polls haved closed in mexico in the biggest election in the country's history. more than 21,000 seats are being contested for mayors, state legislators and the entire lower house of congress, where the party of president 0brador is hoping to retain its two—thirds majority. israeli forces have fired stun grenades as they released two palestinians who campaigned against the threatened eviction of families in the sheikh jarrah neighbourhood of occupied east jerusalem. twins muna and mohammed al—kurd were detained on sunday morning. they have used social media to bring the issue to public attention. meghan markle and prince harry have announced they've had their second child — a baby girl who they've named after queen elizabeth and princess diana, harry's mother. lilibet diana mountbatten—windsor was born on friday morning in santa barbara, california, where the duke and duchess of sussex now live.

now on bbc news, dateline london. hello and welcome to dateline london. i'm ben brown. this week, we are asking should the uk unlock from covid restrictions or not? should the rich nations provide their excess vaccines to poorer countries? and what can we expect from forthcoming global summits — the g7 here in the uk, and president biden and vladimir putin meeting in geneva? well, joining me to discuss all of that, we have got foreign correspondent

for die welt, thomas kielinger, and stephanie baker of bloomberg news. and joining me here in studio is the bbc�*s esteemed health editor hugh pym. so welcome to you all. thank you very much for being with us. so, freedom from restrictions in england onjune 21 — well, that is what boris johnson is still hoping will still happen. but there are noises off from scientists fearing another wave, despite the success of the uk's vaccination programme. let's start off with you, then, hugh. june the 21st, will restrictions be lifted in england? borisjohnson says, you know, the data is looking pretty good but actually, a lot of the figures are going in the wrong direction at the moment. yes, so i think this one will go right to the wire, ben, possibly up until the 14th ofjune, because the government has made it clear that, for england, a week's notice will be given of any lifting of restrictions planned for the 21st, the first possible date. but they will be watching data throughout the week leading up

to the 14th and right now, the situation across the uk is not looking quite as bright as it might have been. and of course, all of the uk's four nations looking very closely at all the stats because they are making decisions themselves throughout the uk about to when to lift restrictions in different ways. so the latest data on infections across the uk suggests quite a big increase in the week leading up to may the 29th — that is based on community infections picked up by the office for national statistics, then the daily reported case numbers, which were just people who have gone for testing, that actually shows a pretty big increase as well — more than 6000 in the uk for the first time since the end of march. but what the ministers and officials have to do, making these decisions, is say, "yes, we expected cases to go

up because we opened up a bit in may. how many people are actually going to hospital and how many, sadly, don't survive? how effective is the vaccine, actually, in this situation?" of course, we have got this delta variant — the one first identified in india — which we now know is more transmissible and increasing cases and is actually now the dominant variant in the uk. and it has been described as a race between the vaccine and the variant, but there are some people saying actually, you know, a huge proportion of adults in the uk have now been vaccinated, and that rich countries should start giving away their excess vaccines to the poorer countries. we have heard from nepal amongst other countries pleading for more vaccines because they are so short of them. well, the argument in the uk in different nations health leaders as well as politicians is you do need to get down to the 30—year—olds and below that to those aged over 18 because there is still

a vulnerability getting sick and then transmitting — quite a lot of cases are amongst lower age groups who haven't been vaccinated, so they could spread it to the vulnerable, those who had not been vaccinated, who are older. in other words, you do need to push on with the vaccine programme here. that is contested by some who say once you get down to people in their 20s, you need to prioritise maybe sending vaccines to other countries more in need, so it is quite a delicately poised debate. the argument in the uk is that the 0xford—astrazeneca vaccine, developed in the uk and has been provided at cost only — not profit — that is part of the uk's contribution, they argue, to the global effort. stephanie, let's go to you on this. do you think the richer nations should be doing more, giving away more of their vaccines? they all talk about "we are not vaccinated until the whole world is vaccinated" but on the whole, they seem

