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00:00:19These are the latest headlines
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00:01:23MUSIC Welcome Welcome back to The Context USA here here on BBC News with Ben Brown in
00:01:27in London. I'm Mike Caitriona Perry Perry here in Washington. We've got
00:01:31got some developments on a few new new stories here in Washington that that I just want to bring you up
00:01:34up to date on. President Trump has has announced that the board of the
00:01:38the Kennedy Center has agreed to to shut down the building for safety
00:01:42safety reasons. We're looking there
00:01:43there at a live shot of the outside outside of that building. You can
00:01:47can see some scaffolding covering covering over the name of the building.
00:01:50building. Of course, it's usually usually called the John F Kennedy
00:01:53Kennedy Center for the Performing Performing Arts. Earlier this year
00:01:57year the and Donald Trump Centre Centre for Performing Arts was added
00:02:00added on there and it's been the
00:02:02the subject of much dispute. President President Trump has said the planned
00:02:06planned renovations would only go go ahead if the courts approved his
00:02:10his move to change its name. His His announcement came shortly after
00:02:14after a judge again ruled that his
00:02:16his name could not be added on to
00:02:19to the exterior of this very famous famous arts institution. It was the
00:02:22the third time that the board has
00:02:24has approved closing the centre since
00:02:27since February, amid legal challenges challenges to President Trump's work
00:02:31work to take greater control of that
00:02:33that institution. So that is the the Kennedy Center there. At one
00:02:37one end of the mall. We can have have a look now at a shot from the
00:02:40the other end of the National Mall Mall here in Washington, DC, inside inside the Senate chamber there,
00:02:43there, because in the last few moments,
00:02:45moments, the Senate has failed to
00:02:48to advance the Clarity Act. Now, Now, that was a major piece of legislation
00:02:51legislation that would have seen
00:02:53seen a market structure framework
00:02:56framework for cryptocurrency that that has dealt a huge regulatory
00:02:58regulatory blow. It's failed. Their
00:03:00Their 5049. It needed 60 votes, in
00:03:03in fact, to advance. And there is
00:03:06is bipartisan support for a regulatory
00:03:08regulatory framework here. Over the the weekend, Republicans added in
00:03:12in some extra provisions that would
00:03:14would see ethics restrictions, which which was designed to ease fears
00:03:18fears the Democrats had about the
00:03:19the ability of public officials to
00:03:23to benefit from cryptocurrency transactions. transactions. So that's a major development
00:03:27development there in the regulation regulation of cryptocurrency in this.
00:03:30this. Country to the hearts of all all of our constituents. Now then,
00:03:33then, it was one of Donald Trump's Trump's key campaign promises that
00:03:37that he would end the war in Ukraine
00:03:39Ukraine in a single day if he were
00:03:42were re-elected as US President. President. Well, it is actually a
00:03:46a little over 600 days into his second second term now. And it's fair to
00:03:49to say, I think, that peace in Ukraine
00:03:51Ukraine seems further away than
00:03:55ever. In fact, there have been warnings warnings today from the Defence Minister
00:03:57Minister of Lithuania that the conflict conflict may be spreading. That was
00:04:01was after Nato jets were required
00:04:03required to shoot down a drone over
00:04:05over Lithuanian airspace overnight. overnight. This is the moment that
00:04:08that that drone which had entered entered the Lithuanian airspace from
00:04:12from neighbouring Belarus was intercepted. intercepted. Lithuanian leaders are
00:04:15are blaming what happened there on on Russia. And they say cases like
00:04:19like this may become even more frequent
00:04:21frequent if Moscow is not forced
00:04:23forced into peace negotiations. And
00:04:26And then separately in northern Europe, Europe, Denmark has reported that
00:04:29that a Russian frigate fired two
00:04:32two flares towards a Danish military military helicopter off its coast
00:04:35coast on Monday. The flares narrowly narrowly missed the aircraft, apparently,
00:04:38apparently, which had been on a mission mission to take pictures of the ship.
