defence secretary michael fallon blames the kremlin for the civilian deaths in tuesday's chemical weapons attack — borisjohnson seeks support for a new initiative to end the conflict. swedish police confirm a number of people are in custody and being questioned following raids at addresses around stockholm. the body of the police officer, keith palmer — who was stabbed to death last month — is to be taken to the palace of westminster before his funeral tomorrow. also in the next hour — commemorating the fallen of the first world war. a ceremony to mark the centenary of the battle of vimy ridge — more than twenty thousand people are expected to take part. lewis hamilton has won the chinese grand prix beating sebastien vettel who finished second. also this morning, we meet the sisters with a combined age of three hundred — and a century of stories to share. and our sunday morning edition of the papers is at nine thirty five — this mornings reviewers are martin bentham, the home affairs editor the standard and journalist and broadcaster rachel shabi. the uk will accused russia of conspiracy

michael fallon also says that russia is failing in its obligations.ack in 2013 it was supposed to deal with trying to destroy all of the chemical weapons that syria held and michael fallon is basically saying that russia has failed to do that. what the british government wants to see is a situation where assad is no longer the leader in syria, where there is some kind of political solution, but also where russia intervenes and puts pressure on assad. at the same time, michael fallon has renewed his support for the us action in syria. he said that president trump took the right action, it was a co—ordinated approach, and that was something he had to do because of the severity of the situation that we saw with those gas attacks in syria last week. at the same time the foreign secretary borisjohnson was supposed to be going to russia tomorrow. that trip has been cancelled. he has been criticised by the liberal democrats, who have been describing him as an american poodle, basically handing dealings with russia over to the americans, because they will be

what michael fallon has said is that he thinks donald trump made the right call.ll of this comes as the foreign secretary boris johnson all of this comes as the foreign secretary borisjohnson was supposed to be going to russia tomorrow for a meeting with the russian foreign minister. that's been cancelled. he faces criticism from the liberal democrats, who is basically saying he was behaving like an american poodle. the foreign secretary's team has said that what they are trying to do now is co—ordinate a response from the g7 industrialised nations who will be meeting on tuesday in italy to try to get some kind of co—ordinated response, to put more pressure on russia. thank you very much indeed. thousands of people are expected to gather at services in stockholm later, to remember those killed in friday's terror attack. four people died when a lorry was driven into them on a busy shopping street. police are still investigating whether a device laterfound onboard was a bomb. from stockholm, maddy savage reports. thousands of people spent saturday paying their respe

it comes as the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, declined to rule out the possibility that freedomnext general election and beyond. ellie price reports. the brexit negotiations got under way this week to great fanfare — and letters. theresa may wrote to the eu to trigger article 50, the eu in turn published draft guidelines on its negotiation strategy, but as expected there was no more detail on the content of a deal, and this morning sir michael fallon would not be drawn on whether the uk would have full control over its immigration system by 2020. well, you're speculating about the course of the negotiations, which haven't even started yet. well, you can rule it out. we've made clear that we are not expecting to take advantage of the four great freedoms, including the freedom of movement of people, because we're not going to be members of the european union. i'm talking about transitionally, now you can't give me any timetable. we can't give a timetable on negotiations that haven't even started. the uk is set to leave the eu by the end of march 2019, just over a year later the co

the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, says russia is to blame for every civilian death in last week'sl weapons attack in syria. his words follow a decision by foreign secretary borisjohnson to cancel a visit to moscow, due tomorrow. that move‘s been criticised by labour and the snp, as our political correspondent, susana mendonca, reports. america's military response to the gas attack that left 89 people dead in syria was clear. but now attention is turning to the role of russia and its support for the syrian government. the british defence secretary michael fallon accused the kremlin of being complicit in the chemical attack, describing it as a war crime that happened on russia's watch. writing in the sunday times, he said, by proxy, russia is responsible for every civilian death last week. if russia wants to be absolved of responsibility for future attacks, vladimir putin needs to dismantle assad's chemical weapons arsenal for good. speaking to the bbc‘s andrew marr show the international development secretary said it was time for concerted pressure to be applied on russia. this isn

