this is bbc news. the headlines at 11am... 50,000 police officers are deployed across france, as security is tightened ahead of the first round of voting in the country's presidential election. the conservatives play down speculation that taxes will rise if they win the general election. more than 100 people — most of them afghan soldiers — have been killed in a taliban attack on a military base in afghanistan. also in the next hour... phasing out coal by 2025. britain goes a whole 2a hours without using coal to generate electricity for the first time since the late 19th century. and in dateline — two elections up for discussion — the british general election next month and voters in france go to the polls tomorrow. good morning and welcome to bbc news.

more than 50,000 security personnel are being deployed across france after the killing of a police officer in paris as the french prepare to vote in the first round of the country's presidential election. terrorism dominated the final day of campaigning. security has been increased before polls in mainland france open tomorrow. karin giannone is in paris for us. saturday market getting on the way and the boulevard but the background to this is anything but normal. the background to the whole election itself. 50 , 000 background to the whole election itself. 50,000 security personnel deployed across france to reassure people that it is safe to come out and vote in the first round of sunday's presidential election. 0n everyone‘s main tier, which the security right to the top of the

political agenda, the attack on thursday night which left one policeman dead on the champs—elysees just a couple of miles from where we are. this report... the french prepare for an election organised under a state of emergency. armed police have been eight common sight in the street since the 2015 shootings in paris. 50,000 of them have been deployed across the country. the french are also used to the presence of soldiers patrolling their cities. when the campaign started many in france believed it would be defined by terrorism and security. it turned out to voters have so far been more concerned about unemployment and the economy. it remains unclear whether thursday's attack will have a last—minute impact on people's choice. we have had enough of anxiety and things like that with all the attacks, so just want to

ignore it personally. maybe it will have an impact but they don't know. translation: i am not worried about sunday in particular but i am worried in generalfor all sunday in particular but i am worried in general for all of us. sunday in particular but i am worried in generalfor all of us. i just don't think all politicians ruler have a full grasp of the problem. in most important thing is the economy, the economic recovery is most important. more than security? for me. the champs-elysees have reopened under bustling again but on the pavement a reminder of the attack in which a police officer was killed and two others wounded. 0n the eve of the most unpredictable presidential election in years thursday's shooting will have repercussions beyond the french capital. across france people hope for a peaceful vote. all top four candidates are neck and

neckin all top four candidates are neck and neck in the polls so the amount of people who turn their mind will be crucial. that is returned to the events of thursday night, the killing of that on the champs—elysees. it turns out he gave an interview to bbc radio five live backin an interview to bbc radio five live back in november last year when the bata cla n back in november last year when the bataclan theatre reopened one year after the paris attacks of november 2013. he was in this interview saying to the bbc that he was happy to be there to defend france's civic values and say no to terrorism, the dreadful irony of that is that five months later he was to lose his own life. to give you a sense of how the atmosphere has been affected as we go into the selection by what happened and the latest terrorist attack here in france, talking about attack here in france, talking about

a vote amid tension, this newspaper. you can see even a vote amid tension, this newspaper. you can see even around a vote amid tension, this newspaper. you can see even around this at various times people have —— armed police have been on patrol. it is everywhere. the candidate posters, police accompanying them. the shadow of terrorism hanging over the first round of the election. 0ne of terrorism hanging over the first round of the election. one of the main newspapers in france. also, the campaign struck by terrorism. and if photo of the aftermath of the shooting on the champs—elysees on thursday night. this election was already so unpredictable and so unusual. it has just become even more so. and there'll be live coverage of the results of the first round of voting in the french presidential election. that's tomorrow at 6:30pm, in france decides here on bbc news. and there's full coverage on our website, and via the mobile app. the conservatives are attempting to play down speculation that they will raise taxes if they win the general election. yesterday the chancellor, phillip hammond, hinted

