live from washington. this is bbc news. welcome to viewers on pbs in america. florida governor ron desantis formally launches his presidential campaign and lays out his platform to take on his republican rival, donald trump. but his highly anticipated twitter chat with elon musk is plagued by technical difficulties. and uvalde remembers — one year on, after 19 students and two teachers were killed in a school schooting in texas. hello, i'm helena humphrey, glad you could join us. florida governor ron desantis is now the latest republican to launch a presidential bid. on wednesday he debuted this

campaign video to position himself as a donald trump—style conservative without the drama. mr desantis is widely seen as donald trump's main republican rival in the race. but the former president remains the dominant force in the republican party. now, ron desantis�*s announcement itself wasn't a suprise, but the way he made it was unorthodox — a conversation on twitter spaces with elon musk. here's some of what he said. i am running for president of the united states to lead our great american comeback. look, we know our country is going in the wrong direction. we see it with our eyes and we feel it in our bones. our southern border�*s collapsed. drugs are pouring into the country. our cities are being hollowed out by spiking crime. the federal government's making it harderfor the average family to make ends meet and to attain and maintain a middle—class lifestyle. and our president, well, he lacks vigour, flounders in the face of our nation's challenges, and he takes his cues from the woke mob. but that part of his campaign launch

almost failed to launch. the live twitter chat with ceo elon musk ran into technical difficulties from the very begining, delaying the chat by more than 20 minutes. here is what listeners heard when they first tuned in. piercing electronic tone now it's quiet. well, ron desantis is officially entering a republican field that is dominated by one man — former president donald trump. here's a look at the latest data. this poll released today by cnn shows donald trump with a big lead — 53% of conservative voters prefer him as their top choice. governor desantis currently in second place with 26%. then former south carolina governor nikki haley and current south carolina senator tim scott trailing in the single digits. just a note — this poll was conducted before ron desantis and tim scott had officially declared. well, earlier we discussed the launch with a group that had a lot to say.

debbie wasserman schultz, democratic congresswoman in florida, francis rooney, a former republican congressman from florida, and christian hall, a reporter covering the republican campaign. i want to get some reaction to that twitter announcement. you are reporting on this campaign, christian, what did you make of it? the announcement was a mess. i'm sure it wasn't what desantis had anticipated. his allies and supporters... but i think the big question here is can desantis still win the gop primary? i think so. many things that still remain true for desantis is he has brought appeal within the gop base. a lot of the issues that matter the most to gop voters he has stood still on, anti—wokeism, anti—covid restrictions. it's very early, we are six months away from the iowa caucus. a lot still remains to be seen.

francis, your take? first of all, it's great that the governor tried something different. not the traditional announcement speech. perhaps it didn't work perfectly but he did use technology to show he is a young guy and a leading big guy, but at the end of the day, he is a formidable alternative to trump. you get conservative policies without the baggage of trump's behaviour. and debbie, i can see you shaking your head, what did you make of what your colleague had to say, and also the announcement? well, i have to say, i guess. if there was going to be a less surprising announcement, you would be _ hard pressed to find one. ron desantis is the mosti distant and unpersonable candidate and elected official i have ever encountered - in my time in public service.

no wonder that he would do an audio announcement... i and certainly metaphorical, because he has crashed - and burned on stage. his announcement l crashed and burned. you'd have to look far and wide to find a more deplorable - and damaging figure than ron desantis. _ he has gutted voting rights| and civil rights in our state. francis, it's good to be - with you, but quite frankly, the positions ron desantis has taken, they are certainly - not ones that you took i when you were in office. i am hoping you are just doing political analysis i and not aligning yourself with his policies. - francis, how do you feel about some of the policies? debbie, it's always good to have a chance to talk to you. there are people out there who have important views. we will see how they do.

i think some of the things governor desantis has done have been good, and some have gone pretty far. a mixed bag about that... ok, some issues raised, then, with the execution of this announcement, but i want to dig into some of the substance and get your take. let's listen to what he said with specific regard to education, and then i want to get your reaction. when you see some of the outrageous stuff generated in terms of sociology departments at universities, that didn't happen out of thin air, there is a reason we got to that point. i think there are some tools with the federal government where you can push back and try to get these institutions in a more foundational direction, pursuing the truth here, and not trying to impose a niche ideology on the entire student body.

