deputies in strasbourg and in brussels, but found itself chronically short of cash. and its way out of that was to essentially use european parliamentary money, the money that supposedly went to pay parliamentary assistants for the meps in brussels, and use that money to actually employ party workers in paris. so party workers here in paris had this fiction of a job in brussels, and strasbourg, which in fact they never performed at all. for example, it is alleged that marine le pen's own bodyguard was technically a european parliamentary aide, which he clearly wasn't. that's the prosecution's case. the party itself and marine le pen, of course

let's go straight to our paris correspondence, hugh schofield.yes, because for so many years he represented at the other side in the brexit negotiations. a sort of dogged, calming, as he said, but an extremely hard—working presidents throughout that period. it made him a constant in british news. in a way, less known here because of course, we didn't follow the negotiations in france with the same interest. above and beyond that michel barnier has a history in france as well. he was a minister going back... in the 90s and then again in the 20005. the 90s and then again in the 2000s. foreign minister briefly, a culture minister, he is on the right. so, he has a presence here. but i would say his image is kind of established as technocratic, a rather aloof figure who has spent a lot of his career in europe. that does not necessarily stand in a particular good stead for many french people who are not as anti—europe as the british proved themselves to be during brexit. still, slightly jubilant about it all. quite a lot on his — jubilant about it all.

hugh schofield. in paris, thank you very much indeed.re still missing, after a fire at a school. at least 21 people died when the blaze swept through a dormitory in the central county of nyeri. officials say dna tests need to be carried out to identify some of the bodies, but they have been able to establish that 100 other students have now been accounted for. 0ur correspondent barbara plett usher has the latest on the search from nyeri, where the school is located. efforts are continuing to trace the children who are still missing. it's thought that some parents may have picked up their children without reporting it. it's also been suggested that some children may have taken refuge with members of the community, who came to try and help put out the fire. we spoke to one woman at the school, who said that she had been attending a late—night vigil at a church nearby, and the congregation heard the screams from the school, and some of them went there and found out what was going on. so you can imagine the chaos there. she also said, though

earlier, our paris correspondent hugh schofield explains the drive behind the protests.his nomination is controversial, that's for sure. he is a fairly consensual figure, not an extremist by any means, he is from the centre right, but the fact he is macron's nominee, he is from the centre right, and the left have been protesting today, they are absolutely furious because they thought they won the election. they had the biggest number of seats in parliament, so they think it should be them who have the first choice to form a government. their nominee should be prime minister. macron had said no, the constitution says that he can choose. if he named a left—wing prime minister, there is no way that person would have survived a vote of confidence in parliament. whereas with michel barnier, there is a chance he would would survive that vote of confidence in parliament. that's because we think the populists and marine le pen for the moment will put up with him and won't vote him out. michel barnier is in a precarious position but he's holding on, and that has incensed the left

let's get more on the story with our paris correspondent hugh schofield. he is at the court.charges and the political significance of this? yes, well marine le pen arrived a few minutes ago, saying again that she was innocent and had not violated any rules. it was, the prosecution will say though, a system put in place by the national front as was, national rally now, the party was in deep financial difficulty, a way of paying its official. it did it by pretending, this is the prosecution case, that they were assistants in the european parliament. each euro depp deputy gets about 20,000 euros a year to pay assistants. what the national front rally did it is alleged is take the money, employ people, but put them on party business. even marine le pen's body guard was employed and a graphic designer was paid using this money. the national rally people, about 20 of them, plus the party, will argue against that, in this two month trial. the real issue is marine le pen, will she be found guilty? if she is found guilty, will she be given a sense of ineligibility for office. she is l

our paris correspondent hugh schofield has more. prefect, that's the senior government representative in the pas—de—calais region, he confirmed what we know, with a bit of detail, which is that this boat, carrying 59 people on it, set out from near wimereux, which is just to the north of boulogne, an area where there has been a lot of departures recently, very near where the 3rd september tragedy was. and what was different about this disaster is that it seems they got into trouble very, very quickly, and the boat ended up on rocks. so, this wasn't a boat going down in the middle of the ocean because it was overcrowded and puncturing or whatever, and tipping over, it was a boat that very swiftly got turned back onto the coast and got torn up on the rocks. the security services, rescue services, where there very quickly, but they found it very hard to get access because it was dark, because it was rocky, and it was a very, very difficult operation to rescue the survivors. and at the end of the day, there were these eight dead. the pr

