the us and south korea have carried outjoint military exercises over the waters around the korean peninsula. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. taliban rule was re established in afghanistan almost a year ago. for afghans, it s meant the return of repressive religious authoritarianism and new levels of economic impoverishment. the mullahs seem ready to absorb indefinite isolation to reimpose their orthodoxy. but is that a sustainable strategy? my guest is fawzia koofi, former deputy speaker of the afghan parliament, now a democracy activist in exile. is there any glimmer of light in afghanistan s darkness? fawzia koofi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. it s good to be with you. well, it s great to have you in this studio. i m sure you wish you were speaking to me from kabul, from afghanistan, but you have been in exile since the taliban returned to power. how difficult for you is that separation from your country? extremely difficult. i ne
to absorb indefinite isolation to re impose their orthodoxy. but is that a sustainable strategy? my guest is fawzia koofi, former deputy speaker of the afghan parliament, now a democracy activist in exile. is there any glimmer of light in afghanistan s darkness? fawzia koofi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. it s good to be with you. well, it s great to have you in this studio. i m sure you wish you were speaking to me from kabul, from afghanistan, but you have been in exile since the taliban returned to power. how difficult for you is that separation from your country? extremely difficult. i never actually wished, i never hoped, to leave the country that gave me the identity, a country that i did not only invest my time, but i invested my blood to make it a better country for everyone. it has been a very difficult decision for me to leave afghanistan. i actually was in kabulfor a few weeks after the taliban takeover with the hope that things will get to a situation where we c
A mix of newsmaker interviews, political analysis, cultural segments and media analysis. Could trumps own policies undermine the economic uptick. White house economic adviser larry kudlow will be here in moments. Healer in chief . Well talk to a potential dark horse 2020 candidate with a history of bringing people together. You elected me to do the right thing, not the easy thing. Former new orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu next. Hello, im jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is seemingly on two different tracks. There are now 100 days until the midterm elections and President Trump is dealing with two different realities, positive Economic News and also scandal and controversy including a messy public war with his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen. The feud between the president and his former fixer is heating up. Late saturday night, one of the president s current attorneys, rudy giuliani, argued in an
people, jake, dont run for office is because they dont like every
Someone broke into the house or drunk driving, he would be there in a minute, unquote. Now the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani is out there calling Michael Cohen a liar. Do you think Michael Cohen is a liar . Well, listen, theres certainly been a breach in the relationship. So when i said that, i meant that because i had known michael for ten years, known the president for a very long time and my guess was that they were very loyal to each other. When your house gets raided and your apartment and hotel room gets raided and you get jarred by the fbi, maybe that has changed now. The leaking of the tape and i listened to the tape. I think the president is trying to make the point and mayor giuliani is making the point that it seems like the tape was cut off, that there was more e dialogue there and the president thinks it was more favorable to
A mix of newsmaker interviews, political analysis, cultural segments and media analysis. Change Michael Cohens calculus . What i also did say is
the international community, when it saw the taliban take over at the end of last summer, it made a decision to try to isolate the taliban regime? we saw the reserves of the afghan government frozen in the united states. we saw the curtailment of much of the aid assistance at that particular time. some of it, of course, has been restored, but some of it has not. so, there is a sense in which the isolation strategy is one of the causes of the massive humanitarian suffering today. i don t think so. i think the taliban have taken people of afghanistan in hostage. i think it s a very easy narrative that they try to create that by marginalising taliban, the people are facing humanitarian catastrophe. i think the international community, to the large extent, has been engaged with the taliban. there have been many occasions, meetings, etc. the problem is they have not been able to deliver any policy level issue or policy level programme to tackle the poverty. as somebody who is in charge, the