all these steps in ukraine are viewed as measures to reinforce patriotic moods in ukraine and emphasiseas incorrect, she was not in the east of ukraine. we have covered donald trump attempting to reform american health care, he tried the first time and did not get the necessary votes , ca me first time and did not get the necessary votes, came back a second time and it got through the house of representatives. a significant step but still needs to get to the senate if it is to become law. it's not for me to say if this is good or bad news but we have details coming in from a nonpartisan congressional agency which has looked at estimating the impact of this new proposed health care system and it says an estimated 23 million people would live coverage why 2026. it remains to be seen what impact that will have on how republicans in the senate to view the legislation. we will see. next let's turn to taiwan, topjudges we will see. next let's turn to taiwan, top judges throwing their support behind gay marriage. this would make taiwan the first place in asia to legalise gay marriage. this is

we don't have those in ukraine.eporter: ukraine is calling for greater western pressure to make putin stop. >> you must be dealt with from a position of strength. that is exactly what we expect the french president will do. reporter: frozen conflict is often used to describe a stalemate, but in reality there have been no major territorial advances on either side. it's still very much a hot war. >> german chancellor angela merkel says it's time for europe to take its destiny in its own hands. the comments come in the aftermath of the g7 and nato summits. donald trump refused to back paris climate change agreement, nor publicly endorsed the military alliance's dr. neglected defense. -- doctorate of mutual defense. reporter: the g7 summit last week seems to have left a bitter taste in angela merkel's mouth. not even german beer to wash away. the chancellor revealed her vision for europe's future. >> the times in which we can fully cap on the others are to some extent over, as i have experienced in the past few days. i

a peace process for eastern ukraine.as not really made progress forward, especially since this year we saw renewed casualties and the cease-fire continues to be violated on a weekly and daily basis. genie: thank you. raceance, the presidential is in its final stretch before election day this sunday. emmanuel macron and his challenger marine le pen gave made josh marine le pen gave -- marine le pen gave major challenges. at their last rallies before election day, both candidates were in an attacking mood. marine le pen with their accusations on her by the listed candidates of the financial sector. the enemy of the french still in defiance, but this time it is running for president and everyone is dreaming of its election, it is emmanuel macron. a few kilometers away, and manual macron had his chance macronback -- emmanuel at his chance to hit back. >> what she is promising is the rejection of what unites all of us. do not befooled -- fooled. [applause] ally,er: le pen's newest , shared the stage with her in exchange for h

at a meeting with angela merkel in sochi, ukraine, syria and the treatment of homosexuals were also on the agenda. i'll play you a report on sanctuary cities, areas in the us that refuse comply with some immigration authorities. we'll bring you a report from syria where islamic state militants launched an attack on refugees as they queued at a border crossing. more than 30 people were killed. and in os sport, the latest on the potential wipe—out of all athletics world records from before 2005. the leaders of russia and germany have been discussing their differences on issues such as the conflicts in ukraine and syria, with little sign of substantial progress. following the talks in the black sea resort of sochi, vladimir putin said both he and angela merkel were seriously concerned about ukraine.

>> ukraine. it does not look like ukraine came up in the phone call between the presidents.im: angela merkel, that was a tense press conference? like they did not agree on much. ukraine was a big part of that. chancellor merkel made it clear that she saw that russia had to move for peace settlements. mr. putin saying that it is not us, it is key have. -- it is shkiev. koni thenot sure if laboratory was brought out in front of angela merkel. that was 10 years ago. was there any common ground at all in the press conference? >> there is the communications channel. if we are going to engage putin, angela merkel is the one with the best channel. he speaks german, she speaks russian. they have been communicating going back 12 years. dog reference,he 10 years ago angela merkel is notoriously afraid of dogs. he put his black labrador in front of her. >> that is the kgb mentality. i'm not sure that actually helped. my guess is the impression it made on the germans was it was a thugish and take. tim: ukraine, what prospects are there of crimea being discussed or put on the table of ta

