mr agarwal is entitled to his views. and mr agarwal is perhaps serving an audience.ay in india, you have a robust democracy. against elected leaders. see what happens in terms of result. today, our institutions are functioning. the fourth estate, the press, this as a free press. i don't know which journalist you're talking about. that organisations like human rights watch say that the government has escalated a crackdown on civil society and the media. i just wonder whether you think all of this is justified says he can deliver. first of all, i don't agree with those characterisation. somebody calling it an illiberal democracy. we're also the mother of democracy. we had republics operating in india and sixth century bc. and today, what you witness in india is a very robust what would you ask us have? insofar as liberty and democracy is concerned. we have no shortage of it. thank you for being on hardtalk. thank you. really appreciate it. hello there. thursday was a cold and frosty start, but those clear skies led to some beautiful winter sunshine. both topping and ta

mr agarwal is entitled to his views. and mr agarwal is perhaps serving an audience.e use the most the choicest invectives against elected leaders. try and do that in a western democracy. the fourth estate, the press, totally free press. these are hallmarks, minister. this as a free press you know that outside observers like freedom unquote, partly free. that organisations like human rights watch you know all this. growth plan that modi says he can deliver. does it justify all of that? anybody likes it or not, the world's largest democracy. we had republics operating in india and sixth century bc. and today, what you witness in india is a very robust democracy which is delivering goods and services to its people. to deliver energy, you have to deliver energy at affordable democracy is concerned. we have no shortage of it. really appreciate it. thank you. hello there. the moment, and with clear skies, it's provided now, we keep those clear skies, and so thursday morning is going to be a chilly start away from the far northwest. a bit more of a breeze here, but low sing

uc berkeley professor vinod agarwal says the tariffs could backfire. >> shooting ourselves in the foot. we have supply chains with mexico and canada. it's quite disruptive to american business, which has sought to what we call nearshore or french shore, which means instead of producing in china, we're producing in mexico and canada. >> agarwal says president trump likely chose the weekend to implement tariffs in order to avoid a drop in the stock markets. in response to those actions. on the last day of trading of the month, stocks did give up some early gains. today, the dow fell 337 points. the nasdaq also slipped today about 0.3%, or 54 points, and the s&p 500 fell 30 points, largely due to drops in tech and energy companies. >> senator alex padilla says the u.s. army corps of engineers put lives at risk today when they released a massive flow of water from two california dams after president trump ordered an increase in water deliveries to southern california. the president celebrated the increased flow in a social media post today, claiming more water would have helped with the la

. >> joining us now for more insight is vinny agarwal, professor of politics and business at uc berkeleyvinny, thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. your reaction here to these back and forth tariffs, the investigation into google. it's a lot. >> well this is not new news. trump did the same thing in 2018 when he was president. he basically imposed tariffs on china and kept raising those tariffs until 2019. and then in 2020, he struck a deal with china in which they agreed to import a lot from the united states. so that was the deal. that deal sort of fell apart because of covid, and the chinese did not really comply with all the provisions. so this is the same old trump that we've seen before. it's a little different in this case because of mexico and canada. but vis a vis china, it's the same story. >> yeah. let me get your take here on these retaliatory steps that china has already taken in response. now, now their tariffs only target about a small fraction of the products that the u.s. sends to china. so it doesn't include things like microchips, pharmaceuticals and aerospace

ravi agarwal is editor in chief of foreign policy. mehdi hassan is the ceo and editor in chief of zetao. all right. still ahead on velshi. president trump has followed through on his threat to impose wide reaching tariffs on three of america's largest trading partners. and now those countries are fighting back. plus, what does the consumer financial protection bureau do for you? rohit chopra, the former head of the cfpb who was fired by trump yesterday, summed it up when he announced his departure on social media. quote, it checks the enormous, enormous influence that powerful firms have over our daily lives, end quote. and some parents are afraid to send their children to school. teachers are being briefed on what to do if ice officers come into their classroom. students are scared. so this is donald trump's new immigration policy. the cruelty my name's dan and i live here in san antonio, texas. immigration policy. the cruelty is still the point. i ran my own hvac business and now i'm retired. i'm not good being retired. i'm a pain i