president trump has urged nato member states to commit a% of their annual gdp output to military spending — double the current target. he made the remarks during the western military alliance‘s summit in brussels. of nato's 29 members, just five met the current target this year. the first images have emerged from the hospital where 12 thai boys and their football coach are being treated after their remarkable rescue from a flooded cave. meanwhile — reports say the boys and the coach were sedated to stop them panicking as they made their escape. now on bbc news — hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk.

i'm stephen sackur. president donald trump seems to value his gut instinct more than expert advice and appears to respect raw power more than traditional alliances. this is not a president ready to make nice with europe simply because of shared values. amid the constant churn of administration staff his informal advisers seem to know him best — like my guest today — long—time trump ally and conservative media mogul christopher ruddy. how far will trump take his love of disruption? welcome to hardtalk. donald trump is

in europe, talking to nato and he will come and meet the uk prime minister, he is also then going to meet vladimir putin. why is it that donald trump finds it so much easier to be nice to the russian president vented his allies and partners in europe? —— then to. vented his allies and partners in europe? -- then to. it is a lot more complicated than people think. i think donald trump is vladimir putin's worst nightmare. don't look at what donald says or what the president of the united states says, look what he does. he has modernised the nuclear arsenal, rapidly improving our weapons and tactical warheads. russia cannot like that. dramatically increasing the us defence budget. asking nato

countries to double their military spending. sanctions are up. we found out this morning, i have known for some time, the president very strongly opposes the natural gas pipeline coming out of russia. this will be billions of dollars lost to the russians are. he is playing a really tough game with the russians. with respect, you call it a tough game, the tough game right now is being played with the germans. we can talk about other europeans too. we have just seen donald trump say, quite publicly, the germans are captive of russia because they get so captive of russia because they get so much of their energy from russia. now that is the sort of comment which indicates a crisis in relations between washington and berlin. i would call it tough love. i think on a personal level he and angela merkel have gotten along fairly well, despite some of the public rifles they might have had. i think president looks at germany as

one of the important economies in europe, they should be spending a lot more. ai spending i%, folks are spending 2% which is the nato target. estate up paying 4% and he says why are we paying their military deals? if it is a fair question. i don't think it is tough love when he says the german government ‘s is in crisis, crime rates are soaring because of her immigration policies are. one could say the same about the way he is treating theresa may, tweeting about turmoil in the british government, indicating that he would rather spend some time with borisjohnson, who has just put the cabinet, then with the prime minister herself. -- quit. this is a president who likes to speak his mind, sometimes he doesn't research of the fact. i was hoping with twitter he would have someone hoping with twitter he would have someone reviewing it. i am not the president's spokesman, i am afraid, iruna president's spokesman, i am afraid, i run a media organisation,

sometimes we are critical of the president. i want to defend everything he has done the. think they should be fact base if there is some inaccuracy. i believe you had dinner with him two or three nights ago, on the eve of his european tour. do you tell him that? because there are very few people closer than you in politicalfriendship turns, you are a confident, you tell him, mr president, the way you make these off—the—cuff comments on twitter are actually doing real damage. i saw him for lunch, we were not talking about twitter. i think he sees this as very important because in the uc it is a vacuum here, in america the media is almost entirely opposed to him and they only have a garaged of negative stories. he could walk on water and they would say he violated epa policies of. is constant criticism, this is a way for him to reach his 50 million followers around the country. no president has had that accessed. i think he likes it, even

if there are mistakes made. i would suggest that he keep doing twitter but he has a review process. he doesn't believe in that, he likes a speaking from his heart. it is very refreshing from a lot of people, we are used to everything being scripted in america. his approval numbers are very high for a man in this controversial, in 45% range. this is extremely high for a guide that has undergone the criticism that has undergone the criticism that he has undergone. will get to the internal dynamics of american domestic politics in a moment, let's stay international for a second because of course, it is very striking that he is coming to the uk ata striking that he is coming to the uk at a very difficult time for theresa may. on a whole raft of issues, including his advocacy of protectionism, his decision to walk away from the iran deal, walking away from the iran deal, walking away from the climate change treaty. represents something that no british government can possibly support.

