The Interview

At the end of the second decade of the 21st century, does anyone still believe in the ability of the so-called ‘international community’ to stop wars, disarm dictators and protect civilians? One can decide by looking at the scale of suffering in Syria, the renewed unrest across the Middle East and the imminent American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Stephen Sackur interviews Staffan de Mistura, who has been a UN envoy in all of those places over the last decade. Is it time to acknowledge the irrelevance of the international peacemakers?Photo: Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura Credit: AFP via Getty Images

Sometimes it takes an outsider armed with just a sharp eye and curiosity to get us to see ourselves as we really are. That would explain the enduring popularity of the American-born writer Bill Bryson, whose wry take on Britain and the British has generated two best-selling books. From the mysteries of afternoon tea to the power of the human brain, what has Bill Bryson learned from his gentle search for understanding?Photo: Bill Bryson at the Cheltenham Literary Festival Credit: Getty Images

The fight for Afghanistan's future has been joined far beyond the frontlines between Government forces and the Taliban. Stephen Sackur interviews Aryana Sayeed, who is engaged in the struggle by using her own potent weapons: her voice, her songs and a spirit of defiance. She is Afghanistan’s biggest pop star, and has braved death threats to campaign for women’s rights and artistic freedom. Is this a fight she can win?

Can complex truths be revealed using digital fragments from the worldwide web? Eliot Higgins is the founder of the investigative website Bellingcat, which in recent years has broken a series of scoops. Bellingcat has exposed the depth of Russian military involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine; it revealed the identities of two key Russian suspects in the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal; most recently, it has provided damning detail about the suspected assassin of a Chechen rebel in Berlin. Has Bellingcat reinvented journalism for our "fake news" age?

Holding placards outside the funerals of dead soldiers, celebrating the death of children after school massacres: Westboro Baptist Church has been called the "most obnoxious and rabid hate group in America". From the age of 5, Megan Phelps-Roper had stood on the picket lines, and carried those hate-filled signs. But as an adult firing off tweets to her online critics, Megan began to doubt. Shaun Ley speaks to Megan Phelps-Roper in London. Can Megan really still regard those who abused her mind, teaching her to hate and to pray for more deaths, as Mum and Dad?

Eighteen years since the 9/11 attack on the United States, and the impact still reverberates even as memories fade. The US Government responded by adopting a counter-terror strategy embracing ‘enhanced interrogation’, a euphemism for torture. Stephen Sackur interviews Daniel Jones, who led a six year investigation into the CIA’s darkest secrets. Now his story has been turned into a movie; but did America cease to care, long ago?

In 2013, the Australian Government adopted a draconian anti-immigration policy, which involved sending all sea-borne would-be asylum seekers to de-facto detention camps in remote Papua New Guinea and Micronesia. Stephen Sackur interviews one of them. Behrouz Boochani is an Iranian Kurd who has written about his extraordinary six-year experience as a marooned migrant. He’s now a prize-winning author, but is his long-term fate any clearer?

In a special edition of HARDtalk, Stephen Sackur is on the road in Zimbabwe to witness the effects of change in Southern Africa’s climate. Zimbabwe in the post-Mugabe era is wrestling with an economic crisis, endemic corruption and widespread poverty, which leaves Zimbabweans extremely vulnerable in the face of prolonged drought. Crops have failed, hydro power is down and taps have run dry. Can Zimbabwe adapt to looming environmental crisis?

The American TV series The Wire, which methodically dissected America’s war with drugs, was an eye-opener for many. Shaun Ley interviews Wendell Pierce, whose role as Detective Bunk Moreland brought him international attention. Now he’s on stage in London as the protagonist in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman. But it was Hurricane Katrina that defined him, when he rolled up his own sleeves when his childhood home was smashed. After his city’s darkest hour, when help failed to come, did Wendell Pierce fall out of love with America?

Is Chinese leader Xi Jinping facing the most serious challenge of his presidency? The significance of the political unrest in Hong Kong stretches far beyond the borders of its territory. If Beijing cannot quell the calls for freedom in Hong Kong, what does that tell us about the sustainability of its authoritarian rule elsewhere? Stephen Sackur speaks to China’s Ambassador in London, Liu Xiaoming.

