cnn's nic robertson is live at 10 downing street. nic, can theresa may survive this? >> reporter: she can survive through the week until president trump arrives later in the week. the challenge hasn't gone away. two heavy hitters gone. boris johnson has harbored ambitions of leadership. at the moment, the support is not so much to bring theresa may down. she is in a cabinet meeting behind me. the focus of the moment is on delivering the type of brexit and type of getting out of the european union on the terms that they want with the hard brexiteers. she could find herself in the tough leadership challenge this year. the thinking is if she can survive, she will survive until october. this is far from over. the pressure piled on by the novichok agent that killed somebody outside of london over the weekend. the investigation into that continues. that places more pressure on the prime minister international relations and relations with russia and president trump arriving which is another big deal on her plate. i came past the location where president trump will stay this

>> all right, nic robertson in brussels. thanks very much. >>> joining us, david rohde, online news director of "the new yorker." this president is with the tirade against nato as he's landing, it seems as though he doesn't understand what the nato commitment is. 2% of gdp, for military spending, defense spending by 2024. they're not contributing to a bank account that america is footing the bill. that's incorrect. >> he is xexaggerating the dynamic. he talks about being cheated on trade but on defense. he says it's impossible to sell farm goods to europe. that's false. >> even if he's misstating or making this more convoluted. they were supposed to spend 2% on gdp. and there's five that are doing that. the vast majority of the nato countries are not living up to this goal, are they not? >> that's correct. this is not a crisis for may nato. he's creating a narrative, you could say the same thing with immigration. the same thing with trade, where, you know, this is a problem, these countries should spend more. they are spendi

let's turn to diplomatic editor nic robertson at nato headquarters. nic, no one surprised by harsh rhetoric from president trump. was it the words? what shook leaders there? >> reporter: you know, i think it was the nature he really went after angela merkel and the 4% number. that did catch people by price. you know, he has not failed to surprise or shock them this morning. you know, like yesterday, the bumps yesterday, they knew this was coming. they knew president trump was coming in to get the countries to spend more money on their defense budgets toward the 2% commitment. they knew that was coming. not the shape it was coming in. today, the reason i say he hasn't failed to surprise, but surprise them like he did in quebec on the second morning, he showed up late. then 50 minutes this morning, he showed up half an hour late. the ukrainian president likely to tell him to get tough on putin when he meets putin on monday in helsinkhelsinki. >> the president heads to uk with a visit to the american ally. turmoil for traheresa may and t trump baby blimp

i want to bring in international diplomatic editor nic robertson, live at nato headquarters. and what a way to start this confab, i mean, to have the president who has said that putin is just fine, insulting germany and really drawing his wrath on germany. >> reporter: don't they say, isn't the saying start out as you mean to continue? president trump's had this drum roll of lambasting nato leaders telling them to pay up their 2% on gdp on defense spending as their commitment to nato and he's followed that up with tweets on the plane saying he's even considering getting back dues from nato allies who haven't been paying enough over the recent years. and then this attack on the german chancellor, angela merkel, somebody who's had no particular love lost for over the past year and a half since he's been in office. but this is very tough talk. you had jan staltenberg there, the nato secretary-general, put on the spot. the cameras were on. president trump was on a roll. staltenberg pushing back in a diplomatic way, sticking to the language we've seen him use before, that we are s

nic robertson is live in helsinki with the latest developments. good morning, nic. >> reporter: dave, what we are hearing is the stunning sound of silence. where is the applause? where is the support from president trump's nato allies that he said were so you nighted behind him -- so yunited behind him in the trip to helsinki? we imagine a different scenario saying bravo. well done for standing up to putin. it is not just meddling in your elections, but ours. in the germany elections and the brexit and the britain general election last year. the two countries and leaders and president trump on the way to helsinki undermine theresa may during the visit. lambasted german chancellor angela merkel at the nato summit. the reality is europe also has gone to bed last night and waking up to the fact that president trump is acquiesced putin and it appears he can no longer trust his own intelligence services, how can his allies expect him to trust their intelligence services and trust them? how can the allies expect him to act in their own national security

