Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. And now, bbc world news. Tim this is bbc world news america. From washington, im tim willcox. Headtohead for the presidency. Emmanuel macron and marine le round. Roved to the final a special apart from the socalled Islamic State stronghold in Northern Syria, where the militants continue to lose ground. Reporter the in Islamic State will write about one thing, this is the place of their defeat. They are being driven more than 100 kilometers from here. Tim and talking to the president from spacetim . Americas recordbreaking astronaut Peggy Whitson gets a call from the white house. Hello, and welcome to viewers on Public Television in america and around the globe. Rounda watershed first that has redrawn the Political Landscape in france, it is too early to say who will ultimately win the president ial election. One thing is certain. A political outsider will be inside the palace after the runoff made a second. May 7. The battle between the centrist running without the backing of a Traditional Party, and Marine Le Pen, the Just Announced she is standing aside as the leadership of the far right National Front to run for the president. Emmanuel macron looking president ial less night. A bit prematurely, perhaps. Theres a lot of gladhanding still to be done. Two weeks to go before the final vote. Financial markets in brussels may think president macron is a done deal, but she doesnt. Rival le pen, macrons for president , his rival for french voters trust. I welcome visitor on market day she isforgotten town, the peoples president , she says, with well said policies to match. Eu to the back of the queue. Madame le pen once out of the euro, she is antibig business, too. Its exactly these images that Marine Le Pen will be chasing throughout her president ial campaign. Her intended message shes a woman of the people, while her political rival, Emmanuel Macron, is a remote, parisian elitist. Last nights election showed a divided france. Marine le pen did well in areas with high unemployment and low rages wages. Mac run dominated and wealthy cities, are his probusiness, proeu liberal platform resonate. Emmanuel macron was in paris today, keen to display his statesmanlike credentials, remembering victims of mass killings in armenia. While his rival hug and kissed her way through the crowds today, mr. Macron had onlookers behind the core is only to press were allowed near. Political gloves are off for both candidates. This is the fight of their professional lives. They need to win voters outside their traditional support base to make it to the top. Who can pull it off . I plan to abstain this man told us. I dont like either of the candidates. For the second round, i will vote for macron, even if i dont want him as a president. I want him more than Marine Le Pen. Reporter and frances political establishment, including its current president , has urged all voters to do the same. Right would deeply divided france. It was stigmatized fill out fellow citizens because of their religions are backgrounds. It would undermine liberty and the republic. Reporter aware of her partys divisive reputation, Marine Le Pen had a surprise announcement tonight. Said she was stepping aside as president of the National Front to run for president of all of france. Emmanuel macron still has a race to win. This is an all or Nothing Campaign for both candidates. In true french style, this promises to be passionate and dramatic. Am i caught up with katya little earlier in paris. A new Political Landscape in france. Lets start with Marine Le Pen, standing down from the National Front. Is that temporary . Reporter she put it more in terms of stepping aside rather than stepping down. There are reports that if she doesnt make it to the top political job in france, she will go back to her home in the National Front party. She says the reason she made this decision was to give her the time and space to concentrate on the president ial campaign. She stepped down as president of the National Front could be president of the french republic. Also, i think we can interpret this as Marine Le Pens clear knowledge that she cannot rely on her Traditional Party base, her traditional support base, and france if she wants to be the next president. She has to seduce other french voters over to her site. She can only do that by being mainstream. Its not enough by quoting policies. Shes trying to distance herself from her party with its divisive, racist, extremist reputation even if it denies it, here she is stepping down, she is stepping away, and she wants to be frances next president. Tim Emmanuel Macron, a centrist as well. Neither candidate from mainstream political parties. Which way will it fall, according to the polling, which actually has been remarkably accurate so far . Yes, the big joke in france is after the first round of the president ial election, after the results were announced, the big winner were the pollsters. They finally got it right. After the brexit wrote vote and President Trump, they did get this right. Emmanuel macron, not too far ahead of Marine Le Pen. The first polls ahead of the next two weeks of campaigning, one of them suggests that Emmanuel Macron might win more than 60 ahead of Marine Le Pen. She will work hard to reverse that trend and the assumption. If we look at the Financial Markets this morning , they surged believing macron will be president. In brussels, he is proeu. They are rubbing their hands with glee. He still has a long race, and Marine Le Pen is determined. Tim thank you very much. Socalled against Islamic State is intensifying in syria. Forces move toward the stronghold of rock raqqa. Our correspondent Quentin Sommerville and cameramen have been to the town in Northern Syria and sent this report. Reporter in northern aleppo, the socalled Islamic State critic to the end of days. But here, it has come apart. Hallowed ground for i. S. , but no longer there. Forms a begin drawing in foreign fighters from across the globe. This was a great symbol for the Islamic State group. Here the prophet mohammed said that muslims would defeat the romans. This is also the spot where britains jihadi john murdered the american aid worker. I. S. Will write about one thing though this is a place of reckoning, but it is the place of their defeat. They are being driven more than 100 kilometers from here. These days, they dont make much mention of this place. A nearby city , i. S. Are gone, but theres another enemy for the army, the syrian regime. On thesea weary truce front lines. The regime are only 150 meters away. Airstrikes are no longer