Zimbabwe is wrestling with economic crisis, endemic corruption and prolonged drought. Crops have failed, hydro-power is down, taps have run dry. Also at risk is the country's wildlife population – animals and people are now in a desperate competition for resources. Mangaliso Ndlovu is Zimbabwe's Environment minister. Does his government have a plan to avert environmental disaster?

Will the impeachment proceedings on Capitol Hill derail Donald Trump's presidency? Christopher Ruddy is CEO of Newsmax and a close personal friend of the US president. He has accused Democrats of playing politics with impeachment, while the President himself calls the impeachment inquiry a witch hunt. How much trouble is Donald Trump actually in?

Stephen Sackur interviews Sir Ranulph Fiennes. He is an extremist of a very special kind - nothing to do with his political views - but recognition of a lifetime spent embracing physical challenges at the extreme limit of human endurance. He has taken on - and conquered - the polar ice, the world’s highest peaks and the most gruelling deserts. He's been described as one of the world’s greatest living explorers. So what's the motivation for this life of extreme adventure?

How did a Hollywood insider break the story that took the shine off Tinseltown? HARDtalk's Sarah Montague interviews journalist Ronan Farrow, who won a Pulitzer prize for his investigation of Harvey Weinstein. His revelations about the film producer prompted an outpouring of rage at the way women had been treated, and triggered the #MeToo movement – an attempt at breaking the silence around sexual assault. In his new book Catch and Kill he’s posing difficult questions about the powerful media institutions he says tried to suppress his story.

Malaysia has one of Asia’s most vibrant economies - the result of decades of stability and economic growth. It is also a multi-ethnic, multi-religious federation - but the majority ethnic Muslim Malays dominate the country politically. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Malaysia’s Minister for Islamic affairs Mujahid Yusof Rawa. Are racial and religious divides threatening Malaysia’s stability and future prospects? There is growing concern that such tensions have been getting worse since a new government took office last year.

Can cinema change society? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to film director Ken Loach, one of the most lauded and durable directors in the UK film industry. He’s made 27 films and he’s won the biggest prize at Cannes twice for his socially conscious, realist works. His latest is an unrelenting, bleak take on the exploitation of workers in the so-called gig economy.

Shaun Ley speaks to the Nobel Prize winning economist Esther Duflo. The experimental trails she ran with two colleagues in Africa and India produced some surprising results. Among their findings: food aid isn’t helping the poor, and the poorest kids don’t need more books, they need more time. A fashionable idea wins the Nobel Prize. But is this really a story of failure of economists to predict the financial crisis, and of economics to offer big solutions?

Last weekend in Hong Kong, metro stations were torched, the Chinese state news agency was attacked, police fired water cannon and tear gas, and 200 people were arrested. That is Hong Kong’s new normal. How long can it go on without a major intervention from Beijing? Is there any way out of the impasse between Hong Kong’s government and pro-democracy protestors? Stephen Sackur interviews former senior official in the territory’s administration, Anthony Cheung. Are Hong Kong’s prospects bleak?

Donald Trump wants Americans to bask in the afterglow of the killing of the world’s most wanted terrorist, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. But many are focused on the daily developments of the impeachment investigation. Both say something important about the way Donald Trump conducts national security and foreign policy. Stephen Sackur interviews former senior US diplomat Richard Haass. Trump horrifies the foreign policy establishment, but does that matter to American voters?

Perhaps inevitably, Britain’s unresolved Brexit agony has led to a general election. The current Parliament could not find a path out of the morass, so the people must now elect a new one. Brexit has exposed profound tensions in Britain’s vaunted system of democracy, raising questions about the relationship between the people, Parliament, Government and the courts. Stephen Sackur speaks to businesswoman Gina Miller, who led two legal challenges to the Government’s Brexit strategy and won both times – how come this non-politician has had such an impact on Britain’s political landscape?(Photo: Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller leaves the Supreme Court for the result of a hearing on the prorogation of parliament. Credit: EPA)

Imagine having an extraordinary sporting talent, but finding yourself traumatised by the realities of elite-level competition. Imagine being defined by your gender and physicality in ways that crushed your own sense of yourself. Stephen Sackur interviews former Olympic swimmer turned artist, model and now writer Casey Legler about their pain-filled early life, which included a prolonged battle with alcohol and drugs. What did it take to emerge from the darkness?

