and talks ofjoining nato, yet its government is seen as sympathetic to russia. it s a diplomatic tightrope, and one my guest needs to walk. salome zourabichvili is the country s president. where does georgia s destiny lie with russia or the west? salome zourabichvili, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me for the third time. do you think that russia wants control of georgia? russia wants control of not only georgia, but probably parts of europe. it has its old ambitions and old aspirations of remaining as an imperialist state. but should we be thinking about what russia wants or what we want? well, the last time that you came on hardtalk, which was at a time when russia was on the back foot in ukraine, it was the end of 2022. you said you didn t think russia would invade georgia. the situation in ukraine looks very different now. and i wonder if you fear for georgia, particularly if president putin is successful in ukraine? well, i think that we should, again, all fe
the decision to declare both a state of emergency and a night time curfew in the haitian capital comes after fierce fighting by armed gangs who are now in control of most of the city. during the fighting, gunmen entered the main prison in port au prince and quickly overwhelmed the guards, allowing some 4,000 inmates to escape. eyewitnesses report seeing several bodies inside and around the prison compound. the gangs in haiti which oppose mr henry s rule sense a possible power vacuum and an opportunity to force him from office. a notorious gang leader, a former elite police officer called jimmy cherizier, also known as barbecue, has claimed responsibility for the latest outbreak of violence. he has warned mr henry to stay away from haiti, saying the armed groups in the provincial towns and the armed groups in the capital are united. given the strength of those gangs, enforcing a curfew may prove extremely difficult. that was our carribean correspondent will grant reporting. ha
..old ambitions and old aspirations of remaining as an imperialist state. but should we be thinking about what russia wants or what we want? well, the last time that you came on hardtalk, which was at a time when russia was on the back foot in ukraine, it was the end of 2022. you said you didn t think russia would invade georgia. the situation in ukraine looks very different now. and i wonder if you fear for georgia, particularly if president putin is successful in ukraine? well, i think that we should, again, all fear if president putin is successful in ukraine. but i don t think that he is successful in ukraine. he has been losing in ukraine all his first ambitions, strategic ambitions taking kyiv, dividing the government and the population, dividing ukraine from europe, dividing european between themselves, european with their populations. all of these big ambitions have not materialised. so, yes, he s not yet defeated strategically, militarily, but he is not victorious.
delegation from hamas, egypt, qatar, and the americans talk about the stability of a six or seven week ceasefire in gaza. but israel decided not to send a delegation. israel s says the preconditions it insisted upon that hamas should provide a list of the hostages who remain alive, and those who might be exchanged in a prison swap, or hostage swap, with the palestinians, that wasn t forthcoming. so israel has decided not to send a delegation to cairo. that has been criticised in many parts of the israeli media, and the israeli public, as an understandable position. that isn t to say that had israel gone, there would be others stumbling blocks. unsustainable position. hamas wants the withdrawal of israeli troops from populated areas of gaza and the citizens of gaza to be allowed to return to their home areas in northern gaza. and those are significant issues that israel might have objected to. meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in gaza is said to be increasingly dire. th
chinese economy. now, normally, this is a kind of rubber stamp session where pre approved decisions are cleared and made official. but that said, because it s so organised and because we already know, or at least the government already knows, what it s going to announce, then we can get an idea of what they re thinking. and people are going to want to know what the plan is for the economy. there s huge pressure on the real estate sector, local government debt, university graduates are looking for good jobs all these bread and butter issues, just like in other countries. and even though this is a kind of turgid, rubber stamp mass gathering, people will nevertheless be looking for some concrete solutions to come out of it. and just elaborate, if you could, a bit more about the issues or the biggest issues that are on the minds of people you ve spoken to. yeah, it s economy, economy, economy this year. i mean, sure, there ll be, you know, talk of relations with taiwan and the