the latest headlines: russia is expelling 60 american diplomats, as the diplomatic fallout escalates over the poisoning of the spy sergei skripal in britain. the un secretary—general, antonio guterres, has warned tensions are pushing russia and the west towards a new cold war. doctors in the uk say yulia skripal, who was poisoned in the attack, along with herfather, is now out of danger. the bbc understands her health is improving rapidly and she's now conscious and talking. sergei skripal is still in critical condition. with exactly a year to go until the uk leaves the european union, theresa may has been visiting england, scotland, northern ireland and wales, very briefly, in one day. the prime minister insisted the uk would have a bright future after brexit, and that leaving would mean more money for hospitals and schools. it is just off the half—past four in the morning.

it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. donald trump's mantra is "america first" but in his mental map of the world, which continent comes last? africans see signs that they are at the bottom of the presidential priority list. mr trump wants to slash the aid budget, he's kept key diplomatic posts in africa unfilled. and he fired his secretary of state, rex tillerson, halfway through an important mission to the continent. my guest is acting assistant secretary of state for african affairs, donald yamamoto. is america fast losing friends and influence in africa? donald yamamoto in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk.

—— donald yamamoto in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much, sir. let me start with the personnel situation inside your department, the state department. from the outside looking in, it seems there is a profound personnel crisis, with too many very senior jobs, and many of them concerning africa, simply left unfilled. so for our side, the africa bureau, we have about 46 embassies five consulates in the field. we only have five embassies without an ambassador. it is true that we have in the domestic area, still looking for permission to hire people at our deputy levels,

but we continue to carry on our work, our important work in africa with really a very good staff. the issue for the state department is that we're undergoing a very generational change and so unlike other parts of the government, we have probaly less than 19% of our workforce is over 50, which means it's a very young department of state. you're a veteran of african affairs, a veteran diplomat, and i wonder if it troubles you that key embassies in africa, south africa, egypt, the democratic republic of congo, which of course is torn by internal conflict, somalia, where of course there is a very great security situation which sees hundreds of us military personnel on the ground, tanzania as well. these are all countries where the trump administration has not got around to appointing an ambassador. yes. the ambassador is important but the other aspect too is as we continue

with our programmes and projects — particularly in the drc with the elections in december. somalia, stabilisations on the assistance level and really transitioning that government onto a firm footing so in those areas, we are making continued progress. progress is one way of putting it. you are the top man in the state department, in many ways, the point man for africa. you're only acting. you won't get the job on a permanent basis but if i may put it this way, you're an interim guy. this is my 10th year actually, in the front office for the african bureau, so given my experience in the region, i'm pretty much the most senior person dealing on africa. what do you think african nations, their top diplomats,

their politicians, make of the fact, and i don't mean to be disrespectful, you are serving time until donald trump gets around to appointing a permanent assistant secretary for african affairs, and also he has appointed a new secretary of state, who as far as i can tell, and i've looked at his record, has absolutely no experience or frankly a record of interest in africa at all. sir, in my nearly 30, going on 39 years in the diplomatic service, africa is a very unique continent in the sense that everything is very personality—driven. during the un general assembly, during my years i've met and interacted with many of the leaders so we've developed a very personal relationship. during that time, they feel comfortable calling me and we call them on a regular basis. no, no, no. i get that, mr yamamoto, your record speaks for itself but i'm concerned about your feelings of secretary of state, the leader of your organisation, who has not one single evidence

of interest or record of involvement with africa. i think we look at the secretary of state not only for leadership skills and bringing people together, but their ability to work within interagency and with the white house. you really do need a strong leadership at the front to work with not only the president, but also the secretary of defence, the cia and other agency heads. and i think with pompeo designate, you have a person who really is close to the interagency and others. what do you make of the fact that over the past 12 months, donald trump has pushed consistently to seek a massive cut in the state department budget? he wanted a 29% cut originally. he wanted a 30% cut out of the aid and assistance budget. what do you make of those proposals? as you know, sir, during the 2018 proposed budget, we were going to take a 34.5% budget cutjust on africa.

the congress, of course, the president just signed a $1.3 trillion budget. we got almost all but 4%. the issue comes in is that, we can't look at assistance in and of itself as sustainable. we need to look at a transition to a more permanent basis and the programmes and partners we have are geared at that. it's developed over the last several administrations and this administration as well. i just wonder about morale. if you can be frank with me. sure. the office of the management of the budget over the next, i think it is 2023, the next five year span, still wants to see very serious cuts in both state department budget and in particular in the aid and assistance budget, what does it do for morale in your department? i think what we need to look for...

