of president jair bolsonaro, demanding that the covid vaccination programme be speeded up. it comes as brazil passes the mark of half a million covid deaths, with the country entering a third wave of the pandemic. the us says it will continue negotiating with iran to revive the international nuclear deal, following the election of the hardline cleric ebrahim raisi as the next iranian president. his victory following a tightly controlled election in which reformists were barred from standing. a gay pride rally has taken place in poland's capital warsaw, with thousands of people taking to the streets. the march took place despite a clampdown on lgbt rights in poland, where same sex marriage is illegal and the government backs conservative catholic teaching. now on bbc news, dateline london, with shuan ley.

hello. i'm shaun ley. welcome to the programme which brings together columnists from leading journals, bbc specialists and the reporters who write, broadcast and blog for folks back home from the dateline: london. this week — biden�*s back and bibi's out. what changes will follow from a united states administration re—engaged on the world stage and an israel led by its first new prime minister in more than a decade? to discuss that and more, i'm joined byjeffrey kofman, who hails from canada and anchored programmes there and in the united states. he's also served as a foreign correspondent in war and peace. russian—born arkady ostrvosky reports on the country of his birth, as well as eastern europe, for the economist.

the bbc�*s chief international correspondent, lyse doucet, also canadian by birth, is with me here. canadian by birth and nationality. we are glad to have you here. thank you for being with us. pasties in cornwall, pate in brussels, petite arvine by the glass on lake geneva. us presidentjoe biden has had a busy week, encompassing multi—national diplomacy with g7 and nato and a bi—lateral with vladimir putin. more than once, in the folksy style honed by five decades in america's national politics, mr biden declared, "america is back". it is a neat phrase, some might even say it is, a glib phrase but america is back in what way and where? the question is an existential back or aspirational america is back?

the answer is it is a bit of both. the fact is that donald trump took america out of international organisations and threatened to get out of nato and really panicked the western alliance. whatjoe biden is saying is we are back in this alliance and we are back as a collective but that aspirational part of it is that donald trump and the american democracy has really been tested and the legitimacy of american democracy is not where it was a decade or two ago and so it becomes an aspirational america is back. america wants to be notjust economic but the moral leader of the world. biden is keen to restore that but there is a lot of work to do. nonetheless, america is back at the table. and that really is the take away from this past week. in european terms, what might america is back mean? i think this is the moment that

everybody has been waiting for with some trepidation and huge anticipation after the psychodrama of donald trump and his relationship with vladimir putin. i thinkjust a sense of america returning to its former self in terms of diplomacy, and institutions and in terms of predictable statements and policies — that in itself has brought some relief and of course for europe, russia has been one of the main worries, particularly since 2014 and the war in ukraine, belarus. so this is a very important moment for europe to see american leadership because for many years, for the past few years a lot of europeans particularly in eastern europe were not

sure where they stand. in terms of president putin, clearly he stroked his ego with his invitation to meet one—on—one as if and two superpowers meeting like the old days. but whenjoe biden says we will return what you do in kind unless you co—operate on things like cyber attacks, does president putin really have cause to take that seriously? president putin understands power and understands force. for the past few years he has been able to claim escalation dominance partly or largely in that knowledge that there would be no push back. after the reset of americans relationship with russia in 2008 by barack obama. there wil be no real

pushback from donald trump. i think in his press conference and they had individual press conferences, it's quite interesting thatjoe biden tried to walk a very tight line here. on the one hand as you say not so much to massage his ego but to meet him face—to—face and try to mitigate whatever he can by not giving him an opportunity to have a joint press conference. but as i said, putin understands what power means and when somebody is prepared to push back and joe biden in very calm terms has made it incredibly clear that cyber attacks on american infrastructure will be retaliated. he gave him a list of things that... a list of infrastructure sites that should not be touched. he delivered a thinly veiled threat saying how would you like if your pipeline was attacked? and he said all the things on ukraine i think which was

important to state particularly following russia's build—up of troops on the ukrainian border that the conflict should not go further in military terms. i think putin did take it seriously. i think for putin it's important to get a sense where he can concentrate on things at hand which unfortunately means suppression of opposition, purges is of the political system and getting himself back into power in 2024. how should allies measure his words against his actions because the obvious place to talk about is afghanistan where there was a consultation but not much of a consultation before america announced we are off. i think he's right. there was a palpable sigh of relief. you could hear it when president biden won the election and when he was inaugurated. they had been waiting for the day to meet face—to—face.