there is, it seems, a crisis in relations between the us and the uk. we have had through the years whether you have had a labour government where there was a agreement. there was tension at the start of the obama years, even the reagan and thatcher years were not a lwa ys reagan and thatcher years were not always totally agreed on everything. this time around donald trump is going to come to london and is he is going to come to london and is he is going to come to london and is he is going to see that there are tens of thousands of protesters on the streets, he will also things —— see things like this huge, bizarre balloon buoyant of the angry baby donald trump wearing a diaper or a nappy flying high. first time i have heard it. i doubt he will see it. isn't he going to be on the periphery in blaydon and other places? that in itself is a significant. the british authorities appear to want to keep him away from the tens of thousands of people marching on the streets saying it is

not acceptable for this man, given his record on all sorts of things both diplomatic and personal, not a cce pta ble both diplomatic and personal, not acceptable to have this man in our country. look, i think acceptable to have this man in our country. look, ithink he acceptable to have this man in our country. look, i think he strongly supports britain's. he sees it as a very key, his mother was born here, and he is proud of the fact she was born in scotland. four years he has indicated a great interest in britain. he has businesses here. somehow the idea that he is an thai british or an thai women, he has tremendous amount of women in the administration, women in top positions, a woman was just considered for the supreme court. so if you look at his record, he is a bit old school and comes from that frank sinatra generation where they just spoke their mind, sometimes it will be considered chauvinistic today, not necessarily politically correct. do you care? as an american citizen and a man of influence, do you care of the way america is seen

overseas when john you care of the way america is seen overseas whenjohn burkert recently said "i wouldn't wish to issue an invitation for donald trump to speak in westminster because i feel our opposition to racism and sexism and support fork equality and a judiciary are hugely important for us judiciary are hugely important for us in the house of commons". the presidentjust nominated the young man for the supreme court, recommended by everyone, including me, andi recommended by everyone, including me, and i think you will be fantastic. you call him a brilliant jurist, many americans know him as a man who was involved in the special counsel investigation of bill clinton, seen as highly partisan. they also know that according to his own legal opinions, he is a staunch opponent of abortion rights. well i don't believe he will overturn it, there are a lot of people who don't

like abortion, so i did think you'll go as faras like abortion, so i did think you'll go as far as some of the other court justices. his record suggests that he is more of a moderate on that issue. i think if you look at his record, considered in the states owned, an establishment choice, and if you are going to many of the top selections of his administration, highly qualified people. even his ambassador to britain, woody johnson, a billionaire, owns the new yorkjets, this is like the top of us business going tojoin yorkjets, this is like the top of us business going to join the administration and represent the united states. we have a number of people, james mattis was the former nato commander, mike pompeo, john bolton, these are very seasoned vetera ns bolton, these are very seasoned veterans of the previous administration. let's stick with the notion that all of these, you would characterise them as reasonable people, work happily with him. we know that doesn't last very long, the churn of senior staff from the

cabinet in the white house is extraordinary and also, on one of these signature issues, protectionism and putting up tariffs and barriers to international trip free trade, he has lost the support of key members of the republican party, of key members of the leading business communities in the united states and even some of the most important donors to the republican party. these people, all of them, they say mr president, reductionism is the wrong way to go. they say mr president, reductionism is the wrong way to golj they say mr president, reductionism is the wrong way to go. i disagree with the general protective tariffs but i do believe where there is an inequity, we should argue against it, fight against it and maybe put on reciprocal tariffs, certainly if a country is putting tariffs on your country ‘s products and they want free trade when it comes to them importing into your country, you be open to some sort of balance. importing into your country, you be open to some sort of balancelj think the administration... so picking a fight with the eu, with canada, with mexico over the steel

and aluminium tariffs, you think thatis and aluminium tariffs, you think that is wise? i think we could be a lot less confrontational initially andi lot less confrontational initially and i think we should see into negotiations, given a year or so. the president but you are dead, he campaigned on this issue on the inequities of trade. the united states, remember, we were the big global power so when china are up all of these tariffs they were a small economy. 25 years ago they had the size of the economy of italy. and now they are the second—highest economy. they still have a lot of ta riffs economy. they still have a lot of tariffs as if they were a small country the president is saying just because things were always done this way, this was a point you made earlier today. just because other presidents let it go, i am not going to let it go. you mentioned earlier that he has vast staff turnover, this is the first president that is a nonpolitician. he is hardly in washington, so he came in and pick

