05/07/2017 100 Days+

Hello and welcome to 100 days. North Korea launches its first

intercontinental mobile missile. The global power now face a challenge.

After the successful test, President Trump blasts Beijing for not working

to help the White House. In the next hour, the UN Security Council cold

an emergency meeting cold by America. It wants tougher action

against Korea. The new crisis comes as Donald Trump depart on his second

international trip, first for Poland and then tough talk that the G20

summit. Also Qatar comes on for more criticism. The Foreign Minister says

the country will only negotiate through dialogue, not through

blockades. Qatar has never and will never support any terrorist movement

or will never row terrorism funds to be raised from Qatar. And the French

president certainly knows how to make an entrance. His visit to any

clear submarine drawing comparisons to James Bond. -- a nuclear. Hello.

Today we have a snapshot of the world in disarray. Donald Trump is

on his way to Europe, where he is likely to find that the

transatlantic unity of the past has gone. North Korea has just tested

its first intercontinental ballistic missile. But far from standing

shoulder to shoulder with America, the German Chancellor has taken the

occasion of this week's G20 summit to sharply criticised the US. And as

if the rift with Europe was not enough, before President Trump

boarded his plane today, he sent out eight weeks than in China for not

doing enough on North Korea. It reads, trade between China and North

Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working

with us. But we had to give it a try. In an hour, the US Security

Council will meet for an emergency session. So far, but Russia and

China have resisted American pressure. Meeting in Moscow, the

president is called for North Korea to suspend its ballistic missile

programme. In return, they want a moratorium on military exercises by

the United States and South Korea. The US responded by doing just the

opposite and carried out their own tests on the Korean peninsula. So

how does Britain fit into all of this? The British Defence Secretary

Michael Fallon heads to Washington tomorrow to meet with top defence

officials and his US counterpart. A little earlier, he spoke about that

trip and the message you will be taken when it comes to North Korea.

The only thing the Americans are talking about at the moment when it

comes to security is North Korea. The US could never accept a nuclear

armed North Korea. Do we have to contemplate that at some point the

military response might be the only way to stop them? This will

obviously be high up on the agenda when I meet the secretary. Clearly,

the missile launch is illegal. It is provocative. It is dangerous. And it

is unacceptable and we need to do something about it. And that means

first of all I think looking at further diplomatic pressure which

could be brought. There have been Security Council resolutions before.

They probably need to be toughened up. They certainly need to be

enforced properly. There may be weaknesses in them. So we need to

look at all of that. But also I am sure the United States will be

looking at the threat to its own bases in Japan and indeed to its own

seaboard. These missiles can now reach Alaska. But where do we stand?

Are we urging the Americans to stick with the diplomacy and find a

diplomatic solution or are we also talking about a military option?

Well, strategic patience as it was called clearly has not worked. The

missile programme continues. So it is clearly something we have got to

be considered. We do think there is more diplomacy to be done. First in

the United Nations work has begun. And looking at the resolutions and

whether they are being enforced. But there is also work to be done to

continue to bring China even more closely into the game. They have the

most influence on North Korea. There is more that China can do and needs

to do to get the regime to start responding. When it comes to Nato,

President Trump will be in Poland tonight and tomorrow. There are

Europeans, particularly in the East, who are concerned about the American

commitment to Nato and commit to the Article five, an attack on what is

an attack on all. It would help that there was a full commitment to

article five. Well, he has committed to it. I was at the leader's, 20 did

commit to it. He has made clear that he wants some Nato companies to get

up to the 2%. What is encouraging is the movement. They are now spending

more. Overall spending has increased markedly. 202I think of the 29

countries are increasing their defence spending. A number of them

have now meant a date by which they will reach 2%. Other countries

making 2% this year. That is Romania. And so Nato has responded

to his call. And secondly, we are continuing to work with the United

States on modernisation. The secretary and I have tabled a paper

with Nato on how we will pursue the modernisation and reduce

bureaucracy. Some of the decision-making needs to be speeded

up and we want to see that addressed when it comes to the next summit

next year. We are committed to this 2% target. You have spoken about it

a lot. But there are senior figures within the military who are

concerned about troop numbers. The chief of the General staff says

there is almost an unprecedented lack of mass in the Army. That is

challenging for all three services, to recruit when the economy is

growing. Increasingly, they are looking for the same specialisms as

the rest of the economy. People who are expert in engineering or IT.

