it minute would get you there. it didn't work. the sticking point i think was the american demand that some of these concessions which i think china was fairly willing to make on intellectual property and the list should be enshrined in chinese law, which is a slightly bizarre concession considering the patties above the law anyway, but it meant this very public process of going to the national people because my congress, it would have looked like a climb—down for the chinese president who is highly nationalist, he wants to make this country great again, to be seen to allow the united states to dictate chinese law, i thought he politically was not a great work. remember it came just after his belsen road —— mike belton road summit. he is not an entirely confident ground and brandy figure is a big part of his

position. looking at the view from washington, , position. looking at the view from washington,, look at the speech from trump, is that bravado on his part are that resolve and resilience? this is an issue where you have anonymity across the united states, the republicans and democrats alike think it is time to rein in china, carl ih on it on the issue of technology theft and so it is not one of those polarisations, a while ago and pelosi said trump was not going far enough. with the rhetoric of trump, it is interesting, it is kind of refreshing because the old — style kind of refreshing because the old—style diplomacy hasn't accomplished any of that, so you think this new guy with all of his bluster can do it, but the problem with his bluster as he goes for these knee jerk responses of

tariffs. putting a big tariff on this will hurt china but who will pay? it is the american consumer. he does not really take the time to think through the logic and consequence of his actions but it is true, i agree, i think the chinese misjudged at the last minute, thought they could push this through and trump is not having it. and when we look at the next move on the part of the trump, he is talking about putting another set of tariffs on the rest of us imports from china, another $300 billion. should the chinese take him seriously, or r is the vice of the american consumer going to say no? the chinese economy is not strong right now, it is struggling, so exports to china are important. i think trump has some strong cards in his hand, but the consequence on american coi'isuitiei's his hand, but the consequence on american consumers cannot be negated

i'ioi’ american consumers cannot be negated nor can the huge us investment in china, so this isn't, putting up tariffs leads to this reciprocity thatis tariffs leads to this reciprocity that is destructive. i think an interesting thing is we saw these steel tariffs against mexico and canada are being pulled down and this has been a real irritant between america's closest allies and this week the us canada mexico free trade agreement now looks like it will pass, partly because i think trump knows he needs to focus on china. the irony is he has ended up with what nafta was and a lot of the bluster takes us where we already were. i think that almost an important pa rt i think that almost an important part was the declaration was with huawei and national security. and then there was the next biggest

chinese technology company was quite a sanctions busting by congress and they put in a similar kind of sanction on them which was only lifted after the chinese president called donald trump because the company had gone bust. you have got a giant technology company which looks like it will take over the world but the vulnerabilities it cannot work without american components. that is a real declaration of war and the danger is that if you do back to a trade deal between the us and china which is not looking too promising but could happen, that is a short truth in what is very explicitly going to be a long while. we are in a while which is being expressed through commerce but it is a while for the future and it will not stop. would you bring huawei into the us and western europe? no, ithink and western europe? no, i think it is a risk, but i think that is different from the security issue, whether you destroy

the company. i want to bring steve and barry m. steve, on the issue of the raises, the long—running commercial while we will see between these two superpowers, at least on some battlefro nts. superpowers, at least on some battlefronts. the uk has become a problem battlefront in a way on the huawei question. it will get worse now that we have had the national emergency with trump keeping out what it sees as adversary on tech. the three topics we are discussing in this programme as a substrate reflects the total confusion at the moment about britain's place in the world and this is a classic example, what to do with china. cameron and osborne, when they were in charge, we would china, went out there and theresa may said it was not a grown—up way of doing it, we will review the relationship. now she is the one who wants to steal with, giving the —— huawei, against her ex

defence secretary and others, who was then photographed with george osborne, even though he was the pro—china initiator. that is total confusion in the british government. are you saying they don't understand the consequences of their actions on china moves? they do, but they face a dilemma. my understanding is the reason theresa may was keen on that deal is it was a good deal and britain at the moment is searching around for good deals outside of the european union because of brexit. it is also obsessed with the deal with the united states, a trade deal. and a lot of the conservative candidates, i think will be asked about this and will come down on the side of the united states for the same security reasons. but they are confused, they will want to do deals with china big time because britain's economic position is so confused, what is its

