the security council has closely followed the palestinian issue in its monthly meetings i thank mr miller down off for his update and japan shares his assessment of the alarming situation surrounding the peace process. japan's position remains unchanged japan's supports a two state solution based on relevant u.n. security council resolutions the madrid principles the quoted road map the agreement previously reached by the parties and the arab peace initiative the final status of jerusalem is a part of a range of issues that should be resolved through negotiations on the basis of the perimeters i've just mentioned presented trub reaffirmed his strong commitment to facilitating a lasting peace agreement and his support for a two state solution in his announcement two days ago. depend appreciate the strong commitment and support japan also noted world the importance of the pilot president is clear knowledge meant that the final status of jerusalem including the sovereign bond research within the city must be subject to negotiation between the parties and you know it is they should continue t

robert muller is keeping his cards very close to his chest but having said that it's quite clear now mr miller is interpreted in his mandate very aggressively he's not only looking into the issue of possible collusion between the trump team and russia during last year's election campaign but also into the conduct of those people involved for instance polman affords trumps former campaign manager was charged for text fraud and money laundering concerning money that he earned as a lobbyist for a pro russian party in the ukraine and not for what he did during the election campaign sent out so it's quite clear now that is not afraid of trump because a few months ago when there were rumors that trump was about to fire miller he was asked to interview whether miller would cross a red line if he would look into the finances of the trump family trump said yes seems that miller has done now exactly that. is this just about wanting to have a look at the account or could dodge a bank itself be implicated in all this. you have that's exactly the question that everyone here is wondering about but of course

people those things because eight million me and if we imagine that that's too much and whether mrs miller is a veteran isn't honest you must admit as magill me an email if you matt can say mr wilson there's made. us know in. the your understand there man that the main objective was to reform spanish mortgage lending laws according to which when a bank repossesses a property the outstanding debt is not automatically cancelled with the bursting of the property bubble and the plummeting house prices many families found themselves up to their eyes in debt even after having sold their homes. in madrid the ruling conservative people's party plucked the reform but in barcelona on july twenty ninth two thousand and fifteen it was unanimously ratified by the catalan powers thanks to that feel bassist las make a nice move but i guess i mean yes is. a lot about i was this out there yes any particular like you live. in the south yeah. when they. look anything. like us is an inner city and. you start there is the. so locals even their interests and i mean the local make. me. there's interest of either

related to each other and i think what everyone at home needs to remember and to realize is that mr miller's investigating all of those pieces independently and just because he's wrapped up charges against man afford or he's advancing the ball on the flynn piece of the investigation doesn't mean that we won't be seeing additional news on those other pieces of so we could expect in the not too distant future to learn more about what he's found if anything in the obstruction piece of the investigation for example and it's definitely a lot to digest and. surely will be more to come thank you very much for the appreciate your time joining us now from chicago thank you. well now some other news from the u.s. senate republicans say they have enough support to pass a controversial tax bill later on friday party leaders sounded confident of securing the backing of the republican holdouts despite concerns by a senate committee that it will add a trillion dollars to the deficit president transcends the proposed cuts which include huge cuts to corporate tax economic growth but the democrats who oppose

robert muller is keeping his cards very close to his chest but having said that it's quite clear now mr miller is interpreted in his mandate very aggressively he's not only looking into the issue of possible collusion between the trump team and russia during last year's election campaign but also into the conduct of those people involved for instance polman affords trumps former campaign manager was charged for text fraud and money laundering concerning money that he earned as a lobbyist for a pro russian party in the ukraine and not for what he did during the election campaign sent out so it's quite clear now that is not afraid of trump because a few months ago when there were rumors that trump was about to fire miller he was asked to interview whether miller would cross a red line if he would look into the finances of the trump family trump said yes and it seems that miller has done now exactly that. is this just about wanting to have a look at the account or could dodge a bank itself be implicated in all this. you have that's exactly the question that everyone here is wondering about but of

