lockdown is working, say scientists, as new covid infections drop by two thirds in england since the start of the year. barrages to block protestors in india — we report on the continuing demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of farmers, and india's attempts to quell them. and the rare deep freeze in texas that's causing chaos — leaving millions without power and water. and coming up in sport on bbc news, bruno fernandes scores twice for manchester united as they beat real sociedad 4—0 in the europa league. good evening. nasa has just successfully landed its most ambitious ever mission to mars. after a seven—month journey

through space, the rover, called perseverance, survived a perilous high—speed plunge through the martian atmosphere and made it safely onto the surface of the red planet — confirming its arrival an hour ago with a tweet. these the first images it sent back, within moments. it's the most advanced rover ever sent to another world — one that hopes to eventually return samples to earth. and its mission is to search for ancient life that may have existed billions of years ago. tonight's landing is all the more impressive, given how much could have gone wrong. here's our science correspondent rebecca morelle. and a warning — her report contains some flashing images. perseverance is going about one per second. a nerve—racking wait at mission control. it's landed safely, on the surface of mars! cheering. and then celebrations as a signal is received from mars. it's touchdown for nasa's perseverance rover. and these are its first images, a view of its landing sites before

it starts to explore. the rover has even started tweeting as well.. "i'm safe on mars. "perseverance will get you anywhere." what an amazing team. to work through all the adversity that goes with landing a rover on mars, plus the challenges of covid, it'sjust an amazing accomplishment. it survived a fiendishly difficult landing, burning through the atmosphere at 12,000 mph, before a complex landing system brought it down, in an area with some of the oldest rocks on mars. it's amongst the most ancient crust on the surface of mars, capturing that period of time between 3.5 — 4 billion years old which isn't a period of time that is particularly well preserved in rocks on earth, so we have a chance to find out about a period of the solar system that we have never studied before.

this mission is all about finding signs of life, and the best place to do that is here, the jezero crater. today, it's dry and dusty, but billions of years ago it was a huge lake, and you can clearly see a river running into it. this gives you an idea of what it would have looked like. if we zoom in a bit more, these green areas on the edge of the crater were once beeches on the lake shore, and the hope is any microscopic creatures that once lived there are still preserved. perseverance is the most advanced rover that nasa has ever built, and it's jam—packed with instruments. its robotic arm is equipped with a drill to collect rock samples. so what forms of life could they contain? i am not talking about martian little green men, probably not even fish. we're looking for microbial life, or maybe microbes that have made a little mat or a slime such that you might find on the bottom of a pond. those are the types of things that are likely to... well, they did exist on earth

3.5 billion years ago. the question is, did they exist on mars at the bottom of lakes? for the first time, nasa will also be testing a mini mars helicopter to provide a new bird's—eye view of the planet. and back on the ground, the rover will store some of the rocks — a future mission will bring them back to earth, and some will be heading to the uk. these will be the most precious samples that we have on earth, the most exciting, and scientists around the world will be absolutely fighting and clamouring to study them. getting to the red planet is just the start. now the hard work begins. this is nasa's most ambitious mission and our best ever chance to know where life ever existed on mars. rebecca morelle, bbc news. facebook is facing criticism from around the world after blocking people in australia from viewing news content on its site, in protest at a proposed new law.

the prime minister of australia, scott morrison, says he will not be intimidated by the social media company, amid a row over plans to force internet firms to pay for news shared on their platforms. facebook says the proposed legislation "fundamentally misunderstands" the relationship between it and organisations providing news. 0ur media editor amol rajan reports. this is the internet, but not as we've known it. never before have a democracy and tech giant collided as they have in the past 36 hours and they have in the past 36 hours and the after—shocks are likely to spill out across the globe. australians woke up to a new world, unable to access news sources via facebook after the social media giant carried through on its threat to the government there. what's this all about? well, over the past two decades two deep global trends have occurred simultaneously. first, advertiser funded occurred simultaneously. first, advertiserfunded facebook occurred simultaneously. first, advertiser funded facebook and google have become two of the

