Polls open in final round of French election

France votes in one of the most consequential elections since the Second World War. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally hope to form a government for the first time. President Macron’s centrist and the left-wing New Popular Front hope to stop them.

Also on the programme: what the election of reformist Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian means for relations between the Islamic Republic and the United States; and we look at the trail of devastation left in the Caribbean by Hurricane Beryl.

Joining Krupa Padhy to discuss all this and more are Alpa Shah, professor of social anthropology at the London School of Economics, and Samantha de Bendern, an associate fellow at Chatham House specialising in Russia.

(Picture: Defaced Rassemblement National election posters in Paris, July 5, 2024 Credit: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier)