�*than help nicola sturgeon, rather than hinder her?— hinder her? that is very possible. it's also possible _ hinder her? that is very possible. it's also possible that _ hinder her? that is very possible. it's also possible that anyone - hinder her? that is very possible. it's also possible that anyone is i it's also possible that anyone is actually disgruntled can vote for the snp in the first constituency bet, which alex's party is not contesting, safe in the knowledge they can actually split their vote, essentially, in the second, and sort of ease any annoyance that has been growing. at the moment, you have to say that alex is an arch disrupter, and everybody is reeling, trying to figure out, trying to process what has just happened. figure out, trying to process what hasjust happened.— figure out, trying to process what hasjust happened. has 'ust happened. always a pleasure to hasjust happened. always a pleasure to seak to hasjust happened. always a pleasure to speak to yom _ hasjust happened. always a pleasure to speak to you. thank _ hasjust happened. always a pleasure to speak to you. thank you _ hasjust happened. always a pleasure to speak to you. thank you for - to speak to you. thank you for giving your expert knowledge. now, it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello, there. it's really going to be warming up in many parts of the country over the next couple of days. today, though, it's a windy day, and we've got a lot of cloud around. the rain, clearing away from wales this afternoon, continuing to work its way

northwards into scotland, affecting northern ireland, the far north—west of england, too. away from here, the rest of england and wales turning drier, brighter, maybe some sunshine in the south—east. highs of15, 16 degrees in lincolnshire and east anglia, despite the strong winds today, temperatures are higher than they were yesterday. but rain continues for a while in north wales, north—west england. but particularly overnight, into northern ireland and western scotland, turning very wet here. a mild night. lowest temperatures in the far north of scotland and the far south of england, where we get some clearer skies later. moving into monday, and we've got the rain clearing away from northern ireland. still quite cloudy. the rain really setting and across the hills of western scotland. it turns sunnier from the south, across england and wales. the wind gradually eases down as well. the temperature is continuing to climb as high as 19 or 20. hello, this is bbc news with shaun ley. the headlines: the un demands international action

to stop what it calls a shocking wave of brutality against civilians in myanmar. ahead of a further easing of restrictions in england tomorrow, the culture secretary, oliver dowden, says the country is on track and he hopes lifting of curbs will be "irreversible". but the national medical director for the nhs in england warns people not to "squander the gains" made against coronavirus ahead of restrictions easing on monday. prime minister borisjohnson is urged to "swiftly clarify" how many covid vaccine doses the uk is prepared to donate to poorer countries. the latest efforts to dislodge the ship that's stuck in the suez canal have failed — they'll try again on sunday. now on bbc news, dateline london.

hello. i'm shaun ley. welcome to the programme, which brings together bbc specialists and the foreign correspondents who file their stories for audiences back home, dateline: london. this week: borisjohnson boasts of vaccine success. his government says two jabs will be followed by a covid booster in the autumn — as europeans struggle with too many infections and too few doses of vaccine. a rare mis—step by angela merkel — have germans, and others, had enough of lockdown? and the evergreen trafficjam that risked withering global trade. with me this weekend... ashis ray, from india, is approaching 45 years as a foreign correspondent, as well as serving at the crease as a cricket commentator. stefanie bolzen is uk and ireland correspondent for germany's welt. with me here, clive myrie, who reports internationally for the bbc as well as presenting

the news back home. "the reason we have the vaccine success", prime minister boris johnson is reported to have told his mps this week, "is because of capitalism, because of greed." whether he was joking or saying what he thinks in an unguarded moment during a private meeting, it's perhaps more accurate to say that globalisation, which helped covid's rapid spread, is critical to vaccination success. this weekend uk government ministers predicted a boosterjab by september. but india has halted exports and europe is threatening to. stefanie, let's talk about what is happening. eu leaders agreed their position on thursday. they are pretty troubled by what has been happening. they singled out the uk in particular. what is their problem and what are the changes that are likely to follow from this? do you think they will follow through on the threat to impose some kind of export restriction? yes, well, it's a very interesting question. for now, it has only been threats.

