05/03/2018 Beyond 100 Days

You're watching Beyond 100 Days.

Italy's election produces only

radical options for the Eurozone's

third-largest economy.

Italian voters said no

to traditional parties

and yes to populist groups.

Where that leaves

the country isn't clear.

Both the main anti-establishment

leaders say they have won

the right to govern,

but actually it could take

weeks to sort this out.

Donald Trump claims the US

is getting ripped off by virtually

every country in the world,

as he begins to outline his

America First trade

tariffs strategy.

Also on the programme:

A major security incident declared

in Salisbury in the UK,

after the poisoning of a Russian man

who once spied for Britain.

And Gary Oldman wins his

first Oscar for best actor

in Darkest Hour, with thanks

to his 99-year-old mother.

I say to my mother, thank you for

your love and support.

Put the

kettle on. I am bringing Oscar home.

Get in touch with us

using the hashtag #Beyond100Days.

Hello and welcome.

I'm Katty Kay in Washington.

Christian Fraser is in London.

It may take weeks of haggling

to sort out who will lead the next

Italian government and which

parties will be in it.

But one thing seems clear -

it will be difficult to form any

government without the insurgent

Five Star Movement.

The results show Five Star has

become the biggest party,

winning one in three

of the votes cast this weekend.

Their leader Luigi Di Maio says they

now have a resposibility to govern.

Meanwhile, the right-wing Lega

secured 17.4% of the vote.

More than Forza Italia,

the party of the former

Prime Minister, Silvio

Berlusconi, on 14%.

The ruling Democratic Party

suffered its poorest showing ever

in national elections with 18.7%,

continuing the Europe-wide collapse

of the traditional centre-left.

That is the poorest showing ever for

them in national elections.

And there's been a high-profile

resignation - late today,

the Democratic Party leader

Matteo Renzi resigned as leader

in view of his party's

poor election result.

TRANSLATION:

It's obvious

that after this I will

leave my post of leader

to the Democratic Party,

and I've already

asked the chairman, Matteo Orfini,

to call a national assembly

to start the procedure.

This will happen at the end

of the stage of the new

parliament forming and

the new Government forming.

Let's cross to Rome and our

colleague Karin Giannone,

who has been covering

the election for us.

It has been a pivotal night for Five

Star but still a very divided

country.

Yes, if you look at the map of the

results, it is really incredible to

see the absolute divide, and just

how strong the south of Italy has

voted for the Five Star Movement. It

seems that the South has voted along

economic lines while the North are

going for Lega and the centre-right,

thinking about immigration and Italy

being at the forefront of the

migrant crazes, 600,000 people are

riding on Italian shores of the last

few years. -- migrant crisis. There

are parts of the south of Italy

where youth unemployment is above

50%. Prospects for the young are

very poor and there is so much

disillusionment with Government and

with the North and the European

Union, and the traditional parties,

with posterity, with so many things

like the painfully slow growth after

Italy's double-dip recession, that

people in the South have really been

looking elsewhere. They have turned

to the Five Star Movement, promising

hope for the young people. It

promises a universal Basic income of

$800 per month and it says it will

help find young people away our

starting families. Add to that that

huge lack of trust you find in the

South in traditional politicians.

They see them as easily bought and

corruptible. They use the word

meaning thieves when they talk about

politicians, so the freshfaced Luigi

Di Maio, only 31 years old, from

near Naples, he offered hope and the

chance to give the traditional

parties a bloody nose. Another

interesting development over the

weekend, this is what people are

voting for in the north. They had a

visitor over the weekend in the form

of Donald Trump's former chief

strategist Steve Banning, paying a

visit. I am majority your divinity

pictures of him enjoying himself in

front of the fountain. He put his

support behind the successful leader

of the North. He shares the same

kind of politics, radical right-wing

populism, Donald Trump, when the

other one visited him during the

election campaign in 2016 said he

would like to see him one day become

Italian Prime Minister. That

prospect could actually now be a

strong possibility. Matteo Renzi

Lega is now the biggest party in the

coalition which has come first in

this Italian general election.

Amazing. Steve Bannon in Italy.

Giampiero Massolo is the President

of Fincantieri Spa,

the fourth-biggest ship-building

company in the world.

he has served in the Italian

government for intelligence

and foreign services.

He joins us now. Looking forward to

what kind of coalition could emerge

from this election result, what do

they Lega from the right and the

Five Star, and I think it's hard to

define where they come from, but

what other United on and what could

they agree on to form a Government

together's what other United and?

First of all, too early to call what

kind of coalition it would be they

could form because it is right into

the arms of the president of the

Republic according to the

constitutional systems, so too

early. But of course there are some

similarities between Lega and Five

Star, chiefly about immigration and

about the controls of law and order.

And about certain interventions of

the state in economy. But they are

not at all the same thing, actually.

I was hearing somebody speaking

before saying that we have here a

radical right or extreme right. But

this is not exactly as it is. We are

still in the frame of the

centre-right far as Lega is

concerned and stony framework of

constitutional system as far as the

Five Star Mov Movement is concerned.

