Hello, thanks very much for joining us here on bbc news. The tokyo olympics get under way this week, but there s already a growing number of athletes and officials testing covid positive or being forced to self isolate. In the olympic village, two players and a coach for the south africa men s football team have the virus. Eight members of team gb athletics team are also in isolation, after being in close contact with positive cases. And the american tennis star coco gauff has announced she s not going to tokyo, after she tested positive. Despite the worsening covid situation and strong public opposition to these games, the governor of tokyo has told the bbc it would have been worse to cancel. Rupert wingfield hayes reports. With five days to go, the anti olympic protests are not going away. This one is outside the hotel where ioc president thomas bach is staying. Their message to him is pretty blunt. Over at the olympic village, three covid cases have now been confirmed. Across the ci
And taliban negotiators issue a joint statement committing to further talks until agreement is reached. And american golfer wings the claret jug and american golfer wings the claret jug on his open championship debut. Bath and all the day s sports coming out. Hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. The german chancellor says the world must hurry in the battle against global warming and promised financial aid after the floods in germany and parts of western europe killed more than 180 people. Angela merkel has expressed shock at what she called surreal destruction caused by flash flooding on a visit to one of the worst hit towns schuld in the west of germany. More heavy rain has caused further flooding in southern germany and austria. With more, here s our europe correspondentjenny hill. We really need help here, she says. And outside the village shop, you can see why. As in so many other parts of western germany, people in this town still can t quite belie
Latest proposal which would lower the cost from the original 2. 25 trillion to 1. 75 trillion. A spokesperson for one of the gop s lead negotiators on the bill say they re further apart than they were before. This comes as the gop remains staunchly against an independent commission to investigate the january 6th insurrection and attack on the united states capitol. Just 35 republicans in the house voted in favor of the commission. A vote in the senate could come this week. Right now a grand total of zero senate republicans are publicly for the legislation, which would create an independent commission styled on the famed 9/11 commission to investigate the violent mob which tried to kill them, hang mike pence and destroy american democracy in the process. The gop continues to play partisan politics saying the january 6th commission is a partisan ploy. It s not. As these republicans who acknowledge the reality and gravity of the situation explained on the house floor. The american people
a minute s silence to commemorate the life of a minute s silence to commemorate the life of sir tom and to respect the life of sir tom and to respect the lives the life of sir tom and to respect the lives lost through covid. remembering captain sir tom moore a minute s silence is observed in the house of commons. and the nation is urged to clap for him at 6pm tonight. good afternoon. the health secretary, matt hancock, says research suggesting the oxford astrazeneca vaccine may reduce the spread of coronavirus is superb and will help us all to get out of the pandemic. a study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, has shown the jab could cut the spread by two thirds. it s the first time a vaccine has been shown to reduce transmission. it comes as a new study shows that 88% of people who tested positive for the virus retained antibodies for the full six months of the trial. awarning, a warning, this report contains some flashing images. it s been the great unknown would va
we have made enormous progress, you mentioned the number of deaths from covid. it was three times that not long ago. it s coming down. everything s changing. it s getting better. i did not anticipate that there would be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that president biden didn t get anything done. think about this. what are republicans for? what are they for? name me one thing they re for. well, the president came back to that theme over and over, again, hitting republicans on what he says is their lack of policy or vision beyond just standing in his way. he did acknowledge that his signature build back better legislation was unlikely to pass, as is. but he was optimistic it seems about getting major pieces of it done this year. as for the package of voting reforms on the line tonight, he expressed hope of salvaging major portions of it as well and expressed confidence in his point person on it. you put vice president harris in charge