was the year of a certain donaldj trump. there are hundreds of thousands of blockheads in this country who are idiots, who will follow anyone, who will vote for a reality tv star. if the choice is between donald trump versus hillary clinton, i'll vote for donald trump. the statements about banning all muslims, just on the basis of religious faith, is very much contrary to american values. ultimately, there's one certainty from brexit, total certainty that we have voted to take back control of our country. there is a teeny tiny bit of my personal feeling that comes into play because i love so much the uk that i want them to be with the europeans. this could be the beginning of the unravelling of the european union, i agree. it can't be excluded. we are in a horrible war. i am supposed, on behalf of the un and, frankly, on behalf of everyone, to throw need new ideas while things are not moving. the only thing which would move is war. i also want to feel i make the world a better place and i that leave it a better place and that i am honest while i'm here even if it's hard, which is one of the reasons i wanted to do your show, because i like somebody that asks me the hard questions. we should all be giving hard answers, too. hard questions is what we do and in 2016, ourfocus was on a global political phenomenon, a wave of popular anger and disgust with the status quo, sweeping through the democracies of the western world. people left out and left behind looked for politicians who seemed to speak for them. in the united states, their unlikely champion was a billionaire property tycoon with an outsized ego. there are elements, sub elements of fringe elements in every country. did i already know that there are hundreds of thousands of blockheads in this country, who are idiots, who will follow anyone, who will vote for a tv reality star? i kinda already knew that. let's breathe a little bit before we give it too much credit for representing a real thing. now i will say this, everyone — i mean, you know, there is a phoniness about this, this consternation and this "what does it means?" what it means is guys like you love it. guys like you dine out on it. you like it, you like a chance to look down upon, you like a chance to go to into the mystery of the donald trump phenomena. any one of our candidates would be better than obama having a third term under the auspices of hillary clinton, and that's what we'll get. even if you agree with senator lindsey graham, a republican colleague of yours, who says trump is "a race baiting, xenophobic bigot. he would be an absolute disaster to our party. he would destroy conservatism as we know it and we would get wiped out." and you're still supportive of him? let me make plain, i don't agree with lindsey on all of that. of course, he is alluding to the policies which include building a wall with mexico. i am for immigration reform, but because i think we need to get back to legal immigration and put a stop to illegal immigration and i think most republicans agree with me on that. they don't go out and hoop and holler about building a wall or whatever. we have to secure the borders. i have practically lived my whole life on the us—mexico border and i have flown it, i've driven it and i've ridden it on horseback — i know that border very, very well and my view is, you know, you show me a io—foot wall and i'll show you a i2—foot ladder. i mean, a wall, in and of itself, is not adequate. it's very expensive. once you decided to come on board with trump, is what you've said since the election, is that what you think is so important for people to understand and which you claim the media fails to understand, that this guy, donald trump, is not ideological? i would say that he is common sense, problem—solving in his orientation so some of the stuff will be right—leaning and some of the stuff will be surprisingly less than right—leaning. you've got to convince people that this guy, farfrom being a danger to the world, is going to be somebody that governments around the world can put trust in and can work with and that is not going to be easy. i don't see that. i see...i see happening is like what happens in life — there's a convergence between how the media presents somebody, how the soundbites happen on a campaign, and then how when you are interacting with a person face to face, there might be an albatross spread between what your perception is and what the person actually is like and so i think, as that gap closes, i think the world community is going to be very happy to have him as the president of the united states. donald trump's triumph took much of the world by surprise. it had the shock value of a political earthquake. much more predictable was the other dominant international storyline of 2016 — the continuation of syria's hellish war. the slow death of a nation under the world's gaze. we are in a horrible war. i am supposed, on behalf of the un and, frankly, on behalf of every one, to throw new ideas why things are not moving. the only thing which would move is war, victory, and there is no victory. well, that is the essence of this crisis and this problem, isn't it? it's clear that some players at least do believe that victory is still possible, and i would put it to you that those that are most sure that victory is still possible are assad and his supporters in moscow and in tehran. you are totally right in saying that, that at this very moment, most