But of course there are relevant

norms from the selections. The

Democratic Party were very low and

the Five Star very high. The

centre-right, well... But they are

all within the system. There is no

major changes or foreign policy in

European policy. The framework is

there.

OK, thank you very much for that

view from there.

If I may add one thing, that...

Sorry to interrupt, but we will cut

back chore because we want to take

you to Salisbury where the police

are holding a press conference. This

is about suspected poisoning of a

man who was convicted in Russia of

spying for Britain. Let's listen in.

Both are currently in a critical

condition in intensive care. Because

we are still at the early stages of

the investigation, we are unable to

ascertain whether or not a crime has

taken place. A major incident,

however, has been declared today,

and a multi-agency response has been

coordinated. Alongside our partner

agencies, we are conducting

extensive enquiries to determine

exactly what led to these two people

falling unconscious, and clarify

whether or not any criminal activity

has taken place. This has not been

declared as a counterterrorism

incident and we would urge people

not to speculate. However, I must

emphasise though we retain an open

mind and we continue to review this

position, we have access to a wide

range of specialist resources and

services are helping us to

understand what we are or are not

dealing with at this time. The focus

at this moment is in trying to

establish what has caused these

people to become critically ill and

we are working with partners to

prioritise and ensured they were

received the most appropriate

treatment timely. We'll continue to

appeal to any members of the public

who may have information in relation

to this incident and contact us via

the 101 system or if it is urgent by

999. We will reassure the public

that incidents like this are taken

extremely seriously and we currently

do not believe there is any risk to

the wider public. We would like to

take this opportunity to thank

members of the public who have

assisted us so far and respected the

cordons which remain in place in

Salisbury. Thank you very much.

Hello, I am the chief executive here

at Salisbury District Hospital. My

name is Cara Charles-Barks. In

conjunction with partners we have

declared a major incident in

response to the incident which took

place yesterday with two individuals

concerned. I can confirm they are

being treated here at Salisbury

District Hospital and

air-conditioned remains critical. In

terms of impact on the hospital we

have been advising people today to

continue to attend to the routine

operations and appointments and

continue to advise them to do so. We

will contact any patients if we

require them not to attend. Our

accident and emergency department

remains busy this evening and busy

as it has been today. Understandably

this is to do with the weather

conditions last week as well but we

have the walk-in centre on Avon

Avenue, Avon approach, and it will

remain open until 10pm. A&E is for

true emergencies and you should seek

normal advice via 101, or the

walk-in centre, rather than coming

to A&E.

Heard from what's your police about

the suspected poisoning of a man

convicted of spying for Britain. A

lot we do not know. And as I say,

there is a lot we do not know,

whether he has been poisoned or

whether he may have been poisoned

with something, but people's minds

come back to Litvinenko and

everything that happened there,

particularly with areas being sealed

off.

This looked up when it was declared

a major incident and talk about an

unknown substance being involved,

but as soon as it became clear to us

at the BBC that a man was Sergei

Skripal, it instantly changed the

complexion of this. This is a former

Russian intelligence officer

convicted in Russia for spying for

MI6, court in 2010. In 2006,

Alexander Litvinenko, another former

Russian intelligence officer, was

poisoned in London, in a case by

radioactive substances and ended up

dying. Immediately, the residents

with case of Alexander Litvinenko.

He was a double agent?

No, Alexander Litvinenko was

addressing security officer who left

then came to the UK and worked in

the UK in opposition to Putin's

regime. Sergei Skripal is different

because he was more of the double

agent working for MI6 while being a

Russian intelligence officer. He was

in Russian eyes a traitor to their

intelligence service, supplying

secrets to MI6. He was convicted of

this and sentenced to 13 years but

only spent four years in prison

before he was swapped out in this

rather dramatic spy swap. He was

pardoned at that time when he was

swapped out and I think he has kept

a low profile and expectation on his

part would have been that he was

safe. We do not know at this moment

whether he was definitely poisoned

or who did it but certainly because

of this context, the suspicion will

certainly be that there could've

been a Russian in this.

There are links to New York, yes?

I would ask you about the woman

involved. What we know that her? We

have had his name mentioned in her

name not mentioned yet. I understand

she is much younger.

We don't know whether she is a

relative of some type to Sergei

Skripal and that is not clear yet.

But we also know she is critically

ill as well in hospital and was with

him, than it appears on a park bench

after members of the public saw them

unwell and by the time the police

got there they had lost

consciousness. But American link is

that the spy swap had most of the

people who were swapped in 2010

being Russian agents caught in

America by the FBI, including one,

Anna Chapman, who had been in London

and then New York. They were caught

by the FBI, accused of espionage and

the deal was they were swapped out

for for spies who was serving time

in Russian prison. One of those was

Sergei Skripal.

There has been conversation on

social media in the past hour as

this story was breaking, Gordon,

from people who were involved,

former US intelligence officer

saying, the Brits have been cautious

about their attitude to Russia so

far because Britain is basically

ground zero when it comes to these

kind of spy battles between the West

and Russia. Is that an accurate

portrayal?

Bigot is extraordinary...

