good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. more than 100 people have been killed in afghanistan after an assault by the taliban — on a military base in the north of the country. militants disguised themselves as soldiers, before carrying out the attack yesterday evening. those targeted were leaving a mosque, after friday prayers. our south asia correspondent justin rowlatt reports. it was during afternoon prayers that two suicide bombers blasted open the entrance to this army base in the north of afghanistan yesterday. eight other fighters, dressed north of afghanistan yesterday. eight otherfighters, dressed in afg ha n eight otherfighters, dressed in afghan army uniforms, used heavy machine guns to attack the dining areas of the base and the mosque. afg ha n areas of the base and the mosque. afghan troops have been pouring into the area. eyewitnesses warned the death toll would almost certainly rise. one man told the bbc he had counted 165 bodies. the battle

lasted for five hours, counted 165 bodies. the battle lasted forfive hours, and counted 165 bodies. the battle lasted for five hours, and today dozens lasted for five hours, and today d oze ns of lasted for five hours, and today dozens of injured soldiers were being treated in a local hospital. translation: when i came out of the mosque after prayers, three people with army uniforms and an army vehicle started shooting at us. the taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack and issued this picture of the men it claims were behind it, ten are now dead, one was ca ptu red behind it, ten are now dead, one was captured alive. the assault on the army base is a shocking reminder of just how tough the ongoing battle in afghanistan is. last month in afghan special forces helicopter landed on top of the military hospital in kabul after it was stormed by gunmen disguised as doctors. about 50 people died in that attack. two and a half yea rs people died in that attack. two and a half years after the international combat mission in afghanistan ended and the taliban now controls more than a third of the country. and

with casualties amongst the afghan forces running at almost 7000 a year there are questions about how long there are questions about how long the afghan army can continue to defend the ground it still holds. justin rowlatt forced bbc news. —— justin rowlatt forced bbc news. —— justin rowlatt, bbc news. in the first weekend of campaigning in the general election the leaders of both main parties have been out and about. the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has been speaking in manchester and will be leafleting and door—knocking later. theresa may is in the west midlands. in the last few minutes the prime minister has been addressing supporters in dudley. we are now only 47 days away from the general election. from what i believe will be the most important election for this country in my lifetime. because this is an election which is about a future for oui’ election which is about a future for our country. and it's about ensuring that this country has a strong and

sta ble that this country has a strong and stable government, strong and stable leadership in the national interest. our political correspondent leila nathoojoins me, leila what are we expecting the parties to focus on today? we have clear pictures already from jeremy corbyn and theresa may. this question of tax is coming on strong. it is. it comes from philip hammond's comments yesterday when he appeared to hint at an end of a pledge not to raise national insurance, income tax or vat. theresa may didn't say anything about this, but she always said the conservatives would be the party of low tax, and stated the record of taking more people out of income tax than ever before. jeremy corbyn was also asked about tax. he said labour would be ensuring that tax burdens did not fall on the shoulders of those on lowering comes. he vowed to ta ke those on lowering comes. he vowed to take back billions of pounds he accused the conservatives of, he vowed to take that back from big

businesses and reversing what he called tax cuts. he is keen to make this election about schools, hospitals and housing. theresa may with brexit at the centre of her campaign. on this first weekend of campaigning it is becoming clear just how all the parties will be fighting it. plenty to talk about in the weeks ahead. thanks very much. the snp's national executive has confirmed that their 5a mps will be reselected as candidates for the general election. the party will also chose candidates in the five constituencies not held by snp mps. this includes the two represented by natalie mcgarry and michelle thomson, both elected as snp mps, but who now sit as independent members. they are not eligible to stand for the party. the former conservative cabinet minister, sir eric pickles, has become the latest mp to announce that he won't seek re—election in june. sir eric — who has represented brentwood and ongar in essex, since 1992, said he felt now was the right time to bow out. but says he will miss

the commons dreadfully. clashes have broken out in the german city of cologne as tens of thousands of demonstrators picket a hall where the anti—immigration afd party is holding a conference. a huge police operation is being mounted, with up to 50 thousand protesters expected to descend on the city. our correspondent jenny hill is there. good afternoon. this is how cologne is responding to germany's most controversial political party. police expect up to 50,000 people to hold demonstrations and protests at various sites across the city this afternoon. this is one of these protests going on behind me. you can see it is relatively peaceful. and quite musical, one chap has turned up quite musical, one chap has turned up with a grand piano. police have reported a number of skirmishes elsewhere during one of those scuffles with police officer was injured, but not seriously we are

