they considered themselves to be believing christians. over the course of the obama administration, that number dropped by 12 points. over the same period, the number of atheists and self identified nonreligious people in america jumped dramatically. that was before covid. politicians used the pandemic across the country to close thousands of churches and throw christians in prison for practicing their faith. here s the scene, for example, last fall in idaho. police arresting the congregation for singing hymns outdoors. [singing] [indistinct] [singing] tucker: socially distanced hymn singing outside. what exactly were these people s crimes? that tape will be studied by future generations to figure out what is going on? what did these people do wrong? well, they publicly affirmed their belief in a power higher than government. you are not allowed. fewer and fewer americans even think to do that. that does not man and this is the critical point that does not meantr th
even ordinary, but it is nothing of the sort. this is, as the headline suggests, joe biden telling donald trump, no privilege for you. no soup for you, for seinfeld fans, but the stakes are much higher. we know that donald trump wants to deal with this january 6th committee with stonewall tactics, trying to use executive privilege and other delays. now, he could still take the biden administration and the congress to court over this. and that would set up a fairly unprecedented clash between the former and current president. what we are seeing here are signs that the maga riot probe is eyeing trump s inner circle and not wasting any time with using its legal subpoena power pressure. we can report on four new subpoenas for top trump aides and allies requiring them legally to testify within three weeks unless they can come up with lawful reasons for another acome indication. and that includes the big guns, like steve bannon and donald trump s former top number one aide, mark me
welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. imagine a writer with a blank piece of paper. on the face of it, they re free to take their imagination in any direction they choose, tell any story they like. but it s not that simple. they need money, a commission. they need to win an audience, and for that, they must constantly adapt to changing tastes and technologies. my guest is one of the uk s leading playwrights and screenwriters, lucy prebble. she s had huge hits and one notable broadway miss. for a writer, how daunting can that blank piece of paper be? lucy prebble, welcome to hardtalk. hello, stephen. thanks for having me. it is a great pleasure to have you here. now, you are very busy right now, because a play that you originally wrote in 2012 and put on in 2012 has been revived at the national theatre in london in just the last few days. and it s got me wondering, as you have been heavily involved with the revival, how have you sort of seen the evolution of your own writin
the evolution of your own writing and what interests you? have you changed in the decade? yes, i think i have. i mean, it s so interesting to go back to something you wrote just over ten years ago. as you say, 2012 was the first production of it. it s a play called the effect, and it follows. it follows two triallists taking part in a clinical trial for a new antidepressant and two doctors running it. and the triallists basically start to fall in love, but don t know whether they are actually falling in love or if it s an effect of the new antidepressant that they re trialling. and of course, when i wrote it originally, i felt very close to these young sort of romeo and juliet 20 somethings feeling excited and romantic for the first time. and now i feel much closer to the sort of ao something, older doctors who are, you know, dealing with their past and what that means and, you know, just being a bit more adult and older and, hopefully, wiser. do you feel as in love with the
we ll talk to a mom who attended the hearing about what she saw. we begin with breaking news on the legal trouble surrounding former president donald trump. more of trump s co-defendants in the georgia election interference case are turning themselves in. a short time ago, lawyers kenneth chesebro and ray smith surrendered to authorities in fulton county, georgia. this came hours after david shafer and cathy latham turned themselves in. one time trump attorney rudy giuliani says he is heading to atlanta today. i m going to fulton county to comply with the law, which i always do. i ll i don t know if i ll plead today, but if i do, i ll plead not guilty and i ll get photographed. isn t that nice? a mug shot for the man who probably put the worst criminals in the 20th century in jail. and now a source familiar with his plan says donald trump will travel to georgia tomorrow afternoon and turn himself in tomorrow night. there is also plenty of drama surrounding two other c