welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: john mccain, the us senator and former presidential candidate, has died. he was 81. senator mccain was diagnosed with a brain tumour last year. he served as a pilot in the vietnam war and was shot down and spent five years as a prisoner. he was a strong critic of president trump. on his first official visit to ireland, pope francis has met survivors of abuse by members of the roman catholic church. among them was a prominent survivor of sexual abuse by a priest in the 1960's and at least two people born in homes for unmarried mothers. hundreds of venezuelans have been allowed into peru, just hours after the country said any venezuelan crossing the border would need a passport. a senior official in one border town said they were requesting refugee status. many had travelled with an identity card only and were stranded at the border. now on bbc news, it's dateline london. hello, and a warm welcome

to dateline london, i'mjane hill. today we're assessing significance — of the first papal visit to ireland for nearly a0 years — and of some seismic shocks in us politics, as two key former allies of president trump face prison. with me are: the columnist for the guardian newspaper polly toynbee. catherine pepinster, former editor of the catholic newspaper the tablet. suzanne lynch, the washington correspondent for the irish times. and the american writer and broadcasterjef mcallister. as we go to air, pope francis, the leader of the world's 1.3 billion catholics,

has landed in ireland, on the first papal visit to the country for nearly a0 years. more than a million people gathered in dublin in 1979 to see popejohn paul ii, about a third of the population at that time. then, divorce was outlawed, as was homosexuality, and no—one could imagine that proposals to legislate for abortion would be one day approved in a referendum. this weekend, about a tenth of the population is expected to turn out, in a changed country which has been hugely damaged by revelations of sexual abuse within the church, and its cover—up. catherine — how significant and important is this visit? it is going to be important for pope francis himself i think because not only the eyes of ireland will be on him but catholics around the world. ireland has changed. many catholics have changed, too. this visit comes after a whole series of terrible revelations

around the world, in america, chile and recent report here in britain. it'll be interesting to see how he is received by the irish people. and what he has to say about abuse himself. we know he will be making three speeches over the course of the weekend, three addresses. an assumption he will at some stage meet people who are survivors of abuse. where does the hard—hitting element of the visit come? at what point — does he have to address this head on? i think he does, he put out an apology in the last few days about abuse. he said the church's action on abuse had not been timely.

he talked about what a terrible thing it was but i think people want to know a bit more. we have been waiting five years since pope francis was elected to do more about the abuse scandal in the church. i think we want to see some actual action. there has been a commission that is supposed to look into abuse. everyone was pleased when he invited abuse survivors including marie collins from ireland. those two survivors left because they felt the commission was not making progress. people want more progress. they want him to do a lot more. unless he does more, the whole focus of people's attention will remain on the abuse scandal. and the rest of what he is supposed to be about willjust disappear into the dust. he is not the pope for the sexual abuse of children, he is the pope who is supposed to be leading the catholic church. but this is such a massive issue, i am beginning to think this is the worst crisis probably the catholic church has faced since the reformation. you are just back from

ireland, by chance. what was your sense of it? i visited in the last week where i am from, huge attention and expectations for the pope to do something more than just apologise essentially. people want specifics now. i think it is fair to say it has been more negative than positive, high—profile people like the former president of ireland, mary mcaleese, herself a doctoral student in canon law. outspoken, critical, vocal in the last few weeks about the church's views on homosexuality and women. it is not pope francis's first visit to ireland, he learned english in 1980 in dublin. a very different place then. different vestiges of

the catholic church very much present in ireland. today, he is going to be greeted by one of the few openly gay leaders in the world, leo varadkar, our taoiseach. letters in my newspaper this morning from practising catholics who are basically trying to justify and say, listen, there are two sides of this, we are trying to separate our faith from the institution of catholicism. they are looking for guidance. why are we supporting this church which has had so many problems of abuse of children, reluctant to change ? a moment of reckoning, i think, for catholics in ireland. i think the timing of this could not be worse, a few weeks into the pennsylvania report. it has brought back the whole issue of church abuse to the fore. despite everything we know

and we are discussing will there be for some people an element of excitement and pride that he is there? ireland proportionally still has the third highest churchgoing population in europe. exactly. in the recent census more than 75% of people ticked the box saying they are catholic. despite the influx of different religions in the last decade. things like funerals and the traditional wake are a huge part of irish culture. most people still get baptised. catholicism still part of the irish identity culturally. countries like poland, catholicism so important in the formation of irish national identity, when ireland emerged as a nation in the early 20th century, it defined irishness. some interesting thoughts this week.

