but your hands are tied, the uk, france and germany have made your hands are tied. a joint appeal to donald trump and iran's leaders, you can't do everything to ease their standoff over you want to do because the ak party iran's nuclear programme. they say the deal reached with iran is still, as i explained, could unravel further and everyone involved needed to consider in this position of power. the consequences of their actions. donald trump has sparked outrage after posting tweets about four democratic congresswomen. he claimed they "originally came from countries whose governments are a total catastrophe", before suggesting they "go back" to where they came from. the house speaker, nancy pelosi, called the comments xenophobic and divisive. it doesn't look like that now, does it? because the constitution gives the president of turkey strong china's economy grew at its slowest pace in almost three powers, and president erdogan has decades in the past three months. already moved to curb your powers. analysts say the economy has taken a hit from the trade war with the us for example, in may, and weakening global demand. china's already brought forward he said all mayors in turkey stimulus measures to cushion the impact of its cooling economy. would no longer have the power to elect officials at companies linked to their municipalities, this is the briefing — and these are a huge source i'm sally bundock. of income and political our top story: patronage, of course, which is a huge diminution of your powers.

now on bbc news: president trump is accused of racism after telling a group zeinab badawi speaks to the mayor of istanbul ekrem imamoglu of ethnic—minority congresswomen that they should "go back" on hardtalk. to where they came from. welcome to hardtalk, with me, zeinab badawi in istanbul. my guest today is the new mayor as the iran nuclear deal slowly unravels and europeans seek of the city, ekrem ?mamo?lu. to reduce rising tensions — the bbc gets rare access inside the country. my guest today is the new mayor by pulling out of the nuclear deal, donald trump strengthened iran's of the city, ekrem imamoglu. he dealt a massive setback to the hardliners who say that america should never have been trusted ruling ak party when he defeated in the first place. their candidate not once but twice when there was a rerun of the election. president erdogan once said whoever wins istanbul wins turkey. the city and its budget has been and england win the men's is ekrem imamoglu now the man in the hands of the ak party in one cricket world cup for the first way or another, time, beating new zealand in its present and past form, for the past 25 years. in a thrilling final. we did it! jof delivered! it's a budget of about $9 billion. we did it! to watch in turkish politics? jofra delivered! you said after your first 17 days in office, when you won the first run of the election on march the 31st, that you found a lot of evidence mayor ekrem imamoglu, of squandering of public funds. welcome to hardtalk. what did you discover? are you surprised that you're sitting here in the mayor's office?

it is, after all, the first time in 25 years that your chp party has won this position. your party leader kemal k l cdaro lu today the victor is democracy," that's when you won, and he said, "the whole world that believes in democracy is proud of turkey." but i have to say that the ak party so the ruling ak party, has categorically denied claims that president erdogan, your party are suggesting are it's awarded lucrative good democrats, they contracts to businesses close didn't rig the election? to the government, and this is one of the things that has been circulating after you came to office. i just want to make sure that that denial is there. but you don't have much experience, do you, to deal with all these political manoeuvrings that you're

going to have to get a grip of? i mean, you were, after all, just mayor of a district what kind of precautions in istanbul, and you're did you take? going to really have to try to unpick this system of patronage and influence that's been built up over many years by the ak party. do you have experience? are you up to it? president erdogan has described you, despite your victory, as a lame—duck. he's right, isn't he? but you're dealing with the realities of what's going on. so, for example, canan kaftancioglu, who leads the istanbul branch of the chp party, is i tell you what he means by it. appearing in court over

i mean, yes, you won 54% of the vote against your opponent... allegations dating back just let me finish saying this, yes, to five or six years, comments that she posted on social media which allegedly say that she criticised you won 54% of the vote. president erdogan and the state. binali yildirim from the ak party, i mean, you've condemned this, calling it a political threat, your opponent, only got 46%. but it's going ahead. that's the kind of reality however, the ruling ak party has 25 of the 39 districts in istanbul. you have to deal with. they also have the majority of the seats on the municipal council, and of course overall control of the country. 00:04:23,290 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 that's why you're a lame—duck. are you going to speak up just

on behalf of your party members like kaftancioglu, or are you also going to extend your comments about the 132 journalists and media workers who are currently in prison across turkey, that's according to the turkish union ofjournalists.

so you use her example as a way of exemplifying what you believe is this general concern aboutjournalists and media workers being imprisoned in turkey? so let's look at what you have to do here in istanbul. you're in your late 405, you've come from a relatively comfortable background. you know, your family have a construction company. you had a very, very small restaurant, cafe, which sold kebabs and so on, so do you understand the fact that people are struggling in istanbul? that there's 25% youth unemployment, inflation obviously across turkey is extremely high. the turkish lira has seen its value drop dramatically. can you really empathise with those people who can't afford the cost of living?

that's the strength of the ak party, which is why it's been so successful electorally. for example, one resident, ak party supporter in istanbul, dilber geckin, said, "we are poor and they, the ak party, help us. we are diehard supporters and we will never change." 46% of the vote for the ak party candidate to become mayor, that's very substantial. not irrelevant, that's the point i'm making.

