♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... erika: i love seeing interns succeed, i love seeing them come back and join engagement teams and seeing where they go from there,

i get to watch their personal growth, it makes my heart happy. (laughs) ♪ ♪ narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation, the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. announcer: and now, bbc news. annita: hello, i'm annita mcveigh, and this is the context on bbc news. >> the biggest state increase in defense spending since the end of the cold war. >> no coincidence that this announcement has come today, after he was going to washington to see donald trump. >> he has wholeheartedly committed to striking a peace deal in russia and ukraine and

also the middle east. >> 14 and long range guns. that's it. they need more. ♪ annita: the u.k. increases defense spending, the combat with the prime minister calls a dangerous new era, a decision praised by the united states when it comes at a cost of u.k.'s four and a budget, as ukraine enters its fourth year of war. we will hear from european commissioner for defense of what needs to happen. hundreds of artists release a silent album protesting against the u.k. government was a planned changes to copyright law which they stay open up the music industry day i. the rare sight of a planetary parade. how to see seven planets in the evening sky. well, the big story here in the u.k. today is the prime

minister's announcement that defense spending will increase at 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027. gdp of course gross domestic output, to meet the demand of a dangerous new error. -- era. sir keir starmer will visit the white house this week. we will come back to the subject of defense spending in a moment, but bringing you up-to-date in some of the latest development in the u.s. is welcome at the white house press briefing in the last hour or so, we've heard more of how the trump administration plans to handle access to the media for those briefings, and we've learned that elon musk will attend donald trump's first cabinet meeting. sec. leavitt: elon, considering he's working alongside the president and our cabinet secretaries, this entire administration will be in

attendance tomorrow, to talk about doge's efforts and how they are responding to abuse in the respective agencies. we look forward to the meeting tomorrow. i think you will be hearing from the president and his cabinet on campus tomorrow. i hope you are excited. annita: let's go live to washington and our north america correspondent nomia iqbal. hello to you. i want to discuss media access to white house briefings in the president in general, because in the last few minutes, we had a really strongly worded statement from the white house correspondents association, concerned about freedom of the press. tell us more. nomia: the white house correspondents association is a long-standing organization that has been going for more than a century, and basically it is made up of journalists to cover the white house and the president. the key thing about the association is that it is independent, and they have long picked the people that are in the press pool.

this is the pool that follows the president everywhere he goes, whether it is in d.c., outside of d.c., abroad. i've been in that pool, where i follow president trump around, and you get to ask questions. caroline levitt has announced that moving forward, the association will no longer decide who goes into that pool. they want to expand the pool and include nontraditional media. this includes podcasters. instead of letting the association decide that, the white house is going to do that. the big concern was that if that it will not be the president, and the white house will potentially include people that are favorable to donald trump. yesterday, for example, at the press conference with donald trump and emmanuelle omicron, one of the first questions went to a journalist who works at a news network who is very favorable to donald trump. the question was a very favorable question. that is the overall concern. ms. leavitt did say traditional

media, the legacy media, will still have access, but the concern is, instead of letting the association decide, the white house has decided it can pick the journalists it wants to cover the white house. annita: on that news, nomia, that elon musk heading up the department of government efficiency, doge, appointed by donald trump, of course, the two obviously very close, he will be attending donald trump's first cabinet meeting tomorrow. any raised eyebrows about that at all? nomia: it really shows, doesn't it, just how close they are. even though there have been various suggestions that there might be tensions between both men, elon musk who is i think getting more media coverage than donald trump, there does not seem to be any difference between them both on the subject matter. elon musk, as you mentioned, is heading up doge, trying to get

rid of government waste, but there's been controversy, not only because he is an unelected billionaire, appointed by donald trump, but also, what is he going to achieve? last week he sent out an email saying, you have to list the five things you achieved today, send it to this address. the head of those departments, some of them told workers, you don't have to do it, mr.m musk said it was voluntary, now they are being told they have to or they will be fired. who is doing the firing? and who is the administrator of doge? that question was put to karoline leavitt, who is the person in charge? but she declined whose name -- to name who that was. annita: nomia iqbal in washington give days away from his visit to washington, the u.k. prime minister has set out plans to reform the defense budget here. defense spending is to be

increased to 2.5% of gross domestic product or total economic output by 2027, from the current level of 2.3% of gdp. the government had already committed to the increase but had not set out a timetable. it will be funded by a cut in the u.k.'s overseas development aid budget, from .25% to .3%. the government also set a clear ambition for defense spending to rise to th 3% of gdp in the next parliament. let's take a look at how the u.k. compares to other nato members when it comes to defense spending, and meeting the country's 2% target. defense spending among some nato members over the last 10 years. you can see the u.k., france, and germany hovering around that 2% of gdp target. the u.s. since way above that mark at around 3.4 percent, however, in recent years,

