Hardtalk

It's 25 years since the Tianamen Square Massacre in Beijing that saw hundreds killed and many more detained. One award-winning British-Chinese writer and film-maker Xiaolu Guo was a teenager at the time. Decades earlier during the Cultural Revolution her fisherman father had spent more than ten years in correctional labour camps for painting a picture that had angered the authorities. What should the role of the artist or writer be in China today?

Do Christians have a future in the Arab world? It's a question raised with a new sense of urgency as an extraordinarily violent brand of jihadi extremism sweeps through Syria and Iraq. Tens of thousands of Christians, along with other minorities, have been forced from their homes, hundreds murdered. Right across the region Christians are fearful. Hardtalk speaks to Bishop Angaelos of the Egyptian Coptic Church about what can be done to protect the Arab Christian tradition.

American warplanes are once again attacking targets in Iraq, ordered into action by a President who made it his business to end US military involvement in the country. To his critics it's one more piece of evidence pointing to an incoherence of Barack Obama's strategy in a region becoming ever more unstable and dangerous. Hardtalk speaks to Ali Khedery, a former adviser to a number of US ambassadors in Baghdad.

With a ceasefire now in place in Gaza, the Israeli government faces a simple question: what exactly did Operation Protective Edge achieve? For all the death and destruction in Gaza, has Israel's position been strengthened or weakened? Stephen Sackur speaks to Israel's Minister of Intelligence, Yuval Steinitz. Does Israel need a strategic rethink?Picture: Yuval Steinitz talks to Stephen Sackur, Credit: BBC

Afghanistan's presidential election was supposed to mark the country's progress, instead it threatens to inflict new wounds. The long drawn out process appeared to deliver a second round victory to Ashraf Ghani; but his rival Abdullah Abdullah alleged massive fraud and the vote count is under review. The Americans are urging the two rivals to share power. Is Abdullah Abdullah currently acting in Afghanistan’s interest, or his own?Picture: Abdullah Abdullah, Credit: BBC

The Hamas/Israeli ceasefire in Gaza has allowed Palestinians time to assess the cost of the Israeli offensive both in human lives and damage to buildings and facilities. Hardtalk speaks to Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor just back from Gaza where he works as a volunteer at the main Al-Shifa Hospital. He is also an outspoken political activist on behalf of the Palestinian cause. Does this interfere with his work as a medic and humanitarian?

The United Nations has declared its highest level of emergency in Iraq as a humanitarian crisis follows the rapid advance of Islamic State militants. There have been eye-witness accounts of people beheaded, of whole families buried alive, and there are an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis internally displaced. Hardtalk speaks to Masrour Barzani head of intelligence and security in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region. Is it the Kurds who can rescue the state of Iraq and how much outside help do they need to defeat the jihadists of the so called Islamic State?Picture: Masrour Barzani, Credit: BBC

In August 1914, 100 years ago, the five great powers of Europe declared war on one another. For countries like Britain, Germany and France the significance of World War One is regularly debated and commemorated. But what of that other great power, Russia? It also fought against Germany, but by the end of the war Tsar Nicholas II and his family had been murdered and the Bolshevik Revolution had brought Lenin to power. How far does what was happening in Russia then, help explain what is going on today? Zeinab Badawi talks to the renowned Russian theatre and film director Andrei Konchalovsky.Image: Andrei Konchalovsky. Credit: Getty

NATO is 65 years old – does it lack the vigour, resources and political will to be an effective military force on the world stage at a time when conflicts across continents in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and West Africa present ever greater dangers to global security? Hardtalk speaks to NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Can NATO make the world a safer place and, if not, is it time the alliance went into retirement?Picture: Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Credit: Clemens Bilan/AFP/Getty Images

Hardtalk is in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina, to mark the centenary of the start of World War One. Stephen Sackur talks to Karl von Habsburg - the grandson of the last Habsburg Emperor. It was the assassination of his great uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 that set in motion the Great War. Are similar tensions once again on the rise in Europe?

Hardtalk is on location in Chisinau, capital of Moldova where the stage is set for another tug of war between Russia and the European Union. With the backing of the majority Romanian speaking population, Moldova’s government is vigorously pursuing membership of the European Union, despite strong objections from the country’s Russian speaking minority. Stephen Sackur asks Iurie Leanca, Prime Minister of Moldova, if his country can avoid the fate of neighbouring Ukraine?