00:04:40ship. Russia's ambassador to Denmark
00:04:43Denmark has been summoned. Russia Russia accuses the Danish helicopter
00:04:46helicopter of making dangerous manoeuvres
00:04:49manoeuvres near its warships. And And of course, all the while Russia
00:04:53Russia and Ukraine are continuing continuing to exchange aerial attacks.
00:04:56attacks. The governor of Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia said that some power
00:04:59power had been cut off in certain certain areas while ships were hit
00:05:03hit in Odesa, the Russian city of
00:05:05of Taganrog came under large-scale
00:05:08large-scale Ukrainian drone attack. Let's talk about all this
00:05:11this now with Marie Agnes Zimmerman,
00:05:15Zimmerman, who is a German politician politician with the Free Democratic Democratic Party who's been serving
00:05:19serving as a member of the European European Parliament since July 2024
00:05:222024 and is currently chair of the the European Parliament's Committee Committee on Security and Defence.
00:05:26Defence. Welcome to the programme. programme. Thanks for being with
00:05:28with us. So we've got these various
00:05:31various incidents Lithuania involving
00:05:34involving Danish military. We also
00:05:36also had that Russian attack near near the Polish border on the railway
00:05:40railway there, didn't we? The train train I mean what is going on here?
00:05:42here? Is this Russia kind of flexing
00:05:44flexing its muscles trying to perhaps
00:05:47perhaps show Ukraine's allies in
00:05:49in Europe, you know, don't interfere. You know, the thing is
00:05:53is that Vladimir Putin is not really really successful in Ukraine. He
00:05:56He is fighting over four and a half
00:05:59half years. And when he attacked attacked the for the second time time the Ukraine. He thought that
00:06:03that in a few days he will be in, in, in Kyiv and everything will be
00:06:06be fine. Now he. See that first of
00:06:09of all, Ukraine is really full of
00:06:12of courage and is really protecting protecting their own country and and the European partners and other
00:06:16other partners all over the world
00:06:19world are helping Ukraine to defend
00:06:21defend their country. And now he
00:06:23he realised that he have or he tried
00:06:26tried to start it. I mean, the whole
00:06:28whole world is on fire. It's European
00:06:31European world because now he attacks
00:06:33attacks hybrid attacks, cyber attacks
00:06:38attacks state state terrorism like like the attack to Leipzig airport,
00:06:41airport, all these things to really
00:06:45really fight against the Western Western world because what is his
00:06:48his aim? His aim is that people living living in the European countries
00:06:52countries said, come on, stop helping
00:06:55helping Ukraine stop all these things.
00:06:57things. And so this to make this
00:06:59this pressure, it's for many people
00:07:02people they feel full of fear. And
00:07:04And that's the reason he tried to,
00:07:07to, to, to, you know, spread out
00:07:11out our continent. And that everybody everybody become nervous. So we have
00:07:14have to fight against him. We have have to stop it with all we could
00:07:17could have. And it's all over the the continent. It's not only Germany
00:07:21Germany for example, it's now you you just said it's Netherlands, it's
00:07:25it's Denmark. However, Vladimir Putin
00:07:28Putin now is fighting against the the free world in different ways.
00:07:32ways. And so we have to stop it.
00:07:35it. OK, but does all of that mean mean that essentially the war in
00:07:39in Ukraine is spreading or potentially
00:07:42potentially spreading across borders borders and that that is a very dangerous
00:07:45dangerous place for the world to
00:07:46to be in right now? Yes, it's dangerous,
00:07:50dangerous, but it's not our fault. fault. I mean, what could we do?
00:07:53do? We could say, OK, Ukraine, go go away. It's your job. It's your
00:07:57your problem that it's not the answer answer because this war in Ukraine,
00:08:00Ukraine, this attack, it's attack
00:08:02attack to the free and peaceful world.
00:08:05world. And the reason is for sure sure that Vladimir Putin realised
00:08:09realised that in military questions questions he's not really successful.