that the government might abandon the pledge made at the last election not to raise income tax, national insurance or vat. labour and the liberal democrats were quick to jump on what they saw as a change of policy, warning that tax rises lie ahead. 0ur political correspondent iain watson reports. the american revolutionary, benjamin franklin, said that two great certainties were tax and death and certainly commitments to push tax rates up can prove fatal to political campaigns. on a visit to the united states, the chancellor, philip hammond, criticised the constraints put on him by his party's previous pledges on tax. all chancellors would prefer to have more flexibility in how they manage the economy and how they manage the overall tax burden down than to have their hands constrained. but then this happened — even some conservative—supporting newspapers speculated that taxes would rise if the party's re—elected. so conservative sources were swift to emphasise that the chancellor's comments shouldn't be seen as a hint of tax increases to come.

but what has been remarkable so early in campaign is the level of detail that's emerged even before the party's manifestos are published. we already know theresa may will re—commit to the international aid target, though with some wriggle room. and she's provoked questions about guaranteed increases in the state pension. labour has committed to retain the policy of put being pensions up by a minimum of 2.5%. theresa may seems incapable of answering any question about the protection of the triple lock on the state pension. well, i give you that commitment now — labour will maintain the triple lock. at the end of this first week of campaigning, policies are emerging and political battle lines are being drawn. iain watson, bbc news. the snp's national executive will today decide the selection procedures for the general election. the focus will be on the fate of mps natalie mcgarry and michelle thomson — who were elected as snp members, but now sit as independents. 0ur correspondent steven godden

is in glasgow for us. a bit ofa a bit of a dilemma for the snp to say the least after their remarkable performance in 2015. it is a dilemma for them. by the standards of recent days this has been a pretty low—key meeting for the snp's point of view, not giving very much an ahead of it being held in a central glasgow hotel. it has been going on for a couple of hours this the meeting of the national executive. in some senses they have a very straightforward decision to make. the expectation is that all of their sitting mps will be put forward as candidates for the election. that is quite straightforward but of course, that number is only 5a and not the 56 who were elected in 2015, because erc said michelle thomson and natalie mcgarry, they resigned the

web having been voted snp mps, they resigned during their term after they were both involved in police investigations. the decision is that the national executive at this morning is what to do with that, whether to put other candidates forward in the place to contest the seat and they have to decide what to do in the other three constituencies, that they didn't win. the more general challenge is to set the strategy is to try and repeat the success. they won 56 of 59 seats in scotland, unprecedented success. 59 seats in scotland, unprecedented success. but the political climate is perhaps slightly different now so the general consensus is that repeating that success will be a challenge. thanks very much. two senior mps have announced they won't be standing at next month's election. labour's graham allen and the former conservative cabinet minister sir eric pickles say they're stepping down from front line politics. mr allen, who has represented nottingham north since 1987, says he's standing down because of ill health. sir eric, who's been the mp for brentwood and 0ngar

in essex since 1992, says he'll miss the commons "dreadfully". more than 100 people — most of them afghan soldiers — have been killed in a taliban attack on an army base in the north of the country. officials said insurgents targeted people leaving friday prayers at a mosque in the base in mazar—e—sharif. the taliban — which has been fighting a prolonged war with the western—backed afghan government — said its fighters had set off an explosion, allowing suicide bombers to breach the base's defences. for the first time since the industrial revolution britain has gone an entire 2a hours without using coal to generate electricity. national grid said the news was a "watershed moment" in attempts to phase out coal by 2025. taxes on co2 emissions and the falling cost of renewable energy have made coal plants less economical in recent years. joining me now is our business correspondent joe lynam. it is quite a landmark moment, isn't

it, and a lot of cultural significance, not just economic significance, not just economic significance for people to think we might be coming to the end of the coal industry, it fired the industrial revolution full stop it was the first country in the world to use coal to generate electricity and not far from this very building, holborn viaduct in 1880 something. and now we will be one of the first few countries to completely phase out the use of coal. we already mentioned some of the reasons. britain has obligations. it promised to cut c02 output by 80% by 2050 and it has promised to phase out coal entirely by 2025 under the paris climate records. it had an obligation to do so which means it has to start weaning itself off coal. years ago 23% of our energy output came from coal. 0ne coal. years ago 23% of our energy output came from coal. one year ago 996. this output came from coal. one year ago 9%. this year we are heading for one

