The Interview

Sarah Rainsford speaks to Belarussian opposition activist Sergei Tikhanovsky about his imprisonment after challenging the country’s authoritarian leader, President Lukashenko. He spent five years of solitary confinement in a high security prison in Belarus before being unexpectedly released this year, following a meeting between Lukashenko and an American special envoy. Tikhanovsky had planned to...

Bishop Guli is currently the Bishop of Chelmsford, a city in England, but it is also being reported that she’s one of the leading candidates to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury - the most senior bishop in the Church of England. Although she is keen not to add to any media speculation, if selected, Bishop Guli would be a remarkable choice. Not only would she be the first woman to hold the p...

Europe was free-riding on US Nick Robinson speaks to Friedrich Merz, the new German Chancellor, about the future of Europe’s defence amid the growing threat posed by Russia. Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democrat party, was elected as Chancellor earlier this year at the second attempt, following chaotic scenes in the German Bundestag that saw him lose the first parliamentary vote....

“I'm just disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him” The BBC’s Chief North America Correspondent, Gary O’Donoghue, speaks to US President Donald Trump in a wide-ranging telephone interview from the Oval Office. The call with the president came just hours after he announced plans to send weapons to Ukraine and warned of severe tariffs on Russia if there was no ceasefire deal within 50 days. Mr...

I’m going to be a voice for these children Chris Page, the BBC’s Ireland correspondent speaks to the Irish historian Catherine Corless, who has changed history in her own country. When she began to research a long-closed mother and baby home near where she lived, she encountered local resistance. But her dogged investigation led to the discovery that hundreds of babies and young children were buri...

I pray for peace. Nick Beake speaks to released Israeli hostage Keith Siegel about his experience of captivity in Gaza, of the suffering he says he witnessed at the hands of Hamas and the moment he was released. Mr. Siegel, an American-Israeli, was captured by Hamas fighters in the October 2023 attack that marked the start of the conflict in Gaza. He was one of 251 hostages taken that day, in an a...

The UK needs strong international relationships Nick Robinson, presenter of the BBC Today programme and Political Thinking podcast, speaks to Sir Keir Starmer, UK Prime Minister, about the importance of maintaining strong international relationships. In an interview recorded to mark Sir Keir’s first year in office, he defends the time he’s spent developing alliances with other world leaders. His c...

Lyse Doucet speaks to Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, about the future of Iran’s nuclear programme and its government. The interview took place in the country’s capital Tehran after Iran’s twelve-day war with Israel. Both sides fired missiles into each other’s territories, with hundreds killed as military sites were destroyed and civilian infrastructure badly damaged. Israel...

Jonathan Josephs speaks to Philippe Kehren, CEO of chemical multinational company Solvay. His firm sits at the forefront of Europe’s efforts to diversify its supply of rare earth metals. These elements are essential to much of modern technology, from mobile phones to medical equipment, car batteries and renewable energy. Currently their supply is heavily dependent on China, which mines around 70%...

James Copnall, presenter of BBC Newsday, speaks to Andrius Kubilius, EU Commissioner for Defence and Space, about the need for Europe to be able to defend itself. In an interview recorded before the Nato summit on 24/25 June 2025, Mr Kubilius, a former Prime Minister of Lithuania, says peace in Europe cannot be taken for granted and that Europe can no longer rely on American military backing. Ther...

“Women are still judged by a different metric than men” Amol Rajan speaks to Martina Navratilova, one of the greatest-ever tennis players, about her life and career. The story of her rise to the top of the game is as remarkable as the number of tournaments she managed to win. Born behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia in 1956, she was 11-years-old when she watched Soviet tanks roll in to the c...

Rajini Vaidyanathan, BBC News presenter and correspondent, speaks to Muhammad Yunus, interim leader of Bangladesh. The 84-year-old is perhaps one of the world’s best-known Bangladeshis. Described as the banker to the world’s poor, he gained international recognition as a Nobel prize-winning economist, who founded the Grameen microfinance bank, which delivered small loans to economically deprived p...

