hello. my name is tom donkin, a very warm welcome to bbc news. broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the globe. here are our top stories: in the french presidential election, the centrist emmanuel macron tops the poll and goes through to the second round. translation: i want to become the president of all the people of france. the president of the patriots in the face of the threat from the nationalists. he'll face marine le pen of the anti—immigration national front — who described the first round result as historic. translation: the time has come to get rid of all the arrogant people who wanted to dictate to the population what they should do. i am the candidate for the people. ahead of the uk general election — confusion over the opposition's stance on renewing britain's nuclear deterrent. and there's a royal send—off for tens of thousands of runners

in this year's london marathon. welcome to the programme. so, now we know — in two weeks the french people — in their presidential election — will have a choice between emmanuel macron and the far right national front candidate, marine le pen. mr macron said hisjob now was to reconcile the country and gather broad support. marine le pen said her victory in reaching the final round, had been historic — she said it was time to "liberate the french people". so let's have a look at the latest figures from the first round of voting. with 46 million votes counted — mr macron led with 23.82% of votes and madame le pen on 21.58%. the conservative francois fillon

and jean—luc melenchon both on 19%. our first report from france, is by our europe editor katya adler. one presidential election, two rival visions for france. fresh—faced emmanuel macron tops poll projections, promising fairer government, neither right nor left wing. a pro—eu centrist, confident of success. translation: i hope that in a fortnight, i will become your president. i want to become the president of all the people of france. the president of the patriots, in the face of the threats from the nationalists. a president able to protect, to transform and to build. emmanuel macron now goes through to the second and final round of france's vote for president.

against... far—right marine le pen, anti—immigration, anti—globalisation and anti—eu. her presidential plan was to make france for the french. translation: the time has come to get rid of all the arrogant people who wanted to dictate to the population what they should do. i am the candidate for the people. ever since polls closed this evening, this crowd has waited to see the woman they want as the next president of france — marine le pen. her campaign slogan is "enabling the people of france" — if you hear the insults they hurl at political rivals, you will see that france is extremely divided. there were clashes this evening in paris between police and voters frustrated with the projected election results. this has become known as the most stressful election in modern day france. up and down the country,

in bars and living rooms, people were glued to their screens as soon as polls closed. left—wing candidates crushed, their supporters were bitterly disappointed. translation: i am terribly disappointed. now we know france's full of rich people and racists. i will not vote at all in the second round. emmanuel macron and marine le pen are now on a charm offensive in the lead—up to the final presidential vote. their political visions may be clear but their parties have never been in government. whichever candidate france chooses, it will be a jump into the unknown. as we've been hearing, marine le pen says the survival of france is at stake in this election. her party, the front nationale, has only ever reached the second round of a presidential race once before, while emmanuel macron‘s party, was set up just 12 months ago. our correspondent in france, lucy williamson takes a look

at the changing face of french politics. one country, one electorate, two very different faces. france has chosen change but of what sort? emmanuel macron was once called the champagne bubble, with no previous experience and no established party, he would, critics said, pop very quickly. vive la france! instead, he brought in those disillusioned with france's traditional parties. his liberal, pro—europe policy is attracting voters from both right and left. but voters from right and left also chose marine le pen, who wants everything emmanuel macron does not: leave the euro, slash immigration, and clamp down on free trade. her support has been the steadiest in this election, barely changing from months ago. so why was this result so hard to call? william and his sister helene had no

idea who they would vote for today, even as they walked to their local polling station. they were not alone, almost a quarter of the electorate were thought to be unsure who they would support. i will still vote but i don't know who for. i am hesitating between four. it's really hard. i need to choose one, i can't vote for four. months ago, the selection looked far more certain, the favourite the conservative candidate francois fillon. he fought on through a financial scandal as voters left him, adamant until tonight that he would win. on thursday, a reminder of the challenges france is facing. the latest in a long series of attacks. it could have been a sign for some that this is a time for experience not experiment. so why try someone new? the first one, macron, because he was the candidate of hope.

the second, marine le pen, because she was the candidate of anger. and you see the conflict between these two emotions. and more profoundly, because the two traditional political parties that have been leading france for the last decade, both collapsed. after months of uncertainty, france has opted for two different futures. hope or anger, free trade protectionism, eu member or not. all that stands in the way of power is one more vote. another of our correspondents thomas fessy says the result could be a pivotal moment in french politics. we have seen the meltdown of traditional parties tonight and i think that the result shows a clear distrust in the ruling political class and a desire for change. but, as you say, two very different visions on the table.