interestingly, there are reports in the uk and also back in europe that right now, there are talks going on between the british government and the european commission, to find an agreement after what has been a very tumultuous week, where the european commission actually made their possibilities to stop exporting vaccines produced in europe to the uk and to other parts of the world even more likely and stronger measures that they can take. so, they said that in the future, the european commission would look at proportionality and how many vaccines the country actually has which is receiving vaccines from europe. for example, astrazeneca is produced in the uk and these vaccines should also go to europe. the commission released numbers and the numbers are quite staggering in the way that half of what is produced in the european union goes outside

the european union and the slow roll—out in europe has led to problems for the politicians in europe. 77 million doses, the commission say, have gone to high or middle—income countries. 30 million vaccines have gone to the uk and the uk has exported to the eu, none. well, yes. we don't know because there haven't been any numbers officially released by the british government but, of course, it is all about reciprocity and if you talk about the british government talking about a third vaccine — a booster vaccine. you might say that in britain, for example, the parts of the biontech vaccine are produced in yorkshire. there is complete interdependence, so if the british are not delivering any more, biontech cannot produce and biontech

will not come to the uk. in germany, we have seen a rather tumultuous week but i think we are going to talk about that anyway. we have got plenty more to talk about on this, haven't we? let's make the connection from europe to india. part of the doses that the british government was expecting to get from astrazeneca are actually manufactured with the serum institute in india. tell us a bit about the institute and also what the implications are from the problems that they are experiencing in sourcing some of the elements of that from the united states? well, first of all, the institute is the world world's biggest manufacturer of vaccines, and they have been very much at the forefront of supplies, not only within india but also exporting to other countries by virtue of the indian government's

insistence that it does so and, over and above, it has a commitment of 550 million doses to covax, which is run by the world health organization. there is an obligation that appears between the serum institute and astrazeneca, for the institute to supply to astrazeneca as and when required. they are both manufacturing the same oxford vaccine. so, as a result of this, astrazeneca asked for 5 million doses to be sent to the uk, and in that situation, the difficulty that arose was this — there was no problem until a few weeks ago, when they were merrily exporting to other countries to the extent that indie — was exporting more than it had made

available to its own people and this came under severe criticism in the indian parliament from indian opposition members of parliament and, also, all of a sudden there is now what is being called a second wave in india. in fact, in the past 24 hours, more than 62,000 new cases have been detected, and that being the case, the indian government has now clamped down and told all indian companies, including serum institute that you cannot export any more until further notice. so, this is the difficulty. at this present point in time, the institute has applied to the indian government for a licence to fulfil this obligation of 5 million to the uk. to astrazeneca. and my best guess is that you will see a slight delay in that export, but it will

happen in due course. it will not happen immediately but it will happen in due course. as the two governments, that is the government of the united kingdom and the indian government, sort this matter out. borisjohnson is due to celebrate india's important national day very shortly, isn't he? we will be talking about that hopefully on dateline in the coming weeks. an interesting connection between india and the uk. here is another one, the institute says it relies in part of some key materials, such as bioreactor filters and bags, i don't know quite what that means. they come from the united states and they have imposed export restrictions under its defense protection act. no wonder borisjohnson was sounding so emollient about the eu. normally, he'd be up in arms. . what you are seeing here is basic. commerce being broken on the wheel of national priorities. so, agreements were made

between the companies - and the european union in order to produce certain stocks of vaccines. - those agreements were also made with other countries. _ as a result, you have got stocks being - made in europe that are being sent jail over the world because of thosej agreements. india makes contracts with some of these companies and, as - i a result, stocks are leaving india i because of commerce and those deals that are made. but india is seeing a rise in their infection rates. i joe biden inherits- a particularly appalling vaccine roll—out from the _ trump administration and he says, l i am going to invoke the defencel protection act which means - that he can take control of certain supplies of products in the supply chain. _ which forces moderna and pfizer to say they will increase - the numbers to you to 300 million