he needs some positive terms to be found. —— ukraine and syria.terviewed on television right now ahead of the general election. tell us about the format, this is not a conventional debate. no. it is not at all a tv debate. it is one candidate getting better time for 45 minutes, then the other one steps up. you have 100 people in an audience, carefully selected for their political views, they have been asking their questions, putting questions to one candidate, then vetted in tv broadcasterjeremy paxman has his chance to grill them. the two candidates at any point, jeremy corbyn and theresa may, will not be on stage at the same time. and there is a corridor where one tea m and there is a corridor where one team is on one side of the corridor and the other team is on the other side so that they don't meet at all. what have we been hearing so far from jeremy corbyn and how is he read to have done? he has been on for about 35 minutes so he has been on for about 35 minutes so far. it was all quite polite, the questions from the audience first of all, h

the war in syria and the conflict in ukraine -- see the commonon human rights -- ground between angela merkel and vladimir putin is scarce. hamas seems to soften its image by ed -- i accepting the palestinian state, but refuse to renounce violence. many are asking what has changed. laura: first, further clues about how the french will vote on sunday as polls suggest a gap between front runner emmanuel macron and his rival, marine le pen, is narrowing. either abstain or spoil their ballots. endorse macron display long-held french tradition of voting to keep the far right out of power. around 7 million people voted for him in the first round. askede to jim shields and why those hard left voters would rather run the risk of letting the far right into power than voting for a manual macron? -- emmanuelle macron. >> maybe they get two or 3 million not going to vote for him. this is good news for marine le pen who is having a second road she could scarcely have dreamed of. first, he refused to cover the front against le pen. pact for a historic and they time ever have found an ally emerging f

now to ukraine.tworks. apparently without irony, the president used his own page on one of the blocked sites, to explain his decision. he says, "the challenges of hybrid war demand adequate responses. massive russian cyber attacks across the world, particularly in the french elections, which the russians deny by the way, show it‘s time to act differently and more decisively. a number of large russian sites have been affected. the kremlin spokesperson is unimpressed. "it‘s another manifestation of unfriendly, short sighted policy towards russia." let‘s hearfrom our correspondent to get more on this. all those services, especially of the russian speaking analogue of facebook, they are widely used by people in ukraine. it has 16 million users. all together, although services have 25 million users in ukraine, which is huge. and they‘re used by people at different levels to communicate, basically to communicate. i also know from my personal experience that, for example, if it was used by military people o

reporter: whatever the truth, magic hasn't been able to protect ukraine from war.amien: pagan traditions meet christian devotion -- a very european combination. well, that's it for this week. thanks very much for watching. do feel free to get in touch on twitter, email, or facebook with your thoughts or comments, we always love hearing from you. but for now it's goodbye from me and the whole team here. and do join us next week for more personal stories from all over europe. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] - [voiceover] up next it's musicic city roots live from the factory. in this episode oklahoma break out song writer parker milsap. muscle shoals country duo, the secret sisters, and acoustic southern rock by blackberry smoke up after this. - [voiceover] national broadcast of music city roots is made possible by acceptance auto insurance based in nashville tennessee. acceptance offers personal automobile coverage from coast to coast. more information available

that is because ukraine have prevented the russian singerfrom entering the ukraine have prevented the visited crimea, the ukrainian peninsula annexed by russia in 2014. so the ukraine slapped a travel ban on him. that is the first time in the 62 year history of disk competition that the host country has banned the singerfrom another that the host country has banned the singer from another country from entering. there was more controversy tonight, actually. this eurovision will he remembered perhaps not for the music offer the mischief occurs during an interval act the winner last year were singing in the interval, a fan carrying an australian flag jumped up on stage and bared his bottom to the singer before being escorted off by security. that happened on live television in front of probably 200 million viewers. goodness me. he said that salvador sobral was surprised. where are the people they're surprised as well that his song won? —— were the other people they're surprised as well that his song won? in recent days, when you look at the betting, portugal was moving up, moving up the

