nevada, on the latest stage of his election campaign. joe biden has been addressing a campaign rally in north carolina, where he accused his rival of lying to americans about the state of the coronavirus pandemic in the united states. vigils and rallies have been held across france after a teacher was beheaded in an islamist attack close to his school in a paris suburb on friday. prime minister, jean castex, says france is not afraid and will not allow itself to be divided. two churches have been burnt and several people injured in the chilean capital, santiago, as peaceful protests against economic inequality turned violent. a police headquarters was firebombed and shops were looted. demonstrators were marking the first anniversary of mass protests last year that left more than 30 dead.

now on bbc news, dateline london. hello, i'm shaun ley. welcome to the programme which brings together distinguished columnists, bbc specialists and the correspondents who file their stories to the folks back home — dateline london. this week: not all over by christmas. borisjohnson resists calls for a short, sharp lockdown. are northern ireland and wales undermining his argument or are they arbiters of things to come? and brexit is back, but it's a fishy business. your dateline panel this week: analisa piras is italian and a documentary film maker, stefanie bolzen is german, the london correspondent for die

welt. and he's british, he's simonjack, he's the bbc‘s business editor, and he's here in the studio. "back to square one". how one british mp characterised the new tiers of covid restrictions announced by prime minister borisjohnson on monday. although the number of people hospitalised by the virus is almost exactly what it was on the day the uk went into a nationwide lockdown back in march, mrjohnson said he doesn't want to do that again. labour, the main opposition party at westminster, says it's time for what's being called "a circuit breaker" for a short period. on wednesday, northern ireland announced a two—week shutdown of schools and hospitality venues in the hope of slowing the rate of infection. wales is shutting the border to people from high—risk areas in the rest of britain. back to square one, simon, a cry of frustration, all that sacrifice and where has it got us? but it was inevitable that we would find ourselves facing potentially

a covid christmas until or unless there is a vaccine? i think that is right — most scientists said it would be a tough winter, the regular flu season coming along... we never eradicated it in the first place. if you have schools and universities and people going back to the office, most people thought this was inevitable. what is not inevitable and, as you said, there is a big debate about how we tackle this... as of midnight last night, london joined york and other parts of the uk... it's now half the population living under what we call tier 2, which means people from different households can't mix indoors at all. that is going to have very grave repercussions for some of our industries, hospitality... i was speaking to a pub owner in the east end of london the other day, she said she would usually have 100 people of capacity, it's been halved already and she will be

lucky if she can get 15 people in. she doesn't see herself being able to keep her staff on. the hospitality industry is groaning... just this morning, you had distinguished professorjohn bell coming out and saying the only way to get on top of this is to have a circuit breaker. that would come at enormous cost. distinguished economic think tank thinks that will cost between £15—20 billion — a long way short of what the national lockdown cost was back in april which was 20% of gdp, 400 billion plus. some very powerful figures. stefanie, i suppose that has been part of the political tension, not least the tension between the central government and local government. we don't have a federal system in the uk, but we are seeing devolution biting national government. it's quite extraordinary. the almost now fight between westminster

and the mayor of greater manchester, who refuses together with other council leaders in manchester, to move to tier 3, the hardest lockdown in the united kingdom. and the threats that are going back and forward. in my country, germany, we have moved on from the spring and we know more. there is a more differentiated view and approach to things. you should distinguish between which part of the population is more prone to transmission, how business should be shut down or how much they can be a risk to people. the same discussion is also going on in germany and there are a lot of tensions between the federal government and the regions. we see, analisa, in madrid, the central government in spain and the madrid region, the president of the region there standing out against

what the national government wanted to do in shutting down madrid for economic reasons. not trying to defend it on health grounds but on economic grounds. it is too high a price for the economy to bear. exactly, the same debate has been going on in italy — where you remember it was the first place where the covid pandemic hit europe. and there were huge issues. italy has a devolved regional system in regards to health. so milan and the region of milan, they were somehow autonomous in the way they were dealing with this extraordinary outbreak that nobody knew anything about in europe at the time, but there, what we saw was the fallacy of thinking that the local solution might be the right

one. so what we have learnt in italy is that, when you are dealing with such an uncontrollable thing like a pandemic, what you need to do is to make sure that you coordinate very very tightly with the reality on the ground at the local level and with the kind of big picture that the central government has. so in italy, in milan and the lombardi region, it was autonomous, they got the power for health reasons — in the end they had to somehow admit that they got it wrong without the government. the conflict that we're seeing in britain seems to be coming from a misunderstanding between one or the other, but what we have seen in

