you're watching beyond 100 days. us troops are pulling out of syria as the white house orders a complete and rapid withdrawal. but republican senators hit back, saying that's a huge mistake, and a win for the russians and iran. president trump hints at the decision with a morning tweet saying isis has been defeated and that was his only reason for being there. the us federal reserve under pressure from the white house not to raise interest rates now looks like it is about to do just that. also on the programme... did he really say that? jeremy corbyn the leader of the opposition in parliament, is facing calls to apologise, for apparently calling theresa may, a "stupid woman." and, would you believe it, a republican mayor in red state texas, is leading a local fight, against climate change? hello and welcome.

i'm katty kay in washington, clive myrie is in london. donald trump says the us mission in syria is complete and in a sudden move, the white house says the troops are now coming home. but the reported decision to withdraw all of the remaining 2000 american personnel is being criticised by a wide aray of republicans leaders. the president has made it clear for months that he wants to get out of syria. today he justified that position saying... the concern is that a total us pull back emboldens both russia and iran — and isis, while vastly diminished, is not totally defeated. 0ur north america editor jon sopel is here. we know that the president has wa nted we know that the president has wanted to pull back from syria for a long time but moved today did seem to ta ke long time but moved today did seem to take people here in washington, in the pentagon, by surprise. let's leave syria to 15 foot of any huge

government decision of this nature will require coordination by the different government departments, in this case the pentagon, the state department, possibly even transportation if you are talking about bringing huge numbers of people back and the foreign governments. in this case let's talk about syria. there seems to have been none of the coordination for them no one seems to know the decision was coming. people fumbling to find words. the pentagon has tried a form of words saying there will be troops coming back but we're not saying the battle against isis has been won. everyone is struggling to catch up. it looks like donald trump has made that decision and the rest of the machine of government is trying to catch up with him. you say the rest of the machinery of government is trying to catch up with him. nato allies are as well. tobias ellwood tweeted...

staunch nato allies are not impressed by the decision. there has been little coordination if any it looks like donald trump has said i wa nt looks like donald trump has said i want this to be the topic today, i wa nt want this to be the topic today, i want people talking about this. our people prepared for it? there are huge geopolitical consequences for this. what happens to the kurdish forces that have been fighting alongside the americans question that they would be put in a very vulnerable position if there were a sudden pull—out. turkey might invade that bit of the territory. where does this leave iran and russia? you have heard donald trump saying, we had to put maximum pressure on iran. it looks like we're giving syria over to the iranians and the russians that is why there has been such strong push back around the

world and washington itself. thank you for that. for more on this move i've been speaking to democratic congresswoman karen bass, who sits on the foreign affairs committee. congresswoman, the president has been keen for a long time to get american troops out of syria. it looks like they are now starting to come home. there will be a complete withdrawal. do you think this is the right time for america to be pulling out of syria? well, i don't think it's the right time for us to be pulling out completely. however it seemed as though the president's marks were rather flippant. he did say that isis has been completely defeated. i'm not sure the pentagon feels that would —— that way. the president makes pretty spontaneous tweets and state m e nts pretty spontaneous tweets and statements and i think this is one of them. i would not be surprised if you heard him back track from that. because pushed back perhaps

from the pentagon, from republican members up on capitol hill, who pretty much uniformly say that this is not a good time for america to be pulling out. exactly. one thing about the president that we've all experienced over these last two years as he will make unilateral statements with no fact, no evidence, and it's not really clear that he's been briefed on the matter. if we were going to make a decision by completely pulling out of syria, i think that would take a lot a lot of deliberation, a lot of evaluation and i know from my position on the foreign affairs committee, we certainly have not had any briefings towards that end. it just makes me wonder whether or not this is a decision that he will change actors though, in a few days, as if he never said it. there are only 2000 remaining american personnel in syria. do they have much of an impact? are they making much of a difference in the country when there are so few of them? that is exactly right. that is exactly what needs to be evaluated. i certainly know that i need to know that information. i know they play a role,

i believe it is important but i think if we're at the point where we're going to make a decision to completely pull out then we need to evaluate top to bottom the us involvement in syria. russia has welcomed the news. does russia stand to gain from an american withdrawal? absolutely. that is one indication. is this the wise thing to do? i'm not saying absolutely it's not but what i am saying is i have a feeling this was just a one—off statement he made at the top of his head. i don't know what led to it but i know that the pentagon is not on the same page and so just, you know, i would expect in a day or two the position completely changes. what is interesting about this policy shift by the president is it seems to undercut the whole of