accepting of the basic principles of nato than he is in public. >> let's bring in diplomatic editor nic robertsonter and not necessarily directly face-to-face? >> reporter: it is followed up on twitter again this morning. it was confrontational with the u.n. secretary-general yesterday. he was a half hour late yesterday which did not go over well. there is a buzz around the media room right now. i have been speaking to three different nato spokes people to figure out what is happening behind the scenes. we know the north atlantic council, the heads of state, are in a room meeting. expected to speak about afghanistan and expected to speak about some of the challenges that some of the nations like ukraine and romania and like georgia face with russia. so trying to figure out what's going on here at the moment and what is possibly happening is that the nature or the focus of the discussion in the nato north atlantic council session this morning may have drifted off what was intended and perhaps gone on to topics picking up from yesterday. president trump's tweet this morning about two hours ago spok

let's bring in nic robertson for the latest, live for us in london. good morning. >> reporter: what a bitter aftertaste to come after that sumptuous dinner that theresa may hosted for trump last night, and a taste of what's to come. the pair are expected to meet later this morning but what president trump has said here really is a body slam for theresa may. remembering she was the first world leader to go congratulate president trump after his inauguration in the white house. she did that because she wanted to align herself to him politically closely. now he seems to be throwing that back in her face, saying that he gave her advice on brexit, that it's not going the way that he thinks it's going to go well for britain, a way that he says won't allow britain to do good trade deals with the united states in the future. this after nato yesterday, he said he didn't have an opinion on brexit other than whatever it was that was going to make the british people happy. not only this, he's re-opened old wounds with london mayor sadiq khan again in this newspap

nic robertson joins us live from helsinki, the site of that summit. i wonder from russia's perspective, do they view it as helpful to them when the president echoes their own propaganda, in effect, right, that they had nothing to do with this? >> well, it certainly will help what they would hope to get out of the summit here. because, you know, in short when they say there's no evidence, which is what they've been saying in this particular case, this is just a criminal case being made up for a political reason, recycling old fake news is another thing they've been saying about it. this gives them a stronger hand. if we look back to the last time president trump confronted president putin face-to-face or the first time he did it at the g-20 in hamburg last year, the russian response was just to brush it off. but it was also instructive about how president trump approached telling president putin this. we learned about it afterwards from the russian foreign minister. this is how he explained what president trump did in that situation then. >> translator

phil black, stand by as we cross over to our colleague nic robertson. nic, for some context, a historic summit but this cloud hangs over it all. this latest indictment that squarely points the finger at russian state operative interfering in u.s. affairs and now the question, will mr. trump be assertive in defense of the united states or passive with mr. putin? >> reporter: so far we don't know. the indications that president trump has given over the past couple days when he's given press conferences has been that he's more likely to be lenient. he's said that he'll raise the risch are he'll absolutely raise the issue. he said i'll raise the issue that you all like, that you all want. he's said that i will ask did you do it. don't do it again. and he said i expect president putin will deny it. what we do know is that last time or the first time they met face-to-face at the g-20 back in hamburg a year ago when president trump asked that question, putin denied it, they said there was no evidence and then very sort of quickly president trump took the decis

nic robertson, thank you. david, appreciate it, as well. >>> breaking news. sources tell cnn some of the detained children separated from their parents at the border are now being moved to be reunited with their parents. we'll have that ahead. and the safey for "most parallel parallel parking job" goes to... [ drum roll ] ...emily lapier from ames, iowa. this is emily's third nomination and first win. um...so, just...wow! um, first of all, to my fellow nominees, it is an honor sharing the road with you. and of course, to the progressive snapshot app for giving good drivers the discounts -- no, i have to say it -- for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. safe driving! for giving good drivers the discounts they deserve. does your business internet provider promise a lot? let's see who delivers more. comcast business gives you gig-speed in more places. the others don't. we offer up to 6 hours of 4g wireless network backup. everyone else, no way. we let calls from any of your devices come from your business number. them, not so much. we let you keep an