relationship with europe be? what about the potential for china? we can't alienate the usa and so there will be a lot of this bewildered confusion within a british government, notjust confusion within a british government, not just between different parties. and barry, iwanted different parties. and barry, i wanted to pick up on something that isabel said about the national pride issue, the sovereignty issue. some analysts say what the americans are asking of china is to rewrite its operating system and put that in law for the economy. 0bviously system and put that in law for the economy. obviously as a country, china, which says it has had to make centuries of humiliation at the hands of foreigners, there is humiliation to act at the behest of foreigners. the problem is, we in the east, we have the national pride and we don't wa nt have the national pride and we don't want people, especially from the west, to interfere in our affairs so this is the major problem. the other problem, isabel said may be the

chinese misjudged the situation. i think also president trump misjudged that situation and the chinese position, he thought that he can use the maximum pressure are the war of ta riffs the maximum pressure are the war of tariffs and taxes. he thought that, the chinese will throw the towel and they will say, ok, what you want? we are ready to agree any agreement. this is a big mistake. really we have a war with china, a trade war with china, a while with venezuela, a war with iraq and we don't know when the next war is coming, so why this warmongering? this is the problem of the whole world, we have an administration that knows one thing is to put pressure, maximum pressure, use the military power in order to make the other people surrender. it does not work. i

believe donald trump with maximum pressure to make the other people submit, it does not work, neither in in iran nor china. before we leave the china topic, i wa nt before we leave the china topic, i want from isabel here, focusing on decision—making in the chinese structure, because the rest of us, we can see and do some decision—making, in china it is very hard. what is going on? is it a monolith? is it that the president decides? he is certainly chairman of everything and it is a black box. i think the best description is fragmented authoritarianism. you have an authoritarian structure where decision—making goes up through the standing committee to the president, who is now chairman ofa the president, who is now chairman of a whole series of what i called leaning small groups which makes policy. his problem is that below that there is this a vast anarchic

unruly place in which he has to negotiate. and on this issue, it is a difficult position he finds himself in. how does he present to himself his choices? very good question, but you have to look at his... he needs public opinion and that is something people forget about. he has a slowing economy which is part of a fairly normal cycle so he has to think, how doi normal cycle so he has to think, how do i get through the middle income trap? how do i keep various constituencies happy and how do i secure the future? he decided to secure the future? he decided to secure with advanced technologies which is part of the while with the united states and they can bring to bear on that challenge everything from finance to industrial policy to security policy and that is the danger of the chinese state operating in global markets, no other country can do that and can't undercut the competition in the same way and no other country can use the leveraged of its enormous market to

win concessions and no other country can't say to its partners, as they did with britain over the hinkley point c, that if you cancel this, you won't get anything else. no other country can mobilise in the same way across all sectors and that is one of the big changes. we are in a cold war, but a cold war with the worlds second largest economy and what people have forgotten it is still a state and you have to have an understanding of what it is like to deal with a leninist state. plus the complications of dealing with a hugely integrated and enormous economic power, we have never had that before. thank you for putting that in a nutshell. barry says president trump wants war and everything that does not want a major war in the middle east. and there are certainly no european cheerleaders for regime change in iran. but the us is deploying firepower to the gulf and evacuating diplomats from iran's neighbours.

who's driving this strategy in washington and the region? bari,, you bari, , you take bari,, you take the region. i believe there are two more camps are pushing for this well. first, americans like a bolton and bombay, those people that are pushing for war against those people that are pushing for waragainst iran, and those people that are pushing for war against iran, and then we have saudi arabia and uae and israel, they would like the american to do they would like the american to do the war on their behalf, they want them to destroy iran, to cripple it and change the regime. this is the crux of the matter in our part of the world, it is very tense, the latest reports are saying that saudi and other gulf states are agreeing to the american to send ground troops, talking about 120,000 troops and mark naval fasteners

troops, talking about 120,000 troops and mark navalfasteners —— more naval forces. the situation and mark navalfasteners —— more navalforces. the situation is and mark navalfasteners —— more naval forces. the situation is very tense. just last week we had to make attacks, very important and significant. 0ne attacks, very important and significant. one is against oil installation for oil tankers where one of the united arab emirates, the second one was against a saudi installation near riyadh where two pump stations were attacked by drones from yemen. it is very indicative, the message is very clear that the iranian very clear. we wouldn't let any i'll be exported via the gulf of oman are the arab see and also other states. it is very clear. it means we are waiting for any mistake from here are there,

any problem are third party to interfere to ignite the war there. we don't know yet. there are talks about war and at the same time there are talks about other things. i believe the but a strong point? i think this is an interesting case where he is surrounded with advisors who charmed him into lips as mike pompeo secretary of state who are much more hawkish than him. he is a bully who does not want to fight and this brinkmanship is the way he has done his art of the deal through his life. this trade war with china is really a tea party compared to what we see with iran because we are talking about a potential real war and the danger of brinkmanship, we have seen in the 20th century,

