people have been killed and more than seventy injured when two bombs were detonated during friday prayers at a mosque in the libyan city of benghazi officials say both suffices were planted in separate rooms inside two weeks ago around thirty five people were killed by its were bombing at a mosque in the same city egyptian army's launched what it's calling a comprehensive operation against terrorists and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula make a man and spent in a televised statement an army spokesman says it involves land sea and air forces covering central sinai and areas in egypt style melter nile delta and western desert the european union's chief brics it negotiator has warned that plans for a period of transition to ease buttons which draw from the ball could be at risk michel barnier says a substantial disagreements with britain are jeopardizing london's plans for two year transition period after it leaves in twenty nineteen you're up to

date those are your current headlines next hour it's up front we'll see you in just under half an hour. he's been called one of the most wanted political fugitives of twenty nineteen that's former georgian president mikheil saakashvili faces possible extradition to his home country from his new country ukraine i'll ask him if he's prepared for life behind bars and later i'll talk to the somali refugee turned u.s. politician about life in trump's america.

really thanks for joining me up front you were twice as president of georgia and govern there for nine years and yet you're now a wanted man in georgia you've gone from president to fugitive how does it feel. i mean i finished my presidential. finish with quite the. reverend well we you know georgia has been the most. transformation case in this part of the world but then we had the government out there peaceful transition of course there were peaceful transition in this region which from the very beginning said our main one of main goals is to indict second street going no matter what so in the end they said let us look for at least something a plan and they gave me a sentence for a presidential pardon for pardoning prisoners well that's the only case in more than a world where president had been tried not for corruption not for other abuses but

for right hold on pardon although it was in the pardon it was the cover up that they alleged was associated with the pardon but just for the benefit of our global audience you could face up to eleven years in prison in georgia for multiple charges dating about your presidency there including abuse of power you've already been sentenced to three years behind bars earlier this week an appeals court in ukraine rejected your request for protection against extradition to georgia you're in ukraine right now it does look like you're on your way to prison doesn't it regardless of what how how accurate you think the charges are i have to say nobody in georgia is expecting the georgian government despite their formal and nels meant are very scared that if i ever get extradited to georgia then there will be just wiped out by an epic populace we are where their present government is extremely unpopular and i am a creator of more than georgia state we have very strong support among the people but also when you say you have look you say you have a lot of support amongst the georgian people will come but not

a moment before we do just to be clear is it correct to say that as of now as of today this week you are currently a stateless person because you gave up your georgian citizenship in twenty fifteen to pursue a career in politics in ukraine and then last july you were stripped of ukrainian citizenship for allegedly providing false information on your registration form so you will know the ukrainian or georgian right now yes. this person but. in the. courts and so i'm going to get back to that of course present legal system in ukraine there is a slim possibility i can do that because the president certainly can control the courts and for him it's a very very important but you know you have to wonder if you've had this big rally you mentioned the president you had this big round with president poroshenko of ukraine who is a former friend and ally of yours but just on this issue of you being in ukraine you're sitting in front of a ukrainian flag what made you a former president of one country georgia move to another country ukraine and try

and become prime minister of that country many would say that's pretty unpatriotic of a former president of georgia to do first of all there is sort of pressed him on the there was such a great historic figure was president the leader of five in american countries but on the other hand. ukraine fails if ukraine breaks up if russia ukraine the georgists which is ten times smaller we'll just might disappear from the map that's one big motivation i have second i already had spent thirteen years of my adult life in ukraine and there'd been not only one participant of two ukraine and i don't ukraine revolutions or uprisings i was one of their organizers or a group of the first my done so i've been heavily invested emotionally in ukraine and i have strong feelings for this country and also i have people you say you have you say you have strong links with the country but ukrainians don't seem to support your poll last december by the international republican institute showed that seventy five percent of ukrainians three out of four people in that country how do

they somewhat poll very unfavorable view of you want to just move on and let more viable popular candidates run for office in ukraine you know popular look look look i mean first of all presence of ukraine according to same poll is even more unpopular second if you look at the poll numbers every politician is doing rather bad and that's the that's the political crisis in this country that basically the entire political class is hate your policy with the polling. one percent at the end of last year ukrainian party the movement of new forces one of the present cycles really going on. between one and seven and eight percent depending on the course second president's party is not much better either the problem is that our political spectrum needs to reshuffle and needs to be changed and that's exactly what we are to stand up for the idea of modernized democratic european crane with open economy color guards free of corruption because corruption is killing the economy and if you're a condom is being you. it will just disappear. entire region will become amused you