people that did not work out. the clinton administration in their first term, you remember those days, 50% of his staff overturned in the first two years. you can have very big turnover rates, it is not unusual. let's get back to vladimir putin. you thought he would be very worried donald trump but look at what happened after that disastrous g7 meeting, all of the members were infuriated by donald trump at the quy infuriated by donald trump at the guy who was rather pleased was vladimir putin because trump then announced that he thought russia should be invited back tojoin the gs should be invited back tojoin the g8 on should be invited back tojoin the g8ona should be invited back tojoin the g8 on a whole raft of other issues, including his stance on nato, which he suggested like the obsolete, donald trump is doing vladimir putin's work for him. i think you are overstating the case of. i agree with you that the president should be picking a fight with canada or other allies in the immediate type you while we are negotiating tariffs. the same time saying,

vladimir, we would like you back in the g7. well at interview about vladimir putin, generally in america, is that he is a bad guy. he admires him, he has said that. he does represent the largest nuclear power in the world, perhaps the second—largest. it is one of the great powers in the world and one of influence and that we should find areas of overlap to work with the russians. have you talked about that specifically with mr trump?” russians. have you talked about that specifically with mr trump? i have talked him about to turn and russia and he has a lot of respect for putin, but at the same time he also realises the importance... what does he respect about him? does he respect the annexation of crimea or the repression of democracy and free speech in russia ? the repression of democracy and free speech in russia? what is it? is it the basic, ruthless, decisive nature of putin rule? some of these questions are best addressed either president. i am questions are best addressed either president. iam not questions are best addressed either president. i am not a fan of vladimir putin, i think he is a bag

quy- vladimir putin, i think he is a bag guy. i do think the presidency that he represents an important nation on the world ‘s a stage. as he pointed out, the germans are opening up a natural gas pipeline that will give latitude and billions of dollars and a lot of leverage over europe, they complain about donald trump and what he is doing in europe and dividing the lights and everything else, but meanwhile they are helping putin. so there is a certain to face fitness with what the germans are doing what they are saying. i am also struck by two degrees to which, from many outsiders, there is a complication to his russian policies and that is because we know he is facing investigation i robert mu into allegations of collusion between the trump campaign and russia in the 2016 residential election. and we know that all of the intelligence agencies in the us are adamant the russians did medal, they did

interfere, the issue is about the extent or whether there was, collusion. that is an extraordinary complicating factor here, is it not? little bit. little bit? the issue is i think there was russian interference, i think it is undeniable and the president has relu cta ntly undeniable and the president has reluctantly admitted that. excuse me, he calls it a witch—hunt. every time he refers to it these days he calls it a partisan witch—hunt. time he refers to it these days he calls it a partisan witch-hunt. the point is i don't think that the russians decided the election. this is one of the great myths. hillary won the popular vote by 3 million votes, and if the russians had been effective, she would have gotten far fewer votes nationally. donald trump won because he saw this quirk in the constitution where if you win certain states you can win the whole election, and he actually went into those states where hillary didn't. it wasn't that the russians were spending money in the state of michigan or ohio. donald trump sat there in the state of ohio. he won it by almost ten points. well, we obviously do not know what robert

mueller has come up with. we know he has come up with quite a lot on other issues, including indictments against manafort, who was running the campaign for against manafort, who was running the campaignfora against manafort, who was running the campaign for a while, michael flynn, who was briefly in the white house at a senior position. we know he has that level of detail. what we don't know as to what extent he has found evidence of collusion. but you talked to the president. how much trouble do you think he thinks he is in? let me ask you a question. we have been in this fbi investigation for two years, the press has been all over it. what is the evidence of collusion so far? well, he is still investigating, so we have not got his report. well, there has been five indictments in plea agreements, there has been all sorts of other things that have taken place, not one of them, even paul manafort, but you just mentioned, it all relates to things he did in ukraine. with respect, neither you nori to things he did in ukraine. with respect, neither you nor i am aware of this investigation is going. what we do know, just from leaks and comments, is that it seems mr