let's bring in nic robertson for the latest, live for us in london. m hearing from sources, nic, people expect to hear the news that is expected to dominate that interview. >> reporter: sure. what british officials feared is president trump coming and getting upset by the protests and the plan was to keep him away and the time he was going to spend with the prime minister was time that they hoped they could really sort of help explain to president trump why the relationship between the two countries is so good. britain, they say, creates 1 million jobs in the united states. those were the sort of issues they wanted to talk about today. we could not be a million miles away from that. the estimate that british officials had of the problem was president trump seeing the protests. clearly they had no idea what he had in mind when he gave this interview to "the sun" newspaper which has a wide viewership here and populism in the country. the shots he has taken at theresa may could not come at a more damaging time. she has been criticized from her own party f

cnn's nic robertson is live in helsinki. >> start in scotland with abby. what's the president saying this morning? >> reporter: good morning. the president is not far away from here at his golf course. he has been talking about his summit with putin. as you mention, the white house did confirm there would be some press availability in helsinki with vladimir putin. as you pointed out, we don't know what that means. the white house is ret sent to say the president will take questions. sometimes he does. last several days he did on several occasions, but that will be a critical moment for reporters to ask questions. he is starting to frame the conversation about the meeting with putin talking about the 12 indictments passed by the mueller team investigation this past week and he is blaming obama, stories you heard about the 12 russians took place during the obama administration, not the trump administration. why didn't they do something about it, especially when it was reported that president obama was informed by the fbi in september before the election. but

cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson is in helsinki. despite the indictments, despite some democrats and republicans saying the meeting should be cancelled, it is going on, nic. i know you are with russian diplomats as well. are they concerned about indictments before the meeting or take the president's expression of confidence as enough for them, is that what they focus on? >> reporter: i think they're doing what they normally do in these circumstances, jim, which is basically push back, fire back, deny. they're saying right now there's no evidence being presented here, even though there are indictments against 12 russian military intelligence officers. they're saying there's no evidence. they're actually saying this is recycled fake news or reanimated fake news. they are saying it is criminal cases being pulled for political reasons. they're saying this is all being done, designed to spoil the atmosphere ahead of the summit. typical of russia to come up with multiple things to say about it, but this is what they're saying, and of cours

joining us now, nic robertson.here is agreement around the world on the front page this is morning. >> there is also the resounding sound of silence coming from the european leaders. normally you would expect that president trump stood up to president putin and said don't attack our elections. you would have expected them to applaud president trump. you would have been defending u.s. democracy and defending european democracy. there was silence because president trump didn't do that. that is causing consternation amongst european allies. they have further insights into what president trump is thinking, president putin is thinking, rather, from his interview with fox's chris wallace after the press conference that so astounded people yesterday on the fundamental issue of was russia -- did it have an interest in president trump, this is how putin responded to that. >>. >> translator: we don't have anything on them and there can't be anything on them. i don't want to insult president trump and i may come off as rude b

let's go to diplomatic editor nic robertson there in salisbury.w the suspects are identified, but they're not in custody yet, is that correct? >> reporter: they're not in custody. in fact, they're believed to be in russia at the moment, that's the best information the authorities have. look, the house behind me, that's the house, the door handle was contaminated. this is ground zero for the investigation. the property is still under active investigation. it is potentially a danger to the public as well. that's why it is cordoned off. that gives you an indication how important the new development is. what we understand from a source is that british authorities through a listening post in the island of cypress in the mediterranean were able to intercept a coded russian message sent to moscow, saying the pair of attackers had left. this came just a couple days after sergei and his daughter were poisoned in march. then as you say what the police were able to do is back reference from there, go through those thousands of hours of closed-circuit camera

nic robertson live. what do we know? >> reporter: the very latest here is we heard theresa may saying the police will leave no stone unturned. i will step out of the way. get a closer look at some of the vehicles the police are now moving into the area. you see where the truck is going there, towards the left, and another truck to the left of that, that's where the house was where the two people were picked up, the man and woman were picked up by ambulance and taken to hospital. what we are learning from officials right now is that the pair were not targeted, per se, in the same way the others. this is the understanding that the police have. the latest on the investigation that we heard earlier today, the pair remain in critical condition in the same hospital, just eight miles from here. they cannot say -- the british police and government cannot say at this time that the poisoning is from the same batch, which would mean the same precise chemical makeup, meaning they could say that this was some piece of contaminant lef

