Hello from The National and welcome to the View from London – your weekly guide to the big stories from our London bureau
Trump's call
“Trump threatens BBC with $1 billion lawsuit” is certainly the UK headline of the week.
The leading British news organisation stands accused that it is organisationally biased. Irredeemably so, to its many critics.
BBC insiders and former stars are lining up to back the broadcaster. If the organisation has a problem, it is that it is incredibly defensive in its operations.
When its calumny concerns Donald Trump, it is not good enough to wish away the problem. As Chris Blackhurst writes, you would think they would know that just about the worst person to cross is the American President. Poke him and he is riled. The only way to deal with him is to flatter and ingratiate, and if you are found to be at fault, to instantly and fulsomely apologise. Gorging on humble pie is the only language he understands.
Yes, BBC chief executive Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness have resigned. But that is not enough. It was never going to be enough. Mr Trump seeks complete capitulation. Resignations plus grovelling ought to do it. Anything less will not suffice.
The statement from BBC chairman Samir Shah that the deliberate editing of Mr Trump’s Capitol Hill rally address to make it seem he told his supporters to go to the bastion of US democracy looks woefully misjudged. Overnight, Mr Trump said he had an "obligation" to sue. Expect this one to run and run.
Techno BBC
Another line of argument is that the BBC is so big that it is impossible for managers to keep every part of the newsroom within editorial lines. There are copious controls but no sign of a responsible editor in charge in the case of the Trump documentary.
The BBC reported the views of David Elstein, a former executive producer who worked on the Panorama series, who said a news brand of its calibre should not be made outside the corporation. “My personal view is that current affairs absolutely needs to be under your internal control,” he said. “I’m sure the BBC would have learnt that lesson.”
What if technology loosens that element of control even further? That point was underlined at the JournalismAI conference in London on Tuesday, where it seemed AI was being seen as a cure-all in some parts. Nathalie Malinarich, the BBC's executive news editor for digital development, talked about the AI challenge and said the corporation's material would be produced by machine at such volume that not all output would received editorial scrutiny.
She also talked about the specifics of the work of 150 journalists on local democracy projects that was about to be transformed by AI. The implication was that this work was currently beyond the scope of the management. Technology is being used as a tool to bring it into their purview, but these are cloudy waters.
JournalismAI continues on Wednesday on London's South Bank.
Connolly's reckoning
Proclaiming herself the representative of the people's values against “the dominant narrative”, Catherine Connolly became the President of Ireland on Tuesday.
I've written about how her sympathies for the Palestinian cause make Ms Connolly's victory another triumph for progressive politics in Europe. She created a powerful public profile from her campaigning on Middle East issues over the years.
In a reference to the Gaza conflict, she said Ireland had a role to play. “Given our history, the normalisation of war and genocide has never been and will never be acceptable to us,” she said.
Questions deserve to be asked about how much impact this has. It may be highly effective in European terms but does the bloc have real influence? In the case of sustaining the Gaza ceasefire, it's hard to see the Europeans making a difference however strong their public positions.
Stopping terror
We have been talking to the chairman of the independent counter-terrorism commission, who has warned the children of British men and women who went to Syria to fight for ISIS could in turn become “serious terrorists”.
With up to 40 such children of UK citizens trapped in Syria, the British government is under an obligation to get them out to prevent them becoming extremists, said Sir Declan Morgan, who has led a report on the UK adopting a new approach to terrorism.
He led a high-level assault on the flagship counter-extremism programme, saying that under its “present approach, 'Prevent', is not fit for purpose”.
“Prevent should be integrated into a wider, local authority-led multi-agency safeguarding ‘front door’ that works with communities to mainstream violence prevention work, currently processed through Prevent, into broader violence-reduction strategies,” he said.
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