hello, welcome to the programme which brings together some of the uk's foreign columnists, bbc specialists and correspondents from overseas who have filed their stories from the dateline london. this week, business blues over brexit, life after lockdown, and the trump trial, what will be america's verdict? i am joined by two guests to discuss that. welcome, lovely to have you here. and clive myriejoined me

in the studio, long—standing bbc foreign correspondent and news presenter. and welcome to you at home. if you are watching anywhere in the world, have you eaten cornish sole? renaming is the fishing industry's response to trading issues encountered since brexit. it is notjust exports to the eu. northern irish consumers can no longer buy some products produced elsewhere in the uk. and financial services are also being affected. the governor of the bank of england warned this week there are signs from the eu it was going to cut the uk off from trading shares on the continent. where the city of london did 40% of its trade before brexit. now overtaken by amsterdam. stephanie, we have the same standards of the european union, because we have onlyjust ended

the transition in matter of weeks ago. what has gone wrong? it sounds like this oven—ready deal that the british prime minister had promised is not quite so easy to consume as everybody was hoping. so, if you look now for example at the comments of the governor of the bank of england about the access of the city to the european financial market, you can see that brussels is playing hardball, but you can also see that brussels is playing hardball in northern ireland, where i havejust been, i came back on thursday night, and it was very interesting, a bit worrying the situation there, because as you have said there is now a border in the irish sea, it is rather complicated, this set up, because there should not be a land border between northern ireland and the republic of ireland. the solution that was found is a sea border between great britain

and northern ireland. but because products that come from great britain can now freely go into the eu single market, into ireland, there needs to be checks on the sea border in the ports, and people in northern ireland are now experiencing how complex and difficult this brexit deal is. for example, garden centres cannot import flowers any more because there might be a contamination of products going to the european union, into the european single market, there is less selections in the supermarket, there is enormous work for hauliers. one haulier told me that instead of one page of documentation, it is now 3a pages of documentation. the problem is brexit, but soon the problem might be the european union, but people want brussels to be more flexible about how the rules are applied. steve, you spent christmas, i seem to remember, reading the eu treaty.

there wasn't much else to do, was there? you have read it, which is more than either the uk parliament or eu parliament had time to do because this deal was done so late in the day. should we expect more of this stuff beyond simply the fisheries question? oh, yeah. i read it because it was like a thriller, i wanted to get the answer to the question, how did they suddenly agree to all these things which appeared to be irreconcilable differences? and the answer is, on many issues, they have in effect kicked the differences into the long grass. and the deal is very provisional on many issues. but what is so interesting is that the protocol has surfaced very quickly as an issue again which is very difficult to resolve. the decision was made by boris johnson to, in effect, make northern ireland the barrier to protect the so—called purity of the single market as the eu sees it.

the moment you make that decision, there are going to be, at the very least, bureaucratic hurdles between great britain and northern ireland. and that is one of the many issues that have surfaced. so in effect, you are already hearing talk about the protocol being looked at again. it's only been in place for a month. and then the fishing situation has to be reviewed in a few years time, to be reviewed in a few years' time, and many other factors have still not really been resolved by what was unveiled dramatically on christmas eve. and that is how the deal was done, by not really agreeing to all the sensitive issues. clive, we just never seem to be able to let brexit go one way or another, do we? we don't. steve is absolutely right. so much of this deal was provisional, but it needs to be remembered that trade deals are never necessarily set in stone.

you have dispute resolution committees on both sides, to look into various problems. you have discussions taking place now, for instance, to try to sort out some kind of financial arrangements for the city in terms of its access to the european markets. some of the stuff in andrew bailey's speech might be a bit of brinksmanship, political lobbying before a deal is signed next month. exactly, i think the problem came in the characterisation on the part of certain members of the johnson government that this was a deal that was done and dusted. perhaps if there had been a little bit more clarity on the idea that there will be teething problems, actually those teething problems could go on for quite some time. we know for instance thatjd sports has decided it has to open industries and centre on the continent itself because it has already seen a rise in its export costs.

this is for products that are not even produced in the uk, they are imported into the uk from the far east. that's the whole debate about the rules of origin and so on and so forth. i think if there had been a bit more clarity on the part of certain ministers in announcing this deal at the beginning of the year, or in the run—up to the beginning of the year, then perhaps the shock of all this stuff coming now would be less apparent. but steve is absolutely right, this is a provisional trade deal. stefanie, there is a political risk here, we heard from micheal martin, the irish prime minister, saying both sides need to cool down, but he was not exactlyjumping to the defence of the eu on this, because he is clearly worried about it. consumers in europe must be potentially worried if, let's say, we take that example of the cornish sole. they land about 1,000 tonnes a year in the cornish port of newlin. 98% of that is exported.