so michael fallon said the us and uk governments at all different levels had been in contact.again later on to be told john trump had made the decision for those strikes to go ahead. and michael fallon said he thought and the government thought that those strikes were an appropriate response to what they said were barbaric chemical attacks earlier this week. they said they we re earlier this week. they said they were limited attacks and they were appropriate. but michael fallon did stress and other times that this was a response by the united states and that the uk had not asked to be involved. and if there were to be any military action by the uk, he said the uk government would go to the commons, go to parliament, and get mps to vote on whether that should take place. there is no sense at the moment that there is appetite for the uk to get involved. as for the opposition, the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, has come out in criticism of the us government, saying their strikes risked escalating the war in syria further, as he also calls on the british government to urge restrain

the current defence secretary, sir michael fallon, voiced his support.re was up he felt these military air strikes could get these military air strikes could get the assad regime run the table again. sir michael fallon actually felt that the value of these air strikes was a deterrent effect, to prevent further attacks by the assad regime on his opponents. well, they didn't ask us to get involved. they didn't ask us to choose a particular option. they decided to take this action — a very limited, appropriate action, attacking the air field, the aeroplanes and the equipment that they believe were involved in the gas attack — with the very specific purpose of trying to do to the regime from future gas attacks on their own people, including civilians. interesting that sir michael fallon was pointing out that britain was not asked to participate in the error strikes. if there was going to be future buddhism vacate —— future participation, . .. be future buddhism vacate —— future participation,... tim farron, the leader of the lib dems, who opposed the iraq in

today the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, was also on the andrew marr show.ut the process of negotiation, how we want the talks to be handled. the letter referred to be handled. the letter referred to the brexit white paper and gibraltar is firmly in that white paper. i think you'll find eight separate references to gibraltar in the white paper and all the different issues that we've got to deal with are set out in that white paper, whether it is the position of the city of london or the fisheries policy, gibraltar and everything else. the point so michael fallon was making was that these negotiation so that started so let's not get overexcited and they're going to be plenty of these little issues — i say little issues, big issues — i say little issues, big issues that come up — that are incredibly difficult to find common ground on on both sides and i think there is a sense in government that we can't react to every single one that comes up. it is not the only element of the brexit debate which is potentially causing difficulties. a suggestion that surfaced

defence secretary michael fallon blames the kremlin for the civilian deaths in tuesday's chemical weapons attack — borisjohnson seeks support for a new initiative to end the conflict. this is the world's largest humanitarian crisis that we are seen and the world has come together. our current appoints, across europe... reports from egypt say an explosion in a coptic church in the city on tanta has killed at least thirteen people. church services are being held in sweden to remember the four people killed in the lorry attack on friday. police are still questioning a number of people. the body of the police officer, keith palmer — who was stabbed to death last month — is to be taken to the palace of westminster before his funeral tomorrow. also in the next hour — commemorating the fallen of the first world war. a ceremony to mark the centenary of the battle of vimy ridge — more than twenty thousand people are expected to take part. mercedes‘ lewis hamiltion has won the chinese grand prix in shanghai, beating ferrari's sebastian vettel, who finished second. and at ten thirty, the actor ian p

so today michael fallon, the defence secretary, was asked on the andrew marr show about this issue ofnt, whether there would be any chance he could give us any suggestion about what the timing could be and he said simply no because the negotiations have not started yet. here is what he had to say. we have made it clear that we are leaving the european union, we are leaving the single market, we are leaving the customs union, and we will no longer be under the ambit of the european the european court ofjustice. but it's also clear we have to avoid a cliff edge. we need to give business and the various sectors of our economy the certainty that they need that there won't suddenly be a huge difference between the day after we leave and the day before. and we set that out and the prime minister set it out in her lancaster house speech that we will do everything we can to avoid the cliff edge and therefore there will be inevitably for some sectors implementation periods. the interesting thing about the timing that the interviewer was pointing out was 2019 is when we are planning to come out

