rioting has broken out for a second night in the netherlands over new coronavirus lockdown restrictions. hundreds of people have lit fires and pelted the police with rocks and fireworks in the hague. the protests mirror friday night's violence in rotterdam. the world health organisation says its very worried about the rise in covid—19 cases in europe. the un body has warned there could be a further half—a—million covid—related deaths on the continent by march, estimating one person is dying from the virus there every fifteen minutes. the women's tennis association says new videos allegedly showing missing tennis player peng shuai this weekend are not enough to guarantee she is safe. her whereabouts have been uncertain since she accused a high ranking chinese official of sexual harassment. the wta says it's prepared to cancel tournaments in china.

now on bbc news, dateline london, with shaun ley. hello, welcome to the programme which brings together leading uk commentators with the international correspondents who write, blog and broadcast to audiences at home from the dateline london. this week, the business of people smuggling to europe, russia's gas—powered foreign policy, and is being a british mp a full—timejob? to discuss that, we are joined byjeffrey kofman, who has been a news anchor and foreign correspondent for broadcasters in his native canada and in the united states, marc roche, who writes for the french political and news weekly le point, and british political commentator steve richards, who is here in the studio. welcome to all of you.

it's lovely to see you again. brexit allowed the uk to take back control of, among other things, its borders. but this government has proved no more successful than its predecessors in stopping illegal migration. the problem even be getting worse. on a single day last week, 1185 people risky pedals crossing in small boats from france to the east coast of england. the mystery is how they get into the schengen zone in the first place — eu countries between which you can travel without passport checks. with no effective means of stopping the exploitative trade in people smuggling, an australian—style solution is now under consideration — transferring them for processing to albania, on the other side of europe, and at no small expense. marc, how are the migrants who end up in and around calais in france thought to be getting there? it is very easy because, really, the point of the single market is free

movement of people, so once you go in, you can go anywhere. so you arrive in calais, because it is closest to britain. they all want to go to britain because you have family there, because they speak english, because with brexit and global britain, they think the roads are paved with gold. the problem is not a french problem, it is a british problem, and i think that for britain to solve that problem, they have to welcome them — that is a moral duty. the french cannot do anything. they do their best, but the fact is that the british have not even bid for the french policy. you said "once they get into the schengen zone," but it doesn't answer the question of how they get in in the first place, because they are not documented to get into any of the schengen countries. you know very well that the schengen countries

are quite permeable to people coming in. you go through greece or poland or italy, it is very easy for people to get in. the problem is they do not want to stay in the eu and also, there is no country wants to welcome them in the present climate between coronavirus and extreme right wing, so it is up to the british government to solve that problem, not the eu. steve, the people smugglers seem to have outfoxed notjust this government but a succession of previous governments. could out—of—country processing be a game changer? i doubt it. this has always been an option. i remember when michael howard was leader of the conservative party in opposition. he came up with the idea of an island where this process could take place. early in the century, this? yes.

and tony blair, who was pretty defensive on this and wary of taking on the conservatives over this issue, said, "where is this island?" and it could not be specified. now we have heard about albania, but we have also heard about senior figures in albania saying they are not going to do this, so this has been a kind of constant thing that there would be a fantasy place where they could all gather and be processed, so i doubt whether that would be a solution. but when you look at australia, they had about 20,000 people a yearcoming in. the year after they did this off—country on some pretty grim islands — it has to be said — in the pacific, the numbers of people came down to 160. presumably, a few people smugglers being able to deliver their contract, getting you to the coast of britain, then people would stop giving them the money. yeah, but where is this equivalent island? in other words, pointing out

albania is still a country connected to europe. exactly. one of many interesting issues raised by this is that the key relationship for britain is actually not america, it is with france — and it is disastrous at the moment for the relationship — but this is the geographical neighbour to the uk. this is the country with many common interests in terms of security, similar size, economy, etc. and yet, the way through this is to engage with france. so it is very unfashionable to say it but just trying to score points against france, and vice versa, for political, electoral purposes, is crazy. it is in britain's interests to have a good relationship with france, and that is not a specified solution, but i think without that, there will be no solution. jeffrey, priti patel,

the home secretary, she is in washington at the moment. she had a meeting with her us opposite number. there is clearly common ground on this concern about migration and border control. whether people are coming from central america to try to get into the united states or they are coming from the middle east and africa to try to get into the uk or other parts of europe indeed, it costs them money. there is a real debate about how people are paying for this. is itjust remittances from relatives who already live in the country sending money back home? are they selling everything they have to try to get in? how is this trade being financed? that is a really interesting question and, so far, - we do not have a clear answer. but there are some patterns happening, and anticipatingl what i think will be our next

conversation, if you look. at what is happening - on the belarus—poland border with migrants, there i are not just fingerprints of alexander lukashenko, the dictator of belarus, i on this crisis, but also a direct link to vladimir putin. i putin knows how stabilising the migration issue is. - he saw it in 2016 — - it was one of the biggest issues that led to the vote in favour of brexit here. . so, it is fair to ask "is thisjust_ happening randomly? "are people just i selling their homes and surging, or is somebody pulling the strings?" - but also around brexit, - how was taking back the border going, mr farage, mrjohnson? the promises were inflated. it is clearly not something that can be solved easily.

