you're watching beyond 100 days. anger on the south lawn — president trump again pours scorn on the russia investigation. impeachment — says the president — is a dirty, filthy, disgusting word, and nothing to do with him. the special counsel comes in for special attention from the president who vents his fury at accusations he was helped by russia. russia did not help me get elected. you know who got me elected? i got me elected. russia did not help me at all. a new election in israel and a moment of reckoning for benjamin netanyahu, who has failed to form a coalition government. also on the programme: pardoned by the president, we will hear from convicted british peer conrad black who tells the bbc he will soon be returning to take

his seat in the house of lords. and a date with royalty — yes, katty kay will be here next week for the state visit of donald trump. we will look ahead to next week's big event. hello and welcome — i'm jane o'brien in washington, and christian fraser is in london. only 3% of americans say they have read robert mueller‘s report. but yesterday they heard from the man himself. the special council did not accuse the president of obstructing justice. but nor did he exonerate him — and that has got under the president's skin. in a ten—minute broadside the president said the special council was "deeply conflicted", "a never—trumper". the russia investigation he said was a scam. though in a tweet earlier in the morning the president seemed to acknowledge — for the first time — that russia had intefered in the election. "russia, russia, russia!

that's all you heard at the beginning of this witch hunt hoax", he wrote. "and now russia has disappeared because i had nothing to do with russia helping me to get elected." ten minutes later he was asked on the south lawn whether he was now acknowledging that russia did play a role. you know who got me elected? i got me elected. russia didn't help me at all. i never got into it. i never thought that would even be possible, to be using that word. to me it's a dirty word — the word impeach. it's a dirty, filthy, disgusting word. i think mueller is a true never—trumper. he is somebody that dislikes donald trump. didn't get a job that he requested, that he wanted very badly. and then he was appointed. and, despite that, and despite $40 million, 18 trump haters — including people that work for hillary clinton and some of the worst human beings on earth — they got nothing.

it's pretty amazing. our north america editor, jon sopel, is here. the gloves are off, aren't they? he's been reluctant to take on mister mueller so far, why now? until now it has been gentle jabbing, saying he is an investigator gone rogue and that he had been conflicted. today it was mixed martial arts that donald trump went in for as he set about him with kicks and punches and blows anywhere he could to land on mueller‘s body. why now? because yesterday we heard from mueller himself for the first time in two years. and you had that statistic in your introduction about how few people have read the report. a much higher number will have heard robert mueller saying if we thought donald trump was innocent of obstructing justice we would have said so. that is pretty damning. donald trump fought back in the way

he knows best, and that was all about reassuring his base, or convincing them, that robert mueller isa convincing them, that robert mueller is a crooked person, not to be trusted, not to be believed, stick with me, donald trump, and my version of events because that is where the truth lies. but for the first time actually acknowledging that russia did interfere with the election! he sort of did, and he sort of got there. that one line in that tweet, i had nothing to do with russia helping me to get elected. that will be the first time he has let their wed acknowledged that russia helped to get him elected. you saw him walking it back. i have seen a number of commentators make the comment that, actually, actually what he did there was commit the cardinal washington political gaffe, unknowingly speaking the truth. subconsciously he put it out there that this was the case and that is why it was walked back pretty quickly afterwards. i suspect he will go after —— after robert

mueller in much the same way he went off to comey. but was there perhaps an implied threat that if he kept going after people who bob mueller views with enormous respect, people of the highest integrity within the fbi, that he holds things that he can tell to congress and he is prepared to tell congress? is that the threat, perhaps?” prepared to tell congress? is that the threat, perhaps? ithink prepared to tell congress? is that the threat, perhaps? i think what donald trump has to work out is does he want to... when the first word of the report came out he put out the tweet, game over. and it was finished. and then today he has again said case closed. but he can't let it go. i think donald trump needs to decide, is he going to keep re—litigating this and putting it in the headlines or does he now think... the white house line yesterday was very good, it said, robert mueller is moving on and so should the rest of the democratic party and everyone else, this is past history. but if trump keeps

re—litigating it and keeps making some would say mendacious claims, he might be tempting mueller to say more than he had intended. meanwhile there is a curious story because donald trump was injapan last week and there is a report that a staffer within the white house sent an e—mail to within the white house sent an e—mailtoa within the white house sent an e—mail to a junior officer in japan asking them to get rid of the uss mccain, get it away from the president. he acknowledged today or seem president. he acknowledged today or seem to acknowledge that that e—mail had been sent by a staffer. have a listen. john mccain — i wasn't a fan. but i would never do a thing like that now, somebody did it, because they thought i didn't like him, 0k? and they were well—meaning, i will say. i didn't know anything about it. i would never have done that. so it is clear that the president