christian, he was talking about imposing a broad idea and rallying against that with the entire student body. essentially, railing against what he sees as a woke ideology. we know that is his florida platform, do you think that can work nationally? i think that's a really good question. i am a floridian myself. what works in florida might not work on a national stage. desantis is going to have to show the voters that he can stand strong on the issues that matter the most to the gop base. but he has to do it in a competent way. that's the question we have to see. how is he going to prove that to the voters? six months out from the primaries? debbie, your take on that? desantis�*s stop woke act and the diversity ban bill he just signed, what it's resulted in is amanda gorman, the poet

who spoke at barack obama's inauguration, that has been banned in a school in south florida as a result of a parent's complaint and the law now allows that under the policy of desantis. they have banned books on african—american history, the holocaust, the diary of anne frank... it is draconian and extreme, and what ron desantis is trying to do is whitewash history. americans are not going to let him do that, they are not going to let him march across women's rights and end women's reproductive freedom, like he has done in florida, and erase lgbtq+ history and give tax dollars to the wealthy and fortunate americans to pay for private schools, while we rank 48th in teacher pay, and our public schools need more teacher resources, not less. francis, how would you respond to that? well, i think debbie

makes important points. but at the end of the day, to have fifth graders reading some of the things our teachers, union—led teachers are trying to push upon them is not right, and i think the governor's exposed something about that which has actually become a national movement. like in virginia, and now it's across the country... how much are we going to expose little kids in their formative years? but francis, they expanded the law all the way to 12th grade now. they have no intention of stopping there. now children across the public schools all the way to high school can have books yanked off the shelves, they are banning textbooks on holocaust education, science, history, maths, because of some woke pursuit

of getting rid of anything that represents a diverse and more ideological viewpoint, so that we are going to basically blanch all the education that our children have and teach them one note history. that is unacceptable and it is going to produce children who don't understand to function in a world that is getting more device, not less. i have been more focused on the younger kids, and giving them the chance to grow up and be able to discern... when you get beyond that, i'm not so clued in. ok, let's talk about how it will play out nationally, and the numbers we already have, if we are taking a look at the current polling data. a poll by cnn today shows donald trump with a big lead, 53% of conservative voters for him, as the top choice. desantis is in second with 26%, so christine, following this campaign,

do you think he can catch up when there are so many people in the field as well? yeah, i mean, ithink he can do that. if you look at history, you see john mccain, barack obama... they started out as the early frontrunners and fizzled out, and came back in. it's not over for desantis. he has a lot of time to prove the voters that he is the right person for the gop nomination. i don't think it's over yet. a quick response from you, francis. do you think he can close the gap? i would agree with debbie. with ron, you get the same conservative thinking and i policies without the baggage. what about you, debbie? who do you think potentially could catch up with trump? honestly, the entire field of republican candidates are all extreme.

they all subscribe to the same policies that would crack down on diversity and education, that would go backwards when it comes to trying to make sure that we can save social security and medicare, and preserve it as a safety net for our seniors. in florida, that's a huge deal. ron desantis took the position that it is private... turn medicare into a voucher system. the whole field has really walked on that kind of extremism, so i don't know if it matters who the nominee is. americans will embrace joe biden because he has their back, he's brought us out of covid, restriction on drug costs, and they are going to embrace that with him as president. the view of debbie, the current democratic congresswoman in florida, joined tonight by francis, a former republican congressman from florida, and in the studio, christian, reporting with

bloomberg covering the republican campaign. thank you so much for being with us tonight. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. when australia was out of reach due to pandemic travel restrictions in 2020 and 2021, producers of the itv reality show set up camp at i9th—century gwrych castle. although the sets have been cleared away with the show�*s return down under, its popularity as a venue for tourists and events like weddings has grown. it currently has a licence until 10pm. the trust, which wants to restore and conserve the castle, applied for a licence to stay open until 1am at weekends, serve alcohol and refreshments and host live music. some local people oppose the application, citing safety and noise concerns, which the council considered at a meeting. but those who support

the proposal say other local businesses have similar licences and it'll help create jobs in the area. we had a wedding that wasn't very loud, till 1am, for 150 people. if you haven't heard it, you're probably not going to hear anything from the current premises licence. the castle trust hopes it will soon be able to raise a glass to gwrych�*s new—found celebrity status. you're live with bbc news. it's been one year since a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a classroom in uvalde, texas. the shooting was the deadliest in the state's history and a criminal investigation is still ongoing into the slow response by law enforcement. on the day the shooting happened, presidentjoe biden said he was "sick and tired" of the gun violence and that more needed to be done. our correspondent will grant first spoke to the family of one of the students who was killed. just a warning — some viewers may find this report distressing. naturally, this has been a day of reflection, a day of mourning for