each by the end of the year, - so that they can vaccinate everybody _ so, you are seeing commerce to essentially undercut borisl johnson's claim that it is all| about capitalism and greed. you are seeing commerce being completely wiped . away by national priorities. the fact is, variants can spread. we — are in a globalised world and as a result, we have to work together. nationalism will not solve this, but that is where we are. - meanwhile, ashis has referred to covax. right now, we must wonder why people are talking about boosters because we haven't even got the doses yet. "my mistake", german chancellor angela merkel told a news conference wednesday, after she scrapped a five day easter lockdown just 48 hours after it was announced. a third wave of infection is stalking europeans, including germans, but protests against lockdown are

being experienced, both on the continent and in the uk. here, many have bridled at the idea, floated by mrjohnson, of having to show proof of vaccination even to visit the pub. ashis, in terms of the prospects of this over time, it looks as if pandemic, virus, will eventually become endemic. have we had enough of a debate yet about what the implications of that are for personal freedom against the desire to protect? in fact, it seems to me that we are in a firefighting situation. you douse the fire at one point and a fire arises in another. although i have said this before that last year, i think there was _ bungling by the british government and as a result, three waves of the disease have occurred and more people than necessary have died,

but _ the vaccination has gone very well in britain and i think there is room for conservatism with a small c. in this situation, rather than being aggressive and ambitious and thinking about opening up businesses because you could have another wave of infection if that aggressive approach is adopted, so i am very much with the british government on this. i believe the opposition parties are with the government on this as well. so, there is certainly, there is room for people being cautious rather than much too aggressive. stefanie, we heard this question of the angela merkel apology. how much do you think this reversal of policy in a matter of hours or a couple of days is down to a sense that germans have had enough of the restrictions, which they have been labouring under pretty much for the whole of

the last year? definitely, germans have had enough. that is certainly not a phenomena only restricted to germany. all over europe, people are very frustrated mainly because the vaccine roll—out is so slow. if you look at the uk, more or less it has four times more vaccines given per adult then the eu average. someone yesterday on the phone in germany said to me, look, compliance is a good thing and people do comply but if there is something to look forward to. here in the uk, the vaccine roll—out goes really well and you have dates where lockdown will be restricted, while on the continent it goes the other way and lockdowns are really being introduced again. for example, poland is just going back into lockdown for three weeks. in belgium, restrictions are coming in again. they are now stopping traffic between france and germany, so from sunday night

on, you have to show a negative test if you want to travel from france into germany and that's why people are getting very impatient and they are getting angry because nothing is improving. of course, angela merkel is asking for forgiveness and that was also in the context of the german election looming. in september, there is a federal election and just now the cdu had the biggest drop on record in the polls this week. on top of the difficult situation of the pandemic in germany, there is an increasing difficult situation with the election. it is a global problem, we've seen resistance in the united states and ongoing protests in brazil. there are lots of countries where people have resisted restrictions on freedom and liberty. it has been done for health reasons but there are always suspicions that it has been done for political convenience or because

there are some countries with some governments, where their instinct is to restrict not to liberate. that is absolutely true. by and large in the developing world, i would say that it is easier to impose restrictions because governments tend to be autocratic. in india for instance, the imposition of lockdowns have been somewhat haphazard and they have been detrimental. for instance, the one that took place in march of last year was ordered within four hours, so the matter did not go through parliament at all. when it came into force. it continues again in a somewhat unscientific manner before it was lifted. a month and a half ago, the indian government was proclaiming that freedom has been achieved but it wasn't

the case and we have the _ situation of an alarming rise now in india of cases and doctors are predicting that this second wave in india could be worse than the first wave. in a liberal democracy like western democracies and in britain, i would say that it's less easy because there will be contentious issues, challenges will take place. you mentioned the matter of a vaccine certificate to enter pubs but if you have got people who have got two doses of the vaccine to enter the pub and you don't allow others who may or may not have been offered two doses or who may not qualify, the younger generation for instance wanting to go to a pub may not have _ got to the stage of vaccination, then that would certainly amount to discrimination, but i would venture to say that this is not that much of