wasn't asking for the ship not to be there in the background while he was touring the naval yard, but perhaps this speaks more about the way the staff see his psyche, they felt they had to send an e—mail like that because he has this ongoing grudge with the late senator. and a p pa re ntly with the late senator. and apparently the e—mail came from the white house military officer. not exactly a staffer, someone part of the military chain of command, telling the navy, we mustn't let donald trump see there is a uss naval vessel called thejohn mccain. it is actually named afterjohn mccain putt father who an admiral. it is jaw—dropping. some that someone it is jaw—dropping. some that someone would think the president seeing that would be so upset. but you had donald trump saying, it was well ie that was very sympathetic and sensitive of them to recognise how much i dislikejohn mccain. i think it is a pretty unsavoury episode to remind people of this

bitterness that there was between the president and senator mccain who was held as a prisoner of war in vietnam and who served in the senate for decades. thank you very much indeed. one of the things said there that mister trump keeps re—litigating the russia enquiry could force mister mueller into saying more, there is an another alternative. by continuing to call it a witchhunt and denigrating mueller in ways he hasn't done before he is also creating his own narrative that he is the victim of a witchhunt, so in actual fact this could be playing into his own narrative and to his advantage. of course mueller saying case closed from his side as well, the document he says speaks for itself, but given the democrat say itself, but given the democrat say it begs more questions whether they

will subpoena him and get him to speak in front of congress, that is certainly the way it seems to be heading. we shall see. never before in the 71—year history of the state of israel has an election failed to deliver a government. but it has now. and extraordinarily it is the four time prime minister benjamin netanyahu who has failed to bring together a coalition. and so in september israeli voters will have to do it all over again. mr neta nyahu's party likud had won 35 seats, and until last night he had been in talks with potential right—wing partners. but he wasn't able to unite the nationalist and ultra—orthodox parties to form an alliance. at the heart of the impasse was a disagreement over military conscription exemptions for ultra—orthodox jewish students. dr michael oren is a former knesset member and deputy minister in the coalition. he is also the former israeli ambassador to the us and is in tel aviv now.

so what happens now, another action? indeed. another election. fortu nately indeed. another election. fortunately in contrast to the us, oui’ fortunately in contrast to the us, our election cycle is only three months. but it is a major inconvenience, very expensive, and nobody is very happy. but politically intensely significant, it isa politically intensely significant, it is a real change for israel. in the past israelis were mostly concerned about threats to their lives by iran, palestinian terrorists. now the major issue is the threat to israeli lifestyle, to their style of life and quality of life from ultraorthodox dues. so at the heart of this was an attempt by the heart of this was an attempt by the defence secretary to try and force ultraorthodox young men, 18—year—old men who would ordinarily be drafted to fulfil the draft, because at the moment they don't, and he is saying that at stake here

is not only israel's security but the very way of life. precisely. and israelis are looking at the statistics, they know that in 20 or 30 years between a third and a half of all children in school will be ultraorthodox, and they are not getting a basic education in maths oi’ getting a basic education in maths or english, and the israeli state, certainly the economy, will not be sustainable. you can pose it as an existential threat. and what he is doing is using the draft law as a means to an end, the end being the integration of ultraorthodox dues into israeli society, into the workforce, and the end of religious coercion on the less religious and even secular elements of society. what has prompted this now? why the backlash now? it is interesting. it could be that mister netanyahu is a victim of his own success. since the

creation of the state the major issue has been security and for the last 20 years the major issue has been whether neta nyahu last 20 years the major issue has been whether netanyahu is the best guarantor of israel's security. in recent yea rs guarantor of israel's security. in recent years he succeeded in guiding a six series measure of security. we are no longer surrounded by arab armies and there is an increasingly warm relationship between israel and most of the sunny arab states. now isa most of the sunny arab states. now is a big issue is whether netanyahu is a big issue is whether netanyahu is willing to do something about religious coercion. a major moment for israel. thank you forjoining us. arab leaders have gathered in saudi arabia for a three—day emergency summit, following recent attacks on oil assets in the gulf which riyadh has blamed on tehran.

there are suggestions the saudis are about to endorse qatar as a mediator in the dispute with iran, in the same way the united states has. saudi arabia has accused iran of ordering drone attacks on oil pumping stations in the kingdom, attacks that were carried out by yemen's iran—backed houthi group. and this week the us national security advisor, jon bolton, said iranian mines were "almost certainly" used to attack ships in the gulf of oman — a claim iran said was ludicrous. the bbc‘s chief international correspondent lyse doucet has been speaking to the saudi foreign minister adel al—jubeir. we have made it very clear that we don't want war, we have made it very clear that we don't want escalation. but we have also made it very clear that we cannot tolerate continued iranian aggression against us and our allies in the region. the world has made that position known. a large number of countries have condemned iran's actions. iran is subject to sanctions because of its actions. and lysejoins us now

from jeddah in saudi arabia. how united is the muslim arab world against iran? not united at all. the turkish president is not here, the lebanese foreign minister is not here, the qatari anywhere is not here. there is the most senior official. for countries like iraq and lebanon which have had long—standing relationships with a run, this is a very uncomfortable moment and last night one of the foreign minister said to me that there are people who are playing with fire because they don't want these tensions to keep escalating. the one thing that unites all the leaders of the arabic islamic world is that a solution must be found to this problem because itjust does

