online trolls who intimidate election candidates or campaigners, could be barred from public office. the government's considering the move after a parliamentary report found social media abuse was rife in last year's general election. a powerful earthquake has killed at least 13 people on the central indonesian island of lombok, and officials say hundreds of people have been injured. qatar denies accusations of running a secret campaign to undermine rival countries during the bidding process which led to it being awarded the world cup in 2022. now on bbc news, its time for dateline london. hello, a warm welcome to dateline london, i'mjane hill,

and this week we're discussing the british prime minister's summer charm offensive in europe and asking, what is the new deal in the middle east? we'll discuss syria, iran and the us' approach. my guests this week — the british political journalist steve richards, with us before he heads off to the edinburgh festival with his one—man show. from germany's die welt, stephanie bolzen. the editor of the abu—dhabi—based daily the nation, mina al oraibi. and the american writer and broadcaster, jeff mcallister. a warm welcome to all of you at the start of summer. school is out. so is parliament. but there's no rest for senior members of the british government. theresa may says she has now taken personal control of the brexit negotiations, and she and her ministers are fanning out across europe on a charm offensive, trying to win over leaders to her vision, the chequers vision, of future relations between the uk

and the rest of the eu once we've left the bloc. steve, it's been a bumpy few weeks — how many times have we discussed whether the pm is safe? she remains fragile. she remains, i think, in the most extraordinary position of any prime minister for many decades. there she is, promoting, as you say, going around european capitals, her proposition for brexit, very detailed. which has already triggered two cabinet resignations, several ministerial resignations. there is no evidence at the moment of a majority for it in the house of commons. the reaction of barnier, representing the rest of the eu, suggests there are huge barriers to overcome from the brussels perspective. it is an extraordinary situation, because on

one level certainly, her proposition in the white paper will not survive in that form. there might be proximity to it, but it will not survive. the chequers deal, as we have come to call it — maybe we should call it a compromise. is it isita is it a deal? what it is, is her version of brexit, and it is absolutely identified with her. whether she can become identified with another form of brexit rather than no deal, which i know she would regard as cataclysmic, is a massive question. one of several questions which makes this autumn in british politics, and to some extent european politics, seismic. no—one quite knows what is going to happen, but it feels very, very turbulent. stephanie, how do you read the dictat to her ministers — go out, spread the word

across europe, do soundings, press the flesh? how is that being viewed from your perspective? you can really recognise a lot of eagerness, if not a bit of panic in downing street, to create the impression that the prime minister is in control, going out there to the continent. she is now taking over the control of the brexit negotiations. there was, this week, the demotion almost of the new brexit secretary just coming in. a day or two after, the prime minister was a day or two after, the prime ministerwas in a day or two after, the prime minister was in charge. the prime minister goes out, she saw the austrian chancellor. the big news this morning is there will be a summit in september, and they will talk about brexit, as if this was news there. that was announced in march. there will be a summit in the form of head of state meeting. you say that was british spin?

so much spin is happening now. i don't think that is very healthy, because they can only disappoint with that. apart from theresa may travelling the continent, jeremy hunt was in berlin for the first time as the new foreign secretary. it didn't go down very well. he was perceived as threatening. he said, if europe is not flexible and has imagination, something we have heard for a long time, there will be no deal. this will be the fault of the europeans. some commentators in berlin said he sounds like donald trump. so, it is something that the british government going around making friends? it is not quite know what they have achieved. sounds like donald trump — interesting. how do you feel watching from a us perspective? weakness is strength — i don't know quite how

you add all this up. it makes no sense. tony blair's criticism of the chequers deal was actually the most trenchant that has been uttered. the resignation speeches of the departing ministers had no particular new ideas or system. at least blair's criticism, which says this is the worst of all possible worlds, we have to take most of the european regulations and be tied to europe in the same way without any control of what europe does, it is correct. it is a nonstarter. brexit remains. you get so excited week to week with this meeting, that leak, that the fundamentals do tend to get lost. all the exporters say this is a disaster for us. a crashing out brexit is a disaster. we have stockpiling food being discussed, possibly, by the departed, or the no longer powerful brexit minister, the grocery companies saying,

we have no capacity to stockpile food and we haven't been asked. they are talking about stockpiling medicines and things you can stockpile. how you get out of this mess, with this odd combination of referendum, which really is not a parliamentary device that makes sense in a parliamentary system? it is stopping all thought anyway. —— in a way. the conservative party is stuck, it is all congealed. mrs may is prime minister because no one else wants to take the brass ring, and she has no particular solution. the opposition is not proposing any real opposition. i don't know how you get out of this impasse. some kind of a second referendum, when there is a particular deal to offer, is the only way that the politics are going to start aligning with the fundamental economic reality, which is that brexit, as currently discussed, makes no sense for britain.

