Hardtalk

Sarah Montague speaks to Sir John Tavener, one of Britain's most celebrated composers. He says his music is for God - even referring to it as a form of divine dictation. Forty years ago, his work was sometimes dismissed as bland, populist, new age. But over time he has defied the critics - the Protecting Veil was one of the biggest selling classical albums ever, and his Song for Athene was played at the funeral of Princess Diana. Having been ill for much of his life, he says that everything changed after he nearly died from a heart attack six years ago. How did this experience affect his view of life, his music, and his faith?(Image:Sir John Tavener (left) and Simon Russell Beale. Credit: BBC)

Alaska, a land of pristine wilderness, sparse population and unimaginable resource riches. It is also the corner of our planet which is experiencing the most dramatic effects of climate change. The carbon economy which made Alaska rich now threatens its delicate ecosystem, presenting the US with a challenge. In the second of two programmes, Stephen Sackur explores whether the world’s second largest carbon emitter is getting serious about climate change.(Image: A sea otter sits on a chunk of ice near Whittier, Alaska. Credit: AFP)

Hardtalk is on the road in Alaska. In the first of two programmes, Stephen Sackur visits the Bristol Bay region of south-west Alaska where the fishing industry, the mining industry and the federal government are locked in a bitter argument over environmental sustainability and resource exploitation. Every year 40 million salmon swim into Bristol Bay before beginning their journey up the rivers and streams of the region. It is one of the world’s great fisheries. However 120 miles inland there is a plan to build North American’s largest copper mine. Can the two forms of resource exploitation co-exist?

Opera is one of the least watched art forms in the world, and possibly the most expensive. Hardtalk speaks to opera superstar Thomas Hampson. He says the way to get people to love opera is to get them to understand it, and then it has the power to transform. If he is right, could one of the most elite and expensive art forms have worldwide appeal?

Rivers State is at the heart of Nigeria’s oil industry, which produces 20% of the country's wealth. Yet more than one billion dollars a month is being lost to thieves who syphon it off from remote pipelines. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi is Governor of Rivers State, a key figure in addressing the problem. But he's locked in a highly public dispute with the president, Goodluck Jonathan. Their supporters have had to be separated by the police, and the power struggle has prevented the state assembly from meeting since May. Isn't it time he focused on the day job?Picture: Children sail past an oil pipeline in Rivers State, Nigeria, Credit: Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP/Getty Images

Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said he wanted to rehabilitate Iraq’s image after the fall of Saddam Hussein. But now sectarian violence in Iraq is arguably worse than ever and is overlapping with sectarianism in neighbouring Syria. The Shia-led government in Baghdad is accused of discriminating against the Sunni minority and of being too close to Iran. How can Hoshyar Zebari, himself an Iraqi Kurd, hope to have any coherent foreign policy, when his own country is in danger of slipping into civil war?

Britain's Labour Party was created from the trade unions and it still gets most of its money from them. But Labour’s leader Ed Miliband - a man who owes his job to the union vote - now wants to loosen those ties. Hardtalk speaks to Paul Kenny, the leader of one of the UK's biggest unions, the GMB. He says Labour is in danger of losing 90% of his union's funding. So what would a change mean for the Labour Party, the unions and working class representation in Britain?Photo: Paul Kenny (right) Credit: Getty Images

Albania is the single most corrupt country in Europe according to Transparency International. Hardtalk speaks to Edi Rama, who will become Albania's prime minister in September. A modern artist, he won international plaudits for transforming the capital Tirana when he was its mayor - not least by painting its grey buildings in bright colours. He's now promised a renaissance for the whole country. So can he succeed where previous politicians have failed?(Photo: Edi Rama. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

David Davis has been a candidate for the leadership of the British Conservative party but he has also made a name for himself as a civil liberties campaigner - arguing against what is sometimes called the 'surveillance state'. So what does he make of the massive collection of data by the US National Security Agency and Britain’s GCHQ revealed by the American whistle-blower, Edward Snowden? In the years since the 9/11 attacks - have we got the balance wrong between liberty and security?(Image: David Davis, Conservative MP at the 2005 Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool. Credit: Associated Press)

Zhang Xin is one of only 24 self-made female billionaires in the world. Her story is a true rags-to-riches tale. As a teenager she worked in a sweat-shop in her native China, by her twenties she worked for Goldman Sachs. Disillusioned by Wall Street, she returned to China to make her fortune in property development. But what kind of China did she return to - a country heading for economic problems or possibly an emerging democracy as well as an emerging super-power?(Image: Pan Shiyi (L), chairman of Soho China, and Zhang Xin, chief executive officer of Soho China. Credit: Getty Images)

A year ago the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's creed looked like a winning political formula. Now the Islamists have been removed from power by the army and millions of Egyptians see that as a cause for celebration. Meanwhile, Turkey's moderate Islamist rulers have faced unprecedented mass protests - and in Tunisia political Islam is on the defensive. Stephen Sackur speaks to Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol and Egyptian feminist and political activist Dina Wahba. Is political Islam failing, if so why?

