the united nations has called for an independent investigation into an air strike that killed at least 44 people in a migrant centre near the libyan capital, tripoli. the top un official there has described it as a possible war crime. the government and rebels both blame each other. there's been an angry exchange of words between china and britain over the protests in hong kong. the british foreign secretary has warned of "serious consequences" for china if the rights of people living in the territory are infringed. in response, chinese officials accuse the uk of indulging "colonial era fantasies". boeing is giving $100 million to help families affected by the two crashes of the company's 737 max planes in indonesia and ethiopia. the payment, stretching over several years, is independent of lawsuits filed in the wake of the disasters in which 346 people were killed.

it is about half past four in the morning. you are up—to—date with the headlines. now on bbc news, stephen sackur speaks to us republican senator rick scott on hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm at stephen sackur. donald trump is the most unpredictable of us presidents, as this is the briefing. i'm sally bundock. is evident from his policy approach our top story: to north korea, china trade, iran, north korea accuses the us and a host of other domestic and of being "hell bent on hostile" actions, just days after a meeting international challenges. i guess between the countries' leaders. todayis international challenges. i guess today is the republican senator from lauren day, rick scott. he was a the un security councilfails to reach an agreement on whether to issue a statement strong supporter of donald trump condemning the deadly air strike on a migrant centre in libya. bacchin 2016, now he has created a distance between himself and the a volcano in italy erupts without warning. president. —— bacchin. sojust how 0ne person's dead after being solid is republican support for donald trump? hit by falling rocks. in business — exchange irate! president trump accuses china and europe of playing "a big

senator rick scott, welcome to hardtalk. it's nice to be her. you have been in europe for a few days, you have been meeting politicians, you have been meeting politicians, you have been meeting politicians, you have been meeting diplomats, how ha rd you have been meeting diplomats, how hard is it being a senior us politician defending the trump administration overseas right now? you know, i don't look at it that way. why don't defend, you know, the trump administration. i'd try to explain, you know, both what president trump is trying to do and what they believe in. so something like now it is a positive that we are having conversation with north korea. now, we don't have anything done yet, we need to get something done, it's a positive that we are having conversations with china about trade, because they have taken advantage of america for decades. let us go through some of those issues you have just raised. as you have been in europe donald trump has

done this extraordinary impromptu thing, stepping across the line into north korea. something no other sitting us president has agreed to do. he hasjust given kimjong—un sitting us president has agreed to do. he has just given kim jong—un an enormous reward , a do. he has just given kim jong—un an enormous reward, a prize. and you tell me what has the us got back in room turn? --in return. not lobbing missiles out. he is not saying, kim jong—un is not saying he is going to obliterate america. so that is a positive. but we are not where we need to be with the utilisation. thing the president has got to stay focused. are you suggesting there is a real criticism of the presents approach. from the very get go he said he would engage with the north koreans to get the denuclearisation of the korean peninsula. he wanted north korea to commit to eliminating that weaponry that it now has. no commitment has been... we are not there. we are nowhere near there. you have to look at the positive.

you have to look at the positive. you have to say remember where we started. he walked in, we walked in from all these prior presidents had pacified kim jong—un and from all these prior presidents had pacified kimjong—un and his dad, all right, nothing good had happened. so at least he's not continuing to talk about how his going to obliterate us, lobbing all these, testing missiles out there. you have to say it's a positive. let's consider north korea and compare and contrast with the ride. what we have a north korea is a country that went all the way through the programme to get nuclear weapons are now in teams donald trump gives them rewards, including this historic visit onto north korean territory. in iran, on the other hand, we have a country that relu cta ntly other hand, we have a country that reluctantly agreed, after years of difficult negotiation, to sign up to a programme of monitoring and verification which insured that iran would no longer enrich uranium in the wait was doing in the past. what does donald trump do? he walks away from that agreement, imposes tough new sanctions on the iranians, and

prompts, it seems, the iranians to abandon the limits on their own enrichment programme. you can, you know, you can argue which is the right approach, but, you know, the agreement did not stop there enrichment of uranium. surely the lesson the iranians are bound to withdraw, if you acquire nuclear weapons, donald trump, you call him a businessman, a willow, dealer, donald trump, once you have nuclear weapons will treat you in a very different ways. i don't look at it that way. the way a look at it is he, donald trump, you know, love him or hate him, he believes he can negotiate a deal. that's what he believes. i'm in he wrote the book. he believes he can do that. with iran his belief you know, and i think a lot of americans including my belief, is that the deal was not a good deal. we gave iran a lot of the money. they didn't stop supporting her mass and has blah.