they've been surpassed by poland, which, of course, shares land borders with both ukraine as well as with russia's allied belarus. lastly, leaders met in paris to discuss president trump's proposals for talks to end the war in ukraine, what role they could play to ensure a lasting peace in europe. ursula von der leyen, head of the european union, wrote on social media that "europe's security is at a turning point," and calling for an "urgency mindset." joining us as the european union's commissioner for defense and space, angelo cabelas. thank you for joining us on the context on bbc news. i want to talk about the increase in defense spending by the u.k. mr. kubilius: it is not only

europe, all of europe, the baltic states, poland. we have heard from the future chancellor of germany, friedrich merz, that they will be increasing defense spending. what different it does to the services they are predicting. i should know, we need to increase our defense capabilities, and we need to spend much more on those capabilities in order to be on the safe side. annita: but whether it is in the u.k. or somewhere else in europe, given that the war in ukraine is entering its fourth year, do you think that this would be happening without donald trump as president? mr. kubilius: we are increasing

our defense spending not because of trunk but because of putin and because of the threats which we see very much now, what putin is doing, how his economy is able to produce, more than all the nato member states, including the united states, able to produce it in 12 months. so, you know, we need to station our defense and defense spending. annita: when she talks about that "urgency mindset," what does that look like? what does it mean in practice? mr. kubilius: it means that we are continuing in preparation of european defense, which we need to produce, while looking really how to implement.

of course, nato capability targets, which nato is reviewing the war in ukraine, and we are looking also at nato targets before 2030, and we understand that in order to implement those targets with the production of weapons, which are needed for our capabilities, we need really both to increase our defense spending. and we need to increase production of our defense industry. annita: we are talking about more procurements from within europe itself there. mr. kubilius: yes, that is very much what is needed, because the defense industry is also in some ways defense itself, which we need, they could be attacked by russian aggression, we need to

have the defense industry developed on our own soil, to maintain, to produce new weapons that are needed. that is what we consider very important really, to develop such industry, not wasting the time. annita: but that does take time, doesn't it, building up the defense industrial base? how worried are you about the timeframe? the secretary-general of nato recently said that defense spending hovers around 2%, then in four to five years, nato, looking at nato within europe specifically, would not be able to defend itself against a russian attack. how worried of her are you about a timetable to build up the factories that are needed to build these weapons, for example, the procurement that you are talking about? mr. kubilius: well, we've

considered that those predictions, which we think are published by german intelligence or danish intelligence service, are serious predictions and serious threats. it means we need to ramp up production in a very urgent way. and just on monday, the whole commission, rests on ukraine, the war, and we see the data, managed to increase the production value, so they managed to defense -- to increase defense production by

35 times in two years, three years. that does not mean we cannot do the same in europe. it depends on what is needed. we can do what is needed to be much more secure. annita: i guess there is a will. and is it going to take all european allies to be on exactly the same page, on the amount that they are prepared to spend to deliver this at the sort of speed that you think needs to happen? or is some paying more and summer hovering around that 2%? is that going to make a critical difference? mr. kubilius: definitely. we are looking, first of all, what we need to procure, what we need to produce in a short period of time. then how much it will cost, and then of course member states, european member states -- european union member states will decide how. so definitely we have a nato summit in june. we will make a decision and an

agreement that member states should increase their defense spending from 2% up to at least 3%, maybe even more. we are looking, of course, at the next european budget, which will start to be operational in 2028. we are looking at possibilities to raise traditional funds. today, we had a productive meeting, which is most important european banks, some european investment banks, so we are looking to draw different possibilities, and we have to be sure. but, you know, we will be able to find out what this means, because really we need to understand that it is quite serious. annita: and in the short term, with regards to ukraine, lots of conversations going on. we saw a president macron of france at the white house yesterday, and then we are expecting to see the u.k. prime minister sir keir starmer at the white house later this week.

lots of conversations going on about how to defend ukraine in the short term. what are your hopes? what are your concerns around that, as europe looks how it can build up its defense space and its security? mr. kubilius: we are absolutely clear that european defense, on how we should be able to assist ukraine in defense of ukraine itself. that is why our first reality is related to spell in a clear way to ukraine, that the european union will continue to offer support, and we are looking for opportunities to increase even such a support. because this is the only way that we can implement a form of peace, so-called peace through strength. so first of all, we need to increase strength of ukraine, and that can come from ukraine

allies in the democratic world. and second of all from the european union. we've had a very successful meeting with ukraine on monday. we know that really it is important to both the prime minister and the president of france to washington, d.c., model the conversation with president macron, the leaders of european states, they will be visiting london, the next will be the council meeting in brussels. so there are discussions on how to achieve the just peace. annita: andrius kubilius at european union commissioner for defence and space, thank you very much for your time today.

let's get more on some of our other main news now come and that is you k's announcement that it is going to increased defense spending by 2027. we are joined by our correspondent rob wilson. this announcement, the timing of it, that was really a focus of the questions, was it that, when keir starmer gave his press conference earlier. we can only, one assumes, connect that to the fact that he will be in the white house with donald trump on thursday. rob: absolutely, and to be fair, annita, keir starmer was not denying that, what prompted this was the ukraine invasion three years ago. i think you could read into that the extraordinary turnabout of

the white house policy. to say hey look from our side, from the european side, we get it, we get that you want us to spend more on defense and security. we are going to be doing that. in the trunk, we really want you not to give the game away to putin and carry on with ukraine. annita:annita: there's been a call between president macron and sir keir starmer and the last short while. the term "comparing notes" brings to mind. rob: yes, it does. whether macron, whether starmer can keep alive the transatlantic partnership that has brought security since 1925, yes, they can do that. but ultimately, it depends on donald trump. does he want to keep that

post-1945, or does he not? annita: rob, thank you very much. rob watson. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪

♪ as leaders around the world mark three years of war in ukraine on monday, in two of those at the united nations, a shift in america's posture toward the war was laid there. the u.s. twice sided with russia and joined the likes of north korea, belarus, and sudan in opposing a resolution drafted by european union supporting ukraine's territorial integrity and condemning russia's actions. a second point drafted by the united states calling for an end to the conflict saw the u.k. some of france, and spain overlapping criticism -- over lacking criticism of russia. former u.s. ambassador to

ukraine serving under president bill clinton. steve, really good to have you. reading some of your reaction in advance of this, you are really angry about this, aren't you? steve: yeah. i think the u.s. decision to oppose joining the likes of russia and north korea, that correctly identified russia as the aggressor, that was appalling. annita: and how much do these resolutions matter anyway? some people might be asking the question, is the focus really, what is going on in the white house, the meetings, we've been covering macron, i'm anticipating the u.k. prime minister going there, the talks between president trump's envoy to ukraine and so forth, where does the power like him if you like? steve: yeah. this is a change in american

concessions to diplomacy that began two weeks ago when the secretary of defense said look, in a negotiation on the russian-ukraine war, ukraine cannot expect to get all of its territory back or join nato. why make concessions at the outset? president trump embraced a three-year agreement from russian leaders, vladimir putin, agreed to meet with him. i look at these concessions, and i asked, what is the united states getting in return? that is the backroom thing. i don't think we are getting anything in return for these concessions, and what i hear is that vladimir putin is looking at president trump and thinking, this guy is weak, and he can sit back and expect more concessions. that's not the way to deal with the krn. annita: do you necessarily think, though, that what we seen in the united nations, both the general assembly and security council, that unnecessarily with what is actually going to happen in terms of a deal, or is this a

very particular way of doing things that we get with president trump, that he's trying out lots of options, he sees which one will give him the best deal, is going to give america the best deal, and then he goes with that? steve: yeah. no, in that light, the u.n. is kind of a sideshow. it will be taken place between americans and russians, hopefully between americans and ukrainians, but this rush to engage russia, i mean, the first conversation president trump should have had should have been with volodymyr zelenskyy, ukraine's president. at a minimum. the second call should have been to europeans because the administration was a plan, providing military force to implement the agreement, he needs to know what the europeans are not prepared to do. and then, of course, talking to

putin, he should have taken steps to build levers with putin, things like working with the g7, to seize russia's $3 billion in assets and put them in a fund for ukraine. because if you try to confront put it with the fact that if he does not negotiate seriously, he will face a war that will have military costs for russia. so i think trump has done his negotiation style backwards. and his chances of shooting what he wants, a lasting settlement, are diminishing. annita: we have less than a minute. very briefly, someone said to me recently that we are now in the era of a strength-based international order rather than a rules-based international border. for strength, i guess you could transpose the word "money" as well. would you agree with that?

steve: i think that is where president trump thinks things live. i don't think that is in national security interests. i think is a good system for russian interests, but it is also a good system across the world. it could be to our disadvantage. narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... bdo, accountants and advisors, funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation, the judy and peter blum kovler foundation, upholding freedom by strengthening democracies at home and abroad. ♪ ♪ usa today calls it "arguably the best bargain in streaming" that's because the free pbs app let's you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... erika: i love seeing interns succeed, i love seeing them come back and join engagement teams and seeing where they go from there,