hello, i'm ben bland. this is bbc news. the headlines: the united nations says a deadly attack on farmers in the borno state of nigeria was the most violent assault on civilians this year. the humanitarian agency estimates at least 110 civilians were killed by suspected islamist militants. many of the victims were tending to crops when it happened. donald trump has attacked the fbi and the us department of justice, accusing them of working against him in his efforts to overturn the result of the presidential election. he was speaking in his first interview since joe biden was declared the winner more than three weeks ago. prosecutors in buenos aires say they are investigating diego maradona's doctor about allegations of involuntary manslaughter — four days after the footballer‘s death from a heart attack. maradona's daughters have questioned the medical care their father received. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. with donald trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election running out of road, attenion is increasingly focused on president—elect biden‘s vision of america's role in the world. will he revert back to the policies and assumptions that defined the obama years? are there lessons to be learned from trump's disruption of foreign—policy norms? my guest is anthony gardner, us ambassador to the eu under obama. what should the world expect from president biden?

anthony gardner, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. let's begin by looking at the names that have been put forward byjoe biden to be key players in his foreign policy and national security team, that is tony blinken, who will be secretary of state, and jake sullivan, who will be his national security adviser. both of them key players in the foreign policy machine of barack obama. does this mean we're reverting back to what was? well, first of all, they are both exceptional human beings, exceptional individuals, with a lot of experience. i have known tony blinken for 52 years, and i worked with him twice in the national security council and later, obviously, under the obama presidency.

i have seen him in the trenches in some very difficult situations, and not only does he have the right skills and experiences, he is also a very decent human being and everyone who has worked with him in government would say that. those are really rare skills. and i have worked with jake and have a high regard for him. but no, to answer your question. this is not going to be, in my view, speaking as a private citizen, obama 3.0. it has to be different. trump is not going to go away, that is not in his character, and unfortunately trumpism has not been defeated. a lot of water under the bridge. so things will have to be different. there will not perhaps be enormous bandwidth for foreign policy, and in the foreign policy we want to achieve, we're going to have to be very, very focused on trade and non—trade issues as well. so you will see a different way of going about things. interesting you say that you don't think there will be that much "bandwidth" forforeign policy. that comes as something of a surprise, given that joe biden, in his five decades of public service, has

exhibited a great and lasting interest in foreign policy. he is going to put that on the shelf, is he? no, i didn't say "on the shelf." and of course, yes, he has enormous experience in foreign policy, and that's one of the reasons ijoined the campaign from day one. i'm just saying that the pressure of events will be such that most of the attention will be on fixing enormous damage domestically. we are going to have a lot to fix in terms of shoring up our democratic system, which has really been, in my view, undermined by this president for four years. and we have a pandemic that's raging, and a lot of other things. so i think the focus is clearly going to be on domestic policy. isjoe biden going to try to unpick everything donald trump has done in the foreign policy arena? if you're asking, "will many of the things donald trump did, will they be unwound ? i think the answer is yes. on climate and on foreign

policy, for sure, and very quickly, and quite rightly so. i think it's an outrage that we've walked away from the paris climate accords. i would expect there to be an announcement pretty soon that we will not only rejoin, but that we will do everything we can to help the world clamber out of the hole, the deeper hole that we have all dug ourselves into. but on nato, trade, working with allies, working in the multilateral system, i think you will see a radical change of emphasis. that doesn't mean that everything that donald trump did will be unpicked. look, there are a few achievements, including the fact three arab states have recognised israel. let's admit it, that's an achievement. i'm not saying everything, but a lot of things will be undone. we will get back to the specifics, especially in the middle east, but on your arena, europe, i'm mindful that you served as us ambassador to the european union for some years under barack obama. in the arena of europe, there are going to be real efforts, it seems, to try to restore positive

