welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is lebo diseko. a humiliating defeat for president trump as he withdraws his healthcare bill. i have been saying for the last 1.5 yea rs i have been saying for the last 1.5 years that the best thing we can do, politically speaking, is that obama can explode. it is exploding right 110w. a lone wolf or did he have help? british police investigate what motivated the westminster attacker. marine goes to moscow — france's far—right presidential hopeful marine le pen meets vladimir putin in the kremlin. and find out who was the schmuck that landed on the taxiway — president trump's withdrawn

his healthcare bill — before congress got a chance to vote on it — after it became clear he didn't have enough support for it to pass. our north america editor jon sopel has more. mr vice president, do you have the vote? a day of truly frantic meetings and phone calls, as the vice president, mike pence, went to the hill to try to secure the votes needed to pass health care reform — trumpcare. and the usual tools deployed, a mixture of menace and flattery. but it wasn't going well. my vote is still a no. my vote has not changed. if anybody tells you for certain they know what is going to happen, they are lying. the situation is still very fluid. and if concessions are made to the right of the republican party, you lose the moderates,

and vice versa. at the white house, there were no attempts to distance themselves from the legislation. the president's spokesman saying donald trump had done everything he could. there is no question, in my mind, at least, that the president and the team have left everything in the field. we have called every member with a question and concern, taking into consideration the strength of the bill. but there was one definitive statement about how the day would unfold. obviously, later today, the house will vote on the american health care act, the current vote is scheduled for 3:30pm. except it didn't, with journalists prowling every corridor, doubts started to creep in and then the bombshell announcement after the speaker, paul ryan, went to see the president to tell him they didn't have the votes. we came close, today, but we came up short. i spoke to the president, just a little while ago, and told him the best thing to do was to pull the bill and he agreed. i will not sugar—coat this.

this is a disappointing day. doing big things is hard. and the president was defiant in defeat. i've been saying for the last year—and—a—half, that the best thing we can do, politically speaking, is let obamacare explode. it is exploding right now. but on the campaign trail, donald trump said it would be easy. and this was his pledge at every rally. obamacare has to be replaced. we got to get rid of obamacare, which is a disaster. repealing and replacing the disaster known as obamacare! and the author of the art of the deal said only he could deliver it. if you can't make a good deal with a politician, then there is something wrong with you. you're certainly not very good. chanting: hey hey, ho ho, donald trump has got to go! protestors were vocal in their opposition to the reform plan, which could have seen

2a million americans lose their health insurance. west virginia was solidly behind donald trump last november. john ingram, a retired miner, articulated an uncertainty that echoes around the country. i hope to god that they realise what they are actually doing. in effect, they are dealing with life and death situations. for notjust me, but for millions of people. do you use the rapid insulin, too? at the cabin creek health center, they are watching these proposed changes with alarm. it's the disturbing to think that, you know, we have made some gains — and to take that away is especially difficult. i think that is disheartening. for patients. yesterday, donald trump clambered on board a giant truck. today, his politicaljuggernaut came to a grinding halt. make no mistake, this is a huge embarrassment and setback. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. our correspondent tulip mazumdar

is in washington and joins me now. we heard john they're saying that this is a huge defeat for donald trump. how much of a defeat is it? this is an enormous defeat and huge and humiliation for the president. this was a key campaign promise to the american people. he repeatedly said as we heard there that he was going to repeal obamacare and replace it with something much better. an amazing plan, he kept saying. people would have coverage, they could see the doctor of their choice and it would cost them less. now it is dead in the water. the bill that they tried to get through, remember, the republican party have a majority in the house of representatives. it was members of

his own party who were unwilling to vote this bill saying that it either went to a live with cuts to medicate which looks after poor people who need healthcare and others saying it did not go far enough. it is really an enormous blow and what it also shows is that the president said he worked really, really hard to try and get everybody on board. he was calling from six in the morning until 11 calling from six in the morning until11 in calling from six in the morning until 11 in the evening his press secretary said. despite that, it did not make a difference at the end of the day and that is an enormous blow. what does he do now? especially with a divided party, how does he bring them together? he said at the moment that obamacare will be left in place. there is no plan b. that will be what the party will have to deal with having promised and, for seven years, having argued against obamacare and, for seven years, having argued against obamaca re saying and, for seven years, having argued

against obamacare saying that it needed to end and they needed a new plan. they had that opportunity yesterday for a new plant and it has not come to pass. now it is a case of bringing the party together. the problem is that this will be an issue for all sorts of other legislation that donald trump tries to get through. it is perhaps a difficult lesson for the president to learn, that he cannot get these things through without the support of his party and his party is divided. you have conservatives, fiscal hardliners who want to cut taxes and do not want the government involved in things they think that people should pay for in the market should look look after. moderates say that they need to support people in certain ways. they need to come together to get things done and whether that happens weekly or whether that happens weekly or whether it happens in time for tax reform, because that is the next thing that donald trump wants to look at, the tax reform that was the key pa rt

