this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. the turkish prime minister declares victory in the referendum to significantly increase the president's powers. we will be live in istanbul shortly. there is now an international consensus, which includes china, on the threat posed by north korea, according to the us national security advisor. 68 children are among the dead in syria after yesterday's bomb attack on buses carrying evacuees from besieged towns. also in the next hour. theresa may urges unity over brexit, as she delivers her first easter message as prime minister. our shared interests, ambitions, and above all, our shared values can and must bring us together. builders renovating a medieval church in london have unearthed the remains of five archbishops of canterbury, who have lain for centuries in a forgotten crypt. and chelsea's lead at the top of the premier league now stands at only four points, after losing 2—0 to manchester

united at old trafford. good evening and welcome to bbc news. with almost all the votes counted, president erdogan‘s supporters have claimed victory in turkey's referendum on the constitution. results suggest a narrow win for the president's reforms, which would give him extensive new powers. it would mark a dramatic shift in their modern history. but opponents have not conceded defeat. we were hearing from the prime minister, whose role will go as a result of this referendum. talk us

through what he was saying. the prime minister gave a victory speech tojubilant prime minister gave a victory speech to jubilant yes campaign supporters in ankara. he thanked the president, he thanked the nation, he said both sides will be treated equally, and he said, our nation will win the role —— our nation will win, the rule of law has one, there are no losers. but that is not a feeling that will be shared with him the no campaign, they are contesting the results, the main opposition parties are challenging the unofficial results. the opposition parties say that they will be challenging the results, they say there are problems with over 2 million votes. with the biggest cities, istanbul, ankara,

voting no, there are questions about the legitimacy of the vote. the high electoral board, our audiences might remember, had ruled for a controversial decision. they decided to a cce pt controversial decision. they decided to accept the validity of the ballot papers that did not have official sta m ps papers that did not have official stamps on them. the opposition said this actually questions the legitimacy, because it makes it difficult to recover vote. now millions of people who have voted no who did not want these constitutional changes to pass through will be questioning the legitimacy, they will not be convinced. we are expecting to hear from erdogan soon, he had said previously in the campaign speeches that he would tolerate the no

voters, but the no voters and yes voters, but the no voters and yes voters would not be equal, he said, how can they be equal? now we have to see whether he will follow a more conciliatory tone to people who have not voted for him to get more extensive executive powers. with me now is soner cagaptay, director of the turkey research program at the washington institute and author of the new book the new sultan: erdogan and the crisis of modern turkey. why is this a crisis, more than half the people who voted in the referendum to give the president the new powers he asked them for?m referendum to give the president the new powers he asked them for? it is a crisis because it makes the president and all powerful, omnipotent president, he will become head of state, head of government, head of state, head of government, head of state, head of government, head of the ruling party, with the right to appoint judges head of the ruling party, with the right to appointjudges to the high court, so he controls all three

branches of government. but while half of the country adores him as their bill salton, the other half detests him. but as the crisis of turkey, his political structuring has thrown the country in this direction. because there is such a thin majority, it will be hard for him to get there. it is a victory but also a loss for him, he has not won by quite a margin he said he would win by, less than i%. this is despite the fact that resources devoted to the yes campaign for outweighed resources for the no campaign, and whether or not there we re campaign, and whether or not there were irregularities because of the controversial decision by the board, there will always be claims of irregularities. he will not have the legitimate sense that he won the elections fair and square. that is why although it was a victory, it is also a loss. the opposition have not

yet conceded, some parties say they wa nt yet conceded, some parties say they want 60% of the votes to be recounted. how do they go about challenging this through the courts? the national election board deemed valid one officiated ballot papers after the votes closed, so this opens the way for vote rigging, because if the ballots are not officiated, you could bring unofficial ballot into the polling stations. technically, this seems possible now. turkey never had this irregularity before. it has had free and fair elections longer than spain. since 1950. they have never been stolen, never allegations of widespread irregularities. it would be unfortunate if that is the case, especially with the margin of victory is so narrow, less than 1%. the opposition will stay for a while before they accept the legitimacy of