and warm relations between the united states and european allies who have looked with some disquiet at what happened under donald trump. how easy is that going to be? well, no—one is pretending it's going to be a walk in the park. we have a lot of challenges ahead of us. but i can tell you the emphasis will be dramatically different. let's start with the eu. donald trump jumped the rails after 60 years of bipartisan foreign policy in the united states, supporting european integration and supporting the eu particularly. i would probably agree with 90% of what my predecessors, republican and democratic, would have thought and said about the eu. this administration said, "you know what? we don't need europe, we don't need the eu, we'll do it alone. we will negotiate unilaterally, tra nsactionally, and we'll deal with china alone." and worst than that, trying to undermine the eu and in fact insulting a few allies,

particularly germany, out of pique, as they sell too many products in the united states. all of that will change dramatically, and for good reason, because the us, and this is what counts, the real acid test, the united states can get more done by working with its allies, including on trade and including on china. the eu has an enormous single market that represents a lot of leverage. why we haven't worked with the eu to bring china to the table to reform the wto rules and address its abuse of trade and investment practices, i really cannot understand. do you think the europeans want us close and want a relationship with the united states going forward as they have had in the past? —— has close and warm a relationship? i am just mindful, for example, that emmanuel macron in france says that the message of what happened over the last four years is that europe must be much more self—reliant, much less inclined to look to the united states for its overall security guarantees. there are those also

in europe who seejoe biden, who is after all a pretty elderly president, and think he may only be around for one term, we're not sure what comes next. donald trump and his associates still have more than 70 million votes cast in the last election. should we really rely on the united states to be our closest ally in the future? well, stephen, there are no guarantees in life. who knows what will happen in four years? you're right, the threat is there, that we'll return to the demagogic populism we've experienced in the united states... well, you call it a threat, i'm not calling it a threat. i'm simply saying europeans cannot take for granted a sort of multilateral approach that you and joe biden are clearly keen to offer. absolutely, i understand completely. having resided in europe for 29 years of my life, i absolutely understand that. but i can tell you, the first part of your question, are europeans happy, are they taking this is good news?

absolutely. i have got a lot of messages from member states and from the commission saying that this is great news. it's time that we actually go back, as we were before, negotiating and moving forward on security and trade and other foreign policy issues. but there is no guarantee. you know, the conclusion of all of this is that we need to seize the day. we need to seize the day. and i can tell you, in the work that was going on during the past six months in the biden campaign on foreign policy, there were a few ideas that were really shaping our work, and one of them was, what is doable quickly, within two years, relatively uncontroversial, no academic proposals? and it's very important that we prove the case to our domestic populations that working with allies, within the rules, within multilateral institutions, yields better results for our people. that's the key test.

there are decisions to be made about different priorities in europe, too, for the biden administration. we know that mr biden himself and tony blinken and jake sullivan, over years, have expressed their concern about brexit. they felt it was going to weaken the european union, but in particular, weaken a key ally, the united kingdom. but brexit has happened. it's a reality. and the united states must decide whether it really invests a massive amount in building a strong relationship with brexit britain, or whether its first priority is restoring a truly warm and functional relationship with the european union, led by france and germany. which is it going to do? why is there a choice? you are posing it as an either/or, i don't see it that way at all, i see it as a triangle... but it's about priorities. where will the priorities sit? i was going to say, there's a triangle relationship,

us-uk, eu-uk, eu-us. they are all important, they all need to work together. donald trump believes there is only one side of the triangle that appears to be important, and that is brexit britain. there are members of the conservative party who look at the world through a very narrow prism of brexit and think donald trump has been the best thing since sliced bread. that's a very bizarre way of looking at the world. if one opens the aperture even slightly and considers the true interests of the uk, i think one would have to conclude, for reasons we can get into, a biden administration is much better news, on climate, multilateralism, china, sanctions, et cetera. but you're right, the eu will be a major focus, because this president has done so much to undermine our relationship with an essential partner. i was at the centre of it for four years, almost four years. and i saw that even without the uk, the eu 27 will remain an essential partner across many areas. so both are important. i don't see it the way you do.