sometimes what you start you can't stop and that is a real danger in this case. trump seems to be somewhat aware of it, the irony is in all of that anti—obama ripping up the nuclear card, what does he want? he wants to replicate that. this is just pathetic. he ran on this obama sold this and he should not have done it. now he would love to have a deal like that. isabel, what about the question of whether they can, assuming one of the things that insofar as you can divine comedy strategy from washington, dc is to apply greater economic pressure via sanctions and to either achieve regime change through that are achieve a change of strategy from iran through that? is that likely to work? there are three countries trying to do this, north korea, venezuela and iran, and it doesn't seem to be going very well in either case. one of the reasons is that when trump came in

he essentially declared war on his closest allies and if you are trying to achieve your objective, you need willing allies, you need to trade deal in the pacific that utah app, would have contained china's economic ambitions, he has been very rude to nato, europe is not going to join him in any hostilities on iran and as jeffrey said, join him in any hostilities on iran and asjeffrey said, he had a deal that delivered what he now says he wa nts, that delivered what he now says he wants, so he has gone about achieving his objectives in possibly the worst way if you are not going to go to war, this kind of thing, you are a paper tiger, as the chinese would say. steve, the europeans and the brits are ina steve, the europeans and the brits are in a difficult position because this is an ally and they are signatories to the nuclear accord, signed in 2015, they wanted to work,

but now they have got the major us player who has torn it up, left. where can they go? must be parochial. the uk are in a problematic position because soon after the war problematic position because soon afterthe war in problematic position because soon after the war in iraq, another senior country in the european union we re senior country in the european union were involved in quite an effective deal with iran and i think tony blair was aware of it but it was jack straw who was heavily involved. that formed the basis of some of the work that obama did with iran. now, where will britain be? under huge pressure to back the united states, no matter what it does, the default position, and yet not fully part of the european union, which i think will not back any kind of military adventure if it goes ahead. but i also agree that trump doesn't want it, the evidence when he speaks and acts is that he doesn't want it. when you surround yourself with

hearts, even a president as macho as him can lose control of the process. that is the danger. and presumably, bari, one last question on this topic, what is our off ramp here? 0bviously question on this topic, what is our off ramp here? obviously we think back to the efforts to get the nuclear accord under way and that was conducted with 0man as a bridge for secret talks, are we going to see the sultan of a man playing that kind of role to help iran and us climb—down? i hope so, because no one wants war in the middle east because we have had enough. he used the maximum power to put pressure on the iranians hoping they will respond and talk to him. they didn't, he said this is my phone number, the white house, they did not ring him. and he passed the same number to the swiss government because they are taking care of the american interests, this is the number, they did not pass it to the iranians. he

invited the swiss president to washington, to the white house, hoping he would mediate. i believe there could be some secret parks. maybe they are going on now. we know trump, he would like to avoid this warand trump, he would like to avoid this war and have a deal. but he wanted it to his terms, not iranian terms. 8000 years of civilisation in iran, there is lots of empires. you have trump saying do this, do that, they don't accept this. we have pride. interests first, pride is nothing. interests first, pride is nothing. in the middle east, pride is important, it is actually part of our history, of our culture. thank you, bari. let us be fully parochial. "no—one else can get the job done." theresa may said it again on friday. but she was talking to an almost empty room.

even her own party no longer believes in her promise to deliver brexit and a bright future. the race to succeed her has begun in earnest and senior europeans call it a game of thrones on steroids. so, steve, this is something for you, it is your issue, but before we get into the house of targaryen and all of the others, let's mark the week we have just had, because all of the others, let's mark the week we havejust had, because it has been a momentous week. we have clarification on one point of this multilayer dry more, that theresa may's leadership is coming to an end soon. we do not know when because she clings uncharacteristically fuzzed up it is a myth that she doesn't like this job, do not feel sorry for her. she will be gone soon. i mean weeks. we already have the start of a leadership contest so one thing is clear, that a new prime minister

will be in charge of probably the next crucial eu summit at the end of october when this current period of delay runs out. and so it is an extraordinary situation that she will be pushing one more time her deal, and yet here authorities so diminished, it was the launch of the european election campaign of the conservatives to an empty room, it is hard for a prime minister who has lost three times to come back for a off and win with such diminished authority. that is what is going on and it is part of a sort of crazy senior british politics. tragedy or comedy at this point? the play within the player. all of these, none of these steps that stephen has just listed solves the problems was that it is just deepening chaos without a way out.

