on issues like defence spending? >> meanwhile, donald trump has wasted no time in wielding hard power to force countries to bend to his will in a humiliating retreat. colombia is now flying its own illegal migrants back to its own illegal migrants back to its country after being threatened with massive trade sanctions. >> elsewhere, the king is in poland to mark 80 years since the liberation of auschwitz, the largest site of genocide in world history. but with anti—semitism on the rise, do we risk forgetting the lessons of history? >> and local councils, they're threatening tax rises of up to 25%. this in a desperate bid to balance their books. could you be affected by this record? cash grab. >> and strike a pose? the energy secretary, ed miliband, is hiring a taxpayer funded vanity photographer to help show off his net zero work. well, this is despite one such ed miliband, slamming david cameron for doing the exact same thing.

>> nora forster is it really? is it really a wise judgement when he is telling everybody to tighten their belts, to put his own personal photographer on the civil service payroll? >> that is. that is funny. ed miliband, you know, just a few years ago, just a few years ago, saying, well, trying to humiliate david cameron on exactly the same issue. then it turns out he's got a 50 k a year vanhy turns out he's got a 50 k a year vanity photographer himself. >> well, he won that prime minister's question. that was one of the first prime minister's questions david cameron ever did. and the fresh faced leader of the opposition, ed miliband, slams him on this, on this personal photographer. and cameron ended up sacking the photographer and taking it off the government payroll. so that was a win for miliband then. now he's in government, though the shoe's on the other foot. >> i'm not sure exactly what ed miliband needs this photographer

for. i'm not sure gb energy has got off the ground in the six months labour have been in power more than six months now. >> well, i suppose the irony is that a lot of government departments now have photographers. i mean, we saw liz truss like to take her photographer around the world when she was foreign secretary. we see whenever a department puts out, you know, what it's doing, it's usually followed around by photographers. but maybe david cameron was ahead of his curve. >> maybe ed didn't think he'd be in power to have his own vanity photographer any time soon, so he thought he'd get away with that one. >> well, speaking of vanity, the president of the united states, donald trump, has been on the phone to the prime minister, keir starmer. it only took him a week. >> speaking of vanity, talking about donald trump or keir starmer. >> i think it's fair to say i think even the biggest fans of donald trump would say he's not the most modest man. >> in. >> in. >> the world. but finally, there's been a phone call between our prime minister and the president of the united states. took a lot longer this time than when trump got in the first time around. theresa may

was the first one of the first person he called. whereas it's been a week. >> it has. yeah. and keir starmer apparently apparently is going to say absolutely not to donald trump. i'm not going to be spending any more on defence spending. 2.5% is the absolute limit. but we've seen how donald trump works and he works through threats. so could keir starmer be upping that defence budget? >> well, there'll be a personal meeting between the two leaders in the coming weeks. so we hear. but what do you think about that meeting of minds. are they are they great friends or is it all going to turn turn pretty sour pretty quickly? well, gbnews.com/yoursay is the way to get involved. all to come, of course, after your headlines with sophia wenzler. >> tom. emily. thank you. good afternoon. these are your headunes afternoon. these are your headlines from the gb newsroom. the prime minister and president trump have agreed to meet soon after their first phone call since the inauguration. they discussed the importance of close and warm ties between britain and the us, the economy

and the need for security in the middle east. it comes as trump has won a battle with colombia after threatening a trade war, when the country refused to accept deported migrants, the us president said he would retaliate with a 25% emergency tariff on colombian goods after the country turned away two us military planes. but colombia backed down quickly, with the foreign ministry stating the country had overcome the impasse, not only agreeing to accept the migrants but sending accept the migrants but sending a presidential plane to collect them. meanwhile, shadow minister for business and trade dame harriet baldwin told gb news she was glad to see tariffs weren't discussed between president trump and the prime minister. >> i'm delighted to see that it wasn't discussed yesterday, that we don't seem to be in the tariff firing line at the moment, but i think we've got to be as a country, as a global trading nation, one that articulates the case for not having tariffs. and i'm very pleased to see that when the

chancellor gave evidence to the treasury committee earlier this yean treasury committee earlier this year, she also made that point. so i think we've got to be a strong voice for free trade around the world. >> now. king charles will become the first british monarch to visit. visit auschwitz today to mark holocaust memorial day on the 80th anniversary of its liberation. meanwhile, sir keir starmer has pledged to make holocaust education a truly national endeavour. the prime minister said the atrocities of the second world war should not be forgotten, and the truth should be defended against anyone who would deny it. commemorations will remember the 6 million jews killed by the nazi regime, as world leaders and survivors gather at the site, businesses across the country are pushing the chancellor to get the economy moving. pressure is piling on rachel reeves to u—turn on key economic policies after a damning new report suggested businesses are preparing to cut staff and raise prices. the