Nikos Dendias, Greece’s minister for public order believes Greece has become the new gateway to Europe, receiving 90% of all illegal immigrants to the EU. He also says the Greek immigration problem may prove even greater than the financial one. How have the years of austerity impacted on Greek society and law and order?(Image: Greek minister of public order and citizen protection, Nikolaos Dendias. Credit: Associated Press)

Afghanistan is a country that has huge natural resources. It is also one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Hardtalk is in Kabul to talk to Afghanistan’s finance minister Dr Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal. He has publically accused fellow MPs of corruption, and has had to defend himself against similar charges. There is money to be made in Afghanistan, but will the people who live there see any of it?(Image: Afghan Finance Minister Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal (R) and Japan's Ambassador to Kabul, Reiichiro Takahashi (L). Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

International Forces are pulling out of Afghanistan. By the end of next year they will be gone completely. HARDtalk is in Afghanistan to speak to the head of the Afghan National Army, Sher Mohammad Karimi. He and his troops now have the task of keeping the country safe from attacks. Does he think his men are up to the job?(Image: General Sher Mohammad Karimi, head of the Afghan National Army. Credit: MoD/Crown copyright)

Tony Iommi’s band is topping the charts again after 43 years. Black Sabbath are better known for the antics of on/off lead singer Ozzy Osborne than the skills of its guitarist. But Iommi is one of the original members of the band and has always remained with the band. Despite missing finger tips that can make playing painful, a rock'n'roll lifestyle lived to the full, and now cancer, the 'king of the heavy riff' is still recording and touring around his treatment. Shaun Ley asks, what keeps him playing?(Image: Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath announcing their first new album in 33 years. Credit: Getty Images)

Since the end of apartheid almost 20 years ago South Africa's constitution has become one of the most admired in the world - progressive, transformative, guaranteeing equality and human rights. But despite the great strides the country has made the reality is failing to live up to the promise. The legal system which guarantees the constitution has itself come under fire -- from within the government, from the opposition, and from some human rights groups. The buck stops with South Africa's Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng.(Image: South African President Jacob Zuma (left) poses with new Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

Sergei Guriev is one of modern Russia's best and brightest economists. Well connected to the new Russian political elite, Guriev was a strong voice for economic liberalisation and is a Russian patriot. So why, earlier this year, did he choose - as so many talented Russians have in the past - to go into exile? And what does Guriev's extraordinary story tell us about the true face of Vladimir Putin's Russia?(Image: Sergei Guriev (left) attends a meeting with premier Dmitry Medvedev (right) in Moscow. Credit: Associated Press)

Tim Franks speaks to Michael Sandel, a philosopher with the global profile of a rock star. His argument that markets are increasingly entering all parts of life and are becoming more and more destructive, has won him a worldwide following. But are commercial interests and financial incentives really that much more intrusive these days? If so, how do you draw up the rules for the moral limits of markets?

Following the response to the anti-government demonstrations, critics at home and abroad are pointing to an increasingly authoritarian style of political leadership in Turkey. Why have protests erupted across the country like never before under the ruling AK party? And did the initial crackdown by the security forces actually strengthen the protesters? Zeinab Badawi is in Ankara to speak to Turkey’s finance minister, Mehmet Simsek.(Image: Mehmet Simsek, Credit: Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images)

More than a thousand people were killed in violence in Iraq last month according to the United Nations. The country appears to be dividing along religious lines, not helped by its neighbour Syria's descent into civil war. Sarah Montague talks to Ayad Allawi, the country's first Prime Minister after Saddam Hussein. He has accused the current Prime Minister, Nouri Al Maliki, of turning into a dictator. So what hope is there now for keeping the peace in Iraq?(Image: Ayad Allawi, former prime minister of Iraq. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)