What was it like to be a spy during the Troubles in Northern Ireland? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to former MI5 agent Willie Carlin. He became an undercover spy within Sinn Féin, the political wing of the IRA, during the so-called 'dirty war'. He was dramatically extracted after his cover was blown. Now he’s written a book - Thatcher's Spy - about his experiences.

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Armenia’s foreign minister. Armenia is a small state with outsize strategic significance in a Caucasus region beset with tension and hostility. Last year popular protests delivered a so-called velvet revolution which saw a new government installed in Yerevan amid ambitious talk of reform. Is Armenia looking east or west for political and economic inspiration?

Last week the whole of Europe heard a howl of rage coming from Catalonia. Since Spain’s highest court sentenced nine pro-independence politicians to a collective one hundred years in prison there have been mass, sometimes violent protests across the region which has left hundreds injured. Madrid says there can be no political dialogue until Catalan politicians condemn the violence and rein in the militants. Where does the pro-independence movement go from here?

What will become - what should become - of Jack Letts? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to his parents, Sally Lane and John Letts. Alongside the humanitarian fall-out from Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, there are grave security concerns - not least what will happen to the thousands of so-called Islamic State militants imprisoned by Syrian Kurdish forces. British-born Jack Letts left the UK in 2014 to live in the so-called IS Caliphate. Since then, he’s had his British citizenship revoked, and his parents have been convicted under UK anti-terror laws for sending him money.

Is Turkey creating further instability in Syria? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi talks exclusively to the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara. Turkey has been condemned for its recent offensive in northern Syria but it says its operations have been necessary to flush out what it describes as Kurdish terrorists.

What makes a whistleblower? What prompts someone to break ranks, maybe break the law, in order to expose a secret, often at great cost? Stephen Sackur interviews Katharine Gun. In 2003, she worked at the UK’s signals intelligence agency GCHQ. She leaked potentially explosive information about America’s covert effort to sway UN diplomats to support the Iraq war. She risked everything, including prison, in an act that changed her life. Now her story has been made into a movie; but, 16 years on, has her perspective changed?Image: Katharine Gun (Credit: Lia Toby/Getty Images for BFI)

What is the most serious existential threat facing humanity? Artificial Intelligence, warned the physicist Stephen Hawking, could spell the end of the human race. Stephen Sackur interviews Stuart Russell, a globally-renowned computer scientist and sometime adviser to the UK Government and the UN. Right now, AI is being developed as a tool to enhance human capability; is it fanciful to imagine the machines taking over?

Brexit represents a political gamble played for the highest of stakes. If Britain leaves the EU without a deal there will be significant economic disruption, even the most ardent Brexiteers acknowledge that. But they believe the potential rewards justify the risk. Stephen Sackur speaks to Stuart Wheeler, a successful businessman and lifelong gambler who backed his commitment to Brexit with plenty of his own cash. Has his money given him undue influence over Britain’s future?Image: Stuart Wheeler (Credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire)

Rock music inhabits a world of permanent revolution. Today’s biggest bands will most likely be tomorrow’s tired old has-beens. But just occasionally artists and groups find a way of reinventing themselves and outlasting the constant fluctuations in fashion and taste. Stephen Sackur speaks to the singer-songwriter Brett Anderson. His band Suede was hailed as the future of Rock'n'Roll back in the early 1990s. Today they are still making music a generation after Britpop ceased to be a thing. So what keeps him going?

