welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. it is friday, i m christine romans. just moments ago you watched live ukraine s president volodymyr zelenskyy speaking via video link in berlin marking one year since russia s invasion. one year ago today russia invaded ukraine believing that they would overwhelm the country in short order. instead a straightforward russian victory has become less likely by the day and this morning instead of dwelling on ukraine s losses, president zelenskyy released an inspirational video urging people to face the enemy, resist and fight. he says we know 2023 will be the year of our victory. melissa bell is live this morning in kyiv. what is the mood there on what one would think is an unhappy milestone here? reporter: mixed really. on one hand ukrainians are bracing this morning for more russian strikes. that is what the head of ukraine s military intelligence has been warning about on this grim one year anniversary. but th
oppression are stronger. my guest today is kenneth roth, just retired after 30 years leading the campaign group human rights watch. he s been banned in a host of countries. is it time to acknowledge his brand of human rights campaigning isn t working? kenneth roth in cambridge, massachusetts. welcome to hardtalk. great to be back, stephen. it s good to be with you. it s good to have you on the show. it is indeed quite something, leading one of the world s highest profile human rights advocacy groups for some three decades. did you leave thatjob with a sense of defeat? no, not at all. infact, i mean, maybe i should start with your introduction, because, you know, your introduction was the common wisdom. you know, that democracy is in decline, that autocracy is ascendant. in fact, i think it s a bit more complicated than that. i mean, we are seeing the rise of autocratic voices, you know, the trumps of the world, in western democracies. but if you look at the leading autocratic
declared in five regions, including auckland. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. across the world, freedom and democracy are in retreat. almost a third of the world s people live under authoritarian rule. that number is rising and that has grave implications for basic human rights. it s not that liberal democracies can t be abusive of rights, but generally their safeguards against oppression are stronger. my guest today is kenneth roth, just retired after 30 years leading the campaign group human rights watch. he s been banned in a host of countries. is it time to acknowledge his brand of human rights campaigning isn t working? kenneth roth in cambridge, massachusetts. welcome to hardtalk. great to be back, stephen. it s good to be with you. it s good to have you on the show. it is indeed quite something, leading one of the world s highest profile human rights advocacy groups for some three decades. did you leave thatjob with a sense of defeat
he stated he pled the fifth under the advice of counsel declining to answer the questions. this striking legal development, which we ll get into comes just two days after august 8, 2022 when the fbi searched a former president s home. both developments show the depths of donald trump s legal problems. neither means that he is in a legal sense guilty of anything to be precise. both mean that the concerns about donald trump s guilt about law breaking, about criminal evidence and criminal activity stretch from the highest levels of the doj to a separate new york probe to inside donald trump s mind. only he can make the decision that he made today. and let me tell it to you in plain english, it s a right he can exercise, but he made the decision, donald trump did that he faces a higher risk by testifying truthfully in the new york probe, which he chose not to do than by pleading the fifth, which he chose to do. it is a legal but a controversial move, which he has probably derided
we will hear argument this morning in case 23-939. trump versus the united states. reporter: tonight, new testimony of the alleged criminal conspiracy to help elect donald trump. trump turned to the business at hand and asked david pecker how is our girl. as his argument for absolute immunity finally goes before the supreme court. this court has never recognized absolute criminal immunity for any public official. a private attorney to spearhead his challenges to the election results. what was up with the pardon for president nixon? if everybody thought that presidents couldn t be prosecuted what was that about? if it fails completely it is because we have destroyed our democracy on our own, isn t it? tonight, rachel maddow, nicole wallace, joy reed, chris liz. lawrence o donnell, lisa ruben all here as msnbc s special coverage of trump on trial begins now. who has the time? who has the time? you are telling me that simultaneously, we have nearly three hour