they loved the fact that america is back. he used the phrase stable and predictable. president biden said i want a stable and predictable relationship with president putin. the europeans want a stable and predictable relationship with the united states as well. if only to use the phrase if we could have been in the room where it happened. we are told that when the 13 nato partners sat down together there was a consensus in the room. that he had made the right decision. there was no good time to put out the last of the nato—led forces but now is the time he had to pull them out. yes, there was to use the british phrase barely concealed frustration. europeans had not been consulted and nato allies had not been consulted but there �*s that expression that we went in together we are going out together and they are showing a public show of strength and unity. but there is clearly a lot of scrambling going on. where will they base us forces in the region? where will they train afghan

national security forces? because they're all saying, our troops are leaving afghanistan but we are not leaving afghanistan. we are going to help you and they still need to help as the taliban inch closer district by district back into power. so there seems to be a lot of scrambling going on when the weeks are counted before the last of the forces leave. when you hear a quote like this from the defence secretary who says it possibly could take two years for international terrorist groups to regroup, regenerate inside afghanistan and pose a threat to the us. that almost sounds like speaking against the administration. we are told the defence secretary actually gave his advice to the president that they actually should leave some kind of residualforce and counterterrorism force and he may have heard that from other senior commanders as well. butjoe biden thought very carefully about what he wants

to do and he decided now is the time to go. what president biden said publicly was is 2021 is now 2001, the terrorism threat is different. we don't need to have a huge footprint in order to deal with it. and as he put it, it's not just afghanistan, it's many others, where there is a terrorism threat and he feels this is the optimistic view that they could deal with it. but there is clear concern and the secretary—general of nato has made that clear as well. publicly. one subject we should not avoid mentioning at this point is china because it was specifically singled out in both the g7 and the g7 communique at the end of the summit and also in the talks in nato. we are told thatjoe biden and xijinping have a relationship from whenjoe biden was vice president. we are told they can have a dialogue with one another but is there

much for china to fear from the other remaining superpower in the world? i think it's interesting that china is now so high on the agenda. if you look a few years ago it was all about russia but clearly the balance of power in the world has changed. i think it's not a question of if china has something to fear, china dismissed g7 as a clique of rich western countries and nothing to be afraid of but i think unity within the g7 and unity with nato is a really important power balance against china's power which is very effective for economic and international aid. in biden saying he is back in leading that coalition, that very much is what he is after is a unified voice against china to speak out about human rights.

to say hey if you want to be an international player that's fine but there are basic standards of civility on the international stage that you have to live up to around freedoms and suppression of people within your country, around human rights and forced labour and taiwan and around hong kong. the only way that is going to be effectively heard is if china really is shamed into this and forced by a western coalition to do something. should we expect concrete responses and for china to back down immediately? no, that is not going to happen. these are incremental things but it's clear that a unified western voice will have much more impact. china has been very discreetly spending trillions of dollars in developing countries but a hundred countries have received its road and bridge aid and infrastructure projects and highways in kenya

and ports in brazil. these are countries starved for modern infrastructure as the west has become more parsimonious about supporting developing countries, china has taken the opposite track and has effectively through soft power and hard infrastructure asserted itself massively on a global scale and one of the things that came out of this is a commitment to counter western countries. let's check back on that because that means they have to spend real dollars on places where they are not voluntary and that is always hard. —— voters. thank you very much. it was an understandable error by benjamin netenyahu. just after the vote during sunday's special session of the knesset approved the new government formed without him, the now ex—prime minister returned to his seat. a parliamentary seat he had first occupied 25 years before — almost to the day, in fact — and where this oft—described israeli hawk had been entitled to perch for the last 12 years. entitled no longer.

his seat was that designated for the leader of the opposition. he seemed not quite able to believe it. quite a lot of other people are not able to believe an israel without netanyahu in charge. it's an extraordinary situation and one that does not mean that government replaces him is going to be around very long either? start with america is back, he is biding his time and i don't think anyone can rule out bibi and he's in opposition and he's already using every podium he came to talk about this dangerous left—wing government that he is going to try to bring down. even by the standards of electoral politics and coalition politics of israel, this is a very rickety one. it goes from the far right, the nationalist parties to the secular left—wing

