from a free suchi deal. hello i m christian fraser in london, laura trevelyan is in washington. in america the optimism is returning. this week the fed upgraded forecasts for growth, the economy is gaining new momentum, and joe biden says the us will cross 100 million vaccinations tomorrow, well ahead of schedule. contrast that with the picture here in europe. while president biden tries to reignite american exceptionalism, europe is floudering in a third wave of the virus; the vaccine rollout anything but exceptional. tonight the french prime minister announced paris and 16 french regions will return to lockdown for a month, from midnight tomorrow. rome and half of italy s regions are already in lockdown, germany is in the grip of a third wave the number of new cases growing 20 per cent in the past week. the who says 20 thousand people are dying every week across europe, with the virus now sweeping east. we have now seen three consecutive weeks of growth in covid 19 cases.