one senior democrat accused republicans of being accomplices to a presidential cover—up. now on bbc news, dateline london. hello and welcome to dateline london. i'm carrie gracie. this week, goodbye to the european union. having ‘got brexit done‘, the uk is in search of its future. and deal of the century or slap of the century?

does president trump's peace plan for israelis and palestinians offer a path out of an ancient tragedy? my guests today: bronwen maddox of the institute for government think tank, political commentator and broadcaster jonathan sacerdoti, abdel bari atwan, writer on arab affairs author and veteran correspondent thomas kielinger. welcome to you all. to some an act of self—determination, to others an act of self—harm. after years of anguished debate, the uk is out of the european union. and now it must build a new relationship with europe, with the world and with itself. bronwyn, why don't you start us, did you get thejob done commemorative t—shirt? thejob is not done. we now know what the job is at least part of it, there's this whole long year that will go by very quickly when we see whether the uk can do a tiny trade deal with the eu and then there's

the whole business of putting the stuff to work, setting up regulartory agencies, getting models to what can that will take years. from our point of view we don't know what the job is. you were in parliament square last night, triumphed from those who worked hard to get over the line, quite low—key from the prime minister, no speech outside downing street. it was interesting being there, i was covering it for work, popped in to downing street and parliament square and there was a good vibe, it is very easy sometimes watching coverage to focus on the negatives and complications and negotiations going wrong because that is where the news lies but in reality i saw many thousands of people who presumably represent many millions of people around

the country who are actually extremely happy last night and in a celebratory mood but to downing street borisjohnson was locked away, it leaves to nigel farage to give the raging speech to mark a rousing speech and she listed on facebook but the bbc did not run any of it. sky ran a section, it shows a change in how the prime that is trying to speak to the nation. going to the european reaction, there was not a mood of good riddance that i could detect, it was a sad and contemplative mood. you cannot change anything about it, it is an unfortunate moment in history for britain to be leaving because the eu is developing into direction that brits always wanted to be,

a more intergovernmental relationship, greaterfreedom for individual states, not a superpower federal any more so why leave at this moment. we have to do without britain and when you ask what is the new role for the uk it will be a question for the eu, what is your new role without an important memberlike britain so we are in an uncertain state again, what else is new. when boris johnson talks about global britain, and the global market that is imponderable up to the hilt, it is hard to define the new role. now that brexit is done, as it is something that is understood on your part of the world. thank god it is finished, a sigh of relief, no more talking about brexit but i believe

when britain was within the eu it was more influential. i believe now it is ambiguous for them, maybe they will regain sovereignty when they go out of the eu but with that they will keep it when they sign this treaty america. many people are saying britain could be a satellite state of the united states because it will lose partly or completely it's soverign position. other people are saying britain lost its empire, no it is losing you look, i do not know whether this will be accurate or not so i believe

it is a very ambiguous state we are going to, i have seen any celebration of commemoration, it is a historic day but we cannot see that. jonathan was there and did see some celebration, and parliament square. not millions or hundreds of thousands. there was an emphatic general election, that was and emphatic statement. and it gave borisjohnson a big parliamentary majority which gives him the power to pursue a vision so how can he put to rest the rather public discussion over fears we have just heard until the uk and the world that this is a nation with a renewal. if the economy is all right he will be all right.

that is not a completely independent question from the things you just raised because the economy could be affected enormously by trade deals he now does, but it is even more how he positions britain, if that he looks like america's poodle, he has said on the cars which we are not by signing the deal with huawei, american diplomats seen how very fed up they were so he said will not sign up to everything america wants just because we want a trade deal. with the eu has this tight timetable of 11 months and the trickiest deadlines from june when a deal on financial services and fish are supposed to be done and decides whether he wants an extension to the transition period.

