hello and welcome to 100 days. brexit is under way and the eu is fighting back. "those who would challenge european unity threaten their own communities", so says the president of the european council. we must say, loud and clear, that nationalisms and separatisms which try to weaken the eu are the opposite of modern patriotism. the french president tells the british that talks on trade will only begin once the uk has agreed a divorce bill with the european union. in london, parliament prepares to convert thousands of eu laws to the uk legal system. we want a smooth and orderly exit and the great repeal bill is integral to that approach. also... "propaganda on steroids." the senate intelligence committee says russia tried to hijack us democracy with a campaign of disinformation on social media. and, the grand old party at war.

the president is spoiling for a fight with the conservative republicans who blocked healthcare reform. day 70 of the trump administration. day one of britain's two year countdown to brexit. european leaders have been setting out boundaries for the beginning of the talks. in paris, the french and german presidents put on a united front, insisting the terms of the uk's withdrawal — including a bill for outstanding debts britain will pay when it leaves — will need to be agreed first before there is any talk of a future relationship. the european council president, donald tusk — who will steer the negotiations — believes brexit will make the eu stronger. he said the remaining 27 countries must fight the populism which has taken root across the continent. we must say, loud and clear,

that nationalisms and separatisms which try to weaken the eu are the opposite of modern patriotism. those who take aim at european unity, threaten also their own communities, weakening their own state's sovereignty. words such as security, sovereignty, dignity and pride must return to our political dictionary. settling the exit bill — estimated by the european commission to be 60 billion euros — $64 billion — will be the first big hurdle when the talks get under way in mid to late may. the british prime minister said last night the uk would honour its commitments, but the british government disputes the figure being presented. so where does all this leave the uk? lets speak to yo—anne pascu, he is vice—president of the european parliament who joins

us now from brussels. thank you very much forjoining us on the programme. you're welcome. negotiations, we are one day in, there is disagreement on even the basics, on the numbers? in a way we are havele launched ourselves, both of us, britain and ourselves on an adventure. we do not know what is in front of us. and how many obstacles we'll have to overcome. in a way, we have to adjust our pace and find the right way to start the negotiations in earnest and find solutions to the problems which confront us both.|j mean, are you heartened things are off toa mean, are you heartened things are off to a good start, though? sorry? do you have faith that things are off toa do you have faith that things are off to a good start? well, i think, you know, we have to do that. nobody has done it before and we are

confronted with a situation we never envisaged and we have to adjust to it. we have to really find a solution to come to a compromise. if we manage to do that, in the two years in front. us, it will be ok. if we don't, then, you know, we have a new situation which we will also have to confront. i hope, in the end, after this initial adjustment period, we will get on the way with our negotiations. can i take you back to what the french and german leaders are saying today, there must be an agreement on the divorce settlement before they discuss the shape of the future relationship, would you go along with that? well, i would say, you know, in the good order of things, you cannot start building something until you clear the field

before. in a way, this makes sense. it's logical. i'm a romanian from transylvania and i have a german education, if i could say so, to me it makes sense that we have, first, to clear the field and then to start building the new house. yes. the europeans are taking a hardline on this. a former conservative leader, michael howard, said to me yesterday i should read article 50 of the treaty. i did that today. i will read you a part of it. "when a state withdraws the union should negotiation and conclude an agreement with that state setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal while taking account for the framework of its future relationship" it's there in black and white. the two must be done hand in hand? it's a matter of interpretation. it's not. it's there in black—and—white. interpretation. it's not. it's there in black-and-white. well, anything isa in black-and-white. well, anything is a matter of interpretation. in politics, this is the situation. the

constructive ambiguitiy which is practiced especially by britain, you know, with so much success until now, permits everyone to look at the thing and interpret and understand what he wants. this is the beauty of it. everyone understands from the same phrase what he wants to understand. here you know we will have to make room, you know, for political interpretations because everything is political. it should not be applied as such 100%. we should expect ourselves, you will do the same in other fields, and this is, you know, the beginning of the game. it's political. plenty of to—and—fro to come. we are very grateful for your time. to—and—fro to come. we are very gratefulfor your time. thank to—and—fro to come. we are very grateful for your time. thank you very much. thank you. meanwhile, in the british parliament, the business of separation was already under way. the government has published a first draft of the great repeal bill, which will end the supremacy of european law over the united kingdom.

