this is bbc news. the headlines: a bbc team has uncovered further evidence of potential war crimes committed by russian forces in ukraine. the bodies of around 1,000 civilians were discovered in the bucha region, when the russians left in march. the local police chief has said that more than half had been shot. finland and sweden have formally announced their intention to join nato in response to russia's invasion of ukraine. the alliance�*s secretary generaljens stoltenberg has described the move — which amounts to abandoning their military non—alignment — as "historic" while president putin described the plan as "a mistake". one person is dead and four others critically wounded when a gunman opened fire at a church in california. he's later overpowered.

it comes just a day after a gunman killed ten people in a suspected racially—motivated terror attack at a supermarket in the city of buffalo. now on bbc news, dateline. hello and welcome to the programme, which brings together the foreign correspondents who write, blog and broadcast for audiences back home from the dateline — london. it's been a convention—busting week, this one — a queen's speech delivered for the first time in 70 years by a royal other than the queen. two countries strictly neutral for 80 years, preparing to take sides. in northern ireland, a party in favour of reuniting

the island of ireland topped the poll for the first time in the centuries since ireland was partitioned. to discuss all that and more, in the studio are brian 0'connell, former bureau chief in london for the irish broadcaster rte, eunice goes, portuguese journalist and university lecturer and newly created british citizen, and jeffrey kofman, who's been both a war correspondent and news anchor in canada and the united states. good to have you back with us. jeffrey, let's start with nato expansion. sweden and finland. finland's president sauli niinisto said on friday he's going to ring president putin and tell him that the situation has changed. how big a change is this, do you think? you know, i think if you'd looked ten years ago and said this, it was impossible. this was a religion in these two countries, neutrality. the concept of...of being western, but not not glued at the hip or fused at the hip. and i think that this is really affirmation that, while ukraine is losing in the sense of the devastation to the country, russia can't win.

and putin's legacy is exactly... when he looked in the mirror and said, "let's do this," this is not what he saw. his view was occupy ukraine in three days and shatter nato. and he has done the exact opposite. he has done the impossible. he's actually united the disparate countries of the west in the eu, in nato, and he has created a cohesive western agenda. i mean, you have even hungary, a bit of an outlier, but even hungary toeing the line with nato, with the eu. and i think that one of the leaders of finland or sweden said this week that putin just has to look in the mirror and and ask, "how did this happen?" he did it. and so, it is a sea change, really, historically in relations. and the threat of to him is exactly what he what he doesn't want. the idea that there is now this seamless border that nato will protect — invade

one and will all come to your defence. the problem, i suppose, in some ways that comes from this is what it means for those countries that are not in nato, whether it in some ways increases their vulnerability, potentially, to russia to to be threatened, to be bullied — potentially for worse for countries like moldova and georgia. that is for sure, because i think the message of this crisis has been if you're not a member of nato, you're going to be invaded by russia and so, if you are a member of nato, you are protected. but i think those countries, georgia and moldova, they've made a request to join nato at the same time as ukraine, but it's going to be protracted, it's going to be... moldova is divided anyway. absolutely. so, as with ukraine, the whole question of territorial integrity is going to be an issue. and i think nato will also will deal with these countries, with these applicant countries in this same different way it has dealt with ukraine because, still today, it's not completely clear that ukraine willjoin nato after this war.

there's the whole issue of how russia will react. i willjust go back on the question of sweden and finland, because one interesting thing is that it's not completely a surprise that these countries are joining now, because since the collapse of the soviet union in 1991, that both sweden and finland have started a process of getting closer to the western alliance. they became members of the european union. they've been reforming their armed forces in a way that make them completely compatible with nato's. so, it's been quite a slow process, but since the annexation of crimea in 2014, these countries have started to prepare and they've started increasingly — including to invest in their armed forces because they started to feel, well, that russia was becoming quite unpredictable. and for finland also. finland accepted the famous finlandisation after 1948, accepted that essentially