said earlier in the interview that you said earlier in the interview that the criminal charges against you in georgia oral politically motivated they're made up and you also face criminal charges in ukraine where you are right now in fact you were supposed to come to a studio to do this interview but i believe you were so worried about being arrested we've had to do this via skype is it a problem for you that wherever you go for the georgia ukraine you're being accused of crimes the ukrainians don't want to arrest me to just try me i told them if you want to try me try me because there is no evidence of any crime so call me you know they don't want to try me they want to expel me from the country they want to get rid of me and that's entirely different game and the reason why they want to get through drop me is that because they don't have a real case against me because i really. crossed the all the guards that want for plunder to come to the country as a profession the wealthiest country in europe because of resources and there right now it's poorest country in europe to do what g.d.p. wise because someone oligarchs whole hostages the entire wealth of the country and

their whole goal so there i am there and they regard me as their main enemy so you say you are the enemy of the all agog and yet you quit as governor of the corruption ridden odessa region in southern ukraine after just eighteen months and twenty sixteen without really making any dent in reducing that corruption or going after that oligarchy and in fact back in georgia one of the main charges against you relates to massive embezzlement of public funds by you. or wait a minute let's go to jordan not public funds but presidential office expresses the fact that they can fight any personal benefit for me no personal accounts no personal wealth which is extremely rare in this region where everybody still like everybody else and we were the only case where absolute president had zero i can with the same amount of wealth or whatever s.s.n. to the left with the same ones i've never been reach and i'm not rich no i mean a core and then i would be for presidents so we get you all so innocent why not go back to georgia and make the case to your making to me in

a court in your own foreign country would you run for nine years. book european court of human rights clearly said your to use preliminary detention for the purpose of a former mikhail saakashvili do you know how old it is to hear you quoting the e.c. h.r. against your own country's court system when you were president for nine years they criticize you and the court system you locked up hundreds of people and you did have a problem with the georgian court system then. you looked up your own defense minister on charges of money laundering extortion and abuse of power and your court never supported this case and supported the government first or second yes i'm proud that we locked up corrupt officials or my own government when i became president the country was absolutely corrupt and it wasn't there when i finished my presidency said but it went up eleven times economy went up four times georgia became the best place to do business in the world georgia is number eight sixteen in terms of economic freedom index when you with respect that's nothing to do with what i asked

about the judicial system and it's all about transparency it's all about government it's all about the legal system in fact our judiciary is not ideal and right now being controlled controlled control what's the biggest private goal of shareholder oppression gus brooks with a clear goal to jail me so the fact is that he had clear goal to put me in pretty limited attention of course many years we document trying me because this whole trial and i understand your argument all i'm asking is do you understand anyone watching this interview might find it odd that when your accused of corruption by a georgian court you say it's all biased but when you accuse others of corruption you look them up and you were criticized by human rights groups earlier the united states department said the charges were biased you know your opinion it's the same consulate they also criticize your arrests of people you were criticised by the e.c. h r n twenty eleven when you were president you were criticized by human rights watch you were criticized by canadian various. so what is we going to a hypocrite i want. or no i don't accept this that's what many would say looking at

the double standard. should select their words more carefully because world bank wrote the loan wrote the book went so that the only case of successful transformation or world work in the georgia was world number one performer reformist country ok under the i'm not i've been questioned you told me a lot of people we locked up criminals georgia that was one of the most criminal in the world you say you long to work out you said you locked up criminals you say you locked up the criminals right and i c g the international crisis group said you were worried about your increasingly authoritarian behavior human rights watch said your government forces use violent excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations in the capital the international committee to protect journalists pointed out you shut down two television channels these are not all criminals because i could deliver or not and there was one really went because they were going to influence money and there. are of course were not ideal and we couldn't

have turned georgia into a liberal democracy non-existing country was turned into the best way for example in eurasia no country no country at the grand national so well in one year's time and this is a well known fact that's why i was in the why did you create that's why we feel strong support among the best young people among young reporters among well educated ukraine as well as georgia that's how if you were you mention that i'm a putin you're best known in the west in the wider world for being president of georgia in two thousand and eight when you were then country went to war with russia and in just five days nearly a thousand people died more than one hundred thousand people were displaced and exhaustive one thousand page report commissioned by the european union published in two thousand and nine ultimately blamed georgia they blamed you not russia will putin for having started the war many would say therefore you have blood on your hands. it's told to look they never bloom doesn't especially not in iraq what they said is that russian troops were first to enter georgian territory and indeed our military response to other countries' troops entering my territory or territory was

