i am. beyond that. this is extraordinarily violent time it's been a very bloody two months here the beginning of this year it is really hell on ground for the children it is very difficult there are problems arguments they are scared they are seeing death and violence at a scale that you would hope no child would see there is

a lack of food and water it brings to see many of the families are crowded into small spaces and basements. now haven't you said president trump has signed a controversial order imposing hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to america why the move has prompted a backlash both from abroad and within the u.s. trump insists it is needed to protect the country's national security today defending america's national security by placing tariffs on foreign imports of steel and aluminum the american steel low milage astri has been ravaged by aggressive foreign trade practices. it's really an assault on our country despite domestic and international backlash trump has signed a proclamation imposing twenty five percent tariffs on steel imports and ten percent tariffs on minium imports encouraging companies to buy american well the

president argues that protecting these industries will guarantee economic and national security however trump has offered to relieve to some u.s. allies of the tariffs will not apply to imports from canada and mexico at least temporarily until nafta is renegotiated even though trump has received some domestic applause from unions in particular that wasn't the case internationally when he first announced these new tariffs on twitter the world was furious. you should try it you want to change your choosing a trade war is surely the wrong prescription china will certainly make an appropriate and necessary response we will defend our interests if need come. i'm convinced that increased terrorists will hurt us over the long room trade rules

are bad and easy to lose. well trump has stated in the past that he sees nothing wrong with trade wars and now other allies are threatening tariffs on u.s. imports of peanuts juice alcohol etc but trump's move has been met with domestic backlash as well from both democrats and republicans who believe that protectionism harms national security now more than one hundred house republican members signed a letter on wednesday expressing deep concern about the plan suggested to change the course of action to avoid untended negative consequences to the u.s. economy and its workers but considering that to canada and mexico have been exempt one can't help but wonder if these new tariffs are intended to hit china trump has listed china as a threat to national security and he's repeatedly expressed the need to counter china so we can't be too sure. so mary kom reporting there now when unveiling the

tariffs at the white house trump was apparently so excited that he did forget one important detail would you like to take a picture in the oval office i assume you've all been many times into the oval office come on let's go and do that let's go into the yes i'm going to will go into the oval office we're going to sign this we're going to the oval office we have a picture ok ok thank you treasury secretary steven there reminding the president that he actually needed to sign the order first before saying cheese plan has received broad support from steel and aluminum firms in the u.s. but economist jeffrey tucker does say it could force key u.s. allies to to export elsewhere. so it seems as if every european nation is washing their hands of the u.s. . we're no longer trust through trade partners in light of this and so europe is seeking other allies china get panicked or australia or anywhere in the world. us

and this has been growing for some months i say this is becoming isolated. in the global economy let's start make any mistake about this in the twenty first century there's no such thing as as nations when it comes to economic disparities in the more we all must cooperate together and the u.s. is excluding itself and giving up its credibility trump a screen here it is contrary to the national interest and the good of the world economy. meanwhile donald trump has also caught many off guard by agreeing to meet face to face with the north korean leader kim jong un only recently that say were engaged in a twitter spat over who had the biggest nuclear button in reports. b. heard the announcement and now we have confirmation from the white house that yes a meeting will take place between kim jong un and us president donald trump now

this would be the first meeting between the head of state of the united states and the government of north korea their head of state this is quite a surprise to many people we've heard secretary of state rex tillerson who recently said that the usa was a long way away from any negotiations with north korea i don't know yet until we are able to be ourselves but is to face with. representatives of the world. whether it conditions are right for you could be if you about negotiations between arms or direct talks with the united states and the u.s. negotiate sions or we're always from negotiations and furthermore we've seen that the united states recently impose new sanctions on the country now there's also been quite a heated exchange and war of words between the two leaders in recent months the. year of strategic patience. with the north korean regime has failed.

her. not make anyone ready to say. they will be met with fire and fury. the u.s. neglects the international community's will to stop this b.s. on the korean peninsula. and we can have mad men out there shooting rockets all over the place have no choice but to totally destroy north korea and. russia. is on a suicide mission for himself no one from so he's on a suicide mission. users .