00:08:12successful. On the other hand, Ukraine Ukraine is with new drones, with
00:08:16with new technologies try to, to to save their own country. And there
00:08:20there are many countries who are are on the side of Ukraine because
00:08:23because we know if we couldn't stop
00:08:25stop or we if Ukraine people couldn't
00:08:29couldn't soldiers couldn't stop Russia,
00:08:31Russia, then the Baltic states and and other states will be the next
00:08:35next for sure. And now he tried to
00:08:38to make us nervous with all this this examples which you just told
00:08:41told us. This is it's really I mean,
00:08:44mean, it's a picture. It's very easy easy to understand what's going on.
00:08:47on. And so we have to realise that
00:08:50that Vladimir Putin really will never
00:08:53never stop because he's absolutely
00:08:56absolutely out of control. And so
00:08:57so we are we have to protect people
00:09:00people living in Europe. Also in in Great Britain, it's not only a
00:09:03a question of the Europe of members members of the European Union. Ask
00:09:07Ask the Norway colleagues. Everybody
00:09:09Everybody has now huge problems and
00:09:11and we are strong and we will react. react. We have to react. We have
00:09:15have to stop it. And as I said, you
00:09:18you are an important voice within within the European Union. You're
00:09:20You're currently chair of the European European Parliament's Committee on,
00:09:24on, on Security and Defence. Just
00:09:26Just briefly, if you will. Does Europe Europe need to be doing more to help
00:09:30help Ukraine? Does the European Union Union need to be doing more to help
00:09:34help Ukraine? Yes, I think the European
00:09:37European Union is really close to to Ukraine, no doubt about it. Not
00:09:40Not every country. First of all,
00:09:42all, the Ukraine needs more protection
00:09:46protection because the attacks is is now really more and more becoming
00:09:49becoming more and more terrible. terrible. So air defence is a big
00:09:52big issue. Yes. We have to support support them in military question
00:09:55question for weapons, but also in in economic questions because they
00:09:59they need money for people living
00:10:00living there, earning money. And
00:10:03And they need monetary help. So we
00:10:05we have to be really strong on the the side Ukraine because if Ukraine
00:10:09Ukraine will lose this war, we will will have the next years really trouble
00:10:13trouble with Russia. And we have
00:10:15have to explain, we have to see.
00:10:17see. We have to force Vladimir Putin
00:10:20Putin for negotiations. Otherwise Otherwise we have not a very not
00:10:23not a nice future, not in peace and and not in freedom. And really we
00:10:27we have to wake up more and stop stop to be naive. This is a kind
00:10:31kind of war nobody could I mean, mean, years before nobody would even
00:10:35even think about it. But reality. reality. Welcome to reality. Well,
00:10:39Well, we've got your message. Thank Thank you very much indeed. Wake Wake up and stop being naive. Thank
00:10:43Thank you. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmerman
00:10:46Strack-Zimmerman German politician politician with the Free Democratic Democratic Party who is currently
00:10:50currently chair of the European Parliament's Parliament's Committee on Security Security and Defence. Thank you.
00:10:53you. Thank you very much. Let's bring bring in our panellists on this.
00:10:57this. Chris Meagher, former chief chief Pentagon spokesperson and former
00:11:00former White House deputy press secretary secretary in the Biden administration
00:11:03administration and Matthew Foldi Foldi editor in chief of The Washington
00:11:06Washington reporter and former Republican Republican congressional candidate
00:11:09candidate in Maryland. Chris, to to you first, is this exactly these
00:11:13these developments in the last few few days, exactly what the fear was
00:11:17was when Russia invaded Ukraine,
00:11:20Ukraine, that that attack would spread spread into neighbouring countries.
00:11:22countries. And that was why the US US and the European nations had to
00:11:26to stand together. 100%. You know,
00:11:29know, when I was at the Pentagon, Pentagon, we were over in Europe
00:11:33Europe on a monthly basis, meeting meeting with a lot of our Nato allies
00:11:36allies and other partners in the
00:11:39the region, including those on the
00:11:42the eastern front of Europe and the
00:11:45the Baltics. And you sit down with with those countries like Estonia
00:11:49Estonia and others. And that was was their big fear. They knew that
00:11:52that they were next on the menu.