there were involved in iraq and syria. they were continuing to enrich uranium. the perception for a lot of americans is that it was not a great deal. you have just been eight nato talking to nato diplomats and leaders. you have spent some time in europe stop you must be aware that there are grave misgivings in european capitals about the way donald trump is handling iran. there is clearly a disagreement. the perception was it was not a great deal. and iran didn't stop. they did not say we will stop being involved in terrorism around the world. with respect, senator, this is notjust the specifics of the iran deal or the specifics of the iran deal or the approach to north korea, this is about a style of government which europeans scratch their heads and they really can't understand whether there is any coherent strategy at work in donald trump's white house. well... there's the way i look at

it. we are having the conversations. they mean, look, he walked into the job with problems in iran, problems in russia, problems in cuba, venezuela, china taking advantage of us venezuela, china taking advantage of us that decades, and north korea. he didn't create there's problems. he walked into nato where nato countries, you know, were not putting the money up that they had committed to put up. so he's trying to push everyone, one, to solve the problems. let's think about, just briefly think about, donald trump and russell. what we saw at the g20 was donald trump meeting vladimir putin and joking, joking about this idea that russia might have interfered in us elections. they we re interfered in us elections. they were they yakking it up together with donald trump wagging his finger in comic style. are you happy with the way donald trump appears, still, to regard vladimir putin as a friend? well, i don't think he's a

friend. i'm in, i'm from the state that they did infiltrate our election system in 2016, they got into two of our counties. they didn'tjust get into the voter ‘s, they won't able to change the result of the election. they tried to change our election. and what they have heard they have been over here is that that's constantly going on over here where russia is putting out fake news and trying to infiltrate systems. so why take it very seriously and we, the country, has, one, congress has provided a lot of money to the states to make sure we focus on our cyber security. ididn't sure we focus on our cyber security. i didn't has governor, i've put up a lot of money to get cyber security experts to make sure they couldn't impact our elections. and then you look at russia's involvement in syria, look at all the bad players, they have a ship, it was in havana, cuba, they've got... they are involved in venezuela. so they are not our friends. interesting you mention venezuela. that is an issue

in florida, with significant venezuelan xl population, you have followed it, very clearly, you appear to be very unhappy that the us administration, having talk very tough about the need for nicolas maduro to go has failed to follow through. you said recently "i absolutely do believe we should dictate a few things to the russians, the cubans, and the chinese. we will not allow you to set up shop in venezuela. and, to be clear, high respect those who are cautious about the dangers of military intervention, but it is time to acknowledge that in action can bejust time to acknowledge that in action can be just as dangerous."|j time to acknowledge that in action can be just as dangerous." i have two concerns. i have been to the border of venezuela and colombia. if you talk to the families there, all these kids, these kids are dying, they're starving, nipping starve to death. they can't get food on can't get clea n

death. they can't get food on can't get clean water, they can't get medicine. if you go to the hospital you're dying. so step one we have a genocide going on. the world has got, all of us have got to show up, including europe. i have met with the government of spain about a month ago after a went to normandy for the 75th anniversary, and europe has got to do the same thing as we doing as sanctions and put pressure on cuba. because cuba is the real key. we have got bad players there, russia, china, and iran has followed. akeem ayers 20,000 people there. so do i believe we are to be doing more? they do. it's fine to use words like this and to say in action can be an equally dangerous course. but what, specifically, are you saying the united states today should be doing in venezuela? right now, right now we ought to do a blockade of the cuban ports so there is no oil going from jupiter venezuela. if you look at it, the 20,000 troops of the 20,000 individuals who are from cuba in venezuela they are predict thing nicholas madero. if they want their i think he would be gone. and if we don't deal with nicholas madero now,