regarded with talk of war with respect to the law they didn't say that a little let me i've got the report quotes here they said it was georgia this is the diplomat who led the investigation it was georgia which triggered off the war when attacked in south ossetia with heavy artillery it could not be verified that russia was on the verge of a major attack as you claimed that's what the report said. before read it very carefully they said russian troops where we come from they're all of the georgian territory and then what you're caught is well but when psycho is well the quote says it was georgia which triggered off the war that's you you triggered a war that killed almost a thousand people in order to enter it when they enter your response i would see that any president who doesn't respond to a foreign army is a traitor and a president who doesn't use military force when you are being get there he said straight the report says you overplayed your hand and you acted in the heat of the moment with heavy artillery or blood stake hundred times smaller country was

invaded by a hundred times bigger. enemy we were attacked one by two hundred russian planes we were attacked by hundreds of people army and you didn't want us to emerge. in the i'm not mean i'm quoting that easy i'm quoting an evil commission report which says open hostilities began with a large scale georgian military operation the question is whether it was justifiable on the international law it was not says the report is not my words because i was really just about this independent report commissioned by the e.u. and we have all are well meaning that we want one expert i mean several several as well on that we were responding and sometimes it is also people who like to blame the weekend when you don't want to say well we can behaviors well i'm sorry we were not. leave the swiss diplomat who led the investigation was biased against georgia i believe that the facts are very stubborn we weren't there we were attacked you cannot be blamed for being attacked we were attacked and this is the fact that we

protect our summer and they went towards our capital they couldn't get to our capital because united states intervened because our army was here or because six president leaders of european countries came and stood under the russian bombardment we do our people in this is just to be clear in their country just because nowhere very just to be good no one on the show or in this interview is defending the russians of putin in the report criticizes russia very heavily you're right about that but it does say that you started the war in defiance of international law you can reject that conclusion but that's what the report says don't shoot the messenger i would say. and then somebody initial i'm sort of but i'm international or i mean you rights lawyer ok right now just before we finish right now you have not the ukrainian no georgian citizenship so what's next for you because i can tell you we're going to be a year from now two years from now i'll be fighting together with people of ukraine and georgia against. europe or liberation of our country from russian that missile

program hostile armies but as well as from domestic oligarchs and corrupt elements that seize power in our countries and our prospects for our population i think ukraine will become superpower of europe and georgia will be again once again this shining example of success and the reports worldwide as it was under my brothers because i really thank you for joining me on that front. hers is a remarkable journey from a refugee camp in africa to a state legislature in the united states in twenty sixteen ilhan almost became the country's first elected somali american lawmaker last year time magazine put her on the front cover calling out one of the women who are changing the world so does the future of the u.s. look more like her. trump she joins me now bill hemmer thanks for coming on up front you were elected aged just thirty three to the minnesota house of representatives in november twenty sixth seemed. that was of course the same night

that donald trump was elected president of the us how did you feel that night was a happy night for you as a bit of both. i think was bittersweet i joked with my campaign staff and campaign supporters that we stayed a little too long at our party. because we were is a lot of crying and a lot of people who were upset but when the reporters asked me how i was feeling i told them that i was actually optimistic and hopeful because i believed that this was going to be the awakening of our nation people were going to. walk a walk in from their complacency and we were actually going to get to work in not only resisting but reshaping and restoring this country's promise and within just a few days of taking office president brought in his infamous travel ban the muslim by. not just a muslim immigrant to the united states you're a former muslim or a few gee who's from one of the countries on the list somalia so do you think

president doesn't want people like you in the country because he says it's not personal it's national security. i mean i think you know if if if we were really being honest about what could be masquerade as. national security issue we know that no one from any of these countries and ever posed a threat within this country and so we know that for for him and his supporters this is just political football and they're using. our communities and people who look like me as as leverage to talk about him and his supporters more than a million people in your state of minnesota voted for trump you only lost upstate i think by a percentage point and the hoffs do you feel cut off disconnected from a lot of your own constituents who clearly don't see trump's islamophobia immigrant

rhetoric as disqualifying i mean i think what we are seeing in minnesota is people actually. coming to terms with the kind of rhetoric that the thought was just that rhetoric. now actually becoming policy i don't think a lot of minutes so ends and a lot of the people in this country actually thought that he would implement the food it because there was that economic anxiety they believed this guy was going to be part of negotiating this country into a better election alec situation it was economic cultural racial anxiety yes i don't feel the love of a try i don't think a lot of people understood that the what the ones the people that he was talking about the policies that he was talking about on the campaign trail were going to have an effect on on the members of their community the people that they have grown

