the conservative leadership contest, joining a field of eight people, including two former health secretaries, now on bbc news unspun world, with the bbc s world affairs editorjohn simpson. hello, and welcome to new broadcasting house, the bbc s headquarters in central london. welcome, too, to unspun world, where we put the key questions of the moment to the bbc s experts right around the globe. has something gone permanently and disturbingly wrong with politics in the united states, or can it be mended? we live in a time when serious political commentators are talking about the possibility of a second american civil war. the bbc ukrainian reporter who saw pictures of her own home destroyed live on television. what does she think about russia s targeting of civilians in the ukraine war? i don t see any logic of why would somebody wants to bomb those civilian people. and the world famous combat cameraman who s just been released after six months in prison by the taliban in a
hello and welcome to new broadcasting house, the bbc s headquarters in central london. welcome too to unspun world, where we put the key questions of the moment to the bbc s experts right around the globe. has something gone permanently and disturbingly wrong with politics in the united states, or can it be mended? we live in a time when serious political commentators are talking about the possibility of a second american civil war. the bbc ukrainian reporter who saw pictures of her own home destroyed live on television. what does she think about russia s targeting of civilians in the ukraine war? i don t see any logic of why would somebody wants to bomb those civilian people. and the world famous combat cameraman who s just been released after six months in prison by the taliban in afghanistan. how was he treated? i think you ll be surprised. they looked after us very well. as soon as we arrived, i they took the heater out of the guard room and put it. into our cell so it wa
i mean, i ve never seen protests like this. it feels unprecedented, the fact that they re happening in so many different areas. you look on platforms like twitter and these are being, these platforms are being flooded with spam accounts, messages about gambling, about escorts, to try and, if people search about the protests, they don t see pictures and videos of them coming in. the idea of anybody showing any dissatisfaction, it s been the message long term in china. the government would ratherjust ignore it and censor it and see frictions as something that happens elsewhere, in countries like the west, as opposed to in china. in the us, there were major divisions in society, too, over issues such as the supreme court s striking down of the long standing abortion decision known as roe v wade. and this politicising ofjustice and the law, that must be also playing a major
of the long standing abortion decision known as roe v wade. and this politicising ofjustice and the law, that must be also playing a major part in these divisions, isn t it? well, certainly, since the really controversial and momentous decisions that the supreme court has taken in the last couple of weeks, touching on some of the most incendiary issues in american politics abortion rights, gun rights and climate change they ve issued quite conservative rulings in all of those cases, as well as some other ones too. but the court itself is supposed to be above politics. it s supposed to look at the law, look at the constitution, and come to a judicial decision about what politicians and lawmakers can or cannot do. but because they are appointed in a partisan way, partly because donald trump unusually in one four year term got to appoint three justices, the court looks more and more political. it s got a 6 3 conservative majority at the moment,
worldview from theirs, and there s no attempt to meet in the middle. so itjust, it creates this fracture that just gets worse and worse and is, frankly, self reinforcing. and there are politicians on, both sides of the political divide, who play to that. i mean, is it right across society or is it reallyjust all springing out of politics and is washington focused? what some washington politicians have done very cleverly is take some of the social issues that people are genuinely concerned about, what their kids are being taught in school, for instance, which is something that would deeply affect every family, and have weaponised them into issues that show people that right in the heart of your community, there are things which the other political side are doing which could damage your life in ways you hadn t realised. this politicising ofjustice and the law, that must be also playing a major part in these