Hardtalk speaks to the acclaimed Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo who has arguably done more than any other writer to depict and celebrate the condition of women in Africa, in books such as The Dilemma of a Ghost, and Changes. She is opposed to what she has described as a 'Western perception that the African female is a downtrodden wretch'. But when you look around the African continent today - girls abducted in Nigeria, polygamy reintroduced in Kenya, child marriages and the prevalence of gender based violence, how much is there really to celebrate about being female in Africa?(Photo: Ama Ata Aidoo)

Israel says its current campaign in Gaza is in response to rocket strikes from Hamas militants and is aimed at destroying illicit tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle arms. In more than two weeks of conflict around 600 Palestinians - mostly civilians - have been killed and nearly 4000 wounded. The UN Human Rights Commissioner says Israel may have committed war crimes. About 30 Israelis have died - nearly all of them soldiers. Hardtalk speaks to Danny Danon a member of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. He was dismissed as deputy defence minister earlier this month for accusing the Prime Minister of being too weak in his Gaza campaign. How does he justify the high Palestinian death toll?(Photo: Danny Danon, Former Deputy Defence Minister, Israel)

A few months ago international attention was fixed on the remote forests of north-eastern Nigeria - believed to be where 200 kidnapped schoolgirls were being held by Boko Haram militants. The girls have now been missing for 100 days, Boko Haram's terror campaign continues, but the media focus has shifted elsewhere. Hardtalk speaks to Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former Nigerian minister and one of the leaders of the Bring Back our Girls campaign. Has their country failed these girls and their families?(Photo: Obiageli Ezekwesili addresses a sit-in demonstration organized by Abuja's Bring Back Our Girls. Credit: Reuters)

Hardtalk is in the heart of the English countryside, a habitat that is rich in wildlife but for how much longer? The impact of human beings here, as in so much of the world, is putting enormous pressure on natural ecosystems. Stephen Sackur speaks to Chris Packham, one of Britain’s best known naturalists and campaigners for wildlife protection. Is it time to radically rethink man’s relationship with the natural world?(Photo: Chris Packham)

Just a handful of countries allow assisted dying or euthanasia or both - most notably Switzerland and the Netherlands. It is a difficult and contentious area for policymakers. This week in the UK, the highly controversial Assisted Dying Bill has its second reading in parliament. Hardtalk speaks to Labour peer and former Attorney-General Lord Falconer, who has introduced the bill, and asks how he defends the right to die in the face of staunch opposition from the medical establishment, politicians and religious leaders?(Photo: Labour peer and former Attorney-General Lord Falconer. Credit: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

Just occasionally a big idea makes waves across the world. Hardtalk speaks to French economist Thomas Piketty whose book Capital in the 21st Century, has become an unlikely international bestseller. His thesis carries echoes of Karl Marx - modern capitalism, he believes, works in favour of entrenched wealth and exacerbates inequality. His research and conclusions have come under intense fire - has Thomas Piketty emerged unscathed?

The European Parliament are selecting a new set of officials including the key post of commission president. The choice of EU insider Jean-Claude Juncker has led to a bitter and public row between the UK and other member states. How far has this damaged the reputation of the EU and what does it tell us about the future direction of the European Union? Hardtalk speaks to one of the EU's most experienced politicians, Sweden's Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt.Picture: Carl Bildt, Credit: Marko Mumm/AFP/Getty Images

The kidnap and murder of four teenagers - three Israeli and then one Palestinian - has triggered protests and violent clashes in both Israel and the Occupied Territories and unleashed the heaviest rocket fire between Israel and Hamas for nearly two years. Israel blames Hamas for the abduction and killings of the Israelis. The tensions flared over the past week after the bodies of the Israeli boys were found on the West Bank. Two days later a 16-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammed Abu Khdair was killed in Jerusalem. Jewish suspects have been arrested for his murder. This latest crisis has exposed the abyss between the two communities - could it escalate into a wider conflict? Hardtalk speaks to Dore Gold - adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.(Photo: Dore Gold, Adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Most of us probably don't associate local government with racing pulses and grave danger. But few local government jobs are like the Mayor of Mogadishu's. Hardtalk speaks to Mohamoud Nur who had that post for more than three years, trying to improve life in one of the most violent, most corrupt, most rundown capital cities in the world. So what persuaded him to leave home life in London to take up the post? And, with the benefit of distance now, what hope does he hold out for Somalia?(Photo: Mohamoud Nur)