These are highly prized people now and we have to compete for them. We

had to find a way to recruit them. The best of every generation. And

then to retain them. And we continue to look at the offer and making

employment in the Army more flexible. We have a bill going

through Parliament at the moment. And we will continue to do that. Has

the US expressed any concern about British troop numbers? No, they have

not done that with me. We have stepped forward in Nato. We are one

of the four framework battlegroups, and enhance forward presence. We

have deployed troops with the Americans in Poland. We have

increased our troop numbers in Afghanistan. What is the right level

for the Army? We said in our manifesto that we want to maintain

the size of the Armed Forces including and I think this is the

crucial thing the ability of the Army to fight at divisional level,

to field a war fighting division, which relatively few countries in

the world can do. That is our ambition, to be able to do that. And

we can do that. A week ago, you were interviewed on this idea that the

Syrians were ready to use chemical weapons again. There was a statement

from the White House. Have you since then seen evidence that indeed there

was an attack in the planning? The Americans had some evidence that

chemical weapons might be used again but I am not going to go into

details of that. We work extremely closely with the Americans. And I

made it very clear that if the Americans resorted to pre-emptive

strikes to prevent the use of chemical weapons we would support

those. What is the endgame in Syria? Is there anything that President

Trump might be able to do at this meeting with President Putin this

week to bring it about? No, the Americans have been committed to the

process. We have all been encouraging the moderate parties in

Syria to come to a new settlement. We want to see a settlement in

Syria. We have a settlement in Ir. We have a democratic Government in

Iran and we want to see a similar settlement in Syria. We will

continue working with the Americans and with everybody else to bring the

Geneva process together with the alternative process that we can

chart a path to a new political future in Syria. Michael Fallon. So

interesting, with so much going on in the world, you spoke about Nato,

the size of the British Army, North Korea, Syria. It is a really useful

time to be able to talk to him and I was interested to hear him say that

he agrees with the White House that the era for strategic patience on

North Korea is over. I am to still not fully clear what that means and

whether the White House has any better options up its sleeve than

were available under President Obama. I think two things came out

of this for me. Obviously, the focus will shift to hamburger to the

meeting between President Putin and President Trump on Friday. But then

you have the serious players. The National Security adviser in

Washington and the really experienced men in terms of defence

with Michael Fallon over there who is a key figure in the Nato

framework as well, and they will be looking at all the options around

the table. They have already said there has been a military review.

