since the cold war — as attempts to find a diplomatic solution continue. the downing street �*lockdown parties�* report is now expected to be delivered before the metropolitan police inquiry ends. tomorrow, events will be held in londonderry and around the world to mark the 50th anniversary of bloody sunday. ash barty wins the australian open to become first home winner in 44 years. # don't it always seem to go #. canadian singer—songwriter joni mitchell hasjoined neil young in calling for her music to be taken off spotify. now on bbc news, it's time for dateline london with shaun ley.

on friday, though, the police asked her to make only minimal reference to events that the police are investigating. steve, this is all getting very, very complicated. what should we make, do you think, of this police intervention on the grounds of not trying to prejudice something? it's not clear what it is they are not trying to prejudice. no, it's not at all clear, and as you suggest, shaun ley, the choreography of all this, the publication of the report and whether bits of it — the key bits, actually, will be in the report because of the police investigation. and all of this is important because timing in politics is significant. but if you step back from this never—ending, "when will the gray report be published and in what form?"

the situation is as clear as it can be. which is a prime minister stands accused of setting rules, breaking them and then lying about breaking them in the context of the biggest national emergency since world war ii. and in the end, whatever the complexities of the current choreography, we can all have views about these allegations. but it is conservative mps, they know really what's going to be in the gray report when it's finally published in its full form. and it's up to them whether they want to carry on backing this prime minister or removing him. it's a big call, but over to them. twitter erupts every second with views about it all, but they are the agents, they can decide. they could do it now, really. they know enough. but it's up to them, and i think many of them haven't decided what to do yet. that sounds like a political slogan from somewhere.

"you are the agents of change!" well, they literally are. it's in their hands. and what is so interesting, when you speak to some of these conservative mps, is firstly it's wrong to talk of them as some sort of collective group — older conservative mps have experienced the drama of trying to remove a prime minister. the younger ones, the new intake from december 2019, this is all new to them and it is a big thing to do. and frankly, they are the ones who are all over the place, as much as the metropolitan police and the fate of the sue gray report. and for the rest of us, stefanie, it sounds like it's going to be a case of, when sue gray finally publishes, we have to read between the lines. yes, it's been a very confusing week and days. and on tuesday, the metropolitan

police said on tuesday downing street said it's fine, we can publish some parts and then suddenly the metropolitan police came back and said, no, you can actually publish everything. and today there is just another turn. what i think is really difficult about this, and toxic at the end of the day, is that now everyone can make his or her own interpretation, what is actually going on in downing street. and of course i think it is very toxic that there are no allegations that there might even be a political stitch up, why the metropolitan police has now intervened and said the report cannot be published in full. there have even been accusations by the leader of the liberal democrats to say that might be really mingling. i think all this contributes to a feeling... i mean, what do the people on the street make of this? first they had to suffer, i think really suffer now for so many weeks, hearing day by day about parties, and now this is all a complete... very difficult to understand confusion about where

the police investigation goes and what the sue gray report still means. so i think this is very much eroding public trust into politics and politicians, and therefore i think it would be best if that sue gray report at least will be published as soon as possible. i don't envy you trying to explain this to your readers in die welt. no, it's not, actually. the headline today i think we picked was, "borisjohnson gets helped by the police," which i could imagine that people are even confused by that headline, but at least they might read it. it's true, i suppose, michael, is that one thing you can say about boris johnson is he does translate internationally. people at least have a grasp of who he is. i have certainly seen it reported on us networks, but is there much kind of understanding of this? does it translate well as a story? well, the thing is it's not- the first time a conservative prime minister has been in trouble in recent memory. -

