12/04/2017 100 Days

us be ruled by common sense and pragmatism rather than emotion. Dear

colleagues this concludes our press conference, thank you very much.

We've been listening to a press conference between Sergei Lavrov the

Russian Foreign Minister and Rex Tillerson the US Secretary of State.

The press conference went on by my reckoning for about 50 minutes,

partly because Sergei Lavrov gives long answers but also a reflection

of the fact they have an enormous amount to discuss. They talked about

Syria of course, the future of Assad, Rex Tillerson said it was the

American dude that the reign of Assad is coming to an end. Sergei

Lavrov talked also about Ukraine, they touched on the Russian

elections. And cyber security, Rex Tillerson saying it is possible that

Assad could face war crimes, Sergei Lavrov also said he thought there

were considerable prospects for peace and that the distance between

the two countries was not so big that it could not be overcome. So a

huge amount for them to talk about, clearly having come out of almost

four hours meeting, then another two are meeting with President Putin,

touching on all the complexities of the relationship and Sergei Lavrov

living a long lecture at one point on history to his American

counterpart saying we must learn the lessons of Yugoslavia, Iraq and

Libya and we must be careful what we wish for in Syria. Let's get more

from our correspondent in Moscow. The two things you could take from

this that matter in the immediate term, this idea from Sergei Lavrov

but they are prepared to restore the SFT agreement which of course is

crucial over Syria so there are no accidents. And he says there is a

readiness of US colleagues to support an investigation into this

searing gas attack. This evening in the UN Security Council there is a

boat on a draft resolution for an investigation into the chemical

attacks. The question is will Russia support it.

As far as I heard comments by the Russian representatives, they are

not satisfied with the proposal made. This reminds me of the

situation with the Boeing flight that was shot down over eastern

Ukraine, the West accused Russia of putting their air jet down and Bosco

just called for an independent investigation and this was going

back and forth for months. This might be the case again. Russia

would call for an investigation and it would go back and forth for

months. What is obvious is that Moscow is very interested in

dialogue with Washington and is interested in cooperation because it

has invested so much in the Syrian campaign. But they need to find

common language with Washington. Read the tea leaves for us with that

press conference. You have listened to Sergey Lavrov many times. Is the

Kremlin feeling under siege in the light of the attacks in Syria or is

that not what you heard from the press conference? Definitely, the

Kremlin is under pressure because of the chemical attacks and what has

been mentioned by Washington. But Vladimir Putin never steps back

under pressure, never surrenders. What they often do is issue counter

offence. They always come with counter arguments and accusations

and that is what Mr Putin did. What was interesting for me was the

contrast between statements made by Putin and his harsh language

accusing Washington and statements made by the Russian Foreign

Ministry. Sergey Lavrov was quite soft saying there were quite a lot

of things called common ground that can repair the relationship and it

seems that the Kremlin is playing the game of good and bad policeman

trying to attract Washington for further cooperation because

definitely there are a number of issues that they want to solve.

Thank you very much for joining us. Joining us now for more

on Secretary Tillerson's trip is Matthew Rojansky,

Director of the Kennan Institute On the issue of Syria and the future

of the Assad regime, where does Moscow stand at the moment? It was

fascinating listening. And endurance sport for all of us, especially for

Rex Tillerson. People ask what the relevance of his experience in

negotiating with the Russians was, you saw it there. He said what he

wanted to say, didn't talk about anything he didn't want to talk

about even as Sergey Lavrov went on about other things that he didn't

want to talk about. I thought he handled himself very well and stuck

to his talking points. I don't think the Russian position on Syria has

changed one inch. This thing about a UN investigation is a play for time.