mr. miller's team who have financial donations to democrats, the clinton and obama campaigns, i mean i think over half of the team donated to either clinton or obama. none of them donated to trump. either mr. mueller was curating a university of people that hate the president or it's just one hell of a coincidence that a whole lot of people have demonstrated wh why is that we learhe is feelingmore and more . so, you've answered the question by saying people have personal opinions, but that doesn't always influence action. the action is your responsibility to make sure that it's not infected by tobias and i would proffer that when he goes and changes the wording from gross negligence of crime to extremely careless, but isn't a belief, that is an action. wwe can't find outcome you want to tell us whether or not the money was used to go and buy the dossier. if it was coming to the fbi was working with the party to buy the dossier to discredit the president of the united states, but isn't a belief. that is an action if it was dressed up in the intelligence document in front to the court, that is

mr. miller do his investigation without interference from the president. >> mccabe has not commented publicly. >> rob: the present has been busy and twitter and tweeted about fbi official named james baker. what are we hearing? >> he was appointed to the fbi general counsel in 2014. we learned that he was recently removed from the council. the council is a big deal, they read and in all the investigations by the fbi. bakers not fired but he is reassigned. his reassignment may be tied to a separately can investigation. the washington post said so stress say this is all the ne pt of a new director. political said it's tied to a mother jones journalist who first reported on the existence of the trump dossier. as i baker was not a source. no word on who was replacing baker. comey said that acre serve the country well for 25 years. >> rob: everything getting shaken up. will go much deeper into this and 30 minutes. the present making christmas calls all over the world. he's a mar-a-lago for christmas. he started video chatting to our men and women overseas letting them know they are appreciated esp

his absolutely evolutionary work on "mccabe and mrs. miller." "the long good-bye." "deliverance."hole new palette, took crazy risks, changed film language in ways people still try to imitate. and he's making our camera crew very nervous, i can tell you. >> you taught yourself to shoot. >> basically, i always tried to use my father's kodak camera. it's a kidney disease. i was in bed for a month and an uncle of mine gave me a book about a great photographer. and i started to take just amateur pictures. >> one thing that hasn't changed through the years is the hungarian affection for taking the waters, marinading in thermal baths, a tradition going back to the romans, continued by the ottomans, and something that survived right through two wars and communism. and they do it in style. >> who came here? back in those days? was this reserved for anyone who wanted to could come here? >> well, you know, money wise, everyone before did basically what was cheap. >> right. >> in hungry, we have so many spas. >> there are many bathhouse spas. baroque, elaborately wedding cakes, built atop min

in multiple operations the old many governments organise many governments so let them investigate mr miller do you expect zimbabweans never mind the international community simply to gloss over all this instead of seeking a detailed accounting of what took place or don't you care or don't you simply don't care or don't you see the router as the rose petals which are which mr man under way in the in the generals are being thrown i mean. fitted with the been fitted with a rose petals right now they are heroes including the generals you're talking about in all were involved in all of this that you're talking about so it means muslims are happy with the situation the people that have happy as you are really you know we're happy however what is happening with the heroes when we come on to that illuminate let's let's talk about the public theater of the last ten days to talk about here mr mugabe wasn't pushed out in order to bring in democracy doesn't p.s. have been perfectly happy trashing democracy for thirty five years the thing that brought change was the turbot realisation that mr. he was go

mr. miller to put on a pair. you look marvelous! well i'm certainly comfy.lp you find your seats? - [rodney] as everyone settles in and the train pulls out of the station, the story comes to life. ♪ hot chocolate ♪ oh, we've got it from beginning to end, the chefs are the ones who serve the hot chocolate and cookies and make sure that every single passenger on the polar express has a good time. (cheering) where does the bell end up? in his pocket? we interact with every child asking what they want for christmas and sing and dance to the songs. it's our job to make it as magical and believable as possible. every kid gets off of that train believing in santa and the christmas spirit and the polar express. ♪ jingle bells ♪ jingle all the way how would you express the polar express ride for someone who's never done it? i would say, "hang onto your seats "'cause you're gonna get a ride." ♪ one horse open sleigh, hey you're gonna get an explosion of an experience that you probably haven't had since you were a child. you'll probably go away saying, "wow, there real

mr. miller. from the beginning to this point, we have peter streck who the language in the call me memo that allowed essentially -- changed it from gross negligence to carelessness. if there is no evidence supporting that and that was on solely for the purpose of refusing to file charges on her, fed us textbook corruption. >> martha: let me ask you a question, juan, is all this smoke screen so people talk as much about the deutsche bank investigation or donald junior's decision to say he could not discuss something yesterday? >> mueller is turning these things over. you want him to fire people because of their all borrowing bias against trump? it's extraordinary and this is what people worried about in the beginning. he was hiring people who had donated to hillary clinton's campaign. i understand people are allowed to have political biases, but this has been an extra ordinary point where we've now reached the point that there is no credibility to mr. mueller's panel. any conclusion they come to w