and, frankly, i'm not sure it can be solved at all, - until you can figure out how these people are getting. here and somehow discourage it. but that is not going to happen easily. . look at the us — - it is a constant flow. people will recall that you were a brexit sceptic, and steve was as well. marc was that very unusual thing, a european anglophile. i can even see a figure of the queen behind you. as somebody who supported brexit, how would you respond to that? i support brexit because i thought that was the wish of the british people — and i was right in that way — but i never supported the mess that was coming next. it is quite clear that the europeans who left will be replaced by non—europeans, because the british government does not want non—europeans.

so brexit failure is there. the fact that they are not ready to open the frontier to replace the europeans who left — and many of them did, as we see now — and to welcome non—europeans. but they don't seem to want the non—europeans. one of the important things to go with, steve, it is essential that the british are working with the french because for france, it is a disaster, the situation. 0n the one hand, immigration is top of the agenda because of all the calais mess. the presidential election, more than 50% — two candidates of the extreme right and the hard right, more than 50% in the polls

is against immigration. the french have their own battle against illegal immigration from a mostly northern and western africa. marc, thank you very much. it would be a tragic mistake, the british prime minister observed this week, if russia embarked on what it called "military adventurism" on the borders of poland and ukraine. why would president putin take the risk? after all, the use of migrants as pawns on one external border of the european union, poland's, and the threats of gas supplies to bind moldova and ukraine closer, seems to be selling him pretty well. seems to be serving him pretty well. jeffrey, what exactly do you think vladimir putin's strategy here? vladimir putin has a habit of poking the west, - destabilising at every opportunity he can. l we have seen it| with cyber wars, we have seen it with-

the annexation of crimea in 2014, the invasion of ukraine. - this is a particularly- vulnerable time in europe and the west. angela merkel is- handing over power, france is heading into an election, i joe biden is yet to assert - a russia doctrine which shows where he stands. putin is having a lot- of fun testing and pushing and conspiring, and this is what he does well. i he still feels, as do a lot- of russians of his generation, a sense of bitterness about the break—up of— the soviet union, - the annexation of former soviet states into nato, and this is just that - continued poking, ribbing, provoking, testing ofl nato and of the west. steve, we heard from president lukashenko of belarus at last on friday, and he basically said "i did not invite these migrants, but it is absolutely possible my troops were helping them over the border or trying

to get over the border into poland". the fact is it is now a humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding, and the poles don't seem to be helping very much because they are banning ngos, banning people from providing health care. they are basically saying "you cannot come and see what is going on here". is there a danger that the eu could end up looking like a villain in this? well, the eu, contrary to some of the mythologies — we won't go into brexit again — but contrary to some of the mythologies in the build—up to that referendum, has fairly limited autonomous power. so the eu does not have a collective foreign policy — that's why britain could back the war in iraq and france and germany did not. but this is effectively ending up as one of its member states, what it is doing on its border, and it reflects

on all europeans. indeed, they will have to work out what to do about it. but the point i was making in a way as the mechanisms, when there is an internal crisis, you see a humanitarian crisis now in one of its countries is not wholly formed, and so, yeah, it is a test for them. i think, to say it is a failure for them at the moment is that there are many levers to pull and they have not pulled them. they have to get their act together quickly and try to do something. and you are right — because it is one of its members, there is obligation, but the mechanisms are not really in place. as part of this the constant thought in european minds and the minds of the diplomats and european leaders, what is putin doing? do we want to provoke? it was interesting that lukashenko said a few weeks ago "the next thing i could do

is stop the gas getting to western europe — that has to flow through the pipelines that come from russia". whether or not he is going to do that, the european response has been compromised. whether to belarus or to russia. well, you konw, the eu is really depending on russian gas — 35% of the consumption comes from russia. and, of course, the three countries that depend the most, more than 50% of their need is germany, france, and italy, and those are very important eu countries, so there is no leverage there. and there's also the suspension by the german regulator of the nord stream pipeline between russia and northern germany, which is not helping the situation. and the energy situation in general, it is really bad

