hello and welcome to the first dateline of 2021. this is the programme that brings together some of the uk's leading columnists, bbc specialists and those who file their stories for audiences back home with the dateline, london. with me this week are uk newspaper columnist yasmin alibhai brown, henry chu who's deputy news editor at the los angeles times. and here in the studio, at a suitable distance in this age of pandemic, the bbc‘s asia pacific editor, celia hatton. forget the weekjust ended, and a year many are glad is done. this is the week to look ahead. to january 20th, when joe biden becomes president of the united states, to september when the european union's longest—serving leader angela merkel is replaced, and to november when nations agree, or are supposed to agree, how they'll make each other actually meet the promises they've made to cut the emissions

heating the planet. a year of possibilities, then. but recall too, that, ten years ago this weekend, mohamed bouazizi, died after setting himself alight in despair of the world in which he lived. it was mr bouazizi who ignited the arab spring. yasmin, that seems a good enough place to start as any as we look ahead to 2021. potentially a changing middle east, not least because of the diminishing political influence of oil producing nations. what do you see for that region in the year ahead? i think we have to

remember how that ten years ago, that optimism was dashed. such a dark, long winter has followed. look at serio, egypt's, really a dictatorship in all but name. iran was not part of the arab spring but all those hopes of the comet was interesting when the beirut explosion happened, you saw repetition of the same emotions from the young. i went to egypt and

jordan very soon after he was deposed and you just got caught up in all of that. recently i talked to some of those young people and they have just grown old and tell me several society is all but undone. -- civil. several society is all but undone. —— civil. but these countries all have young populations. disproportionate numbers in every nation are young. and they are growing up in a very different world from the world of their parents and

grandparents grew up in. and i do not think that the next ten years can continue in this way that the leaders have continued throttling their populations. but one has to remember, isis came out of this, the refugee crisis came out of this, and ijust hope refugee crisis came out of this, and i just hope the refugee crisis came out of this, and ijust hope the energy of the refugee crisis came out of this, and i just hope the energy of the young and the intelligence of the young people across the arab world and in

iran and turkey will come to something. i am very hopeful for that generation actually. henry, i suppose one way people could be looking as to the new administration. before you consider what biden might mean for a region like there, can i ask you about the immediate question which is we have these elections in georgia which will determine control of the senate. if the republicans hold those seats could the biden

presidency almost be over before it has begun? i think you are right in terms of predicting what a joe biden presidency will look like, it means predicting what will happen on tuesday in georgia where the two democratic nominees for the senate, if they are able to win, it will still be a 50—50 split in the senate which means nice president elect kamala harris can cast the deciding

vote but it means even one rogue democratic senator could throw off that majority they would be able to have with vice president harris. so all eyes are on tuesday. joe biden himself will be on monday to rally support for democratic candidates and donald trump will be there to shore up support for the current incumbent republicans. usually these elections are about the state but because of what is riding on it to

they become nationalised, these georgia run—offs. you have more money pouring in from places outside of georgia including my own home state of california people are giving donations. if it turns out the senate does not tip and remains fu rled the senate does not tip and remains furled firmly in gop control, joe biden has his work cut out for him in terms of what he can accomplish. let's remember he was vice president to obama who also had a lot of

resistance from a republican world where we cannotjust make self interest foreign policy decisions because the world is completely interconnected and the plight of those uyghur lose limbs in and china —— hong kong is on fire, it is the fury and fire of young people and the interesting thing with this country, so much of brexit was won on the keep out immigrants promise, has opened the door to hong

kong residents or citizens who dual rights and it is going to be very interesting to see how many take up that offer, how the people who voted on an anti—immigrant argument for brexit will feel about this, but china does need to be held to account without being demonised. no nation is utterly bad or utterly good, but for too long, the human rights abuses and actually china's

presence in african countries, which i have seen first—hand, it's all been allowed to happen. so it will need a very sophisticated approach, i think. some critics will see it as imperialism without the troops, what has happened in terms of china's heavy commercial and financial commitment to many african nations. henry, what about that question for the biden presidency? let's assume georgia goes democrat and he is able

to have the casting vote with kamala harris. where will health his focus ught? harris. where will health his focus light? key has outlined his four priority areas. what is looming most and around the us and the world is the codename pandemic. we have added an administration that has tried to downplay that every turn. you mention china in terms of climate change. we have this huge conference in november, cop 26, i