britain has been supportive of the american action and we hear that again from michael fallon today.sically says that donald trump made the right call when he decided to ta ke made the right call when he decided to take that narrowly focused on military action. at the same time, the british foreign secretary, boris johnson was supposed to be going to russia tomorrow for a meeting with the russian foreign minister and that has been cancelled. there was some criticism of that from the liberal democrats who are basically saying that they felt that britain, certainly borisjohnson, saying that they felt that britain, certainly boris johnson, was behaving like an american poodle by not going out there and leaving it to the americans. what we understand now is that borisjohnson has been speaking to other countries and trying to coordinate some kind of response from the g—7 group of industrialised nations. they will be meeting on tuesday in italy and we understand that borisjohnson is going to try and get them to get some kind of coordinated response to the russians, plenty of rhetoric, that

the deputy leader, tom watson, like michael fallon felt the attacks we re like michael fallon felt thend suggested that the effect of those attacks could be to intensify the contact click in syria. i think it is the wrong time to do it i think they should have been consultation with the un before anything happened, but it is happening and let's now have rapid ceasefire and a return to the negotiating table in geneva. means of people have been forced into excel, tens of thousands of bad in this conflict, weapons are pulling into big region and it is getting worse. the house to be a political solution. jeremy corbyn is saying that there are alternatives, in addition to that the green party are saying there should be more emphasis on an arms embargo and there has been talks bumped diane abbott about freezing russian assets to put pressure on them. but interestingly, there remain sarri jeremy corbyn opposed the iraq war... this year the lib dems are in support of this action. it will be interesting if westminster consulted, interesting too that the former chancellor, george osborne, tweete

michael fallon calls the kremlin "responsible by proxy," as the principle backer of syria's governmentlleague, the foreign secretary borisjohnson, had already called off a visit to moscow this week. but russia is defiant, hitting back at mrjohnson's decision, as well as demanding evidence for the united states's claim that the weapons were being stored in the syrian airbase targeted by its missile strike. here's our diplomatic correspondent, james robbins. this was president trump's message to the syrian government and its russian backers yesterday, delivered with force. the united states and her allies reject syrian denials they used a chemical weapon against civilians, including children. now, britain has followed up with a diplomatic rebuke. boris johnson's called off talks in moscow on monday and issued a written statement instead: the planned visit by borisjohnson to moscow would have been the first by any british foreign secretary for five years — a long gap, reflecting the very bad relationship between britain and russia which already existed. but the events of the past week in

the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, has said moscow is responsible for the civilian deaths inthe barbaric gas attack in syria on tuesday. 88 people, including 33 children, are believed to have been killed in the rebel—held town of khan sheikhoun. jonathan blake reports. president trump's decision to launch air strikes president trump's decision to launch airstrikes in president trump's decision to launch air strikes in syria was designed to send a clear message. the syrian government should not expect to use chemical weapons without consequences. syrian military commanders inspect the damage the us air strikes caused on the ground, meanwhile, the diplomatic fallout of american military action continued. syria denies using chemical weapons in an attack on civilians. the us and its allies blame russia for backing syrian president basha al—assad. the uk defence secretary michael fallon has strongly criticise russia, writing in the sunday times newspaper: assad's principal backer is russia. by proxy, russia is responsible for every civilian death last week. he added, if russia wan