Could this be an example of that?

We had Alexander Litvinenko who was

killed and I think probably on the

orders of by the mere Putin himself,

and there were other unexplained

deaths in the UK of Russians which

many people have believed to have

been suspicious. There is one

inquest due next month into someone

where there is this question about

whether he was poisoned or not, a

Russian businessman who had a lot of

information about tax affairs, and

had been in some cases under

suspicion for that. So I think

certainly there will be questions.

If a Russian link is proved and that

is what it turns out to have been,

about whether Britain has done

enough to deter such activity. Did

it do enough after the Alexander

Litvinenko case to deter the

activity? As I said, still too early

to know what because of the

poisoning is, but the questions are

already being asked.

Yes, plenty more to come on that

story, no doubt. And even now.

Those pictures we saw, the latest

pictures we have got in, of people

in the green suits, the hazardous

materials suits, those were the

people who... This is why we think

it may have been poisoning because

you don't wear those suits unless

there is a substance you yourself

don't want on your skin. Let's move

on.

Wars have unintended consequences -

that's as true of trade wars

as military battles.

This week the European Commission

will discuss raising taxes

on American imports in retaliation

for President Trump's threat

to slap tariffs on foreign

steel and aluminium.

The EU trade commissioner

told the BBC that

Levi jeans and bourbon -

both products made in Trump

supporting states -

were on a draft list of goods that

could be hit.

In a tweet, President Trump appeared

to suggest that Canada and Mexico

could win exemptions

from his planned tariffs in exchange

for concessions of their own.

It's a point he reiterated in

the Oval Office, and, while saying

there wouldn't be a trade war,

he pressed why he made

this decision.

People have to understand

our country, on trade,

has been ripped off by virtually

every country in the world,

whether it's friend or enemy.

Everybody, China, Russia and people

we think are wonderful,

the European Union, we can't do

business with them -

they have trade barriers that

are worse than tariffs.

And joining us now from Seattle

is Gary Locke, who served as US

Commerce Secretary under

President Obama and then

US Ambassador to China.

Thank you for joining us,

ambassador. A lot of people have

complained about China's trade

practices particularly when it comes

to steal and unfair trade practices,

but to what extent will America or

the current administration should

itself in the foot if it imposes

these tariffs on allies? The

European Union, mentioned there, the

Canadians as well...

Actually in a trade war nobody wins

and everyone loses. Both the workers

of the affected industries up and

down the economic spectrum, as well

as the consumers, who ultimately

will pay more for those goods and

services. This means they have less

money in their pockets for vacations

and medical care, and children's

college education. Nobody wins in a

trade war.

President Trump seems to be trying

to protect the steel and aluminium

industries in the United States, old

industries, at the same time as we

had the spectacle of China moving

rapidly ahead in new industries. Is

there a disconnect between what the

president is trying to do and the

realities of the global economy is

going?

The is trying to get back at China

it will not work because China now

in Port-au-Prince into the US not as

much aluminium and steel -- China

now imports into the US not as much

aluminium and steel as before. It

will raise the cost of production

for so many other industries and

goods in America that rely on these

imports from Europe and from Canada

and elsewhere. It will make the cost

of producing those things much more

expensive, which might lead to lower

sales and therefore cutbacks in

employment. The jobs that might be

gained to benefit the industries,

the metal industries in America,

could be outweighed by the job

losses in so many other sectors.

Ultimately the consumer as well. At

the same time, China is really

trying to focus on innovation and

the new industries of the future,

such as artificial intelligence and

Robotics, that is where America

needs to spend more time and energy.

Certainly we need to address some of

the inequalities and some bombs

without trade agreements or a lack

of trade agreements. -- we need to

address some of the inequalities and

problems with our trade agreements

or lack thereof. We must understand

that everybody loses in a trade war

and we must really focus on the

industries of the future.

On this side of the pond the

Europeans are trying to work out

whether this is policy or not. Of

course, a lot is policy by tweet. I

will show you what the commerce

secretary said yesterday. Listen to

this.

Whatever his final decision is is

what will happen. What he has said,

if he says a bit different, it will

be something different.

You see the point. If he says

something different, it will be

something different. Is it policy or

not policy?

We just never know what to expect

from this particular president. He

says one thing about restricting

guns and chastising members of

Congress and saying they are afraid

of the NRA and the next day he will

meet with the NRA and completely

backed down himself. I think this

statement or the policy on imposing

tariffs on steel and aluminium

caught many people off guard, and

the administration is not ready to

roll out the new policy. There was a

lot of debate within the White House

exactly what our policies should be

and what the details of the tariffs

might be, and as to who they would

apply to and in what amount, whether

there would be some exemptions. So

his announcement caught everybody

off-guard and he is also saying that

there will be no exemptions, no

exemptions. And many of our allies

who would be most affected will not

be exempted from these tariffs. So

we must wait and see where the

policy is ruled out.

OK, thank you very much, ambassador.

I heard it this weekend from people

in the administration, even they

were taken by surprise by this

announcement.

The Academy Awards held its 90th

ceremony last night,

with the event dominated by calls

for greater equality

in the film industry,

for minorities and for women.