think... the climate, the ultimate achievement, really. what are the prospects for that conference? the british are hosting it, boris johnson think it will be important. somehow, they have to go from having an agreement of, these are the cuts we are going to make, to her how you enforce that and how you get sovereign nations to effectively give up some of their sovereignty and allow themselves to be policed by one another. the way they are going to do this is simply because the public really wants it. to put the public really wants it. to put the attention back again on my favourite subject, china. china surprised the world back in september when xi jinping made the announcement that china would go carbon neutral by 2060. this is the world's biggest polluter. 85% of theirfuel world's biggest polluter. 85% of their fuel stills comes from nonrenewable sources. 85%. on the flip side, they are also the worlds biggest producer of wind and solar

power. they are the worlds biggest investor in renewables outside of china's border. if china can do it, and they are not facing elections, xijinping doesn't have and they are not facing elections, xi jinping doesn't have to worry about what is going to happen at the ballot box, but he is obviously feeling public pressure to clean up and deal with climate change. if china is reacting in that way, i think we can see many other countries are facing similar pressures and they might face elections. henry, it can be a virtuous circle, but does require this last element, doesn't it to be in place? do you think the nations can do it? they have made their beds and pledges, but actually having a system that will have some kind of sanctions beyond just the court of public opinion. i am quite dubious of that in terms of the paris accord because up until now, although these pledges have been made, a lot of them haven't been met. you're right that there needs to be a stick that will get them in line, but whether they are willing to actually give

anyone the power to wield that state law even amongst themselves, i think is really questionable. the one ray of hope i see is perhaps in bilateral deals where climate change is now going to be part of the fine print. you saw that with the brexit deal between the eu and the uk, where no one was expecting that climate change would be enshrined within that and if there are slippages on either side, there will be actual penalties and in those ways you might see sticks with carrots but on global basis at the cop26. i don't think so because national sovereignty still remains around most countries around the world even when confronted with a

global crisis when paris was hammered out several years ago there was a lot of debate over the words should and shall, whether we will get there at the end of this year is another story. really glad you raised the question of sovereignty and brexit. the deal was done rather hastily on virtually on christmas eve, one. steve richards who will be with us next weekend has told us actually he has read it. he doesn't have much of a christmas, he has read it and says there is a lot of unfinished business, details that are tentative, conflict committees

that have not been set up and of course five years time, fish. in a sense, this is mostly done but not wholly done. we can't quite put brexit away yet. know and i think journalism really failed, adds that parliament. it was a sham the way this whole thing was scrutinised and pushed through by the bouncy prime minister we have, even hansard, the senior researcher which records what happens in parliament was scandalised by that and i do not think the press has properly explained all the half finished bits, the remaining huge unresolved issues like the service sector particularly, financial services, but also this goes back to what we we re

but also this goes back to what we were talking about on climate change. the world is at the moment in the grip of notjust nationhood, that has been there for a long time, but a kind of very emotional nationalism. country after country is inward —looking, nationalistic and populist and its leaders are feeding that. climate change requires internationalism. we have just rejected our most important international relationship. how to get the people and politicians to understand and really commit to internationalism on other issues is going to be the biggest challenge andi going to be the biggest challenge and i do not think we have thought enough about that in this brexit deal. so it is half finished, there are problem areas but it's also more

and more the bits i know about scene like propaganda. instead of the reality so i hope steve can talk more in detail about the missing bits and half finished bits and how we journalists never did bits and half finished bits and how wejournalists never did ourjobs. henry, you have been covering the uk for some years. you have been resident in the uk and got to know this country a bit. there is an important anniversary coming up in 2021, the 100th anniversary of partition of ireland. i suspect none of the politicians would have expected petition to have lasted 100 yea rs expected petition to have lasted 100 years at that time without a

resolution of the irish question. it was talked about for decades in the uk parliament. what happens this year because we have a border down the irish sea. there is talk about a border poll over northern ireland and we have the scottish elections with the snp saying if they win they will demand another referendum, the uk and labour government says they would not give it but they would demand a referendum. as the future of the union itself in question in 2021? not immediately in the sense that at the end of this year we will see bits of the uk already splitting

off but this may well be the beginning of the end. borisjohnson gave himself a new title when he became prime minister which is minister for the union. i'm afraid that might mean he is performing the la st that might mean he is performing the last rites given what has happened with brexit which majorities in scotland and northern ireland or posed. in scotland you have seen polls, 17 successive polls have shown that as a majority support for scottish independence whereas the referendum it was 55—45 against. that will not go down anytime soon i'iow that will not go down anytime soon now brexit is actually happening and is something the vast majority of scots object to and with northern

