hello and welcome to dateline london at the end of a week in which one leader held on against the odds whilst another found himself out of a job. the unlucky one was saudi arabia's crown prince, replaced by a relative half his age, an encouraging sign for those hoping for reform. britain's prime minister theresa may, though, made it to the brussels summit of european leaders, defying predictions she would quickly be deposed after her election humiliation. it was the week where her government began negotiating brexit. those leading the talks exchanged gifts — a book on mountaineering and a walking stick. just how much of an uphill struggle will it be? with me are steve richards, uk political commentator and author of the rise of the outsiders. mina al—oraibi, an iraqi—british journalist, who's about to become editor in chief of the national. agnes poirier, uk editor with the french magazine marianne, and american writer and broadcasterjeff mcallister. a warm welcome to you all. agnes, what did you make of how these brexit talks began? being an

anglophile and a fan of britain, i am saddened by it because theresa may was allowed to talk after coffee on thursday's evening dinner and that she was asked to leave the room so that she was asked to leave the room so that the 27 other european leaders could actually continue their conversations because as angola macro, macron said, eu summit is not therefore brexit talks. first we need to agree on diverse storms and then brexit talks can start. she came with what she said a fair and serious offer an eu citizens living in britain and it was unfair and compared to the eu offer. the guaranteed lifetime rights of uk citizens in living in the eu.

britain as for replication but it falls short. be strong and stable government, she is weak and unstable. it is nothing serious. it does not going very well for the rest. steve, was it as bad as all that? yeah. it is very interesting when theresa may triggered our google —— article 50 was betrayed as an act of steely leadership comparable to margaret thatcher at her peak. when in reality what she was doing was triggering a sequence where she was passing control of the manor of brexit to the rest of european union. that is the dynamic as outlined in lisbon treaty of which article 50 years apart. she can come to summits and it is not weakened position here in the uk, and it is very weak, that has

brought this about. it is the dynamic of brexit as defined by article 50. even if she had arrived with a mandate bolstered...“ article 50. even if she had arrived with a mandate bolstered... if she had had a majority by 200, this would have happened. one of the things they said is we have devolved this. this is negotiation that the commission will handle. you can google. other search engines are available. an lots of levels she has not got the leave about because, because of the way this dynamic will i'iow because of the way this dynamic will now be played out. i agree with you in terms of the mechanics but i do think that at least inside the uk, the way theresa may is viewed today is so different from where greene before the election, everything is

being interpreted and read by people because of her weakness at the time you have seen angela merkel and back commentator: -- you have seen angela merkel and back commentator: —— emmanuel macron seeing stronger. we see britain as wea ker seeing stronger. we see britain as weaker on multiple levels. i think thatis weaker on multiple levels. i think that is played in peoples minds is not the reality having negotiation with happened. what did you think of the guests? a walking stick for david geysers, made in the part of france. in return, mr davies gave him a book about an expedition to the himalayas. perhaps the walking stick can be used in a more forceful fashion its negotiations get to uncharted territory to use. it is a fascinating because she did look like she was bestriding the world like she was bestriding the world like a colossus before everyone

predicted the victory and all the stea m predicted the victory and all the steam has gone out. notjust the stea m for steam has gone out. notjust the steam for her personally but this whole project of what is brexit. the polls are now showing that people do not want a hard brexit, they wanted economics first brexit. what is that? how do they get it? what you have to give up to get a soft brexit? all of a sudden the benefits of staying in the eu under the current deal start to seem pretty good by comparison to what is a huge strain of attention if you look at the queen's speech, the bill that people are going to be paying attention to be strange, technical getting out of the eu, all these civil servants are being diverted to brexit things. the has productivity robins, economic problems, the tower fire shows that has growing inequality, all of the red tory claims and promises that she made when she first began... appealing to

working people? capitalism can be made to work you, this thing she said when she first became prime minister all went out the window and thatis minister all went out the window and that is whyjeremy corbyn did so well. the tories seem stuck in the courts of brexit, there is no animating or captivating principle for her orally for the rest of them, as far as for her orally for the rest of them, as farasi for her orally for the rest of them, as far as i can see. it is very bad time for which is politics. how long can she carry on like this? it depends on her own capacity to cope. in my view, i've risley did a series for the bbc on all the modern prime minister 's basically in our lifetime, british prime ministers, some talks to camera, comparing her with any of them i think she's is the weakest position of any prime minister in our lifetimes. the reason i say that is partly practical, number ten, which reason i say that is partly

