with the north korean leader kim jong un will still go ahead, but he's still hopeful. pyongyang has threatened to cancel the talks if washington continues to press for its unilateral nuclear disarmament. police in malaysia have searched the home of the former malaysian prime minister, najib razak, as part of a money laundering investigation. meanwhile the opposition politician, anwar ibrahim, celebrated a "new dawn" for his country on his release from prison michigan state university has agreed to pay $500 million in compensation to female gymnasts sexually abused by the american sports doctor, larry nassar, who worked there. in january, nassar was jailed for up to 300 years on hundreds of counts of abuse. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi.

i'm outside the headquarters of turkey's ruling ak parti, in the capital, ankara. my guest is president recep tayyip erdogan. he's busy preparing for elections which he's called a year and a half early. is he trying to pre—empt a possible slide in his popularity, or simply trying to tighten his grip on power? and how worried is he about military escalation in the middle east, following that decision by donald trump to pull out of the iran nuclear deal? president recep tayyip erdogan, welcome to hardtalk. barack 0bama says donald trump's decision to pull out of the nuclear dealwas, iquote, "misguided and could trigger an arms race

in the region." do you share that specific concern that we could see other countries in the region developing their own nuclear weapons programmes? it has to be preserved but i mustjust ask you, specifically, do you share barack 0bama's concern that this could trigger an arms race in the middle east, countries perhaps like saudi arabia seeking their own nuclear weapons programme if iran begins to enrich uranium again? so you're disappointed. are you disappointed personally with donald trump? because this very much has his own personal stamp on it, this policy. possible escalation between israel and iran, we have seen

them exchanging fire. israel hit iranian revolutionary guard positions inside syria, it said in retaliation for iran's rocket attacks on the occupied golan heights, on an israeli post there. are you worried that this could get out of hand? well, israel said it was in retaliation... that israel launched the attack on the iranian revolutionary guards after they carried out their action on the israeli posts in the occupied golan heights. the president of iran. i'll ask you about syria, but i just want to ask you this on the iranian nuclear deal. the french foreign minister, jean—yves le drian, says the deal is not dead, there is an american withdrawal from the deal but it is still there.

can the deal be salvaged without the united states in your opinion? well, talking of iran and its role in the region, which you've just touched on, it has consistently been a very firm backer of bashar al—assad in syria, and you told me on hardtalk last year that bashar al—assad has killed many of his own people and i do not find it politically right to defend his remaining as president. if that is your position, why are you now working with iran and russia? you had a meeting with president putin and president rouhani in april, in ankara, why are you working with them now in syria ? you are opposed to bashar al—assad, they support him. so your major objective... so to clarify, mr president, your major objective now in syria is to tackle what you describe as the "terrorist elements" there and to keep bashar al—assad in place?

they're syrian kurdish parties. but there is a very clear shift. let me give you an example. when we saw the chemical attack in douma in syria, your spokesman said the syrian regime will have to pay the price for what happened. after a phone call from president vladimir putin, your government then said we call for careful investigation into the chemical attack in douma. that's exactly what the russian position was, so it really does seem that, mr president, that turkey has modified its position on bashar al—assad, that you're saying he stays in place because our main objective is to tackle these terror elements.

please clarify that for us. so why are you not calling for him to go? so, can you just say very clearly now that you want bashar al—assad to not remain in position as leader of syria? do you want regime change in syria? it is interesting you say that, because it is hard for people to reconcile these comments of yours with the fact that you, as you said, met president rouhani and vladimir putin in sochi last november, and again in april.

and we're also looking the situation where turkey has bought $2 billion worth of missiles from russia and the new us secretary of state, mike pompeo, has said that this is not compatible with nato systems. you are a key member of nato and here you are buying these missiles from the russians. it doesn't make sense. i must ask you about domestic matters, and of course, you have called elections early, forjune 2a, 17 months ahead of schedule. and there are critics here in turkey who say that the reason you are doing that is because you want to concentrate power in the office of the presidency, because, of course, following last years‘s referendum, you abolished the parliamentary system and you become head of government. so people like abdullatif sener, who was alongside you as —

