National strike cripples France

Workers are angry at being forced to retire later or face reduced pensions. School and transport workers have been joined by police, lawyers and hospital staff for a general walkout that could include millions of people.

Also in the programme: Chinese telecoms firm Huawei launches a legal challenge to the US government's decision to label it a 'national security threat'; we report from the election campaign trail just a week before UK voters go to the polls; and hear one mother's harrowing account of the effects on her daughter of contracting measles.

Photo: A striking French SNCF railway worker holds a flare as he walks at Gare du Nord railway station in Paris, ahead of a demonstration against the French government's pension reform plans, December 5, 2019. Credit: Reuters.