likely assad and his team are feeling comfortable but what they should not be feeling comfortable about is the fact that russia, in my opinion, has no interest in inheriting a broken, destroyed, non—reconstructable syria and with a constant guerrilla warfare going on for the next five years. i strictly rule out a possibility of russian military forces, airstrike forces, being involved in offensives against civilians — this is out of possibility. russian air force are still performing their task in terms of fighting terrorist organisations. your air forces been involved with the syrians in the most ferocious bombardment of aleppo that we have seen in more than five years of the syrian conflict. why are you deploying, for example, these bunker—busting bombs which reach down into basements, kill civilians where they are sheltering, and are also — and we know this from multiple sources — hitting hospitals. no, this is out of the question. these are false information. there is no possibility that russian air force can be involved in this kind of activities. understandably, the war is going on and understandably the cessation of hostile activity is not active right now and we are too far away from a situational ceasefire in aleppo. in 2016, we tried to give voice to the survivors of conflict, particularly and predictably, women. from those oppressed by so—called islamic state to those victimised by one of africa's most violent militant gangs. you were held for three months, in that time did you have conversations or any normal conversations with these men who are holding you? you have come through the most terrible traumatic experience — eight years, from the age 01:14, you were held captive by the lord's resistance army. do you still find it easy to recall just how awful those moments were? first of all, i was so scared. they are telling you, "victoria, get up." the other one, "get up." i did not know really where we are going and that was the day we were being served to men. i only realised in the night, when i'm being told, "come." a lady told me you go to the other tent. go to the tent? i go to a gentlemen alone? i asked, what is this? "if i do not accept, i have the power to kill you. i'm going to kill you." i accepted it. that is how this man raped me. you had children. you bore this man two children, a son and a daughter. yeah. i cannot even begin to imagine how mixed your feelings were at having those children in the circumstances you were forced to have them? in real life, when you start interpreting, the child is really not to be blamed, because the child will never know the circumstance in which everything happened. the beginning was painful but later i realized that you never know god's plan, where the children will lead me to. europe will remember 2016 as the year of brexit — a word coined for the british decision to renounce membership of the european union. like the triumph of trump, britain's brexit decision reflected deep unhappiness with business as usual. a poke in the eye for the political and business elite. brexit, the idea of britain voting to leave the european union, your team have said that that would cause notjust severe national but regional and global economic damage — on what do you base that? that is partly a preliminarily analysis. guesswork? partly intuition, and there's a teeny tiny bit of my personal feeling that comes into play because i love so much the uk that i want them to be with the europeans of which i consider myself. you're comfortable with the idea that the imf is now making statements which clearly play a huge political role in an internal, democratic, british debate? what right does the imf have to play that sort of role? well, clearly embedded in the articles of the imf is our duty of analysing and maintaining as much as we can stability in the global economy. ultimately, there is one certainty from brexit, total certainty, that we have voted to take back control of our country. are you ready now to express some regret for some of the things, including, frankly, falsehoods that were pedalled by the leave campaign during the campaign? as far as the leave campaign was concerned, there was one mistake that was made. what was that? there was a factual mistake. what was that? that was the 350 million. it was on the poster. a very small factual mistake. the message to the people, if you vote brexit, £350 million a week will go to the nhs and that is a complete falsehood. yeah, and if you vote brexit, according to the chancellor, each family will lose 4,500 quid a year so... why redirect my question? why not now that it is over, acknowledge that some things were said that were false, that were lies, and you regret it. i think that was the only fundamental mistake that was made in terms of fact... a fundamental mistake! because you were cynical, because you would say almost anything to win. it was not my figure and argued very strongly against it. i think it has been one of the most spectacular acts of political dishonesty on the part of a number of opportunists and populists. i'm more interested in the intellectual bases upon which you approach this. your approach seems to be that all those of reasonable and rational mind must be pro—remaining in the european union. you seem to assume that all those who, in the end, won the argument — the brexiteers — are nothing but opportunists and liars? i do have an argument. i'm not going to back pedal