mr. miller and the federal bureau of investigation deserve a pass about their motives and methods as this new information raises troubling questions." your reaction. >> my reaction is the president is entitled to a fair, nonpartisan investigation and the fact is doj and the fbi really should be the gold standard in terms of neutrality and impartiality. when you see things like this, not just one incident, its several incidents in a row where people involved in the investigation have strong personal feelings about president trump. the fact is, right or wrong, it's going to cast a shadow over how this investigation is carried out. any charges or prosecutions that may ultimately result. even if they are supported by evidence, i think the american people are going to look at that same was this a decision driven by legitimate law enforcement concerns or is it someone exercising their partisan clinical preferences. >> shannon: ari we had tweets from the president over the weekend saying now it's all starting to make sense. how does the white house manage these revelations because there's one si

mr. miller joins us now. greg, thank you for joining us.atulations on this reporting. >> thank you very much. >> i'm not going to ask you about the bathroom thing. i just want people to know it's there. i'm going to ask you about the presidents' daily briefs. you report they are basically jerry rigged so as not to upset him with russia intel he won't like. russia news is not put in the oral briefing, only the written brief or buried so it won't upset him. are the briefers concerned about this? intelligence agencies concerned about this in terms of the president not having access to this information? >> i mean, so the answer is sort of yes and no, i guess. the intelligence officials we talked to emphasize they are not holding important developments out of the briefing. they are professionals. the daily brief is written by career expert staff. they aren't going to do that. this is their job and mission and a sworn duty one official told us but the way it's structured undergoes -- they think that through to avoid upsetting trump, to avoid gett

mr. miller -- >> the examples you've been reporting on, dissatisfaction, unhappiness with secretary tillerson. >> it's hard not to read this as another example of the knives out for rex tillerson at this white house. really from the day reince priebus stepped aside, rex tillerson has been the official tie to this white house who has had the most rumors, the most attacks, the most anonymous aides sniping at him, suggesting he would lose his job or resign or be replaced. this is another example of that. for a man who has long looked to be the odd man out in this white house and among the president's closest advisers. it's clear there are people in this white house who want to make sure that these types of stories about rex tillerson continue to get out into the ether. and from my day job, it's interesting, because on capitol hill, tillerson is one of the people most respected by republican senator when is they look to this white house and to the people close to the president. so there's really some ongoing tension there between the secretary of state, his white house, and other republicans, who

university i started first by asking him about the motivations behind the trump team's attacks on mr miller. because they're afraid of what he might come up with that he actually might make charges conceivably criminal charges against the president for obstruction of justice no one knows no one knows where this investigation is going but they're trying to discredit him in order to preempt whatever he comes up with is not the coffee boy is he he is a legally constituted special counsel if at some point in the future somebody decides trying to deal with just some eyes him is a criminal slash political offense might there then be say another inquiry or serious questions being asked at least absolutely and probably that would come before congress you've got to remember the robert mueller is a special counsel he's not an independent counsel as a special counsel he can be fired by the president the president requested that the justice department appoint an independent sorry a special counsel and he really does serve at the pleasure of the president but if trump what to do that if he were to dismi

mr. miller. that definitely they wouldn't have allowed this to happen, i think, without flynn's promising some pretty big fish at the end of a hook. we don't know what kind of fish that is, but probably that. also bear in mind, too, that michael flynn's son was not prosecuted today. so he was left out of it. other charges were left out of it. that's maybe a signal of two things. one, that flynn has promised something really valuable and two, that he's really cooperating. he could be the dean. >> -- where it seems like there was less cooperation, they threw the back at him. and they have charges, clint, against paul manafort that do not require testimony. they are documentary charges. most lawyers who looked at it said it's a pretty good case against paul manafort. to lay one relatively small felony charge, i know it's not small lying to the fbi. but compared to what we heard mueller thinks flynn has done, this is a tiny charge. >> this is a good point. i misunderstood today when i thought one cha