But this is a much more dangerous world. It got more dangerous

yesterday and so it does focus debate internally as well within the

UK about troop numbers. We got some of the best kit and we're spending

money on state-of-the-art defence systems after the spending review in

2015. But there has been a lot of criticism here about the troop

numbers which slipped just under 80,000. It is the lowest numbers in

the army since the 1850s. And you can have as good a kit as you want

but you need trained men and well-trained meant that you can

retain within the system to operate those systems and that is one of the

problems that Britain is facing at the moment and other countries and

it is obviously that is the thought of a debate that is going on within

European countries at the moment, where they target the money and how

much they spend. As we mentioned, the UN Security Council is about to

go into that emergency session. It starts in about an hour. It has been

called by the United States. Our correspondent is at the United

Nations for us. We can cross to her now. Is there any indication after

this latest missile test that there is going to be more unity on the

security council about what to do about North Korea? Well, in terms of

unity, I think we will see across the board condemnation for North

Korea's latest test but I think that is where it ends. We are actually

going to see a bit of diverging S on what to do next between the US on

one side and China on the other. President of China got President

Putin to sign onto a plan where they are calling for a suspension to

suspension. They think basically that world powers should start

talking to North Korea, that they would freeze their nuclear programme

if the US and South Korea would agree to suspend their joint

military exercises. I spoke to a US diplomat and asked if that was

something that the US would consider. Previously, they have said

that it was only if North Korea would dismantle their programme,

that they would consider speaking again. And he told me that is not

really where they are going at this point. The US is still concerned

about is really pushing for more sanctions and making sure that the

sanctions that have already been passed are actually really being

implemented. So we will likely hear the US ambassador pointed the finger

at those who are allowing workers from North Korea, which means money

being filtered back there. Also going after those who are helping

economically and militarily and also ignoring some of the sanctions. I

was just going to say very quickly, that issue of strategic patience

that Michael Fallon was talking about, it has worked in the past

with China because they wanted this buffer between South Korea and their

border. But they must be concerned that this is going to quickly, that

it is too much even for them. Yes, absolutely. We've seen China in the

past. Last month, they were willing to work with the United States to

negotiate, but 14 North Korean individuals and two that sanction

blacklist of asset freezes and travel bans. Over the last year, we

had to resolutions with the sanctions, for China has been

concerned about this. The problem for them as they have to have a

delicate balance. They do not want to destabilise the region too much

and have chaos and refugees on their doorstep so they are trying to find

that balance. OK, for the moment, then he very much. The most

intriguing part of the G20 summit will be the first meeting between

Donald Trump Vladimir Putin which is scheduled for Friday. The present's

broader relationship with Europe is also under scrutiny. It appear last

month did not go to smoothly. Funny that you remember that. One place

that Donald Trump is guaranteed a friendly reception is in Poland. The

Conservative Party their shares his populist agenda but just to make

sure that the president get a rousing reception, the Government is

reportedly planning to bus and thousands of people to Warsaw to

cheer him on. Senior vice president for Europe at the Centre for

strategic and International studies this year. You also used to work at

the US State Department on European affairs. So Angela Merkel has a

welcome President to Donald Trump to Europe. She gives an interview and

says we have very different world views, the president thinks that

there are winners and losers, we need to start thinking there are

winners and winners. Absolutely. Not terribly diplomatic. No, but I think

now leaders are speaking out very clearly. When President Trump

arrives in Warsaw, you will meet with the Government that sees very

eye to eye with him, but for its anti-German and anti-European Union

sentiment, it's more nationalistic stance, its views on energy, both

from use of call to energy independence from Russia. So

President Trump, like his first trip abroad, when he went to Saudi Arabia

first and then to Europe, ye had a great reception at that first stop.

I think his advisers think he will take some comfort from that. He had

a major address on the future of the transatlantic relationship. We are

all very keen to hear his words because really for the last year

both his candid bit and now as president, he has questioned the

alliance. He is questioned free trade and everything about the

transatlantic relationship. It is interesting listening to Angela

Merkel and watching what is happening between Germany and China,

particularly on issues like climate change. It seems as if the Europeans

have said to themselves we give you a chance that we listen to you when

you came to talk to us last time at the Nato alliance but now we have

figured out that we have two form our own alliances and you have a

host of G20 diplomats and officials being quoted in the press, saying,

we believe America is in the retreat and there is not the leadership that

we need and we will step out. Yes, I think they have spent a lot of time

trying to see where they could work with President Trump and his

administration and the others come to the conclusion that they don't

CIA to eye. Europe cannot walk away from the United States. America is

your's security guarantor in this world and it is in disarray, as you

mentioned earlier. We can't walk away. The United States is the

bedrock of the international system. But Europe does and has other

options. It has others trading relationships. The EU and Japan

trading relationship will be certainly front and centre of the

G20, so free-trade, international multilateral solutions to the

climate issue. If the US stepped out, the rest of the world will not

wait for hours. That is what President Trump does not understand.

You can step away but everyone else will keep moving on and that will be

a disadvantage to the United States. Christian, is this good for America,

this position of being in retreat that the president seems to be

taking? Well, certainly China and Germany are looking to fill the gap.

