>> thank you to the atlantic council for having me. it's great to have an opportunity to talk about security in asia. since i came from japan, but we focus on the east china sea situation. as admiral blair said in his opening remarks, it seems calm, but i think that is what china xbox. you know, their provocations are still going on a daily basis. so let me explain. what is really happening? the situation continues to be deteriorating. as you may know, the chinese coast guard ships maintain its present on an almost daily basis unless the weather is not ralph. there is a certain chinese intrusion into the territory waters. a call at the 342 remaining three times every month, for ships enter the waters for two hours. and previously, it was three, three, two. three ships, three hours. the frequency remains the same time but the number of ships increase. the additional ship is the naval brigade and it is harmed. also, the average tonnage of the chinese coast guard ships are now 3000 tons whereas the japanese coast guard ships per 1000. so

>> okay, thank you to the atlantic council for having me. it is good to talk about security in asia. since i came from japan, let me focus on the east china sea situation. the situation in the east china sea seems calm but that is what china expects the world to see. there are provocations still ongoing on a daily basis. so let me explain what is really happening. i was the situation continues to be deteriorating. as you may know, the chinese coast guard ships maintain presence on an almost daily basis unless the weather is not wrath. there is a certain pattern of chinese. three times every month, this is the fixed pattern after august 2016. previously it was three times, three ships, two hours. so the frequency remains the same, but the number of ships increased and it is actually armed. and also, the chinese coast guard ships are now 3000 pounds, whereas the japanese coast guard ships are 1000. they are becoming bigger. so the frequency remains the same. the challenge is now increasing. and also, just recently under the people's congress,

first of all good morning to everyone and welcome to the atlantic council. i am magnus nordenmann the deputy director here. it is great to see everyone for this discussion on maritime security. also this is an important topic that is never too far away from the headlines. i think the admiral did a wonderful job describing the environment and setting up the challenges that we must consider. i will not delay any further. i would simply add that i think the naval competition and maritime agent and the future that global consequences. and therefore should be of interest to the entire world and certainly to the european allies and other places around the world for certainly there are implications that go brief -- go beyond this. before i introduce the panel i have one administrative note. as you can see we have -- up which is an opportunity for those in the audience and watch a noninteractive with our discussion and our panels. please go to our website listed and type in the quote -. it will give you an opportunity to answer questions and will draw from this duri

and perhaps his fudged them in order to insinuate that i'm automated you know that and this atlantic council it's not a neutral organization it's actually funded by the syrian campaign which is an organization which is behind the white helmets group and of course this organization has a vested interest in making sure that anyone who exposes the fact that the white helmets are connected to al qaeda are a tux and of course they're a top dogs have been atlantic council and you have our love and the sky. so another interesting thing about the city if i love is it's one of the other members of it because only ten members and one of the other new members is elliot higgins and earlier higgins in the past you know he has a reason to have even better against me because i exposed the fact that he is chemistry knowledge wasn't so great in his analysis in the chemical attack in two thousand and thirteen i happened to be a chemist by training and as a result of me exposing this he had one of his associates done presenter write an email to my university accusing me of experimenting with sarin i mean this

a member of the atlantic council think tank in the us has come up with a way of identifying russian trolls on the internet but as it turns out the technique is far from full proof. one of the things which betrays genuine russian troll factory counts is the language look for an inability to use the and a russian is one of the languages which doesn't have the burn in flames of a shade. of what's going on to immigrant groups because of its own political refugee came to the us when i was nine and i still sometimes you have there own article i in just about every other immigrant i know has been booed and shamed because of our perfect english. there are many who were to use us who void use of definite and indefinite articles just stay within the character limit twitter does not always slanted sell to good syntax. interests does that mean most us citizens are russian trolls since bunch of them can't even form a crack to a complete sentence. or that does it for me i'll be back with headlines in about twenty nine minutes there was. on the shores of the mississippi river new orleans louisiana. the c