in many ways, the 1979 visits, it has been written by an eminent historian, was in a sense by pope john paul, trying to legitimise an institution on the wane in ireland. an expression of catholisism that was about to start declining, ireland had joined the european union in the 19705. agitation for social change. in 1979, it seems like the beginning of the end in a sense for the catholic church. the catholic church has not kept pace with social change of the last 30 years. we could apply this to a lot of places, polly. the influence of the catholic church in ireland has been more pernicious than most places. if you look at the scandals, not just the recent scandals about the abuse of children by clerics, but you look

at the magdalene laundries scandals. any young girl who could be swept away and locked up forever as a slave of the church in these laundries. the 800 infant deaths, mothers and babies murdered by nuns, infants. when the pope talks in a sentimental way about the little ones, looking after them, the sentiment has to be far more profound. it is true of all of the religions, the more closed they are, the more abuse there will be on every front. whether it is mormons or whoever, if it is closed, bad stuff goes on. apologising will not be enough, he has to project to the future and say the heart of this was the catholic church's attitude towards sexuality. we cannot the anti—gay.

we can be anti—sex outside of marriage. most of all, contraception. it is extraordinary, the catholic church's behaviour in africa, it has actively spread aids by refusing to allow contraception to be given out. in areas where there is a lot of aids. that has killed people. this will go on happen unless they speak philosophically. could we hear things this weekend which will assuage some of this from pope francis? i think every pope for the last 20 years, maybe notjohn paul but certainly benedict had made good noises about the child abuse scandals and trying to do good things to fix this terrible blot. one of my dayjobs as a lawyer

representing child sex abuse victims, sometimes against the catholic church, and they fight just as hard now as they ever did. it is not all historical? there needs to be institutional reform. words are not enough. interesting recent revelations, it turns out high cardinals, well—esteemed princes of the church, turn out to have been abusers themselves. three american dioceses made to report to authorities. the raw complaints turns out to be around 10% of active priests in these three dioceses. it is big, baked in. there needs to be getting all the secret records to the civil authorities because actually the catholic church has better records than the nazis! good at keeping records about internal practices. there needs to be a house—cleaning. he is supposed to be infallible...

all of these guys who have gotten around the pope are difficult to dislodge. there has to be a house—cleaning, pay the money to the survivors, a willingness to do so. we are apologising regularly and profoundly, safeguarding building at the bottom level and report all problems to the civil authorities. should we be seeing concrete announcements, of actual affirmative action, leadership from the top, which is what good leadership should be? is this weekend at the time and the place for this kind of announcement? i don't think pope francis has been preparing for that. he may surprise us all. i think there does have to be a different approach. he needs to put out a document which examines abuse and its causes and says something about how they will deal with it in future. at the moment, we have in the church, priests who investigate abuse. i think the day has come when you just cannot do that any more, however credible the particular priests

are who investigate all the bishops who go off to different countries to see what has been going on, he needs to draw far more on the laity and gets them far more involved in the investigations. that would be a move catholics would really like to see. thank you. we will see what emerges this weekend and what sort of numbers turn out to see pope francis. we've spoken many times during the trump presidency about ‘another extraordinary week in washington‘ — has this week been, politically, the most shocking? two seniorformer aides to donald trump are now each facing a prison sentence — his former campaign manager paul manafort, after being found guilty on eight charges including bank and tax fraud — and his former personal lawyer michael cohen, who admitted multiple counts of fraud and campaign finance violations, and implicated donald trump in criminal behaviour, asserting that trump had ordered cohen to pay money to two women during the presidential race. jef — has this week been more serious for trump than others? that is an interesting question

and i guess the answer has to be yes because it is a sign that all of his bombast and brilliant diversion and denigration of the free press and the justice system and of anyone who opposes the sun king has limits. the institutions can fight back. law does mean something. he says he is against flipping, where the subordinate is made to turn on the boss in order to avoid prison. a dreadful thing apparently now, he thinks, because it is coming to him. his supporters remain apparently as completely in favour of him as before. fox news, rupert murdoch, echo chamber that trump has has been beset by the mean democrats