about my dismay at the intellectual dishonesty with which otherwise intelligent people across the political spectrum sought to persuade people that their sort of utopia would beckon if we were to leave the european union. i just want your opinion on what you are seeing from the british government? there's a great deal of confusion in london about what kind of brexit theresa may's government wants. from the point of view of the french government, are you worried about the sense of confusion and chaos that you see in london? in your opinion, does it have to be the so—called hard brexit? president hollande has said that britain will have to pay a heavy price for leaving the european union, and therefore, he seems to be suggesting that the idea that we stay in the single market or have preferential access to the single market, it's not going to be possible. what's your view? this could be the beginning of the unravelling of the european union. i agree, it cannot be excluded. that could be terrible for britain. also, i think it would be terrible to have a united europe to britain's exclusion, which is something that britain tried to prevent for 500 years. we will miss you. the european union with britain in it was better than what we are going to get now, but you have made your decision. we have to take care of our union, you have to take care of your union. we are facing an existential crisis as never before. it is a crisis of solidarity. everybody is talking the national talk, and thus imperilling everybody is talking the national talk, and thus paralysing the european union and its ability to commonly act. this could be the new experience, the new situation, that failure of europe is possible, and i think we have even more awareness of this new possibility which has not been there since world war ii. do you see yourself and your political movement as part of a worldwide phenomenon? i am thinking of donald trump in the united states, i am thinking of the vote for brexit in the united kingdom. do you think something is happening which the front national, your party, is a part of? every year, hardtalk throws up moments of tension, drama and deep emotion. it can be political, like my encounter with a member of south africa's troubled government, or it can be personal. either way, it is compelling. there is no legal or constitutional reason for the president to leave office. it becomes a political question. one of the most important ministers in your government, pravin gordhan, the government which you loyally serve, has basically declared that in his view, given what the constitutional court has said, the president has broken his contract with the people. i am asking you. do you agree with that, or disagree? i think the minister was actually saying, he was warning us, that we cannot operate beyond the bounds of the constitution. we have to operate within the framework of the constitution. the president is way beyond the bounds of the constitution. well, i think that is a matter of debate and discussion, so what i am saying is that i think that from a legal and constitutional point of view, there is no reason for the president to leave office. minister, are you in any way embarrassed by the answers that you feel you have had to give to me today, presumably for political reasons? i haven't any reason to be embarrassed. i am just telling you the way i look at the situation in south africa, that we have got a functioning government in place, we have got a president in place, which there have been some unfortunate incidents around. this wonderful creation of yours, which has in essence defined your career, and that is this marvellous lady, evita bezuidenhout. bezuidenhout. i almost pronounced it correctly! she is this sort of wonderful afrikaans woman, obviously a creation, you are in drag. let's get our first look at evita herself, in the most iconic circumstances, perhaps one of the most memorable times of your life, actually interviewing nelson mandela just months after he was released in 1994. let's play this video clip and give everybody an idea. in the old days, as you probably remember, afrikaners like me were frightened that when black south africans would take control of south africa, all the old symbols, the old paintings, the old furniture would be removed, and we are so happy to see that everything is still here. minorities are entitled to be concerned about the type of changes that have taken place in our country. the task of the government and the anc leadership will be to ensure the white south africans that change will not mean a reversal of the position where blacks were oppressed by the white minority and the other minorities. and i think that we have succeeded, we are succeeding in addressing their fears. i mean, what's beautiful about that is that mandela appears to be taking it very seriously. very seriously. as we sat down i was ready with everything, which is frightening when a film crew waits, you know, it's like waiting for the death warrant, the death sentence. and we could hear his voice down the passage. he walked in, he came round, he saw evita and he said, "evita, you look so beautiful." he sat down and i said, "president mandela, thank you so much for allowing us this 30 minutes." it was a 30 minute interview. he said, "pieter, no, i want to be on evita's show because i have important things to say and nobody watches the news." i like this phrase that one of your