Its crunch time in france, as the centrist Emmanuel Macron and far right candidate Marine Le Pen go head to head in the battle to become the nations next president. Polling stations in rural areas have just closed, those in major cities, including the capital paris, stay open for an additional hour. First indications are that turnout is slightly lower than in the 2017 president ial election. A few hours ago, turnout was put atjust over 63 , down two points on 2017. If Emmanuel Macron wins, hell be the first french president to be re elected to the elysee in two decades. For Marine Le Pen, this is her third attempt at winning the presidency and if she fails, it could potentially be her last. This report from our paris correspondent, lucy williamson. The candidates say this election is about democracy, even civilisation. Many voters say they are being offered a choice between cholera and the plague. Marine le pen s promise to slash immigration and taxes and ban the Muslim Headscarf in pu
to bring flowers and pay respects to alexei navalny, the kremlin s most vocal critic who has died in prison. move along, you can t stay here, the policeman says. we have a right to be here, she shouts. we want to and we will stand here. someone adds, this street isn t yours, it belongs to everyone. but the riot police don t seem to think so. there are cries of disgrace, shame, as police start to clear the area. and then the arrests. across russia, hundreds of people have been detained at events commemorating the late opposition leader. these are the last known images of alexei navalny from two days ago. the russian authorities claim he died the next day after falling unconscious. today, mr navalny s mother arrived at the remote penal colony where he died, beyond the arctic circle. she was told her son s body had been taken to a local morgue, but. the body of alexei isn t there, so alexei s prison just lied to his lawyer and his mother that the body is there. we don t
the force of the blast suggests it was full. moscow claims the ship was only damaged. kyiv says it was destroyed. it s going to need more than a lick of paint regardless. crimea has been firmly held by russia since 2014, but sights like this have become more common with ukraine striking deeper into the peninsula. the novocherkassk would ve almost certainly been loaded with either soldiers, hardware or both. it being taken out will hamper russia s ability to supply troops further north, as well as further weaken its naval dominance in the black sea. translation: a huge job has been done. - a big assault carrier was destroyed, and it did become part of a fleet to which the moskva missile cruiser belongs. kyiv has successfully targeted russian vessels before, including the moskva, once the flagship of moscow s black sea fleet. what attacks like these have yet to do is apply enough pressure on moscow for it to surrender ukrainian territory it has taken, but for ukraine, for presi
meanwhile, g7 leaders injapan announce new sanctions against moscow we ll have the latest from both summits. the tesco boss quits after allegations of inappropriate behaviour. in the next hour, nasa will announce the company to build spacecrafts for their latest expedition to the moon. welcome to bbc news. it is a day of two important summits with the war in ukraine being the common theme. at the g7 gathering injapan, world leaders met to discuss a new round of sanctions against russia. while at the arab league meeting in saudi arabia, president zelensky made a surprise visit, urging those attending, to support ukraine. he told the gathering injeddah that, on this, the asoth day of the war, the world needed to fight the virus of aggression from moscow stressing kyiv would not give up any sovereign territory to achieve peace. also making the headlines at that summit is president assad of syria the first time he s been invited to the arab league since the devastating
the football governing body uefa says it will investigate the ugly scenes that followed west ham s victory over az alkmaar, in last night s europa conference league semi final. players from david moyes side confronted a group of the dutch team s fans who attacked an area where friends and family of the west ham players were sitting. the premier league side are into the final after winning 1 0 in the netherlands, and 3 1 on aggregate. but the clashes started moments after the final whistle. fans were seen reportedly throwing punches towards an area of the stand behind the dugouts, west ham players there having to be held back. i was disappointed because it took something away from the team reaching something away from the team reaching the final but as a club there reaching the final but as a club there was reaching the final but as a club there was nothing we could do. like anybody. there was nothing we could do. like anybody. if there was nothing we could do. like a