and it has women when i started, and it has been very much being at work in a man's world. but things have got so much better, and these days, well, you can see for yourself, literally onscreen inherent radio, women's voices very much equally in the media business. kate, we are thrilled for you, thank you very much and congratulations. now it's time for newsnight with kirsty wark. russia should be in this meeting. why are we having a meeting about russia being in the meeting. whether you like it or not and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run. president trump splits the g7, declaring he wants russia back in the fold. president trump has put a hand grenade in the middle of the g7 and in the middle of the western consensus of how you run global, economic affairs. but the rest of the world seems in no mood to humour him.

we'll ask what's his game plan — if he even has one? also tonight, sir eltonjohn and hiv and the indifference of some gay men to what his generation went through. well, that's disrespectful to the people that died. we are doing great things because of the people that died in the first place who had no access to medicine, who didn't have the luxury of having a life in front of them. who died in great pain and in shame and who were shunned. its critics call it notwork fail. why is the head of network rail getting a cbe? good evening. fresh from being love bombed by boris johnson in his "leaked" speech last night, president trump today threatened the unity of the g7 group of nations today, even before he took off from washington for the summit in canada. mr trump called on russia to be

re—admitted to the grouping — a suggestion he was later backed on by the new italian prime minister guiseppe conte. theresa may immediately rejected the idea saying we should remind ourselves why the gs became the g7, after russia illegally annexed crimea. earlier she had said, with reference to the trade row, that the us remain good friends who can talk frankly with each other when they disagree. but the prime minister will not be able to take trump to task over russia because he is the only leader with whom she is not having individual talks. as this most unusual of summits continues, president trump has managed to split the west — and undermine the work theresa may did in uniting the g7 in condemnation of russia over the skripal‘s poisoning. so what's trump's game? and what now for global diplomacy? here's mark urban. these summits are always the focus for protest and caricature. and in these times of megaphone diplomacy and rising protectionism, we are becoming used to questioning

what these meetings can actually achieve. but we seem to be in a new phase now, with a president who so often exceeds the cartoon version of himself. i think president trump has put a hand grenade in the middle of the g7 and in the middle of the western consensus of how you run global economic affairs. we've relied in the west on america being, 0k with some exceptions, like everyone, but the ultimate upholder of a win—win, absolute gains global trading system. donald trump is 180 degrees the opposite. he is someone who sees everything as a win—lose setup. following america's imposition of steel and aluminium tariffs and the eu's promise of retaliation, the mood music was bad enough. president macron has been talking about the 66 plus one if necessary and the canadian prime minister had this to say about trump's arguments for tariffs. translation: perhaps he will revise

or review his statements. france and nato, this is ridiculous to think they could be a threat to the united states' security. in reality, france is the closest ally the united states has had for quite some time. and as if to escalate, president trump, on his way north today, also toyed with the idea of changing the membership, throwing out the idea of making the g7 back into the gs. i would recommend and it's up to them, but russia should be in the meeting, it should be a part of it. you know, whether you like it or not and it might not be politically correct, but we have a world to run and in the g7, which used to be the gs, they threw russia are out, they should let russia come back in because we should have russia at the negotiating table. the conventional wisdom

is that the g7 summit is a useful diary date, a chance for western leaders plus japan, to get together and iron out their differences. but under president trump, many now question whether conventional wisdom can still be applied to diplomacy at all. i do think donald trump's national outlook is america first approach, makes the g7 not a diary opportunity, but a diary risk. because the g7 is not like the 620. the g7 is just economics, its security, climate, economic challenges all rolled into one. at the moment, the rest of america's allies and america, disagree on just about every point. it was time for an uneasyjostle. the so—called family photo beloved by summit organisers. presidents trump and macron managed the briefest of bilaterals, but the open question