nic robertson is live in helsinki. >> the president is arriving there and we see more protests there.l us how the people of helsinki are viewing this meeting between trump and putin. >> reporter: i think, generally speaking, the people here are happy to see president putin and president trump meet. they live on russia's doorstep and live in the shadow of russia and manage to stay out of its grip at the end of the world war ii. any sort of thing between the two leaders they feel is good for them and the world and they are hosting it and feel it's good. nevertheless a protest about human rights here. we are told it's a family linked protest and people here will apply that human rights issue to russia but also focus on trump on this issue. however, we are told to expect small numbers relatively calm, nothing like we have what we have seen in scotland or london the last couple of days. the presidential palace that president trump will meet president putin is over my shoulder here. you're looking at it now. this palace is where the two will meet in about 24 hours' time. one-on-one first. p

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nic robertson, thank you so much for that report. you can follow me on facebook and twitter.lead. our coverage continues with wolf blitzer in the situation room. thanks for watching. >>> happening now, breaking news, second summit. president trump says the summit with vladimir putin was such a great success that he wants another one. and now the white house says talks are underway for russia's president to come to washington this fall. i don't know, the director of national intelligence caught by surprise as the news of the second summit as he admits i don't know what happened in the first meeting. why is the top spy chief in the united states in the dark? >>> 98-0, a day after saying president trump was weighing what he called an incredible offer from russia to interrogate

and that's really the sort of crux of what david davis is saying. >> nic robertson pointing out thatushes on but nic, certainly this opens the door for jeremy corbyn, for instan instance, with labor to say that the prime minister has lost her effectiveness, her authority in dealing with this matter. it's opened the door perhaps for people pushing for a new referendum. what about those also pushing for a tougher, a hard brexit? >> you know, theresa may for the moment seems at least within her cabinet to have been able to marginalize them more broadly in her conservative party. no doubt we'll hear about that more in the coming days. but the scale of the resignations, there's been another junior minister gone along with david davis. but the scale of the resignations is not something that at the moment at least from what we see at the moment threatens to bring her down. the wider conservative party, will they be won over like the cabinet? the conservative supporters around the country, will they be won over? but one of the winning arguments for theresa may, it's precisely what you say, t

cnn's nic robertson is live at 10 downing street with more. c, chaos is the back drop to president trump's trip. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, dave. theresa may could focus on the meeting with president trump later in the week, but instead dealing with mutiny in the cabinet. she replaced the foreign minister. they divided the opponents on how she is handling brexit. boris johnson has harbored ambitions for leadership. perhaps she will survive until summer recess a couple weeks away. i don't think anyone will believe there is a leadership challenge later within the year. most of the conservative members are saying now is not the time to attack. see if she will follow through and do what we want. leave the european single market and the customs union and allow britain to trade around the world. that is still not a done deal for theresa may. president trump turning up later this week. the fortifications around the place where he will be overnighting have gone up. heavy concrete and heavy wire fences and this is the week where british su

now to helsinki and nic robertson is there. >> we heard about the protesters from abby and how is heeld in or planning to be received in helsinki? >> reporter: sure. there are protesters here and called today family protests. the protests is about human rights so you can a ply that here people plaining about president putin a neighbor here to helsinki and playing it to president trump's policy. so it is sort of a small low-key demonstration. we are told sort of a smaller demonstration will happen monday during the summit. it will be sort of more hard line left wing activists protesting against president putin and president trump. i think the scale of protests we have seen in britain, that is not going to be repeated here. that certainly is the expectation of the moment. the venue here, the presidential palace where the pair will be meeting, the atmosphere hotting up quite literally and that palace is the president where president putin and president trump will sit down together to hit some of those hot, hot issues that they are both facing. >> nic robertson, thank you. we appreciate