finding jobs is a key plank of your vision to improve life for the people in istanbul, but you have also talked about employment, linked to the presence of syrian refugees in istanbul. official figures say there are about 600,000 syrian

refugees in istanbul, you say the figure is more like one million. this is what you said about the syrian refugees and their impact on istanbul. "a refugee must be isolated, in a camp if it's necessary, or he must be re—educated. some of our people lost theirjobs. employment rates have dropped down because of informally working refugees." why did you say that?

do you regret the fact there have been clashes between turkish citizens and syrian refugees? do you regret that, because it's been happening in istanbul? do you regret that? of course, you're unhappy. mr mayor, i put it to you, you have said, for example, "you cannot read the sign boards in certain quarters. this is turkey, this is istanbul." you've made that kind of comment. and a turkish news website, ahva,

has said this about you, "in dismissing a significant portion of his city's residents by this rhetorical exclusion, the mayor risks fanning the flames of social unrest." you have done that, haven't you?

but what is the problem with signboards in arabic? do you have no problem with the arabic language? why is it disturbing to have a sign in arabic in districts where there is large concentrations of syrian refugees? you are a committed muslim.

turkey is a predominantly muslim country and arabic is the language of the koran, you are a committed muslim, you pray, you fast, do you have a problem with arabic? your party, the chp, the republicans, established by mustafa kemal ataturk in the picture there, it gave rise to the secular constitution of turkey,

and obviously there are many committed muslims, conservatives, traditionalists in turkey. how are you going to win over those who are proud of their islamic heritage practice? they don't necessarily want to see a very secular turkey.

and as ates ilyas bassoy, chp strategist, says, said "we cannot change erdogan. we fight by changing ourselves." so, are you going to become more successful on the national stage by becoming more more like the ak party, more aware of your islamic heritage and perhaps toning down the secular elements of the chp?

that's what you said, "we need to add a religious flavou r", and that's the point i'm making. it's also one that's been echoed by mustafa akyol, an independent writer. "the chp is finally getting religion. a political party that does not understand this fact is doomed." "religious flavour", what do you mean by that?

you've got a big mountain to climb, you know, when you had this stunning victory in istanbul when everybody said ‘0h, look, this might be the beginning of the end for president president erdogan and the ak party.‘ but the chp hasn't had a majority government since 1950. in the election in 1999, your party failed to win a single seat. muharrem ince, who stood against president erdogan for the chp won just 30% of the vote compared to the 52%—52.5% that erdogan won. you've got a long way to go before you're relevant.

the chp published a pamphlet called ‘radical love'. you have said during the campaign "a neighbour who doesn't think like you, just give them a hug, show them that walls can be torn down with love." "i like hugging, nobody will escape our hugs. " is that your platform to launch yourself on the national stage? go around hugging everybody?

finally, 2023, the next presidential elections. could we see you stand as a candidate for your party, the chp? mayor ekrem imamoglu, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you. thank you, you're welcome.

hello. there's some warmth and some sunshine to start this forecast — by the end, we'll see some rain for many. more on that in a moment. here's how monday shapes up, an area of high pressure centred over the uk, for now keeping atlantic fronts at bay. and a good deal of sunshine through monday morning. there will be more cloud across northern scotland, shetland in particular and also across eastern counties of england. that cloud quite stubborn before to thin and break. but some bright or sunny spells coming through. elsewhere, after a sunny start, some fair weather cloud developing, so sunny spells for the second half of the day, but aside from an isolated shower, dry, pleasantly warm, 20—21; celsius the top temperature, a little bit cooler for northern scotland and eastern coasts. fine and dry evening for many,

some high cloud arriving into northern ireland and western scotland and by dawn on tuesday we're looking temperatures typically between 10—14 celsius, not quite as cool as the nights over the weekend. then we keep some warmth and sunshine across a large swathe of england and wales on tuesday, but this weak front pushing its way across northern ireland and eventually into scotland will bring more cloud. also some showery outbreaks of rain initially across northern ireland and then into western scotland and some of those showers just working their way a little bit further north and eastwards throughout the day. can't rule out one or two across northern england and north wales most places across england and wales on tuesday will be mainly dry with some warmer sunshine again, 23—25 celsius the top temperature, a little bit cooler towards northern ireland and scotland, i9—2i celsius here. for the middle of the week, we've got a more active front starting to push in from

the atlantic, taking its time, it may not be until the afternoon that it arrives into scotland. ahead of it, we're still holding onto the warmth across much of england and wales and a strengthening breeze across northern ireland and scotland a sign of things to come. so some rain settling into northern ireland and parts of scotland through the day on wednesday, timings may well change. high cloud moving into parts of wales and south—west england but ahead of it is where we'll see the best of the sunshine. winds still quite light here, but they start to strengthen across northern ireland and scotland, so would be a breezier into wednesday and a cooler feel as well. there's still some high temperatures across england and wales, potentially up to 25—26 celsius, so still some warmth for the mid week. as we go through thursday, this front finally starts to push its way eastwards across the uk, not bringing very much rain across some central and eastern parts of england, areas which could do with some rain. by the time we get to friday and saturday, we could see something a little bit more unsettled

and wetter arriving to all of us. that's all from me. 00:23:03,075 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 bye— bye.