trump's personal lawyer, michael cohen, may now be cooperating with the special prosecutor. my question is still this. how worried as dollar trump? well, i don't... here and i don't talk about... i don't think he is worried about this. i don't believe that he thinks... even michael cohen, you know, what is the evidence? he was not active in the campaign, there is no evidence in any of the press reports that he is knowledgeable about russian collusion. so it just knowledgeable about russian collusion. so itjust seems, you know, all of these people being indicted around the president, none of them... they are being indicted because the president calls it a political witch—hunt, because they worked for him. and they are being targeted by this investigation. i happen to think highly of robert mueller. he is a former fbi director, he is a good, honourable man, but he is also a prosecutor. and he has given a wide open budget, and basically a broad jurisdiction, and basically a broad jurisdiction, and he is looking for targets. in june 2017 you said after seeing

donald trump i think mr trump is considering terminating the special counsel. that was a year ago. just in the last week or so we have had rudy giuliani, who is advising mr trump, saying that he thinks the robert mueller investigation is the most corrupt i have ever seen. so how close are we to mueller being fired now? that i don't know. but i don't think the president is going to fire mueller, just my guess. at that time, and i had not spoken to the president at that time, i had heard from various sources that he was considering firing mueller, but he didn't. you know, sometimes he will say these things, he will make comments. i think it would be very catastrophic if he did. i think mueller, ultimately i don't think there is russian collusion, i don't think they are going to find evidence of that. they are obviously looking at other things now relating to the campaign, the business activities of people around the president. which could be very serious for mr trump. well, it turned out... look what happened with bill clinton. it started as a partnership in arkansas called whitewater and ended up with the lewinsky matter. who would have thought, right? and a scandal involving a woman at the white

house, an intern. so these things sometimes go very far afield, and thatis sometimes go very far afield, and that is why i think the president keeps calling it a political witch—hunt. the thing i think the british people should understand is that the president wants a strong west. he wants a strong economic west, and a strong military between all the countries. he can be brash, he can be bold, he can sometimes be offensive when he pushes for this. but at the end of the day he will be there for britain if there is a crisis. he will be there for france, he will be there for germany. and the canadians, the europeans, no longer believe that, then what? well, that could be a problem. but i think that... you know, look at the french president and the president of the united states. they are very close friends, they have developed a friendship. so... and i think, who would have thought the minister who comes out of the hollande government and becomes president of france, there has to be more thanjust climate change and what he thinks about women's issues beyond what we

are getting from the media. and it is unfortunate because in britain and other countries in europe we are not getting a media picture that you get in the united states where there is some balance. well, clearly you are taking an optimistic view of how mrtrump is being are taking an optimistic view of how mr trump is being seen in europe and amongst allies. let's now turn to something you know a lot about, which is the internal political scene which is the internal political scene in the us. you run a media organisation, newsmax, which is a right of centre media operation. you are right of centre media operation. you a re close right of centre media operation. you are close to many people in the republican party. the in crisis, isn't it? there are people inside the republican party who think that, to quote steve schmidt who used to work forjohn mccain, a big republican campaign and activist, he thinks the republican party today is vile. you will no longer share a party label with people who think it is ok to put babies and children in internment camps. look. steve schmidt, good man, but he works for the most liberal cable news network, msnbc, in the united states. well,

he has been republican for many, many years, he has worked on all sorts of campaigns. but he has been a maverick republican. will what about george will, who said he can no longer vote with the party who is aiding and abetting's policies in a way which is completely unacceptable. george will again works for this network. i am not saying they are doing it for the network... saying they are doing it for the network. . . what saying they are doing it for the network... what would you say about john mccain, who said the ministration's separation policy, when a was still clearly happening, is in an affront to the decency of the american people. there are five people in the republican party who oppose donald trump and you just name three of them. if you look at the polling data, there are tee paul's whichjust the polling data, there are tee paul's which just came out on his approval ratings, and they are amazing. because what they show is that he is breaking records. he has got injust over 90% that he is breaking records. he has got in just over 90% of support within the republican party. no recent american president had gotten that amount. so he is extremely popular. his problem... he is

playing to his base, and is it not the case that he is doubling down on that policy? whether it be with signature issues like the separation policy at the mexican border, or criticising nfl players for taking and me, supporting white supremacists, it seemed, in cha rlottesville by supremacists, it seemed, in charlottesville by saying there were some good people on a demonstration which most americans regarded as absolutely vile and unacceptable —— absolutely vile and unacceptable —— a knee. on all of these different levels, is donald trump not playing toa levels, is donald trump not playing to a white, american, working—class base which is a policy ultimately that will do the republican party no good? well, i think he is playing theissues good? well, i think he is playing the issues that he cares about, and it has obviously got him elected and keeps in in very high standing to fight despite a very negative barrage. the economy is booming. we have not had economic growth... the average economic growth during the barmy years was 1.5%. the first year of the trump administration it was 396. of the trump administration it was 3%. 100% in gdp growth. that has not