so look at ukraine. is ukraine trying to break free of russia's embrace and russia has as a result engage willed in an act of imperialism against it? ukraine is trying the break free because it wants to be part of this liberal international order. why does it want to do that? ukraine and poland in 1990 faced a choice. poland chose to be part of the european union, past of the west, part of this liberal international order. ukraine was not allowed to become part of that order. they had the same per capita gdp in 1990. today ukraine's per capita gdp is one-third of poland's. poland is three times richer than ukraine, having started in the same place in 1990. so when people look at that, it is those ukrainians, ordinary ukrainians, ordinary poles who understand this and who understand, by the way, that the european union provides them with political stability. it provides them with all kinds of economic assistance. it provides them with the world's largest market to which they go grow, and it provides them

reporter: ukraine was on the verge of civil war.he violence in odessa acted as a signal to the separatists in the donbass region. an independent citizens' committee has documented the may 2 events to help the official investigation, which still hasn't had any result. ms. herassymowa: i don't want to defend our investigators at all, but i would like to point out that the case is really very complicated. and added to that is our characteristic ukrainian lack of professionalism. reporter: the european council and the united nations complain that the ukrainian authorities have delayed the investigation. the ukrainian police deny the accusation. mr. forostjak: how should the justice system function in a country at war and where there is no rule of law? first we have to establish the rule of law, before we can conduct investigations. when the events in odessa happened, there was simply no rule of law here. reporter: victory park was one of vadim papura's favorite spots. fatima comes here often now. other relatives of the may 2 victims hav

ukraine is moving forward but slowly. the economy is weak, and the people are frustrated at the lack of reform on corruption. steve: jerry is joining us from ohio, line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. how are you all? steve: we are fine. caller: i don't know all the difference -- details about the election, but le pen seems to be the outsider. president barack obama, the people he supported in israel and the u.k. and the united states, they all failed. i'm kind of glad he is supporting -- you might fail too . even if the poll is 20% difference, i don't know. polls, then on the the polls is wrong. steve: let's talk about the polls, i had 24 points. we have seen polls wrong in the past. alina polyakova: the polls favor macron, but in that unit states and the u.k., the polls only tell us so much. one comforting thing to those who still want to believe in polls is that in the first round of french elections at the end of april, the polls were right on point. the final result and the fact that macron an

in ukraine.on of crimea. this is impacting on the eurovision song contest. the semifinals of which are under way in kiev. this is yulia samoilova. she's russia's entry but she's performed in crimea, and so has been banned. steve rosenburg's spoken to her. if you are a revision fan, the first semifinal is on in the uk right now on bbc four. —— a eurovision fan. we don't have live coverage of it here on bbc world news. a significant announcement with regards to syria. let's look at the newswi re regards to syria. let's look at the newswire coming into the newsroom. the pentagon confirming arms will be given to kurds in syria, trying to reassure turkey, because the turkish governor has concerns about kurdish forces. it says, the americans say they will protect their nato ally. the americans justified this in terms of the push to seize wrapper. —— raqa. the americans think by handing over this equipment, they will help the fall of raqa. they also say they hope to get the equipment back after it has b

an official from ukraine. and paul ryan at a certain point in the transcript says this. he says russia is trying to turn ukraine against itself. and roger rodgers, says yes. it's that sophisticated. >> maniacal. yes. and guess who is the only one taking a strong stand up against it. we are. and rodgers says, we're not, we're not. but we're not. and adam, that is such a striking passage. >> right. >> because here they are backing the presidential candidate who is absolutely not taking a strong stand against that. >> right. i mean, i think the reference there is actually to the obama administration that they're saying the obama administration is not taking a firm enough stance against russia when it deals with ukraine. but clearly, you can see that, you know, that at least in those two people who are talking there, the speaker, you know, and the conference chair, that they both are very upset by what putin is doing. and i think that's what is so remarkable about the pivot that follows where suddenly kevin mccart