The number of forest fires burning in the Amazon rainforest may have dropped since the global alarm was raised in August, but Brazil’s Government is still feeling intense political heat. Stephen Sackur interviews Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who is in Europe trying to convince sceptics that President Bolsonaro’s government is not prioritising economic exploitation at the expense of environmental protection. How credible are the Brazilian Government’s soothing words?Image: Ricardo Salles (Credit: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images)

Zeinab Badawi interviews British actress, activist and model Jameela Jamil. After breaking into the US with the critically-acclaimed comedy series ‘The Good Place’, she’s been getting attention for her criticism of celebrities like the Kardashians for their promotion of diet products to millions of young women on social media. Is her campaign to make us feel better about our bodies working?

It has been two months since India revoked the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, and Delhi still has the territory in a form of lockdown. Political leaders are detained, troops are on the streets and communication links are disrupted. The Modi Government seems confident its dramatic cancellation of a 70-year-old dispensation has worked; but what of Kashmiri feeling? Stephen Sackur speaks to Iltija Mufti, the daughter of former Chief Minister of Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti, who is currently in detention. Do Kashmiris have any choice but to accept their new reality?

What have almost two decades of American intervention in Afghanistan achieved? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Kimberley Motley - an American lawyer who went to Kabul in a training capacity and stayed to become a respected litigator fighting for the rights of the abused and the powerless. The death toll in the Afghan conflict far outstrips the losses in Syria and Yemen. But the grim statistics tell only a part of Afghanistan’s story. Does her experience give grounds for hope or despair?

Is impeachment a trap for President Trump's opponents? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump cheerleader, briefly his communications director and now an arch critic. The Trump presidency has seen US politics become ever more polarised and partisan. The Democrats decision to begin impeachment proceedings based on emerging details of President Trump’s dealings with the President of Ukraine has intensified the political warfare in Washington.

How do we ensure our astonishing technological advances are harnessed for good, not harm? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to the President of Microsoft, Brad Smith. Remember the time when the internet was trumpeted as the tech tool that would deliver us a golden age of knowledge, freedom and democracy? Now we’re in a darker, more cynical place – the digital revolution has generated fears about lost privacy, mass surveillance and systemic misinformation. Have the corporate titans of tech failed us?Image: Brad Smith (Credit: Gary He/Reuters)

Why is Lebanon dogged by chaos? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to the country’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. Lebanese politics is a world of complex alliances, delicate inter-communal arrangements, and almost permanent instability. Lebanon currently has a functioning government but it’s dealing with a host of deep problems: the economy is a mess, national debt is spiralling and regional conflict threatens to pull the country apart at the seams. Is the current Lebanese government making a bad situation worse?Image: Gebran Bassil (Credit: Clemens Bilan/EPA)

South Africa's Minister of International Relations Naledi Pandor talks about the recent spate of xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Twelve people were killed earlier this month when mobs attacked foreign-owned businesses, mainly in Johannesburg. It follows similar outbreaks in 2008 and 2015 which left dozens of people dead.(Photo: Naledi Pandor (Credit: Mauro Pimentel/AFP/Getty Images)

Indonesia has the right kind of assets in terms of population, natural resources and strategic position to be a 21st century superpower; but there are clouds on the horizon. For five decades Jakarta has suppressed a Papuan independence movement, and in recent months tensions have flared into violence. Stephen Sackur interviews Benny Wenda, exiled leader of the West Papuan Liberation Movement. Can he take on Jakarta and win?Image: Benny Wenda (Credit: United Liberation Movement for West Papua/AFP)

Extraordinary events have become the norm in the last three months in Hong Kong. The territory has become a cockpit of political protest and sporadic violence as many thousands continue to demand democratic reform. Stephen Sackur interviews Anson Chan; she was the Chief Secretary of Hong Kong during the handover from British to Chinese rule. She is still close to the centre of the storm, as Beijing now accuses her of fomenting the protest. Is Hong Kong’s fragile status quo irretrievably broken?