01’ 9%. this year we are heading for one or 2% which means probably next year it will be around zero. so effectively we will have beaten or target, the ambition will have been achieved, but what are the consequences of that in terms of reliability of energy supply and indeed cost of the consumer?m reliability of energy supply and indeed cost of the consumer? it is all about managing the energy mix, coal, gas, still the biggest supplier of energy in this country, nuclear. the key future one of renewables. renewables, we knew they are going to be big in the coming yea rs are going to be big in the coming years but we didn't realise how fast they would come on stream, excusing they would come on stream, excusing the pond, and how reliable they would be and affordable, the cost of solar panelling has gone down, the cost of wind and wave power of the giant wind turbines, on and offshore has come down and the reliability has come down and the reliability has gone up and as a result we can allow ourselves to wean ourselves off coal and onto renewable energy. fascinating stuff, thank you.

a huge police operation is being mounted in the german city of cologne where the right—wing party alternative fur deutschland is holding a conference ahead of a general election in september. 4000 officers will be on duty to maintain order as tens of thousands of protesters opposed to the party descend on the city. us vice—president mike pence says a us naval strike group will arrive in waters near north korea in a matter of days. there had been confusion earlier this week over whether the uss carl vinson was heading into the sea of japan or not. however in a press conference with the australian prime minister, mr pence said the us wanted to show north korea it had the resources to secure the region. all options are on the table. let me assure you, the united states will continue to work closely with australia, our other allies in the region and with china to bring economic and diplomatic sanctions to bear on the regime in pyongyang until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news this morning.

the headlines... 50,000 police officers have been deployed across france as security is tight and ahead of the first round of the building in the residential election. here the conservatives played down speculation that taxes will rise if they win the general election. around 100 afghan soldiers have been killed and wounded in a taliban attack on an army base in afghanistan. as the alpine ski season comes to an end, one of the problems facing resorts is the effect of rising temperatures causing glacial melt. it's a lesser known side effect of climate change, but some glaciers have diminished by a quarter over the past a0 years. sara thornton travelled to the austrian alps to a resort built on a glacier that's melting fast, where authorities are going to great lengths to halt its decline. for tens of millennia this tiralian glacier has carved its way slowly through the alps. essentially a half ago it covered almost six square miles. now it's less than a third of that.

i'm at the top of this stubai glacier in the austrian alps at around 3000 metres high. it's an area that is very popular for skiing. and, actually, there are about 80 separate glaciers in this area. but there's a problem because in the last few years scientists have realised there's been unprecedented glacier melt. so the questions now are, how serious is that melt, and what can they do to stop it? dr andrea fischer is a world—renowned glaciologist, who's made it her life's work to halt the decline of this glacier. and she's hit upon a surprising answer. a blanket. covering the glacier and preventing ice melt. on a very small, very local scale, we could prevent some very tiny glacial areas by covering the glacier with geotextiles during summer. but only about 1% of a glacier area of ski resorts can be

preserved by this method. and, of course, it's very cost intensive and it needs much labour. to save 1% of the glacier seems almost futile, but with the local economy relying on skiing and tourism here, officials say it's worth it. it is expensive, but it is more expensive to do it not. so i think the costs of this protection is about 300,000 euros. the result is very good. on average, the melting is about one metre, 1.5 metre. with this we protect more than 50%. there are 5000 alpine glaciers in the world, and some scientists predict that at the current rate of melting in 20 years half will be gone and those that are left will be much smaller. but it's far from clear if this expensive local solution can work on a global scale. a fur coat worn aboard the titanic

