hello, i'm shaun ley. welcome to the programme which brings together leading uk commentators, bbc specialists and the foreign correspondents who file their stories to audiences back home with the dateline: london. in a week when britain's foreign office swallowed up a whitehall rival, we'll be discussing what lies behind borisjohnson‘s promise of a ‘global britain'. first test — the poisoning of a putin critic. that should sound familiar to mrjohnson. and joe biden banks the booty, but donald trump narrows his lead. to discuss those stories, our dateline panel — the british writer and broadcaster yasmin alibhai—brown, and henry chu from the los angeles times. and here in the studio

with me, sanitised and safely distanced, the bbc‘s diplomatic correspondent james landale. welcome to all of you and good to have you with us again. they've been changing the name plates in whitehall this week. out goes dfid, which since the days of tony blair had administered the aid budget. in comes a beefed—up foreign, commonwealth and development office. this is stage one of boris johnson's global britain, using the opportunity created by leaving the european union to forge a new, independent foreign policy. james, why does borisjohnson believe axing this department will enhance britain's diplomatic clout? this decision was driven by politics and policy. the politics was that this department was quite unpopular with large sections of the conservative party. the idea that it was wasting money and it was being spent on the wrong priorities that

should be spent domestically at home, schools and hospitals. that was the politics. so the prime minister said he wanted to get rid of what he called the great cashpoint in the sky of dfid. that is the politics. the policy is the idea that actually, britain's foreign policy and domestic policy needed to be brought together because it was disjointed and different parts of government were doing different things and it needed to be united so that the uk spoke as one and officials and ministers in other parts of the world asking, who is in charge of? is it the dfid people with their cash or is it the policy people from the foreign office? that is the aim of this decision. many question marks around it and the timing of it. and the idea of global written post leaving the european union, how will it look different in terms of how we engage with the world? whole thing is that

this phrase emerged at the beginning of brexit when the government and supporters of brexit said, we are being accused of putting our heads in the sand and being not as internationalist as we have been. we need a policy, and global britain was it. they have struggled to define what i policy is since then. what they're trying to do with dfid and the foreign office merger now is to say, let's try and draw up a new strategy. the government is carrying out a integrated review of security, defence, intelligence, that is due to report this autumn and at that point, the question will be, has the government actually got the strategy thatis government actually got the strategy that is far it has not explained? yasmin alibhai—brown, does it have the strategy and in your view, what would you like to see in that global britain brand? i look forward to the strategy, thus far, on

almost every crucial area of governance, they haven't been very strategic or sustainable, but one of the things i worry most about, and a lot of my friends abroad are worrying about, is that assassinating dfid had meaning. it wasn't just about pleasing the tory party and certain wings of it, but that foreign policy, and possibly our arms trade and a lot of, in my view, immoral stuff, is now going to be tied to what we offer some of the poorest nations of the world. we used to offer them help, nowi nations of the world. we used to offer them help, now i think a lot offer them help, now i think a lot of it is going to be tied to trade, e nforced of it is going to be tied to trade, enforced trade, little bit like the east india those years back, and to some of the more on reputable things we are selling to the world. i am concerned about that. but if

it works, good. what about the argument that because you have a human rights lawyer as foreign secretary, you might actually get a foreign policy... dominic raab word for the foreign office as an official rather than a politician. you might get someone than a politician. you might get someone who can inject a bit more theme of lte would like to see into foreign policy? a bit more of the morality. i don't think so. the anger about the human rights act has been visceral on the right, and i think i have not heard... this is all about trade and us, they want to... these are the new, if you like, east india company whatever go—getters. they think that... i remember having a conversation with a key mover and shaker in all of this, and mep, and he said we will go to other countries and they will give us trade, no restrictions. there is no mention of human rights