They've got a problem with Assad. Russians have no love for this guy

Bashar al-Assad but on the other hand, as soon is they say, he's got

to go, where is their leveraged? They are playing for time. Why don't

they make him behave better? I'm not sure they can. I think the

collective Russian frustration has been, we deal with autocrats all

around the world. This is part of reality. Why are you such a bloody

minded one who despite that can't win the war, why are you making it

so hard? They have played a week and relatively well, it has got

attention off Ukraine which is a good thing for them. It has brought

the United States to the table whereas the message under President

Obama was isolation. At the end of the day, this is a big problem for

the Russians, more of a liability than a benefit. Part of the strategy

that seems to be coming out from the White House is that you are in a

cul-de-sac, a club of Iran, Syria, North Korea. We are offering you a

way out or you can go back into isolation. A meeting with Putin that

lasted two hours, that's pretty positive, isn't it? I read from the

fact that it was strangely concealed, although the Russian

press was reporting it for 24 hours before it happened although it was

never formally confirmed. This quite substantial meeting and press

conference, I think it is a gear up to a trompe- Putin summit. That is

where business is going to get done. In the Russian system, all ears perk

up, what is Vladimir Putin's position? When he comments publicly

about where the relationship is going, that is when the Russian

bureaucracy gets into gear. There is a longer list of issues than Syria.

Syria is a tragedy that can remain unresolved. There is cyber, nuclear,

Ukraine and security. Then there are these incidents in the Baltic and

the Black Sea, the eastern Mediterranean that literally risked

starting world War three. Non-magic -- not negligible issues that need

sorting out. It was interest during that conversation, Sergey Lavrov and

Rex Tillerson, another issue on top of what was mentioned was the issue

of the American election. There was an example of Rex Tillerson's

discipline. He really stuck to the minimum when asked about it. He said

it was a serious issue and could merit further sanctions but didn't

want to talk about it. You have a Texan in Rex Tillerson, the body

language, you could see it in the handshake, it needs a bit of work.

They are not very close at the moment. You would have that with

President Putin. They are big strongmen. Texan testosterone

against Moscow Machan. They are going to get a marriage guidance

counsellor in, setting up a working group to try and deal with all of

these issues. America has a problem with stuffing in the State

Department, they have to find the staff because this needs to be

fixed. Sergey Lavrov is a wily fox. In the opening remarks he had a dig

at Rex Tillerson. He said there is confusion in the relationship but

that is because you have got no staff. That has been a criticism of

the Secretary of State, he doesn't have any staff at the State

Department. Interesting games go on in the background. We have got to

get other news from around the world. A lot going on. A football

match in Germany. It shouldn't be

remarkable but it is. The rescheduled Champions League

quarter final between Borussia Dortmund and Monaco follows

an attack on the German team. Monaco won that match 3-2, by the

way. We brought you news last night that

Dortmund's team bus had been The prosecutor said today that metal

strips were put in the devices. The precise motive for the attack

is still not clear but police are We've been speaking

to our correspondent, Not an awful lot of detail from the

police but they are focusing on these mysterious letters. They are.

Prosecutors say that they found three letters at the site of last

night's explosions. Base a the contents of those letters point to a

potential Islamist terror motive for the attacks. They are being

examined, they say, by Islamic experts. Letters are said have

contained a man's that German Tornado fighters are withdrawn from

Syria and that Germany closes its army base at Ramstein. A twist to

the investigation at this point but these letters appear to be the focus

of the investigation at the moment. The reaction from the town. It's

been fairly impressive. The team is resilient, playing their match.

Stories of fans from the opposing team buying each other drinks.

Sounds like a town that hasn't given into the attacks. Absolutely. People

would say that this is the spirit of football. Germany's national game.

Away fans were put up by many of their rival fans in a display of

solidarity. Speaking to people before the match began, a real sense

that no one wants to be cowed ideas attack. It looks like a deliberate

targeting of the Dortmund team. No one wants to give into that kind of

terror is what people are saying to us. One man was alongside his young

son, eating their sausages on the way in, they said Ford Paul is

stronger than -- football is stronger than terror. They speak for

many. Does it get any better? Sadly for Dortmund, it didn't go too well.

They lost 3-2. Quite an exciting finale with two late goals but they

go into the second leg losing. Not surprising given what they've been

through over the last few days. It should serve as a warning

to anyone in the public eye. Never compare the actions

of Hitler or the terror The White House Press

Secretary Sean Spicer, got himself into an awful mess

yesterday, with this We didn't use chemical weapons in

World War II. You have somebody as despicable as Hitler who didn't even

sing to using chemical weapons. You have too, if you are sure, is this

country and a regime that you want to yourself with?