just for the africa bureau, is do we have the assets and resources to do ourjob and do we have the leadership skills to direct us into shaping how we really deal with dwindling budgets? the budget cuts started at the end of the 0bama administration, we were looking at severe cuts on assistance levels and personnel levels as well, and the reason why we have so few people in the over—50 group is in actual total numbers, we have as many senior officers as we had really prior to the bush administration. i would really appreciate some direct answers. sure. how was your morale in the context of what trump is doing to foreign policy? how was your morale, as the point man on africa? yes, if we can move forward on the projects that we have been working on for the years, that's going to be the telling point and so far we have. before secretary rex tillerson left, he went to africa, we were focused on positioning the united states for the future of africa.

very interesting that you talk about that visit. it was supposed to be the high—profile connection of the prompting with africa. he was informed during the trip he was to be fired, a humiliation, he came home early, half the trip was abandoned. what does that tell you about donald trump's view of africa? the trip was always going to get cut as the demands from washington became heavier, but director pompeo was also in africa just before the secretary went out there. secretary mattis had also been there and we had a lot of other visitors. so secretary tillerson‘s trip was to highlight all the programmes we were looking at and that is to position the united states in africa as we position ourselves for 2100, when africa will form 40% of the world's population. you seem very sanguine. many experts, and i am going to quote to you former senator tom daschle, who takes an interest in african

affairs, he says there is a dangerous misconception in the trump administration that african policy can be handed over to the generals. this vision sees an entire continent and its people simply in terms of a threat, a place from where problems emanate, and he says we are neither addressing the real crises facing africa today, nor positioning the us to benefit from more dynamic trade and growth on the continent. yes... we correspond. before coming, i was the vice president of the national defence university and i was asked to come back to the africa bureau last september because of the staffing shortages we had in our bureau, but we teach all our military and diplomats who study side—by—side about diplomacy, defence and development, and in that context, general mcmaster, one of our core teachers, general kelly, the chief of staff, he and i taught courses together. we all looked at how do we manage the future of the united states,

and it is dependent on diplomats itself. general mattis... it doesn't really seem to revolve around the diplomats. i just wonder whether you care about the perception in washington, and here's a powerful quote from grant harris, the guy who used to be the senior director for african affairs in the white house. yes. he says this, "the trump administration's persistent neglect of africa constitutes nothing less than foreign policy malpractice." right, and i have great respect for grant and the others. i've been through seven different administrations over the years, and at the beginning of each one, the focus is on asia, europe, russia, iran. africa kind of gets sidestepped. you could say... yeah. but look at president bush. he now becomes the leadership model on africa. 0bama was the banking crisis towards the end.

interesting. i did some background reading. george bush met with 25 african heads of state in his first two years. well, donald trump is well into his second year. what's the number for donald trump so far? yes, we're looking. he met with the african union president, out of rwanda, in geneva. well, he is not even technically a head of state. how many heads of state from africa has he actually met? and that's the issue. have you got a numberfor me? no, i don't. 0n regional levels and subregional levels, we are meeting on a regular basis. i meet with all the leadership in africa. very regularly. well, you do but you are an interim assistant secretary of state and i don't mean to be disrespectful, but is it not time for you to admit that donald trump is a problem for you guys in diplomacy, not least because of the language he uses? you remember when he, in that meeting with congressional

figures in the white house, is alleged by many of them, more than one source, to have used an extraordinarily derogatory word beginning with ‘sh', and i'm not going to repeat it, to describe people from countries from which he felt too many immigrants were coming, and he mentioned african nations, countries where people don't have white skin. african leaders responded very badly to that and that is a problem for you. isn't it? that's a very good point. it was based on the press reports coming to africa. the african leaders look at any comments from the united states on a high level and they see hurtful statements, but the bottom line for the african leaders, and many of them called me and talked about it, they said, we, the africans, are committed to the united states. is the united states as committed to us as we are to you? in that context, we are.

and through the visits from the cabinets and sub cabinets and the way we were looking at it, based on secretary rex tillerson‘s visit in november, really underscores that we were shaping a new approach to africa. that was during the african union summit, when these words were alleged to have been made, it angered them but then they stepped back and said, the united states is our top relationship and that is the most important thing and we have to value it, we have to support it, and that is what we are doing now. as you say the, african union was infuriated by those comments and in the wake of them, i'm looking at the comments of one influential kenyan commentator, nanjala nyabola, who said, "this trump administration is floundering, it doesn't have a coherent response to any of the major challenges on our continent. frankly, it would be better for africa if the trump administration just ignored us because of the chaos and dysfunction we see in washington." that seems to be reflective of a lot of feeling in africa today. africa faces a lot of challenges as well but the benefits that have come from fellowship with the us

but also the uk and france and other countries. has been monumental. this is what the african leaders have told us, that they need to continue these efforts. how about security? we discussed already whether donald trump views africa as mostly a security problem which he needs to have some sort of military solutions to. there are real issues that i am sure cross your desk. the fallout, for example, from the incident last august in somalia where very compelling evidence, not least evidence unearthed by reporters working for the daily beast organisation on the ground in somalia, they discovered evidence of us special forces opening fire on unarmed somalis citizens, leading to the death of ten including at least one child. the us military authorities did order a fresh probe, i believe, in november last year.

