anleap for mankind. ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo.

narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc world news". ♪ >> hello. you are watching "the context" on bbc news. >> i would like to thank each and every member of our nation who has once again given us the responsibility of governing the country for the next five years. >> he has been clear about the direction he wants to take turkiye and has been clear we can expect more of what we have seen during his 20-year rule in this country. >> the country is in a bad

situation. i pray to god he is going to be good for everyone. ♪ >> five more years for turkiye's president. the opposition rival announces the most unfair election in recent years. can the president rebuild international relations? also on the program, people run for cover as a new daytime missile strikes the target at the center of care. international condemnation as uganda science the anti-homosexuality bill into up your president biden calls it a single act and alarming trend of human rights abuses in the country.

is it just papering over the cracks? the food giant says it will trial new paper packaging. we will look at the global crisis of plastic waste. all of that to come on the program. first, turkiye's reelected president says he has a job to do to reunite the country following his narrow victory. president erdogan won the election with % of the vote. these were some celebrations on the streets of istanbul as he celebrated with his supporters. as well as dealing with a deeply divided country, he also has an economic crisis on his hands with inflation now running at more than 40%. our chief international correspondent reports. >> it was a long night of celebration for one side of turkiye. supporters of president erdogan

massed outside his presidential palace here marki a hard-fought victory. >> i have been voting for him since i was 18. my generation backs erdogan. we won the election fairly, thank god. president erdogan, i love you a lot. >> in istanbul, he did it his way. >> ♪ >> with a sing-along for supporters of his ruling a.k. party and an attack on familiar targets. is the oppition pro lgbt? he asks. could any lgbt infiltrate our party? no, they chorus.

over at the opposition headquarters, it was like a funeral. almost half of the voters were with them, not the president. the election has crystallized the divisions here and the opposition is warning of trouble ahead. it is already visible here in currency exchangrates. the turkish lira fell again to a record low on news of the president's victory. experts say he has mismanaged the economy resulting in rampant inflation. some of the young now see no future here. >> i don't have hope anymore. i don't have hope for turkiye. i want to move abroad as soon as possible. >> the country is in a bad situation. i pray to god he is going to be good for everyone. >> i look at the people around me supporting the opposition and all of them are really resentful. >> but many others here cannot

kyiv future without president erdogan. his base is religious, conservative, and nationalist. his loyal supporters have given him five more years to reshape turkiye in his image and theirs. >> let's turn to the nonresident senior fellow on turkiye. thank you for being with us. five more years for president erdogan. what is your assessment of what he will do with those five years? >> well, he gave some clues last nighin his victory rallies. it sounds to me he will continue doing a lot of the same thing which is essentially polarizing the country internally, playing on divisions such as the fixation on anti-lgbtq issues,

kurdish identities, and use the nationalist wave to consolidate his power base domestically. on the foreign policy site, we are not sure what will happen. we know he is interested in turning a fresh leaf with some countries including the united states and europe to extent. whether he can do that depends on his references going forward. we do know turkiye's economy is in a terrible state. right now, it is facing a ose edebt wil need to be servicr turkiye faces default which means he will have to return to some sort of economic growth or introduce capital controls. what he is doing up to now is unsustainable. >> that is the interesting part. he might be sewing division at home straight out of the playbook of other world leaders.

he will need to look internationally for help on the economy. that will require a certain degree of compromise. >> it does. last night, he also mentioned or suggested knocking on the door of instinet institutions such as the imf -- international institutions such as the imf is not what he is interested in. he mentioned approaching golf countries for immediate financing which i do not think is sustainable long-term. i am no economist. but he would rather do that then face the sort of open the books approach of the imf and it is likely to poll unfavorably. turkiye is also interested in acquiring new defense capabilities from the united states such as fighter jets. there are lots of objections in washington in congress against

turkiye's belligerent and antagonistic stance towards allies. also, turkiye is still withholding the membership in nato from sweden. all of these are on the table. if erdogan will have any chance of engaging in performance-based growth for the he will have to build bridges with international partners and allies rather than going it alone. >> previously, he has been seen as a mediator. he wants to place turkiye as a mediator in world affairs that would bring together both sides. the issue with sweden and nato could be seen as resetting ties with washington if turkiye approves that. >> it would be welcome in washington. there are so many ta there ig f i if you look at the countries or regimes that initially

st night, you will see where the fault lines line. one of the first parties to congratulate him was hamas based in lebanon followed by the taliban in afghanistan, before western capitals issued congratulations. that speaks to the heart of all of these disagreements turkiye house with the west. turkiye still maintains weapons systems it acquired from the russian federation in 20 which is anathema to the united states and europe. the west cannot tell where turkiye stands in the world. erdogan is hedging between wt he sees as the declining west and ascendant china and russia and trying to position himself between that. given that, what you suggest is a bridge builder, he has not been in a bridge building role since the early 2010's. he has been very antagonistic

towards allies. the only question i have is, will he be able to move past that? i don't see a lot of it going forward. >> really good to talk to you. thank you for your insight. grateful for your time. thank you. now to the war in ukraine. russia has mounted a series of daytime strikes on the center of the ukrainian capital. the city military administration says all were shot down, no targets were hit. this was a scene in kyiv during the attacks. explosions are heard overhead. this was last night. ukrainian officials say 66 out of roughly 75 cruise missiles were intercepted by their defenses in the 15th air attack on the capital this month. for more, i am joined by former u.k. military strategic planner.