a threat, but the Islamic States roadside bombs and be traps are everywhere boobytraps are everywhere. The monthly mostly ethnic turks in the area fought here to drive out i. S. , but also to stop the kurds. The rebuilding of the town is already underway. It takes a lot of confidence to replace your windows. But the damage done here isnt just a building. Syriasds deeper into ethnic fabric. Amid the ruins, this was i. S. Headquarters. We find reminders of the victims, the disappeared, the lost, the dead. New and Richard Wells of hatred are being formed and rich wealth of hatred are being formed. Inside these homes, the hopelessness is revealed. Rare access to other means enemies and sometime allies, working together locked up together. Some of these prisoners agreed to speak to us. Some say they are from i. S. Some, no more than boys, fought for the kurds with american backing. And some for president assad, helped by russia. Because of the joblessness in syria, i have no salary to look after my children. So i had to join the fighting. Foreign interference here has only caused more destruction. People are killing each other. Reporter some say they came to fight for i. S. , others to destroy it. The different people in groups here despise each other more and more. War only increases hatred here it never lessens it. Reporter all the prisoners, i. S. Included, have had regular contact with their families. These men will likely be exchanged in a prisoner swap. The war with i. S. May be approaching an end, but there syria, andrest in the people in this country will likely find themselves even further apart. Quentin sommerville, bbc news, northern aleppo. Tim you are watching bbc world news america. It is a too familiar warning, but today the u. S. Defense secretary cautioned there is a tough year ahead in afghanistan because of the threat posed by the taliban. Jim mattis s arrival came after the armys chief of staff resigned it follows fridays. Taliban attack on the base. More than 140 people were killed. Reporter this is the route that taliban attackers took. The guards waved them through, believing they were fellow afghan soldiers. Journalists we are the first journalists invited onto the army base, the first to see the horror unleashed here. A suicide bomber blew himself up in the dining hall as hundreds of soldiers ate their lunch. Edhers work others were mow down, the taliban shooting them. Once inside here, they opened fire. If you look around here, you can see the walls are pocked with gunshot fire. And outside, one of the vehicles the taliban used. There are suspicions the attackers had inside help, something the base commander denied. Investigators from kabul has been here. There is no indication there has been any infiltration of the base. Reporter but just hours after our interview, he was suspended. Eight Army Personnel are under investigation, and today both the Afghan Defense ministry and army chief of staff resigned. There could scarcely have been a worse day for the u. S. Defense secretary, james mattis, to visit the country. He met the afghan president to discuss u. S. Strategy in afghanistan. I would say we are under no illusions about the challenges associated with this mission. I17 is good to be another tough year 2017 is going to be another tough year for the Afghan Security forces and International Troops who have stood, and will continue to stand soldiered shoulder to shoulder with the troops in afghanistan. Clear theas they wreckage, the americans making no promises on what the afghans really want additional u. S. Troops to assist afghan forces. News, roulette, bbc afghanistan. Tim you are watching bbc world news america. Still to come, how hillary lost. We analyze what went wrong in the Clinton Campaign for the presidency. Germany has one of the highest solar power capacities in the world, but clear skies are far from guaranteed their. There. Scientists have built a unique facility with an artificial sun. Reporter a cloudy day in a rural town, ok for the coal mines and wind turbines, less for the solar. Which is why scientists at the German Aerospace center has taken their research indoors. This facility gives us consistent artificial light which is very useful, especially in europe and west germany where the weather is not perfect. We have very rare sunlight. So we have a facility that gives us unlimited light. Reporter this is the Worlds Largest artificial sun, composed of 149 projection lights that met a beam the he 1000 times the strength of a regular household botto bulb. Scientists can use it to test the solar power instruments of the future. This is one of our first experiments, and atypical one. And a typical one. We want to develop processes on filtering water from solar injured treat, and to make it available in the future. To one focus the line point, we think we can reach temperatures around 3000 degrees celsius. Is that this hope facility can improve the efficiency of solar energy reactors, but with Oil Prices Still relatively low, commercial interest in its research may take some time. Joe miller, bbc news. Tim saturday marks President Trumps first 100 days in office, a yardstick we journalists like to use to scrutinize these successes and shortcomings of an administration. Today, the White House Press secretary was challenged on mr. Trumps promises to make changes on Health Care Reform and the wall border with mexico. When you look at everything hes done and the amount he has accomplished in the first 100 days, you can go back and find an area, one or two, and say, he didnt do this, but you have to look in totality at what he did get done. About President Trumps First One Hundred days. An artificial construct, what sean spicer says. What what has he achieved . Reporter a lot of low hanging fruit with executive orders. He started the ball rolling to study things and form committees, but legislatively, he hasnt done a lot. They tried with Health Care Reform, which has turned into a giant, smoking crater. They are allegedly having another push. That was they had a couple times where they said they were getting an agreement, but nothing happened. Immigration is one thing he has made progress. Everyone knows about the executive orders with the muslim ban that has been put on hold by the court, but immigration arrests of undocumented aliens are up, border crossings are down, they are starting to use rhetoric to crackdown on sanctuary cities. Those are tangible things we are seeing results on, but those are things the president can do by himself. Legislatively with contras commerce, stuff that outlives the presidency, we have not