and i suppose the problem, though 0ctober seems a long time away, it is not long in parliamentary time once you have dealt with summer recesses and conference season. you get a new prime minister, we can imagine who that might be, who won't be able to take britain out of the european union on a no deal basis with parliamentary approval. will there be a general election? who would win? it is chaos and none of it is going to cut this guardian are not. it remains the best option to go back to a referendum, since parliament can't resolve this. as it is a case they need to go back to the public either through a referendum of a general election and getan referendum of a general election and get an unequivocal mandate for a leader to do something? i think that might be a problem! i think the challenge with that, i think the challenge with that, i think so, but i think a lot of people in this country don't think so people in this country don't think so and that is the problem. clearly

nothing is clear and i think theresa may set this up, i don't think, except the common wisdom that she was dealt a tough hand and the poor woman, she did the best she could. i think her bags it means brexit set us think her bags it means brexit set us up for this because she never defined by exit and she allowed everyone to come with his or her own definition and soft bags it means a common market brags it. now we have this issue of it is too late, the camps have been comedy tribalism is here, it is an entrenched and she is incapable of bridging it. i think this morning's newspapers, it is said to borisjohnson is the overwhelming leader in the popularity amongst the tire is to be the next prime minister. boris johnson is going to take us off a cliff edge if he has a choice. barry.

why theresa may prolonged the pain? if she is going to leave and if she is going to leave in a few weeks, why she has tied all this time and the outcome is appalling. to be honest, if boris johnson the outcome is appalling. to be honest, if borisjohnson is going to be elected as a prime minister, there wouldn't be any referendum, he will ignore that, public, opinion, he was in my we need the local election and the european election. we have had the locals. then the european is coming. this could be a listen to the parties who are paralysed and they were elected as mps but they could not solve other problems. steve, quickly, are we going to get a clear message from the people at elections and is borisjohnson going to be the next leader of the conservative party question might be to it is clearly nigel farage's brexit party are going to starve

these european elections and that will panic both labour and the conservatives but especially conservatives, so that will have a huge impact on the leadership contest because one of the framing is will be, you can defeat nigel farage? that will help boris johnson. farage? that will help borisjohnson. but it does not mean he will be guaranteed it. thank you all for a great discussion. that's it for dateline london for this week. we're back next week at the same time. goodbye. hello. the best way to describe the weather this weekend is mixed,

because there will be sunshine and it will feel warm but equally some showers and some could be really heavy, some drenching downpour is. it is looking to stay predominately cloudy in the north, where is for england and wales we will see brighter skies, spells of sunshine but also some of the hit and miss heavy showers. look at the leg likely to stay grey and damp through scotla nd likely to stay grey and damp through scotland though the rain tends to ease a bit, turning light and patch, 11 degrees in aberdeen and a notable easterly breeze. northern ireland, generally cloudy, some splashes of rain, and england and wales, the splodges showing on the chart, heavy, thundery showers, quite slow moving due to the light winds, but someplace will avoid the showers. there is the chance for a shower at wembley for the fa cup final, equally spells of sunshine and ended the sunshine, feeling warm at 17 or

18 degrees. many of the showers will fade tonight, likely to stay quite damp across scotland and northern ireland and we will see mist and fog patches developing, particularly across parts of yorkshire into lincolnshire and east anglia. temperature is not fooling time between six and 11 degrees. there are areas of cloud stone in our direction but not many white lines on the chart, the winds will be light, so any showers developing through the day will be quite slow moving, drenching downpours in some places, early mist and fog and low cloud should left so there should be spells of sunshine between the showers, a brighter day than today across scotland, northern ireland holding on to more cloud. in the sunshine feeling warm up to 20 degrees. monday, a similar day, spells of sunshine, equally patchy cloud and showers. showers across

eastern and northern parts of the uk, to and brighterto eastern and northern parts of the uk, to and brighter to the south—west and temperatures up to highs of 20 degrees. mixed through the week ahead, there will be lots of dry weather, warm sunshine but also a showery rain at times. that's all from me for now.

good afternoon. labour's brexit spokesman, sir keir starmer, has accused cabinet ministers of "torpedoing" his party's negotiations with the government, which collapsed yesterday. he's called on theresa may to put a promise to hold a further referendum on the face of her eu withdrawal agreement when it's presented for a final time next month, before she steps down as prime minister. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake reports. and all clip and lacklustre launch for a european election campaign theresa may never wanted to fight