mr. miller, i appreciate your time thanks for coming on appreciate it. >> when we come back, the tax planrepeals the individual mandate. that was an unpopular aspect of the affordable care act. meantime, the individual market is growing for companies like oscar. we'll hear from the company's ceo and chief policy strategist coming up in a bit right now, though, as we head to a break, take a look at the futures. they're stubborn right now dow futures up by just under ten points thnaaq b3.s upy 5. e sd up by a similar amount squawk will be right back. trust #1 doctor recommended dulcolax. use dulcolax tablets for gentle dependable relief. suppositories for relief in minutes. and dulcoease for comfortable relief of hard stools. dulcolax. designed for dependable relief. ♪ pulling on the reigns >> all right listen up. you know your strategy, and we back tested it all year long you need to visualize your trend line and set your exit if you see an opportunity, you go long on the play. you guys all understand what absolute return means. you got to have fire in your belly to maximize your yield the

mr. miller, when he chaired the committee, recognized this. it that's why this committee, under his leadership in 2009, refused to advance a legislative proposal to put taxpayers on the hook for these promises. implementation of the 2014 law has been ineffective and the workers and retirees in these plans are worse off because of it. when their plans fail, their benefits will be cut, in many casings, significantly. and when these retirement systems fail, the pbgc will collapse as well. the agency's multiemployer insurance program currently has about $2 billion in assets, receives less than 300 million in premium revenue annually and has a long-term deficit of $65.1 billion. again, that's $65 billion. when the money runs out, likely sometime in 2025, pensioners will receive pennies on the dollar of what they were promised. employers will close their doors, and previously healthy plans may go bankrupt. congress took bipartisan action just three years ago to prevent this looming disaster. we believe the trump administration will work hard to ensu

mr. miller mr. mueller's team. we have fbi agent peter struck and lawyer lisa paige exchanging communications, showing extreme bias against president trump, affect that would be bad enough if it were not for the fact that these two individuals were part of the mueller dream team, investigating the very person for whom they were showing disdain and calling it mere disdain is generous. according to the documents produced last night, mr. struck and ms. page rep. hurd: -- ms. paige referred to the president as an utter idiot, while praising hillary clinton and the obamas. expected,udes that we high ranking fbi officials involved in the clinton investigation were personally invested in the outcome of the election and clearly let their strong political opinions cloud their professional judgment. this was only an initial disclosure containing heavy reductions. second, former embattled fbi general counsel and current mueller prosecutors andrew of aman expressed his awe former doj official for shunning the president and fai

a special status quo which when threatened has led to unrest and violence journalist giuliana miller and mr hamad told us more about the possible consequences of washington's policy overall. well soon after u.s. president don't trump concluded his speech president mahmoud abbas in a televised speech an angry speech. condemned the decision by the us president and criticize this decision saying that jerusalem will look for ever be an arab. capital of the palestinian future state and no one can change its identity these deplorable and unacceptable measures deliberately undermine all peace efforts and proclaim that the us are abandoning the rule of sponsor of the peace process that they have played over the past decade there has been in minor clashes throughout the west bank and in fact we've heard that there has been some demonstrations in east jerusalem there will be general strike and calls for days of rage deferred also reports of demonstrations in jordan and also in. the capital of in front of the u.s. embassy as well as demonstrations a few hundred yards in front of the u.s. consulate in

according to mr schmidt the ultimate responsibility for the failure of the anti-doping system that's what he called would basically happen during saudi twenty four ting lies on the miller ministry of sport in this case but mr smith also said that russia's national and big committee shares that responsibility the ultimate conclusion by his team was that manipulations with tobin test samples did take place and the responsible parties and once again that is the russian ministry of boards and russia's national olympic committee must be sanctioned after this.

i was in miller's outpost. mr. day, hot, sweating, said you got to hide me, the nazi gazpacho security guards were after him. i put him in a changing room. a few minutes later i fitted him with a nice pair of cowaurd and nice top. he couldn't be nicer. now, the judge would come into the movie theater, couldn't be nicer. he would order himself a popcorn. always make sure whatever candy he got for his date wouldn't get caught in their braces, complete gentleman, he's got my vote. i don't care what he did in that theater. >> he's got my vote as well, too. >> he's not a democrat. >> this was -- i mean, this was before judge roy moore was even an elected official. >> yeah, right. he wasn't an elected official when he was doing that stuff. >> selves an assistant d.a. >> it shouldn't count. >> no, it doesn't. >> we're not going to elect the democrat. >> that's it. >> we do not care what you did, as long as you're not a democrat. >> yep. >> this is what i'm getting out of it. they think everybody in alabama is stupid. for