confederation of british industry report indicated private sector firms expect to face another significant fall in activity over the next three months, having already dropped over the previous three month period. meanwhile, 4 million households are facing council tax rises of up to five times the legal limit from april. that's according to reports in the daily mail newspaper. households in one area could see their bills hiked by 25%, the largest increase in england for two decades. seven other struggling councils around the country have proposed rises of between 9 and 15%, as they look to exploit a legal loophole. local authorities are permitted to raise council tax by up to 4.99%. under government rules. in other news, thousands of palestinians are returning to their homes in northern gaza today after an agreement was reached in talks between israel and hamas. hamas will release

another six hostages this week, including civilian arbel yahud, who was expected to be released yesterday. since the ceasefire deal came into force, seven hostages and just under 300 prisoners have been released. britain is bracing for more rain and gales as storm herminia sweeps in. yellow warnings for wind and heavy rain have been issued for parts of the uk as the new storm arrives after storm arwen left two people dead. 80 mile an hour gusts have been recorded in cornwall, with coastal areas at risk of reaching 70 miles an hour overnight. meanwhile, 65,000 homes in northern ireland are still without power. rain warnings are in place across england and wales, with up to 80mm expected in some areas , and 80mm expected in some areas, and the deliberate vandalism of memorials of two murdered police officers have sparked outrage across west yorkshire. the memorial stones of peachey and

broadhurst and sergeant john speed were both covered in black paint over the weekend, with officers now launching an investigation into the incidents. a member of the pubuc incidents. a member of the public who tried to clean up the mess spoke to gb news last night. paul cockcroft said it's a targeted attack on the police. leeds district commander, chief superintendent steve dodds, said everyone at the force was appalled by the vandalism. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to tom and emily. >> for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone, sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code or go to gbnews.com/alerts. >> good afternoon britain. it's nine minutes past midday and the prime minister is resisting pressure from president trump

and the british military to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gdp by the end of the decade. >> yes, this comes as the us president praised the prime minister for doing a very good job following a 45 minute phone call suggesting his first official overseas trip could be to britain. >> interesting stuff. well, joining us now is the professor of international politics, david dunn. david, it is interesting, given that it was about a week until trump called starmer. it's been a faster phone call of previous presidents and previous prime ministers. what do we reckon about the state of this relationship? >> well, despite the timing, i think starmer has been pretty effective at courting trump and the trump administration. >> right before. >> right before. >> in fact, actually. >> in fact, actually. >> the election. >> the election. >> they recognised that trump was a likely winner and they've made efforts. >> to reach out. >> to reach out. >> both through. the senior. >> both through. the senior. >> levels of the government, but. >> particularly the british. >> particularly the british. >> embassy in washington. >> embassy in washington. >> which has. >> which has. >> been assiduous as coming

alongside. >> every member. >> every member. >> of the administration and actually showing the areas of commonality. and i think what we saw on this phone call yesterday was, again, a reaching for common ground as a way of trying to build relationships rather than talking about anything particularly controversial at this stage. so the administration, unusually, perhaps talked about its enthusiasm for deregulation and for open trade and for dealing with welfare cuts, actually trying to seek out areas of commonality with the trump administration, and, of course, also praising trump for his actions about bringing the peace deal to the middle east. so it's really a case of relationship building more than anything else at this stage. and it seems from the language coming out of it to have been quite successful in doing so at up to this point. >> i mean, they certainly won't see eye to eye on, on practically anything, though, will they? david dunn i mean, they have totally different

worldviews, totally different outlooks on how and how you should get things done. you've got donald trump, who has basically, through threats, forced columbia to fly back its own illegal migrants. this all happenedin own illegal migrants. this all happened in a in a matter of hours. whereas keir starmer is very much we do think everything by the word of the law, international law in particular. he has a very different sort of mindset. i mean, can those two really work together? >> well, one of the remarkable things about the uk us relationship is how much, despite the fact that there have been vast differences in personality, that actually the structural aspects of the relationships, the commonality of language, of history, of culture, and of course, the deep integration of defence and intelligence relationships means that actually those broader aspects of the relationship supersede the individual differences in personality. and the history of this is fascinating. if you go right back to harold macmillan being concerned about this young, cocky irishman, as he called him, jfk being elected and how he was going to get on with him. and yet they get on perfectly