american policy in the middle east, which is to contain iran and effectively if american troops are pulling out the field is left open for the russians and iranians militias. president trump criticised barack 0bama for pulling troops out of iraq too early in his opinion a couple of years ago when he fell as a result president 0bama had helped to create isis. it'll be interesting to create isis. it'll be interesting to see whether or not that is the kind of charge that is thrown back at president trump following this decision. already you have a couple of republican senators who we have had on —— senators, one of whom we have had on the show. it is remarkable how many has stepped up today, completely ta ken remarkable how many has stepped up today, completely taken by surprise. they are pushing back and saying this is not the right time to do

this. it leaves america weaker and leaves the field open to russia and potentially around and emboldens them instead. let's see how the decision plays out. the us federal reserve doesn't like to get involved in politics but today the central bank is being drawn into a deeply political row. in the past few minutes, it has just raised interest rates by a quarter of a per cent, to 2 point 5 per cent. president trump has been publicly urging the independent fed not to raise rates because when it does so, the financial markets fall. in the past mr trump has called the bank "crazy" for raising rates. let's get the latest from our correspondent michelle fleury who's outside the fed building in washington for us. first of all, the basics. everyone was expecting this point to five rise, right? —— 0.25 rise. was expecting this point to five rise, right? -- 0.25 rise. there was speculation about whether you would see the chairman of the federal

reserve respond to criticisms either president of the people are wondering how strong is the us economy. we have seen and talked about volatility on the financial markets, signalling that they are concerned about the potential slowdown, maybe a worst case even a recession. the federal reserve coming out with its feed today they think the economic data restrained enough to warrant an increase today but also two further increases next year. that is worth pointing out thatis year. that is worth pointing out that is down from previous estimates where they had signalled they might raise rates three times next year. how much do they watch the reaction by the white house to the fact they have raised today be another two times next year. how unusual is it for the third to feel itself under this kind of very overt political pressure? i thinkjerome howell is probably dusting down the tin hat on getting used to having to wear it.

the amount of criticism he is receiving from the white house is pretty much unprecedented. i was speaking to someone at the new york stock exchange who said president trump is using twitter to express views that may be previous presidents thorpe did not express publicly. that is the thing. we have never seen publicly. that is the thing. we have never seen this before where we have had openly the president trying to implement monetary policy. they may have which do but they did not do it publicly because the idea was they wa nted publicly because the idea was they wanted to protect the credibility and independents of the central bank. 0k, thank you for that. president trump is hitting back at new york justice officials who've forced him to close down his personal charity. he tweeted. .. mr trump is also dealing with the legal fall out of a

judge expressing disgust at his former national security adviser. for more on how this is likely to play out i'm joined by annie karni, white house correspondent for the new york times. you spend a lot of time at the white house covering the president. to what extend to all of the different legal issues that are weighing on the president affecting day—to—day in his decision—making?” the president affecting day—to—day in his decision-making? i think it is just in his decision-making? i think it isjust a huge in his decision-making? i think it is just a huge cloud that is always there over him all stopped twitter isa there over him all stopped twitter is a good way to gauge what is weighing on his mind. we do not have to guess this president when he tells us every morning on twitter. the volume of tweets about the molar investigation, about flynn, has increased. i think this is one of the reason his aides are excited and

it gets him out of the headspace in washington where the feeling in the white house is the walls are closing ina white house is the walls are closing in a little bit and that is where his anger seems to be. of course they do actually have twitter down there as well and he has been known to tweet a lot from where he has more free time on his hands as well. does the public respond to his tweets, specifically his base? how do they react to question what we have seen various polls in the us saying that when the president takes to twitter like this, perhaps his aides do not like it that his supporters do buy this by his argument this is all politically against him. i think the -based... what has become clear over the past two years there are supporters who will be with him no matter what was that they agree it is a witchhunt and they agree the mainstream media is out to get him and they will be with him. the problem for him as he

goes into next year and will be looking at a re—election manage these tweets have not helped him to expand beyond that base and that baseis expand beyond that base and that base is not big enough right now potentially to win. he has not done anything to expand. there is a core group of supporters in this country you will be with him no matter what he will follow his lead when he calls it the witchhunt. some of his tweets have been working. i think there was a poll in the past six months saying his rating had fallen. he is taking... it is a pr strategy and to some extent people are listening to what he is saying and believing him. i think some of the polls have shifted slightly in the last couple of weeks. ijust polls have shifted slightly in the last couple of weeks. i just wonder. i remember covering the 2016 election campaign for the people on the right was saying there is no point in voting for hillary clinton doesn't she cannot become president because she will be embroiled in

