let's bring in anthony zurcher as we a lwa ys let's bring in anthony zurcher as we always do.washington, dc. so many elements to this story, what is your reading of it? as you said, pressure is mounting onjeff sessions to recuse himself. the ground underneath him as far as staying involved in this investigation in his capacity as attorney general overseeing the fbi is crumbling, with leaders of the republican party in congress, kevin mccarthy, the second—in—command in the house of representatives, arming out and saying he needed to recuse himself. it has allowed democrats to go step further and start calling for his resignation. we got a couple of stories out of sessions own press secretary about that meeting in september. first it was an in—person meeting, then over the phone, then in person. if it was over the phone with the russian ambassador, michael flynn's phone conversations with the russian ambassador were recorded by us intelligence agencies so i wouldn't be surprised if a phone conversation with jeff sessions wouldn't be surprised if a phone conversation withjeff ses

from a political point of view with anthony zurcher.s we will talk live from new york about this as a business story and how that works. money for new grammar schools in england is to be announced in tomorrow's budget, there will be 140 free schools setup using a budget of £320 million in this parliament and the next. theresa may insists this is part of a plan to make a good education accessible to every child. we have protected the court schools budget but crucially what we are announcing is £500 million of investment in schools, 320 million of which will be in new schools creating 70,000 new school places. what this is about is ensuring people can know that their child will have a good school place and all the opportunities that that provides for them. and among those new schools will be new maths schools like the one i visited, kings maths school in london, crucially taking youngsters who are interested in mathematics, giving them the skills for the future. that is what we need to develop. it's about good school places and the right

laura: for more on today's events i spoke a brief time ago with our north america reporter anthony zurcher. the administration has revamped the travel ban but is this one going to fare better politically and legally? anthony: legally i think the government lawyers have been more involved in drafting this. a lot of the controversial provisions have been taken out such as suspension of green cards. there is not going to be a challenge on process grounds but politically and legally there is still the question of whether this discriminates against muslims because of the country's name. laura: this does not take effect for 10 days. how does this fit with the original order were they said it was such an urgent matter of national security? anthony: president trump tweeted that out and press secretary sean spicer echoed that. they realize the castrated by the original band is one of the reasons the courts suspended it and the last thing they want is another injunction that puts this on hold indefinitely. laura: we have to go to the president's weekend of tweetstorm from mar-a-lago in florida where

let‘s bring in anthony zurcher.mmittees in both chambers of congress, people who wa nt to chambers of congress, people who want to be involved in both chambers of congress so they are going to follow their own tracks. with all the attention focused on to the house intelligence committee it is easy to forget that the intelligence committee has been grinding away simple the beginning of this, rational term. staffers are poring over thousands of pages and planning on calling 20 witnesses to be interviewed privately. they will possibly have their own public hearings with james comey, fbi director, and will reach their own conclusions. is this a plate by the senate to get more responsibility against the other committee? the best that the house committee has developed into with the allegations around nunez coordinating with the trump white house and adam schiff, the democrat, calling for an independent investigation, it is logical that the senate intelligence committee tried to step in and seem like the big boys in this e

tim: let's get more on this story, i spoke a short time ago to anthony zurcher. he has a story to tell, tantalizing. nobody knows what the story is . anthony: nobody knows the story or why he she needs immunity to tell it. it could be an abundance of caution, whether people looking into his foreign lobbying and whether he had permission for that, or he said something he shouldn't have to the fbi when asking about his contacts with the russian ambassador, or it could be, if you listen to trump critics, some big explosive revelation about collusion between the trump campaign and russian influence. we don't know yet. >> or it could be some other private personal connection. how unusual for trump to treat that he supports this? anthony: unusual. unprecedented. we use that word a lot with donald trump but he is talking about someone who was his close advisor during the campaign and served as national security adviser for a short three weeks, to talk to investigators and seek protection from prosecutor -- prosecution. that is unheard of, and it is donald trump, though.

the bbc's anthony zurcher joined me short while ago. this the closest man to the president to actually give evidence here. anthony: absolutely. jared kushner, donald trump's son-in-law, has a wide range of different responsibilities in the trump white house and during the transition and the focus is communications he had with russian ambassador kislyak. and also, we found out, he had meetings with a russian development bank. he will be in the spotlight, although you mentioned volunteering -- volunteering to talk to investigators, not in the big spotlight of a committee hearing as far as we know. tim: won't be done in public. how is the presidency coping with the friday defeat -- well, its piece of primary legislation? anthony: it has been a tough couple of days for them. they are definitely on their heels. refocusing on executive orders this week, one on the environment, things they think they don't have to work with congress doing. but now they want to get to tax policy, but looming before that is a government shutdown. they have to kee