not go away. some will say iran is pa rt not go away. some will say iran is part of the region, you have to make space for it, others will say like saudi arabia is iran is not listening but it must be sent the strongest of messages that its behaviour will not be tolerated. coming back to the role qatar could play, obviously king salman and the leader of iran have not spoken for two years since the saudi supplemented the blockade. could they be brought back to the table and is there something constructive they could do between riyadh and tehran? there is one important thing about a mediator, they have to be an honest broker, trusted in equal measure by both sides. qatar does not have that. qatar turned to orion when the blockade was imposed in 2017, it needed a flight path in and out of the country, it needed a supplier of yoghurt and bread and

fish and all the things qataris need to survive, and iran stepped into the ring. qatar made it clear it has its own issues with iran, but iran became a very important ally. now on certain issues there are the same page and others they are not. so just because the prime minister of qatar has accepted the invitation, except to the protocol to come to these summits, does not mean that all the issues in the hostilities between these countries have gone away. thank you very much for joining us. donald trump is nothing if not unconventional in how he wields presidential power — especially the use of the pardon. the most recent beneficiary is former business associate and vocal supporter conrad black, who spent time in prison forfraud and obstruction ofjustice at his media company. the bbc‘s michelle fleury spoke with mr black at his home in toronto about how the pardon came about. when did you first know

you were going to get a pardon? when did you first get wind of this? i was advised by a friend who has a lot of contact with the white house that it was under consideration. and then the president telephoned. so you get this call... my first impulse was it was the daily mail or somebody. so, you know, itook the call and said hello and was going to say, is this a prank, and the person in a very polite but somewhat authoritative white house voice said, please hold for the president. and there was only two or three seconds and he came on. and i still thought it could be an impersonator, but then he said some things about material that had been sent to him by one of my counsel, that i knew it had to be him. what do you say to people who think you were pardoned because you wrote very nice things about the president? they will say what they will say, you know?

i don't really feel the need to respond to it. but since you ask me, i take the president at his word that his motive was not that, as he put it, we've known each other a long time, and not that, as he said, i had often written supportively of him. and not uncritically, i may say, but supportively. that his motive was that the white house counsel and legal team concluded that it was something that should never have been charged and he was put it right an injustice. so i take him at his word that that was his motive. and he said to me, there's going to be criticism — you're better at responding to this stuff than i am so i'll leave it to you. you leftjail seven years ago. what does it mean to have this pardon now? i don't want to overstate it. i mean, i'm philosophical — it is past, it is over. officially, in the united states, i have never been charged. i mean, i won in the end. you know, it was a war, and there are casualties in war is. i lost the time, i lost a lot of money. but, as you can see, my standard of living isn't bad,

and i am rebuilding — i am in rebuilding mode. and my mood is good, it is not vindictive. your co—defendants convicted of the same crime did not receive a pardon. but they haven't asked for one, as far as i know. in my opinion... i don't see why they don't apply for one, and i don't see why it would be withheld from them. what is next for lord black? well, one good thing about the legal problems as it gave me a chance to write a lot more, and i am astounded at the number of readers i have of the things i write in the us and canada. so will we see you owning a newspaper again? i don't think it's a good business. i mean, when i first got into it, it was a good business. you had a high profit margin and, of course, it is interesting. the news, by definition, is interesting — i don't need to tell you that. but it became very difficult business. and the fragmentation of the media makes it extremely competitive. do you have any plans to return

to the house of lords? yes, i expect to. is that something that now takes on a more, sort of, more reality since your pardon? well, i was going to do it anyway. but i suppose it makes it easier. but the truth is these last 15 years i haven't been as interested in british politics as i was before, in the thatcher days and john major. it could be quite interesting again, in fact it is as of right now. it is very interesting. so brexit could lure you back to the house of lords? well, i wouldn't put it quite like that. but i think, as it turns out, it is my good fortune that at the time when it is feasible, it happens by happy coincidence that it is a time of great fermentation in british public affairs. lord black, thank you very much for your time. thank you, michelle. conrad black isn't the only person to receive

a pardon from mr trump — let's take a look at some of the others. he pardoned ex—arizona sheriffjoe arpaio, who had been convicted of criminal contempt. he is known for his hard—line stance on immigration. he also issued a pardon to conservative writer dinesh d'souza, who was convicted in 2014 of violating campaign finance laws. lewis "scooter" libby, the former chief of staff to vice—president dick cheney under george w bush, was also deemed worthy of a pardon. he was convicted in 2007 of obstruction ofjustice and perjury. a conservative peer who will return to the house of lords. i should remind people it was tony blair who conferred a life peerage on him. he is the barren black of cross harbour. and it doesn't matter whether he was pardoned or not because the house doesn't keep a central record on criminal convictions of its members. they don't tend to sit when they have