told. one afd delegate had an iron bar thrown at them as they tried to make their way into the conference. this morning we saw some protesters trying to prevent what they thought was another delegate getting through the police cordon to overhear where the police cordon to overhear where the conference is being held. a controversial conference. the fractures mood inside. afd, a party in crisis, they are slipping in the polls, and the most recognisable figure from the party has announced she won't be standing to lead the party into the general election. she wa nts to ta ke party into the general election. she wants to take the party into a more mainstream direction. that has angered the more extreme members of the afd. it'll be a controversial afternoon in the conference there. thank you. the sun newspaper has printed a formal apology to everton footballer ross barkley. former editor kelvin mckenzie compared the footballer to a gorilla in an article last week. ross barkley‘s grandfather is from nigeria but the newspaper says a racial slur was never intended.

kelvin mckenzie remains suspended from the sun. and an italian professional cyclist has been killed after being hit by a van, while out training. 37—year—old michele scarponi rode for the astana team — and won the giro d'italia in 2011. the crash happened on a crossroads, near his home, in central italy. with all the sport, jessica creighton at the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. an incredible start to the scottish cup semifinal between the holders hibernian and aberdeen. adam rooney put aberdeen ahead after just 11 seconds. aberdeen. adam rooney put aberdeen ahead afterjust 11 seconds. ryan christie scored from a free kick, that made it 2—0. but hibernian are backin that made it 2—0. but hibernian are back in it, thanks to substitute grant holt. it is half—time at hampden park. and the first of the fa cup semifinals kicks off at 5:15pm. it

is the best two teams in the premier league, chelsea against tottenham, and it is live on bbc one. manchester city women face a huge test this afternoon. they are up against defending champions lyon in their first leg. this is against defending champions lyon in theirfirst leg. this is theirfirst season theirfirst leg. this is theirfirst season playing in the competition. lyon have reached five of the last seven finals. ronnie o'sullivan was his usual entertaining self after reaching the quarterfinals of the world snooker championship. he hit a century break on his way to a 13—7 win over murphy before explaining his current approach to the game. before explaining his current approach to the gamelj before explaining his current approach to the game. i think snooker is a little bit like you are a p0p snooker is a little bit like you are a pop star now. if you can make a good album every year you will do well. if you don't produce an album you go missing. i've decided to play a lot of exhibitions, do a lot of work, and it has taken the pressure

off me, really. i don't feel i have anything to prove. i thought, i will give myself seven weeks to practice for this. it might have made a difference, maybe not, but, yes, i've put in more practising for it, but i haven't played for a year, basically. great britain are trying to get back into the world group of the fed cup for the first time since 1993. they are playing romania. joe konta is set up against sabrina could stay in the second singles match. she needs a win to level the tie after heather watson lost to the world number five, simona tie after heather watson lost to the world numberfive, simona halep. christina horak who leads a 19 strong british squad at the world we live in the bahamas this weekend. —— chris ta kes takes less than a moment to realise you are at the bahamas rather than britain. but the majority of the

world's best are here because of london which hosts the competition this summer. teams need to race here to perform relay places there. this summer. teams need to race here to perform relay places therem doesn't feel like we're at a championships, but it is a serious event and are excited to compete. for adam to lely, fourth at the olympics, this marks the start of a red to redemption. —— adam gemilli. i was gutted. i started sobbing. i broke down. i didn't know what to do with myself because in 20 seconds mike dream was over. that is why the medals mean so much. —— my dream was over. they won gold at the 2004 athens games but mistakes during the changeover is at beijing 2008, london 2012 and rio 2016 cost the

men potential medals in all of those events. the women excelled at the olympics, claiming two bronze medals. they now want to establish themselves as one of the world's best relay nations. we know it is going to be tough. lots of other teams would have liked that bronze medal. they were capable of winning it. we have arrows on our backs. we are ina it. we have arrows on our backs. we are in a position of a huge advantage of coming in with loads of confidence and capability. the british team have enjoyed their time in the sun and the media spotlight so in the sun and the media spotlight so far this week and will be hoping this is the only time they dropped the baton in the bahamas. that is all of the sport. thanks very much. the next news on bbc one is at 4:30pm. have a good afternoon. bye for now. quick to spot the opportunity to own a piece of history and nobody is ever going to recreate these pieces from the titanic again. i have got a

