The Interview

Stephen King was the chief economist at HSBC from 1998 to 2015. He now says 'Western led globalization is in big trouble. We may be witnessing the collapse of the post-war international economic and political order'. Stephen Sackur asks him why he thinks globalisation could go into reverse and what damage could be done to economies across Europe and the United States. (Photo: Stephen King on Hardt...

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Nicola Benyahia, the mother of a deceased ‘IS’ fighter. After terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, the UK is preoccupied with questions about how best to counter the Jihadist threat. For politicians the focus is on policing, intelligence, and detention powers. Nicola Benyahia's son Rasheed was radicalised in Birmingham, went to fight with the so called ‘I...

Zeinab Badawi speaks to US Democratic Party insider Jake Sullivan, a key adviser to senior Democrats, including Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State as well as on the campaign trail last year. President Trump has attracted a lot of criticism at home and abroad over his rhetoric and style of leadership. But is he not proving more effective in important foreign policy issues, like the fig...

Stephen Sackur talks to Rachel Dolezal, the ostensibly black American human rights activist whose life unravelled in 2015 when it turned out that she was the daughter of white parents. So what gives us our sense of who we are? Our upbringing and our communities both have a huge impact, but what about the most basic pillars of identity that we tend to regard as immutable? Is our racial identity som...

Stephen Sackur is at the 2017 Hay Literary Festival to speak to the US Senator Bernie Sanders - the longest serving independent in US congressional history. He was credited with injecting passion and belief into the race for 2016’s Democratic presidential nomination - a race that was eventually won by Hillary Clinton. But did he plant the seeds of a political revolution in the United States? (Phot...

What hope is there for the people of South Sudan? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the head of the United Nations mission in South Sudan, David Shearer. South Sudan's lethal cocktail of civil war, ethnic division, failed governance, widespread hunger and disease threatens millions of lives. It represents a tragic failure on the part of the rulers of Africa's newest country, and on the part of t...

President Trump has regularly criticised the New York Times and accused it, and other media, of propagating ‘fake news’. Does its claim to be fair in its reporting stand up to scrutiny? Hardtalk is in New York city to speak to Dean Baquet, the executive editor of the New York Times. The paper has been at the forefront of reporting into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election...

Stephen Sackur speaks to Sir Suma Chakrabarti, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. After the collapse of the Soviet Empire, a new, freer, more prosperous region emerged in eastern Europe, anchored in the EU and Nato. The EBRD was created to foster that transformation to democracy and the free market. These days many of its investment projects are in Turkey, Central A...

Stephen Sackur speaks to renowned academic Gilles Kepel, an expert on Islamist terrorism in France and beyond. His work is influential - it was cited by newly elected French president Emmanuel Macron during the recent campaign - and to some, controversial. In the wake of the terrible suicide bombing in Manchester, a familiar question is being asked again - is the West any closer to an effective co...

Stephen Sackur speaks to Elif Shafak, the Turkish novelist and writer who lives much of her life in London. A dozen years ago Europeans looked at Turkey and thought they saw a country becoming more like them - embracing western values and on a long term track to EU membership. But today Europe sees authoritarianism, conservatism and repression embodied in the all-powerful figure of President Erdog...

Stephen Sackur speaks to Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu. When President Muhamadu Buhari won the Nigerian presidency two years ago it seemed like Africa's most populous nation had turned a corner. A first ever peaceful, democratic transition brought a promise of cleaner, better governance, and major economic reform. How is it going? Can oil dependent Nige...

Every day Venezuela seems to get one step closer to economic and political chaos. Mass anti-government protests have swept the country for the past month. Close to forty people have been killed in street clashes, the shops are short of food and hospitals low on medicine. Stephen Sackur asks Julio Borges, Speaker of the opposition-controlled National Assembly, if the Chavista Socialist revolution i...

