as for the floorchedule, the senate returns monday at 3:00 p.m. eastern. lawmakers will continue to work more on president biden's judicial nominations for u.s. later in the wrevote willts. take place to make it a righ nationwide to access ibf. the senate fell short of advathe bill in june and lay along party lines. the is back tuesday at noon eastern. later in the week, members will ider several bills opposing the biden administra's border security and immigration policies, including legon to block migrant-related funding to help sod sanctuary cities. lawmakers will also consider a bill to prevent accrediting agencies from requiring colleges to support or oppose certain political beliefs t accredited. watch live coverage of the house on c-span, the senate on c-span 2," and watch all of our congressional coverage on our free video app, c-span now, or online at c-span.org.

welcome back, we are joined by heather hurlburt, associate fellow for u.s. in the americas at chatham house. guest: thank you for having me. host: tell us about the mission of chatham house and how it's funded. guest: it's of british global think tank, one of the world's oldest, funded by private donors, corporations, and other european public funding. host: tell us about keir starmer. he's relatively new. tell us about his background and politics. guest: he won in a landslide in july after 12 years in a row of conservative government. he is the first person in his family to go to university. has been in british politics for a long time but started out his life, stop me if this sounds like other political candidates, as a prosecutor, worked in the law for a number of years. host: interesting.

how would you characterize his politics for an american audience? guest: he starts out viewed as fairly left-wing, moving to the center and then moving the entire labor party to the center after a time where it was perceived as having lost many elections for being too far to the left. the meeting is -- host: the meeting is set to happen today. what's the purpose of the visit? guest: it's actually his second visit with biden. the first thing he did after being elected was come here for the nato anniversary summit back in july. they will primarily being -- talk about foreign security challenges where britain is one of our most important partners, but also about economic issues. this is where britain is really hoping for u.s. help in reviving the economy. host: do we know anything about their relationship, how they get along, anything like that?

guest: they don't really know each other, it's not like other world leaders where biden has known them for 10, 20, 30 years, but they seemed to hit it off really well in july and i think it is not an accident that as president biden winds down his time, this is a relationship that he wants to shore up. host: i'm going to show a short clip shortly after he won his election. here's the u.k. prime minister visiting with president biden during that nato summit in july. [video clip] >> that special relationship is so important, forged in difficult circumstances, endured for so long, stronger now than ever. we are so pleased to recommit to nato, to recommit to this special relationship, and have the opportunity to discuss it with you. >> we are singing the same song.

i kind of see you guys as the closer you are on your game, the more, we know where you are, we know where we are. the countries. host: the sound was low, but what did you take from that? guest: this vision of the u.k. as the connecting piece between the u.s. and europe, with a foot solidly in both camps. host: the special relationship, where did that come from and what does that really mean on a day to day basis between the countries. guest: we often joke that the u.s. and the u.k. are two countries divided by a common language, but because there is so much commonality, for years they've had a super close defense relationship, sharing a huge amount of intelligence and interoperability. our economies are very similar in many ways.

some of the same struggles with postindustrial communities or how we think about who is american, who is british. immigration. although of course the u.s. is much bigger and different in that respect, we have some other really fundamental commonalities. host: we will take your calls for heather hurlburt about the relationship between the u.s. in the u.k. until the end of the program. our phone lines are by party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. let's talk about ukraine. how supportive has the u.k. been when it comes to financial support of ukraine? guest: the u.k. has really lean forward on the defense side, per capita sending more stuff to ukraine than many other countries.

it has also constantly pushed and pushed the u.s., frankly, to do more. that is some of what the visit is about today. host: about that, this headline, "key aid offered, no breakthrough on strikes into russia." any information on that? guest: it shows you how close the relationship is, so tony blinken, our secretary of state and u.k. foreign minister went to the country together this weekend we seem to be seeing a choreography leading up to a public decision possibly being announced coming out of these white house meetings today. host: the bbc says putin draws a new redline on long-range missiles. so, this is -- it says that -- the headline is in this morning's commerce newspaper and

it captured the drama of putin drawing a red line. will the west crossett? if so, how will russia respond? has there been -- obviously this is nato and the u.k. has been very involved in nato. what is going on there with the redline with putin? guest: we have seen putin over the course of the course of ukraine war try to sort of kind of drawl redlines without ever committing himself to them and frankly mostly pull back from them. nuclear saber rattling at various points. threats. you haven't ever seen an explicit -- and this is the redline, now you have crossed it and i will respond. this is how he plays, trying to intimidate nato countries without ever committing to something that he for shoe hat -- for sure has to follow through on. host: real quick, israel hamas, will that be discussed today and is there any -- what is the difference between approaches

