welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley — our top stories: president trump says a "major conflict" with north korea is possible — but he'd prefer to settle differences over its nuclear programme using diplomacy. protestors storm macedonia's parliament — attacking politicians — after the election of an ethnic albanian as speaker. little more than a week before france's decisive presidential vote, polls suggest emmanuel macron‘s lead over marine le pen is shrinking. and facebook says it's launching new ways to uncover fake accounts and fight abuse on its platform. hello and welcome to bbc news. president trump has again warned that a major conflict could break

out with north korea over its nuclear and missile programmes. he said he would prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute —— but that would be very difficult to achieve. as he prepares to mark his first 100 days in office this weekend he says that north korea is his biggest global worry. well, there's a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea — absolutely. let's speak to laura bicker in washington. we should balance this with the more moderate tone coming from the secretary of state. that is correct. rex tillotson also gave a very rare

interview to fox news just a little bit earlier. he spoke about the difficult diplomatic strategy followed by the administration. this is ahead of, in a few hours time, a un security council meeting where rex tillerson will urge members to enforce tougher sanctions. not new ones, ones that are already on the table in part of an accord that has already agreed. but he wants them agreed and pushed to the full letter of the law. this is all to turn the screw he serves on north korea to try and put kim jong—un screw he serves on north korea to try and put kimjong—un in a place to come to the negotiation table. rex tillerson also said that the us did not want to negotiate its way through the negotiation table. they wa nt through the negotiation table. they want north korea to change its position and stop creating and developing nuclear missiles. but as you heard there from donald trump, from president trump, military

options are also being explored. and at the moment there is a missile defence system being moved around, it has just been put in a new place in south korea. this is a military posturing to show north korea that the us means business. we also her donald trump sounding more consolatory, saying he accepts that the north korean leader took over at a young age and it is a difficult job. rex tillerson says he does not believe kim jong—un is job. rex tillerson says he does not believe kimjong—un is mad and also the line that the us favours direct talks with north korea. that would be the first since the days of bill clinton, right where she might the aim has always been to try to be in talks with north korea, to try and get them to the table. that this is a concerted effort and a very high at profile of an over the last two weeks. perhaps because of the warning president obama gave his successoi’. warning president obama gave his successor. there warning president obama gave his successoi’. there are warning president obama gave his successor. there are several interesting things coming out of

this, donald trump... perhaps he does not praise kimjong—un but he said it was a difficult thing he had to do, taking over the country at the age of 27. he also heaped praise on the chinese and the chinese president hu he said is a very good man who was trying very, very hard to resolve the situation because he does not want to seek death and turmoil. remember, that was a very strong point of the meeting between china and north america. because of the amount of trade between career and north korea, donald trump and his administration are hoping that china will be able to turn the screws on implied harder sanctions on north korea. the pentagon is investigating payments to president trump's former national security advisor michael flynn — including one to attend a gala dinner in russia where he sat on a table with president putin. general flynn made headlines when he was fired by mr trump afterjust21i days in office —

it emerged he'd misled vice president mike pence about his dealings with the russian ambassador. the white house has publicly tried to turn any blame onto the obama administration. here's some of what was said at the latest press briefing. he was issued a security clearance under the obama administration in the spring of 2016. the trip you're referring to happened in 2015. 0bviously there's an issue that the department of defence is looking into we welcome, but all that clearance was made by the obama administration and apparently with the knowledge of the trip that he took. there's lots more on our website about president trump's first 100 days in office, including this trump tracker — which asks how much the president has achieved so far. you'll find it at bbc.com/news, or on the bbc news app. let's take a look at some

of the other stories making the news. two american troops have been killed in afghanistan, fighting the extremist group, the so—called islamic state. according to a defence department spokesman, it happened in southern nangarhar, the same province where the us dropped its ‘mother of all bombs' earlier this month. at least 2,000 us military personnel have died in afghanistan since 2001. human rights officials in the philippines have discovered united airlines has settled a lawsuit with a passenger dragged off a flight earlier this month. lawyers for david dao said they had reached an out—of—court settlement with the airline, for an undisclosed amount. dr dao was forcibly taken off the plane to make space forfour crew members. video of the incident went viral on social media and sparked an international outrage. police in macedonia have used stun grenades inside parliament to end chaotic scenes which erupted after a vote to elect an ethnic albanian as speaker. protesters in skopje stormed the chamber — and attacked mps —

after a coalition of parties backed talat xhaferi for the role. they fear moves to improve the status of albanians threaten macedonian unity. sarah corker reports. around 200 nationalist protesters, some wearing balaclavas, used chairs, tripods and other furniture as weapons to attack mps inside parliament. in the press room, a fist fight broke out. with blood pouring down his face, opposition leader zoran zaev was among ten people injured. the violence erupted just moments after an ethnic albanian was elected as parliamentary speaker. protesters oppose a coalition between mr zaev‘s party, the social democrats, and ethnic albanian parties, which they perceive as a threat to national unity. localjournalists say there's been months of political deadlock since an inconclusive election.