good to have you with us. talk about the significance of these strikes being in daytime when one would assume many in kyiv were trying to go about their everyday business. >> i think this is one of putin's very few last critical capabilities. critical capabilities are those. long-range standup missiles are probably one of putin's few critical capabilities left to try and inflict damage on ukraine. this is not the first time it has happened. on march 9, russia launched over 80 missiles on cities inside ukraine. what the targets are is left to be unanswered. a lot are hitting civilian infrastructure of which russia are coming back and claiming there is some sort of military association with what they are targeting. certainly it is something i think putin is doing because it is one of the few capabilities

he has at the moment to show his strength and might, if you like. >> there is a suggestion moscow is trying to deplete and damage their air defenses. what do we know about the situation andhe reinforcements being sent from the west? >> i think ukraine's air cover has increased significantly the last couple of months with the introduction of the patriot missile system whichs an american system deployed inside ukraine that can target multiple long-range standup missiles which is why you're seeing numbers from ukraine of 66 being shot down increasing. i think the resilience from the patriot component is increasing. there is also delivery of shorter and more medium-range missiles that could target russian cruise missiles coming from germany as well.

that is significant as well because germany historically has not gotten itself involved in matters outside of its own national boundaries. the resiliency is one piece. the ability to go on the offense is another piece. we were talking this month about the u.k. introducing storm shadow, a long-range standup cruise missile that can be launched from the air to ukraine. what is significant about that is a lot of these cruise missile attack from russia are coming from the black sea. storm shadow will give ukraine the ability to target those areas inside the black sea, the ships the missiles are coming from, should it wish. that would be something i would be looking at next if i was a strategic planner inside the ministry of defense and the pentagon. while it has been a big no-no so far to launch it inside russia's

sovereign national territory, i am wondering if the question has been asked whether ships in international waters launching cruise missiles inside ukraine, whether they might become viable targets. that is something i would be looking for in the future. >> that does change how this war may play out. we've talked a lot before about the so-called spring offensive, now the summer offensive. i wonder what the timing now looks like given what we have seen and given the response we are already seeing from russia. this is preempting that, isn't it? >>eah. you could see a buildup. you could see some posturing of the use of long-range standup missiles by ukraine that have been gifted to ukraine by the west, starting to pick up strategic targets that could cause strategic thinking inside the kremlin.

launching storm shadow on a russian cruiser in territorial waters or international waters, i think that would be something to look out for. i think what is wrong about the spring offensive is one of the key pillars of warfare is surprise. obviously, there is no surprise element to this anymore. ukrainian officials have been walking back the potential effectiveness of what ukraine might be able to deliver in the spring offensive. but certainly what russia and putin are doing at the moment might be a primitive softening -- preemptive softening of ukrainian infrastructure in advance of the offensive that might be coming forth to defend that offensive. >> i want to ask you about what we have heard tonight coming from a ukrainian presidential aide calling for a demilitarized zone. they say it should be inside russia along the border with ukraine, as part of a postwar

settlement to protect ukraine and some reasons -- regions from shelling. two things strike me. one is already looking to the idea of a postwar settlement but also the likelihood of russia ever agreeing to something like that. >> both points you make are significant. i would also add the questions i would be asking would be, a demilitarized zone will take a significant amount of resources to not just impose but to hold and make sure the zone is not breached. you then he got areas of the ukrainian-russian border such as the donetsk region with russian-backed separatists who reside in ukraine. the big question would be, how would that work? the demilitarized zone is going to prevent access across the border. that is going to introduce some tension. if there's any sort of war fighting that goes on inside the

z, who is going to responsible for policing the dmz? is it going to be ukraine? even if they put it to the u.n. security council, straightaway russia and china will veto that. i think the international mechanism of how the dmz isn't limited -- is limited will be an instant no-no. the next question is how you implement it, how you resource a, who will resource it, and the contingency plans if there are frictions that breakout insid and what you do with the russian-backed separatist element. >> so good to get your insight on issues like this. thank you for being with us. thank you. around the world and across the u.k., you are watching bbc news. let's have a look at other stories making headlines across the u.k. today. in london, the metropolitan police say it will stop