she said she would not go to russia unless there was progress in the ukraine conflict. there has been no progress that we know of. >> again, chalk it up to the g 20. this whole road trip is laying the groundwork for that summit. a lot of difficult material on the table for her. as you know, she is a very pragmatic politician who looks to open channels of communication and see where they lead. she has not had a personal meeting with vladimir putin in two years. she has had phone calls with him. she deeply believes in the possibility to affect change through communication. that's what this is about. i don't inc. we are going to see overnight progress on -- think we are going to see overnight progress on ukraine or syria. she certainly wants to have those matters under discussion with a look toward the g 20. >> she would like to build a better working relationship with donald trump. he is increasingly critical of russia. we see dots being connected. does this strengthen her case? >> to some degree, it may. people thought he would work hard to get the sanctions on russia li

we assess the moscow strategic objective to ukraine maintaining long-term influence and frustrating ukraine's attempt to integrate into western institutions will remain remain unchanged in 2017. russia continues to exert military and diplomatic pressure to coerce ukraine into implementing moscow's interpretation of the politicall provisions of the agreement. among them constitutional amendments that would effectively give moscowely give strategic decisions. i will finish up here with china.in china will continue to pursue an active foreign-policy especially within the asia-pacific region highlighted by a firm stance on competing territorial claims in the east china sea and the south china sea. relations with taiwan in its pursuit of economic engagement across east asia. china which views a strong military is a critical element in advancing its interests will also pursue efforts aimed at fulfilling its ambitious one build one road initiative to expand china's strategic influence and economic role across infrastructure projects. in the interest of time and to answer questions i will defer asses

translation: the sanctions against russia aren't helping to find a solution to the crisis in ukraine. we must try to lift these economic restrictions, this is the only way we can be more free and be able to restore peace in the region. mr putin also appeared to deny any russian interference in france's recent presidential race, despite allegations by mr macron‘s team that russian agents had tried repeatedly to hack into their accounts. mr macron himself strongly defended the banning of two russian media outlets from covering his campaign, describing them as agents of propaganda. this choice of venue and the inauguration of a new exhibition here on 300 years of franco—russian ties was meant to highlight the long relationship between the two countries, but more recent events have made this a stiff and awkward meeting, and it showed. lucy williamson, bbc news, versailles. it's exactly a week since a bomb exploded at a pop concert in manchester, killing 22 people, many of them teenagers and children. the security forces have been continuing to raid addresses in various parts of the uk. th

more people in ukraine today regret the e.u. association agreement that was extensively the reason they came out of the series in the first place. theill have that around, west, especially the eu. around -- regardless of the separatists in the east, any trouble that putin stirs up. again we have made it so easy for him to do that by what we did in ukraine. montenegrin could be a tiny version of ukraine but there's a lot of -- not thinking through dishquences, or going on purely tactical part of the mainstream. maybe an this 1 -- i haven't heard president trump speak about montenegro, express any opinion -- probably he has never heard of it. but some of his instincts suggest he would have been more cautious. this policy was in place -- it was well advanced before. long, i have gone on too but there are things happening, perspectives that we are considering -- that don't make it into our normal media. they're part of a debate that -- they should aren't part of a debate that they are to be. >> such a good panel. no expert on monten

montenegro could be a tiny version of ukraine. i think there is a lot of not thinking through the consequences or long along without a strategy on part of the mainstream. maybe on this one, i haven't heard president trump speak about montenegro or express any opinion, he probably never heard of it, but some of his instincts might have, you know, suggest he would have been a lit more cautious. i know i've gone on too long. but there are things happening. and perspectives worth considering that don't make night the normal media and therefore part of the debate that ought to be. >> that's why this is such a good panel. we're all learning things. i'm no expert on montenegro. i think we should stick to nato for a second. given what president trump said during the campaign that nato is obsolete and sort of his retraction of that and reassessing it, i'm going to ask joel what you think about how his campaign supporters are reacting to it you? touched on this in your opening answer. a lot of his changes and his decision, you know, the sor