is whether the seven will be able to agree enough for any kind of communique. president trump, meanwhile, looks forward to his date with kim jong—un. mark urban. so what prospect of the g7 actually agreeing anything this weekend? and if they don't — does it matter? jonathan powell is with me, he went to his fair share of summits during a decade as tony blair's chief of staff. marc lotter was a special assistant to president trump in the white house and joins us from washington. is this all about donald trump trying to destabilise what he might see as the cosy setup of the g—7? i think what you see is the president taking his message to his fellow world leaders talking about the need to equal the playing field, as it relates to international trade. we have been on the losing side of many of these trade agreements for a very long time. the president was clear when he ran for office he was going to back the needs of

american workers first. so in many cases we face unfair tariffs and monetary regulations that limit our abilities. let's come on to trade in a moment, but what about insisting russia comes back again, appeals to his base in america. where is the locust for that? what you are seeing is recognising we need to be able to have a discussion with all of the world leaders, so we can address the challenges we face together. let me go through a few things. no paris climb agreement, no iran deal. moving the embassy to jerusalem, tariffs on steel and aluminium, wanting president putin back in. the russia thing is a way of distracting

the fact the rest of the world was against him with trade. irememberthe summit when yeltsin was in charge and they were thrown out for invading crimea. it would be a strange message to send, now they have poisoned the skripals. it is not a serious suggestion? it is throwing out a carrot because we need to offer something to vladimir putin to encourage him to stop the destabilising activities and stop doing many of the things we have seen and why it became the 6—7 in the first place. if there is a carrot for him to come back and rejoined the world community. does it not really matter to donald trump

about the skripals, senna matter what russia does, it can come back in? it is not acknowledging or condoning any of those activities, it is saying we need to see positive movement from russia in the future going forward. if this is a carrot that they would welcome and it would help to de—escalate the growing tension and it is something the president would consider. the idea that italy is falling in behind trump. you have got economic nationalism and populism. these forces back clearly have some purchase within his own constituency? i would put trump and the new italian government in different baskets. trump is a disrupter and being a disruptor can sometimes be useful, as in north korea. but in a lot of places, if you break down the iran agreement and you don't have a plan b and all the european diplomats come to washington and say, what now?

and you say, i don't know. it is a problem. that backing could be filled by others like xi in china. benjamin netanyahu said the iran deal is dead, so they were disgusted. the europeans are used to washington coming up with ideas and having a plan. if you do something one day and don't have a thought about the next day and what the plan is, you have a problem. trudeau in canada said you have steel and aluminium tariffs because of national—security, but he will not see national security for pharmaceuticals, so where is the next step? what the president is saying is we need to have fair and reciprocal trade. that is the next step, we need our allies and our friends.

this has nothing to do with our long—standing commitment to our allies of friends, as it relates to many other issues. but when it comes to disagreement among friends, on the economy, many presidents have talked about this before, but very few have had the leadership to take action on it. this is a president who believes in backing up what he promised to do and he wants to make this a reciprocal, fair trade agreement between us and our allies and friends. people look at the g—7 and think it is a cosy club, but it is not, i, south american countries and so forth. if it doesn't end with a joint statement, which has never happened before, would it suggest now it is an empty vessel? no, they spend a lot of time negotiating that statement. they will have been negotiated for months leading up to this.

the statement doesn't matter, what matters is what happens at the summit. usually some other event takes over. this will be the trade issue, iran and north korea. the problem surely is with donald trump heading to singapore to prepare for kim jong—un, they can talk to each other or they want, but without an american negotiation there, it is meaningless? a disrupter in the right place can make a distance. there is no way president obama would be sitting down with kim jong—un with no plan. where it doesn't work, we are plunged into disarray. donald trump has approval ratings of 87% among republicans. he is keeping his campaign promises. is it looking towards the midterms, what is the long—term plan? the long—term plan is to get america's

economy growing again, which we have already seen tremendous growth the economy. making the world a safer place by dealing with north korea and the president's concerns about the failed iran deal, he is willing to work and we have encouraged our partners in the united kingdom, france, germany and others tojoin isn't levelling additional sanctions on other things that were never covered in the deal, like ballistic technology, funding and exporting terrorism and so many other things destabilising the middle east. the president is willing to work with our allies in strengthening that deal to make sure iran never has a nuclear weapons. thank you both, very much indeed. sir eltonjohn today challenged the tech giants such as facebookm twitter and instagram to play their part in combating homophobia and hiv, saying they have a public responsibility and a global reach. sir elton, whose aids