to be wanting to vaccinate their adult population first before they give away too much more. no, absolutely. i think wealthy countries with advanced vaccination programmes are in a position to start sharing a lot more doses than they have so far. i mean, in the us, they are now vaccinating 12—year—olds, where in low—income countries i think less than 1% of people have gotten one dose. and the fact of the matter is, you know, we have seen the virus, you know, surge in places with low vaccination, with very little access to vaccines — you know, take argentina, nepal, thailand and, you know. — so far, the us has promised to provide about 25 million doses and sharing most of those through this global alliance called covax, which was set up last year to provide vaccines to low—income countries,

and so far covax is way behind on its targets, you know, it is about 190 million doses short of where it was hoping to be by the end ofjune, and it is kind of been outmanoeuvred and outbid by wealthy countries that have locked up vaccine supplies with deals with the most promising vaccine developers. but the reality is there is — the us in particular, i would say, is in a position to be sharing more doses than it is, you know, and at the current rate it is going, i think it is delivering about 70 million doses more than has been administered, so they are really looking at a glut in vaccine supply and, you know, i think rich countries should be realising it is in their self—interest now to be sharing those vaccines more widely in order to contain the virus, as well as slow the spread of these variants that are developing and seem to be boomeranging back into rich countries.

but thomas, i mean, some people watching this might say "charity begins at home, vaccination begins at home. we need to look after our own country first before we start after the rest of the world." well, i don't want to be i devil's advocate but i will admit — that this new pandemic that hit the world globally at a moment when nobody was prepared - for it and, as you say, in such a moment — l and all these governments are elected into power- by their electorates have to mind and consider- their own population. but at the same time, they also have to be . understanding of the fact that . you don't save your own country and your own population if you don't make sure . that the rest of the world - will participate in the general saving effort. and so we have learned, all the while — _ your own store. you have to be generous, as it were, to your own population, | to show that you care for them.

but you also have to educatej everyone in your own country that you are not safe, you cannot buy safetyj by isolating yourself - against the rest of the world. this is a global pandemic and if there is a future i pandemic— of this kind, hopefully we will all learned from it that we will start right - from the beginning to spread . the available medicine and help in as wide a way as possible. we have learned that from the — from what we have experiencedl in the last 18 months. hugh, there is this question, this ethical issue about, you know, should the richer countries be vaccinating their children, which is now becoming possible, when adults in some of the poorer countries around the world have not been vaccinated. that's becoming a key question, isn't it? well, it is. certainly on the back of news that in the uk, the medical regulator has given the go—ahead and said

it is safe to vaccinate children of 12 and over following the ema for europe also has given the green light to that and in the us, the fda - and in fact, the us has started vaccinating children aged 12 and over, and it is planned in france as well. it is not definitely going to go ahead in the uk — thejcvi, the expert committee on vaccinations which advises the government, will give a view on whether it should happen and no doubt some of these ethical issues will come into play. it has been indicated by ministers that there is enough pfizer to go through to i2—year—olds and over. the argument is that it may be necessary due to transmission. children certainly don't get seriously ill, based on the data, but they can transmit it throughout communities and therefore, you would want to vaccinate, but it is a delicate issue. i think in the us and france with a lot lower levels of uptake, then there is more of an argument for getting the vaccine into children. but certainly, it is a very

topical issue right now, as you say. and some of these richer countries do have huge stockpiles of vaccines, don't they? i mean, the uk, for example, has millions and millions either in its hand or on order. yes, i think that that the vaccines currently moderna, a lot was ordered and also johnson &johnson, the doses which are due to come through there — the single—dose vaccine — and others which have not yet been formally approved and the argument of british ministers is, well, we moved quickly to secure these and we do need to act to the benefit of taxpayers, but it certainly leaves governments like that open to suggestion, well you have ordered far too many, can you not release some at the stage? thank you for that. later this month, there are two important summit meetings coming up. the first is the g7