so we see what has happened in ukraine. probably would not have happened if they had maintained nuclear weapon capability. but we see what is happening in north korea. who believes that regime survival is dependent solely on becoming a nuclear power. and so we, unfortunately, tend to be moving in the wrong direction as countries around the world think that gaining nuclear capability is a protection, either a deterrent to or for survival of the country or potentially could be used for offensive capabilities. sen. fischer: if i could follow up with you later, mr. director, i would appreciate it. >> thank you, mr. chairman. director coats, if a memo exists documenting you or admiral rogers' conversations to the president regarding the russian investigation, will make those available to robert miller and -- robert mueller and the intelligence committee? dir. coats: i have no documents to make relevant. sen. gillibrand: ok. in an opinion piece in the "new york times" last week, it said israel the eyes and ears of the united stat

i do not know that we have an alliance with ukraine, but i suspect that ukraine and their governmentprobably view the fact that they gave up much of their capability is part of the disarmament some of that put them at greater risk in greater pressure from the russian government. so i would imagine that they probably wish they had some lethal capability that could hold at risk russian interference in their government . sen. rounds: but among our allies, you are suggesting that they have a strong belief that we would respond if necessary, and you do not see our allies who do not currently have nuclear weapons as feeling that our policies are clear and that our resolve is clear, as well? dir. stewart: that is a fair statement, sir. dir. coats: and i agree with that assessment. i was not intending to suggest otherwise. statestates or marginal are thinking at a different level than our allies. >> director coats, you have refused to confirm or deny whether the president asked you about director call me. if you are asked those details by the special counsel, will you be forthcoming? dir. co

in crane ukraine and we have been clear on what that means. moving forward and restoring ukrainian sovereignty. i think until those conditions are met or there is some agreement made as to how we want to deal with the ukrainian situation i don't expect them to be joining any time. [inaudible question] >> the creation of the center for modern islam, which we are working with them on what kind of metrics are they going to use to judge whether they are being successful. on the financing, disrupting terror financing networks, the saudi arabia's signed an agreement we will be putting treasury people and working with them to begin to provide the tools and also intelligence sharing so they know how to do this better. once we have kind of a template developed we expect other gcc countries to utilize that template as well. they all indicated a willingness. beyond that we hope we can take what we learned into africa. this is a center of excellence we can develop and hopefully replicate it in other areas so we can disrupt the terrorists from getting mone

new canaan, could a lot of people in ukraine.kraine wanted to be part of the west pretty want to be a democracy, wanted to join europe, it wanted to be our ally. russia has been threatening democracy for a long time. look at the cold war. >> tucker: before we jump back 26 years, let me just get to the examples that you just listed. is a there threat to our way of life, to democracy and i feel for the akkadians, i feel for the crimean, anyone who's national's thwarted. i was the annexation of crimea or the conflict of ukraine a direct threat to national security? >> because if russia is allowed to annex ukraine, it will annex another country next. it will and x the baltic sea. >> tucker: how will that affect american national security can mexico do not believe that there are countries like russia desire to undermine democracy all over the world, particularly in europe. >> tucker: i think there are members of congress. >> its undermining democratic efforts in countries like ukraine. in the baltic sea. >> tucker: i'm asking you a si