i want to ask steve about a possible second referendum in a moment. mina, your take on this? time is ticking, people are discussing a referendum, but we have again this deadline of next spring coming up — so, ten months away, less than that — and there is no agreement. i take a different turn on theresa may. i think with her stepping up and saying, this is my deal, here's what i will try to pitch for, has changed the momentum that we have had, where you had people in her own cabinet that no longer believed in collective responsibility, so they were going their own way. at least now, whether it fails or succeeds, you can say that it is clear that this is the vision of the prime minister and she's going to try to fight for it, even if there is not the image that everyone agrees with. it is different from six months ago, when we did not know whether the foreign secretary in private discussions was trying to undermine his own prime minister. we haven't seen that in british

politics for a number of time —— for a long time. we have reflected here a number of times about theresa may's strength or weakness, but if the conservative party changed its leader, it doesn't change the fundamentals. there are still a deadline of march 2019. it changes nothing. newspaper editorials sometimes say we need strong leadership. borisjohnson implies that he could do it, and so on. he couldn't. there would still be a hung parliament. a european union protective of the purity of the single market and other things. so, all of the problems would still be in place if they changed their leader. that doesn't mean they might not contemplate it. they are contemplating it, but it would solve nothing. her problem is that she has now become associated with this plan. i agree with you on one level — it is like a protective shield, a very battered protective shield. at least she clings to a plan, where most others have not even got such a detailed alternative. but it is so battered — no majority

in the commons, partially rejected by europe already. it is really difficult to see where she is, which is why there is now more talk of a referendum. she is the key to that, because she has always opposed one. but if you remember, before she called an early election, she said there would be no early election, then she changed our mind. she was genuine, said she did not want an early election, that she went walking in wales, saw the opinion polls, giving her a 20 point lead. highly deceptive. she called for one. there may be a way through a referendum. if there is parliamentary paralysis. there will be no parliamentary majority beyond a deal. jacob rees—mogg and others are relaxed about a new deal, there are about 60 of them in the house of commons.

the rest are not. i still think no deal is not feasible. you cannot impose no deal without parliamentary backing. it would be historic decision. and there is no majority for it. when we say no deal, we are talking about leaving and going at the wto rules. leaving with no agreed proposition between the uk and the rest of the eu. unless something positive can be done. but they cannot even, the government, manage the public relations element of no deal, because they have now decided they need to start talking up that possibility. in talking up the possibility, she is saying, one minute is all about stockpiling food — that alarms people. then it emerges that they are not talking about that. sojust preparing the spin of no deal is problematic. imagine managing it in reality. as i said, i don't think they would get

parliamentary backing for it. stephanie, in the wider european question, on the other member states, it is not like no deal has no implication of a lot of other member states. there's an impact on both sides. it is almost ironic that the no deal scenario, it is not only domestic, it isa scenario, it is not only domestic, it is a threat, maybe not a threat, but it should put pressure on the europeans. i wouldn't say they shrug their shoulders. but it would hit many countries very hard, especially germany. it doesn't have any effect. it puts pressure on the eu, and i would not say they shrug their shoulders, but it will hit many countries very hard. no politician in germany or beyond has said, the british have said there is no deal, we now have to compromise. even the german car industry, they look at this and they say, ok, it is oui’ look at this and they say, ok, it is our second biggest market behind the us. but still we have the single

market in front of our adorers. they really completely agree for the time being with the german government, which is the integrity of the single market and the rule of the european union, which works very well for german business, we're not going to put this at risk. they want to save theirs. ifind this i find this was again ironic that actually in this country politics doesn't talk to business. business is almost desperate, saying, please, listen to us, while in germany at least the government constantly talks to business. they agree that if it is coming to the 12th hour and you need to make a decision, it is europe and not the uk, they will have to support and not give a special cherry picking solution to the british. the other irony is that brexit has made europe more popular with the european public than at any other time since1993.

