agent attack on the former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter in the english town of salisbury. the state department and the cia have concluded that moscow used lethal chemical or biological weapons — violating american and international law. evacuations continue in one of portugal's most popular tourist regions as wildfires blaze out of control. the fires have been burning for five days in the southern algarve region more than a thousand firefighters and soldiers have been called in to try and stop the flames from spreading further. senators in argentina are debating whether to pass a bill allowing abortion during the first fourteen weeks of pregnancy — an issue that has divided the predominantly catholic country. the law currently allows the procedure only in the case of rape or if the woman's life is endangered. now on bbc news, hardtalk‘s stephen sackur talks to associate chair of the democratic party, jaime harrison. welcome to hardtalk.

i'm steven sackur. for good or ill, donald trump dominates the american political landscape. he seems to relish conflict because it keeps him firmly and forever centre stage. so with vital congressional mid—term elections looming this autumn, how should democrats respond? well, my guest is jaime harrison, associate chair of the democratic national committee. not so long ago, his party was predicting a mid—term wave that would sweep away republican control of congress. but are the democrats underestimating the power of trumpian politics? jaime harrison in columbia, south carolina, welcome to hardtalk.

thank you stephen. thank you for having me. just a few months back, one of the most senior democrats in the senate, charles chuck schumer, said this, he said "i smell a wave coming." and it did seem at that point that the democrats were absolutely convinced that they were going to sweep away the republicans in congress. are you just as confident of that today? i feel really good about our chances this fall. you know, we've done extremely well in a lot of state legislative races. we've flipped 43 seats that were republican and they're now democrat. and i think the momentum is on our side and we need tojust

continue to push, continue to build our operations, and we're going to be in good shape come this november. yeah, but if you look at the most recent polling evidence, donald trump's popularity, his approval rating, is slowly but surely on the rise — through the early 40s to the mid—a0 percentage points. it's actually not pretty much at the same point that obama's was at the same period of his presidency. that must concern you. it doesn't. you remember in 2010, in terms of where obama was, that's when the republicans took power of the house of representatives. and so, actually, if you take a look at history, history is on the side of the democratic party, the minority party, the party that's out of power, it's on our side. i feel really good and really bullish. in 2006, i was the executive directorfor the house democratic caucus. that was when democrats took back the house and took back the senate, when george w bush was in the second

year of his second term. and so, many of the same things that i saw then are some of the similar things — trends — that i see now. ithink, again, democrats are in a good position as we move into the fall elections. interesting to look at those states — swing states, we've always called them — where races are always tight. look at ohio, for example. it's not clear exactly is going to happen when the final votes are counted in that 12th congressional district which so many eyes have been on in the last few days. but democrats just a day or two ago seemed convinced that they could take that particular congressional seat. and it looks like republicans have stemmed that tide. again, complacency is going to be a problem for you guys, isn't it? no, i don't think so. and listen, i'm pretty excited about the results in that race. take a look at this particular seat.

the incumbent in 2016 won the seat by 30 points. donald trump won the seat by 11 points. right now it's razorthin, we're not sure of the end result. but, in the end, the republicans have spent $5 million to hold onto a seat in which their president won by 11 points. and it's a razorthin margin. and there are 70 other seats that are better for democrats than this seat. we want to see... we could go through area by area and discuss the specifics of the political balance in various political states, but the nationwide picture is pretty simple: it's hard for you guys in the democratic party to overturn republican majorities in the house and senate when we see that the republican congress and republican president are supervising an economy that is motoring, motoring ahead,

with growth rates now put at over 4%, with record high employment levels, and where even african—american and latino unemployment is at record lows. these other realities, the facts, that make it very attractive for americans to stick with what they know. well, there are also some realities and facts that you did not put in there. 0ne, donald trump in this current tariff war that he is trying to engage in right now, you know, you got farmers in many of the states that he won, that are really, really concerned. just recently here in south carolina one of the plants in a rural county, a county that, again, donald trump won in the presidential election, just announced that they are closing

because of his tariffs. we have factories like bmw and volvo that are headquartered here in south carolina. south carolina is the tyre manufacturing headquarters of america, with michelin and continental and a lot of other folks and a lot of other companies. and they all concerned about the possible tariffs and the impact it could have on the economy. you may choose to look at the glass half empty, but many look at the glass half full. how about this? high—wage manufacturing jobs, up 37,000 injune alone. 400,000 quality manufacturing jobs created under the trump administration. and worker pay rises now running at the highest since 2008. well, listen, stephen, again, it's not about how i am looking at it. with so much fabulous numbers from donald trump, why is he not over 50%? if the economy and everything is working so well in this country, he is still dealing with the low 40s in terms of his percentage rates.