from president biden and prime minister starmer? guest: the white house did say it would be in the statement they put out announcing the meeting. starmer has moved to the u.k. a little bit away from the u.s. position, announcing that they will stop selling some kinds of weapons to israel. they have also taken a more forward leaning approach on the international criminal cases against both idf and hamas military actors. host: let's go to calls from barbara whittingham, vermont. independent. caller: correct. my question, my concern, starmer over the u.k., and with joe biden, they are both globalists. the illegal immigration into both countries is stirring up a lot of concerns for the citizens. over the u.k., i know that there

is censorship and people are being arrested for saying anything negative against the illegal immigrants. the same thing is starting to happen here. you see it in the news reports that nothing is happening, everything's great. no, accounts are being changed because of the immigrants. we have culture. the u.k. had a culture. now it's all being taken away. so i would like to know how you feel about that, it's connected to the globalist movement, the world economic forum, and nobody talks about it. could you talk about that, please? guest: i'm dissented from generations of proud vermont defendants -- a vermont independents myself. it's interesting but starmer's trying to do announcing the creation of a border command to try to work on managing immigration better and making sure it stays under the rule of

law, but also to address your second point, really trying to lean into forming a shared culture, saying that there is a shared u.k. culture. maybe it doesn't look like how we imagine it when we think of masterpiece theatre from 150 years ago, but really leaning into the existence of a common culture, it's interesting what they are trying to do and it frankly parallels some of the things you heard, including things like what vice president harris said in the debate about most americans wanting to be united, not divided. host: are there british censoring discussion about illegal immigration? guest: so, no, but it's also important to say the british don't have a first amendment. the government is allowed to constrict hate speech much more aggressively in the u.k. in a way that a journalist in the u.s. would find objectionable. but no, in no way is it the case that there is mass censorship.

host: patty, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is -- earlier, ma'am, which thank you for being on, i'm curious your take, earlier on the program there were two guests and one of them represented -- here in the u.s., compass, i'm sure you're familiar. they are part of the project 2025 plan. they are a contributing organization. in fact, one of their members, jonathan barry, is one of the authors of the plan. so, when i think about you coming from that perspective, how do you see it playing out? how do you think the u.k. is preparing, if there were to be a

gop takeover of the white house and a shift towards a more authoritarian type, how are you preparing for that? have you seen any discussions from the prime minister or, you know, his party on how they might be preparing for the u.s. actually shifting to a more authoritarian rather than democratic state? guest: that's a great question. there was a lot of chatter when the man who was the foreign secretary went down and met with trump. actually, before the u.k. election. there was a lot of debate in the u.k. about whether this was or wasn't an appropriate thing to do and they said we are a government and our job is to defend the interests of our country no matter who is in charge in the u.s. and you see this around the world, governments saying ok, what are we going to do, how are we going to manage our own interests and

defend our values in the event of a republican government? just the same as our government has to deal with whoever gets elected in other countries, frankly, the brits just have to sit back and think about all right, how would we manage this? host: stephen, arizona, republican, hello. caller: good morning. it seems to me and the people i talk to on the left in the right, the people on the left that want to turn towards voting republican, that the globalization that the left in this country in the left in all the countries want to do, it doesn't seem to work. there's too many bad players. seems like when the left is in office, people like putin take advantage of it. even when obama was in office, they took over crimea with no problem at all.

by the way, trump gave ukraine weapons, obama didn't. it seems like the globalization is going to work. i think that's why a lot of republicans in this country are going to go with, with the right. it just seems more problems arise when our left, currently, when our left is in office. i mean, when trump is in office, there's no way we don't feel that gaza would have exploded and we don't feel that ukraine would have been invaded. host: stephen, regarding the u.k., though, do you have like a question or a comment related to that? caller: the u.k.? the u.k. and america has always been allies since the 20th century, you know, against nazism. i feel that chamberlain was a lot like biden and the guy who made the peace plan with iran.

i just feel that the world does still need people on the right to keep things in order. peace through strength. if any of that relates? host: any comments? guest: yeah, i think it so interesting that on the one hand and the u.s. in the u.k. you have conservative parties that include that kind of strong government strong military instinct the caller is talking about, working hand-in-hand with actual neo-nazis who are proud to be neo-nazis and harken back to exactly the forces that we think of conservatives fighting about. it's a really interesting, challenging moment. i will just maybe add to that it's interesting that again, the u.k., frankly, the tory government as well that preceded this one, european leaders, really all quietly or loudly are

dreading the return of a trump presidency and not, frankly, feeling that that brand of conservatism can deliver the kind of american leadership they want. host: paul, maryland, independent, how are you? caller: good, how are you? host: good. caller: i appreciate you letting me call in today. i was just thinking about that, with, like, especially after being -- i was in the military for 25 years, recently retired. now that i am seeing, like, a lot of the differences between the way that i was raised, you know, by the military, and doing what was good but still yet somehow it affected me, right? i can see how there is, it seems like, now more than ever, like a