violin belonging to my grandfather which unfortunately was not the one that he played when more than 50,000 service personnel and police officers are being deployed across france in preparation for voting in the country's presidential election after the killing of a police officer in paris. terrorism dominated the final day of campaigning on friday, and security has been increased before polls in mainland france open tomorrow. our reporter is in paris. welcome to a busy market. right in the centre of the city. the background to this election is anything but ordinary. tens of thousands of extra security personnel are on the streets all

over france. we can see armed police walking around this market at times. a real strange contrast to the normal life revolving all—around that security. national security thrust to the top of the political agenda by the events of thursday evening was shot dead on the champs—elysees just a couple of miles from here. the french prepare for an election organised under a state of emergency. armed police and gendarmes have been a common sight in the streets since the 2015 shootings in paris. 50,000 of them have been deployed across the country. merci. security has been picked up around famous sites. the french are also used to that 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 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've had enough of anxiety, and things like that, with all the attacks, and so on. so just wanted to ignore it, personally. so maybe it will have an impact, but i don't know. translation: i'm not worried about sunday in particular, but i am worried, in general, for all of us. ijust don't think our politicians really have a full grasp of the problem. the most important, i think, it's economy, and economic recovery. this is the most important. more than security? yes, sure — for me. the champs—elysees have reopened, and are bustling again. but, on the pavement, a reminder of the attack, in which a police officer was killed and two others wounded. on friday the paris prosecutor revealed the attacker had spent 14 years injail and never shown signs of being radicalised. police questioned him

again earlier this year over suspicions of terrorism but he walked free. there was no proof to charge him. on 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. thomas fessy, bbc news, paris. this is a typically delightful french scene, people buying beautiful food, flowers, treating themselves to drinks in cafes. this might seem to represent the good life to those on the outside but it seems there is an increasing sense of pessimism amongst the french going into the selection and generally. the country remains on high

alert and earlier i spoke to claudia senik, an academic at paris school of economics, about the current levels of happiness in france. we know that france has a surprisingly low level of happiness in general and this has been going on for decades even. it probably stems from aspirations concerning the economy. related to the fact we have been unable to reduce our high level of unemployment since the 70s. there is something like a learned pessimism about our capacity to overcome problems and adapt and affirm ourselves to corporate transformations of this world. are you finding some age groups are happier than others, less pessimistic than others? i would expect that the youth would be more pessimistic but when you look at the data that is not the case. it is more the people over 50 because they have the highest rate of unemployment or being out

of the labour market. over 55 it is high. this unemployment problem is concentrated on young people and senior people. how does the actual hard data correlate with economics? the graph that you have between economic well—being and happiness. we have a survey in france, a quarterly survey, of consumer confidence and people's happiness, well—being, aspirations. everything that concerns the economy is very dark. everything concerning social relationship is ok. everything concerning future aspirations, and expectations, is really worse than everything that concerns current life. talking to people at the market,

pretty much everybody here at least is saying that they are absolutely determined to go out and vote on sunday in the first round of the presidential elections. a state of emergency and the attack has not put them off. this election campaign has been anything but typical, even without the state of emergency and the attack. nobody has any idea of what is going to be the outcome on sunday. we have a special programme on that at 6:30pm tomorrow evening. for the first time since the industrial revolution britain has gone an entire 24 hours without using coal to generate electricity. the 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. earlier i spoke to david price. he's a coal market expert at global steam coal, ihs energy. i asked him why the uk is turning its back on coal. we are the only government at the moment that is acting to stop coal in the way that we are. the uk has a carbon floor price which means that gas—fired generation gets in ahead of coal fired and that is why so many coal plants have had to close over the last couple of years. it is because of the economic impact of government policy rather than simply the price of coal? yes. the government is designed to do what it has done which is bring coal burn down and cut co2 emissions but essentially it is an economic tool. give us a sense of how dramatic it is. i remember being in the black country a couple of years ago and it was once described as being black by day and red by night, black because of the smoke being produced by industrial activity and red at night