James Copnall, presenter of the BBC’s Newsday, speaks to Yoshua Bengio, the world-renowned computer scientist often described as one of the godfathers of artificial intelligence, or AI. Bengio is a professor at the University of Montreal in Canada, founder of the Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute - and recipient of an A.M. Turing Award, “the Nobel Prize of Computing”. AI allows computers to...

James Coomarasamy, presenter of the BBC’s Newshour and The World Tonight, speaks to Mike Huckabee, US Ambassador to Israel. Confirmed in the post two months ago, Mr Huckabee is the former Republican Governor of Arkansas and two-time Republican presidential nominee. He’s an Evangelical Christian, who has backed the presence of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, which are considered...

Waihiga Mwaura, presenter of the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme, speaks to Microsoft co-founder and global philanthropist, Bill Gates. Mr. Gates, who is 69 years old, announced last month that he plans to give away 99% of his vast fortune over the next 20 years, predominately through his Gates Foundation. The foundation has already given over 100 billion dollars since being established 25 years a...

Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent, speaks to Carsten Breuer, the German chief of defence. General Carsten Breuer gives his assessment of the threat that Russia poses to the Western alliance Nato. He says that Russia is building up its forces to an "enormous extent" and says that members of the alliance need to prepare for a possible attack from Russia within the next four years, according...

Tom Fletcher, Chief of Humanitarian Affairs for the United Nations, tells Fergal Keane, the BBC’s special correspondent, that Israel is subjecting Gaza to enforced starvation. Gaza faced an aid blockade of nearly three months - now, limited supplies of food, medicine and fuel are being allowed into the territory. But Israel argues Hamas is stealing food aid. Mr Fletcher has drawn criticism himself...

Simon Jack, the BBC’s business editor, speaks to Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services - part of the retail giant Amazon, and the world’s largest cloud computing company. Mr Garman started his career at AWS as an intern, and has risen to oversee a global network of huge data centres, providing IT resources for businesses worldwide. In this conversation, he shares his vision for the f...

Tim Franks speaks to a British-Syrian Alawite who came under attack, along with her family, during the sectarian violence on Syria’s coast in March. The Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam and its followers make up around 10 per cent of Syria's population, which is majority Sunni. The recent violence came after fighters loyal to the country's overthrown former president, Bashar al-Assad, who...

BBC Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale speaks to Dovilė Šakalienė, Lithuania’s Defence Minister. The Baltic nation, along with its neighbours Latvia and Estonia, share a border with Russia, and have nervously watched the invasion of Ukraine, fearing they could be next. All three countries have had turbulent relationships with their much larger neighbour, Russia. They were annexed by the Soviet U...

In an interview from the BBC’s This Cultural Life, presenter John Wilson speaks to the Colombian artist Doris Salcedo. Her work is a response to the devastation of war, and tells the stories of its victims - tales of loss, trauma and survival. She is recognised as one of the most important living artists, and her powerful sculptures and installations have been shown across the world. A childhood g...

Kasia Madera speaks to Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister of Poland. As a key, long-term ally to Ukraine, Poland has played a pivotal role in supporting its neighbour following the full-scale invasion by Russia in 2022. Mr Sikorski talks about the growing threat Poland, as well as Europe, faces from Russia, and follows his country’s decision to close the Russian consulate in Krakow. The move...

Nick Robinson speaks to Sir John Major, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. It’s 80 years since VE day marked the end of WW2 in Europe - and Sir John reflects on the lessons that should be remembered from the conflict. He is the last British Prime Minister who was alive during the Second World War. Sir John warns democracy should not be taken for granted, and is in retreat in some parts o...

Nick Robinson, presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and the Political Thinking podcast, speaks to former US President, Joe Biden. The pair met in Biden’s home state of Delaware, in a hotel where he had launched his political career more than half a century ago. In his first interview since leaving the White House, Biden talks about democracy under threat, Ukraine and the future of NATO, and...

Catherine Byaruhanga, presenter and correspondent for the BBC News Channel, speaks to Tidjane Thiam, the main opposition leader in the Ivory Coast. Mr Thiam is a former CEO of Credit Suisse, with a lengthy and successful career in the financial sector abroad. Now, he wishes to stand for the Ivory Coast presidency - but his candidacy has been blocked by an Ivorian court. It has ruled he cannot run...