. >> last week the atlantic council is a discussion on issues in maritime security and the asia-pacificregion.among the speakers retired admiral dennis blair. a former commander of us forces in the pacific. >> good morning everybody and welcome. i am dennis blair directed at the atlantic council and also the chairman of the board of the peace foundation usa and i see a number of familiar faces in the audience. i know that there will be a good discussion. following the presentation of this wonderful set of panelists that has assembled this morning. it is good i think to bring our gaze load itself in east asia north korea is dominating a headlines these days and luckily

defence and served as foreign policy adviser to the former vice president joe biden and now at the atlantic council you heard seth. ontario is about something jim mattis said, saying that in a sense this attack was a form of self defence. —— on to somethingjim was a form of self defence. —— on to something jim matias said. would you agree with that? they want to deter future use of chemical weapons, that is the real goal, that's why the chemical weapons programme was targeted but what's interesting about the strikes today is the russian factor, mentioned earlier. clearly the targets were chosen because they were part of the chemical weapons programme so i presume that means there was less likelihood of russian advisers or zero schumer officers being at that location. we heard on the pentagon briefing that the us notified russia through its the complexion channel, and ongoing 24/7 communications channel, that in fact the us would be operating in syria —— de—confliction channel. at that same breeding there was an pre— notification of targets but the risk of escalation with russia was one of the key f

mcmaster just gave yesterday at the atlantic council. just to underscore something, the trump administration in recent weeks has become tougher on russia. but the president himself personally has not. he has failed to confront putin in his phone call and in fact congratulated him on an election that the u.s. does not view as a free and fair democratic election. and so his administration officials are taking actions with removing those diplomats with closing the consulate, rather. but not the president. >> phil rucker, thanks so much. eugene robinson, thanks to both of you. >>> coming up, early exit? president trump's secret battles with his own military over syria. stay with us on msnbc. we just switched to geico and got more. more? they've been saving folks money for over 75 years. a company you can trust. geico even helped us with homeowners insurance. more sounds great. gotta love more... right, honey? yeah! geico. expect great savings and a whole lot more. ♪ with expedia you could book a flight, hotel, car and activity all in one pla

and evelyn farkas, senior fellow an the atlantic council. both are msnbc contributors. i just made the wise guy comment the only way you get truth from people is on their way out the door. mcmaster saying we haven't done anything. it's not just tried to undermine democracy and humiliate us in the world to bring to us their lousy level in terms of phony democracy but they're out there poimping people. in the yearbook you talk about how they put radioactive material in somebody's tea. they do it in our face. then we throw more kisses back at them and then trump says i've been tough on them. >> i hate the term intervention or meddling in our election. it was an attack. this was as information cyber warfare attack. so when donald trump says no one's been tough, as we talk about in the book, the first thing they did when he came into office was try to weaken the sanctions and they weren't even that stronging that obama imposed on putin for attacking us. so what message does that send? has donald trump said anything publicly critical of putin or this attack? no, what message

dr anders aslund from the atlantic council, thank you so much for being with us this evening.ng. let's take a look at the headlines now. yulia skripal, released from hospital after being poisoned in salisbury, has rejected help from the russian embassy, she says she does not want any contact with her cousin viktoria. after the suspected gas attack in douma, the bbc learns that theresa may looks ready tojoin military action against syria, without the approval of parliament. it comes as donald trump warns russia to get ready for missile strikes in syria following the attack. sport now. and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here's hugh. a very good evening to it's a very important night in the champions league. the report will soon know who isjoining them in the semifinals draw. real madrid at a healthy 3—0 lead in their second leg againstjuventus. mario healthy 3—0 lead in their second leg against juventus. mario mandzukic putting the italian giant ahead in under 90 seconds. it could have been to as well forjuventus. gonzalo higuain's close range effort was kept ou

he's now a resident senior fellow with the atlantic council and joins me from washington.complished", which is a risky phrase to use in these circumstances. do you agree with that? i think it is a very foolish move on mr trump's park, particularly since he chose to act today after the use of chemical weapons on april seven, but there have been numerous instances of chemical weapons usage since the strikes which were undertaken a year ago in april. so the notion that he has accomplished his mission by suddenly striking syria after one discrete set of strikes earlier this month is ludicrous and surely there will be other actions that follow this, whether it is barral bombing oi’ this, whether it is barral bombing or additional chemical weapons. he has put himself in a corner with that statement. the comparisons to george w bush's mission accomplished segment are there to see. what it was trying to do, i suppose this is me speaking in defence of president trump, were saying that basically be chemical weapons facilities and assets have been destroyed or depleted to a great ext

