The Interview

As part of the BBC's identity season, Stephen Sackur talks to Rachel Dolezal, the ostensibly black American human rights activist whose life unravelled last year 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...

Stephen Sackur speaks to Dick Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency from 1999 to 2007 and veteran anti-doping campaigner. The world of international sport is in freefall following a long series of doping allegations. Has there been a failure in the national and international agencies that are supposed to prevent athletes using drugs? What can now be done about it and should all sporting...

The battle for Britain's future -- in or out of the European Union -- will be settled In just two months’ time. Advocates of a vote to remain, led by the prime minister David Cameron, see economic arguments as their most potent weapon; Brexit, they claim, will come at a crippling cost in terms of jobs, investment and growth. Many business leaders seem to agree but by no means all. Stephen Sackur t...

In front of an audience in Washington DC, Stephen Sackur talks to Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF. Could 2016 produce economic shocks big enough to plunge the world economy back into crisis? (Photo: International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde. Credit: Stephen Jaffe/IMF/Getty Images)

The rules of US politics are being rewritten in this electoral season. The Republican Party has been shaken to its core by the rise of Donald Trump while the Democratic contest for the presidential nomination is really a struggle for the soul of the party. The contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is a choice between the centrist establishment favourite and the self-styled socialist p...

HARDtalk speaks to Fahd al Rasheed, CEO of King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah Economic City is a vast construction project on the Red Sea. It is supposed to become one of the world’s biggest ports with a population of 2 million – a new global city for Saudi Arabia. But could the kingdom’s economic problems see this dream turn to dust?

HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to John Cale, a founding member of the Velvet underground, and a solo artist and producer. In the checkered history of rock and roll, there have been relatively few artists who have managed to create a genuinely new, even revolutionary, sound. The Velvet Underground achieved just that in mid-sixties New York - combining youthful anger, musical creativity, with an a...

From his Oscar winning score for The Lion King, through 12 Years A Slave to a series of superhero blockbusters, including the latest - Batman v Superman - Hans Zimmer is, as one director put it, "quite simply the contemporary composer to work with". German born, British educated, he never received formal musical training and he's a champion of technology. Hardtalk’s Shaun Ley asks Hans Zimmer whet...

The United States is beefing up its military presence in Europe. Hardtalk asks Russia's Ambassador to the EU if the Kremlin can sustain a long-term confrontation with the West?

The suicide bomb attacks in Brussels are unlikely to be the final operation mounted by the so-called Islamic State on European soil. France's President Hollande says Europe is now at war, so what are the most effective weapons at Europe's disposal? Dominic Grieve was the Attorney General in David Cameron's first term as British prime minister. He is now Chairman of the UK parliament’s Intelligence...

Can architecture inspire people to think and behave differently? Hardtalk speaks to David Adjaye, one of the most sought after architects in the world today. Among his many buildings are the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, a business school in Moscow, shopping centres in Beirut and Lagos, a children's hospital in Rwanda, a housing project in New York's Harlem, and about to open - his biggest project y...

Nationalist, anti-immigrant parties have made inroads in a host of countries in Europe, for example Hungary, Denmark and Finland. In Finland a right wing populist party, The Finns, is a significant player in a centre right coalition government. Stephen Sackur talks to Timo Soini, their leader and the nation's Foreign Minister. What happens to populists when they are faced with the compromises that...

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe has its roots in the cold war - it was a unique platform for dialogue between the West and the Soviet Bloc on matters of security and human rights. But that was then, what about now? Hardtalk speaks to Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the OSCE. In a new era of tension between Moscow and the West, how much use is his organisation? (Phot...

Journalism in Turkey is a precarious business. Earlier this month the country's biggest selling newspaper was forcibly taken over by the government, a host of journalists have been locked up for insulting the nation and its institutions, or for aiding terrorists. All this in a nation beset with diplomatic, security and humanitarian challenges. HARDtalk speaks to Sevgi Akarçeşme, who was editor of...

The fallout from the conflict in Syria is threatening to destabilise one of the Middle East's most delicate nations - Lebanon. It hosts around 1.3 million Syrian refugees, more per capita than any other country. This places huge pressure on its people and government, as well as adding more strain on its fragile sectarian mix. Hardtalk speaks to Elias Bou Saab, Lebanon's Education Minister. What is...

For more than five years the words Greece and crisis have been inseparable. The question is not what crisis, but which crisis. Greeks are simultaneously wrestling with the enormous burden posed by mass migration from Turkey, and the effort to secure a long term fix for their stricken, debt-laden economy. Hardtalk speaks to Greece’s Minister for Labour and Social Security George Katrougalos - is th...

The European Union and Turkey have drawn up the outline of a deal which might stem the flow of migrants from Turkey to the West. But it will require EU states to take large numbers of Syrian refugees directly from Turkey, in a show of collective European burden sharing which may be hard to deliver. Stephen Sackur speaks to Meglena Kuneva, Bulgaria's deputy prime minister. Her country shares a bord...

For a tiny Central American nation Panama packs quite an international punch - it has the Canal, a key asset to international shipping and it has a financial sector which specialises in parking the cash of people who want to keep their wealth from prying eyes. During the notorious regime of Manuel Noriega it also developed a reputation for dodgy governance but that was a generation ago. Stephen Sa...

120,000 migrants and refugees made the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece in the first two months of this year, outstripping the number for the first six months of last year. This happened despite an EU-Turkey deal to stem the flow of desperate people. Ankara feels overburdened and undervalued, while frustration with Turkey is mounting in Brussels, Washington, and Moscow. Selim Yenel is Turkey's E...

American politics currently has more unlikely story lines than anything you might see in New York’s Broadway theatre district. The rise of Donald Trump is one illustration of the depth of public frustration with politics as usual. Stephen Sackur talks to Anthony Weiner who was a rising star of the Democratic Party in New York. His career was destroyed by not one but two bizarre sex scandals. Why d...

Word leaders are all grappling with similar problems these days: how to counter terrorism, enhance security and manage national borders, whilst at the same time remaining open to the benefits of globalisation. Janet Napolitano was Homeland Security Chief for five years under President Obama. She's also a former governor of Arizona: a US border state. How does she think we can make the world a safe...

Last week all 28 leaders of the EU were holed up in buildings in Brussels for hours into the night, trying to strike a deal that would keep the United Kingdom in the European Union. The British people will have their say on what they came up with in a referendum in June. If they vote to leave the EU what will it mean, for the UK and for Europe more widely? Sarah Montague is in Brussels to talk to...

Stephen Sackur talks to General Michael Hayden, who was director of the CIA from 2006 to 2009 and prior to that Director of the US National Security Agency from 1999 to 2005. (Photo: General Michael Hayden, CIA director, 2006 - 2009. Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

From Brussels, Zeinab Badawi speaks to Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his first major interview since being elected leader of Greece’s main conservative opposition party, New Democracy. European Union leaders are demanding Greece do more to tackle the migrant crisis, and insist Athens pass tough economic reforms if it wants more bailout funds. Does the party he now leads share responsibility for the econo...

Does Poland’s recently elected conservative, nationalist Government represent a threat to European values of freedom and democracy? The European Commission is investigating that after controversial media and court reforms prompted critics to condemn the 'Putinisation of Poland'. Krzysztof Szczerski is the foreign policy adviser to the Polish president. How will a newly assertive Poland play its ha...