critics came up with. "airy online pronouncements from planet wealth." you being the ruler of planet wealth. is there a spaceship i can take there, to planet wealth? you know, the truth of the matter is, we have a complete range of price points on the site. you know, we have $8 lip balm, we have $12 non—toxic deodorant, and also, to be honest, we have a bit of fun and we will affiliate link to a $15,000 gold dildojust to troll people back. the two things that i remember most that i will not get over, and that i probably worry about all the time, the feeling of being existential, of having no power, that nobody cares, you are invisible, you are nothing, you are not going to amount to anything, and there is a part of me that i will always feel like somehow it's going to turn out that way again. i will live running with that chasing me, that i will be that helpless child, once again. and that is what keeps me going, and you do not get over these things. and i think that sometimes when i immerse myself in the traumas and the tragedies of other people, because i desperately need to try to heal other people, because i know what it feels like to have nobody come and do that for you. so, you know, life is a struggle and it is what we make of it, and i am so grateful to have the success that i have, but i also want to feel that i make the world a better place and that i leave it a better place and that i am honest while i am here, even if it is hard, which is one of the reasons i want to do your show, because i want someone to ask me the hard questions that we should all be giving hard answers to. i get to produce something beautiful out of it. the art is fun. if i entertain people, then i have taken something and actually created something good about something that maybe didn't start out so hot. 2016 was a year that stirred deep emotion and turned conventional wisdom on its head. my only prediction for 2017? hardtalk will still be roving the world, with the questions that matter. until then, have a very happy new year. hi there. i'm sure you've already heard but barbara, the second named storm of the season, is heading to the uk for friday. now, yesterday was the quiet before the storm in many respects. barbara, out in the atlantic, continues to develop and deepen, and that's going to be swinging to the north—west of the uk for the next 2a hours. over the next 2a hours. it has been a relatively storm—free start to winter, of course, but that is all set to change as barbara comes hurdling in off the atlantic. tightly packed isobars really squeezing together and focussing the strongest winds on scotland. as we start off the morning, the breeze will be picking up across all of the uk but it will become quite windy quickly in the day across northern ireland and scotland. quickly, gales will develop here but the strongest winds will be heading towards the western isles as we head through friday afternoon. this band of rain then pushes its way eastwards across the irish sea, where we could get gusts of 60mph, perhaps 70mph around some of the exposed coasts and hills. this band of rain is going to be very squally indeed. eastern england starting on a dry and bright note but it will cloud over and eventually we'll see this band of rain arrive during the evening time. but it is not the rain that's going to cause problems with barbara, no, the met office's amber weather warning is enforced for the strong winds. gusts of 80mph, perhaps 90mph focussing on the western isles through friday afternoon and then heading towrds the northern isles as we go through friday evening and overnight. so very the windy weather will continue as barbara slips into a northwards. blustery wintry showers will follow then as we go through friday night with snow returning to the mountains of scotland. things could get quite tricky, even blizzard conditions higher up. further south, the band ofrain clears through, and we will be left with dry conditions as we start off christmas eve. so some decent weather for travelling around actually across england and wales but further north, and west, we've got those blistering showers, still some further falls of snow to come across the mountains of scotland. those temperatures will be dropping away a little bit on christmas eve. highs ranging from around 4—11 degrees celsius, from north to south. heading into the big day itself, christmas day, you can see on the charts, still tightly packed isoba rs. but notice they're tilting towards the south—west winds are mild and we will have a mild day. you can see the yellow colour working its way across the country. very mild but it will also continue to be very windy pet peculiarly very mild but it will also continue to be very windy peculiarly across the north—west and quite stormy across the north—west. late on christmas day, we could have some snow showers returning to scotland. i'm rico hizon in singapore, the headlines: shock as donald trump tweets that the united states needs to greatly expand its nuclear capability. australian police foil a christmas day terror plot to target melbourne, five men are arrested. i'm kasia madera in london. we meet the seven—year—old syrian girl who's plight moved people we meet the seven—year—old syrian girl whose plight moved people around the world with her descriptions on social media of life under siege in aleppo. and dreaming of a white christmas in singapore. finding festive fun in a tropical climate.