on the one hand we have emmanuel macron, a pragmatic person who wants to push for deeper european integration in favour of international trade deals and who wants to push liberal economy reforms in france. on the other hand we have marine le pen who is all about protectionism, who wants to put france and the french first, with whom foreigners and foreign goods would be kept out of the country and who wants to take the french out of the eurozone. so very different visions there. and while nothing is certain in this election, emmanuel macron has history on his side when it comes to the performance of his opponents in voting. there is a precedent. in 2002 when marine le pen's father was in the run—off against chirac, he only received i7%

against 82% forjacques chirac. there is a long tradition in france of voters uniting against the national front, whether they be political rivals or not. we have seen that in regional and local elections and in national polls as well. it may happen again in the second round. emmanuel macron is not from a party in the sense of the word. should he win, he will need support from the national assembly to get his agenda through, won't he? that is the big question. how will he be able to pull a majority in parliament and how will he be able to govern?

he says that he will select candidates outside the political system for the parliamentary election which is coming up injune. half of them will be women, he said. but whether he will be able to secure that majority in parliament remains unclear. and, of course, that is the main question we heard tonight. francois fillon, the candidate for the conservatives who lost saying that the centrist and conservatives should unite in the next parliamentary election. but how will that play out exactly? we have yet to see. if we look forward to the second round of voting, europe is likely to be a central element of the second round with two candidates who could not be more different on their views towards europe, this is a referendum on the place of france in europe, isn't it? on the one hand we have a pro— european candidate, emmanual macron,

who wants to push for further integration. he wants to make sure that europe will stand as it is. he would like to reform it, however. on the other hand we have marine le pen who has said that she will take france out of the euro. she will return the country to the national currency and she will try to negotiate a new european treaty that she would then put to referendum. very different european visions there between emmanuel macron and marine le pen. there is of course, much more about the election on our website including live updates, right now of all the latest reaction. just go to to bbc.com/news.

still to come, forget about faster, higher, stronger, how about older, cover and healthy? we will meet an ageless athletes. the stars and stripes at half—mast outside columbine high. the school sealed off, the bodies of the dead still inside. i never thought they would actually go through with it. some places have already had nearly as much rain as they would normally expect in an entire year. for millions of americans, the death of richard nixon in a new york hospital has meant conflicting emotions. a national day of mourning next wednesday sitting somehow uneasily

with the abiding memories of the shame of watergate. and lift—off of the space shuttle discovery with the hubble space telescope, our window on the universe. this is bbc news. i'm tom donkin. the latest headlines — the centrist emmanuel macron wins through to the second round of the french presidential election. he'll face marine le pen of the anti—immigration national front, who described the result as "historic." the venezuelan president nicolas maduro says he wants talks with the opposition to resume and invited the vatican to return to the country to oversee the discussions. in the last three weeks, 20 people have been killed in a wave of tense and protests across the country.

greg dawson reports. it was yet another weekend of protest on the streets of caracas at this time, and he gave way to sombre reflection of thousands dressed in white to honour those killed in the violence that has flared up in this country throughout april and in his sunday tv egg race, nicholas maduro hinted at a willingness to compromise, saying he wanted to restart peace talks opposition parties. we have to take off the country, that's why we need elections now and also political dialogue for peace. and ask pope francis from here to continue to accompany us in this dialogue. but the elections is talking about the only regional, not the presidential vote these protesters crave. position parties what next you's

general election brought forward, accusing president maduro of steering his country towards dictatorship. the recent unrest was initially sparked by a supreme court ruling to limit the power of the country's opposition — controlled nationalist assembly. the court may have backed down but the protesters have backed down but the protesters have not. resident maduro says the demonstrators are led by right—wing extremists. he also blames a us— backed business elite for the country's economic downturn. steep inflation has led to long queues for food and medical supplies. it is likely the president's offer of talks overseen the international observers will be met with scepticism. more protest to set for monday, including plans to erect roadblocks to grind the country to a halt. greg dawson, bbc news. now, to the election campaign here in the uk and jeremy corbyn says he'll order a review of "all aspects" of uk defence policy if he becomes prime minister. the conservatives claim labor would "dismantle" the uk's defences. our political correspondent vicky young reports. jeremy corbyn has an army of loyal