the sunday times splashes on a piece by sir michael fallon, the defence secretary, setting out what thell be, as it says here, turning the screws on the kremlin, holding them responsible for every death that happened last week because of this gas attack and saying that the russians must do much more to bring assad to heal and bring peace in syria. that is the rhetoric that is coming out. later this week the united nations is set to deliver a strong message, the question is if the russians will listen to that, it must be hoped that they do that this is going on for a long time and it is going on for a long time and it is not clear this will happen. that's the thing. now borisjohnson says he isn't going. boris johnson was due to go to moscow. he has called off that mission. the theory is, i don't know if that is true or not, but the working theory is that the us secretary of state rex tillerson is due to visit moscow this week and they have divided the workload in the sense that boris johnson will be going to the summit this tuesday to try to rally western support for this sort of us—led

michael fallon coked what mattis has said, russia has a pattern of interference.e view from here. britain has contributed 800 troops to estonia over 800 fighting vehicles, helped the u.s. to transport tanks across poland. it's a joint joined up effort to shift some forces, nato forces, u.s. force, canadian forces, british forces, other forces to shore up the defenses in the baltic states and in poland because of their concerns of russian agreegs in ukraine. the language we're hearing from the secretary of defense, secretary of state, very strong echoed by their allies but russia casting this, somehow that they are the one having wrong done to them. >> you mentioned british defense secretary michael fallon. and you mentioned what he said about a pattern of interference. he said we need to be wary of what russia is up to and why there cannot be any return to business as usual with russia. what is russia up to a lot of people are asking. to that you say what? >> i think, you know, i was interested by the language that secretary mattis used yesterday. he said that rus

it comes as the defence secretary michael fallon declined to rule out the possibility that freedom ofntinue into the next general election. ellie price reports. the brexit negotiations got under way this week to great fanfare and letters. theresa may wrote to the eu to trigger article 50, the eu in town published draft guidelines on its negotiation strategy. but, as expected, there was no more detail on the content of the deal and this morning so michael fallon would not be drawn on whether the uk would have full control of its migrating system by 2020. you are speculating about the negotiations which have not even started. we are not expecting to take advantage of the four great freedoms, including the freedom of movement of people, because we will not be members of the single unit. you cannot give us a timetable. they have not even started. the uk is set to leave the eu by the end of march 2019. a year later the country will have a general election. the government will want to avoid setting time limits on such a thorny issue as immigration. but today a group of cross— party m ps wro

so michael fallon joins us. thank you for your time.appropriate action against the airfield and the aeroplanes and the equipment that was used they believe in this attack. that is action that we fully support. and whether british government informed before? can you ta ke government informed before? can you take us through the sequence of events ? take us through the sequence of events? we've been in close contact with the american government over the last couple of days at all levels, through the foreign secretary and the un here in london and washington. the american defence secretary consulted me earlier in the evening about our assessment of the evening about our assessment of the regime's culpability for the chemical weapons attack and be reviewed the need to understand and to deal with any likely russian reactions to the attacks. he was then reviewing the different options to put before the president. he then called me later on to advise us of the president's cup sit on, to give us the president's cup sit on, to give us notice of t

the defence secretary sir michael fallon has announced that the iraq historic allegations team.. ..will017. the remaining claims against troops that served in iraq, which are expected to number around 20, will then be dealt with by the service police, hopefully by the end of next year. the government's move was enabled by the striking off of lawyer phil shiner — who'd pursued multiple cases until he and his firm, public interest lawyers, were discredited. the european parliament has agreed its priorities for the forthcoming brexit negotiations — backing a motion that said trade talks could not begin until after substantial progress on the terms of the britain's departure. ukip mep nigel farage said it was behaving like the mafia, setting a ransom demand. 0ur correspondent damian grammaticas reports. it began cordial enough — smiles, genuine or not, between the architect of brexit and the man who says britain must pay billions, he's michel barnier, the eu's chief negotiator. today, the european parliament backed his demand. the leader of the socialist group said the uk must pay its bills

