Hardtalk

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to, Boris Titov, leader of Russia’s Party of Growth. Seven candidates are challenging Vladimir Putin in this month's Russian presidential election; but none of them has much hope of victory. One of the seven 'other' candidates - Boris Titov - is a Putin appointee as government ombudsman for business. Does Russia need reform rather than authoritarianism?Image: Boris Titov (Credit: BBC)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Ahmad Tibi. He is a veteran Arab Israeli MP and one time adviser to Yasser Arafat. President Donald Trump claimed he could broker the deal of the century between Israel and the Palestinian. Instead he seems to have entrenched the hostility after recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Is the Arab-Israeli experience a sign that the status quo is the only viable response to the conflict between Jews and Arabs?(Photo: Ahmad al-Tibi, speaks to the media at a Jerusalem district court in Jerusalem. Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

In September 1957 nine African American students, including Elizabeth Eckford, entered the all white Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas, thereby breaking for the first time the racial segregation barrier in US schools. They became known as the Little Rock Nine. Two years earlier the US Supreme Court had ruled segregation in schools to be unconstitutional. The first time Elizabeth Eckford tried to enter Little Rock Central High she was turned away and the image of her surrounded by a hostile crowd of local white people is one of the most famous photographs of the American civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 60s. Later in September 1957 Elizabeth and her fellow group of African American students were finally able to enter the school. But their troubles didn't stop there. The Little Rock Nine were regularly abused and shunned by white students and for Elizabeth Eckford her time at the school led to suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. HARDtalk is at her familyhome in Little Rock from where

It is ten years since Kosovo became Europe’s newest nation. It has not been an easy decade. Relations with neighbouring Serbia remain hostile and international recognition has been patchy with Kosovo is still struggling to get on top of endemic poverty and corruption. Stephen Sackur speaks to Ramush Haradinaj – Kosovo’s Prime Minister. Can Kosovo escape its troubled history?Image: Ramush Haradinaj (Credit: BBC)

The HARDtalk programme, like so many others in the churn of 24/7 news tends to focus on people and places facing problems and challenges. More often than not we hold the powerful to account for things that went wrong, not right. Are we missing the bigger picture about the world we live in? Stephen Sackur speaks to the psychologist and writer, Steven Pinker. His new book, Enlightenment Now, is a paean to human progress driven by reason and science. How convincing are his reasons to be cheerful?(Photo: Psychologist and writer Steven Pinker)

Who or what can deliver South Sudan's people from despair? Its first six and half years as an independent country have been an unmitigated disaster. A brutal civil conflict, a broken economy, famine and epic levels of corruption - on any and every measure the world’s newest country is failing. This comes despite some of the largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa. HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to South Sudan's Minister of Petroleum, Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth.Image: Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth (Credit: BBC)

Gross misconduct and sexual exploitation in the humanitarian aid industry - what's gone wrong and why? Oxfam is at the centre of a storm of allegations of abusive behaviour, shoddy recruitment and management cover up. Now the entire aid sector is under scrutiny for safeguarding failures which appear to go back decades. Stephen Sackur speaks to Amira Malik Miller, an experienced aid worker who has witnessed misconduct and is prepared to speak out.Image: Amira Malik Miller (Credit: BBC)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition deal with the Social Democrats looks fragile, with Germany's biggest opposition party now the right wing Alternative for Germany Party. Peter Boehringer is an AfD MP and newly elected chairman of the influential Parliamentary Budget Committee. How will the AfD seek to use its expanded influence?(Photo: Peter Boehringer, member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, poses for a portrait in Berlin. Credit: Reuters)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to David Smolansky, anti-regime activist who was the mayor of a district in Caracas until he fled the country to escape a jail term for aiding last year’s street protests. There was a time last year when it seemed President Maduro's grip on power in Venezuela was loosening. Yet here we are two months away from a presidential election with Maduro oozing confidence and his opponents seemingly in disarray. Why does Venezuela's opposition so consistently promise more than it delivers?

