here in the uk, 2022 saw the highest number of excess deaths outside the covid pandemic in half a century. and france tries again to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. it s an unpopular reform that didn t go well last time it tried. we ll be live in paris. we start in ukraine. president volodymyr zelensky has said ukraine s army is facing an extremely difficult situation as fighting continues in the eastern donbas region. the focus is the salt mining town of soledar. the uk defence ministry says it s likely that russian forces including wagner group mercenaries now control most of the town. we ll be taking a look at why it s become central to this conflict. but first, here s president zelensky. translation: and what did russia want to win there? i everything is completely destroyed. there was almost no life left. thousands of their people are gone, the whole land in soledar is covered with the corpses of the invaders and scarred from the strikes. this is what madness loo
after he was attacked. at ten o clock, clive myrie will be here with a full round up of the day s news. first, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. and this is riga, the capital of the small baltic state of latvia, which was liberated from moscow s rule some three decades ago, and which is now braced for a new era of confrontation with russia. vladimir putin s invasion of ukraine reminded latvians of the russian threat. it also stoked internal tensions because a quarter of latvia s population is ethnic russian, and this country relies heavily on russian gas supplies. well, my guest today is latvia s prime minister, kristjanis karins. just how vulnerable is latvia? prime minister kristjanis karins, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. vladimir putin s invasion of ukraine happened six months ago. right now, here in latvia, has that war raised the level of fear to new heights? what the war has done has raised the level of mobilisation. so the first effect was the