it amuses me, it says here, sir michael fallon, the defence secretary, praised a us firm that sold missilesgaddafi as a role model. this is a lwa ys to gaddafi as a role model. this is always the thing, the ethical considerations versus how much money it makes. and if you aren't going to sell to one or the other, who do you not be friends with and have a relationship with? the one thing that truly scares me aboutjeremy corbyn, i am that truly scares me aboutjeremy corbyn, iam not that truly scares me aboutjeremy corbyn, i am not going to agree with him politically, there enough. i got a quote out of him, the one about when osama bin laden was taken out. i was on press tv with him and we we re i was on press tv with him and we were talking about not shooting him. isaid, we were talking about not shooting him. i said, we can agree to not agree on the death penalty. at if you can't send your soldiers into the country to kill the enemy... when you have someone say, to kill the enemy... when you have someone say, i will never press the button, that's avoidance of duty. you are supposed to be sit

michael fallon described the strikes as appropriate.ed in any military action and why it hadn't been involved overnight too. he stressed again and again that this was action taken by the us alone. the us had not asked for the uk to be involved. he did also say that if the uk were to consider any military action, it would go back to parliament, back to mps, and there would be a vote in the house of commons. he also noted that back in 2013 there was a vote about military action in syria, and that was of course rejected by mps. allen, thank you. let's get reaction from russia. we can talk now sergei markov, who is a former mp of president putin's united russia party. thank you forjoining us. is your reaction? my reaction is that donald trump wants to show that he is not as weak as barack obama. he is not as weak as barack obama. he isa is not as weak as barack obama. he is a really tough guy. he wants to become a real president. that is why he decided to use such provocation of these chemical weapons, which can be organised by al—nusra, an

the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, has said that theresa may would not rule out a pre—emptivee the first to use nuclear weapons, and that he would order a review of defence policy if he became prime minister. let's get more from our assistant political editor norman smith in westminster. thank you very much. 0dd sort of election day, i have to say. there are on the first week of the campaign of the election campaign, you will not see theresa may out and about, senior cabinet ministers jostling to get embedded cameras, there will not be any conservative policy announcements or statements or initiatives will stop white? because they want the focus to be on this or corbyn and questions about his leadership and hope this soccer yesterday when he refused to speak out in defence of labour's nuclear policy and signalling he favours getting rid of nuclear weapons, whereas the official party line is to keep them, they want to focus on that. they've decided to say as little as possible today in the hope that all the pressure will be on mr corbyn and privately hoping that maybe there may

sir michael fallon, thank you for your time.ection 2015 to remind ourselves. the conservatives took a majority of 12, 99 more seats and labour who we re 12, 99 more seats and labour who were practically wiped off the map in scotland. the only held edinburgh south. it was a difficult election for the liberal democrats who were wiped out in the south—west of the country. they returned with just eight seats. let's compare that to the referendum in 2016. you can see that the map looks broadly the same, the conservative areas voted broadly in favour of brexit. north wells, the north—east, labour heartlands going for brexit. that will be the challenge forjeremy corbyn on the doorstep. yes, labour are generally in favour... let's have a look at the by—elections for some clues. this one is a bright spot for the liberal democrats because they overturned a whopping 23,000 majority that zac goldsmith was holding and they took it from him. richmond park avenue very pro—remain area. this is a very big brexit area, stoke—on—trent central, but

defence secretary michael fallon blames the kremlin for the civilian deaths in tuesday's chemical weaponsnday 9th april. also ahead: a rare honourfor murdered police officer keith palmer. his coffin will be taken to the palace of westminster ahead of his funeral tomorrow. a ceremony to mark the centenary of the first world war battle

similar sentiments from rex tillerson as michael fallon but he will be the one travelling to moscow?teresting to see what comes of that meeting. given the rhetoric over the last few days and rex tillerson went on the morning talk shows here in the us and continued to be highly critical of russia. he said that whilst he did not think that russia was complicit in that horrific chemical weapons attack last week, he did think that they had either been outmanoeuvred by the syrian regime or incompetent, as he put it. that'll not go down very well with the russians. he meets mr tillerson with his opposite number, sergei lavrov, this week to discuss to dissuade russia from its continued support of the assad regime. and also to assess, they say, how the us relationship with russia looks to go over the next few days —— years. it will be interesting to be a fly on the wall for that meeting given just how angry russia has been following that missile attack by the us last week. david, thank you. david willis in washington. sport now and a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. good evening. the