and including an arab islamist — you could not get more of a motley collection and what is the glue that holds them together? to get benjamin netanyahu out of power. and they did. but they are going to be tested. they've already been tested. israeli air strikes into gaza, baloons coming in from the gaza strip and there has been an ultranationalist march through the streets ofjerusalem and they will be tested again. because benjamin netanyahu will continue to make it clear that he is waiting in the wings, perhaps that is something that will hold them together. i think everyone is already wondering when will the next election be? one thing that might is naftali bennett and his force of his personality because he's an interesting political character himself isn't he? he is fascinating. this is a really interesting story to watch. naftali bennett has to be a contortionist to survive. he has this coalition

in which he only has seven feet and yet he heads the coalition as he pointed out of base push and the israel politics for the first time far right from his party to centrist and the far left and the arab islamist party. for him to hold it together, it's going to be extraordinary. he is a former aide to netanyahu and he has turned on his boss. he is against a two—state solution and said very clearly he does not support the traditional peace process that we had been watching lurch back and forth for the last number of decades. and yet he says he is a liberal on gay rights, he wants to break the union's hold on the israeli economy. he picks and chooses what he believes in but the important thing is in his

initial speech he said we have to talk together and we have to work together. it would be very interesting to see whether he can hold that coalition and if he genuinely believes that. he had a very direct message in his opening address to the knesset to russia and the other members of the security council and germany negotiating with iran at the moment, don't sign a nuclear deal. what clout do you think he has in that context, given this weekend we will see a change of president in iran? these are not real elections. these are pretty much staged. the idea of iran coming back into a deal is very important| and clearly something that president biden i has thought through. the timing, also, was very interesting of biden's iran| diplomacy because it came before g7 -

and it came before his meeting with russia, with russian president vladimir putin. j i don't think, of course - prime minister bennett has to say this is one of the lines of attack from bibi. - look, iran should rejoice - now that we had this change of power, very sarcastic, - and mr bennett will not be able to stand up to biden. there are huge interests - on the us side and every side to bring iran back. into a nuclear deal. one country that actually might listen to israel more, interestingly i think l is- russia. not out of great love for israel, though. . president putin

seemed to think that israel is an example and how- to stand for your own i and how to take critical action and etc. but because russia might not want a deal with the us, - for the us to have a deal with iran because that i will bring oil and gas back- and that will give much greater leverage to president biden. and the european powers over russia because if iran. gas and oil come back, that reduces russia's ability to blackmail europe. - how much is russia interested in israel? because so many russians actually moved to israel after the collapse of the soviet union. there is a strong eastern european diaspora in modern israel. that's right. russian is the second most spoken language in israel. i there is a huge diaspora. i think russia is very interested in israel. | it has an easy relationship. historically, the soviet union

was very much against israel| on the hamas side and russian leadership still meets hamas l in moscow but as somebody who likes to go after his - opponents abroad and hit out, putin has this institution - and former kgb that. runs the country now. been anti—semitic. putin himself is not - and as i said i think he has this admiration for israelis'l audacity and its ability to hit out and look after its| people and i think it's something that he does veryl much admire and appreciate. could this make any difference to the departure of netanyahu on the palestinians? no.

they simply do not agree at all on anything to do with the palestinian issue. they will try to work on the israeli domestic issues which are really urgent but naftali bennett has been on the record saying he opposes a palestinian state. there are members of his coalition who are strong proponents, still, of the two—state solution, so that is not going to be an issue where we are expecting to see much progress but i think the palestinians will say there has not been any progress on the palestinian issue for as long as they can remember. just time, before we go, for each of you to mark our cards about a story you think hasn't received enough attention — arkady, first. i think the story that has not... it receives attention sporadically when it breaks into the news for largely very unfortunate reasons is belarus. that idea that people are being tortured and suppressed in this way and the plane has been hijacked as we know

roman protasevich and his girlfriend, and tragic it's happening in europe in the 21st century. this story has also much wider importance for the world. notjust for humanitarian reasons, although they should not be underestimated, but belarus, the small european country that has been in the midst of tragedies of the 20th century is really important today for how the relationship shapes between the west and russia. they are watching that as a potential theatre of action. russia considers it its backyard and the only reason lukashenko is in power, lets be honest, is because of russia's backing. it's all the more important for america and europe to impose sanctions now on his regime which will serve as a message to russia. it's also a message too, it's a small country which including china, has been a traditional