[applause] >> questions, until next time i think succumbing to the atlantic council. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] the white house briefing is scheduled to get underway shortly after 2:30 p.m. eastern. until then we wish i some of this mornings "washington journal." >> the author of the purpose one reclaim our conversation for a united america. good morning. >> good to be back. >> understates adverse of assassination of marty indyk ingenuous of us which remember him in this day and age? >> what comes to my for me when i think of dr. king is a patriot. he was a true revolutionary. what he said to this country was i want you y to be te to your documents. i what you should own up to whu said on paper. what do thomas jefferson right? we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men greater equal, endowed by the critter with certain unusable rights, among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. dr. king was simply saying there's a promissory note do. when i think of him i think of a a man who up to make thi

he is now a senior fellow with the atla ntic he is now a senior fellow with the atlantic council and response to the strikes. this is a sticky and tricky situation, but so far even if one ta kes situation, but so far even if one takes the reports from the... they we re takes the reports from the... they were that to be taken with a grain of salt because there is a large element of propaganda, but even if we assume that voting us incoming whistles were taken down and as the general said in the briefing, a path —— proximally 120 missiles were fired, —— proximally120 missiles were fired, that is a low proportion, that means the us was able to get through both syrian and russian air defences. the sophisticated surface—to—air missiles defences that were there on the ground. that signifies to me that the russians are probably unwilling to take on the us with their aircraft and sophisticated air defence systems, and that means it is less likely to be escalation in the future. if there... you think resident assad ca res “— there... you think resident assad cares —— de ute inc president assad

he is a nonresident fellow at the atlantic council and has previously worked as adviser to the afghant. welcome. we have a tax on people attempting to register to vote. the taliban control large parts of the country. democracy is exceptionally fragile, can it take hold ever? country. democracy is exceptionally fragile, can it take hold ever7m was another sad day for afghanistan as the report illustrated with this new wave of violence. it is an election year, with four elections. parliamentary and district council elections and the presidential and council election next year. the preparations for this year's elections comes in the midst of this fighting with the taliban and an upsurge in violence as seen today. today's attack was a forceful response by an islamic state offshoot in response to the realities of and in opposition to the afghan people and to erode public confidence in the electoral process and the government ‘s ability to protect it. for the afg ha n ability to protect it. for the afghan government the attack, this is becoming all too familiar. the participation of the afg

brian o'toole is non—resident senior fellow at the atlantic council.ons official. i asked him if the sanctions would be effective. i think, gauging whether sanctions work or not, that is a tricky thing. you have to look at the overall policy. i think they will have a significant effect, especially on those targeted, and i think this is the first time, really, since the early parts of 2014 that we have seen significant action. i think they will sit up and take notice of this. but if you take something like travel, for example, many of these guys have diplomatic passports, many of them are out of reach of the stations regimes because they use shell companies to invest in the western world. so perhaps this isjust more barking than biting? i think that is a common misperception. anybody who plays in the global financial sector is going to fall afoul of these sanctions because of the prevalence of the us dollar and especially us services. we heard similar scoffing in 2014 when, as part of the obama administration, we imposed sanctions on several of presiden

and syria oh i joined l from washington by daniel fried he is a distinguished fellow at the atlantic council he spent four decades in the u.s. foreign service and clued in being assistant secretary of state for european affairs as well as ambassador to poland ambassador fried it's good to have you on the show are these sanctions are they correctly placed to hurt russia where it kill us i think so far i think the trumpet ministration has done a good job with this our i was these sanctions coordinator for the obama administration and so i worked closely with germany and other european countries putting together the obama set of sanctions i think what the trump people have done is a strong move i applaud them for it they will they've gone after not the russian economy but against principly russian oligarchs close to putin i think that's the right move and they've gone after the companies these oligarchs on but they've avoided some dumb moves they didn't go after gas problem or gas sales to europe which i think would have been a mistake instead they've gone after putin's power structure that's t