we will speak to defence secretary michael fallon soon.hour on a motorway. a group of british firms has unveiled plans to test driverless cars on city roads and motorways in the uk for the first time. the driven consortium, backed by government money, intends to try out a fleet of autonomous vehicles between london and oxford in 2019. so far, trials of driverless vehicles in the uk have mainly taken place at slow speeds and not on public roads. i think these pictures have gone just over the bar of cute animal pictures. i was just just over the bar of cute animal pictures. i wasjust thinking the other week that we haven't had panda news in some time. despite being from a species famed for its laziness, one giant panda in south—west china is shaping up to be quite the acrobat. sprightly meng meng has been wowing her keepers by performing a series of energetic somersaults in her enclosure. but perhaps she could use a bit more practice, because at one point she accidentally rolls straight into a wall. look at that. thank you. anyway. coming up

defence secretary michael fallon blames the kremlin for the civilian deaths in tuesday's chemical weapons attack. the foreign secretary's focus is now on working with the international community to look at a political resolution. egyptian security sources report at least 13 people have been killed and more than a0 injured in an explosion near a church in the city of tanta. swedish police confirm a number of people are in custody and being questioned following raids at addresses around stockholm. now on bbc news. the actor ian puleston—davies speaks about his ocd, and the programme demonstrates the extent to which ocd can take over a person's life. i've been a professional actor now for over 30 years. so performing on stage and screen is par for the course. is part of the course. but it is a journey i've done with a constant, unwelcome companion. i love myjob, i love being an actor, but it's a real struggle because i suffer from a condition called 0cd, obsessive compulsive disorder. for me, that means i can obsess about anything, from a stain on a page of paper to the fear i'll injure myse

speaking on the bbc earlier this morning, the defence secretary sir michael fallon refused to rule outple until the next general election. with me is our political correspondent ellie price. this has been sort of talked about and debated, but this must be one of the first explicit confirmation is that it could be a lot longer than people thought before the privileged status of eu members, people from eu countries, is ta ken status of eu members, people from eu countries, is taken away. status of eu members, people from eu countries, is taken awaylj status of eu members, people from eu countries, is taken away. i think the opposite. i think it was told evenin the opposite. i think it was told even in the campaign that it would be unlikely that the government would be able to suddenly control immigration. michael gove said it last year. it is interesting what he said. we have heard a lot this week about the article 50 letter being sent by theresa may and then we had the eu council's view on how they wa nt the eu council's view on how they want the eu negotiations to go. but we have not h

michael fallon has said that the country will negotiate exit from the european union.thereident would be a stay on deciding brexit deals. france, marine le pen as described the euro as deadweight. meanwhile, there pierced to be 18 of ground. the soviet prime minister has andmed a landslide victory it would give a chance to deepen the influence in the balkans. they say in government will be formed into months. you can find more stories on bloomberg. out along with thing nikkei is boosted proceedingvey at closed andhina is hong kong will be closed tomorrow. thisg a look at some of and they have turned things thend giving the selling of business. it is looking very solid and the sedation report thatis is a he will be replaced by an act executive. ande looking at this chart you can find this white line is they are balancing the currency in the economy. it is very interesting to watch this is at a record low. return to scottish independence. there was -- and one >> the will of the scottish from it is a sustainable one, but we need to discuss this in a manner. that was a goo