here. henry chu on the los angeles times, what you make of this attempt to reposition cup britain on the global stage? i find the phrase global stage? i find the phrase global britain puzzling. when did it stop being global? when it was part of the eu, it was a member of a trading block with agreements all around the world. it was not as if it was not global before. it seems a bit ofan it was not global before. it seems a bit of an empty phrase. now it seems like lonesome britain in that it is strange strike out on its own and have an independent foreign policy, which is fine if that is what it feels a sovereign nation does, but this is a global era where it is a race between the economic superpowers, and that means the us, china and the eu, to a large extent. britain is not part of any of those any more and it will actually have to decide which camp it wants to fall into. if it wants to turn its back on europe and make a clean break of it, that is fine,

but then who is the natural partner? you might say the us, but in that special relationship, i am sorry to say, the uk will always be a junior partner. i think that trying to position itself is a little bit fatuous under this slogan of global britain. last week, another commentator said that one thing number ten said they might get out ofa number ten said they might get out of ajoe number ten said they might get out of a joe biden present see if he wins is a bit more predictive ability and certainty, continuity in foreign policy. judging by your answer, you're a bit sceptical as to how much interest a biden presidency would have in a uk untethered from the european union? he was vice president to barack obama and obama said if brexit would happen, britain will go to the back of the line in terms of trade agreements. that might not be the case. it is in the us and uk's interests to come up

with a trade agreement, but if biden is president, he will have a lot of other things on his plate and britain by itself is not going to be high on the list. i think europe has a lwa ys high on the list. i think europe has always been important to the us and written as a conduit here has been an important player that way. but without that role any longer, britain again, by itself, i think it will slip down the list of priorities for biden and he will be more predictable. that is a good thing. we have a loose cannon right now in the white house. that doesn't necessarily mean britain will be in a better position than in the past. james, can you pick up on that concern yasmin raised. how would dominic raab respond to the fear that it might be too driven by trade and help will be at a price? they will say does not amount to trade and it is about matching aid with uk interests. in other words, saying, yes, you focus on extreme poverty

around the world, but also think about state building in countries that if that state was not supported might produce a terrorism that could end up on british shores and could produce migration on british shores. that is where they are trying to link the two things. we are yet to see that happen, but that is the aim. yasmin, let me pick up on a concrete example of how you might try to apply the global britain brand. let's take the poisoning of alexai navalny. how would you want a global britain to respond to a event like that. poisoned in his own country, evacuated by air ambulance by german authorities to germany and poisoned by a soviet—era nerve agent, the russian government says nothing to do with us. germans say they want explanation. what should britain should be saying? and nato and the eu too. they are all asking for answers and have expressed

clearly what they think about what russia has been up to. it has been appalling to see the excuses they are coming up with. the doctors who examined him back in russia said, oh well, it wasn't poisoned, he might have eaten something. the denials, denials, denials. we are in a bad place on this in this country. it relates to a very complicated question we dealt with earlier, which henry also raised. if we are to be this global britain, we will be asked to surrender many of our moral values, if you like. the relu cta nce moral values, if you like. the reluctance in this country to deal with the russia issue and in america, and drum says, i don't know if putin was the man behind it. that is because they have all the dirty linen of the two countries. they are beholden to russia. and unlike nato and germany, they are not able to ta ke and germany, they are not able to take a stand. sol

and germany, they are not able to take a stand. so i think this is a perfect example of our inability. henry, just on that question of taking a stand, to use yasmin‘s phrase. there are options here. one yet to see is to cancel the gas line project which would please the polls and they are one country not happy about it. it is going for the baltic sea and danish waters, it could provide two thirds of germany's natural gas energy needs. that is a high economic price for germany to pay to make a principled stand. yes and angela merkel is under pressure to do so by people in germany but has the economic consequences to weigh on that. what is illustrative here is think of the last time there was a novichok poisoning, that was here in britain, theresa may, prime minister then, was able