practical, numberten, which has reason i say that is partly practical, number ten, which has to counter all these big government departments is wholly under resourced. it is a small machine. exactly, the best of times it has to be my school —— muscle to compete with the treasury. the cabinet feels as if they can do what they want, that they do not have to get her permission because she cannot get rid of them again. she cannot sack these people. so they are stronger. so all that is true and that did not apply to gordon brown at his most traumatised, etc. there is that side of it. how long can she carry on? the tory party do not want a general election. could you not change leader without that? you could. you need her to voluntarily go at the current situation. no one is doing to wield the dagger like michael

heseltine in the shakespearean drama we are living through. she will have to decide. none of us know, including her, whether she is ready for the mountainous ascent with all the wider sense of political impotence. it will be very, very tough on any human being and i think that, in the short term, is the issue. in the medium term, i don't think she will be around for the whole of this parliament. in the short term it is whether she can handle both and all the other unexpected nightmares that will erupt. what about the contrast with emmanuel macron who we saw at his first eu summit as president as well and the man everyone wanted to be seen shaking hands with or hugging oi’ seen shaking hands with or hugging or sharing a joke with, even arnold schwarzenegger showed up in paris at the end of the week to offer the terminator‘s endorsement. and yet already emmanuel macron is having to re—shuffle his government because of potential scandal and he has these

big domestic political challenges. it could all collapse very quickly for him. we will know pretty quickly if he is astute and shrewd. the four ministers who left his cabinet, it is good for him because they did not belong to his party. he does not need them any more. he has got majority in parliament and he is walking on water and so far, so good. you know how we call him in france? jupiter. yes, it is something that is not well known. explain. it comes from his entourage. they call him jupiter? that is how he views himself. after spending two years in president land that —— president hollande government. he is going to pass a

law, the majority for it, i do not see how it is not going to happen, that law will enable him to exceed do executive orders on what the most present issues. he is going to make changes to the executive powers. the french president is the most powerful in terms of institutional powers given to him in the western world. yes, jupiter is not quite a democrat. we will see. to go back on theresa may, emmanuel macron, they have momentum, impotence. does it change the negotiations? they are applying the rules we have applied before. angela merkel and emmanuel macron, they do not want the block to allow themselves to be divided on brexit. and they are not going to allow it. britain was hoping probably to lead

by lateral negotiations, one—to—one, and if this is not happening, is the block is concise and coherent then i don't see... britain is retreating which is so sad to see. it is being... a tendency of britain, 20 centred trees. i think it is sad. the magic word was pronounced by emmanuel macron and a few people doing that eu summit. brexit can be reversed. but it was take such a strong leader in britain to muster the courage and the vision to actually say, look, you know. we should not go. article 50 was up to make it impossible to get out gracefully. in a sense, brexit may

be moving further away, it becomes an aspiration of goal but we never quite get there, we are in two transitional arrangements. the problem is the clock is running. the sure there will be transitional arrangements. in theory, most of this house of commons is still committed to brexit. and committed to delivering that referendum outcome. there are a lot of remain in both parties. i think the labour leadership is committed to getting out. on the basis of the referendum. but there will have to be transitional arrangements which will mean the uk is still in whilst formally out. now whether the tory prime minister, whoever that is, can deliver that two parts of their parliamentary party, is one of the

many, parliamentary party, is one of the any parliamentary party, is one of the many, many questions as to how ever is this prime minister, a sense of this peak nightmare. let us leave that one hanging in the air. the 800—year—old leaning minaret of mosul leans no more. the mosque below it, from where the group which calls itself islamic state proclaimed a caliphate three years ago, was destroyed as is beat a retreat from the city. the push—back against extremists is taking place in syria, too and there are signs of reform in saudi arabia, a country often blamed for allowing jihadist ideology to take hold. the elevation of mohammed bin salman to crown prince, aged just 31, is being interpreted as a signal of change. mina, who is this man and why should the world be taking notice of him? saudi arabia is important, we need to ta ke saudi arabia is important, we need to take in notice of who is the future leader. he is someone that people in the region know quite well

for the last two years after he was named deputy crown prince, minister of defence, quite close to his father. he is also someone who is young and someone father. he is also someone who is young and someone who has brought a diners to saudi, part through the vision 2020. some people like to say it is just semantic. vision 2020. some people like to say it isjust semantic. absolutely. not talking about the economy, you can't just liberalise the economy and lease society behind which i think is an issue around the world because of the new think let's get economic ‘s deletion thoroughly society. that impetus to try and change it. it comes at a time when the region is going through so many events. you started by referencing the tragedy of mosul. also the need to try to make the politics of the region not about secretary and brutal ideologies and try to think how do states function. at the heart of what we are saying in —— seeing in