labour's keir starmer, who will lead parliamentary scrutiny of theresa may's negotiation, said the job of the opposition had entered a new phase. while the brexit secretary, david davis — britain's chief negotiator — said he wanted a clean break. we're being clear that we want a smooth and orderly exit and the great repeal bill is integral to that approach. it will provide clarity and certainty for businesses, workers and consumers across the united kingdom on the day we leave the eu. all rights and protections derived from eu law must be converted into domestic law. all rights and protections — no limitations, no qualifications and no sunset clauses. our political correspondent, rob watson, is in westminster. good to see you. you too. we know why it's called the great repeal bill it will get rid of the european

act. really, the title is the biggest misnomer known to man. it will not repeal very much, is it? all those rulings and regulations will be shifted on to the uk statute book? you are stealing my best lines. it's an oddly named bill. the first thing to say, anyone who finds other parliaments ways and means and legislators baffling look away now. to get to it, it's a bill that does something in three parts. number one the repeal bit. that does apply, getting rid of the idea that britain does whatever europe says. the second bit, absolutely, the biggest cut and paste in history. basically, what this bill will do is say — we will not follow european law. guess what, all that stuff, all those rules and regulations. it's thought there are tens of thousands accumulated over 40 years, we will transfer them over into uk law. why? because when britain leaves the

european union in two years' time the idea is that there shouldn't be a legal black hole. it does one other thing as well, which is not all of these laws or tens of thousands of regulations will be applicable. the government is saying we will go through them all and get rid of some of them. plenty of good lines there. thank you very much for the moment. a lot going on then, michelle, on the fist day. we had news today about a bank that was moving to europe, lloyd's of london. they are moving a subsidiary, 100 jobs. jp morgan, goldman sachs, is it something we should be concerned about or is this brass plating where they are trying to get an address and foothold in europe so that they are part of the european union? well, look, ithink are part of the european union? well, look, i think it's like any business, they are looking at the laws of the land. in some cases, they will be required to have a presence, as you say, brass plating,

in europe if they want to continue funding, doing, performing certain operations. that being said, there isa operations. that being said, there is a huge part of the financial market, a huge part of certain of their activities in which london remains the centre. so while there isa remains the centre. so while there is a lot of concern, teeth gnashing about what it will do as london as a financial centre it will remain important to the financial world. let's turn to news here in washington. there are now a series of congressional hearings and investigations that are looking into the russia's inteference in the presidential election. the house intelligence committee held its first public hearing two weeks ago. at that session the fbi director, james comey, confirmed the fbi is leading its own investigation into alleged links between russia and the trump campaign. today, the senate intelligence committee invited in cameras for the first of their open hearings. among 20 people summoned to give

evidence will be the former national security adviser, mike flynn, who was forced to resign last month, and the president's son—in—law and close advisor, jared kushner. the stakes are high for senate investigation given the disarray we have witnessed in the house investigation. the infighting between republicans and democrats brought that inquiry to a standstill this week. by contrast, the senate committee appears an example of bi—partisan bonhomies. the ranking democrat, mark warner, and the republican chair, richard burr, stand side by side promising a thorough investigation. we will always say to you, this investigation scope will go wherever the intelligence leads it. russia's goal, vladimir putin's goal, is a weaker united states — weaker economically, weaker globally, and that should be a concern to all americans regardless of party affiliation. just before today's committee hearing started,

russian president vladimir putin dismissed the us intelligence community's claims. translation: did the russian government attempt to influence the result of the us election? translation: at one time reagan debating, i think about taxes and addressing the americans said — "read my lips" — no! well, one man who has already given evidence, earlier today in fact, is former fbi special agent clint watts, who is now a fellow at the foreign policy research institute. we heard putin there, basically, saying, no russia was not involved. what did you make of that? islj don't know why we would believe him. he is not honest to his own people in his own country. i surely wouldn't believe him in this context. for three years, two