foundation is 30 years old, was delivering the diana, princess of wales memorial lecture on hiv. aids is still the second biggest killer of ii to 19—year—olds on the planet, with a projected increase in africa over the next 15 years. in an exclusive interview for newsnight we talked about the 38 commonwealth countries homosexuality is still illegal, and his hope for the future. he is one of the all—time musical greats with a career spanning 50 yea rs. greats with a career spanning 50 years. his formidable talent paired with a distinctive flamboyant style led to more than 50 top a0 hits and more than 300 million records sold. his career has spanned a significant period of social change in britain and the world. at the same time he went on a personaljourney,

declaring himself bisexual in 1976, and gay 12 years later. he became a confident advocate for gay rights and for the end of the stigma attached hiv. he also became the husband of david furnish, and the father two boys. his activism passion for change really drives him, his work with the eltonjohn aids foundation has raised more than £200 million and he began that endeavour with concert with his close friend diana, princess of wales, who when she shook the hand ofan aids wales, who when she shook the hand of an aids patient change the perception of aids were many people. at herfuneral perception of aids were many people. at her funeral he performed a special version of one of his most iconic songs. # you lived your life like a candle in the wind... today he commemorated his friendship and his respect for diana with the princess of wales memorial lecture on hiv. i sat down with him after the lecture and asked

how far the landscape has changed and what more needs to be done. we have made huge advances with madsen of course, and with the advanced —— medicine and with antiretroviral drugs it is not a death sentence any more, and with prep it is not a death sentence any more. when i was young i thought i was invincible, but you can think you are invincible and it doesn't matter, but it does matter. and it is crucial that people grow up, treat this disease with the respect it should be treated with, because otherwise we are never going to beat this. we are winning the battle, we are winning the battle and we have made great advancesin the battle and we have made great advances in london and the rates have gone down quite alarmingly, because people are getting tested and people are now on prep, but it is, the stigma is more important

than anything. as a city my speech, the stigma contributes to so much that we are battling against, people who are afraid to get tested, people who are afraid to get tested, people who are afraid because they are gay, thatis who are afraid because they are gay, that is still" the gay disease", and we find out a lot in sub—saharan africa and in eastern europe. we find out a lot in sub—saharan africa and in eastern europelj won't —— want to ask users are clear that those two areas, but first there is a complacency in the young 93v there is a complacency in the young gay committee who are having unprotected sex who are knowing that it is not a killer any more and they are saying things like" old queens talking about lost boyfriends", that is gone. that is this respectful for people who have died. we are doing great things because of the people who died in the first place, who had no a ccess who died in the first place, who had no access to medicine, who did not have the luxury of having a life in front of them, who died in great pain and in great shame and who were shunned, and to say that about people like that, it is a bit like

the war and the cenotaph and rembrandt stay. there are a lot of people have given their lives to people have given their lives to people now to have medicines available —— remembrance day. you should be thankful, you should be grateful and you should not in any way demean those people who never had the access to that sort of stuff. you talk about the countries where homosexuality is still illegal, 32 of countries and territories. who is going to do something about that. —— 30 commonwealth countries. something about that. —— 30 commonwealth countrieslj something about that. —— 30 commonwealth countries. i don't know, one thing i want to do when i come off the road after my two is to help in some way and go and visit these countries. i think prince charged when he —— prince charles, as head of the commonwealth, he is a good man with great morals. prince harry has good morals and wants to change the landscape. those people have greater cloud than i do and i think they have it in their hearts that they want to make this kind of changes. things don't happen overnight, you can't change a culture and people bought that way

of thinking overnight but you can certainly have a go. if you don't step in the water and have ago nothing will get done. and i think prince charles, when he is made head of the commonwealth, will do this kind of things. you talk about princess diana, saying itjust takes one inspirational person, is this a legacy for charles and for harry? harry has inherited his mother's ability to walk into a room and make people of any car store any status in life —— cast, make everyone feel equal. i have been around for 71 yea rs, equal. i have been around for 71 years, diana was probably one of the few people in my life to be able to do that. it is a gift. harry has inherited that gift, he knows he has that gift and that is why he wants to do more with the aid committee and more with the commonwealth. you we re and more with the commonwealth. you were famously prank by someone pretending to be put in, but then he did speak to president putin, but of

