Hardtalk

It's impossible to predict Donald Trump's policy-making and diplomacy. He seeks neither consistency, nor consensus - as is obvious in his approach to China, North Korea, Iran and other challenges at home and abroad. Stephen Sackur speaks to Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida - a key Trump ally back in 2016, who has since parted company with the President on some of his most controversial policies. How effective and how sustainable is the Trump presidency?(Photo: US Senator Rick Scott speaks during Concordia Americas Summit, in Bogota, Colombia, 2019. Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters)

Doped for decades, East German athletes are still searching for truth and justice. When the infamous Berlin Wall was breached 30 years ago, the darkest secrets of the East German police state were soon exposed. Among them was the systematic, coercive administration of performance-enhancing drugs to thousands of young athletes. It was meant to make them into world beaters, regardless of any damage to their health. Stephen Sackur talks to the former East German sprinter Ines Geipel about the abuse she and others were subjected to in what is now known as the East German doping scandal.(Photo: Former East German sprinter Ines Geipel)

Sarah Montague speaks to actor and activist Michael Sheen. Known around the world for his film, television and theatre work, Michael Sheen made his name for his uncanny ability to portray other people, such as Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost. These roles catapulted him into a life far from his home in Port Talbot in South Wales. But it was acting that also brought him back there, where he is now immersed in tackling some of the problems that face a poor community: poverty, debt and homelessness. How does he straddle such contrasting worlds?(Photo: Michael Sheen attending the premiere of Good Omens at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London. Credit: PA MEDIA)

Brexit - not just an event, now a whole political movement. At the end of May, with its leader Nigel Farage at the helm, the Brexit Party swept the board in the European Parliament elections, demeaning the UK’s governing Conservative Party. Five years ago, the same triumph for Nigel Farage, albeit leading a party with a different name. Shaun Ley interviews Richard Tice, chairman of Mr Farage’s party and one of its MEPs. With many experts predicting a costly, bitter departure from the European Union, did the triumph of the Brexit Party bring the United Kingdom and its politics into discredit?Image: Richard Tice (Credit: Andy Rain/European Photopress Agency)

How dangerous is the superpower rivalry in technology and information? Currently there’s much focus on the tensions between the US and China over the Chinese tech giant Huawei. Soon 5G networks will be a critical part of our world in transportation, power supply, payment systems and so much more. Washington says the Chinese can’t be trusted because they may use their technology infrastructure for spying.  Beijing says this is nonsense. HARDtalk's Zeinab Badawi talks to the US top official on cyber information and security, Robert Strayer. He’s on a mission to dissuade Europeans from doing business with Huawei. But is Washington losing the cyberwar?Image: Robert Strayer (Credit: Shawn Thew/EPA)

How much responsibility should team Obama take for the course American politics has taken since they left centre-stage? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Valerie Jarrett, former advisor to President Obama. It is one of the great puzzles of American politics: how voters could make history by putting Barack Obama in the White House – twice – and then elect Donald Trump as his successor. Valerie Jarrett is a close friend and adviser to Barack and Michelle Obama from early days in Chicago, all the way through the White House years. How will historians view the Obama legacy?

Is Australia still a country wrestling with its identity? HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to Australian writer Thomas Keneally. He's the author of more than 30 novels including Schindler’s Ark, which won him the Booker Prize and was turned into an Oscar winning film. Much of his writing addresses the themes of culture and identity, and Australia’s modern and ancient heritage.

There is something special about the human heart. We live with, and by, its constant beat. We invest it with our deepest feelings. So naturally we reserve something like reverence for the surgeons who try to fix them when they are broken. Samer Nashef has chosen to write with honesty about the highs, lows and limitations of life and death surgery. He spoke to Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur at the Hay literary festival in Wales.