attending emergency calls involve mental health incidents unless there is an immediate threat to life. he has written outlining the need for officers to concentrate on their primary role of fighti crime. several men have been remanded in custody in northern ireland after appearing in court accused of the attempted murder of a senior police officer. the detective chief inspector was shot multiple times outside a sports complex in february. he was with his young son at the time. a decorative urn at the grave of dame vivienne westwood has been stolen. florists have been tending to the grave every two weeks after being asked by the designer's family following her death in 2022. she says a resident in the village reported the earned missing -- the urn missing. the theft is thought to have

happened in the last two weeks. breaking news from kosovo this hour. about 25 soldiers deployed on the nato peacekeeping issue in the country have been injured. these pictures from earlier show violent clashes between protesters demanding the removal of the recently elected albanian mayor. the italian prime minister said italian peacekeepers had been injured. the foreign minister confirmed three of them were seriously injured. let's talk to our balkans correspondent who is in the capital of neighboring slovenia. thank you for being with us. explain what we know so far. >> as you have heard from a nato peacekeeping force, they say 25 of their soldiers have been injured while peacekeeping in the municality in north kosovo

which is a majority serb area. as you have been seen from the pictures, local people turned out in the morning to try and stop the recently installed mayor from gaining access to municipal offices. they were met by peacekeepers and members of the kosovo police force. at some point, things turned violent. the protesters started throwing things that included in centering devices which is -- incendiary devices which is what caused injuries to the troops. they have been injuries on the side of the protesters. the largest town in north kosovo says they have taken in more than 50 people, including one with gunshot wounds. >> explains in context and background intentions and the

tensions between dferent ethnic groups. >> this has been building for a while. last month, we had mayoral elections in four municipalities in north kosovo. north kosovo is majority serb. because of it itself is majority albanian. serbian people in north kosovo said they would not take part i the elections. ethnic serb parties did not take part. that resulted in a low turnout of 3.5% which allowed ethnic albanian mayors to be elected in the majority serb areas. this is a situation in which international actors have pointed out is somewhat untenable. in spite of this, authorities insisted on having the mayors inaugurated and forcibly entered municipal buildings to allow the mayors to physically take office as well. that is despite the advice of

the united states and european union telling them not to do this. there has been harsh criticism from the u.s. and e.u. of the authorities in kosovo of their actions. these are the tensions that have resulted. these actions are being condemned as well. >> for now, thank you. we will be back with you if there are any further developments. let's turn our attention to uganda because the country's president has signed into law and anti-homosexuality bill that has been condemned internationally. the signing was confirmed on twitter by the parliament speaker. it is among the strictest anti-lgbt legislation in the world. homosexual acts are already against the law in uganda but the new bill introduces many new criminal offenses including the death penalty for certain same-sex acts. the u.s., u.k., e.u., and major corporations have all condemned the law. let's speak to the deputy director of africa division of

human rights watch. thank you for being on the program with us tonight. talk about the reaction in uganda. we know it has been internationally condemned. how has this been received in the country? >> thank you very much for having me on this very sad subject. as you mentioned, the law introduces a set of draconian measures against lgbti persons in the country. it is one of t harshest laws. this morning, we received news the president has signed the law. there was regrouping about next steps and what could be d of whe in uganda at the moment, there is a petition at the constitutional court level. the interesting thing is it has a variety of petitioners from different backgrounds. you have activist, academics,

journalists, a member of parliament contesting the law on several grounds. they are asking the constitutional court to declare this law is unconstitutional because it violates several human rights. they are also asking for injunctions so provisions of the law cannot be implemented. as you mentioned, same-sex acts have been criminalized in the country since the 1950's. one of the motivations or objectives of the law is that even if unnatural acts were criminalized, disseminating literature and pornographic materials concerning the offenses of homosexuality were not regulated. they were trying to regulate that. introducing the death penalty for sexuality is too extreme. >> we touched on some of the

international condemnation. president biden saying this is a shameful act. he says this is an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in uganda. what do you sense that this will mean broadly for human rights in the country? >> generally in the country, theris a clamp down on civil society organizations and human rights organizations. in february, the office of the high commissioner for human rights were informed their mandate would not be renewed in the country because uganda felt it had enough capacity to monitor the human rights situation in the country. the condemnation of the u.s. and u.k., both talk about sanctions of individuals traveling to the country. it is not only the u.k. or the u.s. when the bill was introduced in parliament, even before the

signing, you had the e.u., the u.n. condemning it with the office of the commissioner for human rights stating this law would be among the worst of its kind in the world. >> it is really good to get your thoughts. thank you for being with us. that is the deputy director at the africa division of human rights watch. narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo.