Now on bbc news hardtalk. Welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. When ukrainians voted to make a comedian their president , the rest of the world wondered what the punch line might be. Volodymyr zelensky who played the role of president on tv before he got thejob in real life has now had a year and a half the point is, though, to make good on his promises you are going to bejudged, of rooting out corruption and you came to power with 73 of the vote in the president ial and ending the conflict runoff against mr poroshenko. In the east of his country. Your opinion poll ratings hows he doing . Now are around 35 . Well, hes on a state visit you have lost an awful lot of support in a year to london, so its time and a half. To find out. Laughing. You came to politics saying, ive had a life of making people laugh, now i want to stop them crying about the politics in ukraine. Theyre still crying. President volodymyr zelensky, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you so much. You came to power as the an
Welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. When ukrainians voted to make a comedian their president , the rest of the world wondered what the punch line might be. Volodymyr zelensky who played the role of president on tv before he got thejob in real life has now had a year and a half to make good on his promises of rooting out corruption and ending the conflict in the east of his country. Hows he doing . Well, hes on a state visit to london, so its time to find out. President volodymyr zelensky, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you so much. You came to power as the anti politician. You promised ukraines people that you would deliver fundamental change. Have you kept that promise . All right. Well, we are going to talk about that. You promised promised your people that you would end the conflict in the east of the ukraine, and that you would do it while restoring the territorial integrity of your country. On that basis, after a year and a half, you failed. Well, mr president , thats not strictly
After testing positive. The highest figure since april. The talks in brussels continue withh suggestions a post brexit trade deal between the eu and the uk could be finalised within hours. In the first lorries are starting to leave after the borders have reopened with france. But thousands of drivers are still waiting for covid tests. The Health Secretary matt hancock has confirmed that more areas of england will move into tier 4 the highest level of restrictions. Under tier 4 people must stay at home, non essential retail is shut and movement in or out of the area is not allowed. He made the announcement at a press conference in downing street this afternoon. The Health Secretary said from boxing day, norfolk, suffolk, cambridgeshire and essex would move into tier 4 along with oxfordshire, waverley in surrey and hampshire including portsmouth and southampton, but excluding the new forest. More areas of england will move to tier 3, including bristol, somerset, gloucestershire, the isle
Olympia, rebecca and heather were facing the toughestjobs market for a generation. Weve got no money coming in. I first met olympia and herfamily back in may. She was touring as part of a circus troupe when the first lockdown restrictions came in and they were stranded on morecambe seafront for months. Its fear. Fear that. That i might not ever be able to do what i love again, which is perform, in the circus, because we might not recover. Since then, things have got better. Olympias moved in with her mum in rotherham to save money, and wait until theyre allowed to perform again. Financially its been a big strain. Its been massive. Five months relying on the food bank to feed you guys, what was that experience like . It was really hard. Coming to terms with the fact that i had to rely on other people to eat and to live. In west yorkshire, rebecca was finding competition for jobs fierce. Shed worked in communications at a high street bank for a decade when she was made redundant in the s
Of thousands of jobs as the economy struggles against covid 19, leaving an estimated 1. 7 Million People out of work. Our Business Correspondent sarah corker caught up with some of them. Three people who all lost theirjobs because of the pandemic. 0lympia, rebecca and heather were facing the toughestjobs market for a generation. Weve got no money coming in, so well survive as long as we can. I first met 0lympia and herfamily back in may. She was touring as part of a circus troupe when the first lockdown restrictions came in and they were stranded on morecambe seafront for months. With no money coming in, it was a real struggle. Its fear. Fear that. That i might not ever be able to do what i love again, which is perform, in the circus, because we might not recover. Since then, things have got better. 0lympias moved in with her mum in rotherham to save money, and wait until they re allowed to perform again. Financially its been a big strain. Its been massive. Like i say, we normally work