analytics and i've only posted nine hundred tweets in thirty days that number comes from the atlantic council's d of our love it wasn't just me and it wasn't just ian who you just heard recorded from sky news it was actually a coordinated attack against a bunch of academics activists including vanessa dealy tim as a professor as well anyone who is basically coming up against the mainstream media lies and the u.k. government lies the lies that they are using to start wars overseas so it's clearly a smear campaign to try to intimidate people into silence and to try to smear anti-war activists as somewhat of a biased voice you know related to russia and expect things to get worse and i know seen the censorship i mean i have been shut down my facebook account has been shut down they've tried to shut down my youtube account so i'm not sure how long i'll going to be staying online but i'm going to continue as long as i can. switching gears for four phones it's time to get excited because there's just fifty days now until the twenty eighteen fifa world cup kicks off in russia and legendary goalkeeper

with us nowjasmine el—gamal of the atlantic council — an american think—tank on international affairsobama administration as syria advisor based in syria and washington. thank you forjoining us. what is the atmosphere first of all where you are? i'm currently based in beirut and i would say the atmosphere is fairly calm after the attack. it is clear there was not... people feel quite calm. the strikes have been described by some analysts as limited for now at least. how wise then is it to escalate matters politically from tomorrow?” wise then is it to escalate matters politically from tomorrow? i think the trump administration is in a bit ofa bind, the trump administration is in a bit of a bind, because they're trying to prove that they're serious about stopping assad from using chemical weapons further. while at the same time not doing anything so strict or so... time not doing anything so strict or so... that it the eg— those at targeted — . ' 2—77 757 at targeted sanctions, eff be look at targeted sanctions, particularly related to russian support for the syrian weapons programme.

previously with the wilson center in the atlantic council. rachel in tennessee, republican line.caller: good morning. citizen, as an american and, you know, i am absolutely appalled by the state of relations between the u.s. and russia, partly because there seems to be nothing but a of weisan group think need to have russia as an enemy. you know, every single problem that we faced here domestically and every problem internationally, it all leads back to russia and putin for some reason. so i see, on behalf of my government and my leaders, this other discontent -- utter discontent for facts and any sort of interception for the actions we hinges and to undertake as far as increasing tension with russia. we always say russia invaded georgia. actually, no, an attack was launched. russia annexed crimea. a violent was due to action supported by the united states, and their naval base was in jeopardy. host: your response? guest: well, the u.s. certainly could have done something better, especially in the 1990's, to better integrate russia into the international community. one thing you

he is now a resident senior fellow with the atlantic council and joins us now.gime change was never the goal year. it wasn't last year and it isn't now and it won't be in the future. that is, you know, us policy has not been to pursue regime change. so this is a significant strike. it targets various different locations across the country, as opposed to last year, where the us military acted alone. and structures one airfield. wow, i should military acted alone. and structures one airfield. wow, ishould point out, there were aircraft taking off within hours of that strike just last year. —— where, i should. so it isa last year. —— where, i should. so it is a little bit more robust. we have heard that roughly twice the number of weapons were used today as last year, so i think this is significant. michael, please don't 90. significant. michael, please don't go, stay with us, we will come back to you shortly. let's go straight to seth douan, the damascus correspondent for the american network cbs. we have had the political experts and the defence secretary and the

taliban have full control of those districts well java to ask mud is a nonresident fellow with the atlantic council sized asian sense he explains why voter registration census have become a target that i'm clips in afghanistan. just a question of. the afghan people are elections and democratic war in which like islam extending the taliban and their patron mostly because these elections for the area need. insurgency from the a grassroots level and there are also a lot there of them a little bit of magenta mysie that they claim to have among the afghan people and this is because there are the realities of the new afghanistan one completely opposite and contrary to the ideals perverse vision of isis the taliban in afghanistan. a prime essentially is to control them to intimidation and subjugation fear controversial french immigration laws passed its first legislative hurdle in the national assembly two hundred twenty eight politicians both if the bill which would impose tough the conditions on asylum requests for more let's go to david chase in paris so david why is it taken so long that. julie it has