mr. kelly, general secretary, and steven miller, really did sort of gang up on secretary tillerson whosetment, of course, manages the sort of entry into the country. there was a lot of tension and at one point secretary kelly sort of looked around the room and said, you know, would you clear the room here if we're going to continue this conversation, and at that point, many of the more junior folks left and it was just the cabinet secretaries who remained to continue the conversation with the president. >> so this almost indicates, too, in reading your article, that, you know, the real differences of approach were apparent even then with secretary of state rex tillerson kind of being on outside of how he was digesting this kind of information. almost sounds from this article that if taking offense is too strong of a language that he seemed uncomfortable with this kind of response coming from the president as you reported. >> this wasn't designed to look at the question of the fissures in the administration. there's been reporting about the differences between secretary tillerson and othe

mr. harriman, next speaker, please. >> paula katz, followed by peggy deets and lynn miller. >> hello. i'm paula katz with safe our l taraval stops. i hope you have taken the time to read the many emails you have received because many l riders who can't make it here today have poured their hearts out explaining losing their stops will hurt them. i hope you have also read the emails i have sent you. i urge you to keep all of our stops at 34th, 45th and 17th. i understand there are riders who want to raise their hands to show you they support keeping the stops especially at 44th. but many of the other stops. but there are some who are too shy to come up and speak. orange untilly the staff originally staff wanted to remove the stop at 44th but they let us keep our stops only because there was so much support to keep those stops and now suddenly 18 months later, they say they want to remove the stops because of some complaints from our three merchants at the intersection and a few residents. the community still supports keeping the stops. over 75% of the riders who took m.t.a.'s own survey

mr. rutherford up there , in august, concealed handgun permit holder everett miller shot and killed two kissimmee, florida, police officers. if you want to give everybody the right to a concealed carry permit in your state, fine but don't impose that on the people of maryland. we've got our own laws, thank you. since january, we have had 397 gun massacres in america, designs as a slaying of four people or more. two of them, las vegas, which left 5 people dead and southerland springs massacre which left 26 people did, are among the 10 worst massacres in american history by gun. the american people want to end this reign of terror. what do your friends do? do they bring us universal background check legislation favored by more than 90% of the american people of every political party to plug the gun show loophole, the internet loophole, the 7-eleven parking lot loophole? no. do they bring to the floor the bill to criminalize bump stock which they promised to us? no such luck. instead they bring forward a bill that would wipe out the vast majority of concealed carry laws in the united states of ameri

with a special kind source office mr flynn thus becomes a first person from president trump's administration to admit to breaking the law in special counsel robert miller's investigation into alleged interference in the two thousand and sixteen united states elections by the russian federation according to a statement released by the f.b.i. michael flynn was in communication with that then version of baster to the united states so. the statement goes on to explain that this was at the request of a senior trump transition official to find out the position of foreign governments on the topic of israel ahead of a un security council resolution. although prosecutors did not identify by name any transition officials c.n.n. reported that a source believes the official to be chaired commissioner president trump son in law and senior advisor and in the last few days you support suggest that deutsche bank which is what closely with the trump organization for decades has been subpoenaed by mueller to hand over records of accounts held by mr trump at the bank it is not clear yet what all this means for mr trump and his presidency however this represents one of the

before that news, i spoke with greg miller of the "washington post," who co-authored a detailed report today on mr. trump, and his routine denials of what u.s. intelligence agencies say was vast russian interference in the 2016 election. i asked him just how clear the evidence is. >> well, i think that vladimir putin and president trump are among the few that i've encountered who really doubt it, frankly. i mean, in our interviews for this story, we spoke with more than 50 current and former officials, many of them very close to trump, and we found only one other senior white house official who sort of sided with the president on this issue. most of his members of his cabinet believe the intelligence, even though the c.i.a. director sometimes complicates that or muddies that in some of his public statements. i don't think there's much doubt about the russian interference in the 2016 election. >> woodruff: well, we've seen some of president trump's refusal to accept this this public, but you found there were many more instances of it behind the scenes. >> yeah, that's right. i mean, in-- and we're