been convicted. jeffrey archer, who was convicted, he has not sat since 2001. but others have, and they do. and seemingly he is going to return. also worth reminding everyone that president obama pardoned almost 2000 people, so president trump is still a long way from that. the indian prime minister, narendra modi, has been sworn in, in the capital delhi. he's taking the prime ministerial oath for a second consecutive term fter leading his hindu nationalist bjp to a resounding victory in the recent general election. in the uk a new review says university tuition fees in england should be cut to £7,500, and student loan repayments should be extended from 30 to a0 years. currently the maximum fee is £9,250 per year, but there has been political pressure to reduce this figure amid concerns about over—burdening young people with debt at the start of their careers. a baby born weighing just 2115 grams — that's just over

eight and a half ounces, believed to be the tiniest on record to survive premature birth, has been discharged from hospital in the us. apple when she was born at 23 weeks and three days in december last year. doctors told saybie's parents she had just hours to live, but five months on, she was discharged weighing a healthy 5.6 pounds. there's something great about supporting a sports team which is playing at the top of it's game, and to be there when it actually wins a tournament is every fan's dream. there's something not so great about supporting a team 3,000 miles from home when they lose. so spare a thought for these arsenal fans who paid a small fortune, to watch their team lose 4—1 in last night europa league final in baku.

have you got a second? i'm gutted, completely. it was expensive enough getting here, then to see my team play that shambolic lee is ridiculous. what it was coming all this way? no. that's blunt, isn't it? and it could get worse still if tottenham win the champions league final on saturday. still there is always the cricket season. indeed there is — and today was the first day of the cricket world cup. we have seen an "unbelievable" catch from england's ben stokes today, see if you can catch that on the highlights. but as good as that was, maybe it wasn'tjust as good as this. this is pitcher jeremy jeffress playing for the milwaukee brewers, who hangs on to an absolute screamer. 0h! he oh! he caught it! he makes the play ona oh! he caught it! he makes the play on a lying shot back to the mound.

he is hurt. just a motion itself to make that catch... not sure where the injury is but that was right at his face. and he stuck hold of it. quite incredible. i hear on the grapevine that you are the manager of the washington softball team in the office? is that right? i am. and we are doing rather well. i am the designated hitter. when we are —— when i am on the pitch we are in bad trouble. you are the cheerleader? got my pom—poms. this is beyond 100 days from the bbc. coming up for viewers on the bbc news channel and bbc world news: as tornados hit texas, we'll be talking to professor and meteorologist marshall shepherd about the recent wild weather. and we'll be looking at the proposed fiat—renault merger and how it shows

french president macron trying to get france to dominate the industry. that's still to come. a real mixture of weather across the country today. quite a few of us have had cloudy skies but we've seen some sunshine in england, cornwall looks glorious earlier this afternoon. it hasn't been like that everywhere. you can see the cloud across the north and west of the country and these weather fronts brought heavy rain, a few frog patches working in through the channel. underneath that, things looked rather grey and dismal in the scottish borders during the afternoon. that rain will continue on and off across the north—west of the uk through the rest of the night. further south, cloud re—develops, some and fog patches, may be some drizzle, but it will be

mild, 13 or14 may be some drizzle, but it will be mild, 13 or 1a degrees. a little cooler for northern scotland. for the north—west of the uk, more rain on the way for friday. a wet start to the day in northern ireland, with rain pushing into the finals in england and scotland where we could see a0 to 50 millimetres over the western hills in scotland, enough to cause some localised flooding. away from the weather front, quite a bit of dry weather, a few mist and fog patches to start, but the cloud should break with sunshine coming through again. it will feel quite breezy and humid, temperatures up to 23 or 2a, with the highest temperatures where there are the best breaks in the cloud across eastern england. saturday, generally brighter but still some patchy rain. the weather front pushes northwards, the best of the sunshine of england and wales, across eastern england

the highest temperatures on saturday, here becoming quite hot with temperatures up to 27. not quite as warm in the north west, quite as warm in the north west, quite as warm in the north west, quite a bit of cloud here, but prospects at least for some slightly brighter weather. into sunday, prospects at least for some slightly brighterweather. into sunday, low pressure m oves brighterweather. into sunday, low pressure moves in pushing a cold front, this band of rain, eastwards. it will introduce fresh air, a bit more sunshine in northern ireland in the afternoon. the cold front doesn't reach the south—east until late in the day so it could still be pretty warm on sunday. that is your latest weather.

you're watching beyond 100 days, with mejane o'brien in washington, and christian fraser in london. our top stories: president trump launches a personal attack on former special counsel robert mueller, accusing him of being "totally conflicted". a new election in israel and a moment of reckoning for benjamin netanyahu, who has failed to form a coalition government. also on the programme... with 11 candidates now in the running, calls for a limit to how many can enter the competition to lead the uk conservative party. and president trump will be in the uk next week to meet the queen for a second time, we'll bring you a look ahead later on.