in the akp party — is quoted in the turkish papers saying you are setting turkey towards a path of authoritarianism, and it is no longer a democratic regime. there are people who echo those sentiments. do they have a point? you are shooting the messenger. you are shooting the messenger, mr president. well i put to you... all right, but there is that point about the authoritarianism. you are shooting the messenger. you are shooting the messenger, mr president. all right, but there is that point

about the authoritarianism. you shot down the messenger there. but what about zeid ra'ad al—hussein, the united nations high commissioner for human rights, who has been critical and has said that three past two years, through successive states of emergency, the space for dissent in turkey has shrunk considerably. he said it is difficult to imagine how credible elections can be held in an environment where dissenting views and challenges to the ruling party are dealt with and penalised so severely. what do you say to these critics inside the country, outside turkey? you have to take that sort of comment seriously. you might not win, possibly — the polls for your akp are showing percentages in the 40s of support. well, you know, 30—a0% of akp party voters are dissatisfied with your government, principally because of the economy.

you know, the economy is not doing so well, and that is one of the reasons people are saying that you have called the elections early, because things could get worse, and you want to call the elections before that happens. you are trying to — you are trying to... more than 12 million people in turkey are retirees. your party, your government, is going to give them $2“; twice, amounting to about $6 billion, and that could be seen as a sort of sweetener to try and buy off some of this dissatisfaction. are you trying to buy support ahead of the elections? are you — are you worried...

well, i was saying it could be seen as trying to buy support. finally, you are visiting london on an official visit. what are your main objectives? what are you talking to theresa may, the prime minister, borisjohnson, the secretary, and all the other ministers you are meeting? is britain a more worthwhile partner for turkey after brexit? president recep tayyip erdogan, thank you very much for coming on hardtalk.

the weather for the rest of the week and the weekend really is looking very promising. as far as the short term is concerned, really chilly this morning. we've had clear skies, so the temperatures have dipped away and in fact in some areas to barely above freezing. there's been quite a big gap in the cloud across the uk. you can see scotland, northern ireland and northern england so here, the lowest temperatures. you can see those cool colours here from scotland through the lake districtjust about into wales and northern ireland. in the south, slightly less cold. around 8—10 degrees. newcastle, first thing in the morning, possibly around two degrees above freezing but lots of sunshine on offer and it will not change through the morning of the afternoon apart from a bit of fair weather cloud building up. that's pretty much it. the temperatures not spectacularly high because it would have been at chilly morning. around 18 in london, 13 in newcastle, maybe 15 degrees in belfast and thursday evening is looking absolutely fine across the uk. a beautiful end to the day is forecast. let's look at friday's weather forecast. lots of fine weather around

but the weather will go downhill a little bit, at least for a time across western scotland, possibly some spots of rain as well but for the bulk of the country on friday, it's looking fine. maybe 19 in london, 16 in newcastle. then the important weather forecast for the weekend, high pressure anchors itself across the uk. the weather fronts are not too far away, just to the west of our neighbourhood but they will stay, can't move in any closer, because of that area of high pressure keeping the fronts at bay, the winds will be coming in from the south, dragging in warmerair, and the weather looks absolutely perfect in windsor on saturday, starting at a fresh 9 or 10 degrees and warming up to the low 20s by the time we get to the afternoon. and it promises to be a fine day across the whole of the country on saturday, light winds as well, lots of sunshine around, maybe just a bit of fair weather cloud again, and 20 degrees in cardiff, 20 there in liverpool. eastern scotland also getting temperatures in the high

teens as well. now, the weather does change a little bit in the north—west on sunday. a weather front moves in so there is some rain in the forecast for belfast, for glasgow, maybe getting into edinburgh as well. but for england and wales, the weather should hold and, again, another fine day on the way on sunday. so many parts of england and wales having a dry weekend all the way through. how about early next week? the warm weather is going to win. we'll draw in warmth again from europe and the temperatures will keep on climbing. this is the briefing. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top story: the ebola outbreak in the democratic republic of congo spreads to a large city. authorities fear it will become difficult to contain. president trump admits he has reimbursed his personal lawyer more than $100,000, money that is understood to have been used to buy the silence of the porn star stormy daniels. media from around the globe transform the tranquil town of windsor ahead of saturday's royal wedding.

in business: hands off the wheel. europe steers towards a driverless future, but will the public get on board? also coming up in the business briefing: braced for a us—china trade war. we report from dongguan, once called the ‘workshop of the world'.