The winner of best actress,

Frances McDormand, used her

acceptance speech to call on every

female nominee to stand up

as a showcase of the female

talent in Hollywood.

Fantasy romance The Shape of Water

took four awards, including

Best Film and Best Director

for the Mexican film-maker

Guillermo del Toro.

Gary Oldman won Best Actor

for his performance

as Winston Churchill

in Darkest Hour -

and another notable British win,

The Silent Child, starring

six-year-old deaf girl Maisie Sly -

won best live-action short.

We have talked about it on the

programme last week and we will talk

about it this week. Well done to

her.

Congratulations to Maisie.

And joining us now from New York

is Larry Hackett, former

Editor of People Magazine.

It was a very long Oscars ceremony

this time around and did the best

films win?

I think so. It was long but what is

new? It is always long. It gets

longer every year. I think so. They

had a tricky time this year.

Obviously whatever the pictures or

the performances were it was all

overshadowed by the Harvey Weinstein

news and the Me Too movement. They

also had several award shows leading

up to this where they had people

wearing black at the Golden globes

and other events at the sag awards.

I think the issue would be how they

will treat this issue and how will

be compelling television having seen

them already, and by the way, the

films and performances. They managed

to do a decent job I think.

Interesting that a lot of the films

have not been the big blockbusters

the mass audience films of the year.

Is that increasingly the way the

Oscars are going, to niche films not

many people see?

It is an surprisingly, I was

surprised by this statistic as well,

that The Shape Of Water is the best

box office performing film in the

past five years since our goal which

made a lot of money. But after the

Miramax and Weinstein 's era, when

you had artistic in the best

picture, like The Artist, it has

been a trend for a long time.

Despite the fact that many people

had seen the shape of water, it was

a reversal of the trend. In the case

of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing,

Missouri, again, a movie not very

much seen, and Darkest Hour with

Gary Oldman, pictures which I think

were more popular.

Did I read right that The Shape Of

Water is the first science fiction

film to win the Best picture? Is

that right?

I can't say that the show but I

would not be surprised.

Science-fiction and comedy in

particular are not what the academy

like to recognise and they don't

seem Oscar worthy. As much as things

change, they stay the same. Even

small arthouse pictures, that wine

stain and Miramax had championed,

things like The King 'S Speech, very

dramatic things with a capital D and

that is what wins. Everything

released in the last year... This

particular year there was a movie

like Get Out which was arguably the

most inventive film of year but

released last category, and I would

defy you to find Oscar winner the

least before September of any given

year. That is not how the system

works. It might change because of

the demise of Weinstein and Miramax

and the kind of people who make

these movies but science-fiction and

comedy are not the kind of pictures

the academy likes to recognise and

never have been.

To talk to you and thank you very

much indeed for bringing us up to

speed with the Oscars. Did you watch

it?

Yes, I managed to make about an hour

or so and it is long and even by our

standards, the middle of the night,

I am surprised you're calling The

Shape Of Water a science-fiction

movie because I thought there was a

love story.

You were not at the Oscars but at

the Grid iron on Saturday night.

Yes, the Washington equivalent is

not quite as glamorous, although it

was a white stripe fancy dinner with

the president not as glamorous as

the Oscars.

How did he get on with the jokes?

Did he like them?

I thought he went well and went off

script after five minutes and went

into a campaign speech. The first

five minutes of his speech were

good.

This is Beyond 100

Days from the BBC.

Coming up for viewers on the BBC

News Channel and BBC World News...

Eight has finally been delivered to

Syria's Eastern Ghouta. BBC was

there as the convoy began its

journey.

Passports, some are more valuable

than others with Visa free travel.

Could it be yours?

than others with Visa free travel.

Could it be yours?

More to come.

Good evening and obviously nowhere

near as cold as it was last week.

Milder conditions have spread to

most parts of the UK. Still called

across northern areas and

particularly in Scotland where we

have had more snow falling today.

Wintry looking seen here and

contrast that with something that

looked much more like spring, with

some sunshine today at Walton on

Thames in Surrey. We have lost the

beast from the east, the Colts

leathery and wind, and our error is

tending to come the South. Drawing

in milder air across most of the UK,

clearly seeing where it is still

cold. Low-pressure dominates our

weather at the moment and within

that area of low pressure this

weather system here, tracking its

way northwards, and that is

producing the rain. That rain is

still quite happy and it is moving

northwards into the colder air, so

we will get some snow over the tops

of the Pennines and Cumbrian fells,

but more especially later in the

night back into Scotland over the

hills. As it turns drier to the

south, with no wind, it will turn

misty but a lot of low cloud and

typical temperatures overnight

around to Celsius or three Celsius.

A risk of frost perhaps. In the

morning the wettest weather across

the northern half of the UK,

becoming confined more to Scotland.

A mix of rain, sleet and snow of

health should brighten up northern

England and Northern Ireland.

Sunshine in the south-west and

extreme south-east, with one or two

showers. Through the middle it might

be cloudy and a range of temperature

is, three or four Celsius, central

and northern Scotland and wet

weather, ten or 12 Celsius in

southern part of England and Wales.