0n trade, though, there is talk of a uk—us trade deal being worked on very quickly afterjoe biden comes into office. but there is also talk that the us‘s priority might be doing a much bigger trade deal with the eu as a whole. again, i put it to you. it's about priorities, about choices, that perhaps joe biden‘s gut instinct that the so—called british trump, borisjohnson, may not be a partner he wants to get especially intimate or close with? no, i don't think so. you are referring to some of the history which will be forgotten. the us and the uk will need to work together, they have to work together, for many reasons. and i mentioned a few areas. climate is a good one, where the uk will be the president of the conference of parties next year, and has been very bold in its desire to reduce carbon emissions. but also on human rights and good governance,

anti—corruption, all things very close to the heart of the president—elect, the uk has been courageous and outspoken. and i mentioned the other areas, which means that the uk is a natural partner of the united states. i haven't even mentioned digital policy, by the way, where the uk has been a thought leader, including in its online paper on harms that are related to online platforms. in all of these areas, the uk is an essential partner. now, you ask me which will be more important? well, i was in the eu, and i think in terms of economic impact, a deal with the eu would be bigger. but, just to be clear, we're not going back to ttip 2.0 — you know, the effort we never signed, to get a us—eu free trade deal. i think we can do a lot with the eu, including eliminating tariffs on industrial trade, and also mutual recognition in some sectors. we will need to see the eu move on agriculture. the other side of the coin is that there will be some

areas which will be easier to agree with the uk on free trade. here i'm thinking about digital policy and also some areas of agricultural policy. so i think both are important. let's talk china. now, when he was vice president, joe biden famously got on very well with xi jinping and the leaders in beijing when he went there. now he is inheriting a relationship which has become pretty poisonous, because donald trump has said quite plainly, we will no longer accept an exploitative trade relationship with china, where they take and we give, and we will no longer accept their use of technology as a project of power and influence, it's not going to happen anymore. willjoe biden at least acknowledge that donald trump, maybe, was onto something in the nature of the relationship with china? well, hang on a minute. donald trump didn't discover that china was abusing world trade rules, i think that was well—known. and by the way, he didn't achieve much at the end of the day and that is the acid

test — how much did he actually get done? in financial services, to be fair, there appears to be some opening for us financial services companies, but generally it has been a failure. and it's been a failure because there's been no strategy. he has pushed china into the managed trade area direction of saying, "china, just buy more of our stuff and we will go home happy." that is not what we should be doing. we should be addressing the structural issues in this relationship, and as i mentioned before, what's truly bizarre about the last four years is that we haven't done this with our closest allies, particularly the eu, with whom we share, actually, a lot in common, so the tactics will be dramatically different. and here's something else... yeah, but hang on. look beyond trade for a moment. i know trade is a great specialism of yours, but let us think big picture, about the way the world works today, the key rivalry, frankly, between the united states and china which works on so many levels, not

just trade or technology but militarily, too. donald trump got really tough in terms of using the us navy in the south china sea, sending a clear message to china there. i'm asking you whether joe biden will at least accept that the united states now, strategically, is locked into a long—term confrontation with china. well, no, idon't think confrontation is the word to use. again, donald trump didn't invent the importance of the south china sea and the rights of passage and the importance of maritime international law. that existed before and president obama, my former boss, was also quite robust on that. do you really think that 0bama's messages on china were as clear as donald trump's in the last year or two? well, you say clear. he didn't insult china and i don't think we should be in the business of insulting china, because china deserves respect, like every country does. but what i was going to say

is that there are areas where we can work with china, despite the fact that we are going to be tough, i assume, i believe we are going to be very tough where we need to be, but there are areas, including climate, where we must work with china. remember, part of the reason we got to the paris climate accords, together with the eu, was that obama successfully brought the chinese into the deal and we are going to need to do that again. so there's no point in just insulting countries, including china, when we need to work with them. the same applies to russia. but then i get confused because as i understand it, one key plank ofjoe biden's different approach to foreign policy is going to be a focus on democracy and human rights. there's talk of holding a summit, a global alliance of democracies which will be a symbolic moment of change from the trump agenda, but if you're serious about that, then surely china, russia, are going to have to be viewed with a great deal of suspicion, because of their human rights records. well, they will be.