and his popularity in a lot of the states that he won has declined over — over a period of time. republicans are starting to run away from him because of his rhetoric and some of the impact that he could have on the economies here. again, i'm much happier being where we are now going into the midterms than to be where the republicans are. some of our people who are running for the first time are raising republican incumbents in his congressional districts. that is unheard of and it's part — part of the fact is that people are concerned about the direction america is going to. so you keep telling me. i look at a ubs investor watch survey that said 70% of the businesses they surveyed believed that china trade was unfair, and supported donald trump's stand, imposing tariffs on china. and let's be honest about this.

the democratic party's position on trade and tariffs is pretty unclear, anyway, because we all remember that in the last presidential election, bernie sanders and a whole bunch of very important democratic supporters of his, actually supported tearing up the various trade deals, including the tra ns—pacific partnership, and nafta, so the democratic party's position on this is all over the map. well, the democratic party position is, listen, we understand that it is important to have healthy companies, because healthy companies are strong companies that can provide benefits for the workers. we believe in making sure that we protect the rights of workers and believe in making sure there is opportunity for workers. we don't believe in starting tariff wars and trade wars and not having

any strategy or direction for what — for why we are doing it. donald trump wakes up one morning and says, "you know what, i guess i'm going to have a trade war with this company, and i will specifically target this industry, because, uh, ijust decided i wanted to do it." that is not... if it — listen, in all honesty... let us leave partisan politics out of it. you're a guy who has worked in politics in various positions, notjust in washington, but out in the country as well, do you honestly feel that a steelworker sitting in, say michigan, when he hears donald trump say, and this is a quote, "we have achieved an economic turnaround of historic proportions — we are now the economic envy of the entire world." do you think that steelworker is going to find it easy to vote against donald trump, given what has happened to the growth and success in the steel industry in recent months in america?

yeah, but the steel industry is just one industry of many. you know, i live in south carolina, where agriculture is huge. and these possible tariffs on soy beans, i could leave this building right now and see miles and miles of soy bean farms. and guess who are the big consumers here in south carolina? it's china. and now donald trump created a problem and his solution is because he created this terrible problem, he's going to find $12 billion to give to farmers. but they don't want that. they want stability in terms of being able to figure out how much can i plant? how much will i get? so they can plant — plan accordingly. you are a political strategist, both in south carolina and nationwide, with your advisory role with the dnc. would you agree with me that what matters in politics is being on the front foot, making the political weather,

being proactive — and right now, surely, there is no debate. donald trump is making the political weather. he is on the front foot. and democrats are having to play defence and react. no, not really. donald trump in some ways has been good for the democratic party. he has been the best recruiter. we have not seen so much excitement in recruitment in terms of the democratic party in a generation, until we had this president and the disaster that he calls upon every day here in the united states. i mean, it's — he's an embarrassment both domestically and internationally. so there has to be a change in this country. and people are calling for that, and we'll see it in november. an important point that you just made, embarrassment. why is it embarrassing to be a politician that keeps his promises, promises to be tough on immigration and follows through, who promises to get tough on foreign trade, and follows through, who promises to be tough on nato allies that don't meet their commitments on expenditure on defence, and then follows through. if you look at donald trump's policies of a whole raft

of different issues, he has pretty much kept to his election pledges. why is that embarrassing? well, one of his pledges, and i think the hallmark of his pledge, was that he was going to build a wall and mexico was going to pay for it. the last i saw, mexico has not paid one peso to build the wall. but he has threatened to shut down the american government because congress has not appropriated money in order to build a wall. so if you want to take a promise that was at the heart of donald trump's campaign — and again, he has no plan to keep it. he just says things and has no plans to do it. there are fundamental things that make us american. there are fundamental things: liberty, freedom, and openness. to see what donald trump has done on the border in terms of separating families, it's inhumane. absolutely inhumane, to see what he has done, and to see the problem

that he has created. and he has no solution for how to fix them. even his own daughter has critiqued the policy. but the thing is, my point about proactive politics is that donald trump puts you on the back foot. you make the points you havejust made about his immigration policy. he then accuses you of running an open door policy, letting criminals come in, and to use his word — which i wouldn't use, but he used it — to "infest" the united states of america — he makes those messages a core campaign issue and a lot of americans who are worried about immigration, though they might not like his language, but they see a democratic party that seems to be defending open borders, and donald trump who says he will be tough on immigration. you believe in political terms you are on the right side of that argument? oh, i know we are on the right side of that argument. and we will see it in november. what donald trump is doing to the republican party is killing the party in the long—term. it is not going to be good.

