The Interview

“Even though we say we want to be self-sufficient, we don't think global solidarity must be dropped. Because if it gets dropped, the world will be in trouble.”
Mayeni Jones the BBC’s Africa correspondent speaks to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi South Africa’s health minister a year on since the US announced foreign aid cuts. At the time he called the USAID freeze a wake up call for Africa.
Dr Motsoaledi, has been at the centre of South Africa’s public health response for more than a decade. A medical doctor by training, he first took on the health portfolio in 2009, overseeing the world’s largest HIV treatment programme.
In this conversation he explains how the country is filling the aid gap and where progress stands in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Syria’s only female cabinet minister, Hind Kabawat, Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo and Mexican actor, Diego Calva. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Mayeni Jones
Producers: Ed Habershon, Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Dr Aaron Motsoaledi Credit: PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)

“Most Venezuelans are thinking about the future: Will things improve? Will deep changes come? Will we reunite as a people with our history, dreams, and hopes?”
BBC correspondent Norberto Paredes speaks to Henrique Capriles, a Venezuelan opposition leader, about his vision for a new Venezuela.
In the aftermath of President Maduro’s capture by the United States, Henrique Capriles is one of the key political voices emerging - an alternative to the high-profile Maria Corina Machado, Nobel-prize winner and vocal supporter of Trump’s intervention.
Now it is time for Venezuela’s opposition to unite, he says, and bring democracy to the country.
Henrique Capriles narrowly lost out on the presidency in both 2012 and 2013, before being banned from standing for public office for many years. In 2025, he was elected to the National Assembly.
Thank you to the BBC Mundo team for its help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Colombian President Gustavo Petro, the President of Ecuador Daniel Noboa and President Lula da Silva of Brazil. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Norberto Paredes
Producers: Nathalia Passarinho and Lucy Sheppard
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Henrique Capriles Credit: REUTERS/Marco Bello)

Katy Watson speaks to Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner about the country’s social media ban for under 16s: “To keep kids away until they're ready, I think that is the monumental circuit breaker move that we need to move to,” she says.
Brought up in Seattle, North America Julie has spent her career in the technology sector working for Microsoft, Twitter and Adobe in public policy and safety before moving into government.

She moved to Australia more than 25 years ago and from 2017 Julie has been working on online safety. In her role as commissioner she has become the target of free speech absolutists like Elon Musk, wh have accused of her trying to censor the internet.
No stranger to controversy and abuse, she’s now the public face of Australia’s landmark social media ban for children under 16 which came into force in December.
Now countries around the world are considering similar bans as cases of online addiction, self harm and abuse are reportedly on the rise.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Antonio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations and Taiwan’s cyber ambassador Audrey Tang. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Katy Watson
Producer: Dan Soekov, Clare Williamson, Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Julie Inman Grant Credit: Reuters)

'It's hard to be the only woman, I feel lonely sometimes because I’d like to have another woman colleague to talk to.’
The BBC’s Chief international correspondent, Lyse Doucet speaks to Hind Kabawat, Syria’s Minister for Social Affairs and Labour. and the only female minister in the transitional government.
She was born in India and grew up across the Middle East and Europe. Her life has been shaped by movement, exile and conflict. She studied economics in Damascus, law in Beirut, and later continued her education in the United States.
During Syria’s war, she worked abroad on diplomacy and legal reform, advising on negotiations and pushing for greater representation of women in public life. After the fall of the Assad regime and the creation of a transitional authority, she returned home to take up public office.
In this conversation, she talks about power, responsibility, and what leadership means in a country still reckoning with more than a decade of conflict.
Thank you to the Global Women team for their help in making this programme.
The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with the Colombian president Gustavo Petro, the Palestinian-American human rights lawyer Noura Erekat and Mexican actor Diego Calva. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Lyse Doucet
Producers: Lina Shaikhouni, Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Hind Kabavat Credit: Beyza Comert/Getty Images)

‘We're fighting to survive in our home town, in our country, and at the same time we're fighting for our future, for our independence’
Nick Robinson speaks to Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kyiv, about Ukraine’s war with Russia as it approaches its fourth year.
Born behind the Iron Curtain in 1971, he’s arguably best-known as a former heavyweight boxing world champion who made his name in the ring during the 1990s and 2000s.
Having hung up his gloves following a series of injuries, when his native Ukraine endured political upheaval through the Orange Revolution, Vitali’s attentions turned to the political arena. Following a short stint in the Ukrainian Parliament, where he aligned with pro-Europeans, Vitali was elected mayor of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in 2014 after heavily campaigning against corruption.
But his greatest challenge in politics, and indeed even greater than becoming a world champion boxer, came when Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Thank you to the Political Thinking with Nick Robinson team for their help in making this programme.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Artificial Intelligence pioneer Mustafa Suleyman, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, and fantasy author Sir Philip Pullman. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Nick Robinson
Producers: Daniel Kraemer and Ben Cooper
Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Vitali Klitschko Credit: Sergei GAPON / AFP via Getty Images)