he said no, transition period must end in december, a trade deal as a bonus not a goal but these next four months will fly by and i think you will prom we have to compromise on fish in order to get financial services. there were words about the friendship of the water but they need the uk to be fairly successful because they need to trade with us but they do not want to be such a big success and puts the idea of frexit, grexit, back in other european minds. the experiment that britain is launching itself into, i was remainer by nature but i have now accepted brexit must happen because the proof and brexit lies and leaving, you have to see for all concerned whether it is be a success or not. if it is a success that will put thoughts into peoples mind in europe, there is a life outside

the club, it is not like hotel california when you can check it but you can never leave, you can leave and that is the good thing, the eu must not be seen to be a club from which you cannot leave. it is a democratic institution which allows you to leave if you want and that it is a success well, some countries in the eu and the not totally committed to it, poland and hungary, altogether the eu is in flux and very much rests on the question of how will it all pan out. we do not know, it is uncertainty. but we are desperately hoping it will not become too successful in order to give people an idea in europe that other countries might follow suit and copy the british example so between a rock and a hard place, yes we want britain all the best but we cannot afford for this experiment to end up so successful

as to create uncertainty with the eu as a life beyond, so it is desperately important. success in the eye of the beholder because we saw the prime minister go he said he wants to do, how can he achieve that? he has a tough task not just in relation to brexit, he is relying on the huge majority vote of confidence but he also needs to hang onto those seats which are new to his party and i think the sunderland stunt, and there will be plenty like it, are on the one hand unfortunate political posturing but also utterly essential. and it remains to be seen whether he will carry them through. will he make a success of brexit and in parts of the country outside london especially in the north? and if he can deliver and brand them as conservative successes then he may hang on those votes but every

prime minister has the best of intentions. we heard what theresa may said, she did not manage to deliver any of it so whether boris johnson will be more fortunate remains to be seen and it is down to luck as much as his abilities. it is also down to what you do and she was not in a position to do anything, he does have this majority, there has been a decision that it matters a bit less to ramp up borrowing to spend it on infrastructure and a river of money is headed towards the north and midlands, whether it gets any return on that as a different subject. 0k to go to sunderland, the base of brexit, the first city which supported it is good but i believe he should go to scotland for example because the european flag still flying there and he should go

to northern ireland because those people voted against brexit. i think he should change his priorities, is he going to unify the whole of britain? is he going to be not the last prime minister who actually ruling the whole united kingdom or part of it. this is the biggest question which should be asked, about the american trade deal, i do not believe it will come free. we are how donald trump deals with friends and allies in canada, how he is dealing with the eu, imposing sanctions so we should not be that optimistic. i believe it could be extremely difficult to sign this deal but it can also help to sign the same deal with europe. europe will suffer because britain is the second—biggest in europe. it is very ambiguous pleaded.

bronwyn, on that disunited united kingdom point, we saw union flags flying at 11pm last night, but also saw nicola sturgeon pledging to end the union, how can borisjohnson head that off? he can for the moment try and store the scottish question and she will try to ramp up the pressure, very organised and noisy, scottish parliament elections next year and a third party the snp are successful she is really going to try and put up the pressure but constitutionally he can try and ignore it. to me, the more difficult problem is northern ireland where his deal has really aggravated even those who describe themselves up, that is a harder pressure to contain. we're talking about the real issue which is the agenda which has been hugely neglected and the warfare of an brexit, nhs and housing

and social care for the elderly, the centrifugal forces that work against the unity of the kingdom and before you want to be a global power, make sure you have domestic power and you can deal with these problems and really remove the rather rotten state you find in many areas. we will leave the prime minister with that without a return when we have something to witness. president trump called it the deal of the century. but he unveiled it alongside a smiling israeli prime minister and without any palestinians present. his deal would give israel undivided control ofjerusalem, all existing settlements on the west bank and an effective veto over the creation of a palestinian state. in exchange palestinians would get a patchwork of territory,