for more on the politics of health care reform, i spoke to anthony zurcher. is planent says will be more popular than you can imagine. how will he persuade his fellow republicans, one of whom has already declared it had on arrival? anthony: he doesn't have to convince democrats, he has to hold his caucus together. they have the votes to repeal obamacare and replace it with his plan. it is not 24 hours old and it is getting assailed by conservatives calling it a obamacare 2.0 or health-care entitlement. moderates do not like cutting back medicaid spending. even conservative think taanknks. katty: speaker ryan says that there will be enough votes. he did not mention the senate. he will get it through, house leadership or the president? anthony: the president has to put his reputation on the line here and you heard him say it is wonderful, but he said it is the beginning of a negotiation process. his spokesman said it is a work in progress. that is not exactly, let's all rally behind it. it is tepid. there are republicans that worry if donald trump will support t

i asked anthony zurcher what more we know about mr pruitt‘s position.rney general for the state of oklahoma he sued the epa over a0 times for various environmental regulations. during his committee hearings he said that climate change is happening but he wasn't quite sure how much of a human influence there was on that, which is pretty much the conservative environmental line right now, that things are changing but is too early and we don't have enough science to regulate it. that is counter to what a majority of scientists believe. i guess that while comments like this make a lot of headlines, the real issue here is how these views translate into policy. exactly. the obama administration has been regulating the climate gases as a pollutant, carbon as a pollutant. the supreme court a few years ago ruled that the epa could do that and you heard scott brick say that the congress should weigh in and it has never determined whether or not to regulate carbon as a pollutant. all the regulations the obama legislation did were based on early environmental clean

properly function, often creating widespread congestion "and leading to cost overruns and delays. " anthony zurcher him very powerful. it looks like jared kushner had been sidelined to people like steve bannon, no he seems to be having a resurgence. he has always been involved in foreign policy decisions but this gives him a wide range of four different areas. he will be co—operating with leaders of various companies, coming up with best practices, in order to try to improve government. when he has recommendations the question will be forever executive agencies take these recommendations, how much pressure of the trumpeter illustration can apply, we will have to see how it all shapes up. this is a young man and an a p pa re ntly this is a young man and an apparently uncomfortable spotlight. but we show our viewers a tweet from the new york times breaking the story. this is because he became the point man on foreign contacts for the cup campaign. exactly. campaign. exa ctly. h e campaign. exactly. he was in contact with the russian ambassador to the us. a p pa re ntly russian ambassador to the us. a

that is one hundred days for now — my colleagues laura trevelyan and anthony zurcher will be taking yourin washington, and me christian fraser in london — goodbye. hello. this is bbc news. the headlines: the government has suffered its first defeat in parliament over brexit. the house of lords has voted by a sizeable majority to give european union nationals already living here the right to stay in the uk. two british medics, part of a large group of students who joined so—called islamic state have been killed in iraq. sex education is to be made compulsory in all schools in england. children as young as four will be taught about safe relationships. an update on the market numbers for you — here's how london's and frankfurt ended the day. and in the the united states this is how the dow and the nasdaq are getting on. in a moment, new penalties for drivers caught using handheld mobile phones. the labour leader in the house of lords, baroness smith says she hopes this result of the vote will help change the government has suffered its first defeat over the brexit bill in the house of lords

here in the us — politics is most definitely under the spotlight. 0ur north america reporter anthony zurchertor you have had down there, joe biden. he's looking remarkably calm and relaxed but also taking a quick potshot at president trump. just take a listen. it is my hope that this new administration, once it gets organised and i'm not being facetious, will be able to focus on and be as committed and enthusiastic as we were in the goal of curing cancer as we know it. is that joe biden? knowing joe biden he is being facetious. is that the mood down there? welll facetious. is that the mood down there? well i thinkjoe biden said that he didn't want to get into politics and keep robbie shouldn't be criticising the trump administration although he did take another swipe at them on climate change policy. i think what you are seeing time and time again are people trying to grapple with the changing politics here, in the us. last year, barack 0bama came to this conference and talked about how government could be a force for good. that is a decidedly different type of line of conversation coming fr

thanks for that, anthony zurcher in washington.ent trump says he has total confident in his attorney general. despite growing calls forjeff sessions to resign over his contacts with russia's ambassador. the police watchdog is one input cutbacks to forces in england and wales are putting the public at risk because services are having to be rationed. a warning england's nhs is on a burning platform, unable to meet the needs of the population. time for a bit of sport. olly foster has the details. where were you last night when manchester city were thumping huddersfield? i had ben brown instead. you don't want a liverpool fan ona instead. you don't want a liverpool fan on a night like that. a terrible week for british cycling. in 2a hours they have issued two statements. yesterday admitting serious failings in their record—keeping. those missing medical records. today they apologised for failings again after the conclusion of the review into a culture of bullying and discrimination at the organisation. he raised dan roan. for years the