i mean, theresa may was deposed only a few years ago, _ and people with longer memories do remember what happened _ to margaret thatcher- and that she wasn't defeated at an election but was - deposed by her own mps. the thing about boris . in america is, you know, he and donald trump in so many ways, i mean, on the surface you think- they are entirely different - because donald trump can't quote latin and greek at you, but on the other hand i they're both rich kids, who are privileged, i and clearly possessedl of some kind of socio— pathology where guilt and shame that would floor a normal person has no purchase on their souls. _ and so it's interesting - to hear steve talk because, you know, before i came |on i was looking and i see that| roger gale who is a very senior i backbencher and has been around. for some of these deposing of prime ministers is still calling

forjohnson to resign, i and yet i know that the precedent that we should look _ at is the donald trump precedent, where a year after losing - an election was still saying, "it was stolen and i'm - the real president. " i and i think that whatever happensl in these coming weeks and possibly months leading up to the may elections, i just feeljohnson i holding on to office _ using everything he possibly can, and that's why i think twitter is full of ideas that maybe i | he brought in the met at the lastj minute, the metropolitan police, to kind of gum up the works- on the release of the gray report. intriguing conspiracy theory, that one. stefanie on this question, there was a resignation this week. it wasn't a prime minister, it was a junior minister who, if i'm honest, most of us and even he would accept hadn't heard of him, but he left in the most extraordinary way. resigned at the dispatch box and in the process accused his government of being indifferent, uh, arrogant rather,

indifferent and ignorant about something like £4 billion worth of fraud that had taken place over money given to businesses that apparently didn't exist but people were given money by the government, taxpayers�* money, during the covid lockdown. it's an extraordinary state of affairs, and yet in truth that seems to have attracted a lot less attention than this business. yes, it does, and i think maybe that's also a bit of the nature of the british lobby or the journalists reporting on politics in the uk, because they are all now very much concentrated and focusing on what is happening in downing street and not so much what is happening in the lords — that was in the lords. but i must admit, i heard the number, ithought "four billion is quite a lot," but probably it's normal because of course in these times, in these really very extraordinary times when the government was propping up businesses, four billion might be something that is normal. but then i went back

and looked at germany. of course they also have the same numbers of fraud being done with subsidies paying by the state for businesses suffering in the pandemic, and they had, in 2020,150 million euros fraud that was found. so it is a very, very big number in the uk. and you are right, there's not much headlines about this, but i think it feeds in the wider question and that's also something that came up in the debate in the house of lords and around it, that there is a systemic failure of legislation that can really track down fraud. whether it's money laundering in london, and i know we are talking about ukraine in a minute and about russia, but there is really not enough hard legislation and that's the wider point also, that this government is stuck in so many scandals and problems that the real work which should allegedly improve people's lives is not being done

because there's so much destruction and so many other things going on. steve, last thought on this. yes, the reason that didn't get more publicity, it got quite a lot, is firstly because as you say he's not well known, the minister who resigned, but also because this whole saga over whether a prime minister broke his own rules and then lied about it is accessible and is significant. i'm one of those who thinks these things can be overplayed at times, but not this one. so yes, the four billion is another story. it was quite widely reported actually, and the speech in the house of lords he gave as he resigned was scathing. and there are still implications i think for rishi sunak and the treasury about all of this. but rishi sunak, the chancellor, is keeping a very low profile at the moment. for all sorts of reasons! thank you, steve. now, behind the drumbeat of war, did we just hear the faint sound of brakes being applied? on thursday, the united states rejected russia's central demand that ukraine should neverjoin nato. sergei lavrov, the russian foreign minister, said that although the biden administration

had not addressed its main concern about the western military alliance, its expansion, there's, quote, "hope for the start of a serious conversation on secondary questions". a fortnight ago, just a fortnight ago, the kremlin said, "we will not be satisfied with the endless dragging out of this process." and russia's representative at the organisation for security and cooperation in europe, the 0sce, warned, "we will have to take necessary measures to ensure strategic balance and eliminate unacceptable threats to our national security." and so they thundered largely over the last couple of months, stefanie, but do you think there is a sort of a shifting now in the russian position? well, i'm not sure. i mean, we had president putin talking to france, president macron today, and there were some positive notes coming out of it. i mean, moscow is saying that, yes, there has been some movement. the foreign minister or foreign secretary said there were some rational elements in what the us had said to...or