seen that. Tim and things he said he wasnt going to do he has done. Now . Is America First reporter he has been criticizing involvement in syria when he was a reality tv star, and now hes launching missiles in syria. He downplayed talk of the importance of nato, and recently said he learned more about nato and realized they are important. He talked about labeling china a currency manipulator, now he says we will not talk that way about china, because its important to work with them on north korea. Those are the positions that candidate would have lashed out against someone else saying. Tim hes been very critical of his predecessor, president obama, who has been very quiet. He has been speaking today. What did he have to say . Reporter he talked a lot about the divisiveness that is going on within the country right now. Everyone is in their own silos talking to people who agree with them, and watching news that fits with their worldviews. He thinks that has to change because it is contributing to the partisanship. Congressional districts, the way they are drawn to have only people of one political view, that contributes. They need people to break out and be more like one america, like he talked about in 2004, when there were no red state of the states. I think he wants to make his postpresidency working toward uniting the country. Tim thank you very much. As journalists and historians assist ss President Trumps first 100 days, his rival must wonder where it went wrong. A new book, shattered, that follows Hillary Clintons illfated campaign. Reporter Election Night comes along, donald trump wins, all the polls predicted Hillary Clinton was going to win, but you werent surprised she lost. Why . I was surprised in that i was looking at polls and believed they were right. We had all these warning flags in our reporting, and we were confused into election day. Book, myf the coauthor said he couldnt understand what we were writing, because there were so many things that looked like she was he was when you lose. Even though we expected her to win, we did not report that way. Reporter you write in shattered, about the fact that clinton never really had a rationale, did not manage to articulate a rationale for running and being president of the united states. Talk about that. Reporter it has been a huge flaw of hers her ascendance as a political player. She is someone likes indeal of problems government, and has shown herself to be competent at that. For 10 years at least she has been running for president and never had the priority of what she would do with the power of the presidency. You look at bernie sanders, everybody knew what he was saying he would do. You look at donald trump, for all the talk about things he said that are untruthful, it was clear what he wanted to do and the direction of his presidency, what he was saying he would do to change america. For Hillary Clinton, she was for a million different policies, super wellversed on them, incredibly intelligent, yet voters had difficulty figuring out which of those priorities should execute on and how to bring change to a country that was looking for something different. Reporter you traveled with the campaign and covered her for months on end. How bad was the infighting in the campaign . It was pretty bad, but pretty passive aggressive. There was a scene where the Campaign Chairman was talking at a Senior Leadership retreat in june 2016. Nobody knows what the lines of authority are even that far in the campaign. They are talking about this at a senior retreat, and he says to the campaign manager, he is passive aggressive. He then describes himself as just aggressive. That was basically what was going on at the top. Reporter in politics, just aggressive might be better than passive aggressive. Does Hillary Clinton realize how bad a candidate she was in retrospect . If she does, its not something shes talking about. What we have seen from her is blaming of russia and jim comey, the fbi director, and the media. It is all external to one of the benefits of that for her Campaign Team is it prevents people from looking under the hood, as we have in this book, seeing what was wrong internally. She described it to one friend as she lost because of the kgb, fbi, and the kkk, the last part meeting meaning the voters she described as deplorables. Reporter as opposed to herself. The book is shattered, thank you very much. Tim just before we go, lets finish todays program saluting Peggy Whitson, who has broken the record for most days in space by a u. S. Astronaut. She got a call from the oval office for her efforts. White house, this is mission control, houston. Please call station for a police check. Do you hear me . Yes, sir. We have you loud and clear. Thats what we like. Great American Equipment that works. And this isnt easy. Its actually a huge honor to break a record like this. Its an honor for me to be representing all the people at spaceflighte this possible. Water is such a Precious Resource up here that we also are cleaning up our year in u rine and making it drinkable, and its not as bad as it sounds. Thats good. Im glad to hear that. Better you than me. Mars, what do you see as the timing for sending humans to mars is there a schedule . . I think as your bill directed, it will be in the 20 30s. President trump we want to do it in my first term, or at worst, my second term. We have tos got up a little. Speed that up little. We will do our best. Tim well done peggy. This is bbc world news america. Goodbye. Make sense of International News at bbc. Com news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. Newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good. Kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. And aruba tourism authority. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here, in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. Bbc world news was presented by kcet, los angeles. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening, im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight, Congress Battles over Budget Priorities in the face of a government shutdown, as President Trump demands funding for a wall on mexicos border. Then, we travel to West Virginia where a declining coal industry is leaving retired miners many sick from working in the mines in danger of losing their much needed health care. Its not like were asking for a handout or anything, either. Them was hard sweat work, that, benefits that we negotiated our all we want is just, just what was promised to us. Woodruff also ahead, outsider candidates sweep the french election. A look at the final two