the middle east... sorry. on the basis of this point about relations between states, what then do we make of saudi arabia flexing its muscles so of saudi arabia flexing its muscles so brutally towards qatar? recently is an interesting time. i would say you are seeing clarity, not from saudi arabia alone, egypt and other countries are at least adding anything we cannot have a small country in the region that is supporting non—state actors that are supporting non—state actors that are supporting groups like everyone from militias in libya, cutting deals with militias sitting in a row, saying there comes a point where we have two stop. outside of the region, many of them say the problem is... we have a country in the region that has been supporting

extremist elements but non—state actors, whether you have the taliban having a representative office as though it is an embassy. these are signals that actually have detrimental effects on lives and thatis detrimental effects on lives and that is what we are seeing translated in the region. jeff, is this the consequence of president trump's recent visit to the region and has very strong message of support to saudi arabia? the reporting is that the saudis felt empowered by the green light that they got from trump who also pushed very hard to say that he was going to be the pick of the united states, the bat, he had him to his house for dinner. i find it fascinating how the us was like we like mohammed bin nayef. oh, this is america's pic, mohammed bin salman. trump said. i take credit, as he

does that so many things. there still is no evident american policy. despite all the faffing around, one way or the other. we have mixed signals. the president tweets on the question of qatar, or reference was pointed to qatar as funding extremism. brats this will be the beginning of the end of horror of terrorism. we are hearing from the us defence department from the pentagon, we are very grateful that qatar is such a stout ally. we sold 12 billion dollars worth of fighter jetsjust three days 12 billion dollars worth of fighter jets just three days later. 12 billion dollars worth of fighter jetsjust three days later. this is complicated, of course. the fundamental thing is that trump does not believe in policy. his mind does not believe in policy. his mind does not work that way. remember the cruise muscles into syria, he said he was going to have make the people

in syria say. he likes to throw something into the middle, get the attention, get the buzz and move on without the complex process that other presidents have had. he has not filled most of the subordinate positions in the state department. there is no one minding the store except for the guys at the very top. they disagree with each other. there is no way of resolving their disagreements. as long as he is presidents, i think that will be true on almost all foreign policy. are they seizing a moment where there is a vacuum in terms of washington's attention and consistency that actually he might make a lot of noise but he is a weak figure at the moment?” make a lot of noise but he is a weak figure at the moment? i think there was a vacuum when obama was president to when it came to the region. the fact that he had obama referred to the leaders of places like saudi arabia, as sunni leaders.

they think it is less about seizing the opportunity vacuum. there is a moment when they have to stand up and sort what is going out in the region. one of the issues is what is happening in iraq and syria and in the us, you are right, you had festival we thought trump was going to ta ke festival we thought trump was going to take some action on syria and then did not. iran has launched a missile into the heart of syria. leaders feel a week we have to take action to control this situation. steve, we' re action to control this situation. steve, we're talking about the imminent feel of mosul. is there a confidence now do you think in western capitals that first mosul, finally as linux beat might be brought to its knees with mike —— islamic state. the degree to which these territorial holes are fundamental to the potency of ices oi’ fundamental to the potency of ices or whether they just move on fundamental to the potency of ices or whether theyjust move on to some

other place, there is that issue. to go back to the american thing what i find so interesting is what in the end is likely to produce a more sta ble end is likely to produce a more stable mood in the middle east where there was no american policy or the policy priest to be counter—productive. as you are saying about obama, incoherent and contradictory at different times. in a way, there has been this kind of vacuum for a very long period of time andi vacuum for a very long period of time and i am not quite sure whether one territorial recapture has significance compared to that broad context but what do you think?” think it has significance to the poor people who have been subjected to the terror of them back to. i think sometimes we get into these conversations, where we are talking brexit, if i was one of the 3 million citizens, eu citizens here i would be worried about brexit. the problem for iraq and syria is the

fa ct problem for iraq and syria is the fact that not having inherent american western policy. no one thinks of borisjohnson american western policy. no one thinks of boris johnson as the foreign minister. what happens if you declare isis defeated. you have troops all over the world now but there is no plan for the governance and at least securing these territories. if it is not isis, some other motion group. if you had groups to fight them, they are fighting forces, timbuktu is declared defeated. what are they going to do? they are not going to going to do? they are not going to go intojobs that going to do? they are not going to go into jobs that are secured for the country. the danger of what we saw, agnes, in libya when the french and the british kind of help to bring down gaddafi and then their attention was diverted elsewhere and eve had a lot of people with a lot of weapons with no jobs and not much hope of a future and they end up