legal battle after legal battle. whether it is about the clinton foundation or her e—mail server and so on and so forth. i wonder if anyone predicted that donald trump would be in as much legaljeopardy as he is at the moment. did anyone see all of this coming?” as he is at the moment. did anyone see all of this coming? i don't think we could have. the reason he is in think we could have. the reason he isina think we could have. the reason he is in a situation that he is in right now is because special counsel was appointed. that was appointed because he fired fbi directorjames coney. he would not be in that situation had the action not taken place for that there would be no special counsel to do the ongoing situation. thank you for that. you're opening question is interesting. i don't know how you go about making a rational and reasoned decision on whether or not to pull troops out of syria, having not spoken to anyone, the pentagon

commit nato allies, knowing that you have this threat of legal action upon legal action hanging over your head, and not just upon legal action hanging over your head, and notjust possibly impeachment with the democrats taking over the house pictured are also possibly jail. the president clearly believes that this is a political conspiracy against him, that he has done nothing wrong whether, as he tweeted this morning it is to do with his foundational collusion. he keeps saying there was no collusion, i never colluded. a lot of people who cover the campaign so it was pretty chaotic. could they have organised a collision campaign with the russians if they wanted to? there were not many staffers around who could do that kind of thing was that you can see from his twitter feed it is a source of stress to him and a preoccupation to him. at the same time he wants to have distractions from it. we are all talking today about the withdrawal from syria and not about michael flynn. you're not talking about the

foundation being shut as much. the distraction factor is politically potentially quite useful as well. hackers have successfully targeted the european union's diplomatic communications over a period of several years, according to the new york times which has published thousands of the messages. among the cables were references to russia. this message for example, was sent after the helsinki summit between donald trump and vladimir putin. it says the meeting was successful for putin. we've also seen messages relating to chinese president xijinping. including this one referring to trade where xi says so who is behind the hack and what impact could it have on diplomatic relations? joining us is emily taylor, an associate fellow with the international security department at the think tank, chatham house. emily, it is good to see you. thanks for being winners. how did the hack happen? it was detected by security company and it appears to have been

going on for some years. earliest estimates is since 2015. area 1 is setup by a few former nsa operatives that analysts, and they are attributing the attack to china based on their experience of following china for many years. by all accounts the european union because max at you at apparatus for its computers and so on and so forth has been a source of mirth for allies for a number of years. —— the european union's apparatus. one of the most sobering comments in the new york times reporters about the remarkably low level of security and the attacks really were not that sophisticated. it highlights one of

the mantras of cyber security people which is that 80% of successful cyber attacks could actually be prevented if people took a few simple steps. these are not top secret communications but they are routine communications. the leak is embarrassing. my impression here in the states is that people are looking quite seriously at the level to which chinese are in caged in cyber espionage but less so is my impression in both europe and the uk. is that true? i think there is a general ramping up of concerns. it is true that the americans have been more aware, more vocal about chinese activity. if you recall back in 2014 there was a massive hack of the office for personnel management and also there was an accord between xi jinping and 0bama back in 2015. in the last few days as well we have

seen announcements the last few days as well we have seen announcements about chinese activity from the european union and of course uk and five eyes. and what is the endgame here for the chinese? do they want this information out there? do they want their hacking capacity to be known? what are they trying to do with this information? it is very early days in the investigation. a more detailed report has been published in the last few minutes, the last hour or so. last few minutes, the last hour or so. this seems to be good old espionage, what is called the second old est espionage, what is called the second oldest profession in the world. i think that it is just part of what states do. they try to understand how people are perceiving them, what is going on and getting that level of intelligence about other states activities. it does not seem to be the classic modus operandi we have seen the classic modus operandi we have seen from allegedly russia in the 2016 election where there was a

hack, and league programme light withjohn hack, and league programme light with john podesta hack, and league programme light withjohn podesta and the dnc. this seems to have been documents on an open server which were discovered by security researchers. ok, emily taylor, thank you forjoining us. people have been so focused on russia, perhaps they have forgotten to look at china. that is who people are increasingly worried about. ever since president trump pulled out of the paris climate agreement the focus has shifted to what states and local communities are doing to combat climate change. leading that fight you probably wouldn't expect to find a republican mayor in the state of texas. a majority of the people there voted for donald trump and it's a region where oil and gas reign supreme. but as our north america correspondent aleem maqbool found, this christmas season is being lit with the environment in mind. when it comes to saving the planet, trump's america has come under fire for not doing enough. but one little town is trying to go against the grain. thanks in part to its mayor.