richest companies in history. second, the business model of newspapers has collapsed. what connects these two trends is advertising. a generation ago high quality newspapers were largely funded by advertising. today, most advertising is online and facebook and google account for around about 60% of all global digital advertising. that is a duopoly and publishers want in on it. this is about who owes what and to whom, led by rupert murdoch australia's newsrooms argue their expensive journalism makes these tech platforms more attractive and gives them credibility. australia's government agrees. this them credibility. australia's government agrees.- them credibility. australia's government agrees. this is an assault on _ government agrees. this is an assault on a — government agrees. this is an assault on a sovereign - government agrees. this is an assault on a sovereign nation. j government agrees. this is an l assault on a sovereign nation. it government agrees. this is an - assault on a sovereign nation. it is an assault on people's freedom and in particular it isn't utter abuse of big technology's market power and control over technology. yet of big technology's market power and control over technology.— control over technology. yet the data giants _ control over technology. yet the data giants have _ control over technology. yet the data giants have strong - data giants have strong counterarguments. publishers choose to be on facebook because they derive value from it, both reach and

traffic that can be monetised. the tech giants have set up funds to invest heavily in journalism and moreover they say forcing anyone to pay someone just for linking to them reaches a fundamental principle of the web and privileges one category of information, news, over others. they want money so that people can link. now, this kind of breaks down the way that the world wide web has worked up until now and it sets a dangerous precedent. for worked up until now and it sets a dangerous precedent.— dangerous precedent. for now, british users _ dangerous precedent. for now, british users won't _ dangerous precedent. for now, british users won't be - dangerous precedent. for now, british users won't be affected | dangerous precedent. for now, i british users won't be affected but regulators and legislators everywhere will come under pressure to follow australia's example. it we to follow australia's example. if we see australia _ to follow australia's example. if we see australia being _ to follow australia's example. if we see australia being bullied to follow australia's example. if we see australia being bullied in to follow australia's example. it we see australia being bullied in this manner and effectively we end up with a situation where facebook can get its own way, then that is going to damage other countries, including the uk, and our approach to social media and trying to ensure a safe and respectful environment. google has taken a —

and respectful environment. google has taken a different _ and respectful environment. google has taken a different approach, - has taken a different approach, signing a bespoke global deal with murdoch's company, news corp. that leaves facebook short of friends. australia is showing the world what happens when an unstoppable force conference and immovable object. the former is technology, and particularly the data kings of california. the latter is democracy. and the argument between them will define our lives for years to come. sophie. amol rajan, thank you. scientists say there's been a strong decline in the number of covid infections in england since the latest lockdown began. it is working, it seems. researchers at imperial college, who've been tracking the pandemic, say infection rates have dropped by two thirds. but there are warnings that virus levels are still high — particularly among the under—25s. here's our medical editor, fergus walsh. lockdown is working — draconian restrictions on society mean coronavirus has fewer chances to spread. but that's meant closing schools, shops, pubs, gyms — putting normal life on hold.

the latest evidence comes from 85,000 swab tests sent out to households across england. the survey by imperial college, from the 4th—i3th of february, is good at picking up cases among those who don't know they're carrying the virus. the survey found that infections have fallen by two thirds across england in the past month, and are down 80% in london. the researchers estimate that infections are halving every 15 days, but they warn that prevalence of the virus is still high, with one in 200 people across england thought to be positive — similar to levels seen in september. we know that the prevalence of the virus was much lower last summer, something like ten times lower, and clearly the more people who have the virus, and some of them will not have symptoms and not know they're carrying the virus,

the more likely to do is to transmit to other people, so the lower we can get the prevalence, the better. there are still nearly the same number of covid patients in hospital as at the first peak in april last year. but there are now tentative signs that vaccines are beginning to save lives among the over—80s, the first to receive a covid jab. deaths among the over—80s have fallen by 54% since the middle of january. much of that is due to lockdown, but they're falling faster than in younger age groups, where they're down 45%. as more and more people get vaccinated, that should start bringing down cases as well as deaths. at the minute, the over—70s, they only make up about 10% of cases but over 80% of deaths. as we start vaccinating younger people, that effect that we're seeing in deaths, we should also see more and more in cases.

but there are concerns about the lower take—up of vaccines among black, asian and minority ethnic communities. you may not always trust what you hear and what you see, but you can trust the vaccine. a video urging people from all ethnic backgrounds to get the vaccine is being shown across commercial tv channels, and the nhs will be distributing leaflets in 20 different languages to try to dispel myths about the vaccine. thank you. the vaccines do not contain animal products or foetal products, they do not affect your fertility, so if you're offered the vaccine please, please take it up, because that is what will keep you safe. borisjohnson will set out a road map for easing restrictions in england on monday and has promised a cautious approach that will focus on data and not dates. fergus walsh, bbc news.