Are the cyber-crooks several steps ahead of the cyber-cops? Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to Rob Wainwright, head of the European police agency Europol. In every aspect of our public and private lives we have become increasingly dependent on the power of the internet and computing. That makes us vulnerable to those who would do us harm. One such example is the worldwide spread of the ransomware...

Ireland has bounced back from the financial crisis of 2008, but now it is being swept by a new wave of apprehension. This time it is all about Brexit. When Britain leaves the European Union, Ireland will suffer significant collateral damage – in terms of jobs, trade, and the status of its borders. Stephen Sackur speaks to Ireland’s foreign and trade minister Charles Flanagan - will Brexit have cat...

This Sunday, Emmanuel Macron takes office as President of France. His nascent political organisation promises to get France's sluggish economy on the move again; but only if it can win legislative elections next month. Shaun Ley speaks to French MEP Sylvie Goulard who has thrown her support behind Mr Macron. Can the new President deliver and move France forward ?

Stephen Sackur speaks to the American diplomat Christopher Hill who has served under three US Presidents and was a former lead negotiator on North Korea. Recently, President Trump has described North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un as a “pretty smart cookie” who he would be “honoured” to meet. But with military tensions on the peninsula rising, could Trump's unpredictable approach to foreign policy act...

As the scandals pile up, are we witnessing the slow death of the ANC? Stephen Sackur speaks to South Africa’s police minister. South Africa's ANC was once seen as an inspirational model for Africa. Now it is becoming a byword for infighting, cronyism, corruption and the dangers of one party rule. President Jacob Zuma stands accused of abusing his power - not just by his enemies but by many erstwhi...

The war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 civilians but this number may soon be dwarfed by the numbers starving to death. Yemen is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe, which the warring parties are making worse and which the outside world seems unwilling or unable to tackle. Stephen Sackur talks to the UN humanitarian co-ordinator in the country Jamie McGoldrick. Is he losing the struggle t...

HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi is in Ankara to speak to the Turkish Prime Minister, Binali Yildirim in an exclusive BBC interview. Politicians in Turkey from the ruling AK Party say they are trying to bring the country together after the divisive referendum giving the presidency greater powers. The government narrowly won the vote, but the result is still being questioned by opposition parties and no-vo...

Stephen Sackur speaks to the General Bishop of the Coptic Church in the UK, Bishop Angaelos. In just a few days from now Pope Francis will fly to Egypt to offer his personal support to the country's Coptic Christians. He will find a community filled with apprehension, targeted by jihadist extremists, and subject to persistent discrimination and sectarian violence. Elsewhere, in Syria and Iraq part...

Will Russia promise not to pervert democracy in Europe? There are fears the Russians could meddle in the French elections and other European votes this year. Sarah Montague speaks to Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's Ambassador to the EU.

Stephen Sackur speaks to the writer and public intellectual Pascal Bruckner and asks, is something rotten in the Republic of France? As the country prepares to elect a new president, polls suggest record levels of apathy and disillusion amongst French voters. A spate of terror attacks has sown insecurity and sparked a heated debate about immigration, Islam and France's identity. Is France living t...

Why did a UN agency publish a report that categorised Israel as an apartheid state? Rima Khalaf was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia until March 2017. She commissioned a report which accused Israel of systematically implementing apartheid policies and promptly resigned from her UN post when the Secretary General refused to accept the work. W...

HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to psychologist, Jan Kizilhan, a Yazidi Kurd living in Germany who has helped bring over a thousand Yazidi females from camps in Iraq to Germany to start a new life. The so-called Islamic State may be coming under pressure in both Syria and Iraq but still accounts emerge of atrocities carried out by them. The minority Yazidi community has been amongst one of the mos...

Sarah Montague speaks to the economist, Professor Sir Paul Collier. The refugee crisis is one of the world's most intractable problems: 60 million people have fled their homes, with a third of them also fleeing their own country. But Professor Collier believes the problem is fixable and "we can do it easily". The solution he argues is to give refugees jobs. In doing so he suggests everyone will be...