The Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili , says Georgians have fallen victim to a Russian special operation, describing Saturday's parliamentary election as a "total falsification." The ruling Georgian Dream party, which was said to have won 54 per cent of the vote, has denied the result was in dispute and accused the opposition of undermining the country's constitutional order.

Also in the programme: we speak to Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha who says more than 20 of his relatives were killed in a strike in Northern Gaza on Saturday; and we hear from the author Hanif Kureishi on the stage-play based on his semi-autobiographical novel The Buddha of Suburbia.

(Picture: Georgia's President Salome Zourabichvili visits a polling station during parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, Georgia on October 26, 2024. Credit: Zurab Javakhadze/REUTERS)