and hillary clinton, all that kind of thing continues. this isn't his only legal problem, he has other ones. civil lawsuits against him. stormy daniels has a civil lawsuit, he is going to have to testify under oath about that. a woman has sued him for defamation because he said she was a liar when she accused him of sexual harassment and groping. in the next six months he will have to testify under oath, probably. these things are building up, the new york attorney general investigating his taxes. the trump foundation, a strange kind of scam. a harbinger of trouble for him and a sign of how it is going to be from now on. the republicans in congress are not anywhere close to impeachment, he is a fighter his whole lifetime record to deny, obscure, fight, delay. he did that with his new york real estate dealings, with lawyer roy cohen. as president, he can't be

indicted underprevailing constitutional doctrine. it depends how the elections go in the fall and a lot of other things. interesting! touching on so much of what may occupy us for the next six months. you are based in washington for the irish times — what's the temperature? we have been here so many times with this being the thing that spells his demise as president. a couple of things to note, yes, michael cohen, his former lawyer, essentially incriminated donald trump, said he had been directed by the president to pay off these women. it is going to be very difficult to prove, affecting the election campaign. that is the bar for impeachment.

that is number one, donald trump knows that. he suggested in an interview this week, you can suggest i paid off these women to keep it from my wife. the republicans are still backing their guy in a sense. worth noting the way the democrats have responded. always a softly, softly approach by democrats. they don't want to mention the impeachment word at this point. nancy pelosi has instructed a lot of democrats not to overplay their hand in a sense. interesting because they are fearful that this may backfire. that actually if you start talking about impeachment, republicans will say democrats only care about impeachment, we need to get out and vote in big numbers in november. in saying that, it all boils down to the mid—term elections because if democrats win control of congress, in particular it looks like they may win control of the house of representatives, they will be in a position to move to impeach the president. he knows that. that is the elephant in the room

and it is like democrats are stopping themselves from threatening that in case they overplay their hand. that is looming in the background. all about november elections. the two thirds majority, so they couldn't win the proceedings. it is unthinkable the democrats to do so well they could win two thirds of both houses in which case to start an impeachment that goes nowhere looks as if he has been exonerated, a huge mistake. also a political mistake because donald trump's base so loyal that they see washington as a swamp of the politicians trying to impeach him. they will see it as purely political. not a question of the courts purely. his base remains so loyal, he is in a strong position. guardian reporters constantly talking to trump—based people who think he is a pretty dreadful guy. we think the stuff he does is pretty horrible but nevertheless he is delivering, that is the thing. his base has not shifted, has it?

he has cut taxes, jobs are great, economy booming, the supreme court, we have got what we want. everything is going great. he is our guy, even if we don't like him. i think that is quite significant. your take on this? i am interested in what polly says because i get the impression from talking to americans and being over there myself recently that many people seem to now want the american president to not be the respectable figure who is the head of state but they want somebody who is more like a ceo. you don't care that much about what he gets up to behind the scenes, you just want someone who delivers. they want what he is, the former chair of the apprentice programme, to be the president. it shows a distinct shift in what that role is. the method of delivery is peculiar

because the economy was doing just as well under 0bama, continuing under trump. tax cut not affecting real workers, stock buy—backs. .. it is a record essentially devoid of legislative accomplishments. north korean initiative in tatters. standing next to vladimir putin, saying he is a wonderful guy. all this evidence of corruption in the elections, he is not saying anything bad about it. i agree with you, that is the correct analysis of the voters,

but it seems so superficial and strange that it is almost a bubble of disbelief. it is fox news. i was in washington reporting at watergate time. me, too! if nixon had had fox news behind him, it would have been a different story. i think he would have survived. if nixon has been tweeting, the power that donald trump as to say false news, fake news, pay no attention, this is all a conspiracy. how much rests on what michael cohen might say? he has lots more to tell, says his lawyer. the support base is still there, they do not care about the russian investigation or believe it. there are still the institutions. like richard nixon. he may rail against the investigation. it has been watertight in terms of leaks. more than 30 people indicted to do with the mueller investigation. we do not know what is to come. we don't know what other information michael cohen has.

