>> this is "bbc world news america." funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions and capital to help you meet your growth objectives.

we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. f >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america." reporting from washington, i am katty kay. and then there was the god particle. scientists think they are one step closer to understanding how the universe began. and the time for apologies was over, he said, but one of britain's top bankers is poised to say sorry again for the apology. and has the american dream vera off course? as the u.s. marks the fourth of july, it is its decline and not

achievement that marks the country. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and elsewhere around the globe. it seems only fitting that on this fourth of july, which start with this story of discovery. after a question of nearly half a century, scientists say they have found a particle which may be the use of so-called god particle, the higgs boson, and it may be time to put the champagne in the refrigerator. >> it is a discovery about the fabric of the universe that will go down as one of the greatest in science. in a giant underground facility near geneva, observers have found the key to matter.

in the circular tunnel, they have identified a new kind of particle, as predicted nearly 50 years ago by a british professor, peter higgs. today, he was in geneva, at an emotional announcement of the discovery of the higgs boson. >> i want to congratulate everyone on this tremendous achievement. for me, this is really an incredible thing that happened in my lifetime. [applause] >> the scientists hunted for it by firing particles through the tunnel and forcing them to collide to reveal their inner workings. alternately, this is a very basic question, to understand what the universe is made out of, how from empty space we get the planets and us, going deeper and deeper to particles so tiny, it is not clear how they had any

kind of substance, and that is where this particle comes in, acting like glue, giving other particles mass. 50 years of theory, now on locking new areas of research. >> it is like being in the ocean and not knowing where the land is. we have now found the land. we have not found that land yet. but at least we know where it is. >> peter, known as a quiet man, is suddenly in the limelight. the particle is recognized as fundamentally important, and stephen hawking is among those offering support. >> this should earn him the nobel prize that this particle is found. i bet that it would not be found, and it seems like i just

lost $100. >> no one knows what's been lost there will be, but when the electron and a dna were discovered, it took decades to get their potential. this could prove the same. bbc news. >> for more on today's announcement a short time ago, i spoke with a harvard physics professor. knocking on heaven's door. she joins me. for someone who has been working in particle physics like you have all of your life, how significant is today's breakthrough? >> it is actually incredibly significant. we have been waiting to know what it is about elementary particles for some time now, and we now know that it is, indeed. we know we have discovered a particle, which is first of all very exciting in and of itself, a proton that no one knew was there. no one knew it was there for sure. it is very likely, it seems to

have the properties of the higgs boson, and what that tells us is how elementary particles acquire their masses. these masses are essential. but it also, for a particle physicist, and also to issue something about how that mechanism is implemented. what are the particles responsible for this mechanism working, and knowing that is a really important as to what is beyond the standard model of particle physics. >> non physicists among us, to them, what does it mean? the viewer to say to people in 20 years time, 30 years time, this will affect your life, how will it do it? >> it is hard to answer that question, and it is easy to overstate, and as americans, we

do that a lot, but really, it is telling us the fundamental properties of matter. i cannot predict how will affect your life any more than the person who first discovered electricity could determine how electricity would affect people's lives, but just knowing what is that stuff is made of, knowing how to guide our search for what lies beyond what is obvious to our eyes, that is just some meaningful and an of itself, and beyond that, i cannot tell you how it will affect things. >> electors of the was there before it was discovered, gravity was there before it was discovered, and the same is true for this, presumably. are you putting it in that category of importance? >> you know, it is funny. in fact, higgs bosons are not sitting around. that is because they are too heavy and a deejay.

what is there is that particles do have masses. elementary particles do have masses, and that has to do with the mechanism itself. what this is telling us is how that mechanism works. what happened in the early universe in fact that triggered something to have particles have their masses. >> a physics professor from harvard they're joining us from greece. reprehensible. that is what the former chief executive of barclays called those responsible for the interest rate scandal that cost him his job. he was testifying before british lawmakers today after handing in his razzie -- resignation. he said that barclays only acted that way because other banks were behaving even worse. >> passions running high about bankers and banking. this, the banker that is come to

symbolize much of what has gone wrong at britain's giant banks. bob diamond resigned from bark- less yesterday, pointing to mps today. was he bitter? >> well, i love barclays. that is where it starts. i love bark-less because of the people. >> barclays was fined over $200 million last week for attempting to raise interest rates. they were breaking the rules to maximize their bonuses. >> when i read the email from those traders, i got physically ill. it is reprehensible behavior. >> he was on a first name term with them. they were not all charmed. >> either you are complicit in what was going on, or you were

