he said he'd prefer a diplomatic outcome to the dispute —— dispute 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, time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, saying

that the dally. pain in ankara at the office of the prime minister, binali yildirim. in this exclusive interview i asked him whether turkey is becoming more authoritarian after the recent controversial and closely fought referendum. can the government bring together a divided nation? prime minister binali yildirim, welcome to hardtalk thank you very much, you am most welcome to this beautiful country, turkey. thank you. what is your response to critics who say the recent referendum has turned turkey into a dictatorship, that there will be one party rule and president of the

gamble be like a latter—day ottoman sultan? —— erdogan. all right, so you kind of address to one aspect of the criticisms, which is that you had somehow rigged the vote, the party had, so that it would be in yourfavour. vote, the party had, so that it would be in your favour. you said how you refute those allegations. but looking at the substance of what the constitutional chases —— changes will bring, the argument is that it will bring, the argument is that it will concentrate too much power in the hands of the presidency. that was the finding of the venice commission of the european union, which looks into standards of democracy, and what it said exactly was that turkey's constitutional changes means there would be an excessive concentration of executive power in the hands of the president and a weakening of parliamentary control of that power. that is the case, isn't it? i tell you what exactly the concern is. the

president will now have the power to choose cabinet ministers without parliamentary approval. also senior judges to the constitutional court. he can issue presidential decrees, devolves he can issue presidential decrees, d evolves — — he can issue presidential decrees, devolves —— dissolve parliament unilaterally, have control over the state bureaucracy. so a lot of people in turkey said yes, we needed to have the constitution change because the one we were working from was from the military imposed when the 1980s, but they are saying we don't want these kind of change is however so that is the point. yes, you had to change the constitution but you've just given the president too much power. but at the parliament is controlled by the ruling party, that effectively would give president erdogan, from that party, sixjudges give president erdogan, from that party, six judges and give president erdogan, from that party, sixjudges and it give president erdogan, from that party, six judges and it would give president erdogan, from that party, sixjudges and it would give the majority party in the parliament the majority party in the parliament the right to choose seven judges so it means effectively their executive would control the judiciary, it means effectively their executive would control thejudiciary, so you don't have the separation of powers.

europe but the fact that it doesn't look good but turkey, that the president erdogan were to win the next elections in 2019 and the one after that, he could have been in power for three decades and people say, "look, that's not really good for democracy." it would make turkey at very best and authoritarian democracy. all right. there was also concerned about the manner in which the referendum was conducted. first of all, there have been allegations that there was vote rigging and electoral fraud by the opposition chp and also international observers from the osce, the organisation for

security cooperation of europe said there were voting irregularities. there was also concerned about the government using its privileged position during the campaign to put all the posters up over the place saving vote yes, and depicting people who wanted to vote no as terrorists, and that was a climate that wasn't conducive to a level playing field, as the council of europe said. but the opposition chp say they will not accept the results of the referendum, they are going to

appeal to the constitutional courts and take it as far as the european court of human rights, if necessary. but nevertheless, it was a very close result and you are being urged

to form the broadest possible national consensus to try to bring together the two parts of the country, those who voted yes, those who voted no. how are you going to do that? just over a million, about 1.3 million. but do you accept that it is really necessary for the government to avoid any further divisions at this very difficult time for turkey in the aftermath of the failed coup lastjuly? example, the aftermath of the failed coup last july? example, you've the aftermath of the failed coup lastjuly? example, you've extended the state of emergency, there are tens of thousands of people, academics, politicians, members of the military who are still in detention, and, you know, the

criticism here, prime minister, is that there is an understanding there was going to be a limited purge after the failed coup but now you've gone beyond that. what do you say to that criticism? the criticism is that the response has been disproportionate. another question on the referendum, president erdogan says he would like to see a referendum on turkey joining the european union. if there we re joining the european union. if there were such a vote what with the turkish people vote? when the referendum results came out on the constitutional changes, president trump congratulated president trump congratulated president erdogan. and also we've seen how president trump now in syria has fired around 60 cruise missiles at bashar al—assad's military base. you deal a lot obviously with the americans when it comes to syria. are you seen a shift in president trump's white house

that perhaps there could be a move towards regime change, getting tougher with bashar al—assad than the previous obama administration? you are urging the us to be tougher on bashar al—assad, to try to remove him one way or another. is that what president erdogan tells him? finally, presidential elections are due in 2019. if president erdogan wins, what's going to happen to you? you'll be out of a job, you would be prime minister. the post has been abolished. what are you going to do? iam going abolished. what are you going to do? i am going to come to you when to ask... i am going to come to you when to ask. . . what, i am going to come to you when to ask... what, come with me? to help! will you be out of a job? it's funny, the opposition party chairman was campaigning and campaigning for... because i don't want him to

be business. so this campaigning he used very strongly this argument and i told them, don't think about me, think about the future of this country. i can find something to do. could you become vice president?” have no long—term plan in my life. i am right now taking responsibility of governing this country, together with the president, until the next election. then after let's see what is going to happen. god knows what's going to happen? president erdogan hasn't given you a clue? no, he hasn't? we are friends, many, many

long—time, since 1970s. we worked together, we go together, we did a lot together. so at the end we will be together as well. it sounds like... one way or another. one way 01’ like... one way or another. one way or another binali yildirim won't disappearfrom or another binali yildirim won't disappear from the political scene, by the sounds of it? there is a timeframe. you can't go forever. if the people need you, you have to be there. if not, betterto the people need you, you have to be there. if not, better to be away. it's not my decision. the people, if they want to see me in politics, if they want to see me in politics, if they say it is useful for the people, for the country, i will be at their disposal of my people.

otherwise i am not disturbing anyone. prime minister binali yildirim, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk you're welcome. hello. as we've been discovering of late, spring can offer up a quite 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. will be on —— this is bbc news. i'm james menendez. the headlines: president trump issues another sharp warning to north korea over its nuclear and missile programmes. there is a chance that we could end up there is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with north korea. absolutely.

marine le pen vows to tackle terrorism — and make the security of france a priority on the campaign trail in the southern city of nice. protestors storm macedonia's parliament, attacking politicians after the election of an ethnic albanian as speaker. coming up: raking in the billions — another huge quarter for silicon