nic robertson, let me get to you. how is russia responding to this indictment of 12 russians? >> reporter: perhaps no surprise the russians are saying there is no evidence, that this is just an effort to break the good atmosphere ahead -- good spirit ahead of this summit. but they are saying that that is recycled fake news, they are saying that this is criminal cases being cooked up for political agenda. anyway you look at it, the russians are rejecting it which of course is a major concern. i don't think anyone is expecting right now president trump to go in to a meeting with president putin and for president putin to put his hand up and say hey, after all i did do this. but what we've heard from president trump is he seems to have accepted that fate already. he said at a press conference hey, i can say don't do it again and he will just deny it and move on. and i think the past is an indication of what may come. we look back to the first time president trump went face-to-face with president putin at the g-20 summit last year. and the indications and readouts that we got of t

our international diplomatic editor nic robertson is joining us from london. into all of this. we know it's a small country, a small population. but why do you think the president called it aggressive? >> you know, wolf, it's very hard to say. look, i used to spend quite a bit of time in montenegro. the people there were tall, i didn't find them particularly aggressive. if we put it into context, more than the fact its population is probably -- its total population is probably smaller than the whole of the standing army in china, nato is a group of nations that have mutual strategic interests. and the strategic interests for nato in montenegro is perhaps and certainly this is the way russia views it, to deny russia its important port facilities. montenegro has a deep warm water port. now when montenegro was part of yugoslavia and the warsaw pact, the soviet union used to have access to that deep warm water port on the mediterranean. when it was montenegro sides now with nato, that takes it away from russia. so think about it like this. russia annexed crimea be

thank you both, nic robertson, admiral john kirby. >>> still to come, we head back to washington. a contentious hearing on capitol hill is just getting under way with the fbi agent, peter strzok, who sent those anti trump text messages during the campaign. we'll take you live there. stay with me. almost $800 when we switched our auto and home insurance. with liberty, we could afford a real babysitter instead of your brother. hey! oh, that's my robe. is it? when you switch to liberty mutual, you could save $782 on auto and home insurance. and still get great coverage for you and your family. call for a free quote today. you could save $782 when liberty stands with you. liberty mutual insurance. >>> you're looking at live pictures from capitol hill. that is peter strzok, the fbi agent, who is speaking publicly for the first time in just moments about the anti trump text messages he sent while he was one of the leads on the hillary clinton e-mail probe and on mueller's team on the russia probe, until he was released from those duties. with me now, as we preview this, cnn political re

cnn nic robertson is live at 10 downing street in london to bring us up to speed. he latest, nic. >> reporter: good morning, alisyn. look at that photograph. mostly smiles, business as usual for the prime minister. she thinks that she's weathering the storm that erupted yesterday with these resignations but it's far from over. boris johnson, he may have sort of gone quiet right now, but the belief is that this isn't the end of it. but right now, the hope is for her part that over the next couple weeks that will take her into the summer recess for parliament if she can survive that long, she'll be doing just fine. yes, she should be in office when president trump arrives here. it does seem that many of the conservative m.p.s in her party are saying, look, let's not bring her down just now. let's see if she can deliver on the type of brexit the type of leader in the european union we want. a lot of questions remain over that. she still has a lot of work to do. she's commemorating today the 100th anniversary of the british royal air force. president trump arriving late

nic robertson has been patiently waiting. he's in helsinki. i think you wanted to jump in earlier. go ahead. >> reporter: i did. one of the other things the allies are worried about. gloria and dana are bringing it up. what did president trump say behind closed doors? he's only tried to walk back that that we know. the 2:10 that we don't know about we have no idea what might be necessary to walk back there, and that's troubling for the allies this time as well. i'm sure that the united states allies, the diplomats that represent these countries will have had conversations similar to jim have had and i have had with senior officials. one senior official recently told me that, you know, he was charged with determining and watching and trying to track cyber intrusions and attacks from china, from russia, from north korea into the united states. he hadn't been given guidance which of those countries to prioritize. there he is with a huge task and no idea what the administration would like him to prioritize. i think one of the other fundamental points we're at, this is a much bigger iss