borisjohnson has had this ironic effect of making europeeans recognise that the eu is a more positive thing for them. european unity in the face of what they consider to be inefficient and not intelligent operations by uk tends to make britain look more irrelevant. for such a long time britain has moved. when you're on the continent, you have a feeling that the europeans have already moved beyond. if you talk about a second referendum, they will say, no, we're not having that, they are going to leave. that is also a risk for the british government. if they say they want maybe an extension of article 50 and longer negotiations. then the europeans

would say, for what? for another limbaugh? you will not come up with a solution? —— limbo. in fairness to theresa may, any prime minister would be trapped in this situation. the referendum was held and brexit won. what do you do? you have a hung parliament, partly down to her for that early election. you have a divided party, and you have a series of obligations which are contradictory. the soft border in ireland, but not wanting to be part of the customs union. her plan, in fairness to it, is an attempt to square all those circles. because they are not able to be squared, it is a plan that is going to fall by the wayside. it was an attempt to meet all the contradictory demands, and has no other equivalent at the moment. the labour party position is different.

it would be part of a customs union, it claims it would get alignment with the single market and not be in it, but that raises 20,000 questions. so there isn't, this summer, clarity really about what form this is going to take. we will see. let's park that for now. the next brexit talks are late august. there is an eu summit in september. let's see whether here on dateline we get through the summer without discussing it. hollow laughter we will leave that for now. there is much more to discuss. let's turn to the middle east, because the recent helsinki summit between donald trump and vladimir putin was overshadowed by those extraordinary comments that the us president was later forced to row back on. but what was actually achieved in terms of policy? no communique was issued, but it appears syria was discussed.

is the us now renconciled to bashar al—assad remaining in power? and how does that tie in with the trump adminstration‘s approach to iran? mina, from your vantage point in the gulf, what is your sense of what's going on? how does the situation luck? it is clear that for the trump administration the priority is to push back iran, and to limit iran's activities, militant nefarious groupings in the region. that has become the priority for the trump administration. you have had various us officials come out of the gulf and other parts of the middle east to duplicate that. we recently reported that we are expecting a gcc summit, plusjordan and egypt, in the autumn, probably

in the us, to discuss that, to push on the iran issue. we still don't know the details of the meeting between putin and trump. but the issue was discussed. the russians for sure have been the guarantors of that assad regime. the survival of assad has been because of russia and iran. there is the contradiction. if trump feared he can do business with putin, he doesn't want to be doing business with the iranians, who he is threatening with capital letters on his twitter account. there is that contradiction. it seems that the thinking amongst american officials is that we work with the russians to sort out syria and push back around. -- iran. the reality on the ground is different. it is not that keen, it is very messy and ugly. if we put aside the moral question of syria, which is the fact that millions of people have been displaced. you have at least 80,000 detainees

unaccounted for. only this week we are getting hundreds of death certificates being issued of people who have died from torture and detention. if we try to put that aside and say, security—wise, how does this work? the syrians are not calling the shots in their own country. it is the russians and iranians. evenif even if the trump administration, the region, the world, accepts that the region, the world, accepts that the assad regime survives, they are not in control of this country. to be beholden to militias supported by russian airpower, iran will not give up russian airpower, iran will not give up the vantage point they have established. there are very strong presence in syria, going into lebanon. the developments in iran. the helsinki summit, even if there was agreement about assad, the other dynamics are left to be answered. what is the us administration's answer to that? who knows? i think, fundamentally, it is hard to understand what the us administration is any more.

there is the president pots tweets and is fulminations. on iran it appears that the fulminations are more policy than they were, say the cleavage of russia. john bolton said bad things about iran, but the same time the tweets went out, and the secretary of state did too. but all these dynamics exist. there is another sideshow with israel now having an excellent relationship with russia, concerned with pulling back the militias from the israeli border. maybe for trump's own internal purposes, getting some degree of cooperation, enough to satisfy israel, would feel like progress that he can show that he has gotten with putin, who will be pushing the iranians

to take its ball back from the israeli border. there is no israeli border. i'm sorry, i agree. the fundamentals, there still is a desire in washington to bring down and pull out of the nuclear deal, which has caused the value to drop and making life difficult for iranians and creating dissent. there is no endgame that makes any sense. the iranians have cyber attacks and they could do a lot of things to make life tough for donald trump if they want to, but he is gambling that they will be scared of him. but there are american soldiers in syria that the arabian militia can start taking potshots at. i think he was to look like he is being tough on the iranians' militia.