backer of lukashenko. a lot of things could be decided, a lot of decisions could be made, a lot of calculations made on the basis of what happens next in belarus. i think it's the country we must watch very carefully and we should lend whatever support we can give to very brave people who are in jail, in terrible conditions. thank you. i am going to take a different approach. i think the story that does not receive enough attention in its author's eyes and that's dominic cummings, clearly devastating revelations about health secretary matt hancock and borisjohnson and their utter mismanagement of the covid—19 crisis early on. a year ago johnson's own lack of confidence in matt hancock. in another era there might have been resignations about this stuff but it shows you how

accountability of politicians and people in public life has changed in the last number of years. like donald trump, it's acceptable that people just accept that boris johnson is kind of chaotic and kind of competent and now he says his own health secretary is and yet the story had no impact, itjust kind of dissipated and so we moved on. we do move on indeed. this story about one i of the very last corners of syria which is not controlled by president assad's forces. - according to the un people l living in the northwest corner are being kept alive - by a lifeline which is a border crossing from turkey and that cross—border operation - is at risk and it will. expire july the 10th. president biden said he discussed it withl president putin at theiri meeting but no decision was made and president putin did not confirm that russia . would not again veto that last border crossing. - there used to be four. it's now because of the vetol

by china and russia it's down to one and so the fate - of millions of people resides on that un security- council vote next month. just briefly on russia, continuing concern in russia about what's happening in syria? or has this conflict been parked? no, the conflict has not been parked, russia will use whatever cards it's got. the confrontation with the us has not ended. it's a bargaining chip in putin's relationship withjoe biden. what putin wants most of all, this meeting that we began with has been all about firming up red lines and clarifying rules of engagement. for putin, the most important thing is that biden and america keeps out of russian politics which russia sees as interference and essence of a conspiratorial mind and keeps it out of russian�*s

backyard. in return for that, syria is a very important bargaining chip that russia thinks it can trade. it doesn't really care about assad, it does not care about rebuilding the state in syria. it sees syria purely in transactional terms. thank you all very much. thank you for your company. i hope you have a good night. from all of us on the programme, goodbye. hello, on sunday we saw temperatures in the mid to high 20s, this sunday some of you will be lucky to get into the mid teens, and that's after a spell of yet more rain

overnight clearing its way off into the north sea as we go through the day and leaving a legacy of cloud and developing easterly breeze. so, into the morning, luckily not too chilly at this stage, and certainly across scotland, northern ireland, not as chilly as it was saturday morning but england and wales lots of cloud around, outbreaks of rain and drizzle, heavy bursts still towards the east of england in particular. that will gradually ease away, rain and drizzle light and patchy and showers will develop and around southern counties of england and south wales. at the same time after some sunny spells in scotland, northern ireland we see cloud and showery rain, some of which will be heavy pushing its way southwards and eastwards. a developing easterly breeze tomorrow across the eastern half of the country and that is what is going to limit the temperatures to 1a or 15 degrees for some but in some sunny spells there will be some around the english channel, 20, 21, maybe similarsort of temperatures in south—west scotland and north—west england. through sunday night then and the showers across scotland and northern ireland pushing their way further southwards. at the same time another batch

of rain works its way out of france, across the channel islands and towards southern counties of england. a cooler night takes us into the summer solstice. across parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england. high—pressure building in, it's the azores high, that same one we had the other week but it's to the north of us, bringing in cool air interacting with that rain we will see through the english channel. the big uncertainty is how far north this rain band gets, looks mainly across southernmost counties but it could get into the midlands, maybe east anglia at times too. away from that it should be a dry and bright day but with a northerly breeze for the stage in latejune, it is going to be a cool one, temperatures for some only around 13—16 degrees. and what will follow will be a distinctly chilly night. we finish the summer solstice and go into a night which could bring a touch of frost across some sheltered valleys in the grampians and also the highlands, single figure temperatures in fact quite widely into tuesday morning, but tuesday compared to monday, much, much brighter, a lot more sunshine around,

still that notable breeze down eastern coasts, that will ease through the day, gradually becoming a little less chilly here and temperatures in one or two spots climbing back up to around 20 or 21 degrees. and then into the end of the week it looks like a bit of a flip around. northern areas most likely to see some rain at times, southern areas, that bit drier. bye for now.

hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones: we start in brazil where the number of deaths related to covid—19 has passed half a million — the second highest toll in the world. the virus continues to spread as presidentjair bolsonaro refuses to back measures such as social distancing. experts say the outbreak could worsen with slow vaccination rates and the beginning of winter. mark lobel reports. as covid deaths reach 500,000 here, the painful goodbyes continue.