. >> here with us is kaitlan collins and international diplomatic editor nic robertson. nic, president trump saying that this happened during the obama administration. which is accurate. why is that relevant? that would be like president obama saying he is not going to do anything against al qaeda because the attacks happened during the bush administration. it doesn't matter. >> it is all question of whether you take ownership for it or not. i think perhaps it is telling that we heard from secretary of homeland security kirstjen nielsen on saturday saying look it is happening right now in the mid terms. russia is scoping out and probing in all states. meddling and mid term electric elections in a few -- mid term elections in a few months. president trump saying this is president obama's issue has handed the ammunition. this is happening on your watch. this is the time that you need to say something to president putin. he has been standed t handed th ammunition. he has it. he has the opportunity to take ownership. >> let's not forget, these are not just any russians. this

let's turn to diplomatic editor nic robertson at nato headquarters. nic, no one surprised by harsh rhetoric from president trump. was it the words? what shook leaders there? >> reporter: you know, i think it was the nature he

cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertson is live in amesbury with the latest. nic, is this left over from the prior attack and these people happened upon it? >> that seems to be the case however when we heard from the home secretary earlier today when he was asked that specific question, is it the same batch of novichok, does it have the same precise chemical signature, the same amounts of tiny chemical components that make it up he wasn't able to say yes because, of course, if he was able to say yes definitively almost one could say this was a leftover of that previous attack and that's what concerns people here. number one that they don't have clarity but the idea of an almost-deadly nerve agent attack on their streets eight miles from here wasn't adequately cleaned up by police, there are still two sites in salisbury and more in aim bri where the police continue to search after this latest use of rnovichok so peope are concerned their children may be at risk and this is something the home secretary tried to allay people's fears by saying neither of these vict

nic robertson is joining me. nic, when emmanuel macron disagrees he will call the president out. >> that's right. he said this idea of raising the contribution to defense spending from 2% to 4%, he says he doesn't see the need for that. he said we analyze the need to increase defense spending on the security threat and he said frankly i don't see the security threat has gone up that far as well. president trump said he should take credit for the fact that over the past year since he last visited nato headquarters the leaders who he has got on the know very well have increased their defense spending by $33 billion. this is how he phrased what he wants and now expects and believes he's got agreement from from those nato allies. >> people have stepped up today like they've stepped up before and remember the word $33 billion they're doing. they're spending at a much faster clip. they're going up to the 2% leve level. >> then we heard from jens stoltenberg, the nato secretary general, who was asked have nato allies agr

let me add to the conversation cnn's international diplomatic editor nic robertson. nic, this is though a kind of a consistent theme if you will that we see with president trump. walking in, shake things up, sometimes blowing things up when it comes to enter -- especially international meetings. and then when face-to-face with another world leader, everything is great. what does that do to this relationship? >> reporter: you know, when you come in and you fire off so many barbs as he did, you can't pull them all back. they ricochet around and stick in people. there is immediate damage and there is a trail left after that that can have a damaging impact. i think what theresa may did was just lining out for us there essentially trying to patch it up, to staunch whatever damage had been caused to hold the political line, her political line, on brexit to try to continue to put that position forward. to try to continue to keep her party behind her, not to allow and give any momentum to the opposition in her party, which it seems very clear president trump was trying to do.

nic robertson, thank you so much for that report. you can follow me on facebook and twitter. you can tweet the show at the lead. our coverage continues with wolf blitzer in the situation room. thanks for watching. >>> happening now, breaking news, second summit. president trump says the summit with vladimir putin was such a great success that he wants another one. and now the white house says talks are underway for russia's president to come to washington this fall. i don't know, the director of national intelligence caught by surprise as the news of the second summit as he admits i don't know what happened in the first meeting. why is the top spy chief in the united states in the dark? >>> 98-0, a day after saying president trump was weighing what he called an incredible offer from russia to interrogate americans, the white house now says the president disagrees with the proposal. the damage is done, as an outraged u.s. senate votes 98-0 to reject it. and the evidence, the former director of national intelligence says donald trump was told before his inauguration that putin