Low-pressure in charge as we had

into the middle part of the week.

Nothing much is moving at all,

really. That weather front bringing

showers and that one in the north

keeps the wetter weather going. More

towards the Highlands and Islands

and again there will be snow over

the hills. This across England and

Wales, a breeze picking up that will

help to break up the cloud a bit

more. The chance of a bit more

sunshine but there could be some

showers around, one or two Sharp

ones as well. Still lighter winds

across central and southern

Scotland, and rain in Northern

Ireland with average is no better

than seven Celsius. Disciplining

averages on Wednesday and sing on

Thursday but at least some sunshine

round and that wet weather clinging

to the far north-west of Scotland,

with showers coming into England and

Wales. That be heavy. -- those could

be heavy.

This is Beyond 100 Days, with me,

Katty Kay, in Washington.

Christian Fraser's in London.

Our top stories:

What next for Italy?

Matteo Renzi resigns as leader

of the governing Democratic Party

amid the political deadlock.

A major security incident declared

in Salisbury in the UK,

after the suspected

poisoning of a Russian man

who once spied for Britain.

Coming up in the next half hour -

Syrian government forces

continue their onslaught

against the rebel enclave

of Eastern Ghouta,

even as an aid convoy is allowed in.

Let us know your thoughts

by using #Beyond100Days.

An aid convoy has delivered

supplies to people

inside Syria's Eastern Ghouta -

for the first time since a major

bombardment by pro-government

forces began two weeks ago.

The United Nations said

it hoped the 46 lorries

would provide food

to around 27,000 people.

Shelling and artillery fire

have continued in the region,

despite a UN-backed ceasefire.

Our Middle East editor,

Jeremy Bowen,

was with the convoy

as it set off

for Eastern Ghouta

and sent this report.

46 lorries moved through

some of the most dangerous territory

around Damascus

to get into Eastern Ghouta.

The Syrians refused to let them take

in some surgical and trauma kits,

but they carried food and medical

supplies for 27,500 people.

It was a start.

We need to be sending convoys

at least three times a week

to a besieged area such

as Eastern Ghouta,

where there are serious

shortages of medical equipment,

medical supplies,

food and nutrition

for nearly 400,000 people

trapped on the inside.

The lorries moved through

the final Syrian army checkpoint

at the edge of Eastern Ghouta.

The fact this convoy has moved

shows Assad's confidence.

Syrian armed forces are pressing

into Eastern Ghouta that way,

of course, with their

Russian allies.

And if they win, and at the moment

that's the way it appears to be,

President Assad will have scored

a significant victory,

because, for the first time

since the war started,

he will have secured his capital.

The enclave has been controlled

by Islamist militias since 2012.

Some militias are negotiating,

and there is talk of a deal -

but not yet.

The UN's call for a ceasefire

has been ignored.

Syria's president says the west is

lying about the humanitarian crisis.

The UN Secretary-General calls

Eastern Ghouta "hell on earth".

Allahu Akbar!

Casualties go to a network

of underground clinics.

A doctor working in one of them

didn't think the convoy

would change anything.

What can a small convoy help us?

What can it benefit us?

It's including some food

and some limited materials.

It doesn't have enough

for a few people for a few days.

It's a densely populated area

where there's no escape

from the grown-ups' war.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC News, Damascus.

Terrible pictures from Eastern

Ghouta.

Counter-terrorism experts

from around the world will be

gathering here in London

tomorrow to discuss,

among other things, the threat

posed by the Islamic State group.

Much of the focus at

the Counter Terror Congress will be

on policing, but it is in Syria

where the recent progress

against IS has been undermined.

Thousands of Kurdish fighters

that made up the backbone

of the Syrian Democratic Forces,

have diverted to the battle in Afrin

where Kurdish militia have been

facing attacks from Turkey.

The SDF is the most effective force

on the ground in Syria.

And the allies need the Kurds

to finish the fight.

Joining us now

is Jennifer Cafarella,

a senior intelligence planner at

the Institute for the Study of War.

Thanks very much for coming in, I

know you have been studying what is

happening in Syria. To what extent

has the coalition campaign against

Islamic State been halted because

the Kurds have effectively left the

fight to defend their brothers in

arms?

The offensive has been halted,

and for the kind of relocation of

forces that you indicated. This post

is a very real challenge not only to

the coalition's ability to finish

anti-Isis operations, which have not

concluded, but to hold the territory

taken from Isis thus far. There is a

real risk that Isis will exploit

thinning defensive lines in eastern

Syria in order to re-surge.

How much

pressure can the White House put on

Turkey to make sure they go back

into the fight against Islamic

State?

The key will be to

de-escalate the wider confrontation

between Turkey and Kurdish

insurgents inside of Turkey and the

wider region. Turkey regards the

American and coalition local

partner, the YPG, as a branch of the

wider PKK Kurdish insurgency, which

is of course fighting inside Turkey.