last night they were consulted beforehand, michael fallon spoke to his counterpart in the us, the eveningojoin in. to be honest, there is some relief perhaps around westminster that is the case. considering how much difficulty and agonising the issue of air strikes against syria has caused politicians in westminster right back to 2013, when parliament voted not to endorse air strikes then. the government's position is clear, the lib dems support the us action. what about labour? i'm joined by support the us action. what about labour? i'mjoined by emily thornbury, who is the shadow foreign secretary. what did you think about the us action that we saw yesterday evening? my starting point is that nobody, nobody wants to see chemical weapons being used and nobody wants to see any more children being killed in this appalling way. the question is — how do we stop the war? everything that we do has to be on the basis that whatever we do tries to shorten the war. we need to make sure that people are around the table and talking. it seems to me that what we should be doing is getting the united na

british defense ministry -- excuse me, british defense secretary michael fallon says he doesn't see the as the start of a different military campaign. the french government say they were informed of the strikes before they took place and added that the future of syria is not with president assad. >>> willem joins us now. good to have you with us this morning. putting syria aside for one minute, what are the broader talking points people are focusing on or is it down to syria? >> i think syria is something people here will be talking about. i wanted to ask you about syria. we had reaction from the french, they said they knew about this. the british government saying they wholeheartedly support the american position. do you think this was too hasty a reaction from the trump administration? >> i think hollande and merkel's response is right. there's a reaction from trump which seems to be a little bit too rushed, without correct preparation, without allies, without relationship with the international organizations. so it seems to be a little bit rushed. we have to know what will be the con

the defence secretary said, just a few weeks ago, in fact, sir michael fallon, if it came to this theybout the fa ct borisjohnson was talking about the fact that parliament has been dissolved it reminds me of august 2013 when david cameron went to parliament to ask for a vote on action in syria. he didn't get the votes. the americans were unhappy about that. president 0bama then rode back from taking military action here in the united states against syria and, at the time, the white house was saying — it was because britain didn't get the vote. obviously, this is something that america would love to have is britain alongside it. particularly, with parliamentary approval. i'm not sure it does borisjohnson many favours though to be seen to be so cosy with the trump administration. look, it didn't do tony blair many favours, did it, politically? what they want to do is get the focus of they want to do is get the focus of the debate in the election on strong and stable leadership. did you hear that, it's basically, the strong and sta ble sta ble that, it's basically, the strong and stable

secretary michael fallon says his country fully supports the strike. benjamin netanyahu says he hopes this message resonates not only in damascus but pyongyang and elsewhere. and erdo praises it but says it's not enough. with us now richard engel live on the phone from turkey and bill miele in moscow. richard, let's start with you. has this made bashar al-assad's position in syria any more tenuous than it was before? >> reporter: i don't think it has, actually. it hasn't changed the balance of power. it might dissuade him from using chemical weapons again. that message was clearly sent. but i think the idea of this strike, according to military officials i'm speaking to, was not to topple assad or to undercut his position in the country or change the dynamic in the civil war, it was specifically to target the base and the chemical weapons capability that was used to carry out the attack earlier this week that killed dozens of people and shocked so many people, including the president. >> will it deter him? the point seemed to be to deter him from using

james mattis asked that question alongside michael fallon.ad would take it one day at a time. the british secretary of defense said we don't believe that someone who bombs their people can stay their leader for very long. the real read between the lines of what secretary mattis has said over here in europe is that the u.s. doesn't really have a policy on assad, and that was reflected, we heard that from the french foreign minister. we want to know the details of what america is thinking. we want the peace talks to succeed and the u.s. peace talks in geneva has been key to pushing them along so far. yes, if this is a change in u.s. position, there's certainly concern in europe, fredricka. >> nic robertson, thank you so much from london. >>> and we'll be right back. he's a nascar champion who's she's a world-class swimmer who's stared down the best in her sport. but for both of them, the most challenging opponent was... pe blood clots in my lung. it was really scary. a dvt in my leg. i had to learn all i could to help protect myself. my doctor