a freeze on future israeli settlements and an economic injection. israeli palestinian peace initiatives are thin on the ground and the trump plan has been two years in the making but the palestinian authority immediately said it was destined for the dustbin of history. barry, you grew up in the gaza strip, you are palestinian, was it wise to reject this out of hand ? yes, because there is nothing left to the palestinian, we are not invited to the celebration in the white house. when trump gave them jerusalem, when he said there is no right of return, when he gave netanyahu the annexation of all the settlements, more than 500 settlements in the west bank, more than 30% of territories, when he actually take that whole of water resources,

no palestinian actually bond withjordan so no oslo agreement even, so why they can't say yes to this. i believe he gave netanyahu a lot of political gifts and he gave iran as the biggest gift. iran is waiting for this, they will mobilise the arab world against this deal. this is the problem. he buried the two states solution and international law, all un security council resolutions which were very fair to both sides. we will come to that and a moment but first you have seen and you served in washington, you've seen efforts to bring these parties together, was it in your view to watch

president trump with netanyahu an odd way of going about this deal. it certainly was, i was there in 1978 and you had all the leading participants, egypt and israel and jimmy carter altogether trying some kind of solution but to the exclusion of the settlement issue, it was not dealt with satisfactorily over time this peace progress will not go anywhere, it will not solve anything because that is the central issue but at least you have the visible presence of the main players and trump's ommission of palestinian and a present of this is very difficult to have a present of this is very difficult to have it posted in present of because a president abbas has cut off diplomatic relations but trump could have tried to get some sort of cooperation and i wonder where he gets this courage

from to think such a deal has a chance in hell to fly when brazenly it cuts out the party which he thinks will benefit which is palestinians. it is not to their benefit and since 1978 we have been going in circles and i am more saddened about the issue of the middle east than i am about europe and britain because it seems to be a little inside an enigma wrapped in a mystery as chuck schumer famously said, there is no visible solution to be had. -- churchill. there are interesting bits of the conversation, perhaps what is most fascinating is that there are not any palestinians there because that want to be -- didn't —— didn't want to be there. because president abbas said

he did not answer trump's call and unintentionally it was symbolic of what has happened over the decadess, palestinians have rejected every deal put to them, clinton on oslo, often deciding to launch catastrophic suicide bombing attempts and i think they have showed that because that there is constant rejection. the president, like him or lump does things differently and i think perhaps what he is trying to do and of course are pleased many in israel as to shift the story of... do you think it was evenhanded and design or announcement unveiling? not at all, what it was trying to do as over the years and has been very un—evenhanded the other way round, eight years of barack obama pushing freezes and for concessions from israel and territorial concessions did not get anyone

towards peace and i think what the attempt here was to say instead of seeing that you can gain and bank gains from israel whilst say no to every other plan, perhaps it is time to make a deal by saying if you say no to this and you have four years to think about this, not brief, if you say no you are going to start losing things. this is a different method of negotiation, very high risk, that is donald trump all over but there is some validity in saying this is a new attempt to try and see whether palestinian rejection which often results in more violence, whether this will actually push things the right way and some of the other things trump has done for example recognition of jerusalem as the capital of israel was said to be things that would kick off an enormous wave of violence in the area. they did not and this has had quite some support from quite

a lot of arab states, not all, they're all independent countries of each other but to have gained that much support from countries around the world and promised various things to palestinians than not everything they wanted but $50 billion in investment... quite a lot of points of view. this has given me a quite out of body experience. this is not a negotiation, this is trump imposing something that is in every respect what neta nyahu wanted, it gives nothing to the palestinians whatsoever. i am very struck by how past negotiators have come out and said the shows contempt for palestinian aspirations and humanity, past american negotiators saying this could back fire on israel by by leading to once state. but it is absolutely clear is the end of the two state solution which has represented decades