we can get some reaction from someone who knows more about this, jasmine el—gamal from the atlantic council spoken a lot in the last 25 minutes or so, and it is clear that the line out of washington, the line—out of london, the line—up of paris is this has achieved something, it has sent a clear message. do you agree?” achieved something, it has sent a clear message. do you agree? i do not necessarily agree. we do not know what the larger context is. it has sent a message that president trump will do what he says, yes, that was the message sent. in terms ofa that was the message sent. in terms of a larger strategy and goal, i did think any message was sent because it is not clear what the message is. from your knowledge of the syrian government, from president assad, and the way in which he has been conducting this war over the last seven yea rs, conducting this war over the last seven years, do you believe that he will be deterred ? seven years, do you believe that he will be deterred? disinterest in that there was a message that came out of the syrian government earlier today that said th

about it jonah how al-jazeera budapest rocks and costly as a nonresident senior fellow at the atlantic council's her racist sentiment he attributes or bonds victory to anti you sentiment that is shared by many eastern european leaders this election isn't worth it as an indicator of its continuing strength of nationalist conservative political leaders and movements in eastern europe and poland slovakia and the czech republic and hungary you have polluted leaders that are trying to cast their lot against brussels and against t.v. while maintaining their country's position so many what is again as a referendum that anti-christian conservative movements are not going anywhere or actually let you get the trash for many years in eastern europe until liberal opposition to start together until things change and of course hungary is an example because or autumn is one of the strongest leaders in history is one of these leaders a stood up to brussels and also in many cases is where the question how you should approach russia or want has been more divisive and supported president now and said that hungary

marks mccoskey as a nonresident senior fellow at the atlantic council's eurasia center he attributes victory to anti e.u. sentiment that is shared by many eastern european leaders. this election is an order as an indicator of continuing strength of nationalistic conservative political leaders and movements in eastern europe and poland slovakia and the czech republic and hungary you have polluted leaders that are trying to cast their lot against process and again steve while maintaining their country's position so many ways it is again as a referendum and time rigid conservative movements are not apply anywhere or actually let you get to be a trash for many years and used her until liberal opposition to surrender together until things change and of course hungary is an example because bottom is or the strongest leaders in eastern europe is one of these leaders a stood up to brussels and also in many cases is where washington. oregon has been more divisive in support of president putin now that's a hungary is not germany and it's not a threat does not just force the eastlands so despit

to jeff like a middle east security and european politics specialist from the think tank the atlantic council he says the french are realistic about how much influence they can have over u.s. policy the french embassy here in washington was saying this visit is first and foremost about friendship about protocol about symbols because they understand that they can come with the best proposal possible about about addressing tribes grievances in the iran deal and that the president may be warm to them today and then call to them tomorrow so they've been very cool to play down any expectations obviously micro was persuasive today he got a good hearing from president trump but john bolton my point hey we're going to weigh in on this as well and so it's really too early to say and the president didn't make any commitments today so we've still got some time before we'll know where president trump comes out on this deal three cis eyeball massive attack the pakistani city of queta killing at least six peace officers one bomber detonated his explosives near police truck on the war road towards the airpo

for more announcements, damon wilson, executive vice president of the atlantic council. the baltic states and the president reaffirming a strong relationship, an alliance, what you think vladimir putin was thinking as that meeting went on? >> good to be with you, dana. it was aimed at vladimir putin. the meeting was very important demonstration of the u.s. commitment to the baltic states and what we are talking about in this region is deterring russian intentions to pick a fight with these small countries. the importance of today's meeting really was the play to the psychology of vladimir putin and leave no question in his va mind that they stand by the united states defense. >> dana: the president said something that would really establish confidence, the question from one of the reporters to the president, what do you think about investment in the baltic states? he said i think it's a great place to invest. i imagine even more so with the alliance and preventing any sort of put in shenanigans, that was one of the most important things he could have said to them with re

jamie metzel is a senior fellow at the atlantic council and a former staffer at the u.s. joins us now. jamie, president trump has not outright claimed he did this, but he is taking some credit. how much does he deserve? >> very, very little, because the thing that he is calling for hasn't happened and probably isn't going to happen. president trump has said that north korea needs to give up its nuclear weapons. north korea has made -- has given to sign that it's willing to give up its nuclear weapons. >> but there are signs that they're dismantling one of their nuclear testing sites. >> they don't have to test anymore, because they have deliverable nuclear weapons. so if the united states can live with that, then we can have all the feel-good measures that we want. there will be lots of opportunities for confidence building between south and north korea, and with the united states. but if president trump is still pushing for north korea to give up its nuclear weapons, he's actually further behind than even president obama was. >> you don't think this would have happened,