and it is being hosted here in the uk — and in fact, i will be in cornwall, covering that for bbc news next weekend. the second is the first face—to—face meeting between presidentjoe biden and russia's vladimir putin in geneva. now, thomas, it is summit season. sketch out for us what you think is gonna be the importance of those two summits. well, it is a pretty tall order- to be summarising the summits in such a short time! let me start - with the second one. the dialogue, as it were, between president bidenj and president putin. i am reminded of what happened exactly 60 years ago in june - 1961, when kennedy and . khrushchev met in vienna, in those days, and it was decided to be a summit. where the russian leader. would try to test the mettle of the young - american president. will putin do the same? i hope not. it would be a lost art. biden is the most experienced politician in america _ at the moment and he does not

need any russian president, i as it were, trying to find him out. i so they are having to work for a stable relationship. l the problem, of course, - with russia is the main bone of contention is the ukraine — a democratic, hopefully western country, which russia cannot - accept — close in the proximity. they consider the ukraine to be a threat to their own _ authoritarian rule~ - and that is why president putin | has lately leaned on this other| dictator in his _ neighbourhood, nicoshenko, in belarussia, and supported him in an act of air piracy when a plane i was forced down and a - dissident, belarus dissident was apprehended and so forth. such events cannot be tolerated and we need to unite to make . sure it won't happen, | but on the other hand sure it won't happen. but on the other hand, there is a mixed signal coming from biden. i he's shown himself willing to reconsider some of- the approaches towards russia —

for example, he has. waived those sanctions that company which built i in germany the nordstream gas pipeline, - which was a very big issue in the beginning. of the biden presidency. and so that has been moved off the table of opposition. - and their meeting, - which is a way to recognise russia as an important ally, and they can talk about common problems like covid, _ probably even the middle east and other issues the world - over. so there is a reason for trying to work a relationship. - now, that said, lam not very hopeful it will - happen straight away. earlier, biden was once asked in an abc interview, - "do you think that - president putin is a killer?" and he said "yes". and when they met for-

the first time ten years ago when they were both vice president at the time, . biden— looked into the eyes of putin and said, "i don't- think you have a soul". so there is no real sort. of national rapprochement between them and nol natural understanding. they will have to work on it to try and to mediate. - but the ukraine issue, as i said before, is- a difficult one for putin, who cannot accept - a democratic western country in the neighbourhood that - threatens his own authoritarian rule~ _ it seems to be an intractable situation and we will need i to wait and see . what comes of it. now, in cornwall, it's- an equally intractable event because the several issues which are on the table, - each of them takes a whole conference to solve. - there is the question of global trade. - britain is very much - in the forefront, is a global nation, now having left the eu, to want to expand trade - relations with the world.

they also want to work on taxing big tech companies which so far has been a bone| of contention but overall, - which will absolutely outshine all these other issues will be the question of how to deal. with another global pandemic if the world is hit by it. - we are coming together- here at an important moment and i said before the world . at large has to recognise this as a global problem. we have to forget all our own little individual nations - which we have to serve. we have to think globally. gordon brown has published a new book, seven ways - of saving the world, - and he said how shocked he was that global cooperation was lacking in the beginning. of the pandemic when - isolationism ruled supreme. so the cornwall gathering will have to unite behind i a common approach

to global pandemic. stephanie, let me ask you how important is all of this forjoe biden, do you think? it is his first overseas trip as president and, you know, some people are saying, actually, he shouldn't be seeing putin at all. he is rewarding putin by even having that face—to—face meeting with him. yes, absolutely. many people are questioning what he is hoping to achieve by meeting him. for putin, the meeting itself is a victory. it signals his acceptance on the global stage, you know, and as thomas pointed out there is no love lost between the two of them. there is no personal chemistry, you know, and there is a very long list of issues that biden will no doubt raise and admonish putin for. everything from the poisoning and jailing of the russian opposition activist alexander navalny, the spate