Until or unless the US is able to

broker a deal with respect to that

wider conflict, I expect that we

will actually not be able to

de-escalated tactically between

Turkey and the local partner inside

Syria. These issues cannot be fully

separated.

Donald Trump said last

week that ice is ground has largely

been recaptured, 100%, he said, but

they are on the run. How many are on

the run, and where might they be

going?

Sure, so of course assessing

the actual fighting strength of Isis

has always been one of the most

difficult things to do, certainly

from unclassified information. We

know that Isis remnants in Iraq and

Syria are still fighting. They are

conducting low-level assassinations,

suicide bombings in both countries,

and in Syria they actually have been

taking some terrain from pro-regime

forces so definitely still a threat

there, despite the fact that most of

the major urban centres have been

retaken. Globally, we are also

witnessing Isis resurgence. What

happened is that so many of the

foreign fighter flows that had been

going to Iraq and Syria have

redirected, and we have resurgent

Isis presents across-the-board -

from Libya to Somalia, Yemen, and

increasingly indication that foreign

fighters are flowing into Southeast

Asia, places like the Philippines.

When it comes back to the Kurds, why

are they so crucial to the fight?

Why can't they be replaced by Syrian

Arab fighters, for instance?

The

Kurds have been much more combat

capable, in part because they have

stricter discipline and a more

efficient command structure that

makes them a much more reliable

partner in the near-term than the

Arab forces that have not been

meaningfully mobilised. That is

until the US started providing

support, so the Kerdasa be more

battle hardened and more effective

militarily.

-- the Kurds are more

battle hardened. It is fascinating,

the extent to which Washington

cannot just pick up the phone to

Ankara and say, listen, we need

those Kurdish fighters or we will

see a resurgence, as in the past, of

extremist groups like Islamic State

in the region, and they don't have

the pressure over Erdogan to do

that.

It is fascinating, because it

has happened before, in 2001, when

they were fighting Al-Qaeda in

Afghanistan, they had them cornered

and let them escape, and we know

what happened next. Tomorrow in

London, you have got about 300 of

the world's most eminent security

experts gathering to swap, you know,

ways to defeat terrorists in Europe

and around the world, and we will

hear from some of the best

counterterrorism experts on the

planet, but they can only do so

much, and if what they are looking

to is the people on the battlefield

to round these people up there they

don't have to deal with them once

they come back to Europe. It will be

interesting to watch what they say

tomorrow, we will cover that. One of

Vladimir Putin's first moves and

coming to power 18 years ago was to

bring TV channels under state

control. Since then, Russia has been

accused of taking the information

war abroad, using Charlton and it

relates public opinion on social

media.

-- trolls. Our Moscow

correspondent Sarah Rainsford

reports.

This was Viktor's life

for over 20 years.

Here in Siberia, he created

a popular independent TV channel,

but three years ago,

TV2 was taken off air.

Officially, it was a license

dispute, but Viktor

is sure it was political.

The channel annoyed

everyone in power locally.

The team saw that as their job.

But reining in the free

press was one

of Vladimir Putin's first

moves as president.

Far from Moscow, TV2 was

one of the last survivors.

TRANSLATION:

It's obvious we were no

threat here in Tomsk.

But the authorities

are constantly afraid.

Afraid of revolution or losing

control, they want to control

everything, but that's impossible.

And they don't trust anyone.

Now Russia's information war

has moved onto the internet,

so we travel to one

of the key battle grounds.

From St Petersburg,

the Kremlin's been accused

of using the internet

to manipulative opinion

not just at home but abroad.

This place has become notorious

as Russia's troll factory.

It's mostly empty now, up for rent,

but a criminal indictment

in the United States claims staff

here were deployed as an online army

to sow discord and influence

voters in America.

Ludmila shows me the blog

of one of the fake characters

she helped to create.

She leaked information

from inside the troll factory

that exposed how it worked.

Her focus was Russian language

content,

and she tells me the trolls

operated in shifts,

ordered to produce up to 80 posts

on social media every single day.

TRANSLATION:

It's a huge machine.

I'd see thousands of posts

appearing under every news story

right before my eyes.

If a troll spoke about America

or Ukraine, it had to be negative.

If it was Putin or Russia's

military, it was positive.

Bloggers got written instructions

what to present

and the conclusions

that people should draw.

And it seems the trolls

are still operating.

We've been told that the troll

factory has moved here to this

premises, so I'm just going to see

if any of these people in

the smoking shelter opposite

actually work there

and what they can tell me.

This man tells me

he's seen them here

and he doesn't like what they do.

Inside, we met a representative

of one firm named in

the US indictment, but he wouldn't

comment on camera about its work.

Back in Siberia,

Viktor and his wife show me

how easily the traditional

media have been tamed.

When there were mass protests

against closing TV2,

state-run channels

ignored them completely.

Information is being controlled now,

even weaponised, and

under Vladimir Putin, this couple

see no chance of that changing.

Sarah Rainsford, BBC News, Tomsk.

News from around the world now.

The German Chancellor,

Angela Merkel, says it's important

for the newly agreed coalition

to get to work quickly.

She promised to maintain prosperity

at home and said the new government

would work towards a strong Europe,

along with France.