the elections. whereas the yes campaign and the president will suggest it is vinyl. turkey might enter a period of political instability, and because it is so deeply polarised, the stability will be because the baited by the existing polarisation. of the country that supports the president thinks that turkey is heaven, the other half that does not support him thinks that it is hell. there is nothing in between. the result today has only added to the sense of two disparate halves of the country. whichever part of the electorate you are in, you expect the president to provide political stability, and also security. that is his argument, that following the failed coup, these powers are necessary to ensure that turkey is safe and secure and is not reliant upon external forces for its stability. correct, that has been his agenda, he has been running ona been his agenda, he has been running on a platform of a strong right—wing

president, but that strategy has run its natural course. to get elected in the last 15 years, he has been running turkey since 2002, he has running turkey since 2002, he has run on a platform of demonising and cracking down on demographics that are not likely to vote for him. when you add up these groups, they now make up half of the country. that is his problem. his strategy has met its natural end in the sense that he cannot demonise further groups because he would be flipping the majority of the country against him, so majority of the country against him, so he has turned his attention to imagine foreign enemies, the west bashing that you have heard in the run—up the referendum. we could see more of that rhetoric coming up, because a polarised country means that there will be a period of political instability. 0ne that there will be a period of political instability. one way for him to end this would be to call for a snap early election, it could bring his party to the parliament with a larger majority. that is because turkey has an electoral

threshold that bars small parties from the parliament. it is likely that two of the parties in the parliament could feel the threshold. that would end out his party with a supermajority, and he could make changes to the constitution and ruled the country as he wishes, without having to go to a referendum. it would be a slim majority in the popular vote, but because of how the threshold works, it would endow him with many more seats in the parliament than his share in the population overall. we will wait and see. the president is due to make a statement very shortly on the outcome of the referendum. there is the podium, waiting for him to arrive. we will get back to it as $0011 arrive. we will get back to it as 50011 as arrive. we will get back to it as soon as we can and we will find out how this story is covered in front pages. and we'll find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30pm

and 11:30pm this evening in the papers. 0ur guestsjoining me tonight are john crowley, who's editor—in—chief at the international business times, and tim stanley, the leader writer and columnist for the daily telegraph. america says it's working on a "range of options" with china, amid rising tensions over north korea's nuclear and missile programmes. pyongyang attempted to test fire what's thought to be a medium—range missile this weekend, from a base in the shinpo region on the east coast, but it blew up shortly after take—off. the launch is being seen as a provocation, coming shortly before the us vice president mike pence arrived in south korea to discuss ways of forcing the north to disarm. 0ur correspondentjohn sudworth is in the capital pyongyang, where his movements are being monitored and tightly controlled. this flower show, like almost everything else in north korea, is dedicated to its ruling family. this is the stand of national defence... and this display is in honour of their abiding obsession, missiles.

is it a little strange to have rockets and missiles in a flower show? no. not strange at all. there are reports that there was a missile test this morning. yes. and some suggestions that it failed, have you heard these reports? this is not a failure. we will win and we will have greater successes in the future. there has so far been no mention of the missile on north korean tv. but it's true. every launch, failure or not, takes the military one step closer to its goal. the timing of the latest missile test is significant, coming just a few hours before the us vice president mike pence arrived in the south korean capital, seoul. it's a message of defiance from here in pyongyang. its quest to become a fully—fledged nuclear power continues. at its big military parade yesterday, it put some of its newest

missiles on display. the decades of threats and sanctions against north korea have clearly done little to stop it. mr pence's talks will focus on trying to find something that will work, including military options, according to officials. we will leave that report and listen to the turkish president, speaking following the referendum result. translation: from the bottom of my heart the result of this constitutional change, i am going to

be explaining in a minute. 0ur our nation shows so much maturity to cast their vote. according to unofficial results, more than1 according to unofficial results, more than 1 million votes, the yes campaign has won. regardless of what colour your vote was, those who cast their votes, i would like to thank each and every one of my citizens. turkish democracy has to respect

democracy. god help us, we are strong enough to overcome any obstacle, for better democracy. we have shown this once again on the 15th ofjune, the failed coup attempt. and the 60th of april 2017, it is an important day for us to show to the world that our people, oui’ show to the world that our people, our nation, have cast their vote to look after the democracy we have in this country. and also today, a decision made by the public is an historic moment, it is not an ordinary decision, it is a very