so here we are in georgetown, texas, on the most beautiful town square, not only in texas but the united states of america i tell you. this is sort of what heaven would look like at christmas. let me ask you, for an environmentalist it doesn't look like heaven, does it? it looks like it's a huge waste of energy. what's going on here? it's not — we are 100% renewable energy. all these lights, the whole downtown experience, is funded by solar energy. as a republican from texas, he's an unlikely climate change superhero but under his watch his town has become the largest in the us to switch solely to renewable energy companies. a wind farm in west texas and a massive solar park that supplies the town's power.

in this conservative part of the country, the majority of people also voted for this man. all of this with global warning, it is a hoax, a moneymaking industry. this little sandwich shop in georgetown has its own solar panels and it appears having a president who says he's not even convinced about man postman contribution to climate change is inspiring individuals to do their bit. you have to start somewhere. if you wait for someone else to do it it will never happen, you have to do it yourself. that is the mayor's feeling, too. here in texas he has seen a campaign against him by members of his own party. you have special interest groups that really go out and promote oil and gas interests. i am not the number one guy right now. they don't like that i am out there telling the truth. actually, just putting the facts out there. some of the critics say that is because he and others are disrespecting the heritage

of the state in the country by demonising the fossil fuel industries. lot of what the state has seen and prospered from, what people have done for so long, was oil. you talk to people across the state and they say my grandpa was an oilman. when someone says oil is evil, i think my grandpa was not evil. holiday season access in georgetown is at least powered by renewable energy and the town is trying to show you can be conservative in america and still care about the environment. it is just that politics really does not make it easy. i love that. they go all—out on holiday decorations. they have started doing it here as well. they have started doing it here. sparkly lights everywhere. i love it! labour leaderjeremy corbyn is facing calls to apologise for apparently calling theresa may a "stupid woman" during

prime minister's questions. except labour says that's not what happened. they claim he was merely saying "stupid people. " so, are the two words "people" and "woman" easily mixed up when lipreading? in an entirely unscientific fashion, we've tested out the claim. here are three clips of the beyond 100 days team, saying a mix of the two phrases. the question is — can you tell the difference? here's faith. katty, what's she saying? stupid woman. ok, let's hear it with the sound up. we just heard it with the sound up. 0k, your turn, clive. here's stefan. what's he saying? stupid people. what do you think?

most people as well. let's hear it. stupid people. 0k, last go. here's anna. over to you. stupid woman. your mouse makes... let's hear it. stupid woman. your mouth makes a completely different shade when you say the two words. u nless unless you are a ventriloquist, you cannot say that without performing a pin cannot say that without performing a p in your mouth. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news, facebook is once again in the spotlight for how it's shared users' data. and elon musk unveils a prototype underground tunnel designed to transport cars at high speed. that's still to come. pretty mild up there at the moment

for the time of the year. we have had rain and for the rest of the week not much change in the weather. i--it week not much change in the weather. i -- it will week not much change in the weather. i —— it will stay rather showery and the atlantic winds will push in some milder air. this is the atmosphere in motion. you can see whether cloud is from, from the sensual and north atlantic. through the course of this evening and overnight the same pattern, westerly or south—westerly winds with some showers on and off. clear skies with rain for 20 or 30 minutes and back to clear skies again. maybe a touch of frost in scotla nd again. maybe a touch of frost in scotland and the north—east where we keep the drier weather and the clearest whether for the longest. 0n thursday morning there will be some sunshine around, in fact not a bad start to the day and there will be a lot of bright and sunny weather

around on thursday. take a brolly just in case. the rather breezy conditions will drag on further showers across the atlantic. it looks as though the south coast will have a better day compared with what we had on wednesday. perhaps more sunshine and in the south—east as well as east anglia. in the north—west and eventually parts of south—western england we will see more rain pushing info. this is the next weather front we will see, arriving early hours of friday morning. if you are up that early it really will be quite a wash—out. heavy rain splashing its way through southern and central areas. by the afternoon there is a lot of cloud in the north and in the south it will dry out. it would be very windy. we are expecting very blurry conditions in the south of the uk. those conditions are dragging in the milderair conditions are dragging in the milder air with temperatures 13, 14. through the weekend we're going to