what the us had proposed. but of course, it doesn't change the fact that there are still more than 100,000 troops on the border of ukraine. the russians have also agreed, or there might be another meeting in the so—called normandy format, early february. so there is some, if you want to call it positive signs, maybe stability, a little bit of stability, but it's also at the same time it's very much that you see that the russian president wants respect, he wants attention. but what he really plans is still very, very unclear. but i think what... president... sorry, stefanie, carry on. i think what is also making the situation even more difficult is that, of course, there are also very different actions being taken by the us and by germany, for example, and the ukraine itself. i mean, the president has said actually, the situation is not as dangerous as some outside ukraine are saying. yes, i mean, that'sjust what i was going to quote.

he was sort of saying to everyone, michael, "calm down". joe biden is still saying he expects military intervention by russia, he now thinks next month. has he kind of positioned things well in this particular crisis after the embarrassment of afghanistan? he does at least seem to have got almost all the allies singing from the same hymn sheet. even germany, that we thought would be an outlier, was saying, "no, no, we're pretty much going to back the americans on this." well, you know, this is very... let'sjust go back in this crisis. it's two months, which is a long time in twitter time. _ the first anybody heard about it were unattributed briefings - in the washington post, new york times about l this troop buildup. this was not coming from kyiv. i mean, we didn't hear cries - for a little international support because the russians . are going to grab...look like they want to grab some more of our country. - and i think people need to remember about whojoe biden is. _ this year marks the 50th year

that he will be in public life. l he was elected to the senate, | i think he wasjust 28, in 1972, and he has always been a very, very staunch atlanticist. - and in the days of the i cold war, cold warrior. and my podcast this _ week is about how 30 years ago, when the when yugoslavia - disintegrated in violence, the us lagged behind. britain, france, - germany couldn't agree on when to have coffee, - much less how to, you know, monitor this situation. joe biden worked with bob dole in the senate, and it was theml who actually forced bill clinton's hand to finally bring _ an end to that crisis. i think he likes to. lead from the front. he's very comfortable i in dealing with russia. i mean, at this moment. the question is, - has he overblown it? to what degree has this been, - you know, a massive disinformation effort by vladimir putin, who is a master of it? . "yeah, i'm going to.

put 100,000 troops. now everybody's paying attention to me." - and what happens next? if this is a way of trying i to destabilise the west, will germany really, will its new government really switch off - nord stream if russian tanks roll into into ukraine? _ will londongrad suddenly, you know, with a conservative government - with close ties to many russian oligarchs, - will they shut off the city of london and their- access to their money? so these are questions that are all out there. i as forjoe biden, i suppose the fact that he raised the question - is the important thing. steve. yeah, i mean, there are many issues which we don't know yet, including what putin is aiming to do. but what i would say is that while it is relatively straightforward for the west, in inverted commas, to come round with a sort of broad

condemnation for what he has done so far, it's much harder in practice. i mean, michael's mentioned london and the russian wealth in london, which is, you know, various governments have thought about extracting in various ways or making it harder for them, but never do in the end, because the money...well, they need the money. and each country has got self—interest. there's also domestic politics at play inevitably. we've got president macron with a presidential election stating that he's playing a big role in this. i think we had at one point this week borisjohnson supporters saying he is the pivotalfigure in organising the west's response, not biden. and that's because he wants to use ukraine partly to save his own job. so there are all kinds of factors playing into this at the moment. but the fundamental one, i think, is no one knows for sure,

maybe putin doesn't, whether he is going to try and move into ukraine. and i think no one knows for sure that if he were to do that, precisely how the west, the us, obviously crucially, but others will respond. germany, stefanie, is particularly exposed on this because of its energy dependency. and so in that sense, it may have surprised people that actually chancellor scholz said, pretty much as americans would have hoped he would say, "look, you do this and this new nord stream project, nord stream 2 is dead." but i suppose the interesting is he didn't say it to existing... the existing project, the existing link, because presumably they can't really afford to do that, can they? well, actually, it wasn't even agreed by sholz, the now chancellor of germany, that there would be sanctions on russia involving nord stream if russia uses energy supply as a weapon.

