Transcript
Matt Shea (0:00)
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Mariana Spring (0:06)
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BBC Correspondents (Lise Doucet, Sarah Smith, John Donison, Sean Coughlan, Shotik Biswas) (0:53)
Hello Today on the ground in Tehran, Lise Doucet describes how the city has changed after weeks of war. We're in Ramallah where we meet a Palestinian woman and former motor racer now observing elections there in West Bengal. Fish are fundamental to the region's culinary culture and the latest battleground in local politics. And we go behind the scenes of the pomp and ceremony laid on for King Charles visit to the U.S. but first, it's been another eventful week in Washington, which began with the attempted assassination of President Trump at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner. It was also a precursor to the state visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla at a fragile moment in the UK US relationship. A gulf has opened up between the two nations over a variety of issues, including Ukraine, defence spending, tariffs and the Iran war. Sarah Smith reflects on how far this last week has helped restore the so called special relationship.
Mariana Spring (1:57)
Four days before the King and Queen were scheduled to touch down in Washington, I was preparing to call Donald Trump on his mobile because these days he quite often gives interviews to journalists who just phone him up directly. I was hoping to talk to him about the war in Iran and his beef with Sir Keir starmer over the UK's refusal to offer more assistance with the conflict. But if I began with a spiky question about his failure to get the Strait of Hormuz reopened, there was a good chance he might just hang up on me. So the imminent royal visit seemed like the perfect place to start this conversation. I was sure the President would rather talk about how much he was looking forward to hosting Charles and Camilla. But those sort of platitudes do not make for good newslines. So how could I make this newsworthy? I would also have to nod to the current transatlantic tension. All in that opening question. Donald Trump picked up the phone himself with nothing more than a gruff hello, and I knew I had to dive right in and start the interview because I didn't know how long I could keep him on the phone for. So after very brief, briefly introducing myself, I At a time when relations are particularly difficult with the United Kingdom, do you think King Charles can help repair the relationship? Absolutely. The answer is yes, he said, describing the king as a fantastic man, a great man who would absolutely be a positive help. Now, that is exactly what the UK government was hoping for. This trip was planned long before President Trump turned on the Prime Minister with stinging asides like he's no Winston Churchill. But given the circumstances, they hoped the royal touch might be just what was needed to smooth things over. So this was a delicate mission. Yet the speech that the King delivered to Congress sounded, to British ears anyway, surprisingly political and pointedly critical of the Trump administration. It was dressed up with a few jokes and some humility over the fact that he was here to celebrate the defeat of British forces in the American War of Independence. And the American audience lapped it up. According to Senator Lindsey Graham, who's a close ally of Donald Trump's, the king nailed it. He said most members of Congress felt better after hearing the speech than before. Well, maybe he and the president simply chose to ignore the lecture on the value of the NATO alliance, an organisation Donald Trump frequently disparages. Perhaps they didn't notice the rebuke to his recent claim that NATO forces had hung back from the front lines in Afghanistan, or or his disparaging comments about the state of the Royal Navy in which the king proudly served. When the king said in his speech that although America's words carry weight and meaning, the actions of this great nation matter even more, I assumed that was a reflection of international concerns that Donald Trump's America is becoming a rogue actor, turning its back on traditional allies and losing its democratic bearings. But President Trump must have heard something quite true different. He is notoriously thin skinned, so if he had felt reprimanded or insulted by the speech, he would quickly have made his feelings known. But he did seem entirely charmed. He responded by posting a social media picture of himself with Charles in the caption. Two kings in capital letters. That's a swipe at all the anti Trump protesters who have staged huge demonstrations under the banner of no kings. In other words, no tyrannical dictatorship. A president who has routinely ignored both Congress and the law as he does what he likes. British diplomats don't like using the phrase special relationship to describe the friendship between Britain and America. They think it sounds needy and backward looking and they worry it's only Brits that cling to the idea this relationship is special. The new UK Ambassador to Washington was rather embarrassed by a story in the Financial Times in which he was quoted as telling some visiting British sixth formers that the only country that currently has a genuinely special relationship with the US is probably Israel. So it must have been considered a diplomatic triumph when, after the state banquet, Donald Trump raised a toast to a very, very special and incredible friendship. The President was on his best behaviour throughout the program. He did not veer off script or invite a horde of reporters into the Oval Office to ask questions about everything from Iran to Greenland, or even the dreaded Jeffrey Epstein. Unlike many other world leaders who visited the Trump White House, the King was not embarrassed or inconvenienced in any way. So does that mean it was mission accomplished for the royal couple? Had their regal presence repaired? The transatlantic alliance? And how long might the fix last? This week, the President may be feeling a little more warmly towards the uk. He was positively glowing after his own state visit to Windsor Castle last September, an experience he described as one of the highest honours of my life. And it was less than five months later that Mr. Trump started attacking Sir Keir as a coward for not joining his war with Iran.