you're right. i didn't say for a moment, didn't mean to suggest that it is going to be a comfortable relationship. remember, donald trump was willing to sell human rights down the river as long as the chinese would be willing to buy more of our products. only when they refused to do that did he discover human rights. that's not going to be the case in this administration, human rights will be a very important pillar. so you're right, it won't be a comfortable relationship, and the uncomfortable light will be shone on human rights abuses, including the muslim minority in xinjiang, but it will be done not in an insulting way. as i say and repeat, china deserves respect and i think one china policy, as well, will be reiterated so there's no point in poking china in those areas, but it will be difficult in some areas and cooperative in others. but this is precisely where one wonders what a biden presidency will really be about. you talk about showing respect

in the same breath as you talk about the chinese policy towards the uighurs which involves detainment, as we understand it, of more than a million people in so—called "re—education camps". again, with russia, we saw during the last years of the obama administration, mixed messages on what to do about russia's activities in ukraine, the annexation of crimea, the activities in east ukraine. is biden going to be tougher than obama was on some of these real challenges? i'm not pretending they're easy, but what can we actually expect from president—elect biden? stephen, you are suggesting a contradiction where i don't think there is a contradiction because the world is messy, foreign policy is messy. there are some countries, including turkey, where the relationship is complicated. in some cases, he will be very tough, there's no doubt. and you mentioned russia, i think there is unfinished business with russia. a lot of us from the obama administration think there is unfinished business

with russia, and you know why. from the last election, where there was clear indication of russian manipulation intervention in the us electoral system. i think it is absolutely something we cannot accept, and we can't accept, either, as civilised countries with democracies, that there is a campaign to assassinate political opponents on our soil. so there is unfinished business. will it be difficult? absolutely. are there going to be areas we can co—operate, even with russia? absolutely. we need to. let's finish and one more arena, and you've alluded to it already and it's a very interesting one — that is the middle east. now, donald trump can say that on his watch, he fundamentally changed us policy on key issues like moving the us embassy to jerusalem, a different approach to a peace process with palestinians which, in essence, gave israel the green light to retain settlements on occupied territories in the west bank, and a very different policy towards iran which, it seems, encouraged saudi arabia

and the arab gulf states to think it worthwhile to reach out to israel. now, on all of those arenas, things have changed a lot over the last four years. isjoe biden going to seek to unpick all of that? well, ishould repeat, i am obviously speaking as a private citizen and the middle east is not my area of expertise. there have been some achievements under this administration and i mentioned what they were, but let's start with iran. anyone who thinks the region is safer because the us walked away from the so—called joint comprehensive plan of action, the iran nuclear negotiations, is, ithink, wrong. it is now less stable. but there are people who think that very thought. i'm thinking of ray takeyh, who is a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. he recently said, "the trump administration has pursued a successful middle east policy that succeeded precisely because it challenged

entrenched assumptions, ratcheted up the pressure on iran, walked away from thejcpoa deal with iran on the nuclear programme and, in essence," he says, "has left the middle east more stable and safer. " well, that's just, i think that is incorrect. the fact is, the iranians now are pushing the envelope — in fact, more than pushing the envelope, they're violating the agreement, partly because the united states has walked away from it and they haven't gotten the benefit of the bargain that was announced during the deal and now they are increasing their material, as i understand it, and none of that leads to a safer middle east. the idea that you can have lasting peace in the middle east without the involvement of a major partner, including the palestinian people themselves, strikes me as rather extraordinary. so, no, i don't think the region is any safer today. now, how do we actually go about trying to not only save but improve that agreement is something which will