begin to move to a resolution of conflicts in ukraine and syria. and be able to cooperate more effectively in our counterterrorism campaigns. >> let's talk broadly about the goal of this trip. the president said he had a very good start. what do you want to accomplish? >> three main things. the first is to advance the security of the american people. to recognize that to do that, america needs allies and partners to deal with the complex problems that we're dealing with. in this region, those are two main and interconnected problems. the problem of transnational terrorist organizations, some of which i now, like isis, control territory and populations and resources. but then, how that problem is connected more broadly to the problem of islamist extremism and the brain-washing of an irreligious ideology that is meant to foment hatred. and justify violence against innocents. and the second problem of iran. and iran's actions, which we believe are aimed at keeping the world mired in civil war. you see it in syria. a great human cost. you see it in yem

translation: chancellor, you spoke about ukraine. is it more realistic ifa about ukraine. accord is concluded because the ruble has been introduced soap passports have been recognised. so, what do you think of monitors, maybe even with the use of weapons instead of the osce? mr putin, there have been some... studio: there we are, this is the news co nfe re nce studio: there we are, this is the news conference going on following talks between angela merkel, the german chancellor and vladimir putin, the russian leader, covering a very wide range of topics, it must be said. reasonably warm words spoken on both sides. particularly mr putin, talking of the situation in ukraine being of serious concern. he did also talk about syria condemning decisively, he said, any use of chemical weapons and urged the people in europe not to lose recent gains incorporation for the sake of the future piece of the continent. as for angela merkel, she also said that she was pleased that there was some cooperation and did talk about the possibility that sanctions on russia could be used at some s

the connection of american russia -- the -- is in the ukraine. i wasn't often investigation. know there's something about my country in the world. i wanted to hear -- to see any kind of change in -- of attention in relations ukraine from the white house administration? and how can you see the possible, you know, um, umm,opments, with ukraine, talking about, you know, russian influence, and, all those rings. thins. >> i haven't seen any enthusiasm in the white house to help the people of ukraine. umm, deal with the russian occupation or, the seizure of crimea or any of those issues. i haven't seen and are injured -- energy at all from the white house. it may not submissive -- he is certainly in that press conference with theresa may, you may recall, and the issue of sanctions on russia. that's because of ukraine -- he said, that's not for now. he kicked the can down there. kerry has said repeatedly, homelessness is philippe dauman to become a sanctions will not be released. the obama air-conditioned -- thank you so much for everyone coming out her

. >> in ukraine has created a beer that pokes trump at president trump.lled trump the president of the divided states of america. the owner describes it as a mexican style lager served with a lime on the label you can spot russian president vladimir putin and a wall between the u.s. and mexico. the brewery has created beers in the past for german chancellor angela merkel and former president barack obama. >> in the ukraine. >> ukraine, right. >> i have a feeling the president is not going to enjoy that one. for starters he doesn't drink anyway. >> we'll talk more about the president coming up on 5 at 6:30. >> ♪ ♪ [doorbell] ♪ ♪ when you have doctors working as a team for your health, you get the care you need to help you thrive. ♪ visit kp.org to learn more. kaiser permanente. thrive. ♪ >> ♪ >> another twist in the white house russia probe. president trump today spoke out about the justice department naming a special counsel to investigate possible ties between his campaign and russia. all right. so the question is what comes next? as you can see from the

of georgia or ukraine.o you see the nato expansion issue being that the trump administration? spin up with the nato secretary-general visited a couple weeks ago, and the press availability they had after the meeting, the president added a comment to the obsolete comment. i said it before. it's no longer true. regardless of how you judge that, it's important to start with that. with respect to eastern europe, nato's importance to countries on nato's eastern flank has been dramatically raised over the last few years and that is why also you have rising defense bending across the eastern alliance. poland connoisseur in romania, soon all three of the baltic states as well as some other place is. the question of georgia and ukraine. first, i don't see major change in its policy on enlargement at this leader's meeting. i don't think it's going to be a top item on the agenda. frankly it's a short and it's going to last a couple hours. so it is not a full son and likely would have under other is where you get into