serious change for turkey's future. as always, in this referendum, it is also easy to change... sorry, it is easy to defend what exists, and it is always difficult to choose for changes, choose something new, choose something that you are not used to. but this change is very important for us, although the changes we have proposed are made up of 18 articles, but these are very important for the future of our country. we have the turkish president saying that the nation has made an historic decision. we can speak to our turkey correspondent mark lowen, who's in the turkish capital. a deeply divided nation. a hugely

disputed decision. half of the country feels that they have a mandate they are claiming victory, these are the supporters behind me who have been streaming into the governing party headquarters all night. they believe the president has won an overwhelming mandate for this huge political change. the opposition says the results are invalid, they said there has been massive in regularity, they complain that 1.5 million invalid votes were given to the yes side, they complained that some of the observers were blocked from the south—east, and they are challenging the results. if the protests pick up a head of steam, it could turn very ugly. this has been the worst possible outcome, because one side says it is a fait accompli, they are jubilant, and the other side are not accepting it, they say it has been manipulated. that is divided. in

terms of the voting, it has been divided to stop turkey has shown itself more polarised tonight and ever, and the president will have a hugejob on his hands to heal wounds as he tries to move the country forward , as he tries to move the country forward, whichever way the final result goes on. let's return to the north korea story. president trump's national security advisor has said an international consensus against what he called north korea's threatening behaviour now includes china. well, let's go live now to john everard, former british ambassador to north korea, who is in poynton this evening. let's concentrate on the north korea situation, what bearing does this failed missile test have on what might happen next? that depends entirely on what the chinese think is going on. the chinese last week

indicated clearly that had he gone for a nuclear test, they would have supported sanctions against north korea through the security council, including perhaps cutting off north korea's oil supply, which would have been a terrible blow. what we don't know is where the chinese are going to ranka know is where the chinese are going to rank a missile test, a provocative test, but a failed test. we have to exercise caution over the american assertion that they are working with the chinese on solutions. this is not the first time that american administrations have claimed this, but when we hear the view from beijing, it has often turned out to be different. how much ofa bind turned out to be different. how much of a bind is china turned out to be different. how much ofa bind is china in? it does turned out to be different. how much of a bind is china in? it does not wa nt of a bind is china in? it does not want instability on its border. indeed. for the first time, about ten days ago, china indicated this was a red line, it said it would not

tolerate instability affecting its north—eastern regions, the provinces that ijoin north korea. it is in a bind, does not want the regime to implied, but it does not like the regime, it does not like the nuclear programmes, and it is coming under immense political pressure from the united states to do something about north korea. worst of all now, the sense of timing, because we have the congress of the party coming up this autumn, which has to go well for the president, he does not want to rock any boats. how great is the chance of further, or an escalation of conflict, compared with 2a or 36 hours ago? the risk of escalation has dropped quite considerably. yesterday was quite rocky, and a lot of things might have gone badly wrong. fortunately, most of them did not happen. the uss boat stationed

off the coast of career is still there, it has not done anything, nor haveit there, it has not done anything, nor have it accompanying destroyers, carrying cruise missiles, so for the time being the united states has not decided to lodge any military strike on north korea as a response to the missile launch. there has been no other on rest elsewhere in the peninsular. i am starting to indulge the hope that we can get through this without the course to violence. we have spoken to some commentators who say that what north korea wants more than anything is recognition, that it more than anything is recognition, thatitis more than anything is recognition, that it is an equal player on the international scene. how likely is it going to be offered that if it is to allow pyongyang to save face? there is more than face involved. north korea has already been given recognition as a member state of the

un, and as a player in various other international fora. un, and as a player in various other internationalfora. what un, and as a player in various other international fora. what north un, and as a player in various other internationalfora. what north korea wa nts internationalfora. what north korea wants specifically is recognition as a nuclear weapons state. it is not going to get that if north korea ever got —— it is not going to get that. if they did, most of the non—proliferation treaty would fall apart, countries like india would demand a rock treatment, and the world would become a more dangerous place. that is not an option. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news this afternoon. the bbc understands lloyds banking group will set up a european base in germany after the uk leaves the eu. sources say lloyds has decided to convert its berlin branch into a european hub, to maintain a presence inside the eu. lloyds is the only major british

