Navanetham ‘Navi' Pillay, 2026 Nobel Peace Prize winner

“When we suffered under apartheid, those were immoral laws, they institutionalised racism. Where could we go for relief? And I yearned for a better system of law based on values.” Waihiga Mwaura talks to Navanetham or 'Navi' Pillay who has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.The daughter of a bus driver, Navi grew up in segregated South Africa witnessing racial and gender discrimination on a daily basis. Determined to become a lawyer she spent decades representing political prisoners of the apartheid era and was the first non white woman to be appointed to South Africa’s high court. She went on to represent the victims of the Rwanda genocide as a judge on the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal and was elected to the International Court of Justice. She also chaired a UN commission investigating human rights violations in Gaza.The Nobel committee said the award recognises Pillay’s lifetime of work, praising her commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass.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 president of the ICRC, Mirijana Spolaric and the former Australian prime minister minister Julia Gillard, plus many others. 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: Waihiga Mwaura Producer: Albert Kirui, Charles Gitonga and Clare Williamson Editor: Farhana Haider(Image: Navi Pillay. Credit: Reuters)

“There's a toxic narrative around displacement which has been politicised and part of the fund is to re-humanise and make the connection because those people who have the great fortune to be housed, to be in nations that are free of conflict at the moment, we're being asked to be displaced from our humanity. And so art, the foundation of art is to allow people to make pathways of connection to remind us that we have more in common with people who are displaced than we realise.”Katie Razzall speaks to double Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett.The 57-year-old Australian, best-known for her roles in Hollywood blockbusters such as Elizabeth, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has long used her public profile to champion humanitarian causes around the world.A decade ago, Blanchett was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency. Two years later, she addressed the UN Security Council drawing attention to Rohingya refugees fleeing violence and persecution in Myanmar.Last year, Blanchett helped launch the Displacement Film Fund, an initiative supporting filmmakers who have experienced displacement, as well as films exploring the lives of those forced to flee their homes.Five filmmakers were awarded grants through the fund, each telling individual stories of displacement from places including Ukraine, Somalia and Iran. One of the filmmakers, Hasan Kattan, joined Blanchett for this interview to talk about his experience of fleeing Syria.Thank you to the Newsnight 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 human rights lawyer Shami Chakrabarti, Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu, and dancer Carlos Acosta. 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: Katie Razzall Producers: Rhoda Buchanan, Roxanne Panthaki and Ben Cooper Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Cate Blanchett. Credit: Getty)

“Diplomacy is about talking to lots of people with whom you don't agree. And that's what diplomats do. And I think we would do that... The Vatican has always had very little difficulty, perhaps too little difficulty, in dealing with all sorts of political actors, all sorts regimes, all sorts of political systems.”Julie Etchingham speaks to Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations and one of the Catholic Church’s more senior diplomats. The 72 year old, who was born and brought up in Liverpool, was appointed to the post in 2014 by Pope Francis and is frequently referred to as the Vatican's foreign minister.Although a tiny city state, the Vatican has significant reach and influence on the world stage, being a permanent observer at the United Nations and having diplomatic relations with 184 countries. Its diplomats pursue a policy of ‘positive neutrality’ - supposedly an impartial moral authority which allows it to dialogue with all sides.With no signs of various geopolitical tensions subsiding, the Archbishop’s role in navigating these instabilities on behalf of the more than 1.4 billion Catholics around the world has arguably never been more important.Thank you to the Sunday 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 Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally, former California Governor Jerry Brown, and Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer. 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: Julie Etchingham Producers: Catherine Murray and Ben Cooper Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Archbishop Paul Gallagher. Credit: Getty)

“When I was writing it I didn’t think it would touch such a universal chord, you know, because it seemed to me so weird, my childhood and my mother and my life, it was, but of course, everybody has something. And a lot of people I meet have said this to me and that it helped them see their parents as human beings and not just parents.”Ishadrita Lahiri speaks to acclaimed author and activist, Arundhati Roy. One of India’s most celebrated writers and outspoken political voices Roy rose to international fame in 1997 with her Booker Prize-winning debut novel The God of Small Things. Since then she has become as well known for political activism as for her fiction, challenging those in power and using her writing to engage with questions of inequality, nationalism and human rights. In her latest book, Mother Mary Comes to Me, Roy reflects on her complex relationship with her mother and the ways it shaped her life and work. We explore her literary journey, political convictions and what’s shaped her writing. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Indian youth campaigner Abhijeet Dipke, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell and author Maggie O’Farrell. 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: Ishadrita Lahiri Producer: Asmita Nandy Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Arundhati Roy. Credit: Getty)

“Nigeria can fight insecurity, head on. It only requires it for the commander-in-chief to be determined that this will end. Those criminals live with us. In our communities, people know them. I will go to the communities and find them. I will take control. And I will not do it from Abuja.” Madina Maishanu speaks to Peter Obi, one of Nigeria’s leading opposition politicians, now with the Nigeria Democratic Congress, and a former governor of Anambra State. He came third in the 2023 presidential election, attracting significant support from young Nigerians fed up with unemployment and police brutality who demanded political change. But Obi has never accepted the outcome, insisting he won and that the official results were manipulated, although Nigeria's courts rejected his challenge. Now he's hoping to become president in 2027, promising to address some of Nigeria's biggest problems, including widespread insecurity and government corruption. The Interview brings you the best interviews coming from the BBC, including episodes with the head of the World Meteorological Organisation, Celeste Saulo and the former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard. 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: Madina Maishanu Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Farhana Haider and Damon Rose(Image: Peter Obi. Credit: Reuters)

