Hardtalk

After the British Labour Party suffered a crushing election defeat a year ago, the shell-shocked party took a dramatic turn to the left. New leader Jeremy Corbyn presented himself as the anti-austerity, anti-war antithesis of Tony Blair's new Labour. So, how is the Corbyn formula working? HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to Labour stalwart, shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn and asks, does Labour present a credible alternative to the Cameron government?

Germany is indisputably the most powerful nation in Europe, but does it have the will and the means to prevent the EU being undermined by division and fragmentation? The migration crisis and the Greek debt disaster have posed challenges that Angela Merkel has struggled to overcome. Stephen Sackur speaks to Norbert Röttgen, senior figure in the Christian Democratic party and chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the German parliament. Can German leadership rescue the European project?

Stephen Sackur talks to Vladimir Milov, founder and leader of the Democratic Choice movement. There are few more thankless tasks in world politics than being an opposition leader in Russia. Vladimir Putin's approval ratings continue to defy gravity, even in the teeth of a prolonged economic recession. Kremlin opponents are starved of media airtime, routinely harrassed and often locked up, or worse. Maybe democracy isn't a Russian priority?

South Africa's president Jacob Zuma is on the ropes. In recent months he's been dealt blow after blow - by the courts, by political opponents, even by erstwhile friends. Only the knee-jerk loyalty of the ANC has saved him from impeachment and disgrace. HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to South Africa's trade and industry minister Rob Davies and asks: if the president won’t jump, does he need to be pushed, for the good of the country?Image: Rob Davies Minister of Trade and Industry, Credit: Michelly Rall/Getty Images

In recent years there has been plenty of often heated debate about the relationship between Islam and extremism. Much of the fiercest commentary has come from outside the faith, but increasingly there are calls for change from within the Muslim community. Hardtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to one of the most controversial voices in that internal debate. Raheel Raza is a Pakistani born Canadian human rights activist who co-founded the Muslim Reform Movement. How many Muslims are ready to talk her language?

Yet again Pakistan stands accused of playing a double game on terrorism; confronting it at home, while using it as a foreign policy tool in neighbouring Afghanistan and India. After a deadly Taliban attack in Kabul just days ago the Afghan president demanded that Islamabad stop talking of peace negotiations and instead focus on eliminating Taliban havens inside Pakistan. HARDtalk's Stephen Sackur speaks to former Pakistani foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar and asks, is Pakistan addicted to the double game?

It is now all but certain that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic Party candidate in November’s US presidential election. After the latest batch of primaries, her lead over Bernie Sanders is insurmountable. But even now the Sanders campaign - radical, anti-establishment and crowdfunded - refuses to admit defeat. Hardtalk talks to Robert Reich, formerly Secretary of Labor in Bill Clinton’s administration, now a prominent supporter of Senator Sanders. Has the centre of gravity in the Democratic Party shifted?(Photo: Professor Robert Reich, speaking from Berkeley, California via video link)

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 as immutable? Is our racial identity something we can define for ourselves?(Photo: Rachel Dolezal in the Hardtalk studio)

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 success be treated with suspicion?

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 talks to Tim Martin, founder and chairman of the pub chain JD Wetherspoon. Could Brexit make economic sense?(Photo: Tim Martin in the Hardtalk studio)

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 progressive insugent. Congreswoman Donna Edwards from Maryland is a powerful voice on the left of the Party. She's running for a seat in the Senate. But is America ready for genuinely left-wing politics?

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 avant-garde art sensibility. Today John Cale continues to experiment with new sounds. To many, his music is challenging, even bleak, but is that a reflection of the man himself?

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 whether the technology he so loves is killing the music makers?

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 and security committee. Can Europe be both secure and free?(Photo: Dominic Grieve, MP)

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 yet - the National Museum of African American History and Culture sitting right on the National Mall in Washington. Has he got it right? What is the test of a good building?(Photo: David Adjaye attends Design Dialogues No. 25 in Miami Beach, Florida. Credit: Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images)

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 come with sharing power?(Photo: Finland's Foreign Minister Timo Soini. Credit: Mark Graham/AFP)

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?(Photo: OSCE Secretary General, Lamberto Zannier delivers a speech during the OSCE-meeting, 2016, Vienna, Austria. Credit: Herbert Neubauer/AFP/Getty Images)