the people of uvalde, and no—one more so than the families of the victims themselves. during a church service at a church near here, butterflies were released to mark the start of the horrific attack at robb elementary school. and then at the end, the bells were tolled to mark the end of the attack. now, 77 minutes passed between those two events, and that has angered the families more than anything. why did it take so long for the police to act? now, a yearago, i met jess and ryan ramirez, the parents of ten—year—old alithea. they were kind enough to speak to me then and now. they've been kind enough to let me into their home again to talk about what has been the hardest year in their lives. we wanted to make this room alithia's room. alithia ramirez�*s parents are recreating her old bedroom in their new home. such was the pain of living

in uvalde, the city where she was murdered in her classroom a year ago with 18 classmates and two teachers, they decided to move away. this is our reality, and we're going to be carrying this for the rest of our lives. the memories of their vivacious daughter are everywhere and anything can transport them to that awful, heartbreaking day. just hearing an ambulance, anything, orsirens, school buses, kind ofjust triggers us sometimes, where itjust brings us back to that day where we're trying to figure out, where's alithia? but beyond the crippling grief, their main emotion is anger. they're furious that as this bodycam footage shows, 376 heavily armed law enforcement officers waited in the hallway outside alithia's classroom while the gunman was inside murdering children. gunshots

worst of all, children inside the classroom had called 911 and were on the phone to police dispatch. please hurry! there's a lot of dead bodies. please, send help. 77 minutes passed before they breached the door and neutralised him. just right now i'm talking about it, just...my blood just boils. they would have been here if they did something. they would have. it makes me so mad that they were just crying and screaming while they were out there. while they were out there, just knowing that alithia's just there and just like, "mummy and daddy!" like, they're just, theyjust want help. theyjust want to get out of there. and theyjust didn't seem to care. theyjust didn't seem to care. the failings of that day have been described in an interim

report as egregiously poor decision making. the families are still waiting for answers and accountability. do you feel mad that anyone will ever be held accountable for this? it's been a bunch of bs that we've been a year and we're still waiting for answers. and as soon as we have our report, which should have been done, but it's not, then i can promise you whatever action that we need to take, we will take. the town's memorial was put up in the wake of the attack when there was no space for more flowers at the school. a year on, it's a constant reminder that uvalde has been through the worst possible experience in modern america. children torn from their parents by a lone gunman, one ordinary day at school. and perhaps the hardest part of all this for ryan and jess is that there's simply still no end in sight

to this search for answers. that legislation has been introduced in states across the us and the vast majority of it has been pro guns. it's not been about making guns harder to obtain. the longer the search for answers goes on, the harder the process of healing from that terrible day becomes. and the more the sense for the families that events like the 24th of may in uvalde, texas are simply nowjust another part of american lives, that there will be more families like theirs that will have to go through this. heightened security threats, a historic refugee crisis and economic disruption stemming from russia's invasion of ukraine have deepened the divide between autocracies and democracies — that's according to research from freedom house. earlier i spoke to the organisation's president, michael abramowitz. michael, thank you so much

for taking the time and for being with us this evening. firstly, how has russia's invasion of ukraine impacted democracy more broadly across the region? it's been a dramatic impact, obviously, first in ukraine, where this unprovoked illegal invasion has put democracy in ukraine — which has been strengthening over recent years — at risk. but what we've seen, thankfully, is an incredible performance by the ukrainian people in resisting the russian aggression. so we're very hopeful for the future of democracy in ukraine, given events in the last 15 months. inside russia, on the other hand, russia has already been one of the most repressive governments in the world, and it's gotten even more repressive over the last 15 years — 15 months, rather. they have cracked down on the independent press, they've thrown thousands of political opponents in jail. many people i've talked

to compare what's happening inside russia to the stalin period. and...so that's of great concern to us. and it's also had a kind of an inspirational effect, or a counter—inspirational effect across the region, where you see other dictators — like lukashenko in belarus — increasing their repression in the wake of... in the wake of what's happening in russia. that's interesting that you point there to belarus. i mean, can you just give us any more examples of leaders taking pages from other political play books and — as you were just mentioning there — from russian president vladimir putin. let me just step back for a minute and just say freedom house looks at the quality of democratic governance and institutions across the. ..essentially the former region of the soviet bloc. so this stretches from countries like hungary and poland to russia in the east. and the general picture — it's a mixed picture. you have... obviously, russia is among

the worst performers and other countries like azerbaijan, kazakhstan, belarus, sort of taking a play book from the russian play book. and then, on the other hand, you have the baltic countries who have been strong democratic reformers, according to our report, which is called nations in transit. so it's a mixed picture. in general, we would say democratic governance declined across the region, but — as you as my comment suggests — there are some bright spots. and tell us about some of those bright spots. well, i would single out the baltic countries — lithuania, latvia, estonia — these are countries which, since the demise of the soviet empire, have been quite strong democratically. they have strong democratic institutions, like court systems. they have strong regimes to fight corruption. they have free and fair elections, the regular transfer of power. they are among the strongest performers — actually in the world — from the point of view of democracy.