of cyber attacks that have happened in the us emanating from hackers in russia _ now, we don't know to what extent that is sanctioned by the russian government but that is certainly another bone of contention between the two but, you know, i think it kind of reflects biden's world view that he tends to want to engage with adversaries in the hopes of trying to, diplomatically, so to speak, as a way of trying to find some common ground, figure out whether you can get certain issues forward and i think some of those issues will be perhaps iran's nuclear programme with a shared interest. possibly a new arms control treaty, syria, what have you. so there is a long list of things that they do need to discuss. all i can say is it will certainly be a very different summit to the one in 2018 between trump and putin which was, as you may remember, a disaster. trump was trying to curry favour with putin, said

he believed him when he said that russia had nothing to do with election meddling in 2016. and it was by and large seen as an embarrassment. you know, so this will have a very different tone to it and we will wait to see how much of the sort of clash that might happen behind the scenes we get a view on the kind ofjoint statement that they might put together at the end. let me just ask you about the g7 summit in cornwall because the pandemic of course is going to feature very heavily. and it is a chance, really, for more co—operation between the big nations of the world. yes, and as we have been hearing there have been calls coming in from international diplomats and former leaders and others putting pressure on the g7 to really come up with a big financial contribution to vaccine roll—outs in developing nations.

gordon brown, the former british prime minister being one of them. saying that the g7 collectively has got the fire power to make a much bigger contribution at the moment financially. the health ministers of the g7 have been meeting in oxford. they've come out with a communique, one bit of which includes a push to speed up and harmonise drug development so that drug trials can happen a lot more quickly, and there are standards for doing it, because one thing learned in this pandemic is the normal rather ponderous way that drugs are approved had to be thrown out of the window to get to treatments and vaccines to the patient as quickly as possible and then there are moves to boost international agreements on certification so that vaccine passports and certificates could be more easily available. but of course this is all talk at the moment. at the end of the day, summits are about talk.

whether any action follows is another matter. we are talking about talking. 0k. before we go i want to ask each of you to tell us something that has caught your eye, maybe a story or event we ought to be covering. maybe we're not. let's start with you, thomas. there have been a number. of cases lately of compatriots of mine in germany and other eu citizens who came - through heathrow airport - and had problems being accepted by the border forces, _ either as some of them who had settled status and were allowed to stay in britain but the documents i were not recognising l and had to be verified, first of all. and others who thought. they wanted to try to work and the border force said no, this is not possible _ and they were put in detention. and straight away asked to fly back home. - there has been a general sort of breakdown in good spirits i and good vibes, as it were, between the forces that be| at the border and visitors. i think all these problems are

causing a lot of reputational i damage to britain in europe because these stories - about what you envisagej and what you experience when you try to enter britain, they spread like brushfire, i they are all over the media in europe and they lead - to an increased ill will- towards britain and i think we need to study what happens at the british border— and whether or not a new sense of xenophobia is taking hold - of those officials and we need to really fight it tooth - and nail to not allow this to happen. - alright, thank you for that, thomas. stephanie, what has caught your eye? well, you know, two cases of pro—democracy activists being arrested i think i would love to highlight. 0ne, obviously, today is the anniversary of the tiananmen square massacre and a pro—democracy activist there was detained. can i pronounce her name right? chow hang tung. just a very sad moment.

and in belarus i think we have moved on and forgotten about roman protasevich who remains injail and he appeared in a one hour tv interview in belarus where he pledged his support for the belarusian president and, you know, confessed to alleged crimes and some of his supporters noted that, you know, he had marks on his wrist which indicated that, you know, he had been tortured. so here you have a case of two pro—democracy activists, you know, campaigning against authoritarian regimes who are now sitting in prison and it isjust a sad state of the world that, you know, they are just two of many other activists in similar situations. do you think the world, the democratic world, if you like, does enough?

there are a lot of protests and strong words about those things that you are talking about but is there enough action? well, you know, not enough. we are confronting these authoritarian regimes that are routinelyjailing, you know, activists. and it pops up in the news and then we all forget about it, which is why i wanted to highlight the plight in belarus because it is easy to move on in the cycle and forget that these people are still sitting injail. so i don't actually think there was enough that is done and not enough attention paid to these cases. and they are multiplying. thomas, a quick one to you. do you think that the democratic world, if you want to call it that, is doing enough on these things? whatever you do in these| instances you are actually hitting against a stone wall.

