hello i'm babita sharma, welcome to outside source. america's top military officer says he was wrong to accompany president trump for a photo—op at a church during the black lives matter protests. as many of you saw the result of the photograph of me at lafayette square last week. that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. i should not have been there. us stock markets suffer sharp falls amid concerns over a new wave of coronavirus infections. this is new york, where shares have just closed down nearly 7%. in england, the government says its track and trace system is working well —

but new figures show thousands of people couldn't be contacted. and as the coronavirus outbreak accelerates in africa — so too does misinformation. welcome. america's top military official has said he was wrong to join president trump for a photo opportunity outside a church in washington. a peaceful protest over the death of george floyd, a black man who died in police custody, had been forcibly broken up to make it happen. this is the walk they took to the church — general mark milley, the chair of thejoint chiefs of staff is on the right side of the screen dressed in camouflage fatigues — he said he ‘should not have been there'. this is what he said in a video address to a military graduation ceremony. as many of you saw the result of the photograph of me at lafayette square last week. that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. i should not have been there. my presence in that moment

and in that environment created a perception of military involvement of domestic politics. this is not the first time general milley has distanced himself, and the us military, from the politics of donald trump. in the early days of the protests against the killing of george floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for more than 8 minutes, donald trump tweeted. that last phrase was coined in the us in the 1960s, to justify aggressive policing in black neighbourhoods, and was later used by politicians in favour of segregation during the time of civil rights protests. twitter marked it as a violation of twitter rules for glorifying violence. president trump then acused twitter of silencing conservative voices and threatened them with regulation. days later general milley, wrote a letter to the us joint

forces command saying. the us military swears an oath to the constitution, this document is founded on the principle that all men and women are born free and equal, and should be treated with respect and dignity. in his own handwriting he added ‘we all committed our lives to the idea that is america — we will stay true to that oath and the american people'. here's katty kay on the significance of that. look, you have to remember the president is also the commander—in—chief. doing that he is effectively criticising the commander—in—chief as well. it's why american generals, by and large are very reluctant whether they are sitting or retired, very reluctant to criticise the president. because there are criticising the head of the military. now he is just one of several former joint chiefs of staff and secretaries of defence that of, and saying that president trump has gone too far recalled for the military to come out onto the streets against american protesters.

it's worth remembering that when his photograph was taken, when we saw him on that video walking through the square american forces had just fired tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful protesters in order to clear the square so that the president could go and have that photo opportunity outside the church. it caused a huge amount of consternation here. in speaking to a top retired american military official who said the apology is good and true, we don't have the kind of apology that so clear so often, somebody saying i was wrong, but this former military official was saying it is too late. this was a week ago last monday when we are now ten days later. why is it taken him so long to come out and say what i did was wrong. the black lives matter protests in the united states — and around the world — have led to demands that authorities remove monuments connected to slavery and colonialism. this is a statue of christopher columbus being torn

down by protesters in minnesota. he's popularly known as one of the 15th century's great explorers, credited with europe's ‘discovery‘ of the americas. but he's accused of being responsible for native american but on twitter, the republican senator ted cruz described the protesters as the american taliban. another, more recent historical legacy being examined is that of the american civil war. multiple us military bases are named after confederate commanders, who fought to preserve slavery. there are ten of them — they're spread across six southern states, some of which were once part of the confederacy that fought against the union in the north. earlier this week the army suggested they might be open to changing the bases‘ names — sparking an angry response from the president, who has refused to rename any of them. statues of those leaders have also been targetted by anti—racism protesters. the opposition democrat party has thrown its weight behind a campaign

to remove some from the us capitol, where congress sits. nancy pelosi, the country's top elected democrat, wrote this letter to a congressional committee in charge of managing the statues — saying they must be removed. and this is what one of her colleagues said. the individuals who have been honoured by those statues, in effect, fought to keep people enslaved. i don't think that's something we ought to honour in america. outside of washington, the same issues are playing out. this is the statue of the former president of the confederacy, jefferson davis, after it was defaced and knocked down in richmond, virginia. it was taken away by police. this is a statue, of confederate general robert e lee being cleaned after it was spray—painted by protesters. swear words had to be blurred out for broadcast. the governor of virginia has said there are now plans to take down this statue down

as soon as possible. journalist james gannon is a descendent of general robert lee. two years ago he made a documentary about his controversial family legacy and the divisions on confederate monuments in america. i asked him how he feels about taking down the statues. welcome of the important thing to remember about these statues and those that say they have to do with history is that that history was never really straightforward to begin with. these statues, whether they were put up in the years following the civil war, or decades or even a century later like many of them were, if you look at the speeches given at their unveiling and commentary at the time, it's clear that although there may have been some it is sent intend to honour history, there was a very specific intention to use these as symbols of oppression and symbols to empower white supremacy across the south. so as i look at them now really they are symbols that just have to go. in this current moment we cannot accept that statues two people who fought to uphold

the enslavement of human beings can still stand today. in the united states a io—week stock market boom — which seemed to defy gravity given the desperate economic situation — has seemingly come to an end today. the exchange in new york has closed in the last few minutes. the dow jones industrial average fell nearly 7%. that is its biggest daily fall since the early days of covid—i9 back in march. moving away from the us. and here in the uk — the government says its new track and trace system is working well in england — however new figures show tracers failed to get in touch with a third of them. here's our health editor, hugh pym. if you test positive, nhs test and trace will contact you to trace

people you might have infected. testing and tracing is vital to prevent future coronavirus outbreaks developing. a new system for england was launched two weeks ago. now we have some details of how it's working. in the first week, two thirds of those testing positive handed over details of people they had recently been in contact with. save lives. are you a bit concerned that with one third of people who tested positive, for whatever reason, you couldn't get details of recent contacts? i think that the system has worked well, and to get two thirds in the first week of operation, it beat my expectations and then to have the vast majority, 85% of the contacts that were given, self—isolating, that beat my expectations too, and this system gets better and better. here is how contact tracing should work. if i test positive for the virus, i'd be contacted by officials by phone or e—mail and asked who i had met up with in recent days.

and that means meetings at less than two metres face to face, not someone i might have bumped into in a shop. that might include, for example, friends i'd spent time with, and work colleagues i might have been in meetings with, or a wider circle of recent contacts. all that would then be assessed by a clinical team and those people might be contacted and told to self—isolate for 14 days. testing is carried out at drive—through centres at locations visited by mobile teams and in hospitals and care homes. home test kits are sent out, then information on those testing positive is sent to health officials who find out more a bout the contacts. i one of them isjosie. everybody that i've spoke to has been more than happy to share . , .