Trump moves nuclear submarines after Russian ex-president's comments

Newshour

BBC

News, Daily News

4.4 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

Russian media have dismissed Donald Trump's announcement that he will deploy nuclear submarines closer to Russia. Mr Trump said his decision was prompted by “provocative comments” on social media by the former Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev. Mr Medvedev said in a post on X on Monday that President Trump was playing "the ultimatum game" with Russia, and that such an approach could lead to a war involving the United States.

Also in the programme: The world's first legislation to control artificial intelligence starts coming into force in the EU today; and from Gaza, the sixteen-year-old with a dream to become a great violinist.

(Photo: Dmitry Medvedev was Russia's president in 2008-12. Credit: Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.
0:08.1	We're coming to live from our studio in London.
0:11.6	I'm Lee Stucet.
0:13.6	Growing tension between Washington and Moscow has taken an ominous turn.
0:19.1	President Trump has now ordered nuclear submarines to move into what he called appropriate regions.
0:25.8	His move was triggered by comments made by the former Russian leader, Dimitri Medvedev.
0:30.6	There's long been a war of words between these two leaders.
0:34.1	In his latest remarks, Mr Medvedev alluded to what's known as the dead hand.
0:39.0	That's a reference to a secret system the Soviet Union had put in place during the Cold War to control its nuclear weapons.
0:47.4	So this is what President Trump said on the U.S.'s Newsmax TV last night.
0:52.9	When you mention the word nuclear, I say, you know, my eyes light up and I say, we better
0:57.6	be careful because it's the ultimate threat.
1:00.7	He shouldn't have said it.
1:01.5	He's got a fresh mouth.
1:03.1	He said things in the past too.
1:05.1	We always want to be ready.
1:07.0	And so I have sent to the region to nuclear submarines.
1:11.1	I just want to make sure that his words are only words and nothing more than that.
1:15.7	And they're closer to Russia, I assume.
1:17.8	They're close to Russia.
1:19.0	Yeah, they're closer to Russia.
1:20.6	So how close to rising tensions then?
	...

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