I was just going to ask, when it comes to Poland, there will be a

warm reception, they are bringing in the supporters tomorrow. But there

has been some concern about Poland and his attitude towards Vladimir

Putin, that there might be some grand bargain where by the Eastern

Europeans might lose out. You are absolutely right. Poland is a

stalwart Nato member. There are over 900 US forces in Poland to defend

Nato countries against potential Russian aggression. And this is

where the Polish Government and President Trump would disagree

fundamentally on Russia policy. And it will be very interesting to see

what he says in Warsaw and then what he will say to President Putin when

he meets with him formally on the margins of the G20 summit. We may

have two very different messages coming out of that. Are you saying

that there may be a coded message and what he says tomorrow in Poland

that might be aimed at President Putin ahead of that meeting? It is

unclear. We really have never heard President Trump clearly talk about

Russia as a security challenge. Why there are US forces in Poland as

part of a Nato enhanced forward presence on the eastern flank. It

will be interesting to see how he captures that. And again, I feel

like I'm having deja vu all over again. In Brussels last month, we

were told he would give the speech and say the magic words on article

five. He gave a very different speech. We are being promised a very

forward leaning speech about those Article five commitments. We don't

know what President Trump will say, what speech he will get. Who is the

author of that speech. But it has been very clear that President Trump

has eroded fundamentally America plasma credibility in the Alliance

and it is really hard to rebuild that once that credibility is taken

away. It will be fascinating. Thank you very much. I did say a few

minutes ago that the Army needed more men and I was rightfully called

out on Twitter for not saying men and women and usually you would pick

me up for that. I was just letting you have a free pass. If I take you

to task every single time, Christian, it is all we would talk

about. We would never get through. You are quite right. My apologies. I

did mean men and women. It has been three weeks since Grenfell Tower was

destroyed by fire. At least 80 people are considered dead and now

there is an enquiry which will consider a broad range of evidence.

Today is the deadline to rehouse all of those who were affected by the

fire, but at 139 offers made, only 14 families have actually accepted

the new housing. Our special correspondent Lucy Manning has more.

The missing posters have been here for three weeks.

They flutter, a painful reminder because time has

Now the police search through the 15 tonnes

of debris on each floor, still trying to find

This man was at the meeting the police and coroner

His uncle is missing from the 23rd floor.

He went over to comfort some young children which, for me, is

very heroic, and I want that to stick and stay in the family.

We may never know if my uncle is ever going to be found.

The family is just broken and there is no way of fixing them.

This is something that can never be fixed

and they want to be able to bury their loved ones,

pray for their loved ones, say goodbye, in any

It sounds like all we are going to have is debris from his

The police now say they have recovered all the remains

from the building that were visible and 87

recoveries, as they put it, have been made.

But they stress, because of the catastrophic damage, that

doesn't mean 87 people and they still can't

Meanwhile, survivors struggle, carrying bags of donated food

Three weeks and you will have housing was the promise.

This survivor didn't want to be identified,

scared of being seen to

I didn't take them up on their offer.

Although they have promised they were going to pay

not have to pay for a year, but after that I said

And they said the legal documents are not ready yet.

Some have preferred to stay within their

temporary accommodation in hotels than move into temporary

accommodation, so there have only been 14 acceptances so far.

scared and let down, the Government has now sent

in an external task force to run some parts of the

Hearing the harrowing accounts of survivors has been the

most humbling and moving experience of my life.

The families that I have met have been through unimaginable

Today at the inquest, 60-year-old Vincent was named and

84-year-old Sheila Smith, described as a truly beautiful person.

That is so sad. Three weeks on those families not yet rehoused. You will

enter into a formal co-operation pact with Cuba, moving a step closer

to the normalisation of relations. The European Parliament also

approved a resolution calling upon Havana to respect human rights. The

deal would now be presented to all European member states for

ratification and it comes weeks after the US president reimpose

American travel and trade restrictions on Cuba. President of

Canada has met Queen Elizabeth on a visit to Scotland. He says he wants

to honour the importance of the British sovereign to his country's

history as Canada marks its 150th anniversary. Talking of young

leaders, there are few world leaders who can compete in popularity with

Justin Trudeau, except perhaps Emmanuel Macron. Yesterday, he

tweeted a photograph of himself being lowered into a nuclear

submarine. It was positioned some 200 miles off the coast of Brittany.

