this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: mission control: touchdown confirmed. perserverence has touched down on the surface of mars. the moment the perseverance rover — nasa's most ambitious mission to mars — lands successfully on the red planet. it worked through all the adversity and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on mars, plus the challenges of covid, and just an amazing accomplishment. within minutes, the first image was beamed back by the rover and it tweets "i'm safe on mars. perseverance will get you anywhere." millions of texans are without power for a fourth day after gas pipelines and wind turbines freeze over. the united states says it's ready to hold talks with iran

and european powers about reviving a deal to stop tehran building nuclear weapons. and facebook unfriends australia: the social networking giant blocks access to news media on its site in a row over paying for content. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. we start on another planet, mars, where the nasa perseverance rover has safely touched down. it's already sending back messages from its new home and will now try to find signs of life on the planet. here's our science correspondent rebecca morelle, and a warning — her report contains some flashing images. mission control: perseverance

is going about 1km per second. i a nerve—racking wait at mission control... perseverance has landed safely on the surface of ..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 site before it starts to explore. the rover has even started tweeting, too. what an amazing team. to work through all the adversity that goes — and all the challenges that go with landing a rover on mars, plus the challenges of covid, and — 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 here 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, thejezero 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 beaches 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 their little mat or a slime of sorts 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. —— chance to know whether life ever existed on mars. rebecca morelle, bbc news. i spoke to nasa's dr peter willis, who is a member of the perseverance mission science team. i asked him about the different tasks the rover will be undertaking. we are so grateful and indebted to the hard work of all of the people who placed, well, first of all built the river and then placed it so carefully on the surface of another planet and it is very special place it is an incredible accomplishment, as you have heard from teams of people and their families too during a really, really difficult time so came up with a name perseverance rover before this whole covid thing hit and it is an impressive title. ., ., hit and it is an impressive title-_ so. i hit and it is an impressive i title._ so, what title. you are right. so, what are the instruments - title. you are right. so, what are the instruments on - title. you are right. so, whati are the instruments on board the rover going to try to do? the payload was selected specifically to determine the very most promising samples to return to earth so you know the

instruments that we can use on earth, we are doing a really detailed analysis that are going to be better than the ones we put on a rover so there is a bunch of instruments, two around the mast and you have seen i think that's kind of like et�*s had look around the surface and it has optical cameras and cameras and lasers and different measures of spectroscopy and another set of instruments located on the mobile arm, the turret, that can take and put them very close to samples and analyse them really up close and the combination of both of those measurements, we can determine one of the most interesting things to then sample and put in the sample tubes for collection and return to earth at a later date. how is that actually going to be done? controlled by people on earth or will it be automated, looking around and picking up and grabbing these examples? 0h, and grabbing these examples? oh, it will be a human endeavour. it is all human. no,

there was a whole group of people here, including myself and my family who are about to go on mars time which, the mars day is a0 minutes longer than on earth day so we will wake up and follow the sun on mars and each day, we will receive the information on where the rover isn't we will make these decisions on what to do that day and then we follow that each day for the next three years so it is a human— this is our avatar, this surface of mars, but the science, that we decide needs to be done, and it is a big job to do to efficiently use it. it is a big job to do to efficiently use it. it is a big 'ob so efficiently use it. it is a big job so how _ efficiently use it. it is a big job so how confident - efficiently use it. it is a big job so how confident are i efficiently use it. it is a big i job so how confident are you that you will find the right samples which then could lead you to extra terrestrial life? well, i'll tell you that i do think — and this represents the view of scientists internationally— this is their best chance and this is the best chance and this is the best location to look for signs of extra terrestrial life so i

think we start going up the delta and even before when we reach these cabinets that are deposited on the edges on the lake, i think we have a very promising chance to find something that is truly astonishing and that is what we are all hoping for. just finally. _ are all hoping for. just finally, there - are all hoping for. just finally, there is - are all hoping for. just finally, there is a - are all hoping for. just finally, there is a bit i are all hoping for. just| finally, there is a bit of are all hoping for. just i finally, there is a bit of a delay because although the work will take place up there it is even more years before scientists on earth will actually get their hands on them. . ., ., , them. yeah, we will have to be atient them. yeah, we will have to be patient but _ them. yeah, we will have to be patient but you _ them. yeah, we will have to be patient but you know, - them. yeah, we will have to be patient but you know, we - them. yeah, we will have to be patient but you know, we can l patient but you know, we can still find things during the course of the mission but are still compelling and you need to convince people that you have found life and we could find something truly astonishing that may be lenses to believe that life is there, even during the course of this mission. —— that may lead us to believe. peter willis. a blast of arctic weather has brought with it blizzards and record low temperatures across the united states, including to many southern states unused to such weather. in texas, it has sparked an energy crisis. at one point, more than four million households were without power.