grossly negligent, or you're grossly incompetent. that is the only conclusion. >> the behavior did not get above the supervisor level for some time. it is hard to give another answer other than that. >> how long ago did he learn about it. >> this is why you have been fine. this is one of the reason to ultimately lost your job, mr. diamond. when did you discover this. a simple question, approximately. >> the findings of the investigation, other than things i have learnt, i should be able to answer. came to me four or five days before they were published. >> give me a date. >> this month. >> and what about his controversial note that the deputy governor of the bank of

england said to him it did not always need to be the case. was this an instruction or a nudge from the bank of england that bark-less should break the rules and lied about its borrowing costs -- barring rules? >> i did not take it as that. >> he has pocketed at least 120 million pounds since 2005. now, he says he was not aware of the scale of the wrongdoing at the bank until just a few days ago, but some say that since he was getting that kind of money, he should have spotted the broken culture for much longer. >> he was sorry for all of the wrongdoing. he did not know it was happening at the time, and most would say, including the chairman of the committee, he did not really explain how or why it all went wrong.

bbc news. >> still, a lot of public mistrust of the banks there in afghanistan -- in england. in afghanistan, a man in a uniform shot and wounded a number of coalition troops and east of the country. this is just days after three british soldiers were killed in an attack in one province. such incidents are raising new fears about the future of the country as nader troops prepare to withdraw, but could they be to blame for some of the problems they are now facing? that is the argument in a new book, and the author joins me to discuss what he found. you described the war in afghanistan as a series of missed opportunities. what is it that america did wrong? >> first of all, i believe we squandered the troop surge by sending the first waves of additional forces to helmand province instead of sending them to canada are -- to kandahar.

that is the country's second most populous area. but we diverted them to other areas. the other issue i write about this is the infighting that occurred in washington, particularly between the state department and white house, over the negotiations with the taliban, although this was something that president obama and the national security team wanted. there was some fairly vicious personal bickering going on between richard holbrooke, the diplomat, essentially the front man for afghanistan, and members of the president's national security inner circle and the white house, who just did not like him as a person, and instead of working together, they spent a lot of time fighting with each other. >> you mentioned the infighting

within the obama administration, the fact that there were very strong generals pushing for more troops in the area, the fact that the marines were not accountable to some of the senior generals. it is astonishing reading it that there has not been more comeback against the administration for this policy failures. >> i think a lot of people are tired about this. so it does not get the outrage you expect. >> were you outraged could >> i made one dozen trips over the past 2.5 years. i was not expecting to tell this story. i thought i would be writing a story on how the new administration managed to come up with a winning policy in afghanistan. maybe not a victory in our time but managing to stop the drift that was occurring in the bush administration, putting in more resources, helping the security situation, but what i found in repeated travels and in talking to people was that the

president's vision here was being essentially mismanaged. >> we always hear the problem in afghanistan, it is not comparable. the russians tried it. everyone has tried it, but you are saying it is a failure of american policy and that if it were handled differently, might we be looking at a more favorable afghanistan today? >> i think so. i am not saying that if everything were done right we would be seeing jeffersonian democracy flowering over there, but i think the outcome would be less bad. i think it would be a less chaotic environment there, and i really do turn the lens on american missteps. of course, president karzai and his government have not been ideal partners to america and britain and our allies in this multinational effort. but we spent too much time it's

-- focusing on some areas and not enough time focusing on what we were not doing right. the state department with the civilian surge that was supposed to be in tandem with a military surgeon unfolded too slowly, too many of our diplomats stock -- stock -- stuck in kabul, tribal rivalry is not in afghanistan but within the walls of the pentagon. >> roger, congratulations. thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> you are watching "bbc world news america. still to come, has the american dream gone up in smoke? find out. it is a chance discovery which has uncovered a rare 16th century map by a cartographer,

the man credited with naming the americas. german librarians at the university are the ones that found a map hidden between the pages of a book. the assumption is that the map must have been in bed in the book by mistake. only four other copies are known to exist. we have a report. >> it is amazing what you can find in an old library book. how about the american birth certificate? this map is thought to be one of the first to call the continent by its name. it was discovered in a 19th century manuscript. >> it is the birth certificate of america, and as far as matters of concern, we regarded as especially valuable because the differences between the map's enable us to learn a lot about how our understanding of the world of that time was changed. >> the map was made by a 16th century cartographer, and what