Emmanuel Macron was there to highlight his commitment to the

nuclear deterrent of France. He described it as the keystone of

French security. Yes, perhaps channelling his inner James Bond

there. Quite brave, that. I would not do it. Or maybe the milk Tray

man, take your pick. Not everybody looks good in a harness. You

remember this? Actually, this is something we spotted a little

earlier. He looks a little bit like Sean Connery in this film, the hunt

for the red October. I think he's definitely channelling that film. We

went through these. This was brilliant producer Matt who found

these. Let's show the other picture which is also from that same film

and that is the two of them being winched down onto the submarine. Can

we pull that up? There you go, you see. Do we have my example of what

not to do in a harness? Yes, there we go. A little less James Bond and

a little more Johnny English. That is Boris Johnson in 2012. Which one

would you be? I would definitely be Johnny English. That is what I would

look like in a harness, no doubt. It is amazing. Emmanuel Macron is a

little bit like Justin Trudeau. He is a total rock star at the moment

and I remember when Justin Trudeau started it was a little bit like

this and he is busy picking these photo opportunities but eventually,

as we have seen in Canada, the politics does start to catch up.

Yes, the submarine and France will be the only country with a nuclear

deterrent after Britain leads the European Union so actually an

important policy issues. Got a great visual opportunity for a man who is

clearly very conscious of how he looks. More of that sort of stuff to

come in the programme. We will have more of that. We will also talk

about Qatar. All of that coming up. Still to come, the Gulf is opening

wide divisions with Qatar. Our security correspondent six down with

the Qatar Foreign Minister to find out if his country actually does

support terrorism. And we will be talking about panda politics as

China's International policy arrives in Germany. Hello. Once again, it

seems to be the case that once the temperatures touched 30 Celsius, it

really seems to make the headlines. Our weather watchers were out in

that area to capture the heatwave. You will notice that widely across

the south there was plenty of sunshine to be had but across the

North East of England, a a lot of cloud. A real dent in the

temperatures. Certainly for a good part of the day, that is the sort of

scene that people were trying to see through their windows. The

north-west, we introduce another area of rain and towards the

south-east it may well be that we end the night and a sticky one at

that with the prospect of some thunderstorm activity. I do not

expect to see a lot of water across the carriageways of the South East

but I would not pull out the chance of it being a little damp in some

areas and you may well here are some thunder. But it will not be

torrential downpours at this stage. Looking further north and west, a

dry and fine prospect, at least for a time. Do not be fooled by that.

Cloudy for Northern Ireland. More rain as if it was needed across the

western side of Scotland after a very damp to stay. Some relief on

Wednesday. This range will be unwelcome in some parts and then

gradually working ever further eastwards. Through the day, the risk

of showers ever further north through East Anglia. Then there is

the potential and I put it no stronger than that of some

thunderstorm is breaking out from eastern Wales. All a long way from

Wimbledon. Even those early showers should not be a bother four play.

But I should stress again that even though I have shown you that is very

high temperatures, it will not be like that every word. Although some

of Thursday's warmth will get into the North of England. If the

thunderstorms break-out, they will gradually slip away into the North

Sea overnight. On Friday, a lot of hot weather. A fair amount of

sunshine to start with and then tending to cloud over to the day.