ireland as you say, they are now in and out of the eu, in and out of the uk. there is a foot in both camps and it's only going to be a matter of time where they have to decide that one camp they want to be anything labour because as those camps begin to perhaps widen and drift apart having a leg and each becomes untenable. yasmin?” absolutely agree with henry on that and this idea you complete games with the whole northern ireland situation and i don't know the figures for unification of ireland

but certainly there is a huge emotional feeling when you go to northern ireland amongst some that may be that is where the future lies. and there is also, what happened to the dup? they are deeply resentful of what is happened because what they wanted was to be in part of the union properly and has henry says, they are in and out. a bit of one and a bit of the other. billions were given to the dup by mrs may to stay onside and what happened to those billions? it's a com plete happened to those billions? it's a complete mess and it is not as henry

says going to resolve itself. the calculation is everybody will settle down and stop being naughty, it is not going to happen. let's talk about something potentially more cheerful. it is almost a year, mardi gras, super bowl, rio carnival, they we re gras, super bowl, rio carnival, they were in february and unaffected by covid—19, up to a year without those big live events. the tokyo 0lympics is perhaps the biggest. the prime minister said on new year's day it's good to happen injuly, definitely this year. what are the prospects? it was supposed to be a grand moment forjapan and it was supposed to be a grand moment for japan and really look it was supposed to be a grand moment forjapan and really look ahead this time last year this will be

wonderful forjapan, time last year this will be wonderful for japan, almost ten years since japan suffered a terrible tsunami and earthquake, some of the olympic events were scheduled to be held in fukushima where the nuclear meltdown took place so it was supposed to be japan's grand moment, really. now we will be moving exactly ten years after the soon army and earthquake but it's very difficult because —— tsunamijapan is meant but it's very difficult because —— tsunami japan is meant to welcome thousands of athletes, coaches, journalists, forget spectators but at the same time the virus is rising exponentially and the number of cases there. the world's all this population and they are not even

hello there. we've got a cold weekend coming up. today, a day of sunshine and showers, but for some of us, we've already seen some snowfall. this was dunbar in east lothian, the eastern side of scotland seeing the snow this morning. those snow showers have been tracking across fife, also bringing a covering of snow before working across east lothian, the scottish borders and into north—east england. now, i wouldn't be too surprised if some areas got around two to perhaps as much as five centimetres of snow. certainly risk of icy stretches here. and through the rest of the day, we'll see those snow showers move southwards into parts of yorkshire, perhaps lincolnshire too. although around the coastline, there's probably a tendency, really, to see them turn to rain and sleet around the east coast itself. showers across wales, moving into south—west england. many of these will be rain, but there could be a bit of sleet and snow mixed in the high levels. and we'll continue to see some snow showers across northern scotland.

overnight tonight, showers will be widespread across east scotland, eastern areas of england. the clearest skies will be where we have the lowest temperatures, west scotland and northern ireland potentially seeing those down to about minus seven, minus eight degrees celsius. but a frost is going to be widespread. and, again, there's a risk of icy stretches to take us on into sunday. sunday, well, we've changed the wind direction, it's going to come in from the north—east, but we've not really changed how the weather feels. it's going to be another cold day. showers widespread, east scotland, eastern areas of england, pushing westwards across the midlands, into wales and south—west england with time. the best of the dry weather and sunshine for northern and western scotland and northern ireland. but even in the sunshine, it is still going to be cold. temperatures four to six degrees celsius. now, on into next week, we've still got an area of high pressure sat across scandinavia steering in these cold north—easterly winds. again, we'll see further showers, widespread showers at that, across scotland, eastern areas of england, potentially merging together to give some longer spells of rain into kent. the best of the dry weather and sunshine, again, further north west for northern ireland and western areas of scotland. but it's going to stay cold. temperatures, again, four to six degrees celsius, feeling particularly chilly around those eastern coasts with the onshore winds. beyond that, well, it's

going to stay on the cold side really throughout the week, but it's certainly not going to be a dry week. there will be some showers around and potential for some snow for some of us later on in the week. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. pressure grows to shut more schools. the uk's largest teaching union demands a two week closures of all primaries and secondaries in england. a new warning over hospitals in parts of the uk. the president of the royal college of physicians says some are now facing a worse situation than at the peak of the first wave of the pandemic. india begins a nation—wide mock drill to test its preparedness for mass immunisation against covid—19. in defiance of coronavirus precautions. and touching tributes on the 50th anniversary of the ibrox disaster, when 66 people were crushed to death leaving a football match between