they didn't have complete sovereignty over their defence and foreign policy. but there were huge sacrifices and i think this is something that we never discussed enough — how hard the sacrifices that the finnish people made to — in order to maintain their own peace and also the stability in the region. i want to pick up — i don't want to stop brian from taking part — the point about georgia and moldova is really, really interesting because i think that what you what you're seeing is that these former soviet republics or satellite countries of the east of the soviet bloc which were part, in putin's vanity, part of the soviet empire. what we're seeing now is a realisation that this was a colonial empire, just as the british empire and the dutch empire, the spanish empires were. and these countries are starting to recognise, "wait a minute. "this was better for you than for us." and so, the idea of bringing back the nostalgic view of greater russia and making

russia great again, what we're seeing in all of these kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, the rebellions, the refusal to support overtly putin's line, the the re—routing of oil around russia to western europe. these are signs that there is no greater russia left to be saved, that he can be as violent and aggressive as he wants, and he can do terrible damage and he has nuclear weapons. but there is nothing. there's no there there. and even in belarus, which is his one puppet state, the railway workers blew up the railway to stop him from sending his military material into ukraine. so, even in that country there, there is a sense of at least a pocket of rebellion which suggests that putin's dreams are simply out of date. right. yeah, well, it's it is - the standard autocracy.

it is the route to autocracy, where you get to the pointl where you still have people around you but you pick - who you want, because they're reflecting your own views. - and so, his view of the world — i mean, somebody obviously. didn't say to him, i "hang on a minute. "if you do that and you say..." too many yes men and women. i mean, it's that's not complicated. i and, you know, that's what's happened in this case. - another interesting thing is that finland's border. with russia is, what?, 12,1,300 kilometres? | and the kremlin spokesman said the other day that they were - going to take — what was it? strategic, strategic, military and technical- measures, which presumably means putting a lot- of weapons along the border, as they did with ukraine. but ijust wonder| what he's got left that'll cover 1,300 kilometres. given the losses the russians

are sustaining at the moment, i wonder. a couple of other points — you mentioned sacrifices the finns may be making. and sweden obviously still hasn't formally decided whether it'sjoining. but they published a report on friday which was suggesting that there were good arguments for, the swedish foreign minister saying that actually, she felt it would make the risk of war less likely because it raised the stakes if russia did attack any of the other countries. butjust in terms of the price finns may pay, already we hear that a russian electricity company may cut off 10% of finland's electricity supplies because suddenly, there's a problem about payment that's mysteriously arisen just as this announcement is made. we hear that putin is threatening to station, possibly, nuclear—armed missiles in kaliningrad, which is sort of that little enclave between lithuania and poland on the baltic. i mean, there are ways that he can make people feel even more nervous if he wants to, without actually taking any

overt military action. yes, and i think both sweden and finland are pondering those risks and they are weighing what are — is it a bluff? and is there also the potential for greater security? and there's going to be that vacuum between being an applicant member state and thenjoining. and that period of time can be very well exploited by russia. but then, in the end, it's a calculation and they have to call off putin's game and take a decision for them, for themselves and taking on that risk. jeffrey, you said at the start of this discussion that you've raised a rather ominous prospect that russia can't win. but ukraine, meanwhile, is being kind of blasted apart. i mean, it's stalemate, isn't it? it feels like a stalemate. i think that what we saw yesterday and this morning in the newspapers here — the images of a russian

battalion really...massacred is perhaps the wrong word, but destroyed — 50, 60 tanks. estimates of up to 1,000 soldiers killed in this one ambush a tactical ambush by the ukrainians. russia has a very large army. but it has taken, clearly... we don't know the numbers — we hear ranges of 5,000—20,000—plus soldiers killed. but also a huge amount of armaments killed. but we're also — we also know that morale is bad. food rations aren't getting there. they're not able to supply. you could argue that they can keep supplying, but — but there is going to be a problem. and at some point, he's going to have to confront the issue of a draft and then, he's going to have to stop calling this a �*special operation�* and call it a war. and even for him, that's politically a difficult switch to pull. and so, i don't know what it is, but it seems to me that what zelensky offered some time ago, which was ceding some territory — which feels awfully painful, given what's happened —