“We don't have to have a fight, and we don't have to land in China, go to Beijing and win the war. All we have to do is prevent them to getting their objective of landing in Taiwan and conquering. It's not going to be easy, but we've been preparing for this for 77 years.”Sumi Somaskanda speaks to Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to the US.The island, which lies roughly 100 miles off the coast of mainland China and is facing growing uncertainty both at home and abroad.As geopolitical tensions rise around the world, there’s increasing focus on the intentions of Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China and has long-pursued what it calls reunification with the island.Mr. Yui Tah-ray has held the his current post since December 2023, having previously served as Taiwan’s deputy foreign minister. His role is central to maintaining one of Taipei’s most important international relationships: with the United States.Washington does not officially recognise Taiwan as an independent state - and only 12 countries around the world do. But the US remains Taiwan’s most important international backer, providing critical defence and security support.With President Trump back in the White House for a second term, questions remain over how Washington’s longstanding commitment to Taiwan will evolve and what that could mean for the island as tensions with Beijin continue. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with McKinsey China’s Joe Ngai, journalist Maggie Haberman, and Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu. 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: Sumi Somaskanda Producer: Abby Godard Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Alexander Tah-ray Yui. Credit: Getty)

“Private communication is a fundamental human right for a reason, because when those with power over you have access to your intimate thoughts and your communication, they use those to punish you. They can use them to persecute you. They can use them to shut you up.” Megha Mohan speaks to Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which runs the encrypted messaging app Signal. Its end-to-end encyption means only the people in a conversation can read their messages. The protections are so strong that even Signal itself can’t see the contents.That privacy can be vital for journalists living under authoritarian governments, dissidents and other vulnerable people, but it can also allow scammers, child abusers and criminals to communicate beyond Signal’s view.Governments are demanding greater access to encrypted communications, but Whittaker says Signal would rather leave a country than weaken its protections. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including conversations with former Sudanese leader Aisha Musa, Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi; plus many others 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: Megha Mohan Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Farhana Haider(Image: Meredith Whittaker. Credit: Reuters)

BBC special correspondent James Naughtie speaks to former Governor of California, Jerry Brown.He was first elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, and went on to serve two eight-year terms in office, separated by nearly three decades.Over the course of his public life, he met every US president from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump.Now retired on the California land where his ancestors settled in the nineteenth century, Brown reflects on a political career spanning five decades.He discusses the growing influence of technology and AI, the spiritual beliefs that shaped how he governed, and the profound changes he has witnessed in American politics since he first entered public life.The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, including episodes with Hunter Biden, the journalist Maggie Haberman, and former US Secretary of State John Kerry. 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: Jim Naughtie Producers: Cordelia Hemming, Ben Cooper and Osman Iqbal Editor: Damon Rose and Farhana Haider(Image: Jerry Brown. Credit: Getty)

“There aren't enough lawyers and judges on the planet if journalists are silent, because abuses of power just don't come to light, in my experience, without this relationship between a free media, fair courts, fair trials, robust judges, investigators, the police and so on. Without journalists there'd be no human rights protection and the rule of law.”Anna Holligan speaks to human rights lawyer and Council of Europe rapporteur Shami Chakrabarti. Born in London in 1969, Chakrabarti rose to prominence in the early 2000s when she was appointed director of the human rights organisation, Liberty. She and her team made headlines around the world campaigning against what they considered excessive anti-terror legislation introduced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.She stepped down from the position just over a decade later, after being appointed a life peer in the British House of Lords.Since then, she’s been involved in a number of high-profile inquiries both in the UK and abroad. Most recently, she’s been tasked with leading a Council of Europe investigation into the fallout from the 2017 assassination of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Caruana Galizia, one of Malta’s best-known anti-corruption journalists, was killed by a car bomb in October 2017. Her assassination and the continuing questions over the murder has raised serious concerns about the rule of law in Malta, an EU member state, as well as fears that corruption at the highest-levels could have wider implications for the European Union.Thank you to the Global Eye 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 Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, the EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, and Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff. 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: Anna Holligan Producers: Vara Szajkowski, Lucy Provan and Ben Cooper Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

“I do not want the United Nations of New York, Geneva or Vienna to be an ivory tower, a diplomatic ivory tower. I want to see the UN not of power and privilege, but the UN of service and impact. That is the UN I want see.”James Copnall speaks to Olara Otunnu, Ugandan diplomat, lawyer and former Foreign Minister. He has spent decades working at the highest levels of international diplomacy. He has also served as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.Now Uganda has formally nominated him for UN Secretary-General, putting him among seven candidates in the running to succeed Antonio Guterres. It is a position widely regarded as the world’s top diplomatic job.Olara Otunnu talks about how he intends to bridge the gap between international politics and the needs of local people around the world. 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 UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, South Africa’s Ambassador to the US Roelf Meyer and the author Maggie O’ Farrell. 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: James Copnall Producer: Sharon Hemans Editor: Farhana HaiderGet in touch with us on email [email protected] and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Olara Otunnu. Credit: Getty)