take another product, most of that product, 85% of what is now known as cornish king crab to get the british to start eating it, goes to spain. at what point do eu consumers start to say, hang on a minute, we are paying more and getting less? i think this is certainly one point that eu consumers will look at northern ireland and might be worried that there are loopholes, for example of products coming into the eu that are not properly controlled, also in terms of the higher prices. but for the time being, i think really the more urgent question, and i understand that the irish government is in a very difficult place there, is northern ireland itself. as we know, northern ireland is a special place, there are so many layers of politics there, whether it is the unionist

side or the republican nationalist side, and what we have seen already since the beginning of january have been threats for the time being. fortunately only in terms of threatening people working at the ports, doing the checks for a couple of days, these people were actually withdrawn from their jobs because there was allegedly a threat to them. i spoke to quite a lot of loyalists in belfast, they are actually welcoming the tensions because it plays into their hands of getting attention, saying the british government lets us down, the eu wants to drive northern ireland into the arms of ireland, so there are all kinds of tensions now and i think it is really important to be careful here, because people whojust want to get on with their lives, they will also get tired and fatigued, and maybe at some point angry because they cannot get their amazon parcels, they cannot have the selection in the supermarket, because prices are already rising in northern ireland. and although it is 2 million people,

it is a very delicate place. we will park that thought for now. and talk a bit more about coronavirus. the speed with which the uk is vaccinating its citizens against covid is something brussels might be envious of. commission president ursula von der leyen this week admitted we were late in buying vaccines. monday is the government's deadline for giving jabs to be most medically vulnerable, including all people aged 70 and over. a week later, borisjohnson will decide whether and how to lift pandemic restrictions, but this week he said people should not book a summer holiday yet. steve, nobody is expecting a holiday from coronavirus. indeed, judging by the health secretary this weekend, we are going to have to learn to live with this virus for a long time to come. but how much political pressure is borisjohnson under? he is under huge political pressure, because there is a significant section of the conservative parliamentary party, and more widely

amongst its membership, who cannot bear these kind of restrictions, this exertion of state power, and in a way, part of boris johnson is with them. he was well known as a columnist for being pretty libertarian, but he has got to follow the data on this one, because i gather you will have heard the same, he is determined that this is the last lockdown, this is notjust a mere latest phase and then we open up and have to close down again. if he wants to achieve that, he will have to very carefully follow the scientists. matt hancock said more widely it would be possible to learn to live with the coronavirus via the vaccine roll—out and developing vaccines to deal with future variants. so it wasn't a wholly pessimistic assessment. but this whole thing, it is a very uk thing. before christmas, it was, can we have christmas?

as if we were a bunch of kids. and now it is, can we have our summer holiday? the reality is they have to adapt to the impact of the virus, it is the virus which isjeopardising all of these things, and so it appears as instant, johnson's instinct is to be a bit more cautious this time, whereas his instinct last year was to open up as soon as possible and not close down until it was too late. he was the one pushing christmas. he is not pushing summer holidays to same extent at the moment. but he is under pressure because of the politics and because, let's face it, everyone watching this around the world are fed up with it, and that too is a huge pressure on world leaders as they balance opening up with constraining this virus that still has a capacity to spread like fire. they are fed up with it in other

parts of the world, clive, because even if they are not directly affected, they might be somewhere like sub—saharan africa, 3% of the cases globally, but 14% of the population. good news, but they are kind of affected by this because, unless the vaccine is sorted out, and unless its global, their economies are not going to recover, i saw the foreign minister for ghana saying they might lose a decade in terms of their economic situation just because of this one pandemic. absolutely, and you're hearing voices now saying that those manufacturers of the vaccines needs to start allowing local franchises in parts of the developing world so that they can produce these vaccines in order to get their people sorted out as well. this is a global problem, and yes, borisjohnson has has pressures here politically, and also economically, because we know from the gdp figures this week that the economy is in a very, very poor state, particularly in those countries that have had the highest numbers of fatalities, which would include the uk, obviously.

but in order, even if our vaccination programme is successful and is rolling out and doing really well here, what about the rest of europe? what about the rest of the world? we are an interconnected global community in terms of trade and so on. in order to get our economy going again, the whole of the rest of the world needs to get going as well. so, i think we need to start looking, and i think you are hearing those voices now, looking at sub—saharan africa and parts of south asia, looking at latin america, in order to roll out these vaccine programmes so that the whole world can move forward. and talking of the impact of south and latin america issues, that is already having a direct impact on the so—called open borders of continental europe, stefanie. so this questions of whether it is the uk variant, the south african variant,