because of the fires burning. a pretty dramatic change in the history of britain since the industrial revolution. yes. a huge change. it has been going on for some time. coal has been losing ground since the 50s to oil. then since the turn of the decade to gas. even so, coal remains the cheapest form of generation available. that is really interesting in terms of the overall economics. is it possible some of the things that now are cheap or cheaper, the oil price went down dramatically at one point, but in terms of other areas like nuclear and renewables and of course gas is the big one because we do not have storage necessarily to meet our needs in this country, is it possible some of the economics

of this could change again? quite possibly. as you drive the use of the material down the price has to fall. coal is going to be cheap for many years to come probably compared to other fuels. the game changer is probably going to be renewables. to date they are not quite as cheap as coal but they are getting there. certainly solar and wind generation costs have come down an enormous amount and once you have built the plant the power is effectively free apart from the cost of building it. will you miss it? pardon? will you miss coal as part of the energy mix in this country? i will miss coal generally. i have certainly plenty to do in the rest of the world. i think we should celebrate the people involved in coal over the last 200, 300, 400 years, who drove

the industrial revolution which gave us the living standards we have today. a lot of people risked their lives and gave their lives to make this great industry great as it was, so i think we should celebrate them. 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 40 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. a century and 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 are we still so fascinated with the titanic? earlier i spoke to christopher ward, an author who wrote "and the band played on", which tells the story of his grandfather, jock hume, who was one of the violinists who continued playing while the ship sank. he told me why many collectors are keen to get their hands on a piece of history. collectors are quick to spot the opportunity to own a piece of history and nobody is ever going to recreate these pieces from the titanic again. i have got a violin belonging to my grandfather which unfortunately was not the one that he played when the ship went down,

and it is worth about £1000, but it would've been worth £1 million if it had been recovered with his body, but unfortunately when his body was taken to halifax nova scotia he had a violin mute in his pocket, a silver cigarette case and a brass button, and that was it. the fascination with the titanic is that it is really the first truly international disaster. people from every country in the world almost died. men, women and children. it was a great leveller. rich people and poor people died side—by—side. it was a wake—up call to the rich that actually they could die too. jacob astor, some of the richest people in america, lost their lives that night, and there were great acts of cowardice as well as courage. do you feel any sense

that perhaps we are now, because the last of the survivors has died, that we are reaching a stage where perhaps the titanic‘s significance will diminish, or do you think because of the impact of media, the impact of several film adaptations, but also in terms of its significance of being something of which there is so much record still in existence, that it will have an impact beyond the life of those directly affected, even descendants like you? that is a very good question. at the time of the centenary people said to me that is it, interest will die away, but in fact it has excited interest, particularly amongst school children. i give a lot of talks at schools and it is amazing how much young people know about it and of course this has been helped enormously by the wonderful cameron film titanic and other films being shown like a night to remember which is a great british film of its time.

as orkney celebrates the 900th anniversary of its patron saint, st magnus, a welsh stonemason artist is marking it in her own way by carrying a 30kg self—carved inauguration stone 1,300 miles from the isles to norway, and back again. in medieval times, these stones were of significant spiritual value, with kings proving their connection with the landscape and their leadership by standing in them. a 1300 milejourney from scotland to scandinavia carrying a 30 kilogram rock. artist beatrice searle carved this inauguration stone after being inspired by orkney‘s beauty and will be travelling with it as part of an artistic project to norway and back in the year that the scottish islands celebrate the 900th anniversary of their patron saint st magnus. they occur in pictish history and medieval history. for the picts stones like these were associated with kingship, so the chosen king would stand

in the stone in order to signify his connection with the land that he ruled. it is a 390 million—year—old siltstone selected from marwick bay on orkney and its voyage has only just begun. we are seeing a huge mass migration and those people moving not always doing so by choice so i think being able to carry part of a beloved landscape takes on another kind of important resonance. as i do so i will repeatedly stand in the orkney boat and i will invite those people i encounter to stand in it and to draw strength from their connection to it and add to its story. on day one of this lengthy project, what do orcadians make of the stone? i think anything to do with st magnus' history or story, the better. i feel the warmth coming up through the stone. that kind of gives you a good feeling, yes. at the moment, just clean and refreshing.

very refreshed by it. the trip has been funded by art grant and crowdfunding and the stone will be laid to rest in a rural location on orkney towards the end of summer atjourney‘s end. it is difficult, tiring.