and with respect to the situation in ukraine, they also recognise the direct threat that russia is purposing notjust to ukraine but to the whole world because of this kind of unprovoked aggression. well, i want to just come back to the russia question, because currently, as you know, the wall streetjournal reporter evan gershkovich is behind bars in that country, and talking about democratic backsliding and where you see this evolving — do you think this kind of detention, essentially, could be used increasingly in the future? well, i think that evan's illegal detention is outrageous, but it's really only the most visible manifestations of what we're seeing in russia. there are many dissenters, journalists who are in jail. we just at freedom house paid special tribute to vladimir kara—murza, who's an incredibly courageous journalist and human—rights activist who went back to russia after the beginning of the war to basically oppose the invasion and speak out.

and now he's facing a 25—year prison sentence based on spurious charges of treason. so the case of evan gershkovich is outrageous, but it's being replicated thousands of times around the country. pretty much anybody who is a serious opponent of putin is either injail or has left the country. well, on that point, you yourself are on russia's latest sanctions list. what does that mean for you, and what's your response? well, first of all, the things that i'm facing are much less serious than the people who are actually inside russia. russia faced us sanctions for their activities, and so they kind of... retaliated by throwing the book at a whole group of people, which included me, but also people at the rand corporation, president barack obama. it was really kind of a weird assemblage of people that they put together. i don't think there's any actual practical impact on any of us,

except that we can't go to russia any more. all right, michael abramowitz, president of freedom house, thank you so much for being with us. thanks for having me. the queen of rock and roll, tina turner, has died at the age of 83. she rose to fame in the 19605 with songs including proud mary and river deep, mountain high. she spent the last few years of her life in switzerland and suffered a number of health issues in recent years. we'll leave you tonight with some of her iconic music. # take my heart and make it strong # you're simply the best # better than all the rest # better than anyone # anyone i've ever met

# what's love but a second—hand emotion? # what's love got to do, got to do with it? hello. the weather looks set to stay mostly fine and settled over the next few days, but there will be subtle differences in the feel of the weather from place to place. on wednesday, parts of south—east wales saw highs of 23 degrees. but on the east coast of england, yes, the sun was shining, but the breeze was coming in off a chilly sea and so it felt a little bit cooler. and over the next few days that will continue to be the case. high pressure will be in charge, but the winds around the high pressure flow in this clockwise direction. and that means that for some of us, at times, that wind will be coming in off the chilly waters of the sea. for thursday, temperatures around some northern and eastern coasts just 11 to 1a degrees. compare that with 22 again with some shelter in the south of wales.

this is how the weather looks for the day ahead. quite a lot of cloud at times across parts of england and wales, but not all the time. northern ireland, i think, will tend to see a fair amount of cloud feeding in as well, but there'll be some spells of sunshine. i think the best of the sunshine will be found across the northern half of scotland, but in the far north, it will be windy and on the chilly side at 11 in lerwick. as i've already shown you, the highest temperatures will be in shelter across south wales, maybe south—west england, up to around 22 degrees. now during thursday night, we'll keep some areas of cloud here and there. there could be a few mist patches and a more generally cloudy weather will spill into the far west of scotland, particularly the western isles, with the odd spot of rain. it mayjust turn a little bit chilly in places, temperatures typically between 5 and 9 degrees, but our area of high pressure still with us as we head on into friday. around the southern flank of that high, particularly across parts of south—east england, we are going to have a noticeable northeasterly breeze which will make it feel actually really quite chilly if you're spending your day on the east coast.

but england, wales, northern ireland, southern scotland seeing some spells of sunshine. northern scotland likely to have a bit more in the way of cloud, maybe just the odd spot of rain or drizzle. 1a degrees for stornoway, but 20 for glasgow, for liverpool, for birmingham, and 21 degrees in cardiff. and then for the weekend, well, again, around some of the coasts, if you're exposed to that onshore breeze, it will at times feel rather cool. but where you have some shelter, inland and down towards the south—west of the uk, temperatures climbing to 22 degrees.

welcome to hardtalk, from south africa. i'm stephen sackur, and this is the south african parliament in cape town, dominated since 1994 by the african national congress. but could the anc�*s grip on power be loosened? well, the once unthinkable mayjust be possible. the anc has been damaged by economic stagnation, a protracted energy crisis, and massive inequality.

my guest today is the leader of the biggest opposition