supporters who've kept him at the helm of the labour party, despite opposition from many of his own mps. but now, he has to introduce himself to a wider audience and persuade voters he's ready to be prime minister. morning, all. some of his views have caused huge controversy, even within his own party. mr corbyn is a unilateralist opposed to nuclear weapons. so would labour's election manifesto include a commitment to renew trident? we would have a review of defence immediately, which would include all aspects of defence, as most incoming governments do, i think all have. we would then look at the situation at that time. after the interview, a party spokesman was forced to issue a statement clarifying the situation, saying the decision to renew trident had been taken and labour supported that. and what about the fight against so—called islamic state? mr corbyn said he might suspend

air strikes on targets in iraq and syria. but what would he do if intelligence chiefs came to him with this information? the leader of isis, we know where he is. we can take him out with a drone strike. can we have your permission? what do you tell them? what i tell them is "give me the information you've got, tell me how accurate that is, and tell me what you think can be achieved by this." if they do know where he is... i'm asking you about decisions you would make. can i take you back to the point? what is the objective here? is the objective to start more strikes that may kill many innocent people as has happened, or is the objective to get a political solution in syria? labour is keen to focus on domestic issues in this election. on grammar schools, mr corbyn said that he did not like selective education. on the economy, he repeated his promise to set up a public national investment bank to plough money into new industries infrastructure. and on private service providers in the nhs, he said he would phase out those contracts and bring

in directly employed staff. jeremy corbyn‘s supporters say he has been hampered as leader by disloyal mps and a negative press. this election campaign is a chance for him to lay out his vision for britain, to tell the voters exactly what he stands for, but any confusion over policy will be seized on by his opponents. cheering. in the opening stage of this campaign, the tories have made strong leadership a central theme. today, they said mr corbyn wasn't suitable to be prime minister. it'sjust chaos, you know? jeremy corbyn is putting himself forward as the next prime minister of this country and i think what we have seen this morning is that we would basically have a coalition of chaos if jeremy corbyn became prime minister of this country. the conservatives are portraying jeremy corbyn as a man unable to take the difficult decisions that come with being in power. but his allies say he is a man of principle and they believe voters will warm to him the more they hear his message. vicky young, bbc news.

let's turn to some other news this hour. families have been burying their dead as afghanistan observed a national day of mourning on sunday. it follows a taliban attack on a military base last week which led to the deaths of up to 200 afghan government soldiers. north korea says it's ready to sink a us aircraft carrier which is carrying out naval exercises with two japanese warships in the western pacific. president trump ordered the uss carl vinson carrier group to sail to waters off the korean peninsula in response to rising tension over pyongyang's missile tests and its threats to attack the us and its asian allies. it's been confirmed that a us citizen has been arrested in north korea. the korean—american man, known as tony kim, was held on friday at pyongyang airport. two other us citizens, a pastor and a college student, who were detained last year are also being held. they were found guilty of what north korea calls

"subversive acts against the country". the bbc‘s steve evans is in south korea. we are told that he is in his 50s, an academic with a us passport. he spent some time in china. he was in north korea for about one month helping with relief projects. there are actually quite a lot of foreigners who go to north korea and the deal is always that they do not get involved, for example, in christian missionary work. so some of the people who are arrested fall foul of that. with this particular gentleman, we simply do not know what the true situation is. we do not know if he is simply been stopped at the airport on his way out because of the current heightened tension or whether he has been accused of falling foul of some aspect of north korean law. steve evans there.

the london marathon saw a new world record, a pair of newlyweds among the runners, and a man who sacrificed his own time to help another runner cross the line. in all, 40,000 people took part, and the bbc‘sjoe wilson was there watching. a journey of 26 miles begins with a single hoot, but whose? heads together, the starters and the masses. byio:30am, we had a thrilling finish. david weir in the pale blue top was desperately seeking a seventh london marathon victory to mellow the bitter disappointment of the paralympics. at one point, i didn't think i'd even make the start line, so to come away and win, for me personally, is an amazing feeling. missing from the elite women's field, last year's winner jemima sumgong — she had failed a doping test. kenya's mary keita ny won it on her own. westminster witnessing a triumph

of human spirit not for the first or the last time. in a race where the women's race was separate, this was the fastest time ever. mary keitany of kenya! daniel wanjiru's victory in the men's elite race was the biggest of his career. everywhere, personal limits were being stretched. the blue headbands of the heads together charity found many heads. the charitable causes and accompanying outfits almost defied imagination. the success in the marathon takes many forms. when matthew rees spotted david wyeth out on his feet with the end in sight, his instinct was to assist, forget his own time, come on. they'd never met before. they made it. it's the same thing anyone else would have done.