they would like to figure out something to do in the long run. but i don't think there is anything well—developed coming out towards iran. listening to nikki haley, she reminds russia, we expect, america expects russia to use its influence inside syria? is she overestimating the influence? no, russia has great influence. assad knows that he is beholden to the russians. they have been instrumental in making sure that his regime and army control the country. they are over—estimating how much russia can influence iran. the russians are getting ready to step right in with american sanctions getting slapped on. the russians have not taken a pledge to actually consider these sanctions, neither have the europeans or the chinese. they are thinking, we can at strengthen our ties to iran make iran beholden as at a time when are being squeezed. that is unclear. the russians also want

a more stabilised arab world in the middle east. regardless of whether we agree or disagree with their strategies. they do not want what the iranians are doing, destabilising syria and iraq, yemen. it is not working in the long—term benefit of the russians. they could try to pressurise iran. the iranians are getting pressurised more. and the tools they are using are going to get hardened. rather than thinking, how can we negotiate with american administration and so forth? the fear is that we will see more bloodshed when they think they have nothing to lose. it's better to actually go for a more militant approach. what a desperate situation we are in that we sit here and you quite rightly say, for the sake of this discussion you have to park the moral argument. we have to forget about the millions of people who have been killed displaced. but we shouldn't, because, yes, it will have security imperatives. i agree with you. there are millions of people who have lost their homes — young,

predominantly men, who are unemployed have lost everything. they have had their cousins or their brothers killed and detention. eventually someone has to give them that money and arms in syria. and then what happens? and it has had a knock—on in terms of refugees, which speaks to european issues that we have discussed for many months. very much so. what you have been discussing also puts the question, where is europe? europe has been standing at the side and watching for a long time. this week there was a secret meeting in berlin, angela merkel and the foreign minister met the russian foreign minister. and the head of the russian army. it came out that the german government did not comment, but the russian foreign ministry said, an excellent meeting. they were also talking about refugees. there is some information, and i think this is part of the whole dynamic that is now happening, that

europe now will come in and help build up syria, and this is part of the russian plan. so russia does not have the money to build up syria again, and the europeans are keen to build up syria. they want safety and security, but they wanted the refugees to go back to syria. the moral argument has always been parked. there was a time when the allied forces talked about ali eyeing themselves with assad to re move eyeing themselves with assad to remove isis. this is a constantly moving moral kind of set of dilemmas. it's interesting you mention the eu. the whole iran deal that trump remained on originating from the eu. jack straw was foreign secretary at the time, and with britain, germany, france and others they got that enron deal going.

-- iran —— iran deal. it is such a decline in the european union in recent years that such a initiative would now be impossible in the current state of chaos. the problem with the deal was that only dealt with nuclear, and nothing else. that is the weakness of the europeans. that's it for dateline london for this week. we're back next week at the same time. goodbye. hello. for now we have lost the heat and sunshine and replaced it with something wet and windy. the rain

from any is welcome. more to come through the afternoon. slowly clearing eastwards. a soggy scene in dorset. some gusty winds through the afternoon, particularly for southern and western coast, 50 mph in places. the jet stream has slipped its way south. it is coming in from of the atlantic, bringing low—pressure to the uk. two to content with today. the squeeze in the isobars indicating the strength of the wind. 50 mph for some western coasts. a good deal of rain piling into north—west england, south—west england. clearing from wales and south—west england. blustery showers behind. a much drier day for northern ireland. good spells of sunshine the further west you are. some rain arriving in parts of scotla nd some rain arriving in parts of scotland this afternoon. for the afternoon, as the rain clears eastwards, some blustery showers.

look at the strength of the wind. particularly for western & southern open posts, costs in excess of 50 mph. —— western and southern coasts. rain eventually settling in parts of northern and eastern scotland for the afternoon. wherever you are, quite a cool feel, particularly compared to recent weeks. 17 to 21 celsius for most. perhaps 22 or 23 in south—west england. the rain and much of the showers will fade away this evening and overnight. many places dry. further rain arriving into parts of wales, south—west england and the far south—east of england and the far south—east of england later in the night. a cooler night for scotland and northern ireland. nine to 12 celsius the overnight low. to start the new week, we are still in this showery, breezy regime. this front bringing perhaps more persistent rain in south—east england through the

morning. that will ease away. pretty much a day of sunny spells and showers. showers more frequent the further north and west you are. temperatures at 2a or 25 celsius. it looks like part of scotland and northern ireland will see some showers on tuesday and wednesday. more sunshine further south and east. this is bbc news, i'm ben brown, the headlines at midday. wildfires rage in northern california — killing five people, destroying hundreds of buildings, and causing thousands to flee their homes. we weren't told we were in danger. this was like you see in the movies with tornadoes. one minute it's fine, the next minute everybody‘s screaming. trolls who go online to intimidate election candidates and campaigners could be barred from public office under new government proposals. a powerful earthquake on an indonesian tourist island kills at least 14 people, injures over a hundred, and damages thousands of homes.

qatar has denied claims it ran a secret campaign to sabotage other countries' bids for the 2022 world cup. also this hour, a change to the rules on blue badge parking permits.