Is there any clarity and coherence to the opponents of Brexit? Stephen Sackur speaks to MP Heidi Allen, who quit the Conservative party earlier this year to co-found a new pro-remain centrist party. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson apparently intent on ignoring the will of parliament and exiting the EU at the end of October, the eye of the Brexit storm is fast approaching.Image: Heidi Allen (Credit: Isabel Infantes/AFP/Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has positioned himself as the country’s Brexit champion, but his pledge to take Britain out of the EU on October the 31st is in trouble. Parliament has passed a law requiring him to seek a deadline extension from the EU; so either he negotiates a new exit deal in short order, or he attempts to defy the law. How is this British melodrama being viewed in Europe? Stephen Sackur interviews French MEP and former Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau. Has EU patience with British indecision run out?Image: Nathalie Loiseau (Credit: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images)

British politics is in full-on meltdown mode. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has lost a series of key votes on Brexit, AND his parliamentary majority. He’s now seeking a general election in mid-October to let British voters decide whether Brexit should happen, come what may, at the end of next month. But will the Labour opposition agree to a snap poll? Stephen Sackur interviews former Labour cabinet minister Lord Falconer. Is Labour in any fit state to win an election amid Britain’s Brexit chaos?

The number of migrants making the sea crossing from North Africa to southern Europe has fallen dramatically in the last two years; tragically, the number of deaths hasn’t declined as fast. Humanitarian activists blame the anti-migration policies of EU member states. Stephen Sackur speaks to Carola Rackete, who defied the Italian authorities to land the rescue-ship Sea Watch 3 in Sicily with 50 migrants on board. To some, she’s a humanitarian hero; but will her actions merely encourage more people smuggling and more suffering?Image: Carola Rackete (Credit: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)

Eighty years ago, hundreds of Jewish children were smuggled out of Nazi occupied Europe by train in a covert humanitarian mission which became known as the ‘kindertransport’. Stephen Sackur speaks to Dame Stephanie Shirley, who was one of those children. She went on to live an extraordinary life of achievement and philanthropy, blazing a trail for women in business, science and technology. What lessons can we learn from a woman determined to make the most of a life so nearly extinguished in childhood?

Our planet is haemorrhaging natural resources at an alarming rate. Biodiversity is under threat as forests are felled, wild animals illegally hunted. Stephen Sackur speaks to Lee White, newly appointed Environment Minister in the West African state of Gabon. He is on the front line of the effort to conserve and protect what remains, in a country famed for its tropical forests, its elephants and gorillas, but also notorious for systemic corruption and inequality. Can Gabon find a sustainable balance between the needs of man and nature?

The human preoccupation with sex is nothing new – but the internet has made it so much easier to explore and exploit every shade of desire. The online porn industry makes billions of dollars in profit every year, but the big winners are corporate players, not the women and men performing the sex acts. Stephen Sackur interviews Mia Khalifa; she was briefly a porn actress, garnering worldwide notoriety when she appeared in a sex video wearing the Islamic hijab. After years of threats and insecurity, she’s speaking out; what does her story tells us about the porn industry and 21st century culture?

Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed ‘deal maker extraordinaire’, is finding the Korean Peninsula tough going. For all his claims of friendship with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang seems no closer to giving up its nuclear arsenal. America's strategic partnership with South Korea is looking increasingly strained too. Stephen Sackur interviews South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. Her country is currently out of step with both the US and Japan; how vulnerable does that make South Korea?Image: Kang Kyung-wha (Credit: Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International claims it wants a ‘smoke free world’ and the eventual phasing out of cigarettes, hailing its new smoke-free products as the future. But how plausible is that given that globally Philip Morris International still sells almost 800 billion cigarettes a year? The World Health Organisation says there are more than a billion smokers around the world, and that about seven million deaths per year ‘are the result of direct tobacco use’. HARDtalk is in PMI’s research laboratories in Switzerland to talk to the CEO, Andre Calantzopoulos. Are his claims of a smoke free future clever strategic marketing or corporate hypocrisy?

Zeinab Badawi is at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum where a historic power-sharing agreement has been signed between the military and civilians. General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemeti” Dagolo signed the agreement on behalf of the military. He has been described as the most powerful person in Sudan and is the leader of the heavily armed, well equipped Rapid Support Forces. They have been accused of killing or injuring hundreds of civilians during protests in June and July. Can the military be trusted to stick to the power sharing deal?Photo: Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo Credit: Getty Images