now on bbc news, it s time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. from john lennon to bob marley, the music business has embraced songwriters who combine their beats with political activism. my guest has upheld that tradition with an energy which sets him apart. serj tankian is best known as frontman of the heavy metal band system of a down. he s also an arch advocate for his family s homeland, armenia. his passionate views on genocide, war and corrupt governance have won him millions of fans and numerous enemies too. which matters more to him the politics or the music? serj tankian in los angeles, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. thanks for having me on. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. i don t want to start in a downbeat way, but i can t help noticing that you recently described the last year as the worst of your life. i guess we can all imagine why that might be, butjust spell it out for me. well, i mean, covid obviously is a huge part of
it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. from john lennon to bob marley, the music business has embraced songwriters who combine their beats with political activism. my guest has upheld that tradition with an energy which sets him apart. serj tankian is best known as frontman of the heavy metal band system of a down. he s also an arch advocate for his family s homeland, armenia. his passionate views on genocide, war and corrupt governance have won him millions of fans and numerous enemies too. which matters more to him the politics or the music? serj tankian in los angeles, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. thanks for having me on. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. i don t want to start in a downbeat way, but i can t help noticing that you recently described the last year as the worst of your life. i guess we can all imagine why that might be, butjust spell it out for me. well, i mean, covid obviously is a huge part of it, but also i had other h
now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. from john lennon to bob marley, the music business has embraced songwriters who combine their beats with political activism. my guest has upheld that tradition with an energy which sets him apart. serj tankian is best known as frontman of the heavy metal band system of a down. he s also an arch advocate for his family s homeland, armenia. his passionate views on genocide, war and corrupt governance have won him millions of fans and numerous enemies too. which matters more to him the politics or the music? serj tankian in los angeles, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, stephen. thanks for having me on. it s a pleasure to have you on the show. i don t want to start in a downbeat way, but i can t help noticing that you recently described the last year as the worst of your life. i guess we can all imagine why that might be, butjust spell it out for me. well, i mean, covid obviously is a huge part of it, but also i
himself. trade between the uk and eu partially recovered in february. but there is not enough information about the economic effects of brexit. the biggest changes in british trading arrangements for over a0 years meant a chaotic start to the new year for haulage boss pete white. probably the worst, most difficult week i ve had in this job in 20 years. weeks later, it s a different story as teething problems subside. we re winning, that s the basic outlay of where it s going now. my process of customs was less than an hour. very straightforward. but your paperwork has to be perfect. if your paperwork isn t 100% correct, you will get delays. in february, the amount of goods that we sold to the eu jumped by almost 47%. dramatic, but that follows a plunge of 40% injanuary while exporters struggled to get to grips with the new formalities and some stayed away from shipping goods altogether for fear of disruption at the border. that trade has now resumed but we re still down in te
global questions. hello, welcome to global questions with me, zeinab badawi, from kyiv, the capital of ukraine. the buildup of russian troops near the border with ukraine has raised fears of oscar wants to extend its influence in former soviet states such as ukraine. moscow. we ask what is putin s game in his backyard? applause . hello and welcome. let me tell you who is on my panel and taking questions from our audience. deputy prime minister of ukraine is olha stefanishyna. she has been the international face of the ukrainian government during this covenant government. she is the acting ambassador for washington, kristina kvien. carl bildt and sergey radchenko. that is our panel. welcome to you all. give them a round of applause. and remember you canjoin the round of applause. and remember you can join the conversation. we re going to a couple of questions to kick off with. russian troops under the border, russian troops under the border, is russian troops under the