he is splintering the party like no other. again, almost a secret weapon for the democratic party, for what he is going to do in terms of breaking the party. this is a man who attacked every bit of our democracy, the fundamental anchors of our democracy, from freedom of the press, he goes after the judiciary, he goes after congress and their role, and he is blistering in that. at the same time, again, you talked earlier about him keeping promises, he went over and had this huge summit with kim jong—un and said we're going to do all of this stuff, and what has happened? nothing. he is foot buddies with putin. and all of these great things. i have never seen an american president who has kowtowed to russia as much as this president has.

again, in the end of the day... interesting. sorry to interrupt. i am sorry to interrupt, but you got on to russia there and it does seem to me there's a very interesting proposition before the american people right now as they look at politics and the looming mid—term elections, they have to decide whether they want to vote for democratic control of the house and the senate, which could then lead to much, much ramped up investigation of donald trump, because we have seen senior democrats, including leading politicians in the democratic caucus in the house of representatives, saying that they want an impeachment resolution brought before the house. 0ne congressman, james rankin of marilyn, said the other day "it is hard to think of a more impeachable president in american history." do you also agree the democrats,

as part of their electoral strategy, should focus on the potential for impeaching the president? i don't think we need to go down an impeachment road at this point. i think that what needs to happen is that mueller needs to continue his investigation to see whether there was any collusion, to see whether there was any obstruction of justice, and we are just going to proceed from that point. we're just going to call donald trump what he is. i mean, this is a guy who has had bigoted, racist, intolerant language and he is president of the united states. he is not the model... and you know, i can't point to... and, listen, i've had disagreements with george w bush in the past, i grew up during the reagan era, and yeah, i might not have liked their policies, but i always had respect for the office and respect for the individuals that sat in that chair. all right.

donald trump is very different. i don't think we have ever seen anything like this in american politics. and he has diminished us. right. what do you think those millions of, particularly white working—class americans, who voted for donald trump and who, according to every single opinion poll, are still foursquare behind donald trump, what do you think they make of people like you describing donald trump's policies as racist and bigoted? because it makes me mindful of hillary clinton during the campaign calling trump supporters "the basket of deplorables." it doesn't seem that you democrats have a way of connecting with the white working class in the way that donald trump does. well, see, that's the difference. i don't think donald trump, yes, the core of the republican base is very solid and still behind donald trump, but trump was also able to win some swing independent votes, that i believe fundamentally won't be there for him this

next time around. and you will see that in terms of the results of the november election. those are those individuals in some of those white suburbs in america who decided, well, you know what, let me take a chance, let me see if there's something different here, and i don't think they like what they see. and so, in the end of the day, i think those folks are going to side with the democratic party, those folks might be fiscally conservative, but they're socially more moderate, and they don't like the rhetoric, the divisiveness, the things and images they see coming out of this white house. but equally, they are not these voters we are talking about now. you called them swing voters or centrists, they're certainly not americans who would ever identify themselves as a socialist. but what we see in your party,

let us focus on your party, what we see is the most dynamic elements in the party, including of course very well—known recent victors like the nomination race in new york, they are describing themselves as socialist, and the party appears to be veering pretty rapidly to the left. is that going to win new national elections? what i am saying, and i know there are a lot of folks the media is covering, of folks going into districts and winning districts based on, it is that old adage that all politics is local, based on understanding the people in their districts... hang on, hang on, you're slightly avoiding my question. do you think democrats going into elections describing themselves as proud socialists, is that going to be a winning strategy for the party?

how many democrats do you see going into the elections going in calling themselves proud socialists? perhaps the woman who is doing most right now to inject dynamism into your party is alexandria 0casio—cortez, the young woman who won that extraordinary victory in new york in the primary race against one of your most established congressman, and she did it by pushing a very aggressively, or i should say assertively left—wing socialist agenda. she won in a democratic — in a very, very blue democratic district. but there have also been other people who have won in other districts, connell won in pennsylvania, in a district that is ruby, ruby red. doug jones, who i helped in alabama, in a state that is as conservative as south carolina. i don't think they label themselves as democratic socialists, but what i said, which i am going back to, is people are running

in states and in districts and reflecting the values of the folks that they are claiming and wanting to represent. and that's what we are going to see in 435 districts and 50 states this november. see ijust wonder... people are going to reflect the people on a local level. so in new york, in the bronx, you could win as a democratic socialist, that's fine, but in south carolina that probably is not going to work. i can guarantee you that. i hear what you're saying. again, at the end of the day... i just wonder if you have learned the lessons... have you learned the lessons of losing. in 2016, let us not forget, you, jaime harrison, were a supporter of hillary clinton. you, jaime harrison, were part of that democratic establishment. you worked forjohn podesta, who of course was very close to hillary clinton. you are seen by people like bernie sanders, frankly, as part of the problem and not the solution