the elections were in december, now we are end of april and still no parliament, functional parliament, no parliamentary speaker and no government in macedonia. and this caused tensions to rise high. 0n social media un commissioner johannes hahn wrote: the secretary general of nato, jens stoltenberg, wrote: riot police tried to block the entrance to the parliament and eventually had to use stun grenades to restore order. the president has called for calm and has said he will meet with political leaders on friday. sarah corker, bbc news. in the run up to the french

presidential run off on seventh may, the front national candidate marine le pen has been campaigning in the southern french city of nice. the city was hit injuly last year by a truck attack. 0ur europe correspondent james reynolds has been speaking to voters. this supporter, in white, wants immediate action. he was in his clothes shop when an attack killed 86 people. the 31—year—old has come with thousands more to hear marine le pen. translation: in this city, that was hit so hard by terrorism, i will show no weakness in the face of islamic fundamentalism! the audience hears her promise to deploy more police and to deport suspects under surveillance. everyone is scared now. even to come here, my family and friends spoke about maybe it is dangerous to come. we are scared in france

and we all think she is the strongest person to be able to protect us and protect france. these are the true believers, campaigning for their leader. but they alone won't be enough. in order to win the election, marine le pen must find and win over new voters. that means that she has to win the mood of the city that's still recovering. some here do want greater action, but many believe the front national is simply not the answer. 18—year—old layla fled from the attacks on this promenade. what happened here has not made her turn to marine le pen. i don't think it changes how i think about security. because i don't think we can always stop everything. i think a lot of parties just wanted to gain votes and it has really shocked me. in order to quieten marine le pen,

layla and others like her will make a simple choice. vote for her opponent, emmanuel macron. the latest polls suggest that macron‘s lead over marine le pen is slipping. he took his campaign to that part suburbs of paris where he told supporters he aims to heal the divide in france. translation: france is not the narrow face of hatred that marine le pen presents. i will not let her be the face of france. i will not let her trivialise the national front party, a racist party. she puts at the helm of the party someone who expressed extraordinarily grave opinions. she herself expresses extremely grave opinions. in london — a man carrying knives near the houses of parliament has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism offences. the man, aged 27, had been under surveillance

by the security services. he was stopped close to whitehall and wrestled to the ground. security in the area round parliament has been heightened since the westminster attack last month, which left five people dead. june kelly has the story. under arrest in the shadow of government buildings in whitehall. this wasn't a random stop search and arrest. the man was under surveillence as part of an ongoing operation by scotland yard's counterterrorism command. close to parliament square before 2:30pm this afternoon, the suspect was quickly in handcuffs. police had wrestled him to the ground on a traffic island. it's close to the foreign office and entrance to downing street. he was led away to an unmarked car and taken to a high security police station in south london. and this is what he left behind, his rucksack and his knives. one of them, there was like kind of a long one really, it looked like... i don't know what kind of knife

was it, but it was like really a proper strong knife. seemed quite calm. not much more than that. reporter: he didn't say anything? i wouldn't say panic but the firearms officers were running and they were all tense. the prime minister was away from london on an election visit to derbyshire. i'm aware that an individual has been arrested in whitehall today and that that individual has been arrested on the basis of a terrorism charge. obviously i can't say much more about it because it is an ongoing police investigation, but i think it shows that our police and our intelligence and security services are on the alert, as they always are, looking to keep us safe and secure. for the second time in just over a month, westminster was once again on a terror alert. securities are concerned with the police and everything like that. overall, i think people still feel safe, and tourism... people are going to continue

to do what they do. scary to be honest because it's happened the second time in one month. so, yeah, it makes me really, really worried. we saw the helicopters, like, circling there. people got in touch with you to find out if you were 0k. friends and family up north had kind of said, you know, make sure you're all right down there, you're not walking about. the suspect is said to have no link to the killer khalid masood, who launched his assault first with a car and then a knife. he took the lives of five people, including pc keith palmer, and injured many more. since then there's been a heightened sense of security here. the fact that he's in a location which has recently been subject of a terrorist attack that would tend to make any investigating officer think that this is the time we need to step in before he causes some harm. the fact that perhaps he was making his way towards parliament as well is a very key point that they would want to take him out while he was least expecting it.