have to be dealt with. a lot of water under the bridge in terms of the extension of scope for that agreement to include things that the iranians are doing that we all know about, that are unacceptable. but that was a better way of addressing the source of instability in the region. a final thought which is really about overseas perceptions of the united states and its role in the world. you, as you said, have lived in europe for many years of your life, you have seen changing perceptions of the united states. donald trump, i think it's fair to say, has had a huge impact on outsiders‘ views of the united states injust a four—year presidency. do you thinkjoe biden, in his coming four years, will be able to undo all of the perception change that there has been about the united states? well, i think about that a lot, because i am also a european,

son of a european, lived in europe, as you say. these things don't change dramatically but certainly the mere fact of biden being president and appointing the people he will appoint, having the policies that he will announce, will give us a window in which to act. we need to seize it, and i'm glad you asked that question because europe will also need to ask itself the question, how can it work with the united states in the best possible way? not giving us freebies. we're not asking for that, but think how we can really move forward the next few years to prove the case, as i said before, to prove that working with allies within the multilateral system that we built after the second world war, to prove that it's a better way of improving the security and prosperity of our citizens. anthony gardner, we will revisit it, maybe, after a couple of years and see how it's going. but for now, thank you very much forjoining on hardtalk. thank you.

hello there. there was some sunshine around on sunday across south wales, south west england. some areas saw temperatures of 15 degrees. for many, though, it was another one those dull and gloomy sort of days. but the weather is changing and that's happening now. these weather fronts coming down from the north west bringing patchy rain southwards on monday, the breeze picking up and blowing away that area of high pressure that's brought all the gloom during recent days. so, a frost—free start, but still quite gloomy in the south. the mist and fog are lifting as that patchy rain heads its way southwards. the rain affecting the hills in the west, little rain or no

rain across southern parts of england. and in the afternoon, we get some sunshine after the rain in scotland and one or two showers. here, those temperatures start to drop away, mind you, but elsewhere, we stay in the mild air. temperatures 9, 10 or 11 degrees. that patchy rain continues to work its way southwards during monday evening, clearing away for most areas, but still a hangback of cloud out towards the west. but with clearer skies across central and eastern parts of the uk, we're going to find a frost across eastern scotland and the north east of england. that colder air has come down in a northerly breeze, behind the weather front bringing the patchy rain. but out to the west, the air is very different. this is much milder air, and it comes with a lot of cloud. and that milder cloudy air will topple its way steadily in from the atlantic into the uk and it will bring a little light rain or drizzle. but through the midlands, across lincolnshire, east anglia and the south east, we're going to hang onto the sunshine — some welcome sunshine. not a bad day here, temperatures of 8 or 9 degrees. quite a cold day across

eastern scotland and the north east of england. further west, temperatures may make double figures. it's a fairly quiet day on tuesday, but there's another weather front heading our way on wednesday. this one again won't bring very much rain at all. it's more a broad area of cloud that's moving down across england and wales. and then behind that, towards the north west, we get some sunshine, the wind picks up and we get some showers. gales in the northwest of scotland, and over the highlands, there may be some sleet or snow as it turns colder. 5 degrees here. further south and east, highs of 8 or 9. the weather is set to change later on in the week. low pressure is returning, stronger winds, some rain at times. not only that, but it will be feeling a lot cooler.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm james reynolds. donald trump claims the fbi and the department ofjustice are working against him and again repeats unsubstantiated claims the election was "rigged". the united nations says civilians have been killed in an attack by suspected islamist militants in nigeria. diego maradona's doctor is investigated for possible negligence after the footballer‘s family question his medical care. imperial death march from star wars plays. the man who became darth vader, the actor david prowse, has died at the age of 85. and lucky to be alive: a miraculous escape at the bahrain grand prix — romain grosjean's car hits a crash barrier