to cobble together a good international response. there was almost 120 russian diplomats around the world expeued russian diplomats around the world expelled by countries such as the us, australia and the majority of them, the great majority, where eu countries. that is something where allies act and have great weight. that was when britain was still part of the eu, or the referendum had happened but britain was still in the transition period and was a member. much easier to call in european partners when you are at the table in brussels. in this case, say something like this had happened in britain on british soil, it would be much harder to mount the same response. boris johnson, yasmin, was foreign secretary at the time. i was talking to another person this week and he was saying, it is simple what the international community must do, it must make putin a pariah

and not inviting to things and don't pose for handshakes and photographs. would it make a difference?m for handshakes and photographs. would it make a difference? it is worse than that. london is the laundromat of the money held by boughton's circle and those oligarchs that back in. held by vladimir putin's circle. we are so nervous. there is a great article in the irish times last week about this. why we have allowed russia to become such a presence in this country and to unravel that is incredibly difficult. therefore we are notjust incredibly difficult. therefore we are not just unable incredibly difficult. therefore we are notjust unable because of the uncertain future, we are complicit. borisjohnson hasjust put into the house of lords the son of somebody who was in the kgb, for god's sake. james, the challenge to russia, i

suppose, is to use the international amenity that exist. it sides up to conventions and controlling subsidies like this. isn't the opportunity here to use one of those international bodies and say, you sign up to this convention and developed this poison, you are responsible to this or you have lost control of this substance— what is it? that would be the obvious solution. international bodies are tricky and they looking quite old. many of these conventions were set up many of these conventions were set upafairdistance many of these conventions were set up a fair distance to go. i also think here that the problem we have is that this is an incident that happened on russian soil and is different. the salisbury experience was clearly an assault in the uk. it was clearly an assault in the uk. it was easier then for the uk to form an alliance. the germans are divided over this. they are saying, it

did not happen on german soil, shall we be different about this? the only real impact is resources and that means the gas pipeline. the russians are vulnerable to any loss in demand to their natural resources because their economic situation is not as strong as they would like it to be. that is a big question for chancellor merkel. we will come back to that in the coming weeks. donald trump is more astute than his critics give him credit for. in 2016, he raised his profile above those of the other republican wannabe presidents by saying outrageous things. it made him headline news. he did it, too, during that year's election, and hillary clinton kept taking the bait. he's trying the tactic again. on wednesday he suggested voters in north carolina try to vote twice. "let them send it in and let them go vote", he said, to test the security, which he doubts, of mail—in votes. i suppose, henry, isuppose, henry, as i suppose, henry, as you alluded to, we have another example again on

friday with the president saying, let's not talk about russia, let's talk about china and throwing it out there again. i wonder, though, talk about china and throwing it out there again. iwonder, though, if you thinkjoe biden will take the bait. will he keep responding to outrageous trump remarks that make the headlines? i think we know can be in investors figure and he has had gas of the coffee because he has been provoked or irritated. i think it would be easy for things to get under his skin. he needs to be wary of that because that allows trump to do what he likes to do best, dominate the news cycle. throwing these firebombs into the political conversation at regular intervals, he is the one that gets to be on the news all the time, often from the oval office. biden will always seem to be on the back foot if he is writing to take the bait. he needs to be careful about that. he needs to be careful about that. he needs to ta ke to be careful about that. he needs to take out how to go on the fence instead of just playing to take out how to go on the fence instead ofjust playing defence. letting the agenda be dictated by the opponents. he has been showing

signs of that. he has now finally emerged from his lawyer in delaware to —— his basement in delaware. he was in wisconsin where there was another horrible incident of a black man being killed at the hands of police. he gave a speech there. that was hot on the heels of president chung's visit. he needs to do that in more battle ground states as well. president trump's visit. —— presidentjohn's visit. he came out and said that trump is a toxic presence who creates division in the country. we need to hear more of those kind of remarks from biden to show that he is not the sleepyjoke that trump likes to paint him as. that needs to be part of his political playbook. do think he has been driven onto trump's policy with this law and order thing? he came out a week earlier than he planned to, which might suggest his campaign was spooked by the president, but