he will be here and we will talk about gibraltar with the defence secretary michael fallon.eader, hasn't been here since his defeat in 2015. he has written an article for the observer this morning, saying to remain —— remainers to "get over it". and we will also have a playwright talking about his west end play. thanks very much. sounds like a good show. a lot to fit in! we're here on the bbc news channel until 9am this morning, and coming up in the next hour: hold tight if you've not planned your summer holiday yet. the travel show team will be here with a look back on some of their globetrotting highlights of the year. angel is one of more than 200 horses killed in road traffic accidents since 2010. it is one year since we reported on a campaign to get drivers to slow down around writers, but astonishingly the number of incidents have gone up. we will speak to angel's on later. and johanna konta's win, more details on that later. this is where we leave viewers on bbc one. we will continue on the bbc news channel. good morning. time for a look at the newspapers. what's caug

applause the defence secretary sir michael fallon has branded jeremy corbyn as a security risk for refusing be the next government. jeremy corbyn is putting himself forward seriously as the next prime minister of this country. somebody who wouldn't authorise strikes against terrorists, who wouldn't support our nuclear deterrent and who would undermine our defences so it is very important that we do point out this is somebody who could be prime minister in six weeks' time. ukip says it's "standing up for women" with an election pledge to ban the wearing of the burka in public places. critics say it would be a violation of religious freedom to tell women they can't cover their faces. ukip made a series of announcements this morning, including disbanding sharia courts and a moratorium on new islamic state schools. the party's deputy leader peter whittle denies the policies discriminated against muslims. i don't think there can be any better way of segregating them from wearing the face veil. that's a literal barrier to integration and i think that is something which there is great public suppo

we have the uk secretary of state for defense michael fallon issuing sharp words against russia in an the quote, "assad's principle backer is russia. by proxy russia is responsible for every civilian death last week." he also gave support for the decision to launch air strikes in syria, so what are the takeaways for the trump administration, steve, as they see who supports the u.s. mission against assad? >> well, the only thing that's changed between last week and this week is donald trump's views. the british were seeing that a week ago, john mccain was saying that a week ago, hillary clinton was saying that a week ago. what shifted is president trump shifted into an inconsistent position with what he said in the past, that now he sees both chemical weapons against a crime against humanity and bashar al assad as propagator of those. i have quibbles about how he took that action, but that's what shifted. no one else has shifted, and what's really interesting is before this incident happened, donald trump largely ignored those calls about russia before. he wasn't animated either by the

the defence secretary, sir michael fallon, has branded jeremy corbyn a security risk for refusing totrike against terrorists. labour want to be the next government. jeremy corbyn is putting himself forward seriously as the next prime minister of this country — somebody who wouldn't authorise strikes against terrorists, who would not support our nuclear deterrent, and who would undermine our defences. so it is very important we do point out this is somebody who could be prime minister in six weeks' time. meanwhile, the liberal democrats are holding a campaign event in vauxhall, south london. let's get more from our chief political correspondent, vicky young, in westminster. bring us up to date on what is being said there. it is interesting that we are here at all. it is an inner london seat, a safe seat. the labour mp wasa london seat, a safe seat. the labour mp was a very high profile leave campaigner. the liberal democrats wa nt campaigner. the liberal democrats want this to be all about brexit, they said they are uniquely placed, they said they are uniquely placed, they want a seco

real stars of this election campaign will be people like amber red, patrick mcloughlin, pateland michael fallonorne, i think you will. even though he has taken up you will. even though he has taken up thejob you will. even though he has taken up the job at the evening standard? absolutely. i think george is a great asset to public light. i hope he stays in parliament and i think you will. he will be able to campaign as well as run a newspaper you can keep up to date with the latest news and weather throughout the day via our twitter feed i think you will be able to be an mp and run a newspaper as. as for what happens during the campaign, i don't know but i should say that in the last election he was both chancellor of the exchequer and a campaigner both in his constituency and campaigns elsewhere. he is talented and i think george is more than capable of running a highly effective campaign represented middle of tartan and also making sure that he contributed not always as well. thank you for coming to talk to us. —— for the people of his constituency. we have heard a lot of english mps talking