colleagues and i have watched russian influence online. it's a deliberate strategy over those three years. it's not covert. what tends to be pushed around in the media is that it's a hidden hand. the hacking we hear with about now of people's accounts was hidden and come to light due to investigations the influence is not. you can go to state sponsored russian outlet, do analysis and see how they want to manipulate it. you talk about the influence of russia, their tactics. are you concerned we could see the tactics employed in up coming european elections? it's already happening. they are focussed on the german and french elections. they will steer their candidates towards the per ferd outcome they would like. i know that you dashed straight to us from this intel

committee hearing, so we should play a bit of that. it's interesting what you had to say. let's just show our viewers. part of the reason active measures works, and it does today — in terms of trump tower being wired tap — is because they parrot the same lines. so putin is correct, he can say that he's not influencing anything because he'sjust putting out his stance, but until we get a firm basis on fact and fiction in our own country, get some agreement about the facts, whether it be — do i support the intelligence community or a story i read on my twitter feed, we're going to have a big problem. i can tell you, right now today, grey outlets, that are soviet pushing accounts, tweet at president trump during high volumes, when they know he's online, and they push conspiracy theories. so if he's to click on one of those or cite one of those, itjust proves putin correct. are you saying that some of this is entirely legal. what they are doing is pumping out misinformation to

republican supporters, to trump campaigners who hover it up and recite it or recycle it as fact? yes. the overt propaganda that anyone can look on the internet is the standard party line in russia. where it gets a little bit weird though is in social media. their use of automated bots, fake accounts that look like people, they are pushing a message on their behalf and theiruse of pushing a message on their behalf and their use of covert accounts used for hacking, both in terms of social engineering to get into people's accounts and to influence their opinions. that is where it's a little bit more covert and a lot less overt. during your evidence or the information you gave to the senate hearing today you talked about yourself being targeted? sure. i received notification two weeks after i wrote about this, november 2015, the fbi visited the foreign

policy research institute let them know i'd been targeted with a cyber—attack. they don't tell you who targeted it came two weeks after i talked about fake social media accounts being controlled by russia. we have been talking a lot about, you gave testimony in the senate and what is going on in the house, are you confident we can find out what has been going on here and whether there has been involvement on the side of the trump camp? in terms of the information warfare going on i can't speak to the trump campaign members. what i don't understand is why stone would say he's in contact with one of the hackers or why he would know about wikileaks. i don't know why they would cite a fake russian prop gang da story after it had been debunked or why president

trump would get those lines fed to him. what is the connection between humans and this online information campaign. thank you very much. it's hard to believe this time last week we were talking about president trump's health care plan and its chance of becoming law. how quickly things unravelled. however much he tried, hejust couldn't get the freedom caucus — the conservative members of his own party — to sign up to it. at the time he blamed the democrats, but today we got a sense of the real story. the freedom caucus will hurt the entire republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. we must fight them, & dems, in 2018! 0ur north america editor, jon sopel, is watching developments and joins us now.

trump is going to battle with members of the party he is meant to be working with? never let it be said that donald trump is afraid to pick a fight. he goes after the democratic party, you might expect it and the freedom can you suss, 30 plus republican tea party house members who sunk his health care bill. donald trump has been talking about how it could be resurrected. you think — why are you going after your tea party members if you are trying to get them on board. maybe what his real strategy is to prize enough democrats away so they will backed a revise healthcare reform bill. paul ryan is the speaker of the house. he was asked about it. he gaveit the house. he was asked about it. he gave it the same enthusiastic response as you would having root canal treatment. but if this republican congress