in a way, the special counsel's statement yesterday proved more challenging for democrats than it did for mr trump, because now they have to decide what to do about it. and they are deeply divided. there are democrats running for president, who are calling for the president's impeachment, as they try to appeal to the liberal base. but mr mueller‘s statement did nothing to change the opinion of the house speaker nancy pelosi, who thinks impeachment will hurt her party and the country, so long as the senate republicans remain unmoved. the trump administration is hitting back — as his attorney general william barr told cbs news — he felt that mr mueller could have reached a decision on criminal activity. i personally felt he could have reached the decision. in your view he could have reached a conclusion? right, he could have reached a conclusion. the opinion says you cannot indict a president while he

is in office but he could have reached a decision as to whether or not it was criminal activity, but he had his reasons for not doing it, which he explained, and i'm not going to, you know, explain —— argue about those reasons, but when he didn't make the decision, the deputy attorney general rod rose on and i felt that it was necessary for us as the heads of the department to reach the heads of the department to reach the decision. joining us now is former us defense secretary william cohen, who served in the us senate as a republican from maine. thank you very much forjoining us. pleasure to be with you. this is an issue not going away and you have argued very strongly that republicans really need to speak out. why did you feel you how to write this now? because the miller report, as he articulated it, made it very clear that steps were taken by the president to interfere with and to obstruct —— the mueller

report. i think he made and to obstruct —— the mueller report. ithink he made it and to obstruct —— the mueller report. i think he made it clear by implication at least that because of the rules of the legal counsel and the rules of the legal counsel and the justice department that he himself could not bring charges or recommend charges be brought, but the only way that could be done would be through the congress itself, so i think the ball is now in congress's court. i have felt for a long time that the president has engaged in activity which is inconsistent in my judgment engaged in activity which is inconsistent in myjudgment with the high standards that one would expect of the president of the united states. that's my personal opinion. obviously there were 60 million people who felt otherwise during the course of the election, but to see day after day of the standards we expect and the institutions we expect and the institutions we expect to govern our society are being systematically denigrated and destroyed, that is something that republicans cannot walk away from. we have an obligation to stand up and say, mr president, this is

unacceptable, this is conduct that no republican would ever accept if a democratic president or any other republican ever had done it. right, but you also say in your op—ed that they say things in private to you that are very different to what they say publicly, so why are they relu cta nt to say publicly, so why are they reluctant to speak publicly? is it apathy orfear? reluctant to speak publicly? is it apathy or fear? there are two things, numberone, apathy or fear? there are two things, number one, fear, the fear that the president will designate someone that the president will designate someone to oppose them if they should show any, any attempt to undermine him or vote against him. so fear of having an opponent, or that they believe in what he is doing, so either fear or complicity, one or the other, but both are u na cce pta ble one or the other, but both are unacceptable as far as i am concerned. they take an oath of office to defend the constitution. in the face of steps that have been taken, the face of trying to obstruct an investigation that is under way, that should not be a matter that any republican should ever walk away one from.|j matter that any republican should ever walk away one from. i am going to play the devil cosmic advocate

because there are a number of republicans who are saying that they are only being led by robert miller, that there is some there there. let me read you this from yesterday, he said special counsel investigations are by their very nature one—sided. they hear only evidence of guilt, the witnesses are not subject to the adversarial process, there is no cross examination, the evidence is taken in secret behind closed doors, and the point he is making is that there needs to be a full process before you can assume the president is guilty and that has not happened. i disagree with that. the fact is the congress under the constitution has the authority to initiate impeaching proceedings. archibald cox was fired by president nixon during the watergate period. he could have terminated the investigation, and try to terminate it at that point, the fact is whether the investigation by the

special prosecutor went on or didn't go on, the congress still had the obligation and the authority to conduct an investigation whether or not the president had either abused his power of the presidency or had engaged in obstruction ofjustice, so engaged in obstruction ofjustice, so whether or not there is a precedent for the congress to go forward i think is not really the issue. i think they had the inherent power to begin issue. i think they had the inherent powerto begin it, issue. i think they had the inherent power to begin it, and they can conducted in private or in public or both, as was done during what are great. secretary, while we have you, you were a very close friend of the late senatorjohn mccain. and yet again, we have seen the president being involved in this ongoing spat, this time over a warship that bears john mccain's name, his father's name, why is this still going on? because it is bewildering. first

there is no indication that the president had authorised this. but he didn't object. but that is not the point. the point is he has denigrated john mccain over the time that he was alive, and following that he was alive, and following that it that he was alive, and following thatitis that he was alive, and following that it is very clear in all in his administration you are never to say administration you are never to say a positive word or calljohn mccain a positive word or calljohn mccain a hero, and that was evident during the munich in february that vice president pence attended. secondly, what he is doing, he systematically undermining and would say politicising the institution around him, he is politicising the intelligence community by saying i don't want to hear that, i don't believe you, i believe kimjong—un, i believe vladimir putin, i don't believe you. so what he is saying essentially is don't bring me any bad news i don't want to hear, so thatis bad news i don't want to hear, so that is happening at the intelligence level. it's also happening in cases like this. i don't want to see john mccain's face, i don't want to see men