Many areas will stay dry and again the highest of the temperatures to

be found across the South East. Friday into Saturday, another finger

of cloud and rain just extending through the borders to the north of

England too. The weekend turning fresher. Try foremost and there will

be some showers. The Pentagon says the United States

is capable of defending itself against the kind of intercontinental

missile North Korea The United Nations will

hold emergency meetings South Korea is calling

for tougher sanctions. Saudi Arabia said today it will not

lift its embargo of Qatar after the Gulf emirate rejected

terms to end the blockade. The Saudi Foreign Minister

described the decision He repeated the criticism that

Qatar supports terrorism. Saudi Arabia joined the UAE, Egypt

and Bahrain in imposing the embargo. The four countries say

Qatar doesn't understand We cannot have a country like Qatar

that is an ally militarily, and in the GCC, and in the Arab

League. And that hosts an airbase

from which planes take off to fight Isis and Al-Qaeda,

and at the same time, it turns a blind eye to terror

financiers who operate openly in Qatar, turns a blind eye

to extremists who advocate suicide bombings and advocate young

men going to fight in war zones. In response, Qatar's Foreign

Minister again said that resolving the dispute would come from dialogue

and not a blockade. And the treatment of his country

is an insult and clear He spoke to our Security

Correspondent, Frank Gardner. First of all, Qatar has never

and will never support any terrorist movement, or will never allow

terrorism funds to be raised from Qatar or to be channelled

through Qatar. And will take whatever measure it

takes in order to get rid of them. And therefore, this is Qatar

moving from a strategic dimension in countering terrorism,

and others who are willing We are investing in education

in those four other countries. Frank Gardner joins us in the

studio. Before he went to Poland today, Donald Trump did speak to the

Egyptian president to see if they could mediate a solution. But it

does not look as if it is de-escalating. No, and Egypt could

not mediate as an honest broker because Egypt and Qatar have long

had bad relations. When President Mubarak was president of Egypt, he

finally paid a visit to Qatar, and he said he visited Al Jazeera, and

he said, "All this noise from just this room?" He could not believe it,

and relations have often been very bad. He once accused Qatar are

having the population of a small hotel. The fact is that this row has

really spun out of control. It has got way beyond the level at which I

think they can control it. I spend time interviewing the Qatar Foreign

Minister, as you saw today, and his view is that the accusations of

terrorism are groundless and a smoke screen for what he says Saudi Arabia

and the UAE we want to do is to bring Qatar's foreign policy in line

with beers and make-up subordinated. That is not the view others have.

This is a real turning point in the Gulf. Qatar has been in the black

sheep, they are saying, for too long. It has been hosting people

spouting a venomous ideology and it has been supporting Islamist groups,

violent Islamist groups in some cases, they are saying, as far away

as Libya and Syria. Qatar does admit that in the early stages of the city

and conflict, they did have some unsavoury groups with an unsavoury

agenda. But they said they were not alone was about, other people did.

They did not names names, but the Saudis did as well. When I was in

Cairo, they were very animated about Al Jazeera, and this is one of the

13 months that they get rid of Al Jazeera. But the always felt that

they were in cahoots with the Muslim brotherhood, so it is not an honest

broker in this negotiation, Egypt. I was interested to hear national

security people in Washington over the last few days. They felt that in

this spat, the Saudis might have overplayed their hand with the Turks

getting involved on the Qatar res site. What do you think? Who has the

upper hand in this one? For the Saudis side, the driving force is

the new Crown Prince,, a man who people think might be king before

the end of the year if his father abdicates. He is backed by the Crown

Prince of Abu Dhabi, and certainly I think, they expected Qatar to come

into line. Now, Qatar said these demands were so unrealistic as to be

an actionable, and they were designed to be rejected, making it a

manufactured crisis. I am not sure that is good for anybody. I asked

the ten the Mac Foreign Minister, and he said they had discussed it,

they had made preparations, but they hope it does not come to that. Qatar

has a tiny population, a tiny defence Force, and Saudi Arabia's

National Guard wanted to, they would roll across the border. There is not

much Qatar could do about that. The Turks are there, but not very many

of them, Turkey has a base that can take up to 3000 people. They have

reinforced armoured vehicles. It is 2500 kilometres from Bangkok to Joe

Hart, so it is vital to the US- led campaign against so-called Islamic

state. It is from -- it is called the coalition operations centre.

From there, they control all operations as far-away as

Afghanistan. Very interesting. Thanks, Frank, for coming in.

The petrol engine could soon be a thing of the past.