so what do we know about the man arrested here today? well, he's 27 and lives in london. it's said that while he's a british national, he wasn't born in the uk. counterterrorism detectives and the security service m15 will have been trying to build a picture of his background and they've been monitoring his movements. as he begins his first night in custody, in the coming days police will be examining his beliefs, his mental state and his associates. june kelly, bbc news, westminster. in a separate incident, a woman has been shot by police and four people arrested in an anti—terror operation in london. it was caught on camera by a passer by. two men and a woman were held after the shooting and another woman was arrested outside the capital in kent. the bbc‘s alexandra mackenzie has the details from where the incident took place in willesden, north london. police say this is an ongoing counterterrorism investigation. the house behind me had been under surveillance for some time,

as have the people connected to it. now, armed police raided the property at around 7pm this evening. a woman in her 20s was shot by police, she has been taken to hospital, and we have had an update on her condition, she is said to be serious but stable. now, she's not been arrested due to her condition but is under armed guard in hospital. others have been arrested. we have been told that two people were arrested at the property, one person close to the house and a 43—year—old woman was arrested a short time later in kent. and all four were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of terrorism acts. this is an ongoing police enquiry, there is still a police presence here and searches are being made of the property. police have also said other searches of other properties are taking place across london and they are connected to this incident. stay with us on bbc news.

still to come: 0pposites attract. we catch up with the us newlyweds whose political leanings are trumped by love. nothing, it seems, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government to build better government housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration.

this is the end of a 12—year war for them. they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting forfor so long. it was 7am in the morning, the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump has said a major conflict with north korea is possible but he'd prefer to settle differences over its nuclear programme using diplomacy. protestors have stormed macedonia's parliament, attacking politicians after the election of an ethnic albanian as speaker. facebook says it is stepping up its security to counter efforts by governments and other actors that use the social media network to spread disinformation and manipulate public opinion. it acknowledges what it calls "information operations"

designed to distort political sentiment. the social network website says it has uncovered co—ordinated operations to sway last year's us presidential election, through the spreading of fake news. well, earlier i spoke to cyber security expert jake williams and i asked him whether political pressure is the reason facebook is doing more. i would expect so. it is counter to the business model to do this otherwise. they rely on advertising revenue. meeting that goes viral, whether it is fake or not, contributes to the business model. when you say it is counter to the business model to do this, you mean it will lose money, i suppose it might instil confidence in the website. yes, i cannot deny that. i am sure they have looked at the give and take on that. if users have no confidence in the site, they won't use it. it would have to reach a tipping point in political pressure 01’ tipping point in political pressure or advertising revenue to make the move. you know how this works, what are

the chances you think it will work? near zero. we've been watching advertising bots basically trying to get pay per click and pay per impression revenue for the last many yea rs. every impression revenue for the last many years. every time advertisers think that they have the problem of fraudulent advertising revenue salt, the attackers are basically find a way around it. i highly doubt this is going to work. whether it works 01’ is going to work. whether it works or not, i guess other companies will have to make the same gesture, want a?| have to make the same gesture, want a? i would expect so and i think it's going to have to do with the popularity of the site and how much of the site feels like the fake news problem is hurting their business model —— they? problem is hurting their business model -- they? i suppose the key question is, is there anything you can see from your experience that wouldn't? facebook is in the driver seat on this for collecting some threat intelligence. as far as the data harvesting versus fake news piece, they can see when attackers

are trying to harvest data against key individuals. 0therwise, are trying to harvest data against key individuals. otherwise, as far as they can use and amplification of fa ke as they can use and amplification of fake news, i cannot see a lot they can do. it's often said that in matters of the heart opposites attract. that's certainly true for one pennsylvania couple whose politics couldn't be more divided. before the election, we met democrat gretchen wisehart and herfiance tom ellis, who supported donald trump. well, now they're married, and although they've both said i do to tying the knot, they still say ‘i don't' i do to tying the knot, they still say i don't when it comes to agreeing about the president. rajini vaidya nathan‘s been catching up with them. i'm gretchen and i voted for hillary clinton. i'm tom and i voted for donald trump. both: and we just got married! we had a couple of days after the election when i said, "i can't talk to you". i didn't know what to say to her. during the election, they were engaged in a lot of heated political discussions. don't talk over me yet! i caught up with them again six weeks into their marriage. this is the room you got married in? and 100 days into

the trump presidency. i never thought anyone would say that i would be living under a trump presidency. every day i wake up with a stomachache and wonder what happened overnight that i'm not aware of. i told she should be very happy because our wedding and our honeymoon was paid for by the donald trump increase in the stock market. i think the travel ban was an ill—conceived, racist ban that was never going to pass constitutional muster. the travel ban was too quick to rollout and that was the problem. the philosophy was fine, the rollout was poor. the president totally flopped on healthcare reform. it really was amazing that he didn't have a plan in place when he finally got to the white house. he tried to roll it out too quickly. it is going on right now. there's always an albatross around every president's neck. it takes a long time. i did support the strike in syria.

