very good morning. that is me down for the night. sally is here at the top of the hour. now on bbc news hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. the war in ukraine has focused attention on vladimir putin s apparent desire to remake a greater russian space, incorporating chunks of the former soviet empire. with that in mind, keep an eye on what s happening in the tiny, disputed territory of nagorno karabakh, where ethnic armenians backed by russia continue to defy azerbaijan s claim to sovereignty. my guest is ruben vardanyan, an armenian who made his fortune in russia and who is now de facto prime minister of nagorno karabakh. his enclave is in deep trouble. will russia save it? reuben vardanyan in nagorno karabakh, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. now, mrvardanyan, many in our hardtalk audience will not know very much about nagorno karabakh, but suffice to say, you are the state minister in a tiny territory of some 120,000 people. and right now, you have an urgent
passes a tough new law. i have just bought this book, recently published, it is a gay love story but if you look inside, you can see parts of it have actually been re deducted. we speak to the actor brendan fraser, who s being widely tipped for an oscar nomination for his role in the whale, which critics are calling one of the most powerful performances of the year. iam going i am going to need to be the voice for those who live the way he does, to depict him with respect. and surfing into the record books it looks like a french woman has set a new record in california. hello and welcome to the programme. the suspect in a shooting in los angeles, which killed 10 people and left another 10 wounded, has been found dead by police. he shot himself inside a white van that officers had surrounded. he s been identified as a 72 year old man of asian descent. saturday s mass shooting took place at a dance venue in monterey park, during lunar new year celebrations. at a news confere
designer dogs and organised crime a new investigation finds bulldogs being bred with extreme features, and sold for huge sums of money. rolling back the years in the premier league how arsenal and manchester united delivered a thriller as arsenal snatch a late win to pass another test of their title winning credentials. good morning. the north west to south east split in the weather today. in the southeast it is cold, frosty. we have fog, some slow to clear. where it does we will see sunshine. in the north west it is mild, cloudy and we have patchy rain. all the details later. it s monday the 23rd of january. our main story. pressure is growing on the former chancellor nadhim zahawi to release more details about his tax affairs it s as the bbc was told he did pay a penalty to hm revenue and customs. mr zahawi is said to be determined to stay on as conservative party chairman and the prime minister has expressed confidence in him but labour says his position is untenab
and could one of britain s richest men become the new owner of manchester united football team 7 live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it s newsday. hello and welcome to the program. we begin in china where an unwelcome milestone has been reached. the country s population fell for the first time since the 1960s, and the national birthrate also fell to the lowest it s been since data collection began, in 1949. the announcement on tuesday comes alongside one of china s worst economic performances in almost half a century. the labour force is shrinking, as the country s retired population keeps growing. this also means india is expected to overtake china as the world s most populous nation later this year. let s take a look at some of the numbers. china s population last year was more than 1.4 billion people, according to official data. that s a decrease of 850,000 people from 2021. as for the national birth rate, it sank to just 6.77 births per 1,000 people. comp
with a large number of passengers overturned in somerset in the uk amid warnings of icy road conditions. a new documentary on tensions between indian prime minister narendra modi and india s muslim minority investigates claims about his role in the 2002 gujarat riots that left over 1,000 dead. a constitutional row develops between the uk and scottish governments after westminster announces plans to block a scottish bill designed to make it easierfor people to change their legal gender. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. we start here in the uk where, under new changes to the 0nline safety bill, social media bosses could face jail if they repeatedly fail to protect children from online harm. the prime minister rishi sunak agreed to calls for tougher punishments as part of the legislation after his own backbench mps prepared to vote against the bill. the new legislation begins its final stages in the house of commons today but lucy powell, labou