is expected to fetch up to £80,000 at auction today in wiltshire. it was owned by first class stewardess 33—year—old mabel bennett. she was in her nightdress when the rescue started, and grabbed it to keep her warm as she boarded a lifeboat. she died in 1974, and gave the coat to her great niece. so, why do we have such a long fascination with the titanic? some people are prepared to spend thousands of pounds to secure something that was on board the ship at the time. let's speak to christopher ward — he's a titanic expert who wrote and the band played 0n, which tells the story of his grandfather, jock hume, who was one of the violinists who continued playing while the ship sank. thank you for being with us on bbc news. this is a story i suppose that in many ways has dominated your life

even though there is a grandfather you never knew? of course collectors are quick to spot the opportunity to own a piece of history and no one is ever going to recreate these pieces from the tectonic. i have a violin belonging to make grandfather —— titanic. -- belonging to make grandfather —— titanic. —— unfortunately it wasn't the one that he played when the ship went down. with about £1000 but it would have been worth £1 million had been recovered. unfortunately when his body was taken to halifax nova scotia he had a cigarette case and a browse button and the family have never seen browse button and the family have never seen it since. the fascination with the titanic is it was the first truly international disaster. people from every country in the world almost died, men, women and children and it was a great leveller. rich people and poor people died

side—by—side and it was a wake—up call to the reg that actually they could die as well. jacob astor, benjamin guggenheim, some of the richest people in america lost their lives and there were a great acts of courage this as well as courage. do you feel any sense that perhaps we are now, because the last of the survivors has died, reaching a state that perhaps the titanic significance will diminish or do you think because of the impact of media and the several film adaptations, in terms of this significance being something of which there is so much record still in existence, that it will have an impact beyond the life of those who were directly affected, even the sentence would you? that is a very good question. at the time of the centenary people said to me, thatis the centenary people said to me, that is it, interest will die away, but in fact it has excited interest,

particularly among schoolchildren. i gave a lot of talks at schools and it is amazing how much young people know about it. this has been helped enormously by the wonderful titanic film and another film, a enormously by the wonderful titanic film and anotherfilm, a night to remember, a great british film in its time. thank you for being with us. its time. thank you for being with us. we will find out whether that fur coat is worth what it is being predicted later today. sport now, and a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. hello, jessica. it's cup semi—final day in england and scotland — let's start with the teatime kick off at wembley, where the two best teams in the premier league, chelsea and tottenham, meet in the fa cup. for the winners, it's a place in the final and dreams of the double. we will play again one of the best teams in europe. great manager, great players. players that won european competitions in the world cups. i think we are going to play again one of the best teams in europe. i think tottenham is a great team

and they are showing for the second consecutive year to fight for the title. last season they missed. and this season they are trying again. and that match is live on bbc one and radio 5 live — kick—off at quarter past five. tomorrow it's arsenal against manchester city in the second fa cup semi—final. in the scottish cup, celtic are going for the treble — they're up against their old rivals rangers tomorrow lunchtime but the first of the semis is at 12:15pm today, when the holders hibernian face aberdeen. we've seen off hearts already in impressive fashion, so aberdeen, the second—best team over the last few years, they keep improving every year under derek. they've been to the league cup final already and the semi—final. they've had a good season.

but you've got four teams in the competition who can win a trophy and i'm just pleased that we are there. we want to try and win it and get ourselves into the final to do that. we have beaten some big teams along the way, ross county, a tough match here against partick thistle, another tough on rating for us. but you don't get the finals without working on top challengers. another one on saturday but we are looking forward to it. what a big day in manchester city women's history, they face a huge test in the semi—finals of the champions league this afternoon, against defending champions lyon. this is city's first season playing in europe's top club competition whereas lyon have reached five of the last seven finals — winning three. you can watch highlights of that first leg on the women's football show, tomorrow evening at ten to midnight, on bbc one.