he has made clear that a tough stand is required against russia for its involvement in ukraine and syriaussian president will try to do is suggest that the world political scene is changing. —— syria. . lets be more pragmatic and accept that russia is a global player and it has its terms of engagement. he is going to be in france, the reason he is there because of an exhibition to do with peter the great. a lot of symbolism. can you explain what that is? peter the great was the one who brought european modernisation to russia, the glory to russia. it was about engagement and opening up to the west and europe. the russian leader also hopes his legacy will be one of bringing that glory, to be one of bringing that glory, to be one of bringing that glory, to be one of the chosen global powers in the world and expanding russia's borders by annex in crimea... with peter the great and mr macron... we must leave it there. thank you so much. we are now entering the third day of disruption, even if the airline says it's making "good progress" in returning flights to normal. but what about the econ

translation: the sanctions against russia are not helping to find a solution to the crisis in ukrainethese restrictions. this is the only way we could be more free and be able to restore peace in the region. vladimir putin also appeared to deny any russian interference in france's recent presidential race, despite allegations by emmanuel macron‘s tea m allegations by emmanuel macron‘s team by russian agents had tried to hack into their accounts. emmanuel macron defended the banning of two russian media outlets from covering his campaign, describing them of agents as —— as agents of propaganda. this choice of venue, and this exhibition was meant to highlight the long relationship between the two countries. more recent events have made this a stiff and awkward meeting and it showed. lucy williamson, bbc news, versailles. it is exactly one week since a bomb exploded at a pop concert in manchester killing 22 people, many of them teenagers and children. british security forces have been continuing to read addresses in various parts of the uk. they have also released new cctv footage showin

then three weeks later they had this one ap exclusive, manafort firm received ukraine ledger payment. now this one didn't cause any cab drivers to drive off the road and didn't have the same hair on fire effect as the contract to help putin story. this one closed the loop on the story that actually got paul manafort bounced off the trump campaign in the first place. it was "the new york times" back in august who reported that paul manafort appeared opposite a secret ledger on what appeared to be payments from the ukrainen dictator and his party who essentially looted that country's treasury. "new york times" reported last august that manafort was listed on this ledger of aelgtd secret payments from the dictator of ukraine. and if the "new york times" reported his name, manafort was gone from the trump campaign less than a week later. he denied ever receiving those payments, but they ousted him from the campaign. that was august. it took until april, but the associated press that he was not just on the ledger ear marked to receive payments, they reported that he did take those payments

of georgia or ukraine.o you see the nato expansion issue being that the trump administration? >> when the nato secretary-general visited a couple weeks ago, and the press availability they had after the meeting, the president added a comment to the obsolete comment. he said, i said it before. it's no longer true. regardless of how you judge that, it's important to start with that. with respect to eastern europe, nato's importance to countries on nato's eastern flank has been dramatically raised over the last few years and that is why also you have rising defense bending across the eastern alliance. poland connoisseur in romania, soon all three of the baltic states as well as some other place is. the question of georgia and ukraine. first, i don't see major change in its policy on enlargement at this leader's meeting. i don't think it's going to be a top item on the agenda. frankly it's a short and it's going to last a couple hours. so it is not a full summit like you would have under other is where you get

the fbi is believed to be involved in ukraine in what is a cleptocracy investigation. fbi is believed to be involved in an investigation into what yanokovich did with the money he appears to have stolen by the boat load from the government 69 ukraine. paul manafort being listed as a person earmarked to receive millions of dollars in this secret ledger from yanukovich's political party. this was the first inkling that fbi agents might soon be making paul manafort's acquaintance. august 18th, nbc news reported on wider scrutiny of paul manafort's business ties including his multimillion-dollar involvement in interesting real estate deals involving russia-connected billionaires and people with donald trump real estate connections. a day after nbc published that, paul manafort resigned as chairman of the trump campaign. but you know what? interestingly, interestingly, that day was a busy day. the exact same day he resigned from the trump campaign, paul manafort also found time to register a holding company. a holding company that took out a multimillion-dollar cash real es