may be the best outcome possible to let him walk away with at least claiming that he liberated something and get out of there. and as long as zelensky got territorial security from europe to say anything more? no. that feels, i think, a lot of ukrainians would have difficulty even with that. but it's the least—worst bad option. if you look at what's happened to mariupol, the destruction that ukraine has lost simply in the destruction of its infrastructure, the death of so many people. and it's hard to imagine the rebuilding, but this is at this point, a stalemate. you're right. let's move on to another stalemate, although one thankfully with less terrifying consequences, and that is what's happening over the power—sharing executive in northern ireland not being re—established because the unionist party — which actually didn't win, top the poll in that election last week, but nonetheless power—sharing requires both sides to agree to it — says it won't until

the northern ireland protocol has been scrapped. now, without going into the detail — i'll leave that to brian because he understands it and i don't in that level of detail — it's a bit like the schleswig—holstein question in the 19th century, i'm beginning to feel in terms of the effect of this, this is part of brexit which is not quite finished yet. can you explain that aspect of it? well, it is not quite finished yet because the british government has left this as kind of an open wound that is festering and festering, and it has been there since the very, very beginning. because essentially, what britain is claiming is the right to undermine the single market, the european union single market, and this is something that is essentially that brexit does not give it the right. the european union has been extremely flexible in the interpretation of the single market. it has been very sensitive to the peace process

and conflict resolution in northern ireland. it had first proposed a backstop. it has now also suggested... let's not go back to the backstop! but it has also proposed quite a flexible arrangement whereby the border — and there has to be a border, because brexit means the re—establishment of a border between the united kingdom and the european union. the uk is no longer... absolutely. the island of ireland, the republic is in the european union. so, it was agreed that the border the uk is physically on the island. then it was agreed that the border would not be between the republic of ireland and northern ireland to safeguard the peace process and the good friday agreement, so it had to be on the irish sea, so that border has to remain there. and the way that the european union sees it is that, "well, this was clear". this was clear since the beginning of brexit — they've been talking about this problem since 2016. the british government signed the northern irish protocol in 2019 and boris johnson said

it was a great deal, a fantastic deal, an oven—ready deal and said it was fabulous. it sorted all the problems and so on. so, what the european union sees is an incredibly bad faith because they signed it clearly with a view to break it soon after. and so, they are saying, "well, this is a government "that is not serious. "why are we going to waste our time proposing creative "solutions? " and they are very bureaucratic. they are very detailed and so on. "why are we going to waste our brainpower developing these "super—complicated solutions if this british government "is not is not serious? "it's not taking any of these proposals seriously — "and, more importantly, has not made any alternative "proposals and not presented them on the table?" brian, why are the implications of this within northern ireland so toxic, given that trading is going on as we speak? it's not as if people have stopped trading goods across between the uk

and the great britain part of the uk — and northern ireland and northern ireland and the republic of ireland and therefore the rest of the european union? well, in terms of the _ governance of northern ireland, just, you know, on its own, i the northern ireland assembly is now paralysed for the reasons that... i they met briefly on friday but they couldn't even elect any executive. and that means that - you have a sort of caretaker administration, civil servants, outgoing ministers who just . keep the lights on and so on, where northern ireland has l probably the longest i and the worst waiting lists in the nhs. they need further investment, education, infrastructure, - all those kind of things, - and the protocol and the checks that come with the protocol — even though the majority-

of members of the new northern ireland assembly actually - agreed to live with it — they are hurting small| and medium—sized businesses in northern ireland. _ there's no doubt about that. so, there is room for. negotiation in terms of, you know, "let's not worry too much about that category - "of goods," and so, so on and so forth. | and the talks had beenl going on for a long time and then, they were paused because of the election - and they all got quite technical, so there's a whole range of things. . when maros sefcovic says that — the commissioner who's dealing | with this for the eu — i when he said, "we can't "renegotiate it," and liz truss said, "well, we might have i "to take unilateral action," he's right — they can't- renegotiate it. but there are ways to, to, to... - and it's just about language and everything else.

