So, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. Actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. Because they weren t just about the danger there. They were also these legal risks about. . . . . The legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. But you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. Just to explain, then, who you did speak to and what the terms were. I suppose the question is, whether you were changing names to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to western journalists must be very hard? well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a
To protect russians, to protect russians, because getting people, presumably, in russia to speak candidly to Western Journalists must be very hard . Well, yeah, these are people who lived in a very quiet corner of russia, and probably had never had anything to do with a journalist, even a russian journalist, never mind a foreign one. I gave them their choices. I used first names only. And, you know, gave them the choice. I also made. I made very sure to speak to them out of the earshot of ukrainian journalists as much. Ukraine and had taken aggressive action there. And you attended something that sounded very fascinating, which was that ukraines civilian Military Liaison Officers were showing films to local people about the invasion. And i wonder what the reaction was to the films as you were there . Yeah, i mean, that was extraordinary, and one of the most extraordinary things to watch. There was a small audience of older people who were watching it. I spoke to one of them afterwards,
Catherine philp is world affairs editor at the times. She s reported from war zones for decades, and recently accompanied ukrainian forces across the border into kursk. So, i was coming into ukraine for. . . I ve been coming on and off since before the invasion, and this was a long scheduled visit. Itjust so happened that it came at a time when ukrainian forces had crossed the border into russia. So, obviously, my immediate question was, can we go? can we get there? setting it up with the ukrainians was not the hard bit. Actually, it was convincing my editors and, you know, layers of management back at the times that this was a safe thing to do, or that we could mitigate the risks involved in it. Because they weren t just about the danger there. They were also these legal risks about. . . . . The legal consequences of illegally crossing into russia, which is how the russian government have perceived the trip. But you obviously persuaded them, cos you went. Just to explain, then, who yo
A crucial supreme Court Ruling on Affirmative Action could come tomorrow, as colleges and universities grapple with the possibility that race might no longer be a factor in admissions. The Central Question being decided this time is should Affirmative Action continue forever In The Name Of diversity, and are the gains achieved worth the harms allegedly inflicted on Asian American students . This is the most important civil Rights Case of our era. I dont think its an overstatement to say theyre freaking out right now. One admissions official told me, some colleges are so worried about being sued in the wake of this decision that theyre thinking about scrubbing racial and ethnic data from their websites. There has to be some discrimination here. There has to be something against Asian Americans specifically. This case is going to be something more than just about admissions. The notion that noticing race is per se unconstitutional could be devastating for a number of areas of the law. An
to desecrating the quran and insulting the prophet muhammad in 2021. rights groups report that iran has put more than 200 prisoners to death since the beginning of the year. and in a further crackdown on high profile figures iran has charged two well known actresses with violating its strict dress codes for women. the president of iran, ebrahim raisi, has ordered an inquiry into the widespread protests seen here triggered by the death in custody of a young woman, mahsa amini, last september. taraneh stone from bbc persian joined me earlier in studio. this wasn t related to a protest per se, but it s causing a lot of concern about the high number of executions that we re hearing here and there in the news lately. we have heard in the news about many executions, especially the execution of minorities. and they re raising concerns over the imminent execution of some minorities, like arab minorities. now, we know that iran is notorious for executions, for death penalties. and w