the latest government figures show 12,057 new infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period. an average of 12,081; new cases were recorded per day in the last week. just over 20,000 people are in hospital with coronavirus across the uk. that's half the number it was just over a month ago at the peak. in the last 2a hours, a54 deaths have been recorded — that's people who died within 28 days of a positive covid test. on average, 551 deaths were announced every day in the past week. the total number of people who've died is 119,387. the number of people given their first dose of one of the three approved covid—19 vaccines in the latest 24—hour period is more than 482,000, taking the total who've now had their firstjab to nearly 16.5 million people.

the number of new cases and deaths may be falling, but northern ireland has announced that it is extending its lockdown until april first. chris page is at stormont. lockdown is being extended but some schoolchildren will return sooner than that? that's right, the devolved government is trying to give people some hope but tempering that with caution. probably the biggest change in northern ireland between now and the 1st of april will come on monday the 1st of april will come on monday the 8th of march, when pupils in the first three years of primary school and children at preschool will become the first to go back to face—to—face learning. a fortnight after that, on monday the 22nd of march, students in their last three years of post primary school, so doing qualifications like gcses, a—levels and beat x, will go back into the classroom. those in other year groups will have to wait until after the easter holidays. the coronavirus figures in this part of

the uk are basically going in the right direction but they remain significant pressure on the health service, for example there are still now more people in hospital with covid than was the case at the height of the first wave of the virus last spring so ministers are stressing northern ireland will only accept lockdown carefully, slowly, and they hope, sustainably. chris pace, and they hope, sustainably. chris page. thank _ and they hope, sustainably. chris page, thank you. _ the labour leader sir keir starmer has set out his vision for britain's recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, saying it's an opportunity to break away from what he called an insecure and unequal economy. one of his key proposals was "a british recovery bond", allowing millions of savers to invest in the uk's recovery from the pandemic. the conservatives have called it empty rhetoric. here's our deputy political editor vicki young. he's trying to inspire a party that's got used to being rejected by voters — in a political landscape dominated by a pandemic. labour members can only watch from a distance as sir keir starmer lays out his vision from an empty room.

we can go back to the same insecure and unequal economy that's been so cruelly exposed by the virus. or we can seize the moment and go forward to a future that's going to look utterly unlike the past. he said coronavirus had proved the case for government to play a much bigger role in managing the economy — but working alongside business, not attacking it. if we're honest, for too long labour has failed to realise that the only way to deliver social justice and equality is through a strong partnership with businesses. under my leadership, that mindset will change. one new policy idea is a british recovery bond, offering people a savings account with the government. the cash raised would be used to help get the country back on its feet after the pandemic. there are people, of course, the ones who've kept theirjobs, who have been able to save some money. how does that help those who haven't kept theirjobs, who really are struggling to make ends meet?

so what the bond does is to provide a way for people to invest in the future of their country in a secure way, and obviously then releases money for infrastructure projects. 0bviously, for those that haven't been able to save et cetera, there are other things that i said this morning about universal credit, about the pay for key workers, so it's not either or, it's both. and you've been leader for around ten months. how do you think it has gone? a year ago in the leadership race, people were saying to me, "is the labour party even going to exist in the future?" "are you going to survive?" now the question i'm facing is, "when are you going to be ready to win a general election?" some are calling on the labour leader to be bolder. what do these party members think? as he rightly says, we can't go back to normal, but what is normal isn't acceptable, and what we need is proper guidance and proper policy to move forward. as of yet, we haven't received that. it's a really good start from starmer in my view. i get why people are saying we should be going further,

but i think it sets out how things would be different if he was prime minister, ultimately the country would be in a better place. you can talk about all the policies you like, but if they're not - delivered by a credible leadership that people can believe can - actually deliver them, - then they won't go down well with the public. and do you think he has managed to get that impression across? yes, most definitely. keir starmer says a labour government would actively support the economy. the conservatives point out they've just spent almost £300 billion doing just that. it shows how difficult it is being distinctive as opposition leader during a national emergency. elections across the uk in may will be the first test of whether voters like what they've heard so far. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. one of britain's top retail bosses lord wolfson, who runs next, is calling on the chancellor to slash business rates to give company's a financial boost and help save the high street. the business rates holiday that has been in place during the pandemic