donald trump has said that the sanctions recently placed on north korea will remain in place until any agreement is reached and pointed out that in the lead up to the meeting north korea has agreed to freeze any ballistic missile testing any nuclear testing or proliferation so at this point other seems to be a free is in north korea in anticipation of a meeting now we have understood that this meeting will take place before may and the location and time are yet to be announced. and reports in and still ahead this hour russia's foreign minister has reacted to allegations the kremlin did have a hand in the poisoning of a full my spy in the u.k. we'll have a look at the details just after the break. please please. please. please.

please. most people think just in this business you need to be the first one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest raid in truth to stand is and you just the right questions demand the right answer. the.

question a. lot again says it is genuine request for help regarding the investigation into the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in the u k. find help is of interest to investigators regarding the poisoning of citizens over gossip about meddling into the us election anything else if rush's assistance is indeed needed we are ready to consider that possibility one should not go on t.v. with accusations like this but instead use official channels including law enforcement the case broke last weekend when x. double agents in a case create paul and his daughter were found on a bench in critical condition and the city of souls bury in england now he formally worked as a double agent for the u.k.

intelligence agency m i six and was jailed in russia back in two thousand and six for spying for britain he was a later released as part of a swap deal and when he was found poisoned most of the mainstream media was quick to speculate that russia was somehow behind it bad things have been known to happen to russians who crossed vladimir putin the fact that a nerve agent was use strengthens the likelihood that this was a state sponsor of some sort and russia is the chief suspect of course the u.k. has turned a blind eye to assassinations on its soil and has instead tried to protect the kremlin now we've heard such accusations before during the investigation into the death of the former k.g.b. agent alexander litvinenko who was also poisoned in the u.k. over a decade to go and following years self investigation no hard evidence of russia's involvement was presented to by the british investigators and now and this case in

the case of poisoning of. russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov is saying that no real facts have been presented so russia's involvement and is calling all recent media accusations hysterical of. being accuse not only of this our western partners accuse us of basically everything that's going. wrong on this planet it's not serious it's just more blatant propaganda and hysteria the u.k. home secretary is also calling for average one not to jump to conclusions but to wait for the official results of the investigation so far twenty one people including the former double agent and his daughter were exposed to what turned out to be a nerve agent now the investigators refused to reveal what specific poison it was and while mr scribal and his daughter remain to be in critical condition the police has cordon up his home as well as the graves of peers wife and son who died and the

past five years says they believe that these locations can provide further details in the investigation. google is facing a backlash from its own employees over its partnership with the u.s. department of defense the company is cooperating with the pentagon under the military drone project maven google is developing artificial intelligence to analyze drawing video data to tech giant has defended its involvement in the project the technology flags images for human review and is for non-offensive uses in military use of machine learning naturally raises valid concerns we are actively discussing this important topic internally and with others as we continue to develop policies and safeguards around the development and the use of our machine learning technologies well the u.s. military makes extensive use of drones according to the bureau of investigative journalism since two thousand and four almost five thousand drone strikes have been

confirmed and it's thought these of killed around a thousand civilians at the end of last year google's then executive chairman expressed fears the military was exploiting the technology to kill. there's a general concern in the tech community of some how the military industrial complex using their stuff to kill people incorrectly if you will i don't understand any other word. but at one time giggles i was don't be evil a former cia analyst and whistleblower told us why the tech giant is finding it hard to stick to his principles you know this is the dirty little secret of corporate america and that is that practically every major corporation no matter what sector it's in is cooperating in some way with either the defense department or the intelligence community let's say you're the c.e.o. of a company and the department of defense comes to you and says we want you to help us do x. y. and z.

and you say no i can't because our slogan is don't do evil they say your country needs you and because you're a patriot you have to help your country and believe it or not that's a very convincing argument and ninety nine companies out of one hundred will do what's asked for them. now is artificial intelligence doesn't prove so to you to voice operated electronic assistance like city or alexa but they are also getting a bit more crazy page with reports of them laughing randomly at their uses. are you really that desperate for approval that we need a machine a laptop a lecture people have been reporting that you've been spontaneously laughing. how. like that.

and that's the news wrap for this hour more news from martina back home. it's a global trade war imminent if donald trump follow through on increasing tariffs and ending existing trade deals it seems very likely after all this was at the very center of his campaign for the presidency it was

a promise he made to his base will it make america great again. and it is in food is a. church secret indeed catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children can get away with it quite literally like to call this the do graphic solution so what the bishop needs to do then he finds out that the priest is is a perpetrator is simply moves him to a different spot where the previous scandal is not the highest ranks of the catholic church conceal the accused priests from the police and justice system to that. the end.