look at, the tax reform that was the key part of his campaign promises to the american people. they want to get a bill through on that in august and they may well come up against some of the same problems. this is something that they will need to deal with and as republicans wake up this morning they will be hoping that they can begin moving forward, leave obamaca re where that they can begin moving forward, leave obamacare where it is. wait for it to implode and then perhaps come back and deal with the latter. in the meantime, much ahead with tax reform. thank you very much for your inside. paul manafort — donald trump's former campaign chairman is to give evidence to the house intelligence committee as part of its investigation into russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election. the committee chairman — devin nunes — says mr manafort has volunteered to speak to the panel. reports this week have suggested that he secretly worked for a russian billionaire before joining the trump campaign. police in belgium have used anti—terror legislation to charge a 39—year—old tunisian man with attempted murder, after a car was driven at high speed towards crowds in antwerp‘s shopping district.

no—one was injured. a gun and knives were found in the car. the former egyptian president, hosni mubarak, has been released after six years in detention. the 88—year—old had been held in a military hospital. earlier this month, judges cleared him of any involvement in the deaths of protestors during the arab spring in 2011. a teenage bloggerfrom singapore has been granted asylum in the united states — after persuading a judge he faces political persecution. amos yee was jailed in 2015 and 2016 after posting atheist comments online. here in the uk, counter—terrorism police have released all but two of the 11 people arrested since wednesday's attack in central london. detectives are still trying to establish whether the attacker, khalid masood, was acting alone when he drove into pedestrians, before stabbing a police officer to death outside parliament.

here's our special correspondent lucy manning. the face of khalid masood. the face that confronted police officers at parliament. the face that looked out of the car at pedestrians, as he knocked them over. the 52—year—old was known by a number of names. born adrian elms in kent, by the time he was at huntleys secondary school for boys in tunbridge wells, he was called adrian ajao, after his mother got married. school friends remembered him as a sporty pupil, who liked to party. adrian was a nice lad, a fun guy, always laughing, always joking. worked reasonably hard. good at sport. played rugby very well. just an unassuming guy. but masood was soon developing a reputation for violence. in the sleepy sussex village of northiam, where he lived in his 20s, at the local pub he slashed a man in the face with a knife and was sent to jail.

he didn't have a very good reputation, definitely. i remember he was a bit of a troubled character, i think is probably the way to describe it. masood spent time in three prisons, hmp lewes, wayland and ford. he worked as a teacher in saudi arabia in 2005 and again, in 2008. he'd already converted to islam by then. his mother now lives in a remote farmhouse in carmarthenshire, which detectives searched yesterday. they haven't been, from what i understand, in any sort of contact with their son for well over 20 years, and at the end of the day, when it comes to terrorism, unfortunately nobody can be responsible for the action of their children. masood, we now know, launched his terror attack after staying overnight at a hotel in brighton. detectives have searched the hotel and there have been more raids, more arrests.

in manchester, a car was taken away by police in didsbury and two arrests, described by senior officers as significant, were made there and in the west midlands. the police are still trying to build a picture of a man who came here to attack westminster. they say their main aim now is to try and work out if he was acting alone, inspired by terrorist propaganda, or if there are others, still out there who encouraged him, supported, or even directed this attack. but it's clear there are still gaps in the police's knowledge. what we're appealing to today is to the public, to say, if, even in hindsight now, you realise something about khalid masood, something about his associates, something about his movements, something about planning, now is the time to come forward and speak to our officers. a bright student, turned violent man, turned terrorist. no one is still sure how, or why. lucy manning, bbc news, westminster. the russian president,

vladimir putin, has met the french far—right presidential hopeful marine le pen in moscow. president putin denied trying to influence the french election next month, but says he reserves the right to communicate with all political forces. ms le pen said that if elected she would do what she could to get eu sanctions against russia lifted. greg dawson reports. this was a rabid symbolic show of his bitterly from vladimir putin. —— rare but symbolic show of friendship. translation: we do not wa nt to friendship. translation: we do not want to influence events wish to retain the right to speak to all political power was. the kremlin likes what it hears from marine le pen. she has called for eu sanctions

imposed on russia to be scrapped. she claims the crimea, the ukrainian peninsula annexed by moscow has a lwa ys peninsula annexed by moscow has always been russian. translation: you know my position is unknown. i rarely change them which probably makes me an exception. you know that iam for makes me an exception. you know that i am for development of relations with russia in the context of a long history buildings our two countries. the national front leader may have w011 the national front leader may have won widespread support in france but populist views have deterred most foreign leaders. vladimir putin says that she represents a fast—growing element of european politics. russia may already be accused of meddling in the us elections to help donald trump when the white house but the kremlin denies those claims and insists it will not try and influence next month's election. recent opinion pulled in marine le pen neck and neck in the first round with the centrist candidate. this