houston. this is one of the richest states in one of the richest countries in the world. drinking water and food supplies are running dangerously low and homes are flooding because pipes, once frozen, have now burst. last night, we got power after two days and we didn't have water. but finally, we got water. now we have water everywhere. texas would normally be around 15 celsius at this time of year. as temperatures hit —18 in some parts this week, the state wasn't able to cope. many here are dealing with a fourth day without electricity after the power grid failed. state governor greg abbott has been criticised after blaming frozen wind turbines for the collapse of the electricity grid. today, power was restored for some, but officials are warning that progress will be slow. that said, i also want to be clear with texans — because you need to know —

there will be more cold temperatures in various regions across the state of texas tonight. many scientists say this is the impact of a changing climate — warm air moving up to the arctic, forcing cold air down to states like this one. it was colder in texas this week than in alaska. in the midst of this crisis, kindness — these sea turtles would've frozen to death had it not been for volunteers braving the weather to rescue them. it's forecast to be dangerously cold once again tonight and texans are being told to make a plan to keep their families warm as the threat of power outages looms once more. lebo diseko, bbc news, houston, texas. the united states has said it's prepared to hold talks with iran and european allies about a return to the iran nuclear deal but not until iran stops violating the terms of the agreement. azaday moshiri reports. it was widely seen as the crowning achievement of the 0bama administration —

an iran nuclear deal worth the painstaking negotiations and injuries it brought along the way. but forward a few years, a new president pulled out and imposed stringent sanctions. then, three years later, another one wants back in. it's a dizzying state of affairs, affecting one of the most volatile security concerns in the world and leading iran to act out. in response to the sanctions, it incrementally breached the terms of the deal. in its latest move, tehran says it will dramatically scale back its cooperation with the un's nuclear watchdog in mere days unless the sanctions, which are crippling iran's economy, are removed. translation: words and promises are of no use. . this time, only action. action! if we see action from the opposite side, we will act, too. the islamic republic will not

be satisfied this time with words and promises that we will do this or that. it will not be like before. on thursday, foreign ministers from the united states, united kingdom, france and germany held a meeting and out of it came an invitation. secretary of state antony blinken told his european allies that the us is willing to hold direct talks with iran about a return to the deal, but there's a caveat — iran must return to full compliance first. we're obviously concerned about the risk of further non—compliance by iran with thejcpoa, the nuclear deal. all the more reason to reinvigorate the transatlantic diplomacy, which is why i'm here with my french and german colleagues, but also speaking to tony blinken in the us, and making sure we chart a way forward and look to find a way to re—engage diplomatically in order to restrain iran, but also bring it back into compliance with its nuclear obligations. it's a delicate dance,

so who will make the first move? a un nuclear inspection is due in tehran this weekend, but what happens in the coming days will determine whether iran will continue to comply or step up its nuclear activities. azaday moshiri, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: as texas froze, ted cruz flew to mexico. has the state's republican senator left his reputation out in the cold? nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal completed in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm has been murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morale of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions on the streets. one wonders who is next. gunfire.

as the airlift got under way, there was no let—up in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater, flowed down to the sea on the east of the island, away from the town for the time being. it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new—generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir — the russian for �*peace'. this is bbc world news. iam i am there was vaughanjones. —— lewis vaughanjones. the latest headlines: nasa's most ambitious mission to mars has landed successfully on the red planet to look

for signs of life — after a seven—month journey from earth. and millions of texans are still without power — after gas pipelines and wind turbines froze over in a winter storm. well, as texas continues to struggle with sub—zero temperatures and widespread power cuts, the high—profile republican senator for the state, ted cruz, has run into some stormy weather of his own — by flying to a mexican holiday resort. now, once news of his trip became public, it attracted a barrage of criticism on social media and he has now returned to his home state. he says he was simply escorting his children on holiday — who had wanted to escape the cold weather — and conceded that after the outcry, he cut his trip short. resign! resign, ted cruz! this was the scene outside mr cruz�*s house in houston, where protesters gathered outside for his arrival home.