allows the perfect to be the enemy of the good, i worry we'll push the president into working with democrats. he's been suggesting that as much. i mean, have you reached out to the democrats yet to work on this bill pelosi? no, i'm trying to get this bill passed. nancy and i see things very, very differently. then you guys are not on the same page. the president of the united states saying he's going to work on democrats on this. you don't want - yeah, i know he's been saying that, and i don't want that to happen. you know why? because i want a patient centred system, i don't want government running healthcare. where is this new majority going to come from that donald trump is talking about? also, what kind of concessions is he going to have to make to winsome of these democrats, especially when be you are talking about healthcare especially when be you are talking about healthca re and, especially when be you are talking about healthcare and, further down—the—line, budget talks, tax reform? well, you name it. the

problems are piling up. we have already heard about the possibility that the administration, the government could run out of money by the end of april. almost coinciding with his 100 days in office. one of the things that he has put in his spending bill is to fund money for that wall that mexico was going to pay for, but isn't. so he's asking congress to pay for it. they don't wa nt congress to pay for it. they don't want to. if he hasn't got the votes to get that through. what does he do? does he either give up on the immediate plans to build the wall? 0r immediate plans to build the wall? or does he go—ahead and push it in and the spending bill gets voted down and government shuts down. on that, too, he's between a rock and a ha rd that, too, he's between a rock and a hard place. i was thinking today, jon, about the irony of this, you have ideologues standing next to the president who thought they could speak openingly to the freedom can you suss and his budget secretary who was a under foing member and

still they can't control them ? who was a under foing member and still they can't control them? one of the interesting critiques i've seenis of the interesting critiques i've seen is that donald trump is trying to bea seen is that donald trump is trying to be a president as an ideologue. that's no he is. if only the real donald trump, the populous, would stand up, there will be things he would agree with the democrats over. there will be things where he will find himself at odds with the freedom can you suss he goes too close to them but not close enough to satisfy them. he has to work out, where is his majority going to come from on a pile of issues. does he move towards the democrats and leave the freedom caucus behind or get them united. how does he do that without upsetting moderner rate republicans. i think he thought force of personality would be enough. i will speak to them, they will come over, i am anticipate the great deal maker. his first go at that didn't end up terribly well. no, quite. the realities of the job

clearly coming to hit him at home. jon sopel, our north america editor, thank you very much. ajudge in hawaii has extended the suspension of president trump's new travel ban. which means people from six mostly muslim states can still enter the country while it's being contested in court. many of america's biggest businesses have spoken out against the order and its impact on their workforces. mr trump says the ban will stop terrorists entering the country and has previously pledged to take the case "as far as it needs to go." we know president trump enjoys a round of golf —

so much so, he conducts much of his weekend business at the so—called winter, or southern, white house — the mar a lago resort in florida. he owns that course, his name's also on a golf club here in the uk too. christian, apparently he's not such a bad golfer either. how do we know that? well the former world number one, greg norman, was quite complimentary about mr trump, and notjust about his swing. 0ur sport reporter, seth bennett's been speaking to the man known as ‘the great white shark‘. his flexibility, for a 70—year—old guy, is pretty darn good. he hits a ball out there a fairly long way. i'm not saying - you're notjust being nice though because he's — no, i've played with him quite a few times. and, back to his golf swing, no, i'm not embellishing that orjust saying it, i would tell you if i thought he had a crappy swing, right, but he actually gets through the ball extremely well. are you surprised that rory mcilroy got the stick he got? he did get a lot for it, wrongly so, because if the president of the united states asks you to go play golf, you go play

golf with the president of the united states. it's as simple as that. a great story, if i give you analogy, i got a phone call from the white house and it said that the president will be in australia on such and such a date, he would love to play golf with you. i go, "i'm not a democrat." you know, "i don't want to play with him." so you know he what i did, i called up president bush, 41. i said, "mr president, i've got to seek your advice, seek your advice, it's free, right? ijust got a call from the white house a they're requesting we play golf with president clinton in australia and i'm not a big fan, i'm not a democrat, i'm a republican, my views and beliefs are that way." he said, "great, let me tell you, respect the position of the president of the united states. you go play golf with the president." isaid, "yes, sir." this is why i can say with complete authority, within myself, i pre—judged the president. i was an idiot because it turned out to create one of the great friendships that i have, to this day. because, when i got to know him, he was just a wonderful guy.