wearing the mccain hat or any other symbol of who he was. secretary, we have to live it fair. thank you for joining us. the extreme weather sweeping across the us for almost two weeks now, took another toll last night when tornadoes struck parts of texas. in canton, in the east of the state, a large funnel tornado touched down in the city center damaging buildings and up rooting trees. it moved so fast that people had little time to take cover. and it's not just tornadoes wreaking havoc. heavy rain has brought record breaking floods to the midwest, submerging homes and inundating roads. people living near the arkansas river have fled the area amid fears that the decades old levees could break. and in oklahoma at least six people have died as result of the latest round of storms and flooding. joining us now from the university of georgia is professor and meteorologist marshall shepherd. marshall, it is good to see you. i a lwa ys marshall, it is good to see you. i always hesitate to ask when we get a cycle of weather like this whether it is linked to climate change. maybe you could cast some light on that. as the frequency of these

extraordinary weather events we are seeing, is it being stepped up and should we be worried? it is a bit premature to conclusively link frenetic activity to climate change andl frenetic activity to climate change and i wrote something this week in forbes magazine on that topic. there is no conclusive evidence but there is no conclusive evidence but there is some scientific literature that suggests future environments could be increasing in frequency and by variability so we have to let those studies play out some but it's is certainly not off the table but i would not tribute, this is a weather event, this is associated with the pattern of the jet stream that we are in the last couple of weeks. but why have we had this prolonged pattern of weather, because it is unusual? and that is where they could be a future climate link. the jet stream, these waves, these high and low pressure waves in the

atmosphere, when we are locked in the low pressure, a trust part of that pattern, we see the type of weather we have seen out on the great plains and the midwest. there are some studies byjennifer francis at rutgers university and others that suggest because of the warming in the polar regions, we are changing the jet stream pattern and it's becoming more wavy and loopy and getting stuck. again, that is not conclusive but it is certainly something we need to keep an eye on. marshall, there is something that confuses me about this, i live in washington and i have heard the tornado sirens go off in the city and thought, oh, well, i can ignore it because tornadoes don't strike in cities but we have seen what has happened in canton. has it changed or is itjust an urban myth? that is a myth. i study urban weather and climate at the university of georgia and it is a myth i hear all the time. the reality is they have not

been historically as many tornado striking citiesjust because the footprint of a city is so small compared to these relatively rare events, tornadoes, but what we see happening is the footprint or the bull's—eye of a city is expanding, as areas like washington, dc spoil out. so there isjust more of a likelihood because of that expanding footprint that cities are going to be hit. so i think this will be a problem, going forward. officially, the conservative leadership election does not begin until monday tenth june. unofficially, it is well under way, and already we have 11 candidates. they divide into two groups — on one side, what we might call, the full blooded brexiteers and on the other the former cabinet ministers who have worked on a compromise until this point. two of them will go through to the vote of the membership — and the theory goes that it may well be one candidate from each side. who knows it might even by gove versusjohnson. let's talk to the political

journalist olivia utley. we are at the end of the first week of campaigning. what really struck me this week was the different in some of the campaigning styles. we had rory stewart come out and about with this rather refreshing but quirky, you know, out on the streets, talking to the voters face to face, so there he is. i think this was in kew gardens. and then if you look at the campaign literature from dominic rather, it almost looks quite american. it is very different, isn't it? what do you make of it? and very choreographed as well, dominic rab, an interesting style. i think this contest will be all about personality and likeability, because after three, to be honest, quite draining years of like the may bot, i think the country is quite ready for someone charming and likeable and someone who they think can be charismatic to

eu leaders and perhaps greece are more concessions on the backstop. and i think that rory stewart is doing a good job of that. if he is trying to beat nigel farage at charisma, he is doing pretty well, walking up and down the country asking people for a chat. there is a brilliant clip of him speaking in persian to someone he met on barking high street. maybe it is a bit much for some. dominic rab's approach, i don't think it is going down quite so don't think it is going down quite so well, but i think he has also always been thought of, because he doesn't have very much cabinet experience, he was thought over a little bit of a nobody and he is trying to do everything he can to counter that, showing himself as a very serious politician with a serious economic plan for britain. he did this huge double page spread on the mail on sunday in sunday, explain how he wanted to cut income tax. and he is quite young. we have heard quite a lot from dominic rav

and jeremy hunt and esther mcvey and roger stuart and also matt hancock. we have not heard, actually, if you believe there are two sides to this leadership contest, we have not heard from the front runners on both sides, michael gove and boris johnson. for boris, ithink sides, michael gove and boris johnson. for boris, i think that is a very good reason, all of the polls show this is boris's race to lose pretty much. the tory membership according to conservative home polls, the tory membership are hugely behind boris and rav is coming in15 hugely behind boris and rav is coming in 15 points behind him as a second. —— dominic rav. sol coming in 15 points behind him as a second. —— dominic rav. so i think lynton crosby who is managing boris's campaign probably thinks the less we see of him the better, if he says something provocative, let's not get him saying something silly. as for globe, i think he is a very impressive politician. he struggles to endear himself to people, so perhaps he is keeping out of the spotlight for now because he doesn't have that easy manner like rory stewart, which is obviously going