on the supply side. so there is absolutely no power for the eu, as steve said, who has no defence policy in general. the only thing that could play, and the russians would be a bit worried about, is of course that europe has two good armies, two nuclear nations, two nations with a permanent seat on the security council, britain and france. but, of course, the french bashing by mrjohnson does not help. jeffrey, you mentioned this whole question of biden�*s policy being unclear but it is clear that when vladimir putin massed troops on the border, joe biden hastily agreed a summit and had this big theatrical event in geneva when suddently, there was two politicians on the same status

again, which i'm sure president putin was very pleased about. but i wonder if there's a danger of accidental crisis here. we are pushing the idea of ukraine getting membership of nato, the british said this week they will start selling weapons to ukraine — could putin be in a situation where he might act sooner rather than later, because he fears the consequences of might happen later? he has already gone into part of ukraine, crimea. he went on to moldova, the so—called peacekeepers have never left. one wonders a bit about the stability here. sean, i think it would be. unwise to try to speculate on what putin's l real motives are. he did this in 2014 — _ he invaded, he annexed crimea. he did it in the spring — - put 80,000, 90,000 troops on the border, - then he pulled back. now he is doing it again. is he plain bluffing? is he just provoking? is he testing to see how much joe biden and the eu - will tolerate of this i kind of provocation? we simply don't know. but, of course, there's alwaysl the danger when you're talking about militaries, when you're

talking about potential- invasion is that things go wrong — that missiles - fired, — accidents happen, people are killed and it escalates. you know, this is very. much on both sides a war for the hearts and minds of their people. - putin wants his people to - believe that he is a champion for mother russia and that he is going to reclaim its formerl glory, but to go back to the belarus—poland migrant situation, there is also. a huge, huge public relations problem because winter- is setting in. and whether or not putin - and lukashenko have provoked this, it is going to be hugely problematic to defend not . letting people in if they are literally l freezing to death on the polish borden — so putin's kind of weaponising of migration, this provocationl in ukraine. putin is playing a really hard ball right now- and it is not clear where this takes us but it is a very- frightening situation, -

particularly when you see the real lives at stake here. jeffrey, thank you very much. now, a fortnight ago, borisjohnson dragooned his parliamentary colleagues through the division lobbies in the house of commons to defend a friend and former minister who had been found to have breached the rules on outside interests. last week, as we discussed on dateline, mrjohnson changed his mind. the mp concerned, facing likely suspension, quit parliament altogether. this week, the prime minister has described his original position as "a total mistake" and announced a crackdown against mps taking second jobs. in the process, he has managed to unite the opposition and many in his own party in contempt of his leadership. steve, he described it as "having driven the car on a clear day into a ditch". who or what have been the casualties of that lamentable piece of political steering? have you got about half an hour? laughs. well, let's talk about his leadership. borisjohnson has become

a cliche, he has often got away with things and remained incredibly popular. what we know for sure at the moment is, as you have said, his own mps are deeply unhappy about the last two weeks — and that makes a tory prime minister more fragile. the tory parliamentary party has become as difficult to deal with in government as the labour parliamentary party used to be when they were in government a long time ago. that is one consequence. there is another consequence about whether the polls are shifting. there is conflicting evidence about that. but if they do, his great ace card, his a source of authority — a poll lead and a perception that he is a good election winne — goes. but then there is a wider issue about what the uk wants the westminster parliament to be doing and already, i think, the fashion for electing local people based on their contribution to local communities has led to less weighty representation in the house of commons. and by turning this

into an issue about second jobs, rather than an attempt by borisjohnson to help his mate, the tory mp owen paterson — who is now gone — means there is now a risk that you actually even narrower the pool further of those who want go into politics. so i do not think second jobs are inherently catastrophic for elected politicians but that could be a third consequence, that you narrow those who go into— the commons — and that could be a bad thing. marc, it seems to have become almost a theological debate about how many hours and what sort ofjobs are acceptable. i mean, as an outsider and, as i say already, an anglophile — so somebody who has an affection for the uk and all the unusual things about its system — what is your take on this? is it a meaningful discussion we are having? well, it is, because, you know, one of the things i admire

since i arrived here, it is the mps that do. also that link with their constituents — they are almost social workers — and the help they give and their local presence compared to the continent, where there is proportional representation and no—one knows your mp, and parliaments play very little role in checking the executive. so it's a very sad situation. i would say that they stop all outside jobs, except the ones who are not paid because they earn, compared to the continent, quite good money — £82,000 compared to 25,000 the median income in this country. so there's no need to do extra work on top of the heavy workload. but on the whole, i am a great defender of the british parliament. it is a marvellous institution.