00:11:54menu. Should Vladimir Putin find
00:11:57find success in Ukraine. This war
00:11:59war in Ukraine has been an unprovoked unprovoked war of aggression from
00:12:03from the very outset. And the entire
00:12:06entire reason that we and that our
00:12:08our Nato allies are so focused on
00:12:11on what happened in Ukraine and providing providing them the support that they
00:12:15they need to defend themselves in in this war is to prevent the spread
00:12:19spread of Russian aggression beyond
00:12:23beyond Ukraine. Obviously, to maintain
00:12:26maintain that Ukraine sovereignty sovereignty was, was equally as important.
00:12:29important. But to prevent the spread
00:12:32spread from for Putin to advance
00:12:35advance further into Europe was exactly
00:12:37exactly the type of behaviour that
00:12:39that we were concerned about. You You know, it was mentioned at some
00:12:43some point that President Trump said said he was going to put an end to
00:12:46to the war on day one. And, you know,
00:12:49know, I my hope is that the United
00:12:52United States continues to see that that as a priority putting an end
00:12:55end to this war as quickly as possible.
00:12:57possible. And that means providing providing Ukraine with the capabilities
00:13:00capabilities that it needs to fight fight this war and put themselves
00:13:04themselves in the best position to
00:13:05to go to the negotiating table and
00:13:08and end this thing. Matthew Foldi Foldi I mean, our German guest there
00:13:12there was saying we need to wake wake up and stop being naive. I mean,
00:13:15mean, some people would say this this is an existential battle against
00:13:18against Putin. And yet Donald Trump
00:13:21Trump has been naive in the last last few years. He's at times looked
00:13:24looked like a friend of Putin and
00:13:26and an enemy of Zelensky. You are
00:13:30are seeing Trump warm up more to to Zelensky in recent months. But
00:13:33But I totally agree with Marie and and you guys in Western Europe. You
00:13:37You got to spend more on the military.
00:13:40military. When we look at Nato here here in America, Eastern Europe,
00:13:43Europe, they get it. They're spending spending a lot more in part because
00:13:46because of Trump's tough talk on
00:13:48on Nato. But Spain, UK, you guys
00:13:51guys got you got got it, got it got got to get a bigger Navy over there
00:13:54there because. But that's a slightly slightly different question. That's That's a slightly different question,
00:13:57question, Matthew. The question was was more about Trump being soft on
00:14:01on Putin and soft on Russia. Yeah,
00:14:03Yeah, yeah. Trump just sent his son
00:14:05son in law to go try and negotiate
00:14:08negotiate with Putin. And it didn't didn't work because this is a guy
00:14:12guy who he is. He's been attacking attacking Ukraine, but he's basically
00:14:15basically been attacking Nato for for a while. I was in Poland also
00:14:19also earlier this year on their border border with Belarus, which they built
00:14:22built a giant Trump like wall to
00:14:25to stop the flood of illegal immigrants immigrants that Russia was sending
00:14:29sending in to eastern Poland. And And once you were in eastern Poland,
00:14:32Poland, you are in the EU, you have have freedom of movement to go anywhere
00:14:36anywhere that you want. Russia has has been sending. These are not the
00:14:38the first drones that Russia has has sent into Nato countries. When
00:14:42When does this become a declaration declaration of war? That was something something I was trying to suss out
00:14:46out from the Polish government officials officials that I was with. If some
00:14:49some of these strikes on trains had
00:14:51had succeeded, if some of these cyber cyber attacks on countries like Poland
00:14:54Poland that are in Nato had succeeded,
00:14:56succeeded, hundreds of people would would die overnight. Is that a declaration
00:15:00declaration of war? Is it a declaration declaration of war? Even if that
00:15:04that doesn't succeed, I don't know. know. But Trump and Putin, look,
00:15:07look, he's said he wants to get peace.