it'sjust about it's just about language and everything _ it's just about language and everything else. _ but for the dup, i it's more than that. every time you hear— jeffrey donaldson saying that, talk about it, as he did i when when they came out of stormont, refusing to toj cooperate with the election of a speaker, he said, - "we've got to get rid of this. "the protocol has to go." he's not interested in half—measures —j that's the difficulty. before i bring injeffrey, can i ask you one question? i was very struck by something. —— i was very struck by something sam mcbride, who is political editor for the newsletter, which is one of the leading unionist papers in northern ireland. sam said that polling of 80% of people in northern ireland, regardless of their views on this subject — whether they're nationalist, republican or non—aligned — they do not trust what the british government says on the protocol. now, if they don't trust it and the eu don't trust it, there's a real problem here. well, i've got news for you. neither does the government.

laughter. and, you know, those are the... i'm laughing, but it's not funny. it's not funny, no. i mean, the damage that it has done, that this has done, you know, in dublin, certainly, and in brussels is absolutely enormous. and borisjohnson�*s going to northern ireland next week to talk to the party leaders. but the problem is boris johnson told the dup, if you cast your mind back a couple of years, that there wouldn't be any checks. and that oven—ready deal... crosstalk. ..and it was fine. and then, during the election campaign, he he told some exporters in northern ireland that if they'd got any customs forms to fill up, they should tear them up or call him or something like that. now, borisjohnson has let those people down. he's betrayed those people and he's going back again. how on earth could anybody trust anything the man says

about this at this stage? brian, i'm curious. i first went - to northern ireland as a reporter for the canadian broadcasting corporation- in the mid '905. i felt like i needed - a dictionary and a road map to understand the - shorthand terminology that's used to cover this story — - sectarian, unionist... when you're not inside i the bubble of this story... as most of our audience isn't. ..it is so difficult— to know who's on what side and to understand the history. well, the history is actually easier than the present. i i remember turning up late for a story one day outside downing street. i think gerry adams was in there. i said to a colleague of mine from northern ireland said, "what's the story?" he said, "well, in 1690..." so, my question is, _ is there so much disenchantment and the population is shifting in northern ireland... - yes. what are the — _ let me make it an open—ended question - — what is the likelihood

of this leading to a push - to reunification and the exodus of northern ireland? is that realistic, or is that...? i because you could argue it's like the gordian knot. you can't untangle this, so you have to cut it. and you have... exactly. when alexander cut the gordian knot, he used a sword, he used a weapon. very good point. we've tried that in northern ireland for 30 years. there's 3,000 people dead and many, many others living with this, so it's not going to work. what — is that a scenario that comes out of this? i is this accelerating _ a scenario that some people — many people would . like to see, but many would not like to see? well, sinn fein will tell you that but i — the opinion polls in northern ireland do not indicate that a majority of people would vote for unification, yet. but what can change is the whole architecture of power—sharing in northern ireland with, well, throwing away the constitutional arrangement that is in place. and there is essentially

being the deadlock. because, as jeff was saying, the demographics is changing and you have an increasing number of people who no longer identify either as unionists or nationalists. just before we move on, i should just say when i mentioned the gordian knot, i was not suggesting a return to violence — i was simply suggesting an island of ireland in the european union, a uk wholly out of the european union. that looks like the only simple solution. it's not a simple solution, though. that's the problem. it is... when you come to have a referendum in northern ireland and in the republic of ireland as well, you come into the whole thing of, "well, are you prepared "to pay for it? "0k, we can change it or we won't." it's going to cost a lot of money. like the reunification of germany all those years ago. it is, on steroids, it really is. but eunice is right because if you look at the election results from the most recent stormont elections there last week,

