from his nicaraguan prison cell and flown to america. the good news is he s been reunited with his family after years apart. the bad news is ortega is trying to eliminate all opposition. so has resistance become impossible in nicaragua? felix maradiaga in miami. welcome to hardtalk. thank you, steve. and it s a pleasure to be back here. well, it is great to have you back on hardtalk, not least because you have just emerged from more than 600 days in a nicaraguan prison. was it a surprise when you were told that you were to be released? the release was a surprise given we were under terrible, inhumane prison conditions. and one of the most complicated parts was the complete isolation. we were not allowed phone calls for 611 days. i had no access to lawyers. even our trial took place inside the prison. so we were not able to really know what s going on outside. is it true that you lost, i think nearly £60? that is, what, 20 or more kilos in the course of your imprisonment? ind
france has had little rain in the last few weeks, and water levels have dropped alarmingly. spain has also suffered from the drought. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. nicaragua s veteran autocratic leader daniel ortega has been locking up political dissidents for years now. he has a new tactic mass deportation and withdrawal of citizenship from those who dare to criticize him and his family. my guest today is felix maradiaga, who was recently taken from his nicaraguan prison cell and flown to america. the good news is he s been reunited with his family after years apart. the bad news is ortega is trying to eliminate all opposition. so has resistance become impossible in nicaragua? felix maradiaga in miami. welcome to hardtalk. thank you, steve. and it s a pleasure to be back here. well, it is great to have you back on hardtalk, not least because you have just emerged from more than 600 days in a nicaraguan prison. was it a surprise wh
the fbi stopped him, he said, and seized his phone. we were stopped to go through a hardee s in mankato where i was born in mankato, minnesota and cars pulled up in front of us, to the side of us and behind us and i said, uh, they are either bad guys or the fbi. well, they turned south. they were the fbi. there you have it. he s talking about what he went through and gives you a little bit of a clue into how law enforcement works. they know where he is, they choose a place where they think they can make the best possible contact and they take what they need to that they ve had lawfully approved. he s a conspiracy theorist and had a front row seat in the trump white house. he says the feds there as you heard took the phone. this comes after they seized the phones of other trump aides including one who admitted to the fraudulent elector plot. seven have had their phones seeded. this is an interesting addition because it is mostly political leaders or lawyers who have what y
question, should a person s non-violent attendance at the january 6th save america march have any impact on their employment? i m michael smerconish in philadelphia, and that is this week s poll question at smerconish.com. many who participated on the storming of the capitol on january 6th have been charged and may still be. scrutinizing former president donald trump. but i want to update a different story about that day. one of a middle schoolteacher who on thursday night was just fired by his school board tracing back to his attendance on january the 6th, despite his never being anywhere near the capitol. kind of ironic that the pennsylvania teacher is now out of his job while the current republican nominee for pennsylvania charted puss to transport people to attend. jason mother head at the robb middle school in allentown, pennsylvania. he attended the rally and posted about it on social media, but did not participate in anything beyond that. he was suspended with pay
live from cnn center, this is cnn newsroom with kim brunhuber. ukraine s president will be appealing for more international aid this week when the ukraine recovery conference gets under way in switzerland. he urged his fellow ukrainians to stay optimistic. here he is. translator: no matter how difficult it is for us today, we must remember that there will be tomorrow. and tomorrow should bring maximum benefit to ukraine. everyone should do absolutely everything possible for this. russia s relentless rampage in ukraine is now most heavily focused on the key city of lysychansk, one of the few places still under ukrainian control in the donbas. a local ukrainian military official says the city is on fire. meanwhile days after russian forces abandoned snake island in the black sea, ukraine s military is claiming it destroyed some of the equipment russians left behind. as they put it, russian spirit does not stink there anymore. scott mclean is joins us live from the ukrai