meeting delivered a not so subtle hint that russia would be happy to deal with the president le pen. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: we visit roma where the leaders of the european union nations gathered to celebrate the 60th birthday... with one exception. let there be no more war or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. so proud of both of you. with great regret the committee have decided that south africa be excluded from the 1970 competition. streaking across the sky,

the white hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers in fiji. this is bbc news. i'm lebo diseko. the latest headlines: donald trump has withdrawn his healthcare bill, after it became clear he didn't have enough support from his own party to win a vote in congress. president trump has been forced to abandon his plan to replace obamacare with his own health scheme, after failing to get enough support in congress to pass the bill. i asked jay wolfson — a professor of health and medicine at the university of south florida — why it was so difficult to get republicans to vote for the bill. the republicans themselves a very

divided about this. some wanted more, some wanted less. when it came to the bottom line, many of them began to hear from their own constituents, and governors are states that were affected, even if they voted with the president, because too many people were going to be adverse the affected. while the things that were unpleasant for most people, they did not like the obamacare programme, the mandate that required them to get benefits, the subsidies that provided people with money to buy premiums, the higher taxes for some of the elderly, for some of the wealthy, all of those things would be cut out, but in place medicaid was there to be cut back. carefully pour. subsidies will go to be going away, and the tax rebates were not there to be enough to help the elderly. and as those that had medicate so

that they would enter the suffering a tremendous burden. plus, within the republican party, many of the very conservative members felt the builder .co far enough, and the moderate members felt that it was going to bar. i think the other part of this is that americans are schizophrenic about the role of government in their lives on in their culture. and there were induced into doing that by thomas jefferson, who said these should never trust government in the first place. and every 20 years, you probably need to shake it up. place. and every 20 years, you probably need to shake it upm does seem, from the outside, certainly, sometimes difficult to understand why this is such a divisive in america. it is really cultural. in europe and in canada, and much of the rest of the world, the idea of healthcare as being a right has been well—established. here, it has not been. a lot of it has to do with the fact that we think that government should play a limited role, but we are also very selfish and schizophrenic. we feel that government

should stay out of our lives until we need something in our lives, and then we should be entitled to receive it. and the entitlement culture that has been dominating much of the literature, and discussions behind the scenes, an american healthcare, rose to the surface in all this. if you listen to the republicans are they, they were impassioned. who deserves what, what role the government should play at and what role personal responsibility should play. there is a divide right in the middle on healthcare in the american population. some people believe that the government has an obligation and should step in to help people, and others believe it is gone too far, and as a consequence, we spend more money and are unhealthier than anybody else in the world, and get less bang for the buck. we have the sickest population, we spend more money on pharmaceuticals, and hospital stays, and we really get poor outcomes from it. and i think please and many americans feel the system is broken.

and many democrats and republicans agree with that. briefly, sir, how does donald trump come back from this? i don't think he has to worry about coming back from this. it is donald trump's job to administer the laws. this was unsuccessful. he has other work to do with taxes and immigration that he has to work on. congress has two correct the mistakes from seven years ago. the republicans thought they could use the same technique as the democrat used with obamacare. it does not work. the republicans and democrats have to get together and work out how we're going to pay for healthcare and if we want to really pay for everybody. and that is cultural issue. the european union celebrates its sixtieth anniversary on saturday. all but one of the 28 leaders of the eu nations have gathered in rome. the six founder members — italy, france, germany, the netherlands belgium and luxembourg — could not have

imagined the challenges the eu would be facing in 2017. our special correspondent allan little reports from rome on the successes and failures of the past six decades. the british were not here in 1957, and will be not here today. when the other 27 gather to tell a break theirfounding other 27 gather to tell a break their founding boughs. they other 27 gather to tell a break theirfounding boughs. they signed a pledge to unify europe coming here, in the splendour of a capital that had once brought unity by conquest to the ancient world. the six founding nations, that small, initial group, which are of by the express of war, the most destructive in human history. twice in their direct living memory. the man who sat at this table are notjust building a trading bloc. this for them was above all a peace project. they were trained to turn the page on centuries of conflict in europe, and create a world in which war between the core nations of the continent would become notjust undesirable or difficult, but actually impossible. how do you sit in this room, 60 years on, and breathe new life into that founding vision in an age in which he seems

so vision in an age in which he seems so entrenched that we have taken it for granted, as those 70 years without conflict was somehow the norm in european history, and not the exception. the fall of communism greeted the sense that the eu's liberal order had tried. but it contained the seeds of today's risers. expansion to these and open borders brought a sense of migration out of control. the straitjacket of the single currency for stagnation to the south. there is a mounting popular desire to go back to the perceived certainties of national sovereignty. there were years of influence that we saw before world wari influence that we saw before world war i that are coming back, with russia and the us, and china. and this only unified europe could play a positive role in the future world. otherwise, it is going to be crushed. that is the biggest fear

