government in its history. palestinian disillusion with the status quo seems to be stoking militancy. my guest is palestinian politician, physician and civil rights activist mustafa barghouti. what, if anything, can the palestinians do to improve their situation? mustafa barghouti, in ramallah, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. nice to be with you. thank you. good to have you on the show. let s start with the situation in the west bank, where you sit, in ramallah. is there any semblance of political authority or control in the west bank right now? unfortunately, the existing authority is the authority of occupation, israeli military occupation, which is really, from security perspective, controlling the whole area. the palestinian authority has been weakened dramatically by the israeli side. since 2002, when the israeli army re invaded all palestinian cities and all the so called area a, which is supposed to be under palestinian authority, since then, practically, the palestini
bbc news. studio in singapore, this is bbc new- welcome to bbc news. our top story today: the us defence secretary says he had a rare phone call with his russian counterpart in the aftermath of a collision between a russian fighterjet and a us drone. the race is now on to recover the wreckage of the drone which is thought to be 1,200 metres deep in the black sea. russia has also said it will try to find the wreckage. meanwhile, america s top general said the whole incident was a result of russia s increasingly aggressive behaviour in the area. us defence secretary lloyd austin gave this update earlier. asi as i have said repeatedly, it is important that great powers be models of transparency and communication. the united states will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. and it is incumbent upon russia to operate as military aircraft in a safe and professional manner. our diplomatic correspondent, james landale, has this report from kyiv. this is t