to appreciate to be part of their communities when you hear reports of your president referring to countries in africa including your own country of birth somalia. whole countries do you think that makes him a racist is donald trump a racist in your view. i mean i think there isn't a debate about whether. trump is a racist i think he fits into every every ism. but what is important is for people to actually understand the implication. of those kind of descriptions that he attaches to countries. in africa in hedy in el salvador when we are having a conversation about what will ultimately make our country safe it is about showing strong and principled leadership it's about. being the country

that has been known to foster or been an inclusive society you so there's no debate about whether trump cirrhosis a lot of people would agree with you or not and in fact there's been an explosion in the number of muslim far right white nationalist groups in the u.s. over the past couple of years your own state of minnesota experience a record number of muslim incidents in twenty sixteen you yourself i believe just a few weeks after election victory i think got a cab driver called you filthy and threatened to remove you his job how much do you hold trump on the rise of trump responsible for this explosion of u.s. islamophobia. oh i would actually come very short of holding them exclusively responsible for for their rights i think when you demonize. and they humanize it is easy for people to to to to commit acts of violence

against those those individuals because they no longer see them as as a person as someone who who has feelings who is worthy of respect and i think that is where we are moving away from the idea that we are supposed to be a welcoming nation a lot of conservatives in particular would say that the rise in islamophobia is a result of hate but of fear a legitimate fear of quote unquote jihad is terrorism whether it's for sunburn a do you know with a recent truck attack in new york what do you say to them. i would say our country should be more fearful. of white man across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country and so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep america safe americans safe inside of this country we should be profiling monitoring.

and creating policies to fight the radicalization of weight men but most of the funding and attention even on the obama or as he went towards muslim communities one of those communities in minnesota the somali american community in minnesota where i think over the past few years more than twenty young somali americans have left to go and fight for. one of these quote unquote jihad is groups abroad that's a real threat obviously no one's pretending it's not a threat so what do you do about it but i mean i think like i said the focus of our. policies should should be about keeping americans safe keeping us domestically cif and and where we actually find a solution is looking at our foreign policy looking at how we are engaging

with. the members of these communities and and the kind of rhetoric like that is being spewed out of leaders within our city halls within our state capitals and within our nation's capitol some would say that's true there's some really bad rhetoric coming from politicians security leaders but also a lot about rhetoric coming from muslim community leaders but search is up for. i think. both of those statements could be true and i hate and i think you know it just goes to show what happens when you have a second ments within communities that are using fear and hate to more belies their base and it is it is important for us to actually have a conversation about what kind of communities we are trying to build and what this

nation actually stands for in an interview last year you said your campaign for state office was about more than new it was about shifting quote the narrative about what is possible for those outside of the u.s. we have a global audience watching who look at the current u.s. president maybe think he defines the u.s. his anti immigrant minority muslim sentiment do you see you all story as a kind of counter-narrative to that are you personally the un to trump what i represent is is is an america that is still allows people to fulfill that american dream that you can come here at the age of twelve only knowing two phrases in english. have the opportunity to put yourself through school and all timid lead to feed the forty four year income pent to win. a seat at the table now only representing people that

look like you but a district that has a seventy percent white population. what i wanted people to know throughout my election was that this dream isn't closed off to people that the idea that a person of color or women could only win and run in districts that looked like them. was was was something that we needed to move away from a lot of money thanks for joining me on that front thank you that's our show outfront will be back next week.

on counting the cost of wild swings for global stock markets we'll look at what's going on and why it matters how women in twenty eighteen are still fighting for equal rights in the workplace boss us sheryl is defying expectations but will it make life more difficult for opec counting the cost at this time on a. news has never been more available it's a constant barrage of it with every day but the message is a simplistic you have the frame good logical rational person crazy monster and misinformation is rife dismissal and does not go all well documented accusations and evidence is part of genocide the listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narratives at this time on

al-jazeera facing realities growing up when to do you realize that you were living in a special place a so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter while ease activists to live in jail just because he expressed himself he had their store on talk to al-jazeera at this time. hello there i'm julie macdonald in london the top stories on al-jazeera the winter olympics have officially opened inside korean city of chang with a spectacular fireworks display now. in freezing temperatures so attend the event one that is hoped will help bring about them automatic diplomatic for.