this is just what the country needed. we ll have reaction from around the country, and we ll be live in wembley and rome. also this lunchtime: no more quarantine for uk residents who are double jabbed, when they return to england from amber list countries this summer that includes destinations like portugal and greece. as one of the world s most vaccinated countries, we must use these advantages to restore many of these advantages to restore many of the freedoms that have been lost over recent months. the number of people waiting to start routine hospital treatment in england rises to a new record high of more than five million. and: you re invited to picnic at the palace we tour the gardens of buckingham palace as they re opened to the public for the summe. and coming up on the bbc news channel, world number one ashleigh barty heads a wimbledon semifinal field that includes a former number one, a former champion and the big hitting second seed. good afternoon and welco
we need to go big. and if we waste some money now, we waste some money. absolutely we have too many people hurting and the economy is going to sputter and we ve got to get ourselves out of this mess. and this is the way we need to go right now. let me tell you something, that man has a future in northwest florida politics. i like him. or west virginia. mika, that s interesting. that s from the republican governor of a state that donald trump got 69% in. jim justice, governor of west virginia, urging congress to go big on covid-19 relief. good morning. welcome to morning joe . it is tuesday, february 2nd. we have columnist and associate editor for the washington post , david ignatius. back with us, capitol hill correspondent and host of way too early , kasie hunt. and it seems more and more likely that democrats will push through the biden administration s nearly $2 trillion economic relief package with or without republicans. the president met with a group of senat
natwest has reported a sharp rise in first half profits to 5.6 billion. the results follow a week of high profile resignations including the bank s chief executive over the closure of nigel fa rage s bank account. our business correspondent hannah miller has the latest. those pre tax profits of more than 3.5 billion, nearly 5.6 billion in the first six months of this year, up from £2.6 billion for the same period last year. the press conference this morning, though, was totally overshadowed by the row over the closure of the former ukip leader nigel farage s account. natwest owns coutts, the bank that closed mr farage s account without giving him an explanation. it later emerged that his political views had perhaps been considered. when the decision was taken. and the fallout from that has really been enormous, the boss of natwest dame allison rose had to resign over her comments on the issue and yesterday afternoon the chief executive of coutts also resigned. this morning
start in syria, where a massive suicide car bomb has hit a convoy of buses carrying thousands of people from two besieged gunmen told villagers, waiting to be taken to safety. government held villages. the passengers had been waiting at a transit point travelling from fuua and kafraya to the west of aleppo. the delay was caused by rebel groups voicing concerns about the status of people leaving rebel held territory near the capital damascus in an exchange evacuation. it isn t yet clear who carried out the attack though a syrian government mp has accused terrorists linked to al qaeda. the emergency response group, the syria white helmets, say they have recovered more than a hundred bodies. richard galpin reports. in the immediate aftermath, a man runs towards the site of the huge explosion, filming the horrifying scenes around him. it is believed a suicide bomber carried out this attack, reportedly driving a van carrying aid supplies. translation: i can t describe i