you'll see that the alliance party, which is the cross—community, non—sectarian party, is growing fast. and within that, there's a lot of younger people who weren't around during the troubles that we were alluding to. let's end on a slightly happier note, in a sense, and that is the queen's speech. laughter. ijust wonder what you all made of — i just wonder what you all made of prince charles�*s audition piece for becoming head of state. how did he do? eunice? ah, well, he performed like, maybe, a monarch in waiting. i only paid attention to one thing. so, he was sat on a throne but, crucially, the crown was in another chair — it was not on his head. i think — i thought it was actually — l i was quite shocked. i didn't see it live — _ i watched it on my computer — and i was quite shocked - because it looked like it was it was a queen's speech - or a king's speech or whatever from a monarch in his last years _ i mean, the man is 73, |

74 years old, and there was a kind of tragic aura to it. - here's a — this is a guy who's waited all his life for a job - that he didn't really choose to inherit i and now, he's finally kind of phasing in, sort of, - and he's pretty frail. and it was kind of hard to listen to him because he wasn't very engaging - and i think — i mean, - there are many bigger issues in the planet than talking i about this, i have tojust say — but ijust think that it's very interesting to see. i it is, and it is fascinating - because it feels like this man is going to be given this job and he'sjust not — l he's too frail and not - magnetic enough to carry it, and i think that's what we saw. brian, what did you make of it? crosstalk. it was, but to be perfectly honest, i go with what jeffrey's saying, and that is that the opening lines of that speech were, "her majesty's "government will take measures to ease the cost "of living crisis." not a single jot or tittle of any of that was reflected

in that in that speech at all. nothing. although apparently, we're told that cutting lots of civil service jobs will help the cost of living crisis — that's what the government announced on friday. 90,000, yeah. imean... i mean, i listened to jacob rees—mogg this morning and i was none the wiser, really, about how this is going to work. i think, just a last thought on this — do you think that...? whether or not it was intended, because the queen's back problems meant she she didn't feel she could do it, didn't feel she'd do it, so her son stepped in. he is the heir apparent. yes. do you think we're in that, obviously, in that process of transition? do you think there is a plan to help us, to make that seamless, or is it still going to be such a terrific shot when this woman, who's been for, most people all their lives, the head of state, on postage stamps, the coins, everywhere and every major event, suddenly isn't there? when it happens, i think it'll be a major cultural shock. it's the end of the second elizabethan era, in effect.

and, you know, that covers everything from basically the end of the second world war up to where we are now, and it's covered generations. and it will be a huge cultural shift as well. ten seconds. well, growing up in canada, i can say that i think- in canada, it'sjust not talked about. i i think everyone has enough respect for elizabeth that i no—one will talk about it when she's gone. i i think it's an open question. jeffrey kofman, brian o'connor, eunice goes, thank you all very much. thank you. bye— bye.

hello. total eclipse of the moon in the western skyjust before dawn. trouble is, there's been a lot of cloud across the uk and monday is going to bring a mixed picture across much of the united kingdom. so, this is what it looks like early in the morning. i think the chance of thunder across the south — at least, this is where the highest risk is — but clearly, you can see rain spreading into northern england and scotland, northern ireland through the early morning and even southwards, it appears clear here, there's a chance of some thunderstorms. quite mild in the south first thing — not only in the south but also in north western england, 1a, 15 degrees. the broad picture of our monday is the northern half of the uk often cloudy, outbreaks of rain possible at any time during the afternoon. the southern half of the uk will have lengthy spells of sunshine. sometimes, it will cloud over and there will be a shower or two, perhaps thundery. temperatures up to around 20 or so.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm david eades. our top stories: the bbc sees more evidence of apparent war crimes by russian forces in bucha. ukrainian civilians are found to have been deliberately shot. the evidence we found underground here, it is clear they were executed. nato says it's confident sweden and finland willjoin the alliance — after public opinion in both countries is transformed by russia's invasion. a gunman opens fire at a church in california. one person is dead and four others wounded before he's overpowered by members of the congregation. and north korea's covid crisis.

a further 400,000 cases and eight deaths from a mysterious fever are reported.