his poll lead... he broke obama's record for monthly fundraising making 306 $1 million in august, —— 306 $1 million in august. but the polls are narrow and things are tightening. yes, and the interesting things that we might think that has just happened in the last couple of daysis just happened in the last couple of days is that the atlantic and the usa that the brilliant article about how trump totally disrespects and disdains the middle military. —— the military. especially casualties of war. he has been quoted saying, people who die in war, including john mccain, who was hugely respected, are losers and suckers. i think this is really emerging as a big thing now in the campaign. you

don't, ina big thing now in the campaign. you don't, in a country like america or anywhere else, show such contempt for the dead of wars. so there are things happening that may make a difference, but he is... he is like adr mean. —— he knows how to win popular support and say outrageous things. he knows how to win on those. i things. he knows how to win on those. lam not things. he knows how to win on those. i am not sure that we are going to see the end of the trump period for a very long time. that is an intriguing prospect, henry. there is some reason to think, on the economy at least, people still trust him broadly in a way that perhaps they don't as president overall. i saw some figures that suggest 42% approval of trump, but 48% of how he has handled the economy. that is still less than half of the country. i don't want to understate that, but

i also think it can be overstated and it will matter in two months when the election rolls around. in a sense, the election has already began because the state of north carolina has just began began because the state of north carolina hasjust began issuing its mail order pallets. two months is a long time for things to happen and that includes the debates coming up between biden and trump. that can be a minefield for either side. with the pandemic, still need to see how that will play out over the summer. the rest of the summer, in the us and the beginning of the fall, because if a second wave begins to hit hard, if the economy tanks further, if unemployment goes back up, then that is a different ball game altogether. interesting to hear joe biden link the economy to coronavirus this week and that is to neutralise one of trump's strongest cards by pointing out his weakest ones. finally, the ‘any other business‘ section of dateline. yasmin, what story or thing would

you like us to notice that perhaps we haven't paid too much attention to over the last week or so? for me, best story... i have just had a book on brilliance woman published and what was interesting to me, was women leaders around the world have managed this virus far better than male leaders. the list is quite a long, it is notjust merkel, bangladesh, new zealand, denmark, some of the caribbean islands, taiwan, iceland, norway, where there isa taiwan, iceland, norway, where there is a woman leader, numbers of deaths are low, it is really well so, guys, here is to us. —— it is really low. is there anything you want to back that up with? lots. research

from liverpool and reading this week which shows that there is a huge difference in the way women deal with crises than the way men do. it is properly based. who would you single out? i wouldn't. is properly based. who would you single out? iwouldn't. ithink is properly based. who would you single out? i wouldn't. i think they have all been. for me, it is not... the health minister, a health minister has been a complete witted. deaths are about 40 in carolina. and if anyone wants to know how to manage a pandemic —— look to the health minister of that country. she has done what many of the male leaders have been able to

do. for us. leaders have been able to do. for us. henry, what about you? i am afraid to bring this back to gloom and doom, but recently, there was a report, an alarming report for those trying to track climate change, that the greenland ice sheet melt last summer of 2019 was the biggest on record. it was more than twice the average of this century. it was about nearly 600 billion tonnes of water. that is a phenomenal amount. in fact, i water. that is a phenomenal amount. infact, i read water. that is a phenomenal amount. in fact, i read somewhere that there was equivalent of covering the entirety of california, in almost a metre of water. at the same time, we also heard from north america that the last intact ice shelf in canada also just the last intact ice shelf in canada alsojust broke the last intact ice shelf in canada also just broke apart. we cannot ta ke also just broke apart. we cannot take our eye off the ball on climate change. there is a more immediate pandemic that is before us, and just on those extremes. when i think of california under over a metre of

water. odds of that would welcome that at the moment, because where i am from in los angeles, there will bea am from in los angeles, there will be a massive heatwave this holiday weekend in america. temperatures will need 50 celsius in parts of los angeles and you saw in iraq just a month ago, they exceeded all hovering at 50 degrees as well as set records. these are extremes that our planet is not made for an hour species is not made for. we need to make sure we are not missing the forest for the trees. james, on the diplomatic beat, what has caught your eye? part of the government's global britain thing is to renew reform and the structure that are set up after world war ii. something happened this week to show how hard that will be. the americans, i kid you not, imposed sanctions on prosecutors and officials at the international criminal court because they are investigating allegations of war crimes they are investigating allegations of warcrimes in they are investigating allegations of war crimes in afghanistan that involves some americans will stop