00:15:09peace. Putin obviously does not want
00:15:11want peace. And these increasing
00:15:14increasing incursions into Nato. Nato. Think back to international international relations that everyone
00:15:18everyone takes in college. There's There's a discussion of are leaders
00:15:21leaders rational? This is not the the moves of a rational leader. And
00:15:25And I don't think that this lashing lashing out is the move of someone
00:15:28someone who thinks he's winning the the war in Ukraine. There's been
00:15:31been obviously a huge escalation escalation there, some momentum for
00:15:34for both sides. But if Putin is spreading
00:15:36spreading this war into Nato countries, countries, that is probably going
00:15:39going to end very poorly for him, him, especially the ones on Eastern Eastern Europe that have been taking
00:15:43taking that threat from him very
00:15:46very seriously. OK. Well, those are are some of the questions that are
00:15:49are being asked in those European
00:15:51European capitals these days. Great Great discussion lengths, but we'll
00:15:55we'll talk about some more issues issues in just a moment, including
00:15:58including AI, which seems to tip tip into every other conversation
00:16:01conversation that we have on the the show these days. Do stay with with us around
00:17:04algorithm that would help the broadcaster broadcaster compete with the global global streaming giants. That's all
00:17:08all on The Media Show on BBC News.
00:17:16News. You're watching The Context Context USA on BBC News, while US
00:17:20US and Chinese leaders will meet meet in Washington next week. And
00:17:24And it would appear that AI artificial artificial intelligence is firming
00:17:27firming up as a key and potentially potentially quite testing topic of
00:17:31of conversation. Yeah. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, President Trump has continued
00:17:33continued to bat away suggestions suggestions from across the political
00:17:37political divide that there does
00:17:38does need to be greater AI regulation.
00:17:41regulation. But this continuing discussion discussion has brought some pretty
00:17:44pretty unlikely names together. Indeed,
00:17:47Indeed, at a summit here in Washington Washington today, the US Senator
00:17:50Senator Bernie Sanders called on on President Trump and his Chinese
00:17:53Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to to sign a treaty to pause development
00:17:57development of advanced AI technology.
00:17:59technology. He warned that this would
00:18:02would bring about potentially catastrophic
00:18:04catastrophic consequences if it wasn't. wasn't. AI has the potential, as
00:18:07as I think we all know, to do some
00:18:11some extraordinarily good things things in terms of health care, prescription
00:18:15prescription drug development and
00:18:16and in many other areas. But the
00:18:19the bottom line here is that our
00:18:22our job as human beings and our country country and throughout the world
00:18:26world is to make sure that AI works
00:18:29works for all of the people and does
00:18:32does not simply end up making a handful
00:18:34handful of the richest people on
00:18:36on earth even richer. Well, this
00:18:39this really was a summit that bridged bridged the political divide because
00:18:42because also there was Steve Bannon, Bannon, a right wing ally of Donald
00:18:45Donald Trump. He wants kerbs on AI.
00:18:48AI. And today he lashed out at the
00:18:51the big companies, accusing them
00:18:52them of seeking to turn crisis into
00:18:56into their advantage. Every day,
00:18:59day, every paper, every time they're they're on TV. Why do we have to
00:19:03to keep pushing so hard? Why is it it relentless? Why can't they have
00:19:06have any controls if you're not in
00:19:11in Accelerationist, you're anti-American.
00:19:13anti-American. If you're not an accelerationist, accelerationist, you're pro Chinese
00:19:17Chinese Communist Party. If you're
00:19:20you're not accelerationist, you're you're almost a Luddite. You want
00:19:23want to take America back. Steve
00:19:26Steve Bannon there. Well, any new
00:19:29new safety legislation on artificial artificial intelligence from Congress
00:19:32Congress would be a slightly tricky tricky picture. Unlikely to pass
00:19:36pass any time soon. In some cases, cases, this whole dilemma and also
00:19:39also the messaging from the White White House is creating a messy reality
00:19:43reality for some of the most senior
00:19:46senior Republicans on Capitol Hill. Indeed, the Attorney General,
00:19:50General, Todd Blanche, was asked asked about AI during a press conference
00:19:53conference about the Department of of Justice in the Rose garden at
00:19:55at the White House just a short time time ago, and he said the issue was
00:19:59was being used as a partisan weapon.
00:20:02weapon. The way this has come around around today and not three months
00:20:06months ago. I mean, I was watching watching the news today. Every Democrat
00:20:09Democrat senator suddenly races to to a microphone to talk about AI
00:20:12AI after being eerily silent for for months and months and months. months. So to talk about the timing
00:20:16timing of this is being nothing but but an effort to influence the mid-terms.