see whether systems moving through. the weekend will be split into two. looks like out of the two days, saturday will be the better day. we will have more sunshine with sunny skies and a few showers. by sunday weather fronts will be moving through for them in the run—up to christmas, christmas day looks like we will have a little dose of cold weather. this is beyond 100 days, with me, katty kay, in washington. clive myrie is in london. our top stories: a newspaper investigation claims facebook handed over the data of millions of its users without their consent. it's the latest scandal to hit the social media network. the european commission reveals its plans to prepare for a no—deal brexit, as british politicans occupy themselves with a row over the opposition leader's comments. coming up in the next half hour: the us senate passes a sweeping criminaljustice reform bill, in a rare show of bipartisanship. plus, tech billionaire elon musk unveils a super—fast transport tunnel underneath the streets of la, bringing his dreams of quashing

traffic one step closer to reality. if your facebook feed is like mine today, you may notice several people saying they are leaving the social network. they're responding to an investigation in the new york times that reveals the company shared users' data more widely than previously disclosed. the reports says facebook passed on data to more than 150 other companies, including amazon, apple and microsoft. as its share price fell today, facebook defended its behaviour, saying it never gave others access to personal data without the user's permission. madison malone kircher is associate editor at new york magazine and joins us now. thank you for being with us. are you surprised by this? absolutely not.

if we have seen anything from facebook in the last year, this is the status quo. which explains why i'm not on facebook. catty was saying a number of people are leaving the platform. is that i worry for the company? it's always a worry for the company? it's always a worry for the company? it's always a worry for the company but a few months after the cambridge analytica scandal, which highlighted significantly fewer people than the new york times report shows, a few months later people in america were using facebook more for the same as before and population seems unperturbed, which is alarming. you say you're not surprised but since cambridge analytica, facebook has been before congress, tech giants had to speak to committee members in parliament, has there been no

retribution or sends these companies are going to regulate themselves, that something has changed? the interesting thing about this week's report is that you need to know in 2011 facebook was brought before the ftc and settled against charges they had deceived users over privacy and pa rt had deceived users over privacy and part of that agreement was a new consent agreement which facebook agreed to have themselves assessed on by pricewaterhousecoopers to show they were gobbling up the bargain, and at least one of those assessments found that facebook was not doing much to keep user data safe, so even when they have been held accountable and brought to task, it is still not leading to results. if we all know this and we know the profit motive means they will carry on sharing data, who do

we have to blame? do we have regulators who cannot keep up and we heard in congress half of them did not even understand facebook, the companies themselves, or is it up to us companies themselves, or is it up to us to pool our accounts? it's a combination of things. it's up to the user to be smart and read terms of service but even if you comb through facebook‘s fine print without magnifying glass, you could not have known your information was being given away to 150 companies because facebook did not disclose it. facebook is calling these companies extensions and saying that sharing information with amazon and microsoft and social media platform in russia link to the crumlin, that is fine because they are extensions of facebook, so there wasn't a lot the average person could have done

to protect themselves. looking more broadly we may see facebook come up against government oversight, i would be surprised if we don't see the ftc bringing charges against facebook that the times reporter spoke with several employees of the ftc who seem to agree that facebook is in violation of that 2011 consent agreement. thank you forjoining us, if nothing else facebook will be alarmed by the slide in its share price. brexit is a story that keeps moving. with100 days to go until britain leaves the european union, the uk government is announcing its immigration plans for a post—brexit britain. big uk businesses meanwhile are warning against the risks of a no—deal departure from the eu. the european commission is also taking steps, and has published a series of contingency measures designed to limit what it calls the most significant damage that would be caused by a no—deal brexit. among other things, the measures would temporarily allow british airlines to operate flights into and out of the eu but not within in it, hauliers to carry

freight by road into the eu for a nine—month period without having to apply for permits and uk financial services regulations — in a limited number of areas — to be recognised as equivalent to the eu's for up to two years. it also urged states to take a "generous" approach to the rights of uk citizens in the eu following a no—deal brexit provided that was reciprocated by the uk. the commission says these measures do not compare to eu membership, or the transition period on offer in the withdrawal agreement. finding a route through the daily developments is tricky. and so to help us with that we're joined from westminster by our dynamic duo of the political benches, labour's seema malhotra and conservative nigel evans. good to see you both, 100 days exactly before we leave the eu,

yesterday i like and us all with being on a jet aircraft and we don't know where we're going. we could be heading to a beautiful tropical island with lots of water and fresh fruit or we could be heading to a wizened rock of volcanic substance in the middle of nowhere, at this stage, where are we heading? you we re stage, where are we heading? you were right and when we were in the select committee this morning i asked the experts giving evidence whether they could work out where the prime minister intended to take us, when you look at that than political declaration which is the base document, not legally binding, for all negotiations for our future arrangements, and it could be anywhere, so this is an extraordinary place to have ended up. we should be moving forward with