for the democratic party. so who really is the democratic party today? i think i embody the democratic party. you know, my mum was 16 years old when she had me here in south carolina. i grew up in a very rural town, 0rangeburg, 15,000 people, i was the first person in my family to go to college, went to yale, went to george town. worked myself up from the bootstra ps. bought a home for my grandparents. that is what the american dream is all about, being able to start from nothing and to actually rise up and do well in this country, and so i am proud of what i am, and i am who i am because of the democratic party. the message of donald trump is that politics as usual isn't working in america any more. that's the message that the democrats have to take on board, as well as the republicans. the message that the democratic party has to — and i've been very, very

honest, let me back up, you mentioned that i worked forjohn podesta, i never worked for him, i worked for his brother, tony, just to make sure i was clear on that. in terms of the message for the democratic party, you know, yes, we are in this race and in this game against a republican party, but where the democratic party has to fundamentally change, and that's what i'm working on with the dnc, is that the democratic party can no longerjust be a political organisation, it has to be more of a community organisation, where we're actually on the ground in these communities helping people address the issues they are dealing with on a day—to—day basis. that's the utility of the democratic party. that's where we have to go back to so that we can become the party of the people once again. and so we are working on reforms and things that we can do so we become more grassroots—based, that we are actually in communities

addressing issues that are so, so important for people in order that they can live the american dream and that their kids still have the hope of living the american dream as well. jaime harrison, i wish we could go on, but we're out of time. thank you very much forjoining me from south carolina. thank you, stephen. hello there. things are looking cooler and fresher now for the rest of this week, particularly across northern and western areas, with a mixture of sunshine and showers. some of the showers will continue to be quite heavy as well, maybe with the risk of thunder. the reason for the cooler air, area of low pressure has driven out the heat into the near continent, introducing something cooler and fresher off the atlantic, and we'll maintain a west or south—westerly airflow.

now, early on thursday, we will see further showers returning to western scotland and northern ireland, some of them could be quite heavy, and across central, southern and eastern parts of england, thickening cloud moving uo from the south will bring a few showers or even some patchy rain. across scotland and northern ireland, it's going to be a chilly start to this morning, temperatures in low single figures in some areas. so for thursday itself, it's looking bright with plenty of sunshine around. there will continue to be some blustery showers across the north and west of scotland, into northern ireland. then across the south—east, an area of rain moving up across the near continent could just graze south—east england and also east anglia. now, the winds will generally be light, i think, across england and wales. blustery across scotland and northern ireland. there's a chance as this area of low pressure deepens here, it could turn windier for a time across the very far south—east, so it could be quite a soggy end to the day here. pretty nasty evening commute, i think, for some. bit of uncertainty into the west with the extent of this rain,

looks like the heaviest of the stuff will be across into the near continent. that area of low pressure pushes on in towards the north sea as we head on in towards friday. a ridge of high pressure tries to build in, and an area of low pressure looms out in the atlantic and will arrive just in time for the weekend. so for friday's picture then, we're in between the weather systems. it's going to be a day of sunshine and showers, and some of them could be the heavy side, again with a rumble of thunder. but hit and miss, some areas staying dry altogether, and in the sunshine, not too bad, temperatures range from 17 to 22, that is cooler than what we've been used to, particularly across the south—east. this area of low pressure hurtles in off the atlantic, arrives across northern and western areas for saturday. meanwhile, an area of high pressure establishes itself across the south—east. there's still some uncertainty to this weekend as to where the rain will be. we're thinking at the moment it's going to be wet across the north

and the west of the uk. the further south and east you are, the better chance of staying dry. it could be much of scotland and northern ireland quite windy with outbreaks of rain, some of it could be quite heavy. for central, southern and eastern parts of england in particular, you could get away with seeing some good spells of sunshine and feeling quite warm. this is the briefing — i'm ben bland. our top story: the us says it will impose new sanctions on russia in response to the poisoning of a former spy in his daughter in britain. wildfires continue to burn out of control in portugal's most popular tourist region. hundreds of people evacuate their homes. the family of a murdered maltese journalist launch a formal request urging the government to properly investigate her death. the united states and japan meet for talks aimed at salvaging their $200 billion trading relationship. and ikea is opening its first store in india. i'll be speaking to yogita limaye

who's at the opening in hyderabad.