that was already agreed by angela merkel last summer. so there is a paper which washington and berlin agree because you remember there was a pretty big row between washington and berlin around nord stream 2. and you can read it there. it says if moscow uses energy supplies as the weapon, there will be sanctions involving nord stream. i mean, the situation now in germany is much more complex because you have three parties in the government, the so—called traffic light coalition. the spd, of course, also has some domestic stakes because where the nord stream pipeline ends is in mecklenburg—vorpommern and their prime minister is spd politician and is very keen for this pipeline to start going, and because it's supplying with a lot ofjobs, a lot of money, of course. and i mean, don't forget more than 50, i think 55% of german gas consumed comes from russia, and the german industry needs gas. the gas prices have already gone up 30%. so, of course, there is a big

fear what might happen. but then again, it's a very german, a very complicated, almost schizophrenic position that the german government is taking with a lot of historical references and that they are not supplying weapons and so on, so forth. but i think the understanding is that if you don't speak clearly to russia, it will, uh, putin willjust play on that weakness. and that is presumably at the heart of the biden approach is that the message has to be clear and consistent. the message needs to be a clear one and consistent one. exactly. but you know, clarity... clarity is very hard and it's behind the scenes stuff. . and what worries me, i think, is far too much of this now- is happening amongst our colleagues. it shouldn't be being leaked to the press. | the diplomacy should really be i in secret and behind the scenes. and that's why, you know, - one isn't sure where this is going. but i myself remain slightly

sceptical that it's going - to go into a hot place. i'm with president zelensky in kyiv. i think everybody- should cool down a bit! good. well, let's hope they're listening, wherever they may be, the voices whispering and the people doing the briefing. abortion and voting rights are the most divisive issues in american politics, being shaped not by the elected arms of government, but byjudges. the united states has a written constitution and someone has to decide whether the laws passed in congress and the executive orders issued by the president are consistent with it. two of the nine justices of the supreme court, whose task that is, were appointed in the 20th century. soon it will be one. stephen breyer is reported to have told the white house that he's about to announce his retirement. although president biden has another three years in office, this may be his last chance

to shape the supreme court and with it, america's future. the odd thing about this, michael, is that he is a liberaljustice, small l liberaljustice, and yet it's the liberals who've been pressing for him to retire. could you explain that odd paradox? the history is it has to do with how how supreme court justices - and all federaljudges - are vetted by the senate and requires a senate vote. the senate is not functioning now. it's a totally partisan body - where republicans will only vote for republican stuff and democratsj are kind of forced on the back foot. what happened was ruth bader ginsburg, who was the senior liberaljustice, terrific woman, stayed on the court. she was ill, and there was a moment early in the last decade _ as she approached 80, where the democrats i controlled the senate, l and a lot of people said, "well, maybe you should step down. you've already had cancer. maybe it's time." she didn't. because it's an

appointment for life. she stayed on the court until the very last moment she passed away and the republicans were in charge of the senate. and they put, within days, they put a hard right young justice no, this was amy coney barrett. i mean, before that, i they literally, i mean, 0bama in his last year in office, had another opportunity, - but by then the republicans had control of the senate. _ he couldn't get his- nominee even a hearing. and that's how brett kavanaugh got on. l so it's critical at this momentl where there's a 50—50 senate with a tie breaking vote _ with vice president kamala harris that if you're going to try- and maintain a liberaljustice and it won't make much difference. because the court now is essentially six hard conservatives and three liberals. - it's a question of whether it - becomes seven hard conservatives and two liberals, and liberal is not political. _ i mean, this isjust a way of interpreting the law. l it's not... it's, yeah.