the same problems we have in syria we will have there. throughout this interview so far i have been seeking consistency and coherence in donald trump's national security policy and you have been trying to tell me that there are positives as well as, you have indicated, some negatives. just one more case study are perhaps the most important of all, that is us— china... crosstalk. hang on. they have another question. you have any idea what donald trump was ready and his relationship in china? it is interesting the way you ask the question, though. i never thought about the way you are asking. what have said is how do you, what's the right approach? i am a gilgai. i've bought and built companies, right —— deal die. if i'm going to do a transaction with you i've got to figure out why would you wa nt to i've got to figure out why would you want to do with me? so i'm not suggesting he's doing it the right way, but iran is different to north korea, north korea is different to china, china is different to cuba and they are all different to rosol. soi

and they are all different to rosol. so i don't know that you can say i'm going to dojust so i don't know that you can say i'm going to do just this way. but you can at least seek consistency in your relationships with those different players. in china, for example, we've had extraordinary tough talk going back to the campaign he accused china of raping the us economy, a phrase which many people have a problem with stop now, having imposed various different tariffs, he's putting a freeze on expansion of those tariffs. he is talking about a deal being very close. and he is also, apparently, backing off on his determination to isolate huawei from the us economy. 0k, isolate huawei from the us economy. ok, so let's go huawei first. there will be... there will be no interest, i believe, in the us senate or in congress and allowing huawei to sell up, work in the united states by blood donald trump is just united states by blood donald trump isjust promise united states by blood donald trump is just promise the united states that huawei can have relationships with us companies. i think 20 has

said is that they can do component sales to huawei but while they can't sell them to the united states —— i think what he has said. it is my understanding. your fellow floridian senator marco rubio has called donald trump's let us talk on huawei asa donald trump's let us talk on huawei as a "catastrophic mistake". china is not a friend, huawei is not negotiable, it is a national security threat, president trump needs to stay strong against huawei. are you with marco rubio or with donald trump? so, he's around. they should not be doing business in the united states, huawei should not be. if he is saying that american companies can sell to huawei and while they can sell to someone else, eye can understand that. i don't know if they would do that. my concern is the national security interests of the united states. i don't believe huawei is a part of a trade negotiation. it has nothing to do with that at all. it is almost ready. secondly, on the radial eye... i think it is very little to

get a deal done with china. they still intellectual property. china doesn't care about human rights —— they steal. they don't open up their market. they militarise the south china sea. there are involved in venezuela. so eye doubly... and, by the way, namely deal that you've ever done where somebody negotiated a deal with you and said all of a sudden a negotiated that annotated my mind and the deal closes. it doesn't happen. they don't believe we can do a deal with china. so you are talking of a long time hostile, maybe even bellicose relationship between washington and beijing. maybe even bellicose relationship between washington and beijinglj don't see them changing. they have been selling intellectual property for decades. why are they going to change? they don't open up their market to our... and us consumers ready for the knock—on effects of the continued expansion of tariffs

and all the extra costs they will face? i believe that if there are any tariffs, whatever the number is, they've talked about some of the numbers, we reduce the cost, we give them back to our consumers. and i do believe there will be some short—term problems, but we can't continue this pathway china steals all of our intellectual property. we can't do that. first of all, it is not in compliance with the wto. it's wrong. is not good for the uk, is not good for any country. in just a few days, we won't be talking about these all does make all these international and national security issues because you will be back and perhaps the biggest issue facing you in florida and the whole country is immigration. are you ashamed of the policy that ronald trump has pursued which has seen thousands of children, many of them extremely young and vulnerable, locked up in detention centres, far away from their parents and family? first off, it is disgusting and it is wrong if

anybody gets separated, any children gets separated from their families. is happening every day. lets go through what happened. democrats have decided, for whatever reason, they don't want to have a secure border. every country has to have a secure border. for whatever the democrats have said they don't want a secure border. forjudgement with respect, democrats have not put it like that. they said there are core american valiance that they will not compromise on and donald trump's zero tolerance approach is compromising... crosstalk. zero tolerance approach is compromising... crosstalke zero tolerance approach is compromising... crosstalk. if we had a secure border, that means more border agents, technology and barriers so they know when people are coming across, because the entire border of mexico is controlled by the cartel. the cartel decides this is where the drugs are