lender that does not currently have a subsidiary in another eu nation. the bank already has a branch in berlin and employs 300 people in the city. testing children in primary schools has been on the agenda at the national union of teachers' annual conference in cardiff today. there was a heated debate among delegates, in which teachers criticised the way younger pupils are tested. delegates at the nut conference will vote tomorrow on whether to boycott the tests. the government has announced it is doubling its funding to fight neglected tropical diseases. £360 million will be given over the next four years to combat illnesses including river blindness, trachoma and guinea—worm. the department for international development said the money would protect more than £200 million. the convoy of coaches in a

prearranged exchange between the syrian government and a number of rebel groups was targeted with a car bomb. it happened on the outskirts of aleppo. they were heading for what they thought was safety, thousands of civilians from government—held villages had been under siege by rebel forces for two years. just a short bus ride from aleppo and a better life. but then this. a massive suicide bomb attack. a vehicle supposedly carrying food, packed instead with explosives. devastating the convoy, buses and cars. a potato truck, as they were hungry, comes and offers for the kids potato chips, potato bags. so the kids who were very hungry, some of them left the buses, went to the truck, and as soon as they approached the truck, it exploded. that's where it emerged today that among the 126 dead were 68 children. according to british—based activists who monitor the conflict. hundreds of others injured

in the attack were rushed to hospital in aleppo. it is still not clear who was responsible for the attack although local islamist rebel groups have denied any involvement. the people travelling in these buses were part of a deal between government and opposition forces to evacuate civilians from towns besieged by both sides. they were attacked as they waited for another convoy to go in the south, evacuating civilians from rebel—held areas. but an attack like this that left so many dead will raise doubts about whether there will be more evacuation deals in the future. the remaining survivors in the convoy continued their journey to aleppo in relative safety. the united nations condemned the attack and urged all sides to secure the safety of evacuees. but there are already fears that civilians in rebel held areas may now face revenge attacks. let's return to the situation in

north korea. donald trump's national security adviser says there is an international consensus, including china about what to do regarding north korea's saviour. what is your view of the missile test that failed and whether or not north korea should be carrying it out? i heard about the nuclear test or missile test, much sadness and angen or missile test, much sadness and anger. this missile test is a serious threat to peace and the stability of the international

community and the korean provincial. korean people, in north korea, the government collected the money from the citizens. the cost to develop nuclear weapons, it is more than $1.5 million. this amount is equivalent to the cost of food needed to feed 20 million north korean people for two years. but the north korean government, they do not ca re north korean government, they do not care about the citizens, theyjust ca re care about the citizens, theyjust care about the citizens, theyjust care about nuclear weapons and missiles. it is very serious. how

much influence does china really have with kim jong—un? two years ago there were sanctions to north korea. but they always failed. the north korean government, they met, and they said they would join america. it did not stop oil being

sent to north korea. how careful does the united states have to be in how it deals withjeong does the united states have to be in how it deals with jeong jang? does the united states have to be in how it deals withjeong jang? —— pyongyang? it is not only in north korea and the usa that have the problems. it is asia. the usa, china, japan. it is the world's problem. the usa are looking carefully at the nuclear test. some reaction coming in the

following the result of the referendum in turkey, the opposition is disputing it, it says there were irregularities with the vote. the secretary general of the council of europe, and turkey is a member of that, has been speaking about the outcome. the turkish electorate, he says, has voted on the amendments. in view of the close result, the leadership should consider the next steps carefully. it is most important to sit queue at the independence of the judiciary, in line with the principle of the rule of law. the council of europe, of which turkey is a full member, stands ready to support the country in this process. some concern and almost a warning being expressed their by the secretary—general from their by the secretary—general from the council of europe, occurs those changes would mean that the

president, with his new powers, would be able to decide on the shape of thejudiciary in would be able to decide on the shape of the judiciary in turkey. more throughout the evening on those stories. a sunny day tomorrow with just a few showers around. we still have a bit of rain, mainly across central and eastern england, fairly patchy and sporadic. some will stay dry and avoid that altogether. elsewhere, dry before showers started developing parts of scotland. with clearer skies, particularly in the northern part of the country, a touch of frost to take us into easter monday. easter monday starts with showers across scotland, wintry across higher ground. after a sunny start in northern england, clouding over with showers later, northern ireland avoiding most of the showers throughout the day. quite a bit of sunshine throughout those