i have no idea what happened to that investigation. can you enlighten me? the investigation still continues. we are in regular contact with general waldhauser, the commander of africa command and a footnote, he and i were classmates at the war college. that personal relationship, we are looking at any problems that result notjust from us troops etc and allied troops and, remember, we have trained about 300,000 african troops for peacekeeping operations, and doing a marvellousjob, but we are also looking at the totality of challenges that we face. not only the rise of isis in west africa but also the challenges in somalia, resulting in sha baab and the isis factors. we are trying to calm and bring stability and restore order and, more importantly, to give...

give the somali people an opportunity... somalians want accountability. as i see it, there has been no accountability for this terrible incident that left ten unarmed civilians dead. and we have gone to the villages, we have spoken to the leadership. i have spoken to the leadership. we had...pompeo was in mogadishu as well. we all talked and looked at... this becomes a high priority for us, that we do not want civilian casualties or other problems. it does seem without a doubt there were civilian casualties. the problem is it has a knock—on effect. we have seen huge protests in ghana because the government there signed a controversial military co—operation agreement with the us government that brings us forces into ghana on the basis that they and their contractors and other related service personnel will not be party or subject to ghanaian law. that does not go down well. the issue there, that is still in discussion and negotiation, nothing has been signed

but it is a standard memorandum of understanding that we have with countries around the world, particularly with strong partners like ghana and other countries, to give, really, legal protection for military troops and, more importantly, to help advance our ability to provide the training that the countries have asked for. ghana is one of our top troop—contributing countries in peacekeeping operations and we want to continue that relationship. let's be honest. what underpins a lot of the debate we are having is the us is losing out in terms of power, influence and leverage to china in africa. maybe one symbol of that is what is happening in djibouti where the us has long had a long successful military presence. and now the djibouti authorities have allowed the chinese to establish their first military base in djibouti and i believe it is pretty much next door to the american base. your senior command seems to be quite worried that china is moving in in so many different ways in a significant way across africa. that is correct.

we need to look at all the countries. russia, iran, north korea, china, even other established states. we are seeking discussions and speaking with the chinese as we are with all states. the issue comes in as on the one hand, yes, we welcome investment and support in the development of africa because it really helps the people of africa. that is on one side. the other side is we want a very strong and productive relationship so we do not have predatory loan practices, we also want support for development of resources, not the extraction of resources that does not benefit the people. those are the issues we are discussing with all these countries. you say you want a positive relationship with china when it comes to africa. frankly, that does not ring true when rex tillerson, of course, no longer secretary of state, on his way to africa made a point of making a speech and warning africans not to get too

close to china because they risk grave indebtedness and that would undermine african democracy. it seems you are trying to poison relations between china and african states. we worked long and hard with the united kingdom and other countries to get countries on debt relief and others off debt to give them an opportunity. we do not want to see them return to being in debt, based on predatory loan practices. notjust by china but russia, iran, other countries as well. but for the africans themselves, they asked us to look at these issues so they do not get into debt. that is the concern we are addressing in response to what happened with our african partners. it is interesting you put it as a selfless american asset to help african nations. looking at the facts, the chinese investment commitment to africa now far outweighs the american, and china delivers jobs. look at the ernst and young report.

american foreign direct investment in africa fell 5.2% in 2016. chinese—backed projects increased by over 100%. in 2016, jobs created by china reached an all—time high, over three times the number ofjobs coming from chinese investment compared with us. finally on this point, you speak about african leaders. i will quote you president museveni, the long—serving president of uganda who said that western ruling groups are conceited, ignorant of our conditions while the chinese, well, theyjust deal with us as the one who represents your country. he likes to deal with them much more than the us. i have known president museveni for quite sometime and we have challenges and issues and, of course, the establishment of strong institutions. not strong leaders. i defer to the new leadership that is rising out in senegal and other places such as angola and cote d'ivoire. these leaders are based on the youth playing a significant role and the fundamental changing and reshaping of africa. what they are looking

