john simpson, bbc news, kohsan, afghanistan. let s ta ke let s take you to washington for a moment, where us presidentjoe biden is holding a press conference, or going to be holding a press conference, podium empty at the moment, that s following talks with the german chancellor 0laf scholz over the situation in ukraine. as earlier saying the two countries were in lockstep how they should deal with the threat by russia to ukraine. president biden earlier saying that. in canada a state of emergency has been declared in the capital 0ttawa, in response to the ongoing truckers protests against covid restrictions. the mayorjim watson said the city was outnumbered and losing the battle against the freedom convoy. the truckers have paralysed the centre of ottawa with vehicles and tents blocking roads. jessica murphy is in ottawa and has
martha: the pressure put on these young heroes to perform and to be people that you re not. ie, lance armstrong as well. we ll talk about all that coming up. all right. get back to washington for a moment. republican lawmakers are slamming president obama for using the newtown school shooting to his own, quote, political advantage. texas senator ted cruz, he is a new senator. he says that the president, he believes is on a power trip. here s what he said. this is a president i think who has drunk the kool-aid. he is feeling high on his own power and he is pushing on every front. on guns. i think it is really sad to see the president of the united states exploiting the murder of children, and using it to push his own extreme anti-gun agenda. martha: very strong words there from senator ted cruz from texas. joined by juan williams, fox
you ll get this free information kit. and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that s right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn t. and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. martha: let s go become to washington for a moment. congress is taking on a controversial issue today of discrimination in an unlikely place. the prenatal discrimination act would outlaw abortions done on the basis of race or gender. violators could face fines or even time in prison. shannon bream is here to explain all of this live in washington. how would this law work, shannon? reporter: martha it is drafted as a nondiscrimination law. it would ban the practice of sex selection or race-based decisions about abortions. representative trent franks authored the law. here is his explanation. if you could put it in the
wife. all right. let s talk about this now and switch our attention back to washington for a moment. the u.s. justice department now says it has no comment on a new report that claims that they re investigating the credit agency standard & poor s. now, the report says the probe surrounds s&p s rules in the mortgage bond meltdown that led to the 08 financial crisis, the investigation reportedly into s&p by the administration began before s&p came out and downgraded our country s debt last week. so jay secalua are is counsel at the american center for justice. always good to have you, welcome back. thanks for having me. martha: obviously, when you look at this at first blush and see the headlines, the doj is investigating s&p, you think well, is this a little payback for the downgrade that s&p did. what do you think? well, i mean, the timing sure is not coincidental. look, i think there was a problem with that s&p downgrade from a standpoint, i was a tax lawyer for a long time, i
al qaeda. so city would be more or less the same. martha: thank you for being with us as we try to unravel this horrible day in oslo. we are back in washington for a moment and counting down to the deadline for a deal in this debt crisis. so you have got the cut, cap and balance plan that passed in the house yesterday. and it was promptly defeated as was expected with a vote in the senate a little while ago. harry reid called it the worst piece of legislation he has ever seen. now you have got the clock ticking towards the president s deadline. they need to get this done in order to avoid that august 2 armageddon and all sort of chaos we heard about. so they are discussing what they would do if they don t get a deal. how they would decide which bills to pay first. republicans like house speaker john boehner are fuming. listen to this. there is a huge gulf between washington, d.c. and the