And during the Jewish festival of passover.

What is worse is that in his immediate clarification

which he was asked for at the same briefing, he walked

When you come to sarin gas, he wasn't using it on his own people in

the same way as Assad is doing. I appreciate that. He brought them

into the Holocaust centres, I understand that, I saying the weight

Assad used them, in towns, dropping them in the middle of towns, the use

of it, I appreciate the clarification. That was not the

intent. Sean Spicer who have not learnt that when you are in a hole

stop digging. A written apology was later issued

by the White House but such was the reaction on Social media -

the Anne Frank Centre called it an "evil slur" -

that Spicer, was sent out to make a full apology on the

evening bulletins. He has been speaking again today

at a news forum in Washington. I made a mistake. There is no other

way to say it. Got into a topic that I shouldn't have and I screwed up.

It is painful to myself to know that I did something like that. It was

not my intention. To know that when you screw up, you offend a lot of

people, I would ask for forgiveness to understand that I should not have

tried to make a comparison. There is no comparing atrocities. A pretty

good apology. United airlines could probably learn a lesson from that.

There are perils. His is not a job for the faint-hearted. He has to

stand there defending the president. That's not easy because sometimes

the president says things without evidence to back it up and he has

two supporting. You just can't get away with a comment like that, can

you? I think the way he came out and apologised from this White House and

president who doesn't like climbing down. It made me think he had the

direction of the president and the Oval office behind him. I saw a

tweet you sent out last night about the relationship between the

president and Steve Bannon. He is irked by the idea that it is

President Bannon and he is the fall guy tagging along. Can we show what

is said in the New York Post? As far as I'm aware, tell me if I'm

right, Steve Bannon won it for him at the end, didn't he? He was the

campaign chairman. If your editors ever say to you, I like you but,

listen to the butt bit of the conversation. Never a good sign. My

bet is the but bit is more important at the moment. Steve Bannon not an

very solid ground. For the past few months we have been

telling you the French election is a two horse,

possibly a three horse race. The centrist Emmanuel Macron,

and the Front National's Marine Le Pen lead the polls,

with the right wing And suddenly Jean Luc Melenchon,

of the hard left, is in the frame. For most of the campaign he had been

dismissed as a distant no-hoper but according to these latest polls

he has surged into the top four, and is now just a few points

behind the leaders. His movement is La France

insoumise, which translates He came fourth in 2012

behind Marine Le Pen. This time around he is calling for

a non violent citizens revolution. He is supported by the communists

so none too surprisingly He wants 100% taxation

for the super rich. Far from getting rid

of the 35 hour week, he would go further and introduce

a 32 hour week. And he pledges to get rid

of homelessness in France. So could we really be contemplating

a second round run-off between the Far Right and

the Far Left. Let's cross to Paris,

and speak to the commentator Is it going to be Melenchon against

Marine Le Pen? It is the stuff of nightmares for most of us but it is

one of the many ways this could play out. It is what they used to say

about Hollywood, nobody knows anything. Melenchon is practically

at the same level as Fillon. He has gained six points in one week. He

has left behind him the theme or mealy-mouthed official Socialist

candidate. He is coming from the far left. He is garnering a number of

people who want basically to stick it to the man. The same voters who

would vote for Marine Le Pen. The voters who voted for Trump. The

voters who voted for Brexit. He is an extremely good speaker. He is a

former literature teacher, about 16 centuries ago, a Socialist senators

in the 80s and 90s. He has firmly positioned himself in the space left

vacant by the French Communist Party when the USSR disappeared. He

suddenly sounds new and interesting and different from the others. Some

years ago, I spent a day with him in the Calais region. Marine Le Pen was

in the same market as him. I noticed that when it comes to economics,

they stand next to each other. That is the great truth of the populist

leaders everywhere and the extreme right and left, many of the stances

are exactly the same. He supports saying nobody knows whether Syria

used gas against its own population. She does the same. They both want to

get out of Europe. They appealed to the same abroad type of voters.