the president's national security adviser, gave a bit of a farewell address last night at the atlantic council, and he said this, listen. >> russia has used old and new forms of aggression to undermine our open societies and the foundations of international peace and stability. russia brazenly and implausibly denies its actions, and we have failed to impose sufficient costs. >> he said he welcomed the u.s.'s decision to expel 60 russian diplomats, but when he uses the words "we have failed," i don't think the president of the united states likes to acknowledge that his administration has failed. >> exactly. and we have a scenario whereby president trump keeps doing this toughest guy in the room charade. he keeps saying i've been tougher than all of my predecessors on russia. wolf, that's a red herring at this point. we're still under attack. it doesn't matter if trump was tougherer, which he hasn't been, obama was tougher, or bush was tougher. at this point, we have the intelligence community as recently as february saying we're still under live attack. i think it's great that mcmaster and act

is java document he's a nonresident fellow with the atlantic council's south asia center at jabot a very warm welcome to the program so we know that isis have claimed responsibility at all what does this tell us about their current presence in the region. thanks joy i'm the. isis has mosque almost all of its territory here over the past year and most of the group's top leadership in its rank and file have been taken it's degraded from some three thousand fighters a year or so ago. six hundred to seven hundred fighters up so whatever is left of the group at the moment it's not on the run but yes indeed it still poses that important threat i think on the part of the afghan government yet time today it was once and for an intelligence failure that's unfortunately becoming all too familiar now but fundamentally there are at least two things. clear. with the first is that their participation of. the afghan people are elections and democratic processes warring groups like islamic state in the taleban and their patron motion because these elections for the alienate the insurgency from the accou

non-resident senior fellow at the atlantic council's eurasia center he says obama's victory is part of a anti e.u. sentiment that is shared by many east european leaders. this election isn't as an indicator of us continuing strength of nationalist conservative political leaders and movements in eastern europe and poland slovakia and the czech republic and hungary you have polluted leaders that are trying to cast their lot against frost's and against you while maintaining their country's position so many twists again as a referendum and rigid conservative movements are not going anywhere are actually likely to be trashed for many years and eastern europe until liberal opposition to surrender to the other until things change and of course hungary is an example because or honest or the strongest leaders in eastern europe is one of these leaders that stood up to brussels and also in many cases is where. you should occur . or one has been more divisive and supported president now that's a hungary is not germany and it's not a threat does not just force the eastlands in the e.u. so despite c

mcmaster, at a meeting of the atlantic council, saying the united states has not done enough to counter the kremlin's aggression. >> russia brazenly and implausibly denies its actions, and we have failed to impose sufficient costs. >> reporter: press secretary sarah sanders defended the president, saying the united states would benefit from a positive relationship with putin. the white house also tried to tamp down fears about a different kind of aggression, a possible trade war with china. as beijing threatened to hit the united states with $50 billion in retaliatory trade tariffs on 106 different exports like airplane parts, medical supplies, and pork, president trump sent mixed messages via twitter writing, quote, we are not in a trade war with china. but then adding, quote, we have a trade deficit of $500 billion a year with intellectual property theft of another $300 billion. we cannot let this continue. as financial markets reacted with uncertainty, the white house argued that china started the stand-off. >> we may have a little bit of short-term pain, but we're certainly going to

he gave that speech at the atlantic council earlier in the week. >> the anti-russia speech. >> used theure. >> used the word failure. today you have to think his good-bye gift to the country was relatively tough sanctions, by far the toughest the trump administration has come up with which goes to putin's inner circle, the oligarchs. that had to be the product of mcmaster's work. he leaves with his head held high, that he did his job. you know, from his perspective it's probably a badge of honor or relief getting out -- >> let me ask you, frank figliuzzi, if you're mcmaster, do you want to know how russia policy was made inside the west wing? >> oh, indeed, indeed. and mcmaster is a likely interview soon if it hasn't happened already. and i think mcmaster would be someone who just wants to help and shed light on what was going on in the oval office. i think that's likely to happen. >> do you have a sense that the crafting of russia policy is at all of interest to bob mueller? >> i think that he'd want to understand why there is such a gap. if you're doing a counter intelligence investig