fighting among themselves. the territory and for power. it is true but france and britain worked well in responding to an eu mandate which did not exist with iraq. i would like to go back on that ultimatum with the saudis, to qatar and basically qatar, we are not naive about the dark because france and britain's economies are tied up with qatar and we know that qatar funds terrorism and we can our streets in europe. what were the saudis thinking when they asked qatar to actually closed down, took at ties with turkey and iran? i'm thinking what are they hoping. they have ten days to comply so what is going to happen in ten times time —— ten

days' time. the last time in 2014, promises were made, the trip was made and everybody said let's make friends but that doesn't seem to be in the saudi mood right now. it is not just in the saudi mood right now. it is notjust saudi. we have to remember it is not a front. a country as weighty as egypt standing behind those shows that there is a problem in the region and you are right in that 2014, there was this problem, and words were accepted. the point of this is less of an automated answering these of the problems that we have highlighted. there is transparency find a solution. action rather than words, gestures alone are no longer good enough because of the consequence of what we've seen happening in the region. what convinced do have that this can be resolved in a peaceful manner? the un is speaking about brokering

any agreement between them. the un is speaking about brokering any agreement between themm the un is speaking about brokering any agreement between them. it has to be peaceful in the long term because the region is so small. there are four mil tyres and so forth. i do not think anyone is thinking let's go have a military solution to this. it has come to a four because it has to do. too long it has been a point of putting in signals and so forth. it has to be resolved. how long it will take depends on how qatar responds at this point because i think for the gcc countries, the egypt, they have made it clear what they want. we have to see what the responses. it cannot be about changing the subject of thing it is about freedom of expression, it really is going to the heart of the matter. mina, steve, agnes and jeff, thank you but being with us. that's it for dateline london for this week — we're back next week at the same time. you can comment on the programme on twitter. from all others on the programme, goodbye. —— from all of

us. hello there. what a difference a week makes. last weekend we were looking at temperatures in the low 30s celsius, this weekend something a bit more normalfor the time of year but it will feel on the cool side, particularly across the northern half of the country where we have some strong winds. sunshine and showers, i think, so many this week but where you get the sunshine, it should feel quite warm, particularly today. now, the weather watchers have been out in force across southern areas, taking pictures of the cloudy skies there but many eastern areas, sheltered from the westerly wind, seeing some good spells of sunshine. now, the culprit for the strong wind across the north of the country is this area of low pressure, quite deep for the time of year, it will

bring a spell of gales in northern scotland. a tangle of weather fronts further south, that will bring thicker cloud, maybe a little bit of damp weather across glastonbury through the afternoon, the odd shower here and there. but where the sunshine breaks through, it should feel pleasantly warm with brisk westerly winds. so, for the rest of the afternoon, i think eastern areas always doing best with the sunshine. further north though, we have those gales, gusts of 40 to maybe 50 mph across northern scotland in towards orkney and shetland. blustery showers may be merging together to produce longer spells of rain towards the end of the day. the best of the sunshine always across eastern scotland. for northern ireland, variable cloud, a little bit of brightness at times with the best of the brightness for england to the higher ground, east of the pennines. further south we could have a scattering of showers in towards the south—east but quite widely, as you can see, temperatures ranging between 20 to 22 celsius but we could make 24,

25 across the south—east. now, this evening, i think the showers begin to fizzle away from central, southern and eastern parts and foremost, it should be dry. more cloud, though, piling into western areas by the end of the night, maybe longer spells of rain for the north—west of england, in towards the south—west parts of england and western wales. temperature wise, a bit mild but a bit nippy further north. now, the windy weather continues to pull away as that area of low pressure moves off into scandinavia but we are into a run of more north westerly winds for sunday so i think a touch cooler across the board. but the cooler air will introduce some brightness to scotland, to northern ireland and towards northern england. a few blustery showers here, i think the further south you are, i think more in the way of cloud. again, some patchy rain over the higher ground in the west. temperature wise, 15 to maybe 21 or 22 celsius in the south—east. this is bbc news. i'm annita mcveigh, live in north london where thousands of people have been evacuated from tower blocks over concerns about fire safety. the government says 27 high—rise

blocks of flats in 15 local authorities have failed fire cladding safety tests. here, four buildings on the chalcot estate near swiss cottage were evacuated last night by authorities for "urgent fire safety works". they identified a number of issues in the blocks around the installation, around gas pipes going into flats, around fire doors and the message to me was that the combination of flammable external cladding and the issues inside the block meant the building was not safe. they