Especially, if you are in the northern city where she almost got

elected as an MP, in the northern region that she almost won in the

last regional election, that is the French rust belt. People who used to

vote socialist, suddenly they find themselves abandoned and want

extremes. The one area on which they are very diverted, these two

candidates, Melenchon and Marine Le Pen is the issue of immigration. We

saw Melenchon giving a memorial on the banks of the Mediterranean for

the refugees who try to make it to Europe. How did the voters torn

between the two lean on that one? It's really a question of

ideological and muscle memory of many of the popular voters. The

South East voters of the National front are against immigration and

will never vote for Melenchon. In the north, people remember belonging

to something different and something might carry over. His attitude to

immigration is give everybody papers. Until now, people did not

think he was so in with many chances so they didn't pay attention to his

manifesto. Now, all of the big guns are against him. Among the things

that are problematic is taxation going up and public spending going

up to the tune of 270 billion euros. We will have to leave it there. Only

11 days to go till the election. I think he's the oldest candidate in

the race but he is the most savvy on social media. In the last few days,

a video game has popped up. It's called fiscal combat. Here is the

character. A little graphic of Jean-Luc Melenchon.

I'm guessing those guys in ties of the super-rich, he shakes them down

for taxes and you get bonus points. That's how to win an election

campaign. Bring out a video game. We will be there next week, we will

find out. Well it's day 83 of the Trump

administration and on this programme we like to check in with those

who voted for him to get A few weeks ago we spoke

with Van Mobley - the Village president of Thiensville,

Wisconsin and today he's back to give us his opinion

on recent events. I wanted to ask you what you made of

the President's strike against Syria? I wasn't keen on it and I

would have advised against it. Why? The way he ran on avoiding

entanglements in the middle east and interminable civil wars, I see

this... My heart goes out to the people suffering in Syria but I

don't know that ending in American missile strikes is going to make

them better and it certainly might make our lives worse. Moving on from

that, what's done is done and I was actually encouraged by the press

conference today between Rex Tillerson and Sergey Lavrov. They

focused on the things that Russia and the US need to cooperate on.

There are disagreements, there always have been and always will be

that the United States and Russia often were able to cooperate to keep

a marginal amount of peace in the world. I think we will again. This

idea that Donald Trump has been spreading that he had to go in

because Assad is a monster and he couldn't sanction the fact that gas

was dropped among civilians. That doesn't resonate with you at all.

That was something that he couldn't have seen coming when he was

campaigning. It doesn't resonate with me but he said it and I do feel

the pain for those people. I am not a callous figure, I'm a village

president but I'm also, I would say, in this case, I would have advised

against it. What's done is done and I think often these things do create

good to come of it and I certainly hope it will in this case and I'm

hopeful. How would you like to see America's role in the world under

President Trump? I think that the United States has been a force for

good in the world and I believe that it should we and can continue to be

that. Should continue to be that. We have too much of means with the ends

and certainly the priority in Syria from the American standpoint and I

certainly speak with what Rex Tillerson and President said have

said, Isis is the priority, at least in my view. We should get rid of

Isis and then deal with other things. I don't have the

intelligence. I hope you will come and join as again. So interesting to

get your update on how President Trump is doing. Fascinating to hear

what President Trump supporters, as he was saying there, voted for him

after he campaigned on bringing America back from global

engagements. This is the point that Steve Bannon was making, this is not

what they voted. Stop they voted America first. Bannon was opposed to

the strike on Syria and many of those that he brought to the

campaign late in the day agreed with him.

So, we have had one apology from Sean Spicer.

We have had another from United Airlines.

48 hours after a passenger was dragged from an overbooked

flight CEO Oscar Munoz has decided to "clarify" what he actually meant.

Yes, on case you were in any doubt - the second apology -

confirms this is not the way to de-plane, re-accomodate, replace

with one of your own crew members, a passenger who has paid

He was super apologetic this time around and said it was all his

fault, all the company's fault and not love the fault of the poor

passenger. He said it too late. If you ever tried apologising to your

wife, do it fast. Thank you for watching. You've been

watching 100 days. Thank you for joining us. Goodbye.

Quite a fresh day. They few showers as well. This is what