italy and we have been 2—3 months in advance, facing the problems of the covid pandemic, is that what works is really an extremely tight coordination between central government and regions to compare the local realities with the big picture of transmission. it seems that is not happening in britain and is becoming part of a political party confrontation. which is extremely concerning because we are talking about life or death matters here. it would be really important that britain tries to look at what has already happened in other countries and try to learn the lessons. because we are all in this together and we are learning as we go along. it's important to think about this, it's often portrayed as a health issue versus an economic issue, like it's a shootout between those two interests... i think that is wrong because clearly if

these lockdown measures do work and bring the infection under control, there will be an economic and effort. but the more people who are infected the more people who cannot work. correct. conversely, if you do have these brief lockdowns, all that does is defer and lengthen the pain. then the economic cost incurred at that time will end up being considered wasted. that gets us to this argument about a circuit breaker. labour opposition pushing it hard. northern ireland and wales effectively doing that anyway. the prime minister says he doesn't want to do it. wasn't the most damning criticism of his tier system that he introduced only this week from the chief medical officer for england? chris whitty saying he doesn't think it will be sufficient. to reduce the spread of the infection. it's very obvious that borisjohnson is now torn. it became obvious at the beginning of this week. the advisory body advocated

to have another national lockdown. they had advocated to have a second national lockdown, a circuit breaker, as you call it. borisjohnson decided against it. that kicks in another strain of political impact, which is his own party. his own party and backbenchers have started or are threatening a rebellion against the lockdown restrictions or the covid restrictions of the prime minister and it looked like a really serious rebellion. so actually, the prime minister gave into his own backbenchers and the pressure they made because of course they also hear from their constituencies back home, how businesses are suffering, how people are losing theirjobs. is at stake? ——at the end of the day, the question is, what is at stake? 0n the one hand, the lives of thousands of people who might get the infection,

who might die of it, but on the other hand the collateral damage, so to say, on the health system, on education, on the social and mental health of people. so to be fair, it is an impossible position to be in for the prime minister. and you can see how much, even in the press conference yesterday, how much he is torn about what she has to decide. i'm sure you must be so relieved to hear us talking about brexit again. if you're a fisheries ministerfrom an eu country, christmas means late nights — not partying, but squabbling over scallops and cod quotas. it's fishing which remains the biggest stumbling block in the eu—uk trade deal. although fishermen and woman generate a little over i% of gdp — processing the catch adds a bit more — britain is an island nation. when eurosceptics like mrjohnson campaigned in the brexit referendum to "take back control" from brussels, the catch landed

by british vessels was both implicit and explicit their pledge. germany is not thought of as a fishing nation ended up weighing anchor on the uk's site this week, angela merkel saying there has to be a deal which is in the interest of both the uk and eu. what is going on? are we starting to see divisions opening up, dare i say it, in the eu position? no, i don't think so. i don't think you really see divisions. i think you see very much a known distribution between good cop and bad cop on the european side. macron arriving at the european summit being quite stark in his language that he will not give in and protect the french fishermen, who in fact... i was in scotland two weeks ago and spoke to french fishermen. they said they are doing 95% of their catch in scottish waters — or in british waters — we cannot survive if there is not a deal. it's an important constituency, but in a symbolic way, it is only 10,000 jobs. there are things on the table that are economically

far more important. this is, for example, the question about what they call a level playing field. how they find an agreement that britain will not kind of sail off, having free access to the single market but being not bound to standards for the environment or labour conditions. and of course also state aid. this is one of the controversial things on the table. interestingly, on friday morning, or thursday morning, i was briefed from brussels that, whatever now comes out of the summit, they will continue negotiating on monday in london. michel barnier is not coming to london, there is now only a phone call. i think the europeans are surprised by the harsh reaction by downing street by things as part of posturing. analisa, to give us some

context... spain, italy, for the british, this persistent stand—off, —— why is fishing so important? it is not a new problem, the focus distilled into the trade dispute between the eu and the uk? i agree with stefanie that it's posturing. basically, fish is not that important at all, as you have reminded us, it's about even less than 1% of the gdp of britain. so it's a minimum in comparison with the real stake here, which is 50% of the trade of this country. because we are in a territory thatis because we are in a territory that is about identity politics, nationalism, and britain is

an island nation, this idea of our waters and take control back of our fish has really been a catalyst. a catalyst of many of the emotions behind the brexit vote. of touching so much importance, because it is a symbol. but this idea we got back our waters is more important than other ideas. it is only pain and tears. and i guess it's the same, in a way, for president macron, he feels that this ce nturies—old rivalry with britain across the channel is somehow coming back in the mind of people, and he feels that he has to defend the french fishermen.