these authoritarian regimes, dictatorships, why don't - we call them _ by their proper names? we'll absolutely fight it i and move it off the table and not care a single iota about whatever protest l we put forward. if you want to go further. and punish those regimes by sanctions then you have - a problem in your own country. will sanctions hurt our own interest? | economic and otherwise? there is a limit to what we can do if countries behave - in a dictatorial sense i and reign supreme over the freedom of their subjects. that is a very hard nut to crack. - thomas, thank you. a minute for hugh to tell us what has caught your eye. long covid. the symptoms that can persist for many, many months after somebody has had the virus. figures from the uk say a million people are reporting long covid symptoms and a big increase in people who have had them for more than a year.

i interviewed a woman of 26 studying for a phd and keen on outdoor activities like mountaineering and canoeing, she said all of that had to change. it had totally changed her life and her message to other 20—year—olds and anyone else who has not had a vaccine and who is eligible, go get it, because long covid is a very nasty long lasting condition which there is no cure or remedy at the moment. hugh, thank you very much indeed. that is it for dateline london for this week. my thanks to thomas, stephanie and hugh here in the studio and of course, thanks to you very much for watching. as i mentioned, i will be in cornwall next week for the g7 summit. looking forward to a little english sunshine on the coast. shaun ley will be here next week same time, same place. dojoin him then. from all of us here, goodbye.

hello there. last week was the first week ofjune but it was also half term and the weather could not have been better. we quite literally had sunshine topping and tailing the country — as you can see by this weather watch picture sent in, from fife, all the way down to cornwall, not a cloud in the sky, light winds, lots of sunshine. the warmth peaked on wednesday and in fact it was the warmest day of the year so far across scotland, northern island, wales and also into england. 0ur week ahead will be a little bit more mixed, unfortunately. particularly into the far north and west as we see weather fronts just toppling in across an area of high pressure. that's going to bring some cloud and increasing, strengthening wind at well at times, and this further south in the east will keep warmer, drier and sunnier weather.

so let's take a look in a little more detail then. monday morning, it starts off a little on the cloudy side with some mist and fog shrouding the coast. that will thin and break, we'll see some sunshine developing but into the afternoon, we could have a few sharp showers, particularly to the east of the pennines, some of these heavy and thundery. temperatures widely high teens, low 20s, just that little bit cooler into the far north and east. now, as we move into tuesday, high—pressure clings on across england and wales. across the top of that high, we'll start to see some weather fronts pushing in. the winds will start to increase, will have a little bit of showery rain in northern ireland in the western fringes of scotland. and generally a little more cloud into scotland. sheltered eastern areas should keep some sun and highs of 20 degrees, but we could see 22 celsius, 72 fahrenheit across southeast england. as we move out of tuesday into wednesday, more of the same, really. if anything, the isobars squeeze together and the winds are set to increase. some of the rain could be heavy along west facing slopes and there'll be more

cloud generally pushing across northern england, wales and down into the south—west. the best of the sunshine on wednesday into the south—east, but because the wind direction is coming from south—westerly, it's going to be quite a humid feel to the day. temperatures widely into the low to mid 20s to the south, a little bit cooler further north. thursday into friday looks likely to see a good deal of dry weather. but again, always the warmest of the weather down to the south. that's it, take care. threatens his own authoritarian rule~ _

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm david eades. our top stories: votes are counted in mexico's biggest election, marked by violence and killings and seen as a referendum on the policies of president 0brador. israeli forces fire stun grenades as two high—profile palestinian campaigners are released after being questioned by police. named in honour of her great grandmother and her grandmother, harry and meghan announce the arrival of lilibet diana. and kicked out of paradise: the indigenous indonesians forced to make way for a new tourist development.