The new coalition will be comprised

of Mrs Merkel's CDU party

and the Social Democrats.

China has announced

it's raising its military budget

to 1.11 trillion yuan

or $175 billion dollars

for the coming year.

The figure, an 8% increase on

last year, was announced

as the annual meeting of parliament

got under way in Beijing.

It comes as delegates are expected

to vote on a proposal

to remove the two-term limit

for the presidency later this week.

Slovakia's President has called

for a radical government reshuffle

or new elections to rebuild

public trust after the murder

of a journalist and his fiancee.

Andrej Kiska said the murder

of Jan Kuciak had created

"enormous mistrust" in the state

and that the government

of Prime Minister Robert Fico had

done nothing to reassure the people.

British cyclist Bradley Wiggins

and Team Sky have strongly rejected

claims that they used drugs

to enhance performance -

rather than just

for medical reasons.

A report by British MPs has

concluded that the rules were not

broken, but that they were in effect

abused, to help Sir Bradley become

the first British rider

to win the Tour de France in 2012.

Back now to the trade war

which is brewing

after President Trump announced

he would be introducing

stiff tariffs on imports

of steel and aluminium.

It's not just the usual

critics but members of Mr Trump's

own party who are speaking

out against the decision.

Here was Republican Senator

Lindsey Graham yesterday.

China is winning, and we are losing

with this tariff regime. We are

letting China off the hook,

punishing the American consumer and

our allies. Go after China, not the

rest of the world.

We are joined by

BBC's North America correspondent

Nick Bryant, is this the thing that

will divide the Republican Party

finally from Donald Trump? They have

stuck with him so far.

There was a

lot of talk earlier in the about how

the Republican Party had become the

Trump party in the aftermath of the

tax cuts that were passed before

Christmas, but there is a definite

difference, a definite divergences

between the Republican Party

establishment, for a long time now

has been free trade, determine and

leak free trade. If you look at the

origins of Nafta, the trade

agreement that Donald Trump eights,

you find it in Ronald Reagan's

campaign for the presidency. George

HW Bush pushed Nafta as well, put

into effect by Bill Clinton, but it

was a Republican idea, and you are

getting pushed back from not only to

be like Lindsey Graham, a golf

partner of the president, but people

like the house speaker, Paul Ryan.

His office today was circulating an

article to journalists pointing out

the damage that tariffs could do to

the American economy.

The

interesting thing, Nick, is that the

Republicans were saying, we will be

able to use trade and the strong

performance in the market and the

good job figures, and the tax

reform, we will be able to use all

of that when we go to the midterms

later in the year, and that will

overcome some of the low approval

ratings that the president has. But

if you start to undermine the

economy, doesn't that take away

something that has been a real USP

for them at the ballot box?

That is

exactly right, and that is one of

the concerns being voiced by senior

senators like Orrin Hatch, for

instance, of Utah, a staunch Trump

ally who says this is a tax on the

American people which will lead to

increased prices at supermarkets.

And who will be damaged by that? The

American economy and us in the

mid-term elections. The Europeans

have been very careful about what

they will target in retaliation.

Jean-Claude Juncker of the European

Commission saying, Levi jeans,

Harley-Davidson motorbikes, and

also, what was the other one?

Bourbon, I thought you would

remember that, Nick!

- got bourbon!

Clearly drinking too much of it

already!

Carefully selected!

That is

the whole point, why is it

important? It is made in Kentucky,

the home of Mitch McConnell, the

Senate Majority Leader.

Harley-Davidson are built in

Wisconsin, the home of Paul Ryan,

and that is a key battle ground

state, one of the rust belt states

that Donald Trump won.

Harley-Davidsons are also

manufactured in Pennsylvania, and

battle ground state. The Europeans

also digesting them and suggest in

game may go after orange juice,

Florida, and other key battle

ground. -- the Europeans also

suggesting they may go after orange

juice.

Not stupid, those European

trade negotiators! Christian, I

spoke to some of the over the

weekend from the White House is

said, basically, all the chaos you

have read about in the papers over

this tariff announcement, it is true

and also. This has caused a lot of

friction and the White House.

Chaos

works, that is the whole point.

How valuable is your passport? We

will be ranking the highest, that is

still to come.

The Prime Minister is urging

developers to up their game

and build more homes in England.

She said penalising developers

who delay building on their land

should help to deal

with the shortage of properties.

Labour described the

measures as feeble.

Here's our home

editor, Mark Easton.

The Prime Minister donned the hi-vis

today, determined to show

she's tackling what she describes

as a housing crisis.

But Theresa May's

not the first senior Tory

to get her shoes muddy

on a building site.

Remember him?

And him?

And him?

Today, the PM had the big builders

and developers in her sights,

blaming some of them for putting

profit before their patriotic duty

to restore the dream

of home ownership.

The bonuses paid to the heads

of some of our biggest developers

are based not on the number

of homes they build,

but on their profits or share price.

I expect developers

to do their duty.

Among possible planning reforms

is the idea that developers

with a reputation for not building

homes fast enough

might be denied planning

permission by councils.