i think the measured response to the atrocities that occurred in syria was long over due. it was a well done, well orchestrated strike that i was very proud of the president for. the president promised to come to washington and drain the swamp and instead of doing that he drenched it, filling it with nepotism and kleptocracy. except for steve bannon i think the staff has been terrific and his staff on national security is one of the best. you might wonder how they make their marriage work with these political differences, but they do. we've had disagreements about these issues and our relationship, but we can have arguments and argue and disagree without disrespecting each other. we aren't in election mode any more and now we have a president. until he is impeached. i think that's coming very soon. but i still love you! it's one of the most ambitious efforts ever to explore far away

planets and it's reaching what nasa calls its grand finale. nasa's cassini spacecraft has just dived through the narrow gap between saturn and its spectacular rings and today it has started sending data back to earth. 0ur science correspondent rebecca morelle has more. a daring mission, deep in our solar system. nasa's cassini spacecraft travelling at 100,000 kilometres an hour has just plunged between saturn and its icy rings. taking us closer to this giant world than ever before. at mission hq in california, celebrations scientists received the news that the manoeuvre had worked. and these are the ultra—close—up images the spacecraft has just sent back. a colossal storm raging on the planet's surface and drifting clouds in its atmosphere. i was waiting with bated breath to make sure the spacecraft was ok and the data was coming back.

this is the first time any spacecraft has been this close to saturn and you're crossing the rings essentially, but hopefully in a gap, where there's no ring material. it's been in space for 20 years taking countless stunning images and revealing dozens of saturn's moons from hyperion to enceladus with its icy crust. but now it's the beginning of the end for the spacecraft. after so long in space it's running out of fuel. in the coming months it will perform more sweeps through the ring system, before a final death dive into saturn's atmosphere to bring the mission to a close. a reminder of our top story. president trump has warned that a major conflict could break out with north korea over its nuclear and missile programmes. he said he'd prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute but that would be very difficult to achieve. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. hello.

as we've been discovering of late, spring can offer up a wide variety of conditions and sometimes we try to cram it all into one day. that was the way of it on thursday. at its best, absolutely no complaints in fife. but elsewhere, nowhere near 15 degrees. quite a bit of cloud around and quite a few showers as well. that's how we are going to start friday too. the last of thursday's showers tending to migrate away from the eastern side of the british isles down away towards the west. but i think you'll notice, wherever you start the new day on friday, it won't be just as cold, as was the start to thursday, where there was quite a widespread frost. i think not a particularly warm start to the day but 2—5 degrees — perfectly acceptable for this time of year. that thicker cloud across southern and western parts comes thanks to this rather weak weather front. if you are desperate for some rain i'm afraid again that is not the feature for you. it will produce a wee bit of rain first up across wales and the south—west midlands,

into south—west england, but even here some areas will be dry right from the word go. and after a glorious start across some eastern parts, as we get on into the afternoon the cloud will bubble up somewhat and there could be some showers from that as well. temperatures in a range at best from about 8—9 on the eastern coast and down to around about 1k or 15 on the south coast. the bank holiday weekend, breezy but the wind is coming in from the south and south—east, so milder than of late, and it wouldn't be a bank holiday without the mention of some rain. but we hold off on that prospect. through saturday there is a scattering of showers, no great organisation about them. many areas staying dry and, as i say, the breeze coming from the south. this is where we start mentioning the rain, with a deal of uncertainty, it has to be said. a lot of isobars there, so you'll be flying your kite, that's for sure, if you're out on the beach on sunday, but it will be a damp affair. certainly we suspect for the south—west, for wales, getting up towards northern ireland,

butjust how far north and east that rainbelt gets during the course of the day is open to a lot of uncertainty at the moment. so if you've got a plan for sunday, keep checking the forecast is the watchword at the moment, because that whole weather system could move with time and also in space. but we are more confident that on monday the feature will have moved away to the north sea, leaving behind a legacy of cloud, still a wee bit breezy in places, but there should be dry weather for the holiday monday. this is bbc world news, the headlines. president trump has warned that a major conflict could break out with north korea over its nuclear and missile programmes. he said he'd prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute — but that would be very difficult to achieve. protestors have stormed macedonia's parliament — attacking politicians — in protest at the election of an ethnic albanian as speaker.

police used stun grenades inside the parliament building to bring chaotic scenes under control. little more than a week before france's decisive presidential vote polls suggest emmanuel macron‘s lead over marine le pen is shrinking. there've been protest rallies in several french cities — against both candidates. facebook is introducing new security to try to combat ‘fake news'. the social network says it has uncovered co—ordinated operations to influence last year's presidential election in the us, by spreading disinformation. now on bbc news, it's time for the travel show.