Political power inside the European Union is no longer going to be easily stitched up between the two big blocks of centre left and centre right. After last month’s European parliamentary election, Europe's Green party will wield significant influence in the next round of EU deal making. Hardtalk speaks to the Green candidate for Commission President, Dutch MEP Bas Eickhout, and asks him how much the Greens are prepared to compromise.Image: Bas Eickhout (Credit: Marcel van Hoorn/European Photopress Agency)

As Donald Trump and family revel in the pomp and circumstance of a state visit to London, his staunchest political opponents continue to plot a pathway to impeachment. Stephen Sackur interviews Tom Steyer, a Californian hedge fund billionaire turned deep-pocketed backer of liberal causes, who is funding much of that effort. His focus was climate change, now its impeachment. He’s a powerful force in the Democratic Party – but is he in danger of pushing the party in the wrong direction?Image: Tom Steyer (Credit: Stephen Lam/Reuters)

Hardtalk speaks to human rights activist Iyad El-Baghdadi. Six months after the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul three of Khashoggi’s friends and associates received warnings that their lives could be in danger. The original source was the CIA. One of those warned is Iyad El-Baghdadi, a long-time critic of Arab authoritarian regimes, who lives in political asylum in Norway using social media to challenge what he calls the Arab Tyrants. After the demise of the Arab Spring is his a lost cause ?

Jared Diamond’s hugely successful books draw on biology, geography, anthropology and more. So what’s his conclusion about the long term viability of homo sapiens?

In Kenya, hope and despair live side by side. There is economic growth, technological transformation and a youthful population hungry for opportunity. There is also grinding poverty, inequality and endemic corruption. HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to one of Kenya’s most popular musicians – Eric Wainaina. His music addresses issues like corruption but how political is he prepared to be?

Stephen Sackur talks to renowned Libyan writer Hisham Matar. His writing has explored the impact of having a father ‘disappeared’ by the Gaddafi regime. How hard is it to move on?Image: Hisham Matar in Rome in 2017 (Credit: Camilla Morandi - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Julie Hambleton, founder of Justice for the 21. In November 1974 the IRA bombed two pubs in Birmingham and murdered twenty one people. More than forty four years later the inquest into those deaths was reopened, attended by the families of the victims, including Julie Hambleton, who lost her sister Maxine. During the hearings one witness, a convicted former IRA man, named four alleged perpetrators; but justice in this terrible case has never been done. Is it now too late to get to the truth?Image: Julie Hambleton (Credit: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

The movement’s rhetoric is unbending, but do the Palestinian people long for new ideas? Stephen Sackur interviews Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for Hamas. The surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence in Gaza earlier this month was relatively short-lived, and the status-quo remains intact. But Hamas’s internal grip on Gaza is threatened by rising economic discontent and the Trump Administration will soon unveil a peace plan built on economic incentives for the Palestinian people. Could change be afoot?

How does the sporting notion of fairness cope with the complexities of gender identity? HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to former champion British swimmer turned sports commentator Sharron Davies. Elite level sport is ruthlessly competitive. The best male and female athletes push hard against their physical limits in the quest for marginal gains. But what happens when athletes change gender - in particular when individuals born biologically male transition to female after puberty. Should they be allowed to compete as women?

By the time Vladimir Putin’s current presidential term ends he will have dominated Russian politics for a quarter century and already there’s talk of manoeuvres to ensure his grip on power is maintained beyond 2024. He is surely the world’s greatest exponent of strong-man rule. Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of Russia's opposition Yabloko Party has spent the Putin years in thankless, fruitless opposition. Why has his brand of liberal economics and political reform failed to take root and provide a convincing alternative to Putin's cocktail of authoritarianism and nationalism?(Photo: Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of Russia's opposition Yabloko Party in the Hardtalk studio)

When we were kids many of us dreamed of being a professional footballer, a star of the world’s most popular game with adulation and riches on tap. For a tiny few the dream comes true, but then reality bites. Professional sport is a brutal business that can chew up young lives. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Tony Adams, former Arsenal and England footballer, who fought his own battles with addiction and mental illness and went on to help other top players do the same. Is elite sport honest about the vulnerability of its stars?Image: Tony Adams at the 2018 Edinburgh International Book Festival (Credit: Simone Padovani/Awakening/Getty Images)

Does the debate on trans rights pose a problem for the gay liberation movement? HARDtalk's Sarah Montague speaks to the CEO of Stonewall, Ruth Hunt. Stonewall was founded 30 years ago to campaign for gay and lesbian rights. When Ruth Hunt became its chief executive, she extended its work to include the transgender community. But many Stonewall members have been upset at the line the leadership has taken on gender recognition – that anyone can declare themselves to be male or female – and at their refusal to share a platform with anyone who disagrees.