certainty but instead we see a government that is losing the confidence of parliament and the country, and now threatening no deal, which would make us all far worse. the prime minister mentioned there is a leaked document which is come out from the department of work and on and is which mentions contingency planning for no deal is looking for a strategy to tackle rising homelessness, poverty and suicide. nigel, what do you reckon, are we heading to that lovely island or that lump of love are? as you can tell, seema is a glass half empty andl tell, seema is a glass half empty and i am tell, seema is a glass half empty andlama tell, seema is a glass half empty and i am a glass half full. one of us and i am a glass half full. one of us needs to do our research. the prime minister is doing what the british people voted for, theresa may is now going to deliver on what

they voted for. there was little between getting this deal through, all the eu need to do is look again at the problem of the backstop and the ability of the uk to unilaterally leave. if we can get legal clarity on that, i believe we have a withdrawal agreement but even lam prepared have a withdrawal agreement but even i am prepared to make concessions on so i am prepared to make concessions on so i'm far more optimistic and we have been told that the vote in the house of commons will come in the second week of january. we believe it should be far sooner. the prime minister is still negotiating with the eu and my answer is against jean—claude juncker and you talk about business and certainty, what that must be in germany with all the jobs that may be lost in the car industry or in france because of champagne production so my anger is saying to president yunker, do you

not care forjobs in the rest of the eu because we do. nigel knows we would be far more hit as a single nation by a no—deal brexit and you have to be honest about that because the rubble is in the road on this and as politicians we have to act in that nation's interests, no prime minister they could imagine taking our country down this journey and yet this is now the position theresa may is in and spending aliens... three sent me this christmas card this year, the bbc have brought us together. we know you get on famously but three, quick question about your leader, do you approve of him calling theresa may a stupid woman? that seems to have been

debated extensively today and if you watch that whole discussion and what jeremy said, the point was reached by everybody which is that all of us need to have language respectful of each other and that's aside from what happened today or didn't happen and that is the important point we need to take and that extends to every one of us. we have had a long two years and i know there's a lot of frazzled tampers in the house of commons, brexit probably being pivotal as far as how the people feel, the last 12 months have been very long but i'm looking forward to a merry christmas and a happy new brexit in march. thank you to you both. merry christmas. thank you, nigel and seema. there is a reason why it when people stand up to speak they say my right honourable friend,

and not referring to them as something else. last night something unusual happened in washington — republicans and democrats came together to pass an important piece of legislation. it's known as the first step act and will reform america's prison system. more than two million adults are incarcerated in the us. to put that into context: while the us makes up approximately 4% of the world's population it also holds 22% of the world's prison population. a short while ago i spoke to democratic congresswoman karen bass, who sits on the judiciary committee — about the bill's passing. the senate last night passed these measures on criminaljustice reform. clearly america has far more prisoners than any other western country. will this reduce america's prison population? it will, but i do think our criminal justice system, especially mass incarceration, is a point of shame and something we need to address comprehensively, from beginning to end, meaning we need to address

why so many people are injail to begin with. a lot of them are injail because they cannot afford to make bail. i am very supportive of the first step act, in fact, language i proposed regarding pregnant women who are incarcerated was included in the bill. did you know we put pregnant women in shackles and in chains up to and including while they are delivering a baby? can you imagine being shackled to a gurney during delivery because they're concerned about you escaping? that's a barbaric practice that should be banned and i'm happy to say it was included in the first step and so that practice will be banned in federal prisons. first step addressed the criminal justice system in a lot of different areas and i think it is exactly as it's called, first step — many more things need to be done and i hope we will be able to address many more criminaljustice reforms in the next congress. another thing that had to be addressed was minimum sentencing, supporters of this bill said,

and it has done that. will that reduce the amount of time that certain criminals are sent to prison for in the us, especially members of the african american community who are sent to prison for long terms? absolutely, because many of those people should not have been sent to prison to begin with. one of the other big reasons why people are incarcerated in the us is because they cannot afford lawyers so a lot of times people plead guilty because they've been threatened by the prosecution that if they don't, they will have to serve longer and so we need to examine our criminal justice system in terms of mandatory minimums. this didn't get rid of those but it did address some. mandatory minimums take the power away from a judge to have any discretion, it basically says if you committed this crime the judge doesn't have the authority to say maybe there were extenuating circumstances, they have to say the person has to serve whatever