attacks are simply laying the groundwork for miller's dismissal he says firing it would be a gross abuse of power and could provoke a constitutional crisis firing mr maher or any other of the top brass involved in this investigation would not only call into question this is ministrations commitment to the truth but also to our most basic concept rule of law it also has. the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis and you can follow all of the stories that we're covering got our web site at al-jazeera dot com how does a dot com. you're watching under their arms the robin these are our top stories the united nations is due to start debating a draft resolution rejecting the united states's recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital on wednesday u.s. president donald trump threatened to cut aid to un members who vote against his decision israel's prime minister echoed the sentiments of its ally the united states because. the attitude towards israel of many countries on all continents is changing outside the walls of the united nations and that change will ultimately permeate into the u.n. the house of lies the state of israel totally rejects th

dot com coming up party's david miller enters the wild world of the slaughter of mets neutrality that took place earlier and how but wallace asked why wall street has mr. sleep avoided the me too movement it's because sexism doesn't exist on wall street women are totally treated equal they're. probably say to the watching the whole. blessed a quid pro quo for people who are happy to pay the maximum in the extortion racket that the drug and insurance companies got the government to impose an unconstitutional tax called the bomb of care is that they are bought in to america's various farm policies raped and pillaged for a few bucks that's the foreign policy or to pharmaceutical companies create an opiate crisis domestically you don't hear anyone questioning that unless and they say r.c.m.p. say or only the mainstream media outlets they all buy into it they get paid a lot of money they'll pay the stipend to the health extortionist and their bamma care folks as long as they push the line that there is still an active non ghostlike population that's crawling around america fishing through garbage pails living on five dollars a day entering the third world

mr. rutherford up there , in august, concealed handgun permit holder everett miller shot and killed two kissimmee, florida, police officers. if you want to give everybody the right to a concealed carry permit in your state, fine but don't impose that on the people of maryland. we've got our own laws, thank you. since january, we have had 397 gun massacres in america, designs as a slaying of four people or more. two of them, las vegas, which left 5 people dead and southerland springs massacre which left 26 people did, are among the 10 worst massacres in american history by gun. the american people want to end this reign of terror. what do your friends do? do they bring us universal background check legislation favored by more than 90% of the american people of every political party to plug the gun show loophole, the internet loophole, the 7-eleven parking lot loophole? no. do they bring to the floor the bill to criminalize bump stock which they promised to us? no such luck. instead they bring forward a bill that would wipe out the vast majority of concealed carry laws in the united states of ameri

and e-mail is picks and jason miller who were communication team on the the trump campaign and e-mail word for word is in the book. and it's something like -- you know, mr. trump said that you can grab them by the -- and he also talked about -- f 'king a married woman with and word for word things did you have a comment -- [laughter] they did not respond. [laughter] but then i have to figure out how to put all of these rated r things into pg13 format for daytime cable news tv. and so i think -- i -- i said grab them by the p word sexual advances -- which is totally not fair to sexual advances. [laughter] yeah, and i mean it's fascinating looking back the on it seems if anything was going to break this campaign this would the whole place went silent, dark kellyanne conway canceledded tv appearances at the time was unheard of. [laughter] but yeah test interesting to look back on it now especially considering what is happening in the mean to campaign, and how the president is weighing in on al franken talking about a tape that is ignoring fact that he has his own -- anyway questions -- [laughter] >> yes or there are microphones in the center and we can ass

miller crossed a red line with the deutsche bank? pres. trump: thank you very much. thank you. shery: president trump being asked about the deutsche bank probe by mr mr. mueller has a subpoena. pres. trump: we want to have the things that we represent and we certainly don't want to have a iseral democrat that controlled by nancy pelosi and controlled by chuck schumer. we do not want to have that for alabama. thank you all very much. they give her much. shery: president trump talking about the alabama election. roy moore running there, despite the controversy he is facing. he is headed into a lunch with gop senators, also the ambassador. the tax billut that is coming out of conference. he said the tax conference will result in a perfecto bill. something that will be coming out of the conference quickly. we know senator mitch mcconnell has said the senate will vote this week to join house taxakers in attacks -- in a conference. president trump about nafta in trade deals. naftahe fifth round of negotiations did not bear that much fruit. the chief negotiators were not there last month. he has reiterated negotiations will not be easy, given that electi