Not only do house-builders

make returns to their shareholders,

we are also cross-subsidising almost

half of the affordable housing

in this country every single year.

For Conservatives,

home ownership is central

to their vision for housing.

The Prime Minister today said

she met young voters at the last

election angry to get on the ladder.

But 24-year-old Tessa says focusing

on ownership is missing the point.

I don't even think about affording

something like that,

because the price is so high anyway,

so I don't know

how I would get the deposit together

in order to buy one,

even if it was available.

Some Conservatives want the Treasury

to relax borrowing rules so councils

and housing associations

can build many more

genuinely affordable homes.

Others see the priority

as protecting England's

precious green landscape.

It is a surprise perhaps

the Prime Minister didn't think

it wise to wear a hard hat today.

Mark Easton, BBC News.

You're watching Beyond 100 Days.

What kind of trade deals

might the UK strike,

free of the restrictions

of European Union?

Of course, a lot of depends on where

the Brexit negotiations end up.

But it's good to know that

potential future trading partners

outside the EU are eyeing up the UK

and ready to do business.

Australia is one such country.

The High Commissioner to the UK

says Australia would never

cede its sovereignty over trade

to another group of countries.

And he believes that Britain should

take heart from Australia's example.

They have already secured

trade deals with China

and the United States.

The High Commissioner,

Alexander Downer,

joined us a short time ago.

I asked him what the impact might be

of the UK staying in a customs

union.

Well, I'm not sure what

people mean by a as distinct from

the, that is probably just a

political difference without a big

difference of substance, but if the

UK was in the customs union,

remained in the customs union, and

obviously would not be able to

negotiate trade arrangements with

other countries, so all of our focus

would be on negotiations with the

European Union. I mean, we would put

our efforts just into Brussels, we

wouldn't bother with London, because

London would have contract and out

its trade policy to the EU, that

would be the consequence.

At the

moment, Australia represents, let's

face it, a small portion of

Britain's total trading

relationship, something like around

2% - are you suggesting that after

Brexit that number will increase

significantly in a way that could

help the British economy perhaps

replace some of the trade deals with

the EU?

British trade has been

diverted away from countries like

Australia, so I suspect, on leaving

the European Union, Britain's trade

patterns would change a little as it

negotiated not just a

patterns would change a little as it

negotiated not just a free-trade

agreement with the EU

so it could

negotiated not just a free-trade

agreement with the EU

so it could go

from 2% up to something like 7%?

I

am not going to predict at all, it

is not the diktat of a politician or

diplomat to say what the trade would

be, but it was once 7%, it is now

about 2%. I am not sure, 1-2%, and

obviously there is potential to grow

that very substantially.

You said

that Australia would never contract

out its trade policy, the

regulations under of its internal

economy. -- the regulation and

management of its internal economy.

You already have deals with China

and the US, even though the European

Union doesn't. But how do you

balance the interests of those two

massive partners when they diverged?

It is not a problem at all. We

export into, say, China, we have to

meet Chinese standards. When we

export to the United States, we meet

American standards. Whether we have

agreements with them or not. If the

United Kingdom is outside of the

customs union, it can do that. If it

is inside, it will have no say at

all over the agreements that are

negotiated on its behalf by the

European Union. I mean, that is not

a matter for us, that is just what

will happen.

To finish, are you

optimistic about the chances of a

trade deal with the EU, knowing what

you know about these negotiations?

It is difficult to negotiate with

the EU, but I'm optimistic that we

will get a trade agreement with the

EU, and we have begun that process

in any case. From our point of view,

we would be happy to negotiate a

bilateral agreement with the UK if

the UK genuinely leaves the European

Union. If you remain in the customs

union and the single market, you are

basically remaining in the European

Union but without any say in the

decision-making processes. It is up

to you if you want to do that. We

would never do that.

High

Commissioner, thank you very much.

Pleasure.

Ask many people what their most

prized positions are

- wife, children, home perhaps -

certainly one of mine,

besides my family of

course is my passport.

In fact, I have two.

course is my passport.

It's an essential tool of our trade

and when you travel so much,

you come to realise just how

valuable these maroon,

navy or green books are.

And some are more valuable

than others

when it comes to visa-free travel,

according to a new global ranking.

Japanese and Singaporean

passport holders

offer the greatest travel freedom.

If you hold one of these passports,

you're now able to travel to 180

countries without a visa.

The latest is Uzbekistan.

It's interesting, Katty,

because last month Uzbekistan lifted

visa requirements for Japanese

and Singaporean nationals,

which puts them ahead of Germany.

Before the shift it was number one,

now it's number two.

And they tied for third -

Denmark, Finland, France, Italy,

Sweden, Spain and South Korea with

visa-free travel to 178 countries.

At the other end of the end

of the scale,

Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

I suppose it is not surprising.

Which nationalities have you got?

They are both British!

I have a

British passport, and I'm applying

for a Swiss passport, I was hoping

that would be on the list. How many

Japanese people go to Uzbekistan on

holiday?

Not easy to get a Japanese

passport either!

My son was born

there, he