hosted by the atlantic council, this is an hour and 20 minute. >> well, good morning, everyone and welcome. i'

twitter at kimberly how could thank you we also have nicholas dungan with us senior fellow at the atlantic council who's been with us from paris and is staying with us as we wait for this news conference a little later on because based on your own knowledge based on what you've kimberly's saying justin do you think mr macron can. so i say get through to donald trump on this particular issue. first of all this wasn't what it was supposed to be about this is supposed to be a state visit largely ceremonial and largely symbolic and i think that it may be that the media and experts that is you and me have actually attributed more to the potential substance of this meeting as you were saying a minute ago there's a great deal more to talk about the sides iran the problem with iran is twofold number one. donald trump clearly doesn't understand this agreement the main reason he's opposed to this agreement is that barack obama signed it and john kerry negotiated it's more of an internal political vendetta than it is an actual problem with the treaty the second thing is that this is a very complicated compli

is jeff like a middle east security and european politics specialist from the think tank the atlantic council jeff a very warm welcome to the program so jeff mcmullen obviously as they pointed out there in their press conference have a different vision each for the iran nuclear deal but are they moving closer to some sort of compromise in the background do you think. well there is there's been a series of negotiations that have been proceeding between the u.s. state department in the foreign ministries of the united kingdom france and germany precisely to try to bridge those differences about the iran deal to address the grievances that your program highlight or earlier those discussions are ongoing and they're going to continue but what this visit was important was because that discussions been taking place at a lower level and here was a chance for the french president to say at the highest level to the president without any advisors present this is what we're trying to do to make this deal work for you and address your grievances and concerns it seems that he got a fair hearing from presid

forget that in this opinion piece that al jazeera dot com i didn't hear better have from the atlantic council things sank imagines a scenario where in twenty twenty five montenegro becomes the next. member but potentially with the same leader it has now have a read of it for yourself it's in the opinion section have a search for montenegro the use now yes u.k. parliament facebook. breaks it it's all link up bring it all together for us so by the end of june facebook said that political campaigns like this one here play it for you in a second it will be clearly labeled as an advertisement and will have a caption identifying who exactly paid for the ad the issue about who was funding what ads came up after the bricks at vote in two thousand and sixteen british politicians are concerned what role musch russia may have played in the vote facebook says it has only been able to trace one u.s. dollar to a russian account this is what facebook's chief technology officer had to say. the big issue that the biggest weapon we've found in this defense is to actually find the actor find the account and tak

let's bring in our deputy director for strategy for the atlantic council and an associate professor at georgetown university. good afternoon, sir. thank you for coming on with us as we just saw the white house briefing wrap up. we await this one on one meeting with the president and macron. as we just mentioned, certainly north korea will be a big deal. but all the iran deal which, as we know, macron has been very clear on the way he wants this president to go. >> well, the iran deal is currently structured not in the u.s. interest. the limits on iran's program will expire over time. and so trump has said he's going to renegotiate to try to get a better deal despite what macron's saying, my understanding is that the working left of this government, the united states, french, british, are actually making progress, is germans, are making progress towards closing some of the loopholes in the deal. i think that's the right way forward. >> sandra: he has until may 12th to make a decision on the iran deal, which way do you ultimately think the president will go? >> the president has been ver

former secretary mcmasters warning alarm bells about russia and i think were you there at the atlantic council and general mcmasters said that again. and obviously, general mattis, as we know, has said tough things about russia. and so, the kremlin looks at this, and it realizes that there's still avenues and it can maybe exploit that. so, during the election campaign, you saw the anti--- the bellicose anti-western rhetoric from president putin, in his march state of the union speech and the missiles that could invade u.s. missile defenses and strike mar-a-lago and you have that sort of sabre rattling and now you see the other side of it. although president trump himself signaled that he had offered in a phone call in his congratulatory phone call to invite, to have a meeting with president putin. obviously it's the russians who decided they would take the initiative and put this down. so i don't think they don't like all of these expulsions, when you have so few diplomatic personnel, let's call them that, in another country, it hampers a lot of different works that you would like to do, so, t