The Israeli Defence Force sees itself as an institution that binds the nation together. Most young Israelis serve in its ranks after leaving school. It claims to combine defence of the state with a sense of moral purpose. Avner Gvaryahu served in the IDF but he sees an institution in denial – corroded and corrupted by the military occupation of Palestinian communities over a fifty year span. Avner Gvaryahu and like-minded soldiers turned dissidents say they are breaking the silence. Are they patriots or traitors?Image: Avner Gvaryahu (Credit: BBC)

Is the long-time friend and sometimes adviser to President Trump a symbol of all that is currently wrong in US politics? They say you can judge a man by the company he keeps. If that is true, Roger Stone - a hugely controversial and divisive figure in American conservatism - should provide telling insights into the character of the president.(Photo: Roger Stone at Politicon at Pasadena Convention Center. Credit: Joshua Blanchard/Getty Images)

The Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Mehmet Simsek, talks about Turkey's recent military operation in the north western Syria enclave of Afrin. How long will the operation last and does it risk increasing tensions with the United States who are helping Kurdish fighters in Syria?(Photo: Mehmet Simsek on Hardtalk)

HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to Raphael Tuju, Secretary General of Kenya’s ruling Jubilee Party. Has the Kenyan government over-reacted to the self-inauguration of the opposition leader Raila Odinga as the so-called “People’s President”?Image: Raphael Tuju (Credit: BBC)

When it comes to politics, Kenya has a history of disputed and often violent elections. In this exclusive interview, Zeinab Badawi speaks to the opposition leader Raila Odinga: he claims he and not Uhuru Kenyatta is President and he's had himself self-inaugurated as the people's president at the end of January. It's been slammed as a treasonous act by the Kenyan authorities and rejected by the world. Given Kenya's volatile electoral history, is Raila Odinga not acting illegally, irresponsibly and trying to stir up violence?Image: Raila Odinga (Credit: European Photopress Agency)

Argentina is stepping up efforts to re-engage with the world, especially through its presidency of the G20. It says wants better relations with the United States after years of poor relations. Zeinab Badawi speaks to the Argentine Foreign Minister at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Just six months into the job, what is his assessment of ties with the Trump administration which has been unsettling its neighbours in Latin America.Image: Jorge Faurie (Credit: Reuters)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Lord Neuberger who was until last year President of the UK Supreme Court. Britain prides itself on its system of justice. Centuries of common law, a proudly independent judiciary and a reputation for fair dealing has made it an international centre for dispute arbitration. But are the cracks starting to show in a system steeped in tradition ? Does the British judicial system need a 21st century reboot?(Photo: Lord Neuberger on Hardtalk)

Zeinab Badawi speaks to the actor Shah Rukh Khan. He has been given an award for his philanthropic work advancing women’s rights. How far is he using his voice to do that ?(Photo: Indian Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan poses during a press interaction, 2015. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Currently deputy president of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa could become president very soon if Jacob Zuma heeds calls to step down. But is this ANC stalwart and wealthy businessman the right person to create a new South Africa from a country mired in cronyism and corruption allegations? In his first interview with the BBC since he became leader of South Africa’s ruling ANC in December, Cyril Ramaphosa talks to Zeinab Badawi for Hardtalk. (Photo: Deputy President of South Africa, and newly elected African National Congress (ANC) President, Cyril Ramaphosa at Pre-World Economic Forum (WEF) Breakfast, 2018. Credit: Gulshan Khan/Getty Images)

Is it futile to try and resist Brexit? Hardtalk's Sarah Montague speaks to one of the big beasts of British politics. Known as the Father of the House because he is the longest serving member of the UK’s House of Commons, he has also held more cabinet posts than any other living British politician. And yet Ken Clarke says we are now in "the maddest situation" of his lifetime and talks of the political system being "broken". It's one of the reasons he couldn't quite bring himself to retire at the last election, staying on to fight against Brexit and for the Conservative Party. Is it a fight he can win?Image: Ken Clarke, Credit: Getty Images

Living with death threats for daring to speak out against Islamist jihadist violence. The former Charlie Hebdo journalist and French-Moroccan writer Zineb El Rhazoui knows the risks can be a matter of life and death. She was working for the satirical magazine when 12 people were murdered in the Paris office in 2015. She happened to be on holiday. Subjected to a multitude of death threats because of her determination to speak out against what she sees as the malign and dangerous influence of Islam, she now lives life under police protection. El Rhazoui has since written a book on what she calls Islamic fascism. She tells Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur that she feels like she's fighting a war.(Photo: French-Maroccan journalist Zineb El Rhazoui, a former columnist at French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Credit: Joel Saget/AFP)