our paris correspondent, hugh schofield, told me that about the reaction to this news and whether he'llorm a government. the prospects are _ form a government. the prospects are not - form a government. the prospects are not good i form a government. tia: prospects are not good because of this arithmetic fact which is that there are three blocs in parliament, he represents one of them, the centre and centre—right around macron and the gaullists. there are other groups, the left and the populist right. the left and populist right. the left and populist right. the left and populist right have no need to do any favours to macron or barnier. they could bring him down. the slim chances he has of surviving are based around the fact that the populists on the fact that the populists on the right are slightly more ambiguous towards him than they were towards other potential nominees and it could be that they will keep him hanging on, give him a stay of execution, for a few weeks or months. they are the deciders in all of this, if marine le pen and her party decide they have had enough of him the

the rights, familiarface, the eu's chief negotiator through brexit the incoming prime minister, hugh schofieldg can he last? —— michel barnier. given the internal split of french politics with the left recognising that he is from the right of french politics and vehemently against. interestingly, downing street congratulating michel barnier on the appointment. number 10 saying we wish him all the best in his new role. the uk enjoys a strong relationship with france and underlining that the prime minister visited paris only last weekend are committed to working collaboratively on our shared priorities and point to illegal migration, with the support of ukraine and delivering sustainable economic growth and also underlying, sir keir starmer, wanted to reset relations with the eu, but the reforms leader, nigel farage, scathing about mr michel barnier�*s appointment describing him as an eu fanatic that will suit, sell—out starmer. that was the quote from nigel farage. sir keir starmer, the shutter brexit secretary through the bitter brexit negotiations, and certainly impressed to mr michel barnier

hugh schofield joins us from paris. what is the latest.ewspaper who tends to get these things early talks about at least ten so it looks as if that is the figure we are settling down to, a boat that got into difficulty of bologna this morning. french boat came to the scene. found that this rubber dinghy was breaking up, it had fallen apart and all the people on the boat were in the water. a major rescue operation was launched. it seems they managed to get about 50 people to sure, some in a serious condition and some who may have died since and there were others in the water and i think that is why the casualty figure has gone up. thank you and you can follow that story on the bbc news channel and the website. in the last eight years, more than 180 council—run libraries the pressures facing libraries and is �*committed to giving stability back to local councils'. our reporterjayne mccubbin has more. save our libraries! after 14 years of austerity public libraries are still under threat. right now dozens of libraries are fighting to keep the

earlier, we werejoined by bbc paris correspondent, hugh schofield, who brought us more on this.ks because there are more weeks because there are more than 50 men on trial but dominique pelicot is a central figure. he is the man accused of arranging for his wife to be rates, drugging herand of arranging for his wife to be rates, drugging her and rating her himself when she was unconscious and arranging through internet chat men to come to his flat and rates her while she was drugged. today was the first time he was speaking and he was due to speaking and he was due to speak last week but he was ill but today he took the stand and said straightaway he admitted that the totality of the charges against him. he said i am a rate this as are all the other defendants are in this courtroom. this provoked a general muttering among the other men, accused in the code, because their defence is that they thought this was a game, arranged by dominique pelicot and his wife and that it was therefore something to which she was submitting voluntarily. that is their defence. to be called rate this

let's speak to our paris correspondent hugh schofield.r a name familiarfrom brexit negotiations. barnier a name familiar from brexit negotiations.- brexit negotiations. oddly, more familiar _ brexit negotiations. oddly, more familiar in _ brexit negotiations. oddly, more familiar in the - brexit negotiations. oddly, more familiar in the uk - brexit negotiations. oddly, l more familiar in the uk than france. he was a regular on british television screens. the french were not following the brexit negotiations with the same application, shall we say. his face is not that well—known here. he is a veteran politician and has been in politics here on the right for decades. his first ministerial post was in the 1990s under mitterrand. he served as foreign minister under chirac and then went off to europe and had his moment in the sun during the brexit negotiations. he is coming back now, having pretty much retired from politics at the age of 73, because he is the only person that emmanuel macron can can think of who might be able to keep governme