00:20:20mid-terms. I shouldn't have to say say that out loud. Of course, that's that's what it is. That's what it
00:20:24it is. And that shouldn't be what
00:20:27what drives the, the decisions that that we're making around AI. We can't
00:20:30can't lose the AI race to China.
00:20:34China. Well, I'm not sure Democratic Democratic senators would quite agree
00:20:37agree with his characterisation there, there, but we wanted to get a sense sense of exactly what is happening
00:20:41happening in Congress with senators senators and indeed with the members
00:20:44members of the House and how it fits fits into that bigger picture. So
00:20:47So we're joined by Gabby Miller, Miller, who's POLITICO's AI and tech
00:20:50tech congressional reporter on Capitol Capitol Hill. Much discussion about
00:20:54about should there be a role for for Congress here in regulating it.
00:20:58it. But it would seem that neither neither the White House nor indeed
00:21:01indeed the Speaker of the House want want politicians to have that role
00:21:05role at this point. Right. And I'm I'm so glad you're having me on,
00:21:08on, because I was actually just at at that event with Senator Sanders
00:21:11Sanders and Steve Bannon, and both both of them were met with roaring
00:21:15roaring applause in the crowd, which which was super interesting. I think
00:21:19think Trump's tweets right now are are making Congress's job very, very
00:21:22very difficult. So what he's done done is he set up this kind of loyalty
00:21:26loyalty test where both Democrats Democrats and Republicans alike are
00:21:29are calling for, you know, their
00:21:31their members and leadership in their their parties to do something about
00:21:35about AI. Right now, the Democrats Democrats don't have power in either
00:21:38either chamber. And they're really really getting, you know, their ducks
00:21:40ducks in a row and readying their their playbook for when they take
00:21:43take control. But at the end of the the day, right now, Republicans have
00:21:46have the gavel, the top Republican Republican in the House. You know,
00:21:49know, speaker Mike Johnson, he is is very Trump friendly. And right
00:21:53right now he's more focused, it seems. seems. On getting the tech executives
00:21:56executives and the White House to to sit down and meet, close the door
00:21:59door and hash something out. Right Right now he's very much indicated
00:22:02indicated that, you know, the house house is only in for two and a half
00:22:05half days before they break for the the November mid-term elections.
00:22:08elections. So he's indicated he does does not plan to take up any AI legislation
00:22:12legislation in the coming days. But But despite growing calls from both
00:22:15both of you know, both parties and and then, you know, the top Republican
00:22:19Republican in the Senate, you know, know, he has tried to get AI regulation
00:22:23regulation across the finish line line for years, and even he's kind
00:22:26kind of you know, we need to move, move, move carefully and slowly and
00:22:30and try to strike a very a good balance balance between the things. So he's
00:22:33he's not coming outright and full full force on, you know, we need
00:22:36need to get something done, you know, know, before November because that's
00:22:39that's really like the finish line
00:22:42line that lawmakers are very. Difficult Difficult with so few sitting days,
00:22:46days, as you say, Gabby, but just just talk very briefly to us because because we're almost out of time
00:22:50time on the show here. The dynamic dynamic when you have Bernie Sanders
00:22:54Sanders and Steve Bannon essentially essentially calling for the same same thing, who would have had that
00:22:58that on their bingo card? Right? Right? That's exactly why people
00:23:01people laughed in the room when they they pointed that out. I think tech
00:23:04tech is interesting because it's it's created a lot of strange bedfellows.
00:23:08bedfellows. And I think right now now this is really reached a fever
00:23:10fever pitch. Industry forever has has tried to stave off legislation,
00:23:14legislation, really built up their their lobbying shops and even they
00:23:17they are coming out and saying, you you know, we need to be regulated
00:23:21regulated because they understand understand that this is coming. It's It's just a matter of, you know,
00:23:25know, when. And so right now, I think think Republicans who historically
00:23:28historically have been more industry industry friendly, but not exclusively,
00:23:31exclusively, right, they are kind kind of getting on board with industries
00:23:34industries calls and trying to pressure pressure leadership. But you know, know, right now it's like, who wants
00:23:37wants to stick their neck out and and go against the President? Because,
00:23:41Because, you know, ultimately what what Congress passes is going to
00:23:44to land on his desk and he has ultimate ultimate veto power. And we've seen
00:23:48seen many people pay the price for for crossing the President, haven't haven't we, within the Republican
00:23:51Republican Party? Gabby Miller from from Politico thank you very much
00:23:54much for joining us here on BBC News.