you know, there will be times when he would even call me up, when the whole tiger woods thing was going on, right. he would call me up and say, "greg, you are the only person, you're his neighbour, go down and talk to him. talk to him, help him, help him." you would go — this is pretty cool, getting that type of call. you know, it's going back to respecting the position of the president of the united states. that's all i ask everybody out there globally. you're watching 100 days from bbc news. still to come for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news — inside syria — six years on we see what life is like for people living with war. is us intervention making any difference?

it's been a warm day in the north—east of scotland, the wind direction changed. that is the picture in aberdeenshire. the highest temperatures to the south—east of england. kew gardens beautiful day. clearer skies to england and wales as the wet weather transferred its way towards the irish sea but continues toing bring some persistent rain across the north—west of england. more rain overnight. 0ne north—west of england. more rain overnight. one or two showers to central and eastern areas. the wetter weather out towards the westheading into scotland. there will be heavy rain over the hills, foo. with the cloud around it will bea mild foo. with the cloud around it will be a mild night, 11—12 degrees typically. tomorrow, early sunshine across eastern parts of england. a line of showers. that is it pushing eastwards through the morning. the main focus of the wet weather is going to be further north and west. the heavier rain moving away from

western parts of wales, continuing across northern ireland, the far north—west of england. cumbria will be wet to begin with. rain to central and southern scotland. wetter in northern scotland as well. low pressure will bring the wetter weather here. that will push the rain away from northern ireland and north—west england and wales but continue to bring rain in central and northern scotland. to the south of that, one or two showers, but we break the cloud up, we will get sunshine. we have fresher air, but a decent afternoon, 15—17 degrees. improving in northern ireland. showers waiting in the wings. in time for the weekend or the start of the weekend we will get april showers for the first day of the new month, chilly overnight, but a fine day on sunday. not a bad day to the south—east of england, very few showers. the showers will fade away,

they will be pushed away by high pressure, it will settle things down for the second—half of the weekend keeping the weather fronts at bay for the time being. a dry day, fine day, sunshine in the morning after the chilly start. cloud around in the chilly start. cloud around in the afternoon, but with light winds, when you do get the sunshine, it should feel pleasantly warm. welcome back to 100 days with me, michelle fleury, in washington, and christian fraser in london. the french president says brexit talks on, will only begin once a divorce bill with the european union has been set in place. and ivanka trump is starting as an unpaid employee. how is that going to work? the us secretary of state, rex tillerson, has been meeting with turkish leaders amid deep disagreements on who should lead the fight against so called

islamic state in syria. us special forces are working with the ypg, the kurdish people's protection units, which ankara considers a terrorist group, linked to the separatists in turkey. president erdogan said he has stressed in their meeting the importance of working with what he called the "right and legitimate" elements in the fight against is. what we discussed today were options that are available to us. they are difficult options, let me be very frank. these are not easy decisions, they are difficult choices that have to be made. so this has been very good, the conversations today were very frank, very candid. i think the status and the longer term status of president assad will be decided by the syrian people. quite clearly turkey wants to be involved in the operation to capture the is stronghold of raqqa —

but not alongside the kurdish militia. a lot has been made here in washington of the pentagon seemingly stepping up its operations in syria and iraq. elsewhere, there are reports that 300 american marines will be drafted into new operations in helmand province in afghanistan. we are told the pentagon has begun resupplying saudi arabia with precision weapons, for the ongoing war in yemen. there's also a renewed focus on libya. it would seem the us is getting much more active in conflicts it had been pulling away from? this week the bbc is focusing on six years of war in syria. 0ur chief international correspondent lyse doucet, is in homs, to the north of damascus. this renewed focus with the secretary of state tillerson, in turkey, what shift are we seeing coming from the us position? well, today one very significant shift, and hints there is trouble over how to shift on another