course russia has anti—gay legislation, chechnya has pogroms against queer people, if you could speak to the putin, what would you say? they say, "we don't like dislike homosexuals, but they influence children..." i would just sit down and say, what are you afraid of? we are not interested in your children, homosexuals aren't paedophiles, there are less paedophiles, there are less paedophiles than straight people are. what are you afraid of? some of your greatest composers, dancers are homosexuals. and it is something that i am prepared to do, i would love to sit down and talk to him face—to—face, only with face—to—face with people do you get progress. you don't get it on the phone or e—mail, beautifully don't get it in a letter. i'm sure he would be

delighted to speak to you. i would love to speak to him. it that tech giants and their public responsibility, but you would know that there is horrific homophobia on social media. i don't know why they allow it. it is supposed to be free—speech, but the things that are on social media are so disgusting that there has to be action taken by the people who own these companies, that run these companies, to say enough is enough, we are spreading hate, we are spreading hate. and people say "what about my freedom of speech, sod your freedom people say "what about my freedom of speech, sod yourfreedom of people say "what about my freedom of speech, sod your freedom of speech. you have facebook and twitter... stop using them. boycott? a global boycott because of their homophobia? yeah, why not? when the money is not coming in they can set up. they can do so much good but they have to clea n do so much good but they have to clean house and become a much more

moral and christian thinking, in a way, or whatever, a moral thinking compass for whatever is going on in the world. at the moment they are not doing that, elections are being rigged, people are being bullied online, they are committing suicide, young people are committing suicide because of what is going on online. these people have a responsibility to step up and say we have to do something, they just to step up and say we have to do something, theyjust can't continue, they can't let it go on. and they have not made any action, they haven't done anything to try and stem the flow of hate on the internet. on that basis of name and shame, you are doing a farewell tour, you have 300 dates on five continents over two years, you talk about seeing people face—to—face, will you be campaigning? everywhere igo will you be campaigning? everywhere i go hopefully. everywhere we go we try and meet the lgbtq community, which i meet the hiv and aids community, were —— whether we are in australia or south africa or europe,

andi australia or south africa or europe, and i think on this tour it is very important that we do carry out, and we are staying in europe for two months, we are staying in australia for two months, we will be in south africa for ten days, we can do that, iam not africa for ten days, we can do that, i am not flying backwards and forwards, i will be there. you embody the kind ofjourney of the last 30 years to be the person that you are. you overcame prejudice and everything else, i wonder what you think of the next 30 years, will be next journey be think of the next 30 years, will be nextjourney be the acceptance of trans people do you think? is happening now, it is happening at an astonishing rate. five years ago you would not be asking me this question. and it is happening at an incredible rate, notjust amongst the young but amongst the middle—aged and everything. i know someone who used to be a singer with me, she transitioned at 65 to become a man, it is the first time she had testosterone in her body, it is the

first time she said she ever felt normal. it has become a really hot topic, and we have to be, as in any form of humanity, we have to be tolera nt form of humanity, we have to be tolerant and except dense of these people —— accepting of these people and their feelings. one final question, you have your two albums, but then you have president trump appropriating rocket man to poke fun at kimjong—un, appropriating rocket man to poke fun at kim jong—un, what are you make appropriating rocket man to poke fun at kimjong—un, what are you make of that? i don't care. itry at kimjong—un, what are you make of that? i don't care. i try and stay out of that. rocket man, who cares. i don't care! (laughs). eltonjohn. within the last half an hour it has been announced that the boss of network rail, mark carne, has been honoured in the queen's birthday honours with a cbe — that's an honour second only to a knighthood. the timing, like that of a lot of trains right now, is unfortunate. that was the word used by the department for transport who also said that recent timetabling issues should not detract from mr carne's overall service. but there has been no getting around the scale of the public anger since a shake—up of the timetables last month caused chaos