heather watson is trailing in the first fed cup magic against romania. she is up against simone haller took the opening set 6—4. britain win they will go back in the world group for the first time since 1992. —— 19 93. ronnie 0'sullivan is through to the quarter—finals of the world snooker championship. he only needed three frames to complete victory over shaun murphy this morning and he hit a century break on his way to a 13—7 win. italian cyclist michele scarponi has died after being involved in a collision with a van during a training ride. he was 37. scarponi won the 2011 giro d'italia after alberto contador was stripped of the title, and he claimed victory in stage one of the tour of the alps on monday. he finished fourth overall.

a statement from his astana team said the crash happened close to scarponi's home in filottrano. english golfer ian poulter has lost his pga tour card. he needed to finish in the top 30 at the texas open but he missed the cut. poulter, who's a1, doesn't seem ready to give up. he said, "you don't get to number five in the world and help lift a few ryder cups and disappear, you come back stronger and more determined than ever". that is all the sport for now. now a look at the weather with them rich. hello. as we go into the start of next week to feel a bit like we have rewound the seasons. a little bit wintry weather on the way. make the most of some springlike weather this weekend. weather watchers have been capturing scenes of sunny spells. but from the world a little earlier on. it will stay largely dry from the weekend. some sunshine but the bid apache cloud as well. quite a lot of wild coast of this weather

front. 0ne fly in the ointment across the south—east later today. maybe the odd light shower. some cloud for northern ireland. patchy cloud for northern ireland. patchy cloud or so but spells of sunshine and quitea cloud or so but spells of sunshine and quite a few showers across the far north of scotland. this is 4pm in the afternoon if you're out and about, the channel islands, it's wales, into the west midlands, quite a lot of sunshine here. but the patchy cloud. more cloud across the east of england. the odd shower can't be ruled out. northern england seeing some can't be ruled out. northern england seeing some sunny can't be ruled out. northern england seeing some sunny spells. quite a lot of cloud for northern ireland. it will brighten up a little bit in places. southern scotland should be dry but a lot of showers for both in scotland, some wintry. just four celsius for lerwick this afternoon. this evening and night showers will continue for parts of northern scotland. elsewhere largely dry, clear spells, maybe the odd missed badge. towns and cities not far away from freezing. the countryside chilly enough for a touch of ground

frost. chilly weather not news for marathon runners. it will be quite cool in london. brightening up and warming up as the day goes on. that is the story for much of england and wales, sunny spells. north—west england seeing more cloud along with northern ireland and scotland. more persistent rain and windy weather developing across the far north later on. here is we go through sunday night we will spin up this area of low pressure and that will bring some pretty strong winds for a while. tightly squeezed isobars and outbreaks of rain. this cold front diving southwards through sunday night and monday. a bit of rain on different but behind that it will open the floodgates to a northerly wind from the arctic so a much colder guilt of the weather. 0vernight frosts, chilly days and some wintry showers, even some some of us. —— snow for some of us. hello and welcome to dateline.

theresa may, who became britain's prime minister less than a year ago after the country voted to leave the european union, has called a general election — three years earlier than she needed to. in brussels, they said her shock announcement was a twist worthy of hitchcock. the french have experienced quite a few plot twists of their own as the presidential election looms into view. with a crowded field of 11 candidates, a second round is likely. if so, we'll know by the end of sunday which two will go through. with me to discuss britain, france and all the rest, are: alex deane is a conservative commentator, michael goldfarb writes for politico europe, agnes poirier is uk editor of marianne in france, and polly toynbee is a columnist with the guardian. welcome to you all... thanks for being back with us. polly, we will talk a lot about theresa may and why she did it, but one thing all the commentators seem

to have started this election campaign in agreement on is that this will see offjeremy corbyn. but he seems to be relishing the job of underdog. why? i think he likes elections. big rallies are his thing, is what is best at. it looks to me unlikely that he will leave, evenif to me unlikely that he will leave, even if he thoroughly thrashed. those around him seem to be saying he's going to stay until we get a rule change will make sure that another core principles would take after, which