pretty big balance of, of people waiting to make a decision, if they will go for the right or the wrong, you know? host: ok. comment? guest: thank you for your service, first of all, and congratulations on retiring. i think it is so interesting to look, and we are seeing it in the u.s. and elsewhere, this kind of struggle of how do we think about who is going to use the military correctly, who looks at the terms of the oath of office and said ok, i'm going to keep the use of the military within bounds and its telling, some of the conversations the u.k. is having about what they will need to do with their military if trump is reelected. those conversations are really interesting. host: regarding nato and nato spending, what are you seeing, and i know you focus mostly on

the u.k., but across europe in terms of increased defense spending for those nato targets? guest: frankly, since russia invaded crimea and the continued ramp-up of russian aggression, in ukraine and more over scandinavian countries, for example, borders and other places, pretty steady growth in military spending across europe. you now have all but two or three european countries getting close to that 2% target. the u.k., for example, talking about trying to hit 2.5%, which is unheard of in peacetime. european countries feel deeply unnerved by the aggressive actions and rhetoric of putin and his military. host: former president trump said that that is something he made a big issue and that that is why european countries have been raising more, spending more

on defense. guest: it's because putin made it a big issue by invading countries and threatening other countries. it's an interesting point that the trump presidency overlaps with that. caller: good morning. i'm a millennial, 41. my question is, postelection, will there be international or domestic concerns for english citizens? that socioeconomic life, are they successful or happy? and a personal question for you, do you have a favorite premier football league team? soccer? guest: you are going to ruin my reputation forever but i have only one choice, my brother in law is british, so it's west ham for me. host: mike, who's yours?

you there, mike? maybe not. caller: yes, i am. host: i was just going to ask who you thought. caller: i'm a west ham fan. i'm very friendly, my best friend is from that part of london. i've always been a west ham fan because of that connection. host: glad you guys agree on that. guest: we don't have to fight about that. your question about millennials and the u.k. is good one, their economic growth has really stagnated and people feel like they can't get ahead, their families can't get ahead. services are maybe not what they were hoping they were. british national health is not in great shape. like for people most places in the world, frankly, that's the number one concern for millennials and everyone else. second, as an earlier caller alluded to, there is a perception in the u.k. that there has been a lot of immigration in people are not

sure how they feel about it or in some places people are hostile to it. very much as here, you see economic issues as the number one concern, with immigration, cultural, what is it mean to be british, that's the other top issue people are thinking a lot about. host: janet, aurora, illinois, we are running out of time, if you could be brief? guest: same as before, speaking on we are having immigration mainly from the southern border. the british, europe, they are experiencing immigration from across the mediterranean, africa and other countries. why is it that so many foreign nations are immigrating to the european countries, the western countries, and what seems to be the problem? is it drugs? are they being driven out of their country by drug lords?

is there some other attraction to moving into european countries that we haven't recognized yet? guest: the first thing that happened is the u.k. opened its borders and let folks come in from eastern europe, mostly to do the jobs that the british people didn't want to do and rejuvenate that economy. for britain, it's a lot of former british colonies where people have a huge attraction to come study in those universities, live with relatives. third, migration from africa to britain is actually quite small, not as big as you would think from what you see on television, climate change causing desertification in africa, making it harder and harder to make a living and leading to conflicts over water leaves people feeling like they have no future where they are coming from. three causes that you didn't mention but i would prioritize them off the bat. host: all right, heather hurlburt, u.s. american british

>> thising saturday, it is an encore presentation of the abc news presidential debate in philadelphia betice president kamala harris and former president tru watch its entirety a p.m. eastern on c-span, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. discover the heartbeat of democracy with c-span voices 2024 as we engage voters nationwide asking what issue is most important to you in this election and why. >> i am from alabama. my biggest issue this election season is the bias in the media. i feel like we don't have adequate coverage of both parties and we just have --

>> my top issue is women's reproductive rights. i have a wife. i have two daughters and two sons. most important thing for me is to make sure my daughters are safe, my wife is safe and every other woman is safe because i am a big believer in not just equal rights but every woman has a choice. >> my top issue is preservation of democracy and freedom. it seems like our freedoms are being eroded. here in the national mall, the world war ii museum is next-door. a lot of people paid a heavy price for that freedom and that is what i think we need to focus on. >> when boating for will center around health care and women's rights, rights to choose, right to be in charge of our own body. better access to health care for everybody. equal pay for all. >> my top issue for the u.s. would be immigration.

and illegal -- keep it open to people immigrating legally. until they get corrected, a lot more other issues will stem from that. >> c-span's voices 2024. be a part of the conversation. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced unfiltered coverage of government taking you to where the policy is abated and decided with the support of america's cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting powered by cable. >> coming up, president biden host a bilateral meeting