in a desperate attempt to get their money out, amid rampant inflation and a currency crisis. my guest is lebanon s minister of economy and trade, amin salam. politicians have failed lebanon for decades. will that change before the meltdown is complete? minister amin salam, currently in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. thank you, stephen, glad to be with you. well, we re delighted to have you in our washington studio. let me ask you, minister, do you think you and your government are levelling with the lebanese people, and indeed with the international community as well, about the scale of the economic catastrophe that your country is currently living through? absolutely. stephen, let me tell you, it has been quite a challenging year since our government took office and we started really working on a very tough mission to recover the economy in lebanon and to fix all the mess that the past two decades have left lebanon in. our government came with a big title th
the black sea and tackling the globalfood crisis. if you have justjoined us you are welcome and we begin in the uk with a brace to replace borisjohnson as conservative party leader is gathering momentum. on wednesday evening the shortlist of eight came sex, as former foreign secretaryjeremy hunt and the current chancellor nadhim zahawi were eliminated from the first round. by the end of next week, the list will be narrowed down to two names which will then go to the party boat with 60,000 members around the country for a final decision. the former chancellor rishi sunak got the most votes from conservative mps, he has criticised other contenders for offering fairytales on tax, saying cutting taxes now would stoke inflation. it is saying cutting taxes now would stoke inflation. stoke inflation. it is not credible stoke inflation. it is not credible to stoke inflation. it is not credible to promise - stoke inflation. it is noti credible to promise lots stoke inflation. it
one person who will not be in the room? yeah, that s committee chairman congressman bennie thompson. he s announced that he has covid. it s not clear if the chairman will appear virtually, but he says that his covid diagnosis will not disrupt the committee s plan. members say this eighth hearing will focus on the 187 minutes the former president trump failed to intervene as his supporters marched on the capitol, swarmed the halls of congress, and did this, took over the building there. also today, a jury has now been seated in the trial of trump s chief strategist, steve bannon. bannon is facing two criminal counts for failing to comply with subpoenas from the house january 6th committee. cnn congressional correspondent ryan nobles joins us now from capitol hill. so, what is the committee hoping to learn from these witnesses, matthew pottinger and sara matthews? reporter: victor and alisyn, they re firsthand witnesses to what was happening inside the white house on janu
railways. we start with the war in ukraine, and russia is denying that its invasion has caused a global food crisis, despite the fact that we ve seen soaring wheat prices driven by the collapse of ukrainian exports. its foreign minister, sergey lavrov, is in the turkish capital, ankara, for talks with his turkish counterpart mevlut cavusoglu. on the agenda creating a potential sea corridor for ukrainian agricultural exports. throughout the war, russia has been blockading black sea ports, including odesa. 20 million tonnes of grain is now stuck there grain many countries are reliant on. but mr lavrov says the onus is on ukraine to demine the waters around them, which were laid by ukraine as part of its defence. here s mr lavrov. to resolve this problem, we need one thing for the ukrainians to allow access to their ports, either by demining or the provision of safe corridors. nothing more is required. ukraine wants proper assurances that any safe, demined pathway wouldn t
welcome, here s what you need to know in business this hour. and we start with brexit. the uk prime minister borisjohnson is set to visit northern ireland later in a bid to restore its government. less than two weeks after the election, the democratic unionist party has blocked efforts to restore northern ireland s assembly, by refusing to elect a speaker. it s objecting to the so called northern ireland protocol the trading arrangement set up after brexit to keep northern ireland aligned with eu trade rules. the party says that creates a trade border in the irish sea and that puts it at an economic disadvantage. it says it wants to send a message to westminster and brussels that reform of the arrangement is necessary. but the uk business secretary kwasi kwarteng has told the bbc the government isn t looking for a trade war with the eu. we think it would be completely self defeating if they went into a trade war but it is up to them. what i am concerned about is political s