the house of commons, not the house steve, it might be helpful — because you talked about this kind of change in not necessarily the quality of mps, but the range of experiences — give us a kind of taxonomy of tories. is there is the kind of distinction between the pre—johnson tories and the tories that have come in since his big, massive win in 2019? yeah, if you win in areas which were traditionally labour, you are bound to elect different types of mps and they, on this issue, are very clear. most of them are thrilled to be earning the level of income that an mp gets. whereas some of the older guard think, "oh, yeah, we can earn a lot more. "what the heck is going on that this is all being stopped?" so this is an example of quite a significant divide and this issue has thrown it up.

but i think other issues will do so, and would have done so, because this is highly unusual what's happened — it has been called 'the red wall' and there's just sort of acceptance that this has happened. but it remains remarkable that a party that, in the 19805, got nowhere near any of these seats won loads of them and it is still being worked through, actually, what those implications are. and the consequences are in policy terms, jeffrey, because one of the other things about the red wall in the north of england — the previously labour seats — announced this week on transport and train connections, which might seem very parochial to people watching around the world, but actually seems to be a bit of a litmus test for this government. oh, it's not parochial at all. i mean, this is — everyj country has inequities. the economy of this country is so centralised in london i and the south, this north—south divide that you hear _

about so much, the concept — boris johnson ran on the - principle — of levelling up, reaching out to the north, creating structures so that the economies of the north - could grow in the 215t century, and a big - part of that is high—speed rail. the uk is so far behind spain and france and so many- countries much of europe, it is laughable. _ and hsz, the project under way, he cut it back this week- — he cut it back to the eastern side of the country, _ up to leeds and all - the way to edinburgh — but he kept the arm going up to manchester— through birmingham. he has now created an east—west divide in the north, _ and it has not been received well. - the notion that the country cannot afford it is being - countered with "you can't afford not to do this. - "you have got to build an infrastructure for l the 215t century" and the blue

wall that steve talked - the election of so many tories in - traditional labour seats, is really now in question, - certainly in the eastern places like leeds and newcastle that have expected to be part - of this new opportunity, - that would take years to build, it is under constructionl at now, and now he has dialled it back. boris johnson died on very few policies, taking back control. of the borders from migrants i and levelling up, both of those are now undermined. jeffrey, steve, marc, thank you all very much. lovely to talk to you all again. we are out of time. do join us next week the same time next week for dateline. have a good week. goodbye.

hello. it may have turned colder but along with that change, the skies in many areas on sunday will be a good deal bluer. in fact, that change took place on saturday in scotland once the colder air had moved on through. in fact, that's now spread south right towards the uk. along with the sunshine, though, there is a chance of catching a shower — and more especially across eastern areas of the uk. so this cold front is moving away so behind it the colder air, along with the clearer skies, across the uk but, yes, that colder air has arrived. now, it will feel very different from everything we've had so far this autumn, but it's not at all unusual for the time of year. and there will be a touch of frost in parts of scotland and northern england as the day begins, and as i mentioned earlier, once it's up, plenty of sunshine around, with a scattering of showers in northern scotland, wintry on hills and a few early on in north east england, becoming more widespread across the eastern side of england as we go on through the day. one or two heavier ones in there as well.

whereas for much of south west scotland, northern ireland, wales, the western side of england, bar an isolated shower, it'll be dry and sunny. and there's a brisk breeze adding a chilly to average speeds around some coasts of northern scotland, north sea coasts, a0 mph gusts, and temperatures for the most part in single figures — just 10—11 around some of the coasts of wales and south west england. we'll keep a few showers in the east overnight and into monday and cloud increasing in northern scotland with a few outbreaks of rain moving in. with the cloud here, temperatures are holding up with the wind along the north sea coast, whereas elsewhere, there will be a more widespread frost as monday begins. now, monday for england and wales will deliver quite a bit of sunshine. some cloud increasing in northern england. still the chance for a shower towards the north sea coast, parts of south east england. notice cloudier skies for northern ireland and scotland. some patchy rain in northern scotland. with that, though, temperatures are edging up again a few degrees. so temperatures actually rally for a few days in the week ahead before, later in the week, we have another push of cold air spreading its way southwards and likely

to be a touch colder than the air we find ourselves in at the moment. quite a lot of dry weather around this week — just a few showers here and there — and the showers, as the colder air moves in by friday, will be wintry in places. response has been compromised.

welcome to bbc news. i'm ben boulos. our top stories: a second night of violence in the netherlands as new coronavirus restrictions draw protesters onto the streets in the hague. the world health organisation says it is very worried about the number of cases in europe, as the virus once again becomes the continent's biggest killer. success today does not mean success tomorrow because no country is an island. the missing tennis player peng shuai — new videos chinese media says were filmed this weekend fail to allay the fears of the international community. the us secretary of state warns of "real concerns" over russian military activities at the border with ukraine. we don't know what president

putin's intensions are, but we do know what's happened in the past,