Hello and welcome to bbc news. The number of covid 19 deaths in the United States has passed half a million. Its the first country to do so. The bells on the National Cathedral in washington tolled 500 times to honour the victims. Bells toll. 500,000 lives are more than were lost by the us in both world wars and the vietnam war combined. The pandemic is still claiming 2000 americans every day, and there has been widespread economic hardship. President biden has ordered flags on federal buildings to be flown at half mast for five days as a mark of respect to those who have lost their lives. Just before he and the Vice President led a moments silence, he had these words for americans. As we all remember, i also ask us to act. To remain vigilant. To stay socially distant, to mask up, get vaccinated when its your turn. We must end the politics and misinformation that divided families, communities in the country. Its costing too many lives already. Its not democrats and republicans who are
Now on bbc news, hardtalk. Welcome to hardtalk. Im stephen sackur. A battle is brewing for the soul of the us Republican Party. In part, its about donald trump. Will the party continue to tie its fate to his ego . And its also about the nature of right wing politics. How blurred are the lines between some republicans and the peddlers of race, hate and extremist conspiracists . My guest is elizabeth neumann. A former counterterror official inside the Trump Administration now intent on purging the Republican Party of the enablers of extremism. Can she succeed 7 elizabeth neumann, in virginia, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you for having me. Let me ask you this as an opener, how much Soul Searching have you done in recent months . Because of the best part of three years you are a top counterterror official inside the Trump Administration when it seems for much of that time, you saw donald trump as a man who was fanning the flames of extremism and terrorism. Well, id say that i was doing a lo
Nasa has released remarkable images of its space Rover Landing on mars, the first ever of their kind from the planet. It shows the final minutes of last weeks tense descent with clouds of dust and grit being blown around as the vehicle is lowered to the floor of the crater. The rover, called perseverance, was sent to an ancient crater lake to search for signs of past life. Our global science correspondent Rebecca Morelle has the story. The parachute has deployed. From the release of a supersonic parachute, to the shedding of a heat shield. First look at the surface. An Out Of This World view mars as never seen before. As the rover nears the surface, the dust is kicked up, then a change of camera as perseverance is lowered on ropes before touchdown. Touch down confirmed. Perseverance safely on the surface of mars . And the Landing System is jettisoned away. We cant test it on the earth, so this is the first time weve had a chance as engineers to actually see what we designed and ijust c
Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are eve pollard, a former Fleet Street Editor and kezia dudale who is a former scottish Labour Leader and now the director of a Research Center called john smith centre. Welcome back to you both. A few more have come in since we last spoke. The i details what it calls the four steps to freedom as borisjohnson reveals his road map for england to leave lockdown. The metro says lockdown could end on midsummer s day 21stjune a celestial ring of fire annual solar eclipse. An crowd could be filling sports stadiums. The telegraph says 118 days until freedom. The paper reports proposals for a major easing of lock down before easter were dropped after the government was warned by scientists that it could lead to an extra 55,000 deaths. The daily mail says the end is in sight but it is going to take months it asks what are we waiting for . The guardian says in a signal of how different the new norm