similarly with regard to tony blair, who was big buddies with bill clinton when he when george bush was elected in 2000, he was concerned about how that would go. and of course, we saw that they ended up getting on remarkably well because, you know, the issue areas ultimately brought them together. so although. >> of course, in both of those cases, jfk's father was the british ambassador, who was the american ambassador in london. jfk spent a lot of time over in london and loved british history, wrote his thesis on winston churchill. similarly, bill clinton, he was a rhodes scholar, attended oxford university. trump, i suppose his mother, being scottish, is an interesting influence there for the strongest relationships of american leadership and their british counterparts. there seems to be a strong british connection in their history. >> that's right. i mean, of course, famously, bill clinton's time at oxford didn't necessarily mean he was particularly predisposed towards the uk because he founded a fairly snobbish experience, as

did his daughter. but there are, as you say, these elements of, of, of continuity, of, of contact. and of course, that's one of the reasons why there are rhodes scholarships to try and actually make sure those relationships are bounded. but there is, i think and this is true across the new trump administration, deep elements of affinity, of connectivity, of cultural alikeness that actually means that they are automatically predisposed towards us, despite the fact that there are ideological differences between trump and starmer. that may, in other circumstances be seen as particularly problematic. so in a sense, actually those things do bring us together. we do know, for example, that trump is someone who's fascinated by the royal family. he actually collects a scrapbook or did of actually photographs of every occasion where he met members of the royal family. you know, these things are important to him. and of course, starmer is keen to promote that in their discussions. >> okay. david dunn, thank you very much indeed. professor of

international international politics. there's a survey this weekend about how brits would, would quite like some of the policies coming out of trump's america already, particularly on illegal migration and free speech and scrapping the diversity and inclusion for meritocracy in recruitment and all of that. it's quite appealing. >> also, just the sense of sort of hard power that your country can do something that sort of we don't have to sort of tiptoe around anything. you know what? if we want a country to if we want to force a country to accept illegal migrants back, threaten them with sanctions, and then just do it, just do it. >> i don't understand why we can't do the same. i mean, there are a number of stories today in the papers about how the echr is preventing us from deporting various foreign nationals who are criminals because of their human rights and the like. and it's just it's just endless. i think a lot of people are crying out for a leader who will just, you know, put this country first. >> but i do think this also speaks to why people hate politicians so much. we saw for

up until about six months ago, keir starmer and his entire well, then shadow cabinet were saying awful things about donald trump. how dare the then conservative government have anything to do with this monster, this megalomaniac, this racist, this kkk sympathiser? all the rest of it. >> was a particularly. >> was a particularly. >> good one. and then and then suddenly, now that keir starmer is prime minister, obviously it's expedient to have a good relationship with the president of the united states, but that's not something he would ever accept in opposition. and that's just the cynicism that is so apparent in politics. everyone just plays the game. >> i think we might see very soon keir starmer having to try and stand up to donald trump. and i think it will be quite interesting to see how that goes. right. in other news, of course, king charles is set to visit auschwitz today to mark holocaust memorial day. that's the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the largest nazi concentration camp. >> while commemorations will remember the 6 million jews and other groups killed during the holocaust, as world leaders and

survivors gather at the site. >> okay. well, joining us now is gb news royal correspondent cameron walker. cameron, what can we expect today? >> good afternoon emily. well, the scale and size of this place behind me, auschwitz—birkenau, just really speaks volumes because this was a very well organised industrial killing machine here at auschwitz, where 1.1 million people were murdered by the nazi regime, a vast majority of those were jewish. and as you said, today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation where the soviet red army marched through the gates and found just 7000 very weak but alive survivors. and tova friedman is one of those survivors. she was just five years old when she entered auschwitz with her mother in june 1944, and she has spoken to gb news and has said that she worries that the world hasn't learnt lessons from the holocaust. and she goes further.

she says the experience of anti—semitism many jews face today is worryingly similar to those experienced by jews in the 19305 those experienced by jews in the 1930s and 1940s. here's her story. >> i was with my mother when. >> i was with my mother when. >> i was with my mother when. >> i arrived, and the first shocking thing was that the suitcase that we packed so carefully and we thought, it's our property. we had some pictures there was taken away from us immediately. the smell was overwhelming and i asked, i remember, what is that? and she pointed to the smoke and i knew right away what it was. she didn't have to explain it to me. the burning of the bodies. she never covered anything up. she was pretty convinced that the only way i will survive is if i knew the dangers. and i protected myself. the other barrack of the child girls was

taken to the crematorium