down so well. i was thinking, we have only had a week of this. we've got another four weeks of this. but of course you've got a year of twe nty20. of course you've got a year of twenty20. all these democrat candidates. yes, i think we've got 23, 2a candidates for the democratic nomination at the moment. olivia, is that a problem? the fact there are so that a problem? the fact there are so many people vying for the same place, does that create an advantage for the better well known ones or does it mean you could have a surprise unknown coming up from the back? i think there is a chance of that. the big candidates are trying very ha rd that. the big candidates are trying very hard to shoot each other at the moment. you can see the gloves are already coming off, and this leadership contest is not supposed to start for another two weeks but javid has been making some pops at dominic rav on twitter today. so there is a big chance that the big candidates could know each other down only to get somebody like rory stewart coming up from the back. it

will be a really interesting summer. nick clegg suddenly came to the fore in the televised debate and then sank back again but we will see whether one of them comes to the fore in mid june when we get that first round of the televised debate. thank you very much indeed. british car production collapsed last month as factories shut down to brace for a no—deal brexit that never came. manufacturers brought forward planned summer shutdowns to avoid over capacity during brexit, but it was too late to reverse plans after the brexit date was postponed. all in all, car making in britain fell by a5% in april on the same period in 2018. it coincides with a real shake up in the car sector. this week we learned that renault, owned partly by the french government, is planning a huge merger with fiat chrysler. let's speak now to david bailey, professor at birmingham city university. david, thank you very much for

joining us. are these mergers now the way of the future, as these car companies are really struggling in the international market?|j companies are really struggling in the international market? i am at birmingham university by the way, but you are right, we are going to see more in the car industry than in the previous hundred years, so a transformation is coming to electric cars, connected cars and autonomous vehicles. companies will have to spend huge amount of money in terms of research and development to develop completely new technologies. they will struggle to do it on their own if they don't have big scale, so in the case of renault and fiat, both of them feel they need to be much bigger to generate the money to put into those new technologies, and we are seeing companies like volkswagen and ford, giant players, collaborating on electric vehicle development. david, demand is falling in china, in europe and the united states at the moment. obviously they are trying to consolidate and cut costs. where does that leave what effectively post brexit might be a niche car

production model here in the uk? will we get squeezed out? impart it depends what happens with brexit. certainly a no—deal brexit will be very damaging indeed for the uk car industry. we had a book out at the car industry. maybe half a million more if countries decide to switch away from the uk. if you look at companies like jaguar land rover, they have done very well in getting models like the eyepiece to market, an electric car, but i think they will need bigger partners at some point to be able to pool resources and they need scale. i think we will see much more in the way of collaborations. could be post-brexit see what we have seen in france, because obviously emmanuel macron sees an opportunity and he is pushing some of these amalgamations of the big manufacturers. may be,

post—brexit, a global britain government might say, we are going to get behind the car industry and ta ke to get behind the car industry and take them on. certainly france has a much more interventionist industrial policy, it has stakes in renault and peugeot, and encouraging potential mergers that strengthen them. it requires a much more different policy. it is often argued by the likes ofjeremy corbyn that being in the eu stops a kind of government intervention. that isn't the case. what happens after brexit depends on if the government is willing to intervene in the economy, and really support manufacturing going forward. in the wake of the global financial crisis, there was a feeling we had become much more imbalanced in the uk and manufacturing needed to play much more of a role in the economy, there was a need to rebalance. we haven't seen much of that. thank you very much indeed, thanks forjoining

us. this is beyond 100 days. still to come: tea with the queen — but what else for president trump's state visit to london next week? rescue teams in the hungarian capital, budapest, say there's little hope of finding any more survivors from a tour boat which sank in the river danube. seven people are confirmed to have drowned. nick thorpe reports from budapest. the rescue effort continued this morning, with little hope of survival for the 21 people still missing. according to eyewitnesses, the mermaid, a 26 metre pleasure boat, capsized and sank within seconds after she was struck by a large river cruiser. video has emerged allegedly showing the incident. translation: what we can see on the cctv footage is the small boat, the mermaid, sailing north, as is the bigger vessel, the viking.

when they reach the pillars of the bridge, the mermaid tent in front of the viking for some reason and there was a collision. the mermaid was turned on its side and within about seven seconds it sank. there were 70 —— there were 33 south korean tourists and two hungarian crew on the boat at the time to stop this is a busy stretch of water, often crowded with both large and small craft. weeks of heavy rain and snow melt up river in the alps mean the river is swollen and flowing faster than usual and the rescue efforts we re than usual and the rescue efforts were hampered by a continuous downpour. translation: we have 17 units stationed on the danube sure in different locations. so far we have hospitalised seven people after their condition had been stabilised since their body temperature had dropped dangerously. is the investigation starts in earnest, there are many questions to answer. first and foremost about the