a problem in developing countries, sadly so. it should be so but i think it is something that the world will have to grapple with because this problem, this coronavirus, does not seem to be going away in a hurry, and so it could be a pretty long haul and the world will have to adjust to living with it rather than wishing it away. do you think that this question of how we are going to persuade people rather than just instruct people — the british government renewed its powers for a further six months, but under considerable discomfort and disquiet, even from its own backbenchers even those who voted for it weren't particularly happy about the prospect. something will have to change, won't it, about how we handle it? what is interesting in the uk is that its position is - primarily coming from the prime minister's own backbenches. - the polls are consistent _ here that the british people believe

that it is a price - that has to be paid. but the voices on the - backbenches are loud but they are a minority but they are loud. i borisjohnson has to be mindful of that even though he - does have an 80 seat majority. even though the vaccine roll—out has been - successful, he is seeing his stock rise in the polls. - he is saying that if we need to lock down for a little longer, _ then it is going to have to be done. someone like chris whitty, the chief medical officer for england, - the chief guy giving him scientific advice, i suppose you could say, i he is very cautious, he is worried about the winter coming. - he is worried about variants on the continent and - the longer this vaccine is out. there, the more chance there is for mutations. he is talking about - the possibility of still having restrictions come christmas time. this is chris whitty. you have got this good|

cop, bad cop with boris johnson but he clearly. has room for manoeuvre because at the moment, the british— public are listening to him i and he doesn't have to listen to those voices in his backbenches. now, it's almost as long as new york's empire state building is high, and it spent most of the week blocking egypt's suez canal. the evergreen, stranded in a sandstorm, caused an almighty traffic jam. the alternative — take the pre—18805 route for freight, going around africa. even with 21st century ships, that's quite a diversion — up to three weeks. ashis, there is something kind of almost funny about the idea that despite all of the logistics and all of the modern technology, that the combination of a bit of bad weather, a really bad sand storm, and a troublesome three—point turn can jam one of the most important waterways in the world, but in a sense, it is potentially a lot more serious, isn't it? notjust because of the economic

cost but because of the strategic significance of this canal. absolutely. it seems amusing for a moment but at the moment, it is really becoming more serious. i do believe that it is a problem, which is again going to take a few more days before it is resolved. 9 billion dollars worth of goods pass through the suez canal every day. that is a huge proportion. countries are having to divert ships to around the cape until this matter is sorted out and it is, indeed, a problem. this is accumulating countries like india, for instance, export to europe, north america, south america via the suez canal and the other way round.

the american continent and the european continent supply goods not just to india but beyond, through the suez canal. so, that is certainly a problem. it is a critical state of affairs and it makes matters more expensive for the simple reason that the ships have to take a longer route and there will be delays in deliveries because of the fact that it's a longerjourney. so, everything put together, i think it is a bit of a crisis at the _ moment and it seems that the owners of the ships have apologised and they are saying that they are trying their best but there is no immediate resolution. it will take, possibly, a few weeks to work it out. stefanie, a lot of the history of europe's historical success, the rise of the great empires, was dependent on these sea routes. they would get goods from the old empire into

consumers in europe. there are new possibilities, aren't there? we always used to talk about the northwest passage at the beginning of the 20th century, they finally managed it. now, the ice is melting around the arctic and we see these countries jostling under the guise of scientific expedition for access to these new routes. it is still an important part of the way we connect. yes, it is. the numbers are so impressive. i think it was reported that every hour the ship is stuck in the suez canal, it is something like 338 million euro damage to the economy. in 2019, there were tensions around the strait of hormuz once more. it shows how dependent the world is and how dependent you are on some waterways and some sea passages but to be honest, i just thought suddenly, somehow it reflects also what it means when things come

to a halt and suddenly everything stops, like the lockdown that we are in now, and we are now exactly one year after that first lockdown started in europe and it made me think of what comes afterwards and how much reflection there has now been going on and also the question of what comes afterwards. is capitalism really working yet? and there are so many fascinating books coming out about the future of capitalism, is gdp really the right measurement to measure our being and our presence and ourfuture, especially? so, it actually made me think more about the philosophical, broader context that we are in and what it all means for us. are we all going to end up like the marie celeste floating in the middle and everybody wonders what ever happened to us? one thing which brought many people together during lockdown, virtually at least, were quizzes.

