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avante west coast feel good travel. Welcome to F.T. Politics, the Financial Times Podcast on Politics. I'm Sebastian Payne and in this week's episode we'll be discussing

the international reaction to the US airstrikes in Syria and whether Theresa May is

softening her Brexit negotiating stands. I'm delighted to be joined by Rula Halaf, the

F. T. Deputy editor, David Gardner, our international affairs editor, columnist

Janan Ganesh, and political correspondent Henry Manns. Thank you all for

joining. Let's begin with the US

airstrikes in Syria. President Donald Trump surprised the world on Friday morning

by launching dozens of tomahawk missiles into a Syrian airfield following a chemical gas attack earlier in the week

that had killed over 70 people.

It is the first military action of the Trump presidency

and received the backing of nearly ever

in the West from Britain and France to Saudi Arabia.

Russia, which is still supporting the brutal Assad regime,

however, condemned the strikes and this raised the question

of whether Trump's efforts of having detente with Vladimir Putin are now over.

Rula, let's begin with the idea of these strikes. Were they a good idea?

I think they were necessary. You have to think of these strikes as a calibrated, limited and calibrated response to the chemical

weapons attack.

...