going to come across, this is where the people are going to come across, then we have a court decision who said you couldn't hold families. it would increase the odds of people sending children, not necessarily their children, not necessarily children they treated well, and bring them across the border because they would get released. has because that problem? they would get released. has because that problem ? it they would get released. has because that problem? it is 100% the democrats' fault. you are playing politics with an issue which, as you saw last week, produces the sorts of shocking photographs of a father and daughter, face down, drowned in the rio grande a river with, according to eyewitnesses, border patrol units from the united states looking on for many minutes, doing nothing to intervene. that is donald trump's america today and you're defending it. no, no, no, not at all. border control has been treated horribly because here is what they have done. we had a testimony last week by border patrol agents. did anybody report the fact that they have saved 400 people in the last months from

drowning? no. its horrible what happened with that young man and 23 month old daughter, but this is what our country is doing right now because of the democrats. secure the border! with respect, you can't pile the blame on the democrats. there are things happening that go to the very top of the trump administration. the fact that records aren't even kept properly so some of these children have parents in the same country in detention elsewhere and nobody can connect the dots because the records have not been kept! stephen, i am not defending that but fix it. think about it. even when the trump administration came across and asked for humanitarian relief. it took two months for the democrats to finally agree to it? you keep coming back to the democrats. that's the problem! right now in florida, there is the detention centre which has more than 2000 children in it. will deblasio, one of the democrats contenders for the presidency went down — went down

the presidency went down — went down the other day and went over the ladder and said it felt and looked like a prison camp. —— bill de blasio. who set that up? barack 0bama. barack 0bama set that up. did one of those democrats go down there and when they had that debate, did any of them set up ——go in when it was set up and say oh, that's wrong. well, here's the rub. this claim was looked at by donald trump that 0bama started the separation policy and they concluded it was false. 0bama sought to avoid breaking up families stop while some children were centred —— separated from their pa rents centred —— separated from their parents under 0bama, it was relatively rare and families were critically reunited. it is wrong. they've should never have been separated. but the 0bama comparison is false, is a lie. stephen, it is

wrong. 0k? it is wrong. what would you do to fix it? secure the border. fix the asylum law. think what they are doing to these poor little children. are kidnapping these kids, they are shipping these kids back and forth so they know if they bring and forth so they know if they bring a kid at cross, a child across, then they get released. who is that helping? it is helping the cartels. it is not helping these families. all right? let's look at our border, we have drugs coming across our border, we have terrorists coming across a border and we have wonderful people trying to come across a border. right? fix our laws and we will do it. you, it seems to me, a problem. correct me if i'm wrong, roughly 18% of florida's voters are latina, hispanic. about 20%. that is a political reality to me and it seems like what you have called a 50—50 state, such a divided adequate — republican, almost equal state, you need latina and hispanic

votes a nd state, you need latina and hispanic votes and right now, the republican party is haemorrhaging them. —— democrat — republican. party is haemorrhaging them. —— democrat - republican. we love democrats, my state. so you need to start backing away from your president, which i see you have done. no, no, no, no, no. you have called what we have seen in the detention camps in the separation of families, you have called it disgraceful. from being a backer of donald trump in 2016, it seems you are creating a very wide distance from donald trump. here is what would surprise you. we did a poll of hispanics and what percentage did you think they wanted tougher immigration laws in my state? i think it was almost 70%. my state. everybody knows that we're having these problems because we don't enforce our immigration laws. we love immigrants in my state. we are

an immigration state. when venezuela has problems, where do they come? they come to florida. when columbia and resilience have problems, they come to our state, we love immigration. i suspect you need to tell donald trump that because that is not the message he gives to american people today. here is what is frustrating to me. why don't we do the things that solve the problems? why don't we secure our borders? no, i understand what you're saying. why don't we say, you know what? we love immigrants because we do. but let's have an immigration policy that actually works. then you can bring both parties, both parties need to have done this. they sit here and solve problems. you keep saying solve the problems, be practical, make deals with top isn't base the point about donald trump's america, he thrives on polarisation, he thrives on problems. his approval rating is in