speaking to reporters, senator cruz expressed regret. ...whether the decision to go was tone—deaf. look, it was obviously a mistake and, in hindsight, i wouldn't have done it. crowd chanting in distance: i was trying to be a dad. and all of us have made decisions... when you've got girls who have been cold for two days and they're saying, "look, we don't have school, why don't we go? let's get out of here." i think that there are a lot of parents that would be like, �*alright, let me — if i can do that, great.�* that's what i wanted to do. as i said, really, from the moment i sat on the plane, i began really second—guessing that decision, saying, "look, i know why we're doing this, but i've also got responsibilities." alana rocha, a reporter at the texas tribune, told me that lots of people in the state are angry about senator cruz�*s trip.

we learnt that he changed his return flight at 6am this morning to come back today, versus coming back over the weekend. you know, he says it was "a mistake", he owned up to it kind of after he was the target of internet fury that erupted overnight into today. yeah, a lot of people are struggling. i as a parent here at home have both of my children, small children, home. we have power, luckily, but no water. so, yeah, it didn't sit well with a lot of people, you know, we would have liked to pick up their children and gone to a warmer climate, a climate with all the basic amenities. so, yeah, it's not going well. he took hours to issue a statement and speak with reporters, as you showed there. he says he has to ask the question of what's gone so badly wrong here in the state? do we have any kind of idea of what has gone so wrong? well, it's a couple of things. one is years of deregulation

and letting these companies decide whether or not they want to weatherise the parts and pipes that pump out this natural gas under the permian basin. we sit on top of the resource, and so unlike other states, we don't have a lot of reserves. because it's right beneath the service. but if the components and pipes are freezing, not only can they not get it out of the ground, they can't get it to the operators or to the homes. and so not weatherising the equipment, although they had warnings and learnt somewhat of a lesson ten years ago, they chose not to do it. so, that's mainly how we got here. we learnt today from the grid operator saying they intended to do rolling blackouts, but once they saw that several parts of the grid were going off—line because they were freezing, they had to make those outages longer. yeah, it is an extraordinary situation. and just lastly, on the people affected, do we have any accurate idea now of numbers of people affected and what exactly people

are going through? well, i mean, as of today or as of this evening here in the states we saw that about 300,000 texans are still without power, that was down from a peak of around a million people, so that is good news, but many people are still without water. we have seen big stressors on the hospital system, of course that's already taxed from months of fighting a pandemic. several patients have had to be transferred, and deliveries of supplies have been affected. food shelves are empty, it's affecting every aspect of life here. alana rocha, there. president biden is to pledge $a billion to the global coronavirus vaccination programme, which donald trump had said the us would play no part in. that's after rich countries are accused of stockpiling supplies, limiting access to poorer countries.

to explain more, mark lobeljoins me. we will come back to president biden in a second. let's talk about the general situation. richer countries being accused of stockpiling?— of stockpiling? absolutely. havinu of stockpiling? absolutely. having this _ having this vaccine developed is not the solution, it is getting it to everybody. it has been rolled out very fast in the uae and israel and uk with america catching up, too, but it is not getting to low and middle income countries due to stockpiling. 0ne campaign group has provided data to illustrate the discrepancy. that's take a look at it now. if you take a look at it now. if you take a look at it now. if you take a look at this table, it shows the doses purchased by five countries plus the eu's 27, if you focus on the middle column, thatis you focus on the middle column, that is over 3 billion. they subtract from that 3 billion the number needed to vaccinate the number needed to vaccinate the entire populations of those countries, including second

doses, if you look at the turquoise column on the right—hand side, that is the excess, doses available to shower, 1.2 billion extra doses, they are saying, double what low and middle income countries have at the moment. what should happen next? they say that when countries have reached 20% of the population vaccinated, they should start sharing their own doses, there are stockpiles, with other countries. resident emmanuel macron says that should happen straightaway, with 5% of the stockpiles that countries have, you know, straightaway. that is not a view shared by president biden, his feeling is that you should donate them when there is sufficient supply further down the line, and that is a view shared by borisjohnson as well, so there is not unanimity there be president macron will make his case at the virtual g7 later, his argument so we are witnessing accelerated global inequality because of this, but