and so there was a lot of discussion in the french press these days to remind brits that actually, yes, the fish are in their water, but they are actually born on the shallow water of france. they're french fish! the fact they don't recognise your border doesn't mean that they're not french! that is why we all hope there will be a more grown—up conversation behind closed doors, and that is probably what is going to happen. what is certain is that the 27 are absolutely monolithic, they are completely firm in their position, so there is very little posturing that will change the situation, and i do believe that in the end there will be a deal. let's hope so. simon, this is the critical point. i remember talking to

fishermen in brixham, devon, the county i come from. saying, ‘look, it is not so much the british eating markets', and, if there isn't a trade deal, that is in trouble. you can catch all the fish you like — if you haven't got anyone to sell them to... most of the fish brits eat are caught in norwegian or icelandic waters. that north atlantic cod. i agree with both analisa and stefanie that fishing is a tenth of i% of british gdp. so banking is 100 times more important than that. you're also right, it speaks to our identity as an island nation. we have historical memories of the cod wars, clashing boats in the channel... and only on monday night the french and the devon fishermen we re french and the devon fishermen were at it again. i know them very well myself. when i went down there, what was interesting to me, when i talk to fishermen,

they don't want it all. the truth is that they can't catch it all. the fleet isn't big enough. what they want is a slightly better deal. so when you hear this rhetoric about it is our fish, we want them all, that's not what the fishing industry themselves are saying. and i do think there is a deal here to be done. it may involve the french fishermen having to pay some sort of fee, but this is a good old—fashioned haggle. yes. i disagree slightly with you that this is the biggest issue. i think some of the things that stefanie was talking about, state aid and level playing field, i think those are much more difficult things to sort out. so why is it the british or the eu have chosen to focus on the fisheries side? macron has an election coming up as well. as we say, it's very visible, everyone can understand this issue. this issue, can't they? when you start talking about the nuances of state aid, level playing field, people's eyes glaze over. not on this programme! but, you know,

the nuances of state assistance or whatever run for hundreds of pages in trade to treaty agreements and are difficult to understand. clearly, there is a deal to be done here, one — 75% of uk fish are sold in eu markets, 0.1% of gdp. a good old—fashioned haggle. and what is left that still has to be resolved, do you think? if you put that one aside, there is a way of finessing that? i think the state aid thing is important in levelling the playing field. there is this disconnect, when borisjohnson asks why we can't have the same deal as the eu gave to canada. because we are right on the eu's doorstep. because 48% of our exports go to the eu, because we are so close and entwined and our economies are so close and entwined and our economies are so linked, it isn't appropriate, some say to have that kind of deal when you have that kind of deal when you have something on the border. and what the uk government wants to do is...

what's weird is, the uk is seemingly prepared to sacrifice a free trade deal on the altar of state aid, something the uk government almost never does. it does a quarter of the amount of state aid that germany does. but the uk wants to be able to pour money into high—tech — hopefully, we'll talk about this story later — on environmental stuff, and get a global and competitive advantage in some industries. something that suits uk skills and priorities. that is something the eu is worried about. they will point out that you signed up to this in the political declaration, so you have already signed a document saying you're going to do it, so that is the biggest sticking point, ithink. now the part of the programme where we talk on the stories that may not have had a lot of coverage but they think we should know more about. analisa, do you want kick us off? talking about the opportunities to report during the pandemic. i think we have lost

analisa's sound. we will try and get that back ina we will try and get that back in a moment. stefanie, you also want to talk about press freedom but in a different context? i picked up a story from the netherlands where the public broadcaster this week has announced they will actually take off all the letters or the writing on their vehicles. so if reporters or camera teams go out to report on something they will now take off the logo, simply to protect their reporters. that comes because there has been an increasing number of attacks on n05 and dutch — in general — reporters covering especially protests. people got attacked by people on the street. we have the same also in germany. there have been dozens of attacks on german reporters in the past month who were simply doing theirjobs. the most recent was back in may

when there was anti—restriction demonstrations in berlin where six people from the german broadcaster ztf had to go to hospital because they were hit and beaten by protesters. so journalists have really become a target, when they are just doing, not only theirjob, but really standing up and delivering freedom of speech and information. and i think, especially when you now look at the united states and at the election at the beginning of november, the mounting aggression coming from the us president, who even says already that he might not accept the outcome of the election in case he loses... so there is a growing danger to journalists just doing theirjobs. i certainly wouldn't characterise it as dangerous, in my experience of this, but i echo the point that