whether it is concerns about infections coming back into portugalfrom brazil and so on, that is a question for governments almost whatever they are in the world. and a question that is not there for them to be resolved very quickly, even by the vaccination programme. not at all. i think it is very interesting in this context to compare the uk and europe, because the uk is certainly world leading in sequencing, and that is why here the scientists were very quick to find mutations, the government is trying here to track and trace and really isolate new mutations, and that is something that europe and for example germany, the german government is watching this very carefully, and they do not yet have the sequencing capacity that the uk has. so, there is enormous pressure from the public, of course, because now places like germany, cases are going down, people want the lockdown not to be lifted but to be eased,

but the governments are saying we cannot allow ourselves to do that, we have to be careful, because they are detecting pockets of new mutations, whether it is the so—called kent variant or the one from south africa, so there has now been also reasons to close down borders again, for example the border between germany and the czech republic, parts of austria, south of austria are isolated. at the same time, what is putting even more pressure on european leaders is the fact that the vaccination roll—out goes so slowly. in britain, i think you have about 20 out of 100 people being vaccinated. in europe, the average is only four. and therefore we have seen the recent tensions and blame games between national governments and the european commission. steve, let me just bring you back to the uk. i was talking to a clinical source this week, who said to me, the nhs is already preparing for another surge probably around july, which will be, if you like,

a consequence of all the opening up. it may be delayed a bit, it won't anything like as big as the winter, they will probably have the capacity. in a sense, it would be a crisis and it won't need a lockdown. in a sense, it won't be a crisis and it won't need a lockdown. but they are having to already plot ahead how the rest of the year is going to look to ensure they are ahead of the game. in a sense, it is going to be a running battle, isn't it? yes, it is, and in a way, we both know this, all of us, and yet can't quite face up to that reality. it is interesting, i haven't heard that they anticipate another surge injuly, because you sort of identify the summer as a period when, suddenly last year, it certainly last year, it subsided a bit. but we know that, stefanie was mentioning the variants, and all the other ingredients, we have and have to adapt, plan, look ahead constantly, and there isn't going to be a moment when we feel wholly liberated from this. but on the other side,

the vaccines in the vaccinated seem to be confident they can adapt to the variants. but you have to be on constant alert, as we have just heard about the situation in germany, and i'm told borisjohnson, one of the reasons for his uncharacteristic caution is fear of other variants having a terrible impact. so it is to be a constant battle or dance, to use an inappropriate metaphor, with the virus for some time to come. we sort of know this but can't dare to think about. this is something the nhs has to be prepared for but hopes will never happen. donald trump's second impeachment trial has differed from the first in one important way. no running commentary from the man himself.

during the first, he had a voice on social media and possession of what americans term the bully pulpit, is present his word was news. now he is silenced by social media, he is having his words turned against him by democrats. one of the party's most prominent figures, who was donald trump's first un ambassador, rather seems to think you can. how have the democrats handled it differently, and does her intervention matter? the basic facts are that the democrats spent three days laying out their prosecution case, the republicans and president trump's lawyer spent something like three hours laying out the defence. and that points to the obvious arithmetic of the senate trial here, and that is that the republicans and donald trump firmly believe, they are probably right, that he will be acquitted. the numbers are simply not there.

saturday morning in the uk, middle of the night eastern time, the trial has not reached that conclusion, but likely to happen by the time some people are watching this. highly likely. the republicans firmly believe the numbers are not there. 17 of their senators are not going to cross the aisle and vote to convict their president. and as a result, the defence case has very much been this as a witch hunt, they have attacked the process, this is illegitimate, if they have looked at the substance of the allegations against the president, they have said it is the first amendment rights, free speech. the problem is, and that is what the democrats have been arguing over the last week or so, is that you cannot stand up in the middle of a theatre and shout fire. and while the majority of americans do blame what happened onjanuary 6 on the president's words, the vast majority of americans are disgusted at what happened. so this is all about the famous court of public opinion as far

as democrats are concerned. remember, there are congressional elections in 2022. the american political calendar is so short, it is actually pretty ridiculous. they are already running. but the democrats are hoping, we have laid this out there, our president is not above the law, any president is not above the law, but also, a lot of those republicans who are going to be standing for re—election in 2022, they have come out and backed this man who we believe incited that riot. so, there is so much politics going on here, but this is an attempt by the democrats to get everything out there to try to affect the republican party itself, and therefore affect the future turn of american political history potentially. steve, the former governor of south carolina went to the un

to serve donald trump, then quietly vanished. probably going to try to run in the next presidential election. you can see why she might have an interest in this. but she said, we were lied to by this man, there was no stolen election, and too many of us followed him and have been repeating those lies, lying to our own voters and supporters. will that cut through? well, it might do in terms of her own political ambitions. as clive suggests, what we are witnessing at the momentm it might be done via trump's lawyers, it might be a sort of legalistic process, is wholly political. because we all know really what happened on that day. so the judgment has been made, clive outlined some of the calculations the democrats are making, the republicans, who will have a vote on this will be calculating do they want to be seen to be disowning trump at this moment? and she has clearly thought, it's interesting that she has