let's speak to our paris correspondent hugh schofield.s conference in france by the authorities in the last hour or so so talk through what they have said about this latest incident. it wasn't really a press conference, just a statement from the senior government represented in the region who confirmed with a bit of detail that this boat carrying 59 people on it set out from a town north of boulogne where there has been a lot of departures recently, very near where the 3rd of september tragedy was. what was different about this disaster is that it seems they got into trouble very, very quickly and the boat ended up on rocks so this wasn't about going down the middle of the ocean because it was overcrowded, puncturing or whatever, and tipping over, it was a that very swiftly got turned back onto the coast and got torn up on the rocks. the security rescue services where there quickly but they found it very hard to get access because it was dark and it was rocky and very, very difficult operationally to rescue the survivors and at the end of

let's speak to our correspondent in paris, hugh schofield.tal of 12 _ the french authorities? the total of 12 at _ the french authorities? the total of 12 at least - the french authorities? the total of 12 at least as - the french authorities? the total of 12 at least as what the french authorities? tta: total of 12 at least as what we are settling on, it could go up because the interior minister in france said there are two missing so it looks 12 possibly 13 or 1a will be a final total. but that does make a very serious event, the most serious incident in the channel this year. there have been unreported because small—scale casualties, rather constantly over the past few months, july and august, there were 10—15 people dying, but in separate incidents of one and two so below the radar of the news media era that it has been going on. now we have this which is the continuation of what has been going on, yet larger and more tragic. the french interior _ larger and more tragic. the french interior minister is speaking to the press now so we will

hugh schofield has more from the courthouse in paris. now, at a time when it had a big haul of meps — you know, european deputies in strasbourg and in brussels — but found itself chronically short of cash. and its way out of that was to essentially use european parliamentary money, the money that went or supposedly went to pay parliamentary assistants for the meps in brussels, and to use that money to actually employ party workers here in paris. so party workers here in paris had this fiction of a job in brussels and strasbourg which, in fact, they never performed at all. for example, it's alleged that marine le pen's own bodyguard was technically a european parliamentary aide, which he clearly wasn't. that's the prosecution's case. the party itself and marine le pen, of course, they deny all this. it's going to be a long trial, a couple of months as they go through all the evidence. at the end of it, though, what's crucial and why this trial matters is that it's marine le pen's political future which is very much at stake. why? because

our paris correspondent hugh schofield joins us from boulogne—sur—mer. morning to you.n be sure that overnight there have been more. over here we have the town, the port of boulogne, the former hovercraft port which was used as the rescued medical centre yesterday. then the fishing port, two boats from the fishing port, two boats from the fishing port, two boats from the fishing port were involved in the rescue operation, and we have been hearing testimony from crewmembers about the horrors of what they saw. it is a familiar tale what happened yesterday. another overcrowded vessel taking out across the channel and then breaking up in what were actually quite calm seas. what we know is they were eritreans, we know 12 died, ten of them were women and several of them were adolescents. routinely there are investigations set up, judicial investigations, and they will now be looking to find out exactly what happened that made the boat break—up and also trying to trace the people behind the trip, and that will mean looking at people's mobile phones, seeing if people's mobile p

nobody's going to put huw edwards on a desert island and say, hugh, tell us about your experiences. but they will put phillip schofields that came out of it is, is the idea that he's been attacked because he's a gay man, and if he was a straight man, he would be lauded by. >> so he's in his 50s with an 18 year old boy. 60s. yeah but okay. but the 18 year old boy, was he 50 or 60. could you imagine any 60 year old bloke getting away with being intimate with a young lady in her teens ? with a young lady in her teens? absolutely. i mean, even even in your 30s, people will be looking at you thinking, are you sure? >> no, it's completely wrong. and to blame the fact that you're homosexual for all the stick you got after after incredibly bad behaviour , yeah, incredibly bad behaviour, yeah, i think he's outrageous, but you know, it's going to. i think people will sit and watch it tonight. >> well, the difference, i guess, with huw edwards is he has been convicted of a crime and i guess will remain to be seen. what happens with schofield and his return? a lot of people will will tune in just to see, won't they? >> of course