stefanie is making, analisa, i've had people accuse me on the street as acting as a propagandist for the government because we are putting out information about covid. some people are very suspicious about the background to all of that. did you want to talk about the difficulty of reporting during the pandemic? yes, but not only that, i wanted to flag the fact that covid—19 is somehow giving an opportunity to all sorts of strongmen or people in power to abuse their power. there has been a report from the international press institute, 426 cases of arrests and harassment by governments of journalists trying to show what was going on with covid measures. in a different way, this is happening also in europe. in italy, there's been also

a trying and an attempt of saying that the recent recurrence of the pandemic is the fault of people. journalists have flagged there are things the government hasn't done, the responsibility of the government. in britain we are seeing an attempt saying it is the people who don't respect the rules, without putting their attention and accountability on what the government does. so what i'm trying to say is, never as before that it is as important we protect the freedom of the press, that we pay attention to all the voices that are trying to inform on what is happening between citizens and governments in the pandemic. and we also keep accountability on the infodemic on the false spread of information. and it is very important that we also keep open the comparison between international lessons and experiences with

the pandemic, and, in this sense, something i learnt yesterday that is very concerning is that one such island of comparison of news from different countries, the same problem we are talking about right now, might be finished by the end of the year. so i think these are things we need really to flag because never before... we do. i will have to stop you there and get simon in on the last word, looking ahead? can ijust echo some of those comments as a business journalist? it's not all businesses, but a healthy majority, were not in favour of brexit. my own experience in this is that, if i report the comments of what businesses tell me about some of the problems of brexit, i then get accused of being a champion of their interests and blah, blah, blah. so both covid and brexit has led to a very divisive media and twitter can be a pretty

unpleasant place to be, whatever side of the argument you're on. looking ahead, next week, in the next two weeks, a ten—point plan for how the government wants to get a net zero by 2050. some big nuclear, some small nuclear. a time when offshore wind — they said it would never work. but the uk was one of the first to commit to a net zero, legally, so a lot of people will be watching around the world. if there is a bigger story than the pandemic, maybe it's the environment, and we will get some detail on that. simon jack, an object lesson in succintness. that's it for dateline london for this week — we're back next week at the same time. goodbye.

hello. this spell of quieter weather continued on sunday, but with all the cloud around, the brightest thing many of us saw was the autumn colour, here on view in staffordshire, though competing with a postbox. it's all change now. we've had some quiet weather, but low pressure is taking over. the weather fronts are gathering, and although there will be some sunnier days in the week ahead, there'll be some very wet days around as well. and it's getting windier, too. and for monday, some of the heaviest rain will be in scotland and northern ireland. this is how it looks as the day begins. some outbreaks of rain into parts of northern england, particularly, to begin with. and there may be a bit of a lull in the rain first thing in northern ireland, but it will

come back. heavy, persistent rain. outbreaks of rain across scotland, heaviest and most persistent in the west. so, through western scotland and northern ireland, as the rain continues into monday night, there is a risk of some flooding and some travel disruption. see some rain pushing back in towards north—west england into the afternoon. patchy rain reaching into parts of wales, whereas elsewhere a bit of hazy brightness around. temperatures just creeping up a few degrees, but it's getting windier. as we just look into monday evening, this area of rain will start to just push in across parts of south—west england. 0vernight monday into tuesday, well, it's this weather front that will bring a splash of rain across those parts of england and wales that stayed dry during monday. and the rain continuing in scotland and northern ireland, though by end of the night, it should be easing from northern ireland. so, on tuesday, then, some early rain affecting parts of eastern england slowly pulling away. further heavy and perhaps prolonged downpours running in towards particularly northern ireland and scotland, just fringing north wales and north—west england as well. windy and wet still across the far north of scotland and northern isles, easterly winds here. mild south—westerlies elsewhere, and temperatures, particularly across much

of england and wales, into the mid to high teens with sunny spells and a few showers. but gales through the irish sea. as we look through tuesday night and into wednesday, focus for the heaviest rain will be shifting into parts of england and wales. could well be some quite heavy rain moving through, exact position of this uncertain at this stage, but some of that may fringe northwards towards northern ireland and scotland again as we go through wednesday. so, we'll keep an eye on that. it could be quite windy again with that, too. so, again, it is all change. 0ur weather's been quiet. it isn't any more. some of the rain this week is going to be quite heavy. windier conditions at times, too. milder at least to start the week.

this is bbc news — i'm james reynolds. our top stories: speaking out to their supporters —joe biden holds a campaign rally in north carolina, as president trump attends his second rally of the day in nevada. 0n the up — china's economic growth figures show a continued recovery from the pandemic. thousands gather in cities across france in support of the school teacher beheaded after showing cartoons of the prophet mohammed to pupils. and churches are set on fire and people injured in the chilean capital, santiago, as a day of peaceful protests turns violent.