happened, anybody can remember, since the reagan administration. i hear, but i am notjust talking about... today's opinion polls, i'm talking about strategy. you know a lot about political strategy. in 20 yea rs' lot about political strategy. in 20 years' time, america won't be white majority. is donald trump's version of politics... two things, you want to talk about that —— change the topic because i want to talk about the results that the president is delivered. but the public is seeing record employment numbers, record implement numbers for african—americans, implement numbers for african—america ns, latinos, implement numbers for african—americans, latinos, they have not had anything like this. so his popularity has been growing. he is about 20% in the polls in the past six months. is this where the republican party needs to be in the long—term, making donald trump and his vision of america? look, if bob johnson was the founder of bet, a famous black entertainment network, and he is a democrat who supported hillary clinton, was doing tremendous stuff for blacks in the economic world. at the end of the

day, if people's lives are improving, the economic situation, they feel safe at home, that is going to be betterfor america, that is going to be betterfor britain and the west. we have the end there. chris ruddy, thank you very much indeed for being on hardtalk. thank you. -- we have two end there. hello there. temperatures dipped a little bit at the start of this week. wednesday was a warm one, and those temperatures are going to continue to rise towards the end of the week. some places could be really quite hot during the course of the weekend. now, we also had a few showers around. they'll tend to fizzle out, but we could start thursday morning with one or two across some western areas, maybe north—west england, in towards wales. and there could be quite a muggy

start in some of the larger towns and the cities across southern england and southern wales. now, we start thursday off, then, on a rather cloudier note. it looks like clouds will tend to break up, with some sunny spells developing, although eastern coastal areas remain a little bit cloudy through the day. and then showers will develop, and we think most of these will be across more western areas. now, some could be quite heavy, particularly across south—western scotland, maybe western side of england to the west of the pennines, in towards wales and south—west england. and they'll be very slow moving, if almost stationary, so some areas could get quite a lot of rainfall. and the ground being so dry could lead to some local flooding, so watch out for that. pretty warm, though, where you get the sunshine, especially in the south—east, 26 or 27 celsius. as we head on in towards friday, it looks like the risk of showers and thunderstorms begins to increase, and some of them could be on the heavy side. friday starts off mainly dry, with some sunshine, although there'll be showers from the word go across parts

of north—west england, southern scotland. these will become more widespread across parts of wales, into the midlands, and maybe southern england as well. and like i mentioned, some of them could be quite intense, with the risk of some local flooding. temperature—wise, around 25, maybe 26 celsius, and some eastern coastal areas may hold onto that cool breeze. now, as we head on in towards the weekend, a big area of low pressure will be anchored to the north—west of the uk. this may bring further cloud, maybe outbreaks of rain, to scotland and northern ireland, but it's also going to draw up much warmer air from the near continent. so for saturday it's definitely a north—west, south—east split, with outbreaks of rain across the north and the west of scotland, maybe into the far north—west of england too. for much of england and wales, though, dry and sunny. and turning locally hot in places, we could see 28, maybe 29 celsius in the south—east. on sunday it's a similar picture — breezier, with more cloud from northern ireland and western scotland. with outbreaks of rain, could see a few showers as well pushing into wales, north—west england. but elsewhere, across most of england and eastern wales,

a hot day to come. we could see one or two locations in the south—east reaching 30 or 31 celsius. so for the end of the week it looks like we'll see an increase of showers and thunderstorms for a time, then it starts to hot up as we head on into the weekend. this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. our top story: britain prepares for the arrival of donald trump — what's been billed "the most controversial visit ever made by a us president." celebrations long into the night, as croatia reach the world cup final for the very first time. i'm rajini vaidyanathan in moscow, where defeat means england's dream of glory is finally over. a german neo—nazi is sentenced to life for a series of racially—motivated murders. detail at last. theresa may's government gets ready to publish its white paper on the brexit deal it wants.

but will brussels accuse it of "cherry picking"?