let's talk about all the headlines this morning with our senior international diplomatic editor nic robertsonberly dozier and a.b. stodda stoddard. nic, it was a striking reversz al the way the president spoke to the sun about theresa may, about brexit, her rival boris johnson. and what he said when he was standing next to her this morning. however, despite all of that, theresa may when asked did she feel undermined by president trump, she said no. what is your read? >> reporter: i think we're faced with that position that 3rd has put us in before, which is which president trump do we believe. the one that we heard this afternoon or the one that spoke to the sun newspaper. by the way there are helicopter s helicopters, two helicopters look to be like delivery of the that reason one helicopter have landed here. we were expecting president trump to touchdown here before taking off to see the queen at winds windsor. so quite possibly that is president trump touching down here. don't have confirmation of that yet. but i think president trump is essentially asking us what he said this afternoon to

joining us right now, white house correspondent kaitlan collins and international diplomatic editor nic robertson. >> so, i can tell what you i'm going to be asking for. what do you think he's going to be asking for? what do you think since you're traveling with his people. >> well, he has said he wants to hear, it was interesting the way president trump framed this, hear from president putin on syria because that framed it as president putin putting across his views and president trump not putting across his views. ukraine, the issue of the minsk agreement. these issues are fundamental to both countries. they can both bring their influence to bear the a critical time particularly syria where the conflict is winding down. it seems every what we've heard from president trump so far it's going to be perhaps about the weapons treaties, imf treaty which both sides criticized each other for abrow gating and the start agreement, strategic arms limitation agreement which is due to expire in a few days into it was president bush po pulled out of the imf. they have a legitimate gripe about that. what do h

let's get to nic robertson lives at the scene in amesbury, england. what is the latest there, nick? >> the very latest from here, the british home secretary who just chaired a cabinet security level emergency meeting this morning has now just announced that in fact the latest two victims in novichok here in amesbury, just eight miles from where the skripals were poisoned in march in the town of salisbury, he now says they were poisoned by the same batch of novichok, an indication there that perhaps the cleanup operation following that poisoning in march wasn't thorough enough. this is how the british home secretary explained it. >> our strong assumption is that the couple came into contact with the nerve agent in a different location to the sights which have been part of the original cleanup operation. the police have also set up two dedicated phone numbers for anyone with concerns relating to this incident. it's advising people attend routine operations unless they are contacted and told otherwise. >> so there are five different locations, three in the town of amesbury where the co

. >>> joining us elise labbott and nic robertson. why all of this back and forth? >> it's a great point. i think one thing that president putin might be doing is just trying to continue what he has always wanted to do, which is create chaos in the u.s. political system. he saw the controversy caused by the invitation to washington. president putin did not respond. they were leaving the white house hanging. then president trump said, i'm not going to have this meeting. i'm going to wait until the mueller investigation. he called it a witch hunt. now that the white house is starting to recover, president trump announces that he issued this invitation. i think he is taking pleasure on it. another thing that's struck me in all this is that i think president putin may be starting to figure out that all this deferential nature by president trump to putin is creating a little bit of a liability for the president. you saw at the press conference him trying to help president trump say. we don't agree on crimea, on a lot of things. i think that president putin is not really

. >> i want to also go to cnn's nic robertson for your perspective. nic, you talked about the last time -- the first time these two world leaders met in hamburg, essentially the u.s. got played on syria and the safe zones that were anything but safe. they have now been under attack systematically. i'm wondering what you make of how the u.s. fared in this meeting? >> reporter: anderson, look, i think you have utterly dissected it on point on message. the last time president trump was played on syria, he's been played on everything here. the idea as john was saying that russia could be some part of the investigation into its own malfeasance if they just sort of -- if the united states just hands over bill browder in advance of that is just ridiculous. the idea that russia could be the ben ferefactor for all thos syrians that along with assad it's been starving, starving, starving them out of these villages and towns. they haven't just been bombing them, they have been starving them out. that's why they have been forced to flee. the idea that he could hin