for commuters and forced the cancellation of thousands of trains. the story is in the headlines tomorrow. here's the daily mail, their headline — off the rails. well, one man who has been blowing the whistle on the train disruption is the former liberal democrat leader tim farron, whojoins us from his constituency in cumbria. good evening, tim farron. would you have liked the cabinet office to have derailed mark carne's cbe? yes, i have nothing against him. i spoke to him yesterday about an adjudication. ——electrification. i have no reason to believe he is nothing but a competent and decent human being. he mustn't take this personally. however, we have the most dysfunctional railway system in the western world, i would argue, certainly when it comes to local and commuter trains. so anybody amongst the rail industry's leadership, whether it is network rail, the department for transport

or any of the operators, to be given an honour of this kind, brings the honours system into disrepute and is an insult to the millions of travellers up and down the country who are suffering because of the failure of that leadership. interestingly, mark carne only came into the rail industry a.5 years ago. this is the culmination of a five—year programme. he has overseen this programme and he is getting his cbe for services to rail industries. i don't want to single him out. he is the head honcho, he is the driver. indeed. they haven't got enough drivers, that is the problem! i think the situation is, i'm trying to be not unkind to him but it so happens his name has come out of the hat. people have lobbied for him which also makes you question the wisdom of the people who put in the application for him to get this gong. the point is, you have leadership right across the rail industry. the operators, network rail especially at the department for transport, who are sitting astride the most dysfunctional rail

network i would say in the western world at the moment, and it is an insult to the millions of people who rely on rail services. some of the decisions which have made the rail system the chaos it is now... could you do a betterjob? could i? i am not bidding for thejob. i could probably do a better job at being secretary of state for transport. the first that i would have done is not cancelled the electrification. three quarters of the problem we are looking up at the moment is because the department for transport shelved or cancelled electrification, therefore setting back the industry the best part of the decade which means we are operating with 30 or a0—year—old stock and drivers are not trained to drive them. we came across an interview in construction news with mark carne in 201a saying he was "lucky to arrive at a time of national crisis." he will be leaving at a time of national crisis so he has a good bookend to that.

what do think people will think? do you think people will be as magnanimous as you are being or will they say he is a highly paid guy, he is getting second to a knighthood for services to rail and we have had thousands of train cancellations. when all is said and done, the buck stops with politicians. the person who takes most responsibility is chris grayling. part of me thinks the conservative government might be slightly relieved that we are focusing on a civil servant rather than the politicians who make the decisions. it was chris grayling's decision to scrap an education or delay it on certain lines around the country. ——electrification. he should be carrying the can. yes or no, do you think he should be handing back that cbe? if i was him, i would hand it back. if i was him, i would feel personally embarrassed about it. iam not i am not saying he hasn't got personal qualities that deserve an

honour. for the sake of the rail industry, and for himself, i'm sure he has not asked for it himself, yes, he should decline this honour because frankly, the rail industry as a whole does not deserve to be awarded honours at the moment. it needs a kick up the backside. thank you. we should say that we did of course invite network rail and the honours committee at the cabinet office to join us tonight but nobody was available. for their part, network rail told us the timing of mr carne's cbe was "difficult" but said he had overseen a significant modernisation programme and created a 21st century railway. a quick look at tomorrow morning's papers. the telegraph has a story about meat being founded vegan ready meals. the times has a story about trump turns up the heat as g7 split over russia. posh and becks in the sun. and the mirror is looking atsir kenny dalglish. and that's it for this week. emily is here on monday. next week, of course, could potentially be one of the biggest news events of the year, or any for that matter,

with that planned meeting between the us president and kim jong—un in singapore. as we heard earlier, sir elton was pretty blase about donald trump pinching the title of one his tunes to dub the north korean leader the rocket man. but we think it might be the song we're all humming next week. hopefully this will get you in the mood. goodnight. # it's going to be a long, long time... # till touchdown brings the round again to find. i'm not the man they think i am at home, i'm a rocket man. # rocket man. ..# # it's going to be a long, long time...