donald trump says there is no chaos at the white house only great energy but insiders describe an isolated president caught inside dog days we'll take a look at this and more on this edition of. politicking on larry king heavy staff turnover an investigation seemingly getting closer to the president and his inner circle family members under extreme scrutiny and a rather unconventional chief of staff whose likelihood of remaining in his job fluctuates week to week. all of these contribute to what insiders are describing is dog days for president trump who is also being labeled as extremely isolated according to reports for his part the president calls such reports fake news and describes the white house is functioning well and with great energy what's the truth we'll talk

about that with chris whipple what winning journalist author of the new york times bestseller the gate keepers how the white house chief of staff define every president is a presidency rather is now out in paperback and includes a new chapter on the trump presidency he joins us from new york and mark leibovich our old friend and chief national correspondent for the new york times magazine bestselling author of scissors in the room this town and mark is in washington for i start with chris are these dark days chris. thanks for having me larry well you know this this has been the most dysfunctional white house in modern history whatever donald trump may want to tell you and it turns out it's it's wilder than we ever thought i mean in a new chapter of my paperback i have the first interviews with ranch priebus who talks about his first six months the first thing he said to me off the record was

take everything you've heard and multiply it by fifty now he would he would be quick to add that even john kelly finds it the toughest job he's ever had but you know that the truth is that this is a white house that spinning out of control it's in my opinion even worse now than it was on wright's previous is watch. mark are you surprised that this not not really i mean i think if you look at the even recent context of the trumpet ministration i mean there really hasn't been a time when it's been spinning in control i mean it's sort of hard to go off the rails when you're never really on the rails i mean this is sort of how he has run his life which is very much himself as his own boss the difference with his current job is that affects all of us and also the presidency is is the most powerful job in the world and he also has new technological tools like twitter in which he can

you know influence or you can exert his own power and voice and opinions and even thoughts and even even orders through those tools so it's a very very different unprecedented thing and also i think you're seeing a lot of the chaos that he's brought to his adult life and acted on to all of us why is you say there is only there's no chaos only great energy. well it's been i mean it's been i mean look i mean you can there is technically great energy to a building that is on fire i mean this is. you can look at it any number of ways and he is a sales person and he's a spinmeister and that's how he's going to portray this this way of the port of report that doesn't mean it's any less. larry i guess workers and chiefs of staffs does the chief of staff have a responsibility in a chaotic white house absolutely you know picking up with what mark said donald trump is not the first president to come into office full of your breasts thinking

he's the smartest guy in the room intoxicated by a selection victory most presidents get over that most presidents ultimately learn that there's a difference between campaigning which is demonizing and dividing and disrupting and governing and it's the chiefs of chiefs job to help the president figure that out you know in my opinion john kelly we all had great or some had expectations that he might be the grown up in the room who smoothed over donald trump's rough edges he's been the opposite of that he's reinforced donald trump's worst partisan instincts and that's really not what the chief is supposed to be about mark investigators have found that kellyanne conway counselor to the president violated federal laws last year by mixing official government business with political views about candidates in that alabama special lessons investigators say she violated the hijacked sent the report to the president you think they'll be any action. probably

not i mean since it's the president's call on what to do about all this and i don't think he's going to make a big statement about one of his closest and most trustworthy aides and look this is something that. is pretty small and relative to a lot of the other stuff he's being accused of in the administration is being accused of i don't think he'll do a big you know bill make a big statement on this at all what i do think is interesting though is this is very much part and parcel of the larger sort of day to day sloppiness that we've seen from this white house and i think what's interesting about this move by the special counsel is that he's just using to discipline them although you have a feeling that they're just sort of shooting fish in the battle of the barrel and this was a kind of an interesting choice for them to go after chris what do you know about the relationship between kellyanne conway. well you know there's a agree with mark there's a much more fundamental problem here for kellyanne conway and everyone in this white house and that is that you know truth was the first casualty on day one when