made it special was its shape. for the first time, travelers were able to create an accurate globe. there are other copies though. like this one, which sold at auction at christie's for half a million pounds in 2005, but up until now, it had been thought that only four copies existed until a search at the university of munich stumbled on to this one. >> the 19th century music library and bound two prints together, and at that time, they did not know about the significance of this map. therefore, it was kept here, and no one knew about it. >> now, they do. and just in time for american independence day. bbc news. >> more than half the votes cast

in the next election will be recounted after inconsistencies were found with the voting. the leader of the left party, manuel op -- obrador, has asked for a recount. the leader has denied that there were problems with the vote. >> thinking for granting us this time. the counting process here in mexico is still underway, and your opponent has already called for a recount. >> i am the president chosen by the vast majority of elections. clearly, but the process continues. after the polling day, there is another count. that begins today, and it will

be completed by sunday. but where there is no doubt is in the expression of the majority of mexican society, where evidently i was favored over my nearest opponent by over 3.2 million votes. >> but since the day of the election, we have seen videos appeared of people seemingly saying they were paid in cards, store cards, for the supermarket, 300 pesos, 500 pesos, in exchange for votes. how much was spent on the vote? >> look. we have seen these kinds of things in every election. they are nothing new. i regret that they do not agree to take a constitutional challenge. we have seen these expressions

from him in every process he has participated in. there is nothing new in this. if he has evidence to support his claims, let him bring them to the correct legal authorities. >> so you sitting here with hand on heart, you can say that there was not money spent on a single vote? >> i am totally, totally certain that the party acted within the law, that followed a transparent process and that the party spent on this campaign only what is permitted under the law. we were the fourth party to assist in the proper bookkeeping on the resources spent on the election. the electoral commission will release a report on what each party spent. >> so for you, he is simply a

bad loser? >> i think his background is very clear. he has not recognized and has not learned how to mix of defeat in any electoral process he has been in. why did he make the same complaints when he was elected as mayor? >> they were speaking to the bbc. back here in the u.s. today, busy celebrating the fourth of july in america, and mitt romney took part in a local parade, while president obama delivered remarks at a naturalization ceremony. and while this marks the day of american independence, the state of the economy leaves little to celebrate. stockton, california, became the

largest city in the united states to declare bankruptcy. we have a report. say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ >> at the california race track, is the liberation of american's strong sense of self. but with the pages and, in this election year, some argue the president has increased decline. others more generally worry about their country's place in the world. >> i think it is going in the toilet is where it is going. >> why is that? >> why is that? >> people do not cherish what we have here. they do not cherish it. >> i think we are slowly dropping. i think we have lost our edge. i think we need to get back to being a dominant force. >> everything is a ok, okey-

dokey, good to go. >> they are talking about other countries sharing more energy and ambition. some worry that america is broken, deep in debt. it is certainly felt here. stockton is the largest city in the united states to declare itself bankrupt. they had california size dreams that turned into a nightmare. like this luxury marine and that is never full. if compelled into the red. the impact has been dramatic. numbers have been cut. the murder rate has spiraled. 34 killings so far this year. it is a picture that is being repeated all over america as spending is cut. >> it was a really, really decent, middle-class neighborhood. and now, there are all kinds of

gang problems and shootings. >> the plight of stockton is obvious. this is main street. what is visible is the longtime decline of the middle class and come in america. for many, the prospect of prosperity is evaporation. the american panic attack about its place in the world has happened before, but some believe that this time is different, that it will lead to an eventual fall. life has always been hard for some, but now there are signs of social decline. >> the american dream no longer exists. the american model is a country of opportunity, that has a great class mobility. that's of power that you associate with america's universal attractiveness? that is really in headlong decline. >> but i find optimism in an

unlikely place. the mayor of stockton, who owns this shop, thinks her city and her country will find a way out of its current malaise. >> i think we have a good future. we are still figuring out how to play that future, what role we have, and how we resume our prominence in the innovation and manufacturing and a lot of those industries. it is a matter of evaluating who we want to be when we grow up. >> there is no doubt america has taken a bit of a battering recently. others are catching up. that may spur this competitive country to look for ways to stay out in front. bbc news, stockton, california. >> and on this fourth of july,li of course, we wish all of our american viewers a happy fourth of july. we hope you all have a great day. that brings today's show to a

close. you can find updates on today's story on our website. you can find us on twitter. for more, thanks so much for watching. i will see you back here tomorrow. ul >> makes sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding was made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, and union bank. >> at union bank, we work hard

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