is due to end in april. our business editor simonjack reports signs of spring in bedford. but like many towns and cities in the uk, the high street is enduring a winter which saw 175,000 jobs lost last year and some famous high street names shut for good. business rates are a tax based on a property's value. those values have changed. and with a budget round the corner, one of the survivors says rates have to reflect that if the high street is to survive. if government wants to do something about it, the thing to do is to just discount rates by a fixed amount. just say, look, actually, to put them in line with rents, they need to come down by around 35%. as rents on shops have been coming down, rents on warehouses have been going up, and the rates don't fairly reflect the value of warehouse property either. so i think government can fund some of this by increasing rates on warehousing by around 50%. book—seller peter budek took

a risk last year moving into bigger premises, so he'll start paying rates for the first time when the current holiday ends as scheduled in april. he said the current system is stifling the growth of small firms. the business rate factor was a big, big thing. we go from paying very little or zero business rates on our tiny little place before to suddenly having a substantial liability, and that nearly put me off. and if you can remove that obstacle, then you are far more likely to have small independent businesses becoming bigger independent businesses. we've been talking about business rates reform for years, but there are 30 billion reasons why it hasn't happened yet. that's how much business rates contribute to the government coffers. but you can't tax something that's dead. and the fear is, unless we get significant reform now, this decline will become terminal. the pandemic accelerated a consumer stampede online. it's hard to compete against companies that are happy

with wafer—thin profit margins. you can't turn back the clock, but you can soften the impact. what we have to make sure doesn't happen as a consequence of that is that we end up on the other side of the equation with a hard landing in our local communities, unnecessaryjob losses, u nnecessa i’y store closures. one other lever the chancellor could pull is an online sales tax. that would be a mistake, according to the boss of next. ultimately the consumer will pay the price of that. and, actually, i don't think anyone is going to go back to the high street because there's a 2% online tax or whatever number they come up with. you know, you cannot tax people back onto the high street. the internet is winning because it just has so much better choice, not because it's much cheaper. the chancellor may well extend the rates holiday next month. the government insists that business rates are once again under review. high street shops aren't worthless, but they are worth less. survival depends on rates recognising that. simonjack, bbc news, bedford.

the french president, emmanuel macron, says europe and the united states should send up to 5% of their coronavirus vaccine supplies to developing countries — as quickly as possible. 0ur paris correspondent lucy williamson joins us now. what's prompted this idea? a couple of reasons behind this idea. 0ne a couple of reasons behind this idea. one is timing, the eu has a programme to fund vaccines for developing country and it has ordered 2 billion doses but it will take until the end of this year for those doses to arrive so this is a way to get doses into those developing countries more quickly. tonight we heard that if france was my own orders arrive as planned it should be able to meet its contribution without slowing down its own vaccination programme, and the other reason that is driving this idea is what france is calling vaccine diplomacy, by countries like russia and china which are rushing to plug the gap in those developing

countries, and emmanuel macron has been keen that the west stand up for its global influence and stand together but there has been more than one tussle over the strategy and the moral high ground when it comes to vaccination programmes so we will see how his idea goes down with g7 leaders at their video meeting tomorrow.— with g7 leaders at their video meeting tomorrow. with g7 leaders at their video meetin: tomorrow. ., ., ., meeting tomorrow. thanks for “oining us. for more than two and a half months, hundreds of thousands of farmers in india have been protesting against new agricultural laws passed last year. they've drawn global attention, and the government's handling of dissent has become a grave cause for concern. activists and journalists are being charged with serious offences and there have been internet shutdowns at protest sites. the government says it's reacted with utmost restraint, but critics say democracy in india is taking a worrying turn. from delhi, our india correspondent yogita limaye reports. this is a startling sight in a democracy. a deadly wall on the road to the national capital,

to keep out protesters. in india the right to dissent is guaranteed by law. farmers have for months been opposing new agricultural bills. during these largely peaceful protests there have been internet shutdowns and activists and journalists have beenjailed. mandeep punia was arrested while covering the protests. out on bail now, he is accused of assaulting policemen. "i was beaten by batons. "those of us who are showing what is really going "on on the ground are being targeted by people in power", he told me. over the past few years india has seen repeated crackdowns on people critical of the government and its policies. with these farmers protests, though, for the first time since narendra modi became prime minister in 2014,