experience and level of training of the cruise. the wreck of the tourist ship must now be raised from the bed of the river. it is expected to contain the bodies of many of the missing. nick thorpe, bbc news, budapest. here on beyond 100 days, our respective patches will collide next week when president trump arrives here in the uk for a state visit. it will be a trip full of pomp and ceremony, politics and remembrance. things kick off on monday. katty willl be here with us for our special coverage. so, between the state dinner, a meeting with the outgoing prime minister and those commemorations around the d—day anniversary — what will we be looking for? a short time ago, i spoke with victoria nuland, who served as assistant secretary of state for european affairs during the obama administration. thank you very much forjoining me. what does trump need to get out of this visit? you know, i think he wants to

demonstrate that he is a statesman. i think he is going to enjoy very much his time with the queen. i think he considers his own dynasty somewhat royal. all of those kinds of things. and i hope that when he goes to portsmouth and then goes on to normandy he can feel the importance of this very special relationship, and he will be imbued a bit with the challenge of maintaining this liberal world order that so many americans and brits gave their lives for. a lot of people in europe and britain would say that trump has personally put some of that world order under threat. how do you reconcile these two opposing factions in a state visit? well, again, i hope that this will

be largely ceremonial and historic, and will give both sides of the atlantic a boost in terms of their commitment to the values that everybody fought for. i do think that there are perils, though, in this visit, in the sense that our president has, not once but multiple times, injected himself into the very fraught british politics that we see now. he is talking about potentially doing that again on this visit by seeing some of the contenders for prime ministership. he has also, i think, not done enough, his administration has not done enough to help the uk and eu have a divorce, has not done enough to help the uk and eu have a velvet divorce, or think about their relationship going forward. and, frankly, it is very important for the united states that both

the uk and the eu come out of this, however they do, in a stronger position. state visit starts on monday, we will follow it closely. after years of hype, 5g mobile has finally gone live in the uk today. six cities have been connected, perfect for those wanting to livestream donald trump's visit. it is going to make thing so much betterfor all of us, as our correspondent sarah walton was finding out when she went to cover the launch earlier today. no snafus, no problems so far? well, hopefully not. and i do hope you're hearing us loud and clear because we are broadcasting over the 5g — the bbc has today become the first british broadcaster to go live using a commercial 5g internet connection. if we are breaking up, though, that may be because, as you heard in rory‘s report, the coverage is still at the moment a little bit patchy. just to demonstrate, this is a 5g enabled phone, it is connected to the ee network here in the centre of london, and we are actually only getting a speed of a0 megabits per second. i thought that went swimmingly,

don't you? shall we use next week? maybe not. i think it's a great idea, do it, christian. we have broadcast on west. yoghurt pot and a piece of string. hello again. we have had a real mixture of weather across the country today. quite a few of us have had cloudy skies but we have seen some have had cloudy skies but we have seen some sunshine in england. cornwall looks glorious early on this afternoon. that has not been like that everywhere, you can see the extent of the cloud across the north and west of the country, these weather fronts have brought heavy rain, we have also had some fog patches working in through the english channel. underneath that rain band in the north and west, things looked rather grey and dismal around the scottish borders during the course of the afternoon, and that rain will continue on and off across the north—west of the uk through the rest of the night, as well. further south, through the rest of the night, as well. furthersouth, cloud redeveloped. we will see a few mist and fog patches around coast and hills, the odds a bit of drizzle but

it will be mild, breezy, 13 or 1a degrees widely but a bit cooler than that for northern scotland. for the north—west of the uk, more rain friday, a wet start to the day in northern ireland with the rain pushing into the far north of england and scotland, we could see around to 50 millimetres over the western hills in scotland, enough to cause some localised surface water flooding issues, some big puddles building up on the road as the day goes by. away from the weather front, quite a bit of dry weather, if you mist and fog patches to start off with but the couch a tender thing and break with some spells of sunshine coming through once again. it will feel quite breezy, quite humid outside, temperatures are likely to peak at around 23, may be 2a celsius with the highest temperatures where we do get the best in the breaks in the cloud across eastern england. saturday, generally the weather will be a bit brighter but still some patchy rain around, a weather front pushes its way northwards through the day, best of the sunshine for england and wales and it is across eastern parts of england that we will see the

highest temperatures on saturday, here becoming quite hot, with temperatures on saturday afternoon quite hot. prospects at least for some slightly brighter weather. into sunday, low pressure moves on and that will be pushing a cold front, this brand of rain you can see across the country, it will introduce fresh air. you get a bit more sunshine in northern ireland through the afternoon. the cold front never really reaches east anglia and south east england until late in the day so here it could still be pretty warm as we head through sunday.

this is bbc news i'm julian worricker. the headlines at 8 o'clock a government commissioned review into university funding says tuition fees in england should be cut to £7,500 a year, with grants for poorer students reinstated. my my view is very clear. removing maintenance grants for well—off stu d e nts maintenance grants for well—off students has not worked and i think it is time to bring them back. a six year old boy is airlifted to hospital, after falling from a rollercoaster at a theme park, in north yorkshire. a tax on all unhealthy food — that's what the chief medical officer is considering as child obesity levels prove hard to budge. rescue teams in the hungarian capital, budapest, say there's little hope of finding any more survivors, after a tour boat