is required by law. this act was championed by the white house and supported by many of your republican colleagues. will you give republicans credit for getting this through? sure, absolutely, it was an example of bipartisan legislation. there are other examples, theyjust often don't get the publicity, so i am opposed to the majority of what the president does but if there are ways we can come together and it will benefit people, i'm right there. karen bass, congresswoman, thank you forjoining us. interesting what karen bass was saying at the end, there is bipartisanship on the health but a lot doesn't get publicity. a lot of votes do not get to the floor. to illustrate the bipartisanship that

is on the hill. it's been suggested that immigration reform, dreamers legislation, even gun reform, there is bipartisanship but these votes are not getting to the senate floor because of paul ryan and mitch mcconnell blocking them. yes, and senator mcconnell tried to block this one but it was over prominent pressure from the white house and jared kushner and a group of republican senators who said they had to do something about the length of prison terms americans are serving and the sheer number, it's crazy, 4% of the world's population and 22% of the world's prison population, it makes no sense. a coroner has ruled that a russian millionaire who collapsed in 2012 near his home in surrey died of natural causes — rejecting any suggestion he was poisoned. alexander perepilichnyy is thought to have suffered sudden arrhythmic death syndrome

while he was out running near his home. he had been helping to expose alleged organised crime in russia and believed he was on a kremlin hit—list. italy has agreed a deal on its budget with europe after months of disagreement, which led to the eu threatening fines and disciplinary action on the country. the commission had demanded changes to italy's budget plans because of the country's high debt. under the deal it has agreed to lower its planned budget deficit. the artist banksy has confirmed that a new graffiti piece that has appeared in south wales is his. the work — on the side of a garage in port talbot — has predictably attracted a lot of interest since its appearance. the owner of the garage says he hasn't slept for fear it might be vandalised. poor guy! anyway, he has a banksy on the side of his garage, not bad. this is beyond 100 days. still to come: is this the dawning of a new era

of superfast ways to travel? elon musk unveils his latest offering — undergound tunnels designed to transport cars at high speed. it appears it doesn't pay to be loyal — it turns out that millions of people who stay with companies for insurance and mobile phones for years are actually losing out by around £900 a year. that's the verdict of the competition watchdog — as our personal finance correspondent simon gompertz reports. the loyalty penalty can grind off your hard earned cash without you noticing. nick near doncaster found he was paying more than £1000 a year more than he needed to for house insurance. we were paying £1929.82 a year. loyal for 21 yea rs, the cost had tripled. shopping around got him a policy for less than £500. it's an easy way for them to make more money so they will constantly put the price up, year after year after year, and they assume that insurers say they are taking action

against the penalty but nick's provider, santander are say the price went up because he made claims but he says he only got £200. but at doncaster market nearby, explanations from big companies get short shrift. what would happen to you if you charged your loyal customers more than someone who just came in for the first time? i wouldn't last two minutes. the competition watchdog is targeting insurance, and other companies to introduce price rises by stealth or have costly exit fees or put up barriers to switching or counselling, or make you auto renewed to get a deal and then roll it over at a higher price. it is an issue which infuriates people because it seems unfair, it seems underhand that prices should be allowed to creep up without you knowing and it happens because big businesses are allowed to charge their long—standing

customers more. today we are promised there will be court action against the worst perpetrators and caps on prices if they are needed. we know we need to burn less carbon. and we're told that if we want to protect our planet, by 2050 the world should not release more greenhouse gases into the environment than can be absorbed back again — by trees, plants or by carbon capture technology. so the pressure is on governments and consumers to move on from fossilfuels. but where does that leave a company whose primary purpose is to sell us oil and gas? for the latest in our climate matters series we're joined from the hague by one of the world's biggest oil and gas companies. martin wetselaar is the head of shell's gas and integrated energies. i put it to him that

in a decarbonised future, hydrocarbons will still need to be a big part of the mix? at the moment more than 80% of energy provision in the world relies on hydrocarbons and that will have to come down if we are to stick with the paris agreement but talk about the world needing to be fossil—free tomorrow, frankly is impossible. there is a billion people on the earth that live fossil free lives and they are the 1 billion poorest people on the planet so what we need is a transition where our reliance on transitional fuels is slowly decreased and we find ways to seduce customers with low carbon energy products like electrical vehicle charging, hydrogen, there are many options but they take time to roll out. the energy system is huge. shell has been part of the climate talks, you've been to the major conferences but you can understand why viewers and environmentalists might be sceptical at the idea of a major energy companies saying