also political instability study he says china and russia are filling the gap with their vaccines he says "it's paving the way for a war of influence over vaccines." the way for a war of influence over vaccines. "— over vaccines." and that is concerning _ over vaccines." and that is concerning him. _ over vaccines." and that is concerning him. and - over vaccines." and that is concerning him. and the i over vaccines. " and that is - concerning him. and the covax scheme we had so much about? we scheme we had so much about? - discussed how countries can give stockpiles of their own vaccines that they have purchased. the other ways they could find a parallel scheme by giving money, which as you mentioned, joe biden has pledged for, and that is a parallel scheme that will provide vaccines another way. if we look at how much money has gone into that, if we could see those figures, so far, $6 billion has been raised and what they are saying is 2 billion more is needed by the end of this year to reach a target of 2 billion doses. the us has pledged $a billion and the uk has pledged $73a million, i spoke to a leading global distributor vaccines that he said about the covax team, with so much money pledged, why have deliveries

being so slow to low income countries? is the infrastructure in place in those countries to do with the vaccines? and then when we moved on in our discussion, i spoke to this day but the severity of just sharing vaccines. he says the problem is this: if there is one need this debt in a country because of this gifting, then a sitting government will get crucified. it does predict by the end of the year you might see sharing from country to country, but thatis from country to country, but that is after world leaders will be assured they have enough boosterjabs and they have a handle on the mutations. ok, have a handle on the mutations. 0k, mark, it is going to be a huge issue for some time to come. 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. 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 the aftershocks 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, advertiserfunded 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 is an assault on a sovereign nation. it is an assault on people's freedom and in particular it is an utter abuse of big technology's market power and control over technology. hear, hear! yet the data giants have strong counterarguments. publishers choose to be on facebook because they derive 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 breaches a fundamental principle of the web and privileges one category of information, news, over others. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @lvaughanjones. i'm lewis vaughan jones. i'm lewis vaughanjones. this is bbc news. bye—bye. hello there. the weather is going to be turning increasingly wet across western areas of the uk, thanks to an area of low pressure. this area of low pressure, in fact. and this cloud you can see here associated with the low is a weather front, a particularly slow—moving front. it's going to be bringing rain for some for the next couple of days. rainfall totals building up, then, but the wettest weather will always be over high ground — so the moors of south—west england, the brecon beacons, snowdonia, the cumbrian fells, northern ireland generally, and across southern and western scotland, particularly the highlands and the southern uplands. so we could see some localised flooding building in. along with the wet weather some strong winds, mild air. temperatures about 8—9 celsius as we start the day on friday. further east it is dry, but it's chillier.

temperatures around three celsius, most places should be frost—free. now for friday, it's a wet and windy starts the day across these western areas with gusts of wind potentially running into the low—60s of miles per hour or so in places. outbreaks of rain with many of you for much of the day. there won't be much rain, though, across the north—east of scotland, and not a great deal of rain either across the midlands, east anglia, south—east england. there will be quite large tracts of the day that stay dry and bright, even. whereas further west, the rain pretty relentless. temperatures on the mild side, looking at highs of around 10—12 celsius fairly widely. and then into the weekend — more wet and windy weather to come across western areas. the eastern side of the country brighter and drier and, for some, it could turn very mild indeed for a time. the reason the weather gets a bit milder is the winds are going to start to come from a southerly direction, dragging the air up from north africa, spain, france, and on into central and eastern parts of england in particular, though east scotland not doing badly in places. further west on saturday, well,

it's a wet and windy day coming up with the rain again very heavy and persistent at times. temperatures, well, around about 12—1a celsius across western areas — which is still mild, but across the east of england we could see temperatures go as high as 17 celsius in 1—2 spots. very mild indeed. 0ur weather front is still with us on sunday, but it is tending to fizzle, just a lump of cloud with a few patches of rain left on it by this stage. so more in the way of bright weather for scotland and northern ireland, a bit more sunshine here, temperatures around 10—11 celsius. eastern england still having the highest temperatures, perhaps up to 15—16.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: the american space agency nasa has successfully landed a rover vehicle on mars. after a 7—month journey from earth, the craft survived a high—speed plunge through the martian atmosphere and tweeted a picture of the surface of the red planet. the perseverance mission will search for ancient signs of life. millions of people in the us state of texas remain without power after gas pipelines and wind turbines froze in a winter storm. texans have been told to boil tap water before drinking it when the storm caused blackouts at treatment facilities. the united states has said it is accepting an invitation from the european union for talks involving iran to revive a deal that would prevent tehran from building a nuclear weapon. the announcement came after talks between the us, britain, france and germany on the 2015 nuclear accord. now on bbc news, it's hardtalk with stephen sackur.