yeah, it's not a political thing. it's become terribly politicised. but the other thing is, see, that's most interesting to an outsider. i heard an american network on thursday night debating, well, it's going to be a black woman this time becausejoe biden has said that, and maybe it should be a hispanic man or woman the time after that. there's a sense in which almost the culture wars that they are supposed to try and stay above are being translated onto the court itself. well, is it? i mean, this term culture wars is pretty imprecise, it seems to me. i mean, president trump used patronage to put in all kinds of people who he felt reflected his kind of views. and i imagine biden will use this space to do the same now. there might be some tokenism in it in terms of whether it's hispanic or whatever. but presumably, whoever gets appointed will broadly reflect that liberal perspective, which, as michael has just outlined, is now in quite a striking minority.

and so, you know, i think people get too worked up applying this term culture wars when it's actually a sort of liberal versus small c conservative divide which is the more significant one. stefanie, you've got about a minute just to sum up on this. you know, it will be a significant thing, won't it, to have a black woman on the us supreme court? there's only been two african—american justices, one still serving, clarence thomas, and there's never been a black woman on the court. yeah, absolutely, i mean, the politicisation of the constitutional court is something that i'm absolutely fascinated by in the us, while in germany, we have something that's a german word for you, it's a nice long german word, which is actually constitutional patriotism. and that has meant that

the constitutional court is probably the institution in germany that germans have most respect for. and luckily, yet, it is not so politicised as it is in the us. i'm sure they're very much relieved about that. it's just going to say thank you all very much for being with us. thank you for your company. ben brown will be in the chair next week. i should just say to you that when stephen breyer was nominated, 87 senators voted for him. funny times. goodbye. hello, the weekend has begun with some very windy weather across the northern half of the uk, particularly thanks to a storm that has been named by the danish weather service, storm malik. sunshine and showers pretty much covers it

weather—wise and it will be turning colder through the day after what was a mild start. storm malik will cause big impact in denmark later in the week, but for us you can see tightly squeezed isobars, very strong winds with gusts up to 80 mph for expos spots in eastern scotland. we have a met office amber warning here, also extending into the far north—east of england. more broadly, across northern england, northern ireland and scotland, a met office yellow warning where we could see gusts of wind up to 80 mph. some outbreaks of patchy rain sinking southwards as we go through the afternoon. it is likely to stay cloudy for southern counties of england, the south of wales, but further north we will see sunshine, some showers too pushing into areas exposed to that north—westerly wind, some showers wintry over higher ground in northern scotland, and temperatures falling. at three o'clock, seven to 13 degrees. we

will see clear spells, the winds will see clear spells, the winds will fall light. that will allow it to turn quite chilly with fog patches and a touch of frost for some. these temperatures are the ones we are expecting for towns and city centres. 0ut ones we are expecting for towns and city centres. out in the countryside, we could drop below freezing. into sunday, a cold start, quite a calm start though, the calmest of the weekend. some sunny spells across the weekend although we will see cloud rolling in through the day. the k club with outbreaks of rain and snow over high ground in scotland, and some strong winds returning. temperatures from north to south, five to 10 degrees. we will see strong winds again thanks to another area of low pressure, that will bring a spell of gales to parts of scotland, northern ireland and northern england. strong winds at the beginning and end of the weekend with the potential to cause some disruption. through the coming week, quite chilly start. much milder by tuesday and wednesday, and

then potentially turning colder again by the end of the week.

this is bbc news — these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world. the us warns the russian troop build—up near ukraine is the largest since the cold war — as attempts to find a diplomatic solution continue. the downing street �*lockdown parties�* report is now expected to be delivered before the metropolitan police inquiry ends. tomorrow, events will be held in londonderry and around the world to mark the fiftieth anniversary of bloody sunday. ash barty wins the australian open to become first home winner in 44 years. # don't id always seem to go. # don't id always seem to go. # you don't know what you've got till it's gone.

canadian singer—songwriter joni mitchell hasjoined neil young