00:23:56News. Thank you. And we'll just go
00:23:58go very quickly to our panel on that that because Matthew and Chris, we've
00:24:02we've only got two minutes. So a a minute each. Matthew, let's start
00:24:05start with you. Calls, bipartisan
00:24:09bipartisan calls for controls of of AI because some of the companies
00:24:12companies are saying there's a chance chance it could destroy humanity.
00:24:15humanity. Donald Trump says it's it's all a hoax. Stakes are very
00:24:19very low. I think with all of this,
00:24:21this, whether it's with AI or crypto, crypto, look beyond this election.
00:24:25election. This portends very poorly poorly for any meaningful bipartisan bipartisan action on anything. If
00:24:29If you want to look at the Clarity Clarity Act, which deals with crypto
00:24:33crypto over the final days, Republicans Republicans gave Democrats basically
00:24:36basically every single thing they they wanted except decapitating Donald
00:24:39Donald Trump and giving them his his head on a plate. And it still
00:24:42still wasn't enough. So whether Democrats Democrats take control of either
00:24:45either or both chambers of Congress Congress in November or not, you
00:24:48you still have that 60 vote threshold threshold in the Senate for anything anything meaningful. And if the Clarity
00:24:52Clarity Act, for example, which has has huge bipartisan support, can't
00:24:55can't get over the finish line, I I don't think anything meaningful,
00:24:58meaningful, whether it's AI regulation regulation or crypto, is going to
00:25:02to be done until probably 2029. Chris,
00:25:05Chris, is that the point? This is
00:25:07is so kind of deep and needs a lot lot of thought. They're trying to to rush something through now is
00:25:11is just not going to happen. Bipartisan Bipartisan support or otherwise.
00:25:15otherwise. Yeah, I mean, I don't don't think we should be looking
00:25:17looking at this with the mid-terms mid-terms in mind. Just this weekend,
00:25:20weekend, Mike Johnson was on television television saying we shouldn't rush
00:25:23rush into a policy discussion. But
00:25:26But that's just an example of the
00:25:29the lack of leadership we're seeing seeing out of Washington on both
00:25:32both sides. We're seeing profound
00:25:37profound underreaction dangerous dangerous under preparation on what
00:25:40what is an extremely serious issue. issue. Even with all the media attention
00:25:43attention and public interest in in this topic, the Washington, DC
00:25:46DC needs to wake up and take action action on this. The companies are
00:25:50are crying out for it. The American American public is crying out for
00:25:53for it, and Congress and the White White House are sitting on their
00:25:56their hands. OK, well, you have spoken, spoken, both of you for two minutes.
00:26:00minutes. Precisely. So thank you you very much for your brevity. Good
00:26:03Good to have you with us, Chris and and Matthew, thank you very much.
00:26:07much. You've been
00:29:44MUSIC
00:30:16Hello, I'm Ben Brown and this
00:30:18is The Context on BBC News. Our headlines
00:30:20headlines baby wards in England are
00:30:23are to get cot cams after an inquiry inquiry into the nurse Lucy Letby
00:30:26Letby who murdered seven babies, babies, found that lives could have
00:30:30have been saved. The European Union Union chief hits out at what she
00:30:34she calls Russia's reckless and dangerous dangerous behaviour after a drone
00:30:37drone is shot down by Nato fighter
00:30:40fighter jets. China warns against
00:30:43against turning outer space into into a battlefield as the United
00:30:46United States confirms for the first first time that it has deployed space
00:30:50space weapons. The chief executive executive of the tech giant Nvidia
00:30:54Nvidia says there's no need for new
00:30:57new laws on AI, even though concerns concerns over