made this calculation, that to distance herself from him clearly won't to do her any harm in her political ambitions. so there is one indication that there are some in the republican party who think positioning themselves away from him, being publicly condemning of him, it might not be a block to their own political ambition. but this is an overtly political impeachment. that brings up the prospect, way too early to be talking about this, i know, but the prospect of let's say a kamala harris—nikki haley fight, two women finally fighting for the presidency. but let's leave that thought aside, stefanie, what about the immediate future for the united states? not least its allies, because here isjoe biden trying to position himself, trying to change the narrative, and here are democrats in congress fighting the last battle.

yeah, i think if you look at that, and also i think there was a poll yesterday that, actually, 47% of americans want to see donald trump indicted, but there is no majority, there is almost the same number who do not want to see him indicted. so what is going to stay of this impeachment, i think there were four impeachment in the whole of the us history, two of them against donald trump, so what voters will remember in 2022 with the congressional elections and then in 2024 at the next presidential election, what is going to stay of that? we had reporters out in the countryside in the us recently, and peoplejust say a waste of money and it's a witchhunt, and how much of the idea that this is a witchhunt will stay? forjoe biden, of course, this is also very difficult situation, because everybody around the world is waiting for an active us government to now change politics, to become more multilateral again,

there are so many crises all over, whether it is iran, how to deal with russia, climate change, and of course while i think a lot of people think this is an important process to be had about what happened onjanuary 6, it is urgent that the us government starts to act, and it feels a bit like it is hindered by this obviously highly understandably, highly emotionally battle taking place in washington right now. steve, do you want to just pick up on that thought? there's a real danger, isn't there, because they didn'tjust leave us because they didn'tjust leave this to the criminal law, itjust looks like for some citizens of the us like the establishment indulging itself? it might do, but i sense that all of this will be forgotten quite quickly. the key element of this sequence was that donald trump lost, and losing... i know he doesn't accept that, and some of his followers don't

accept it, but losing tends to be devastating. maybe he will return, that this will be seen as part of the establishment turning on his followers, and that propels him back into prominence. but i doubt it will work like that. i think in the end, the defeat he suffered, first—term defeats are not that common in us politics, and will be more defining than what has happened since. he might want to look atjimmy carter, george hw bush, to think what happens to political careers when you lose. it is very hard to come back from. time perhaps to think about the planning of a presidential library in florida. that is it for dateline london this week. do join us at the same time next week. goodbye.

hello. still a fair bit of lying snow around and icy conditions today. it is turning windier and milder. there is the threat of freezing rain. fairly patchy rain. some of the rain may be falling as freezing rain, so rain falling into sub zero air and onto freezing surfaces which can create some really treacherous icy conditions over parts of scotland and northern england as well.

0utbreaks and northern england as well. outbreaks of rain and strong gusty winds, 60 or 70 outbreaks of rain and strong gusty winds, 60 or70 mph outbreaks of rain and strong gusty winds, 60 or 70 mph over the irish sea. big waves for the likes of antrim and down. 12 degrees for belfast. 4 degrees for norwich and newcastle. this evening, cloud and patchy rain sweeps over much of england and wales. followed by clearer skies moving in for scotland, northern ireland and later for northern england as well. the could be some scattered heavy downpours in the far north—west. 0vernight temperatures, 5—9. significantly warmer than we had during the daytime over the past week. this front lingering in the east should slowly clear. we are left with the wind is coming in from the south or south—westerly direction. the cold air that was with us is clinging to the east and we have this much milder yellow colour to the air mass coming from a

south—westerly region. further scattered showers over northern ireland, scotland and perhaps northern england as well. easing later in the day. some sunshine breaking through. london, perhaps 14 degrees or so on monday. much warmer thanit degrees or so on monday. much warmer than it has been in recent days. 8-10 than it has been in recent days. 8—10 for scotland. there will be rain at times, unsettled, with sunshine in between. but certainly not as cold as it has been lately. goodbye for now.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. british prime minister borisjohnson comes under pressure from some of his own mps to end covid restrictions by the end of april. government ministers however urge caution. we are not going to be able to give certainty unless we are basing it on the evidence we have got that the vaccine is doing its job. so far the prognosis is pretty good but we have to keep monitoring it as the roll—out proceeds. rolling out to the under—70s in the uk. more than a million people aged between 65 and 69 are to be offered a coronavirus vaccination. president trump suggests he could make a political comeback after he's cleared of inciting insurrection in his impeachment trial. democrats are furious with the verdict