question, the first that secretary of state tillerson has now made it clear that the long—term future, as he put it, of president assad is up for the syrians to decide. this is a very marked departure from the statements of former secretary of statejohn kerry, who always said that president assad had no legitimacy, that he must step down, that he must go and that there will not be any election, will not be any elections, he cannot part in the elections. now secretary of state tillerson is making clear what we already know about president trump, that his interest in syria, neighbouring iraq is the fight against so—called islamic state. he wants to work with russia, as for the internal conflict in syria they think that america, it is not really america's interest. now the second shift is one that is still being discussed. what will america decide when it comes to whether they will work with syrian kurdish forces, much admired by the us military as a very effective fighting force, and their key nato ally president erdogan of turkey,

who insists there absolutely cannot be any strategic alliance with the syrian kurds, because turkey sees them as an off—shoot of the pkk in turkey, terrorist separatists in president erdogan's eye. what secretary of state tillerson said today, these are difficult choices, our expectation is they will work with is they will work with the syrian kurds, but somehow try to placatee turkey's fears that will threaten turkey's own interest on its own border with syria. donald trump gave his generals 30 days to come up with a plan to defeat is. we have not really seen the details of that plan, but anecdotally we are starting to feel like they're stepping up the bombing of is positions in iraq and syria, and we have showed people on the map other positions around the middle east, and in afghanistan, where they are stepping up military activity. what do you think is happening? well, what we know was the first

steps taken by president trump's administration, which involves sending hundreds of special forces backed up by troops and artillery into northern syria, was a decision that was taken at the end of president 0bama's administration. they knew they had to do something to ratchet up the pressure on islamic state, both in iraq as well as in syria, that the present balance of forces on the ground simply wouldn't work, but since then, president trump's team had been adding, and adding in a way which is very interesting. we are getting hints from the president trump's administration, he, with his great admiration of the us military is willing to give his commanders on the ground more leeway in taking some of the day—to—day decisions. that seems to involve the deployment of forces, moving the forces on the ground. there are restrictions on combat troops, but not on advisers, special forces, and we have seen in places like afghanistan, that distinction is very grey. so yes, a president which talked about america first is deciding that putting america first means

being even a greater presence militarily, more boots on the ground as we say, in a lot of troubled places. thanks for that update. lyse doucet in homs, to the north of damascus. this is from a court in south korea that has approved an arrest want ra nt that has approved an arrest want rant for the country's ousted president. the parliament's president. the pa rliament‘s decision president. the parliament's decision to impeach her. a court has approved an arrest warrant for her. the north carolina senate has cleared a plan to repeal a controversial law that limits protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and tra nsgender people. a key element banned transgender people from using toilets in accordance with their chosen

gender, earning the measure the "bathroom law" tag. two—thirds of the senate approved the repeal bill after a late—night deal was reached by state lawmakers. nicola sturgeon who released this picture, argues that scotland deserves the right to choose what path to follow in the wake of the brexit vote. the uk government has already said it will block a referendum until the complicated brexit process has been completed. severe weather is continuing to reek havoc in the australian state of queensland, in the wake of cyclone debbie. tens of thousands are still without power on the mainland and thousands are also stranded on resort islands in the north east, where officials have issued new evacuation warnings ahead of more heavy rainfall. we take you into space now where nasa astronaut peggy whitson, dressed all in white, has ventured outside the international space station on a record breaking spacewalk. it's her eighth time and breaks a record for the most spacewalks done by a woman.

she surpasses sunita williams' record. it's the 199th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance — on this walk they are finishing cable connections. ivanka trump is officially joining her father's administration as an unpaid employee, with the title assistant to the president. she will be given security clearance and an office in the white house. but is there a conflict of interest? ivanka — like herfather — is the sole beneficiary of a sprawling business empire. he put all his business interests aside but she won't do that, is that right? she stepped aside from her

brand, the sort of the clothing line, the shoe line that bore her name, the perfumes but the assumption was she would neverjoin him intoa assumption was she would neverjoin him into a business, there were issues with that jared him into a business, there were issues do| that jared job house job with house {ii i°b is with ho merifj mg " t ’