Now on bbc news, hardtalk. Welcome to hardtalk. Im stephen sackur. President biden has reportedly paused arms sales to saudi arabia as his administration reviews relations with his long time strategic ally. Not long ago, candidate biden described the kingdom as a pariah, but is there any prospect of external or internal pressure challenging the authority of saudi arabias De Facto Leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman . Well, my guest is exiled saudi opposition activist, madawi al rasheed. What next for saudi arabia reform, repression or maybe both . Madawi al rasheed, welcome to hardtalk. Hello. You have become one of the highest profile saudi critics of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. I just wonder how you felt a couple of weeks ago when we saw the crown prince so warmly welcomed at the World Economic forum, the online davos event, where he was selling saudi arabia as an Investment Opportunity for the entire world. What did you make of that . Well, its a familiar image and a fami
After being charged with assault. As australias bushfire crisis continues the countrys Prime Minister defends the coal industry and defies calls for new carbon targets. We need to take action on Climate Change. You dont run government on sentiment, you run government on fa cts. And later in the programme private eyes editor, ian hislopjoins the bbcs media editor amol rajan to look back on a fascinating year of front covers, cartoons and satire. There are calls for a government inquiry into racism within football after the Chelsea Player, Antonio Rudiger, complained of hearing monkey noises from the crowd during yesterdays premier league match at tottenham. The professional Footballers Association said it was disgusted by the reports, and insisted urgent action was needed. The referee stopped play during the second half after rudiger complained of hearing monkey noises in the crowd. Shortly after the stoppage, an announcement was made over the public address system warning that racist b
Sir, how is your father . Hes. Hes all right. Once you get to that age, things dont work as well. And the best of boozers the number of pubs in the uk is going up for the first time in ten years. Good evening. It was a murder that shocked many around the world, and now five people have been sentenced to death and three others jailed by a court in saudi arabia, over the death of the journalist jamal khashoggi. He was a prominent critic of the saudi government, and was killed last year when he went to their consulate in istanbul. A United Nations investigator who carried out an inquiry into his murder says the hit men may have been convicted, but the masterminds behind the killing have walked free. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner reports. The last public sighting of jamal khashoggi, seen here walking into the saudi consulate in istanbul in october last year. He never came out alive. Turkish cctv footage shows a hit team of 15 saudi government agents arriving in istanbul to inte
But this is the aftermath of the catastrophic bushfires that have ravaged New South Wales. And in the village of balmoral, the devastation is everywhere. The prime minister, scott morrison, appeared for the first time today after fierce criticism of his holiday in hawaii. It is quite humbling as you, you speak to families and speak to individuals, you speak to the volunteers, and you see the best of australia on every single occasion, and that is what we are seeing here again. Russell has been a volunteer firefighter for again. Russell has been a volunteer firefighterfor six again. Russell has been a volunteer firefighter for six years and was out with his team trying to control the blaze in the village when his own house was burned to the ground. It wasnt until this morning when i came back, because we couldnt get backin came back, because we couldnt get back in because it was too dangerous, so when i came back this morning, to check the chickens, i then had a look at the property, an
While the duke of edinburgh spent a second night in hospital receiving treatment for a pre exisiting condition. And coming up in half an hour on bbc news, amol rajan takes a look back at a year dominated by the power of social media, in review 2019 the media year. Hello, good afternoon. A six Year Old Girl has opened a pack of Tesco Christmas cards to find a message saying they were packed by prisoners in china being forced to work against their will. Tesco says its stopped production at the factory while it investigates. Greg mackenzie reports. Ready . Uhhuh. It was six year old schoolgirl florence widdecombe whod sat down at home to write out her Christmas Cards to her friends and family when she discovered one of the cards had already been written out. We were writing in them and about on my sixth or eighth card, there was. Somebody had already written in it. There was a message which read, we are foreign prisoners in shanghai, china, forced to work against our will. Please help us