and david pepper, from afi and cfo of trump organisation, given immunity by prosecutors this week. the net is tightening. the legal system and the department of justice is going to be key to this. this week, we saneff sessions the attorney general stand up to trump more than he has before. trump criticised the department ofjustice and his own attorney general for focusing on the wrong thing essentially. i think the fact jeff sessions stood up to trump is significant because the department ofjustice as in watergate holds the key to what happens next. and what republicans think of trump.

if you can't indict him or impeach him and he says to hell with all of you... we could see republicans changing. if something really bad comes out of the mueller investigation. a money trail between russia, i do not want to speculate too much. we don't know the information they have. that combined with a poor performance, relatively, by republicans in november, even if they do keep the senate, you could see some republicans turning against donald trump and thinking he is more of a liability than they thought. then what next? you then have mike pence. the vice president. a man who is a climate change denier, anti—gay. not sure he is terribly bright. not sure that is a fabulous alternative. the democrats must think, maybe not.

boosting for the next election. november 6th, mid—term elections, what are the democrats doing? what is their strategy? what is your reading with a couple of months to go until that crucial vote? so far, i think it is don't step on your own message. don't try to bring up impeachment, don't make it too much about trump, trump does that for himself. votes, all the suburban women, these battle ground states and districts, the polling for the democrats right now is really good and i think they want to keep that up. there is no single party standard—bearer. there is kind of a big chorus of different voices in the democratic party. the senator doesn't know quite what to do about all that. let's just hope that donald trump keeps making a mess for himself and people understand that anger that they used to vote for him, combined with the embarrassment that he has caused to many of his supporters by his unbelievable antics, will mean we win the house, we can move from there to the next election. not the bbc view, necessarily, but i take your point!

speaking as the democratic party! takes us back to the point that his base does not change, it'll be interesting to see what happens in november. plenty to discuss then and plenty to discuss in the weeks to come. that's it for dateline london for this week — we're back next week at the same time. with more international issues. goodbye. hello there.

good morning. fewer showers and more sunshine on saturday, but it still did not feel warm. this is how we entered the day, show me one of our weather watchers. already the skies of change. everything coming in from the atlantic, you would expect to be warmer, but it may not be the case. this is spilling in already. overnight bridge is not a slow, but it will feel quite chilly, i think, during sunday, because it will be dull and it will be a bit rainy as well. starting rival eastern scotla nd well. starting rival eastern scotland and england, but rain elsewhere pushing eastwards, heavy rain at times, especially for wales and the south—west, improving a brightening up in northern ireland, with breaks coming across the irish sea letter on the day. blustery, especially on the coast of wales in southern england. wettest weather in the south—east later in the day. 17, perhaps, but 12 or 13 scotland, even if the rain does not amount to much.

typically it clears away as things start to get dark, and we will see lies to make skies clearing overnight. some showers in the northern half of the uk, and breeze as well. nothing too cold, despite low the registrant today, ten or 11 degrees. bank holiday monday a better day. a blustery westerly wind, mind you, with an showers blowing in for the western and northern half of the uk, but further south and east, it will probably be largely dry, with few if any showers. sunshine, low 20s in the south—east of england, and east anglia. this system arrives into the north—west on tuesday. we had to keep our eye on the developing depression in this gate. more on that in a moment. the rain is not get going until later in north were scotla nd get going until later in north were scotland and northern ireland, elsewhere, spells sunshine and warmer colour temperatures in the mid—20s for the south—east. some showers not to borrow way. just on the other side of the channel. they

could put showers eastern side of england overnight. a lot of uncertainty about the forecast for wednesday. the weather is moving in from the atlantic and there could be a bit more dominant, maybe the most of the showers and rain steers away from east anglia in the south—east. that next weather front not amounting to much, then sunshine following on behind a few showers in the north—west, with a slightly cooler and fresher feel. heading to the end of the week, the end of the month, we see high pressure building in. that will see a return to dry conditions. some good spells of sunshine, and each of the warmer, as well. a visit from me. good night. —— that is it from me. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is nkem ifejika. our top stories: john mccain, the us senator and former presidential candidate, has died. senator mccain was 81, a vietnam war veteran who'd been taken prisoner. he'd been diagnosed with a brain tumour last year. tributes have been paid

from across the political world from presidents trump and obama who said he was an american hero. hello and welcome to the programme. we have breaking news.