The Sunday Show: New Era for Armenia, Ukraine’s 2019 Election, World’s Most Traveled Man

✅ Armenia Enters New Era

After weeks of anti-government protests, the Armenian National Assembly elected opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as the country’s new Prime Minister. Rising to power on a platform of electoral and anti-corruption reform, Pashinyan has become the face of Armenia’s revolution. But political commentators say Pashinyan’s election is only the first step to creating a democratic electoral system, a just rule of law and equality in Armenia. Hromadske spoke with political analyst Mikayel Zolyan about the country’s political future.

Mikayel Zolyan

political analyst, Yerevan Brusov State University of Languages and Social Sciences

✅ Poroshenko’s Chances Thinner

Four years ago, businessman Petro Poroshenko celebrated a sweeping presidential victory in the wake of a revolution that promised to set Ukraine on a new path to Europe. Today, a new study from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology shows Poroshenko would struggle to get re-elected. Poroshenko’s popularity has been steadily falling amid sluggish economic reform efforts, failure to combat corruption, and the ongoing war in the Donbas. Instead, the study reveals former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Civil Position party’s Anatoliy Hrytsenko, and Radical Party’s Oleh Lyashko have become the frontrunners in the lead up to Ukraine’s 2019 presidential race. Hromadske spoke to Iryna Bekeshkina, head of the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation and Svitlana Khutka of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Stanford University about Poroshenko’s chances of re-election and Ukraine’s future leadership.

Iryna Bekeshkina

Head of Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation

Svitlana Khutka

Research Director, Social Indicators, Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor, Stanford University (2015-2017)​

✅ Georgia's Dancing Protest Against Police

Thousands of Georgians are taking to the streets of Tbilisi to protest police raids on severalnightclubs late Friday night. While the Ministry of Internal Affairs says the operation was targeted at drug dealers, many believe the move was politically motivated. Some say the raids are linked to the recent appointment of former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili to chair of the ruling Georgian Dream party. Critics say the move is was designed to discredit the popular Tbilisi mayor Kakha Kaladze, who has been backing the development of the capital’s nightlife. Hromadske spoke with JAM News editor in chief Margarita Akhvlediani about the protests.

Margarita Akhvlediani

editor-in-chief, JAM News

✅ The Millennials Who Lead Lviv's Cultural Scene

They’re all under 35 and they’re leading Lviv’s cultural revolution. Meet the directors of Lviv establishments transforming cultural centers and museums into contemporary multifunctional institutions. These millennials are seeking to draw new crowds and bring new creative energy to traditional settings such as organ halls, cultural centers and museums. Hromadske travelled to Lviv to meet these young people and learn about their plans to reform Lviv’s cultural scene.

✅ Meet The Man Who’s Been to Every Single Country

Getting past genocidal Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, talking his way out of Somali government detention and observing the Iraq war in 2003. Mike Spencer Bown, a traveler from Canada, has seen and done it all. Now, the world’s most traveled person is in Ukraine and has shared his experience of living in various countries across the globe and why Ukraine is one of his favorite places to go to in the summer.

Mike Spencer Bown

world’s most traveled man