of world effort as well as american effort and i think to portray it as simply part of a narrative of palestinian protectionism is exactly what israel would like this to be but it is something that palestinians simply would have to reject because it does not give them a country. and yet what can palestinians now do and where is the leadership to do it? first trump has no right to impose solutions on the palestinian, he has no right to give the israelis 30% of the west bank, no right to kill the two state solution and an irrational legality, it is not american territory to give it to the israelis... and not to give the golan heights to the israeli. understanding that you think this is an illegitimate end to the peace plan and has no future, what can palestinians do? i would like to remind everyone that

the palestinians accepted all united nations resolutions. they signed the oslo agreement on the white house and the american administration and they had been talking to the israeli negotiating for 26 years. the outcome is more than 800 jewish settlers were actually settled on the west bank. israel said clearly they passed a national law — isrsael is a jewish state so other muslims, arabs have no right to be christian palestinian. in this territory so what shall we negotiate at? what is left? that is my question to you, what will you do? why the palestinian accept the international legality

because the west, american came and said stop the arms struggle and listen to your enemy, talk to them and reach a settlement and we will help you. the palestinian believe that and they stopped their struggle, announced terrorism and signed the oslo agreement and gave the israelis into percent -- 80% of —— 80% of historic palestine. i believe they will go back to violence are some of the palestinian wouldn't actually submit to this imposing solution on them, does not give them a state, doesn't recognise international legality. this will create more problems and in the region, they were about to instability and violence because they lost faith on international legality. we are running out of time. is there an opportunity for some palestinians to look ahead to the outcome of the us presidential election i think it be

a different policy and the white house? they might but i would employ a lot of weight on that because trump has a good chance of being re—elected for another term. the question of what they can do is an interesting one, they can argue that this is one state, give us the vote within israel, they have very few allies butjordan has come out very strongly and jordan is important for any kind of israeli peace going forward. then they can argue with countries like europe saying this is playing into a narrative, the reason many arab countries tacitly supported this, very quiet in any objection is they are accepting america's notion that iran is the big enemy in the region and so beginning to line up on that and the dialogue with europeans about whether that really is the best way ahead for the middle east open to them, not in what they can do. they could also wait for deals which would be the end of trump's

second term and they could hope for a new president more —— for years. amenable to their ideas. but they will have lost a third of thejordan valley in the meantime. that is surely the question jonathan. much more immediate than four years is in four weeks, there is another israeli election, the third in the space of a year. there is talk about formalising the annexation. netanyahu did say that and that was quite shocking to happen so immediately, that is not being voted on as might have happened. the date the americans will not let him do that, the americans said but what the palestinians could do is start negotiating and i think trump and jared kushner made it clear of that is meant to be an opening part of conversation. about what? we are going to have to leave it, i am sorry. that's it for dateline london for this week — we're back next week at the same time. goodbye.

hello. the weather is looking pretty mixed for sunday. some of us have already had soggy weather. this is where the rain is through the early hours. you can see pretty wet in the south, the midlands, the west, north—west of england and northern ireland. scotland strife at least at five a.m.. the central and northern parts of scotland, even some frost here with clear skies but that rain is going to reach class go and edinburgh by mid—morning. moving from the north—west of england but notice later on in the morning and into the afternoon, the weather im proves into the afternoon, the weather i m proves across into the afternoon, the weather improves across the south of the country. some sunshine for places like birmingham, norwich, london and afamily mild like birmingham, norwich, london and

a family mild for the time of year. 14 degrees. the winds will blow strongly especially around the west and that will continue to blow some showers into the afternoon and the evening as well on sunday. monday is going to turn very windy across scotland, quite stormy with severe gales. those strong winds will last into tuesday as well.

welcome to bbc news, i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: china faces growing isolation as the corona virus claims 300 lives and hong kong's health workers call for the border with the mainland to be closed. president trump rallies his supporters as he's set to be acquitted in his impeachment trial. britain outside the european union, the prime minister prepares to put forward his plans for international trade after brexit. bushfires threaten parts of the australian capital canberra, as a state of emergency is declared.