sean spicer stepped up to the white house briefing podium and told those flagrant lies about the and the augur all photos i write about the phone call that that writes pre-vis got at home at six am from an irate donald trump demanding that he fix this and they chose to lie about it and the rest is history i mean their credibility was the second casualty it's been true ever since donald trump lies with regular regularity his unfortunately his current chief of staff has not only enabled that but he's contributed to it so that's the much larger problem with this white house and anything kellyanne might have said recently on a personal note martin. when you did a story about me for the new york times magazine tom called me and he was still a he loved the stories it was a great story and did i think he should sit down with you and i said absolutely he

should sit down with you and that you'd be very sad based on that interview that you did with him did you sense something in that that this was coming well i think . not really i mean i think clearly i mean this is this is not like a pivot that you see in this kind of. brief political history i mean this is who he was two years ago and i wrote about him during the campaign with who he was twenty years ago fifty years ago what have you and and look i mean again what the prices me and i think what the prizes everyone is that there's been no evolution whatsoever i mean this could have you can easily i mean look at any president sort of two years before he takes the job or she takes the job and a year plus into their presidency and that's not something he would think anymore here it's the exact same straight line and so no nothing at all three places chris in mid february said john kelly was making

a run for the title of the worst white house chief of staff in modern history based on what well you know up to this point i think everybody would say that don reagan ronald reagan's hapless second white house chief of staff was was that had a lock on that title iran contra happened on his watch and it was no coincidence but kelly's failure in my mind has been has been worse than wright's previous as you know we all thought that donald trump just ran overwrites priebus that he was a sycophant that he that he couldn't tell the president hard truths that's been equally true of john kelly you know and he is now failed even by its own very narrow definition of the job which was to make the west wing trains run on time as mark says the trains have been off the rails you got thirty people. without security clearances you've got somebody who's in charge of middle east peace who doesn't have a security clearance you have rob porter thrown out you know it's it's it's just

total chaos and and so that's that's why i think kelly's a contender is it possible mark that trump cannot have a successful chief of staff i think it's very possible and i think that's something that people even coming in before he was he was sworn in we're talking about i mean this is someone who will get the flattering way to put it would be is his own chief of staff but on the other hand i mean he can't be managed at all i mean i think kelly very very early on said i'm not even going to try to manage upward and that's arguably outsourcing the most important part of his job and as chris said he defined his job very narrowly which is to make the west wing more orderly than it was under but right priebus and that seems to be not working out so well either but no i don't think donald trump i mean it's it's really hard to believe who would be lining up to take the job from john kelly if and when he he decides to leave or mysterious is it going to get better olavus. i think it can only get worse if you

can believe that you know every time we think we've hit rock bottom the bottom falls out you know again it's you've got a president who is you know i wrote about this when the ten white house chiefs of staff former chiefs went to the white house in december of two thousand and sixteen gathered around a table with wright's priebus the incoming chief to give him advice they all came away or virtually all of them came away thinking good luck godspeed god help him this is a president who is intellectually and temperamentally unfit for office and that makes it virtually mission impossible for a white house chief of staff in my opinion so it's going to get worse and you know we see it on a daily basis you've got that interview with kerry this for the update in your book was previous apprised. i think that look i priebus was i think

surprised i think. on the other hand he knew going in despite everything that the former chief said told him he knew going in that that donald trump is who he is and donald trump would not tolerate a traditional white house chief of staff who is really empowered to execute his agenda. that's just not trump trump's model was the twenty sixth floor of trump tower which was people coming and going and nobody no chain of command well you can't run the country the way you run a manhattan real estate firm and priebus so priebus knew it was going to be tough but again i don't think he had any idea you know for every half baked ill conceived thing they tried like the executive order an immigration clip claims he stopped and other things that were worse. earlier this week good stuff they said. had a media meltdown firstly to defy

a subpoena samoa then he seemed to indicate he might comply also is that he thought mullah had something on top what was your reaction to the nunberg riyadh affair or call it fair number was it was kind of sad i mean i think i don't think this was the finest hour for the media frankly and i think this is someone who has he seems to be going through kind of a rough time there were some reports that people were smelling alcohol in his breath yesterday and he wasn't the right mind he's not someone who has been in the loop from what i can tell and trump world for a long time so it's unclear to me how much he would have to offer whether to to the robert muller or to even the viewers of the various shows he went on you know you think those shows should not have put him on i think after a while i mean i think maybe the first two interviews were worthwhile but but the fact is. you know he was pretty clear early.