they are behind the push for alternative sources of energy? yes, and i think we will have to prove our case over time. it is important for us to be a major energy company not only today but in 30, 40 years and we are convinced the energy system then will be largely low carbon, it will actually be net zero carbon, so it's a matter of survival to us that we thrive in the system and build low and no carbon energy offerings and that is what we have been doing in the last few years, so in the last two years we have become europe's leading provider of charge points for electrical vehicles, the world's largest hydrogen service station provider and only today we announced we announced two big deals, a big offshore deal in newjersey in the states

and a big investment in our solar development company in south—east asia, so we are definitely making moves and the world will need to move along with us, eventually it will be about what customers buy, not so much about what we produce. but what happens to shell's profits? presumably your shareholders will not be happy if you turn around and say one of the big returns you get from fossil fuels, you will not get any more. this is where the transition comes in. we've been very successful in producing oil and gas and we will continue to produce oil and gas for a long time to come. we will need to find commercial ways to participate in the energy transition to make money out of the provision of low carbon energy. this transition will only take place if money can be made out of the provision of low carbon energy to people and we will need to find the key to that and we are comfortable we will. i have one viewer question that was tweeted to us. after the un report on climate change, does shell think

the economic benefits of fracking outweigh its risks to the environment? it can be done in a responsible way and can be done wrongly. fracking in the past has been done in ways that did not respect the environment. we are convinced it can also be done in a way that is consistent with environmental protection so this is all about and the right level of regulation and enforcement. martin wetselaar, thank you forjoining us. los angeles and traffic. the two are as synymous as la and the hollywood sign. it's no surprise really, congestion levels in the city are among the worst in the world. there is one man hoping to change all that, though. elon musk of tesla fame has unveiled a prototype underground tunnel which is designed to transport cars

at high speed around the city. the tunnel is only a mile long at the moment but the goal is to build a network aimed at easing la's serious traffic problem. special electric cars would be lowered in and travel at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. we already have that, it's called the tube here and you have metro lines in the us, so tell me, is there really going to not be congestion at these lifts to get out off the tube and into it? it's creating the same problem. the only way to deal with congestion is to cut cars. i wasn't expecting this. i was wowed by the green and blue lights. you are so taken by all the flashy lights. he had me at flashy lights. he says

you can drive in disease using other ca rs you can drive in disease using other cars but i have a fiat 500 and i fear... like when apple products are designed for apple, i think they will design those for a certain product. that's cynicism for you. good night. pretty mild as there the moment, we had some rain and for the rest of the week there isn't much change, the week there isn't much change, the weather will stay showery and atla ntic the weather will stay showery and atlantic winds will continue to push into milderairand atlantic winds will continue to push into milder air and this is the atmosphere, clouds are coming from the north atlantic and that's a relatively mild sauce for our part of the world so this evening and overnight the same pattern, westerly or south—westerly winds with showers

on and off, clear skies for 20 or 30 minutes, maybe a touch of frost in scotla nd minutes, maybe a touch of frost in scotland and the north east where we keep the dry and clearest weather for longest. 0n keep the dry and clearest weather for longest. on thursday morning there will be sunshine, not a bad start to the day and a lot of bright if not sunny weather on thursday but ta ke if not sunny weather on thursday but take a brollyjust in case because these breezy conditions will drag in further showers of the atlantic. it looks like this south coast will have a better day than we had on wednesday so perhaps some more sunshine this year and in the south—east, whereas in the north west and parts of england tomorrow we will see more rain pershing in, the next weather from a rise in the early hours of friday, so if you are up early hours of friday, so if you are up that early it will be a wash—out, heavy rain splashing through central

and southern areas, then by the afternoon a lot of cloud around in northern areas, the south dries up but it will be windy, we expect very blow away conditions in the southern half of the uk and those are dragging in milderair. through half of the uk and those are dragging in milder air. through the weekend we will see weather systems move through, the weekend will be split into two, it looks like out of the two days, saturday will be the better day, you'll have more sunshine and sunny skies with a few showers but by sunday weather fronts will be moving through and then next week in the run—up to christmas, christmas day, it looks like we will have a little dose of colder weather. this is bbc news, i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 8pm: a furious row erupts in parliament over whether or not the labour leader called the prime minister a "stupid woman". i did not use the words "stupid woman" about the prime minister

or anyone else and am completely opposed to the use of a sexist or misogynist language in absolutely any form at all. the european commission says it has started to implement its preparations for a no—deal brexit. the government sets out its immigration policy for the uk after brexit. ministers say it'll be skills that matter from now on. the us federal reserve has raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. labour mp fiona 0nasanya is found guilty of perverting the course