Today Volvo became the first major car manufacturer to fully commit

all its new models from 2019 will have either electric or hybrid

Making things more interesting, it's the new Chinese owners

of the company that are behind this new approach.

But with emissions standards getting tighter and customer

demands changing, perhaps they are moving

with the times. The BBC's Richard Westcott reports.

The shapes have changed a bit over the

years, and thank goodness when it comes to the brown Allegro, but all

these cars have one thing in common - an internal combustion engine,

We have relied on it for 100 years, but is

Volvo cars is taking a bold step forward,

heralding the end of an era for the pure internal combustion engine.

From 2019, Volvo says all its new models will be at least

Ambitious plans, but experts say it won't be quick.

Diesel and petrol have a long life in them yet.

A lot of people will choose to adopt hydrogen before the

call all electric, and during that time, batteries will improve,

of miles you can do, and prices will drop,

which will also make them more tenable for people to buy.

So it is going to be quite a while yet before we see all

electric cars as every car on the road.

In fact, sales of alternative engines remain small.

In June last year, more than 8,300 electric and

hybrid vehicles were registered in the UK last year.

That increased to nearly 11,000 this year, but it is still dwarfed

by the quarter of a million petrols and diesels people bought.

This street sums up one of the big reasons that plug-in cars

We do not have garages, we live in flats.

You often can't even park near your house, so how are you

supposed to charge your electric car?

Then there is the problem of topping up mid-journey.

Certainly, some of the country is better than others.

So Newcastle and the north-east has quite a lot of

charging infrastructure. Wales is very poor.

But to get from where we are to where we need to be,

different parties to have to come forward and put in charging points,

We will need to see businesses putting them in

for their staff, supermarkets, anyone who has got a public car park

Electric cars are getting cheaper with a better range.

It will still be some years yet, though, before the internal

combustion engine drives off for good.

A rather different Chinese innovation now.

Now, for decades China, has been engaged in panda diplomacy, and now

two of the cuddly ambassadors have found a new home.

A pair are going on display in Germany,

with Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Chinese President Xi Jinping

Yes, but their arrival doesn't come cheap.

China has loaned the animals to the Berlin Zoo,

which will pay $1 million a year to host them.

As Jonny Dymond reports, it's a chance to forge closer ties

They may look friendly, but don't get too close. China's loan off

these three pandas -- to pandas, comes from the global superpower

with a price. -- two pandas. It is worth paying attention when Germany

and China meet these days. Germany is Europe's undisputed leader.

China's surging economic power is turning into global political

muscle. The Chancellor and the president are meeting before the

world's 20 biggest economies get together in Berlin. Once, it might

have been America around the table, but Germany wants Chinese help in

propping up a world order destabilised by change in

Washington. And China wants open markets to sell into, and allies it

can rely on. TRANSLATION: This is pioneering for our relations. We are

happy to note that, thanks to mutual efforts on both sides, Chinese and

German relations have reached a new phase in which we are moving on a

peak level. The panda Special came to Britain in the 1970s, as China

emerge from decades of isolation. These pandas were gifts, part of an

effort to warm frozen relations. Panda diplomacy, it became known as.

Now, the pandas in Berlin are making hearts race, but these bamboo

guzzlers are on loan, and they do not come cheap. Nearly ?800,000 a

year. For some Berliners, at least, they are worth every penny.

We have a resident panda expert, and it is Katty. She was the leaflet.

You thought this was an excuse to have cuddly pandas on the programme,

but serious books have been written about panda diplomacy. Chairman Mao,

realised the advantage of sending pandas... You get the gist. Many

pandas have been sent out over the years by China, and here is the most

interesting thing. If you are a panda, if you were born in Berlin or

here in Washington or London, you would to Matip we have Chinese

citizenship. I think that means they are anchor pandas in immigration

terms. Not many pandas are born in Germany and London, so obviously

they get Chinese citizenship! They are also Chinese! Some readers have

been booted out of office after getting pandas, it is known as the

panda cars. -- some readers. -- panda curse.

That is all from 100 Days+ for today.