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 anc
large rallies have taken place in houston, new york, washington, los angeles and chicago. now on bbc news, dateline london. hello and welcome to the programme. it brings together the foreign journalists who write, blog and broadcast to audiences back home from the dateline in london. it has 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, topping the poll for the first time in the century since ireland was partitioned. to discuss all of that we have brian o connell, a bureau chief in london for the irish broadcaster rte, a portuguese journalist and university lecturer and newly british citizen, and jeffrey goffman, who has been able corresponding and new news anchor in canada and the united states. good to have you with us. we start with nato expansi
hello and welcome to the programme that brings together the foreign journalists who write, blog and broadcast to 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 o connell, former bureau chief in london for the irish broadcaster rte, eunice goes, portuguesejournalist 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 f
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
Envlave between lithuania and poland on the baltic, and there are ways that he can make people feel even more nervous, if you want to, without actually taking any overt military action? yes, i think both sweden and finland are pondering those and they are weighing. if it is a bluff and what is the potential for greater security. there is going to be that vacuum between being an applicant member state, and thenjoining, and in that period of time, that can be very well exploited by russia, but then, in the end, it is a calculation. they have to either call off putin s game, or take a decision for themselves and taking on that risk. jeffrey, you said at the start of this discussion, you raised quite the ominous prospect that russia can t win. but ukraine is meanwhile being blasted apart. a stalemate? it feels like a stalemate.