the americans see this as a threat to their sovereignty and the international criminal court say thatis international criminal court say that is what they were set up to do. britain supports this court and campaigns hard to get a british court back onto this —— a british judge back onto this court. the us and britain are at loggerheads over the key international structure we have. dominic raab, asi the key international structure we have. dominic raab, as i said earlier, he was a human rights lawyer. thank you all for your time and good to have you with us. that's it for dateline: london for this week. we're back next week at the same time. goodbye.

hello. we've got a bit of a mixed weekend weather wise for you. we are expecting a mix of sunshine and showers. now, today, a cooler, fresher feel to the weather compared to what we've seen recently, too. most of those showers will be across through today part of the north and west of the uk, whereas tomorrow, they will drift further south eastwards. there's high pressure at the moment pushing in from the south—west, low—pressure out towards the north—east. that combination is drawing in these north—westerly winds, pushing the bulk of those showers across scotland and northern ireland. some also for north—west england into north wales as well. quite blustery winds of about 35 mph across the north of scotland. further south and east for england and wales, you are more likely to stay dry with some long spells of sunshine through the day, dodging those showers. temperatures about 14 to 19 degrees. so a touch lower than recent days, but not feeling too bad in the sunshine. the winds easing through the weekend, too. there will be a spell of more persistent rain for a time this

evening in northern ireland into parts of south—west scotland too. then overnight the cloud drifts its way eastwards and patchy light rain moves across much of the uk. but there will be some clearer spells, particularly for the south—east of england and northern scotland, where temperatures will fall to mid single figures. through the day tomorrow, we have got this feature here that will pep up those showers, moving south eastwards across england and wales. so that is where we will have the bulk of the showers tomorrow. whereas scotland and northern ireland will see a drier day, with more sunshine, lighter winds than we are seeing out there today. so not a bad day. cloud breaking up to allow some sunshine. but some of these showers, as they drift eastwards across england, could be quite heavy and thundery later in the afternoon. temperatures about 14 to 20 degrees, probably a touch warmer tomorrow than today. over sunday night and into monday, there is a deep area of low pressure which moves to the north of the uk, and these trailing weather fronts are likely to bring some wet and windy weather to parts of scotland in particular, also northern ireland. as those fronts drift across england and wales, the rain will turn quite light and patchy and showery in nature. so i think much of southern england towards east anglia probably staying dry, but some showers and blustery conditions further north.

temperatures somewhere between 15 to 20 degrees on monday. and then, as we look a little further ahead into the new working week, you can see the orange colours returning to the map and these south—westerly winds. that is some warmer air that is going to be wafting in for a time, particularly holding on in the south into the middle part of the week. so we are likely to see those temperatures, at least in the south, into the low to mid 20s. and then things turn more widely unsettled and autumnal towards the end of the week. bye— bye.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a leading epidemiologist has warned the country is at "a critical moment" in the coronavirus pandemic, with many students preparing to travel to universities. several more areas of england — including leeds and middlesbrough — have been added to the government's watchlist of places with high

rates of coronavirus. they'll be closely monitored and restrictions may be re—imposed. government departments in england are told to get civil servants back into offices as quickly as possible following the coronavirus lockdown — but unions describe the government's attitude as "outdated". the government announces more than seven million worth of funding to help some of the world's most vulnerable communities deal with the impact of the coronavirus. india confirms more than four million cases of coronavirus — making it the third country in the world to surpass that mark, following the united states and brazil. president trump declines to condemn russia over the poisoning of the opposition leader alexei navalny — who's in a coma in a german hospital. experts there say they have evidence he was attacked