the low 40s but with a base of 30 plus percentage people that thinks he can do no wrong, look at the majority in the majority ——in the united states who think the country is headed in the wrong direction and that despite a strong economy. crosstalk. it was worse before he got elected. the numbers were worse on whether country going. it was worth under barack 0bama, it wasn't better under barack 0bama. and people who say no? the last apollo saw, donald trump is at 53% was up i am not here to defend donald trump's record. does make the last poll. i was elected to florida to solve problems. some things i agree with donald trump, something that i do not. we have the best economy we have ever had. right? in my state, we are numb —— number one on higher education in the country. we want to fix education, keep people safe. 47% low crime rate when i left. i am the quy low crime rate when i left. i am the guy that has here is the problem,

let's solve it. i have spent six months in the us senate and it is disgusting, we don't solve problems. so you, and this is my final thought, you as a republican senator are very happy to, hand on heart, say, the idea of donald trump serving in the white house until generally — make january 2025 is a good thing for america. it was a simple choice. it was to ——it was hillary clinton. crosstalk. there was two choices. i am asking you whether donald trump in the white house until 2025 is something the americans should wealth —— welcome. when they said they would eliminate your private insurance. 0k? that's what they said. they would raise your taxes, they won't secure the border, they were basically going to, you know, they have this greener, new deal. so despite all of your reservations, some of which you have expressed on the record here...

we have two choices, i am not going down the democrat socialist path of government, i am going down the economic path. thank you very much for being on hardtalk, rick scott. thank you very much. hello there. for some parts of the uk, the next couple of days will bring blue skies, sunshine and warmth. but in other places, it will look and feel very different. this is how it looked in the far north of scotland on wednesday. 0n the satellite picture, you can see the way in which this cloud has been approaching, pushing in from the north—west, and as this cloud makes a bit more progress, we will see some outbreaks of rain. so, as we head through thursday,

rain initially across the northern and the western isles will increasingly spread across the northern half of mainland scotland. the heaviest rain always across hills in the west. to the east of high ground, the rain very showery, very patchy in nature. more cloud filtering into northern england, northern ireland through the day, but the further south you are, we're going to see quite a lot of sunshine and some real warmth. 24 degrees for birmingham, 26 degrees in london, so that's the sort of temperature we could well attain at wimbledon during thursday afternoon. certainly sunny skies overhead, very light winds as well. the day ends on a sunny note across the southern half of the uk. but further north, we have our cloud, we have our outbreaks of patchy rain, sinking a little further southwards, and then a new push of slightly heavier, more persistent rain gets into the far north—west of scotland by the end of the night. quite a mild night, as well — lows of 11—15 degrees. so, as we go into friday, high pressure still trying to hold on across the south. some fine weather here, but these frontal systems will continue to bring some outbreaks of rain across the north

of the uk. certainly a lot of cloud into northern ireland, north—west england and scotland, some rain once again pushing down across the northern half of scotland through the day. ahead of that, in the sunshine, some real warmth — 26, maybe 27 degrees. but underneath the cloud, with the outbreaks of rain, it will feel cooler — 17 degrees in aberdeen, 18 in belfast. and that is a sign of things to come, because as we move out of friday into the weekend, these frontal systems in the north will make some progress further south, and as this cold front here moves southwards, it will open the door to some cooler air. the winds switching round to north or north—westerlies. this band of cloud sinking southwards, maybe getting stuck across southern england and south wales for a time. could be the odd spot of rain here on saturday. elsewhere, patchy cloud and sunny spells, but with those north or north—westerly winds, not especially brisk for most of us, butjust bringing a slightly cooler feel, so temperatures 13 degrees in aberdeen, maybe 22 in london. and we keep those slightly lower temperatures as we head into sunday. a lot of dry weather, a lot of cloud as well, 00:27:50,521 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 but some spells of sunshine.