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. >> nic robertson is on the scene. what's the latest you are hearing? >> reporter: well, the idea at the moment seep seems to be fo on that these were accidental victims of the attack on the rush -- the former russian military secret agent and his daughter back in march. the connection is there. it's the same agent. not perhaps the same batch. but the two locations, here in amesbury why the couple were picked up by ambulance, just ale miles away where the attack took place in march. right now, there are five different locations that are being secure and searched by police. three here in amesbury and two in salisbury. the couple are in critical condition in hospital were in salisbury. the british government says russia needs to provide more information. russia saying it wasn't involved in the attack in march and not this attack either. the two people in critical condition. according to the british government, not intended targets. the focus seems to be at the moment, until we get more information, on a possibility of some piece of discarded nerve agent,

right now, nic robertson joins us with more.ere talking about the last time -- the first time the president and vladimir putin met. what you were saying is interesting about what came out of that meeting and how it's played out over time and how essentially, it seems like the russians were able to play president trump and the u.s. can you explain that? >> reporter: sure. look, so what came out of that first time they met at the g-20 last year was a meeting just president trump, president putin, sergei lavrov and at that time it was the secretary of state rex tillerson. rex tillerson gave us a brief. he said out of this came an agreement. it was an agreement on a cease-fire, a freeze on -- in the area of southwest syria. then we found out more on there was the four safe zones that were agreed around syria. this became what is essentially an old play from the russian sort of playbook, if you will, which is you declare a safe zone and you freeze the fighting there. then you marshal your forces to attack one of the safe zones, becau

joining me right now, cnn international diplomatic editor, nic robertson. nick, what has been the reaction there? what does this all mean? >> raucous, in a word. i mean, look, we all know what it's like in houses of parliament. there are mps shouting, there are cheers, there's jeering, and the biggest jeer came when theresa may is saying, this is what we put forward to the european union, this has been very challenging. and there were huge jeers and derision, because many see her as walking back in the face of that european opposition to the british position. and when she started back again, her voice almost sounded weaker. look, this debate that we're hearing in parliament right now is theresa may setting out everything that her cabinet had agreed on friday, sequestered without their mobile phones, they'd all agreed to this. now monday morning, we're finding out the cabinet hadn't agreed. two key cabinet members and the current including the charismatic boris johnson are gone, they've resigned. the question, will more people follow suit? without perhaps --

us right now our white house correspondent kaitlan collins and international diplomatic editor nic robertson. president trump is awake and not surprisingly he's tweeting. here's one of the tweets "president obama thought crook hillary was going to win the election when he was informed by the fbi about russian med ding he said it couldn't happen and no big deal and did nothing about it. when i won it became a big drooel deal and the witch hunt edded by strzok. that is not an accurate description of what happened. any way, shape, or form. >> tell us what was the accurate description, jaking. > i mean, there have been books written about it. but the obama administration was aware of the interference going on and they did try to take several steps including a joint statement put out by the intelligence chiefs in october. >> we understand president obama also told them to knock it off when he met president putin. >> there is a description of a meeting where he was stern and told him to stop. putin denied that they were interfering. it gets deep and complicated. >> just to continue there have thre

nic robertson, what may actually come out of the talks, you've been looking at what came out of the first meeting which was in hamberg on the site of the g-20. >> i remember secretary of state then secretary of state rex tillerson telling us about i 2 1/4 hour meeting that president trump agreed with president putin's proposal for a ceasefire and safe zones in certain areas of syria. he was very happy with the safe zone in the southwest of syria and turned out we got more details, four safe zones but these turned out to be -- this proposal turned out to be a plan that was very much from russia's bold stay playbook, you create a safe zone and freeze the fighting there and wait until you can marshall forces along with assad's on one safe zone and move to the next and take that down. what was being attacked last week but it was the safe zone in the southwest of syria that president trump came out of that meeting with president putin saying we've really got something on syria, the safe zones yet coming into this meeting. russia has been helping assad crush the ultimate of those safe >> the pr