and influence in this. for the water cheaper european project is slipping from memory now. that is why it has 82—year—old comes mostly to saint anna, the tuscan village of his childhood, to talk to today's's children. they listened spellbound. because when he was younger than them, ten, german ss troops came and murdered 100 people, many beside this church. —— ana. murdered 100 people, many beside this church. -- ana. chase for many yea rs, this church. -- ana. chase for many years, idid this church. -- ana. chase for many years, i did not want it all but the massacre, but they can do believe that young people should know about it. the eu gave us 50, no, 70 years of each. the young should know that is why we suffered and that cannot happen again. your baby downplayed shared trauma, but there is now the prospect of the eu will fragment into mutually hostile blocs. that is what its leaders must face here. you may remember last month when the hollywood star — harrison ford — made an unusual

landing at an airport in southern california. he came down on a taxi—way instead of a runway — flying directly over a waiting passenger jet. now — audio tape has emerged of him explaining what happened. tim allman reports. as han solo, he was the pilot who made the kessel run in less than 12 parsecs. but in real life, harrison ford's recent exploits in aviation have been a little more perilous. he had a near—miss last month atjohn wayne airport, his single, small—engine plane coming down in the wrong place. so, what happened? well, this is the conversation the actor had, once he touched down: this wasn't the first mishap he'd had in recent years — in 2015, he suffered injuries after crashing a vintage plane on a golf course in santa monica. that time, it was down to engine problems. fortunately, there were no injuries in this latest incident — other than, perhaps, a little damage to harrison ford's pride.

i will have the headlines in just a moment. that is all we have time for. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @lebo?diseko. hello. there will be some chilly nights this weekend. there will be frost for some of us as the weekend begins, but by day, this weekend, it is sun, sun, sun. what a glorious weekend if you're a fan of blue skies. high pressure right across the uk. the weather ingredients this weekend, because of high pressure, as you might imagine, it's going to be settled. there will be some warm spring sunshine around, but for some others there will be a noticeable breeze. we will need to shelter from that to enjoy the warm sunshine. some chilly nights with frost around. looking at the temperatures

as the weekend begins, these are the urban readings, but away from the towns and cities in the countryside we will see those lower readings on the thermometer. in parts of northern england, northern ireland and scotland we'll see frost. many of us will have widespread frost on ground and grass. a few patches of fog in parts of yorkshire, lincolnshire, the midlands and parts of wales. that shouldn't last too long into the morning. an exception to the settled weather will be in the northern isles. more cloud around on saturday, especially in the shetlands. outbreaks of rain at times, mostly on the light side. as day breaks you can see the extent of the sunshine to begin with, but hints of either mist fog patches, or low cloud, to begin with, through parts of yorkshire, lincolnshire, the midlands and into wales. it should not last too long. by mid—morning that should be gone. look at the strength of the wind in east anglia, south—east england and along the south coast. if anything that may be a notch up compared to what we had on friday. quite a windy picture for some of us. you will need to shelter from the easterly wind to get the best of the warmth from the sunshine. the blue sky continues for the majority of the afternoon.

that warmth will be felt, especially where the wind is right down the western side of the uk, 15 or 16 celsius. saturday, a fine evening, but a chilly night. a touch of frost, especially in the north. remember, on saturday night the clocks go forward an hour, the beginning of british summer time. nothing to do with the weather, though it sounds good. great for night workers, and great if you want your light longer into the evening. here are the sunset times on sunday. there will be some sunshine around again on sunday for the vast majority. maybe just a bit of cloud to some eastern parts of the uk later in the day. still that breeze to the south and still sheltering from that to make the most of the sunshine. for the vast majority, the weekend will have a blue sky note. whatever you are doing this weekend, enjoy that, and enjoy your weekend. the latest headlines from bbc news. i'm lebo diseko.

donald trump has withdrawn his healthcare bill. he was forced to abandon his plans after being told he simply didn't have enough republican support to win a vote in congress. some republicans opposed his alternative to obamaca re, which will now remain in force across the us. british police have appealed for the public to help uncover the motivation of the man who killed four people in wednesday's attack in westminster. detectives are still trying to establish whether he acted alone when he drove into pedestrians, before stabbing a police officer to death. the french presidential hopeful marine le pen says she would consider lifting sanctions on russia, if she was elected. the national front leader met vladimir putin in moscow. he said he was ‘not trying to influence events' and now on bbc news, we are taking to the stage for a special programme all about love, and relationships.

from the perspective of performers with disabilities or mental health issues. the show is produced by the bbc‘s disability strand,