india's actions have grabbed widespread international attention. foreign celebrities and governments have urged this country to uphold democratic rights and freedoms. climate activist greta thunberg was one of them. she also shared a file which listed ways of supporting farmers. a criminal investigation was started over the document. and now indian police have arrested this 22—year—old woman, disha ravi, for editing the file. she's charged with sedition which carries a life sentence. many of those who have campaigned with her, took to the streets. what we have seen is that the central government decides to attack young people, innocent people, and frame them on all sorts of ridiculous charges. nidhi razdan is one of india's most prominentjournalists. this government doesn't take kindly to criticism. it does not take kindly to dissent. we are the world's largest democracy

but at the same time what we are seeing increasingly over the last few years is a backsliding of that democracy. prime minister narendra modi doesn't hold press conferences. his party did not want to speak to the bbc. in parliament, there was a strong push back against foreign commentary on what the government says are internal matters for india. but civil liberties are universal, says supreme court lawyer karu na nundy. when there are young black people that are shot in the united states by police officers this is a universal human rights issue. when the junta takes over in myanmar, when there are free—speech crackdowns in my country, that is an international human rights issue. many in india continue to challenge the government but increasingly they are doing so in a climate of fear. yogita limaye, bbc news, delhi.

here, a technical manager at arconic, the firm which made the grenfell tower cladding, told colleagues poor fire test results on the product needed to be kept "very confidential". the request, written in capital letters, was made in an email sent in 2010 and produced at the public inquiry today. the email was sent by an arconic manager in france, who has refused to give evidence. 72 people died in the fire at grenfell tower in 2017. the duke of edinburgh is spending a third night in hospital for "observation and rest". he was admitted earlier this week after feeling unwell. prince philip, who's 99, is said to be in "good spirits" in the king edward vii hospital in central london. his stay is not related to coronavirus. politicians in the us have been questioning key players in last month's frenzied trading of gamestop shares. independent traders swapping tips on social media forums sent the gaming chain's

stock price soaring. some major wall street investors, who had bet that gamestop's share price would go down, lost hundreds of millions of dollars. here's 0ur north america technology reporter, james clayton this is a story of how millions of online users got together to make some hedge funds lose millions of pounds by investing in this chain of shops. gamestop sells games, physical games on the high street, but with gaming increasingly going digital, its future looks bleak and that was noticed by a certain type of trader. some wall street traders bet that the shares would go down, and that if they did, they would make money, but members of an online forum noticed that and bought shares by the bucket load, helping to make its value soar. well, based on prevailing sentiment, the market and popular culture, many think it's a foolish investment but everyone is wrong! investors were often young and bought the shares on trading apps.

watching this chart is giving me heart problems, i swear to god. this time last year gamestop shares were worth £3. at one point injanuary they had risen to £350 per share. i travelled to los angeles to meet andrew left, the controversial founder of hedge fund citron. he is well known on wall street for shorting stocks. he bet against gamestop, a bad decision. can i ask how much you lost in total? i think the fund was down approximately 18%. how much is that in cash terms? i won't discuss that. that figure is certainly in the millions and likely the tens of millions. but many other amateur investors lost money on the way down, as well. in washington today, house representatives were trying to find out how this could have happened. this directed at the company that hosts wall street bets, reddit. this episode exposes a serious

threat to our financial system, when tweets, social media posts, when tweets, social media posts, do more to move the market than do more to move the market than material legitimate information. material legitimate information. in this specific case we did not see in this specific case we did not see any signs of manipulation. any signs of manipulation. andrew left says he's going to be andrew left says he's going to be much more careful in the future much more careful in the future about shorting stocks. about shorting stocks. there is this narrative there is this narrative that it was a david and goliath that it was a david and goliath story, it was all of these hedge story, it was all of these hedge funds like yours, funds like yours, against the people. against the people. if a five—year—old walked if a five—year—old walked into the room right now, into the room right now, i could probably kick his behind. i could probably kick his behind. across the united states — any five—year—old. any five—year—old. if 1,000 five—year—olds if 1,000 five—year—olds walked in here, they could walked in here, they could probably take me down. probably take me down. i'm just being honest about it. i'm just being honest about it. it's not a david versus it's not a david versus goliath story, no. goliath story, no. gamestop's crazy swings last hedge gamestop's crazy swings last hedge funds like citron a lot of money funds like citron a lot of money but other normal investors lost but other normal investors lost out, as well. out, as well. regulators now need to work out regulators now need to work out whether what happened was legal whether what happened was legal and whether more should be done and whether more should be done to stop this from happening to stop this from happening again in the future. again in the future. james clayton, bbc news. a blast of arctic weather has

brought with it blizzards and record low temperatures