so, let's end on a question... which long—running television quiz show was inspired by wartime interrogation, is introduced with a music track called 'approachine menace' and has just appointed its latest presenter? it's mastermind. you may know it even if you're not watching in the uk — there are versions in india, israel, kazakhstan, russia and turkey, as well as in other countries in english. the new host of mastermind — congratulations, clive. have you been practising your interrogation techniques in the mirror at home? i have. dim the lights, just have one sort of. bulb hanging in the middle and focus the attention on the unwilling - suspect. yes, it's something i'm i looking forward to and it's | interesting that the franchise hasj gone all over the world and there seems to be a penchant for people wanting to see others squirm, - potentially. it's been going since 1972.

as you say, bill wright, _ the guy who produced the whole thing when it started in the 70s, he was | a prisoner of war, shot down overj germany and he was interrogated and l he was asked, your name, your rankl and your number and that is where i the opening lines come from for. the questioning. it is going to be fun. i raise this question, ashis. they do a celebrity edition that you and stefanie could end up on at some point. if you did, what would be your specialised subject? well, my wife thinks it should be indian cricket and i agree. sadly, we are almost out of time and we don't have enough time to do that. stefanie, what would be yours? a very special one. european football matches between if borussia monchengladbach and manchester city in 1978 and 1979. i don't know if you could even get two

minutes out of that, but i'm sure it's something you could try. clive, you are safe from never having to answer these questions. thankfully, yes. you can't ask yourself the questions, though many presenters would like to ask themselves the questions. we that one for another day. what would it have been if you had been a guest facing clive? vaccine supply chains. no question about it. i am an expert. aren't we all? many congratulations. he did not know that was coming and he has taken it on the chin — god bless you, sir! congratulations from all of us. stefanie, ashis, and to you, thank you very much forjoining dateline london for this week. i'll be back at the same time, see you then. goodbye.

hello, there. it's really going to be warming up in many parts of the country over the next couple of days. today, though, it's a windy day, and we've got a lot of cloud around. the rain, clearing away from wales this afternoon, continuing to work its way northwards into scotland, affecting northern ireland, the far north—west of england, too. away from here, the rest of england and wales turning drier, brighter, maybe some sunshine in the south—east. highs of15, 16 degrees in lincolnshire and east anglia, despite the strong winds today, temperatures are higher than they were yesterday. but rain continues for a while in north wales, north—west england. but particularly overnight, into northern ireland and western scotland, turning very wet here. a mild night. lowest temperatures in the far north of scotland and the far south of england, where we get some clearer skies later. moving into monday, and we've got the rain clearing away from northern ireland. still quite cloudy. the rain really setting and across the hills of western scotland. it turns sunnier from the south, across england and wales. the wind gradually eases down as well. the temperature is continuing

to climb as high as 19 or 20. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. ahead of a further easing of restrictions in england tomorrow, the culture secretary oliver dowden says the country is on track and he hopes lifting of curbs will be irreversible" at the moment, we are on track. so thanks to the work of the british people and the excellent vaccine roll—out, we are confident both in going ahead with the easing is from tomorrow and the next stages. but the national medical director for the nhs in england warns people not to "squander the gains" made against coronavirus , ahead of restrictions easing on monday. the government says lorry drivers arriving in england from outside the uk will need to take a covid test within 48 hours and then one every 72 hours afterwards. prime minister borisjohnson is urged to "swiftly clarify" how

many covid vaccine doses the uk is prepared to donate