at is they want new ideas, new solutions and new projects. that goes back to the china issue, we are looking and talking with the chinese on a wide range of issues. yes, they are creating jobs but are they sustainable jobs? the us wants to create 300 millionjobs, sustainable, long—term working. if you look at many of the jobs that are created around chinese issues, it is based on chinese banks and chinese companies giving chinese labourers working in africa. we are speaking to the chinese and saying that we should work together to make it a better opportunity for africa but also foryou, in china, because you are dependent on a lot of resources in africa. it seems to me that america may be making a fundamental strategic mistake when it appears to be neglecting africa. at a time when notjust

china and russia, turkey, you mentioned iran, the gulf states are all investing much more at a time when the trump administration seems disinterested. the issue is that many things... in the us, we do not build things. we do sustainable growth and programmes that you may not see but you will feel the effects. for example, girls education. we have now 66% of girls now in africa go through primary school education. we are up to 34% at the secondary level. that translates in fewer girls marrying below the age of 18, which is a problem in creating insecurity and lack of economic growth. we are now giving opportunities and hope for the people of africa. this is something that they asked for. 8% of our assistance goes to healthcare. we have 12 countries now that will epidemic controlled in hiv/aids. so now we see growth and support in addressing the demographic problems.

but to return to one point, looking at the next 30 years. forget about 2100. right now in africa, 1 billion africans, they are part of the population. they are going to 2.2 billion. that means over 50% of the population growth will be in africa. as will the labour force. it is a dynamic and growing continent. as the others age more. africa will play a significant role. more importantly, researchers. look at where china is investing. they are investing only in the countries that have high rates of cobalt. titanium, tungsten used for military weapons... we can go on. unfortunately we cannot go on because we are almost out of time. we do get the message.

donald yamamoto, thank you for being on hardtalk. thank you very much, sir. hello. make no mistake, there is a lot of weather of varying types to come this easter weekend. some of it could cause some problems, too. there'll be some rain around at times. notjust that — some snow. easter monday looks a troublemaker, we'll see that at a moment. temperatures on the cool to cold side of average, but there will be some drier, sunny moments too. we'll detail all of that as we look throughout the entire easter weekend, starting with good friday.

there will be some snow showers affecting parts of northern scotland from the word go, recovering to some of the higher routes, an area of hill snow moving from north—east england across other parts of eastern scotland. heavy showers developing in southern england, reaching into parts of wales, the midlands, east anglia later in the day, maybe with a rumble of thunder. single—figure temperatures, colder still in easterly winds across the northern half of the uk. just one or two showers, but sunny spells into northern ireland. the moisture with these showers starts to feed up the bit further north into saturday morning. an increasing chance of seeing a bit of snow into the tops of the welsh hills, maybe into the pennines going into saturday morning. these are your overnight temperatures. still some of the snow showers in the hills in north—east scotland, as well. now, for saturday, the reason we are seeing some rain and hill snow is this area of low pressure. but tonight it's going to edge its way eastwards. but it's still going to get into parts of england and wales.

some outbreaks of rain and some hill snow into the pennines. so all of this has to slide away eastwards during the day. some western parts may start to brighten up. still, as wintry showers move north, north—east scotland, south—east scotland getting along quite well, although still be rather cloudy. still a chilly breeze across the coast towards the north—east. the single—figure temperatures once again. but look at this — easter day, sunday. well, the winds are lighter, for a start. you may catch the odd shower, a frost to begin with, a few fog patches clearing. a few sunny spells around — most places are actually dry. the rain and the strengthening wind coming across south—east england later in the day, that is a sign of things to come for easter monday. here comes another area of low pressure. certainly got some moisture associated with it, it's feeding northwards. quite chilly air on easter monday. and that means rain, yes, but feeding into the colder air, the chance for some snow as it spreads further north, as well, maybe notjust on hills. some of that could be disruptive, as well, but there's still a lot to play for. of course, easter monday is several days away. butjust an early heads up that if you are travelling

on easter monday, you do need to keep across that forecast, because of that risk of snow that could cause some disruption. and we will, of course, keep you updated over the next few days. that's your latest forecast. hello. this is the briefing. i'm david eades. our top story: the us could hit russia with further sanctions, after the expulsion of 60 of its diplomats over the spy poisoning scandal. crying following the ball tampering row that brought australian cricket to its knees, the team returns to the field for the fourth and final test against south africa. chances are this will burn up in the atmosphere, or crash into the ocean. but as china's abandoned space station plummets to earth, no—one seems to know for sure. coming up in the business briefing: the world's most powerful man

versus the world's richest. president trump steps up his attacks on amazon and its $100 billion boss, jeff bezos.