the saudi—led coalition said its air strikes were aimed at militants who target civilians, and were in retaliation for a rebel rocket attack. the red cross says at least twenty—nine children died. the number of people killed in last week's earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok, has risen sharply to over 250. more than 150,000 are now homeless. and this video is trending on bbc.com: it's about how the fast pace of life in china can impact young people's mental health. when a 17—year—old revealed her work stresses on social media, the hashtag #17year0ldsreallyhaveastressfullife reached more than 33 million people on the sina weibo website, china's equivalent to twitter. that's all. stay with bbc world news. 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 0bama's was at the same period of his presidency. that must concern you. it doesn't. you remember in 2010, in terms of where 0bama 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 of the soybean farms 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. they don't want that. what they want is 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 has been — in some ways, has been good for the democratic party. he's been our 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 trump's policies on 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, i have not seen one peso come to the united states from mexico to pay for a 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 he has no plans for how 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 problems that he's 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've just 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, they may not like his language, but they see a democratic party that seems to be defending open borders, and donald trump who says he'll get tough on immigration. do you really believe in political terms you're on the right side of that argument? oh, i know we're on the right side of that argument. and we'll 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's going to do in terms of breaking that party up. this is a man who attacks 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. well... sorry to interrupt. sorry to interrupt, jaime harrison. i'm sorry to interrupt, but you got onto 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 maryland, 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 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 then we will 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, all right. donald trump is very, very different. i don't think we've ever seen anything like this in american politics. and he's diminished us as a result. 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 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 may be fiscally conservative, but they're socially more moderate, and they don't like the rhetoric, they don't like the divisiveness, they don't like the things and the images tht they see coming

out of this white house. but equally, they are not, these voters we're talking about now — you called them swing voters or centrists or whatever — they are certainly not americans who would ever identify themselves as socialists. but what we see in your party, let us focus on your party, what we see in your party today is, including the most dynamic elements in the party, including of course very well—known recent victors like alexandria 0casio—cortez in a 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 you national elections? what i'm seeing, and i know that there are a lot of folks that the media is covering, but 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, describing themselves as proud socialists? perhaps the woman who is doing most right now to inject dynamism into your party is this 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 been other people

who've also won in a lot of 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're going to see in 435 districts and 50 states 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. but... again, in the end of the day... the democratic party is a big tent.

ijust wonder have you learned the lessons of losing in 2016? 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, 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, ever, went to yale, went to george town. worked myself up from the bootstra ps. helped my parents save to buy their home, 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'm 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 anymore. and that's a 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 forjohn, i actually worked for his brother, tony, just to make sure that 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 longer just 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 that they're dealing with on a day—to—day basis. that's the utility of

the democratic party, and 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 so that 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. good morning. well, yesterday bought

quite a change across the country. we had some very welcome rain. in fa ct, we had some very welcome rain. in fact, we had over an inch of rain in suffolk. some heavy downpours as well towards the end of the afternoon and in the evening. another layer of low pressure which was responsible is drifting off into scandinavia. —— the layer of low pressure. something that is interesting, introducing slightly lower pressure of air of late. chile in some places with low single figures. a bit of a change to the story. for today, it figures. a bit of a change to the story. fortoday, it is figures. a bit of a change to the story. for today, it is a fairly straightforward day of sunny spells and showers. some of the showers have really started to gather and become longer spells of rain but

particularly in the south—east of the growth of the afternoon. if we ta ke the growth of the afternoon. if we take it in a little more detail, up into scotland, showa should remain more scattered. fresher in the afternoon, with high as is around 15 to 17 degrees. a scattering of showers in northern ireland and northern england, some of those will become fairly frequent to the east of the pennines in the afternoon. then we had showers and spells of rain to the east. by the end of friday, most of those will have cleared away and then temperatures is set to dip again, potentially into low single figures to start a weekend. —— are set. will start the weekend. —— are set. will start the weekend on a positive note with a good spell of dry weather. fog sta rts good spell of dry weather. fog starts to gather in the south—west. you can see the first signs of this frontal system which will bring some rain as we go into the weekend. really, that rain just pushing into cornwall, eventually it will move into the dorset coast is going to the afternoon, but for most of us it will a drive, settled story. as we

go into the afternoon, temperatures build up to 16 to 22 degrees. it will start to feel pleasant. by sunday, it looks as though we will seize on wet weather particularly across western areas. if anywhere is likely to stay dry, perhaps the east of scotla nd likely to stay dry, perhaps the east of scotland and the north—east corner of the day. highs of around 2425 degrees, that is the mid— 70s fahrenheit. early part of next week, the northern part of the country continues with this fresher feel. something a little bit rather further onwards. it looks as though thatis further onwards. it looks as though that is where we are likely to see a little more in the way of sunshine with highs of 25 degrees. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. the headlines: an airstrike carried out by the saudi—led coalition in yemen hits a school bus,

killing dozens of children. the number of people killed in last week's earthquake on the indonesian island of lombok, has risen sharply to over 250. more than 150,000 are now homeless. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: america's vice president sets a goal of 2020 for creating a new space force as the sixth branch of the us military. and portraits of lgbt activists in malaysia are removed from a public photo exhibition on the orders of a government minister.