In-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities.
The UK economy is in a hole. Inflation is high, interest rates are rising, public debt is soaring and, according to the Bank of England, Britons face two years of recession. Stephen Sackur speaks to Gerard Lyons, an economist and sometime adviser to governing Conservative politicians. Can Britain’s economy bounce back, or is any optimism misplaced?
Stephen Sackur is in Helsinki for an exclusive interview with Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö. After decades of pragmatic coexistence with Moscow, Finland has made a big strategic decision: to join Nato, back Ukraine with weapons and reinforce their border with Russia. Are Finns ready for potential tension with their giant neighbour to the east?
Stephen Sackur speaks to General Ben Hodges, former commander of the US army in Europe. He claims a Ukrainian victory in the war with Russia is inevitable, maybe within months. But given Putin’s pledge to use all means necessary to prevail, how does victory happen?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Rafael Grossi, director general of the world’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. He’s been to Ukraine and has visited Putin in his continuing efforts to avert disaster at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant. Is the Ukraine war a lesson that nuclear power is never risk-free?
In an exclusive interview, Stephen Sackur is in Skopje to speak to North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski. His nation emerged out of the former Yugoslavia and is now in the queue for EU membership. But progress is slow. Could Brussels’s reluctance to embrace the Balkan candidate nations see this region sink back into dangerous instability?
Stephen Sackur speaks to the writer and anti-racism campaigner Matthew Collins. In his youth he was himself a far-right thug, but he changed sides and became an informer. Now he’s a leading activist in the battle against violent extremism. He's written a book - The Walk In - about his experiences. What is the best antidote to today’s peddlers of race hate? This edition of Hardtalk contains references to racist language.
Zeinab Badawi is in Taiwan to speak to Audrey Tang, the country's digital minister. The Taipei government says it stands for democracy in the face of increasing belligerence from China, which claims the self-governed island as part of its territory. Can Taiwan really forge its own path?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, an ardent supporter of Ukraine in a country facing an energy and economic crisis this winter. Vladimir Putin thinks Russia’s energy dominance can break Europe’s united stand against Moscow. Is he right?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko. His country’s energy and power infrastructure is being targeted by Russian rockets and kamikaze drones. As Putin doubles down on his escalation strategy, how vulnerable is Ukraine?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Dr Anthony Fauci, soon to retire as President Biden’s chief medical adviser. Under Trump, then Biden, Dr Fauci was at the forefront of America’s Covid response, which compares poorly with other rich world nations. What went wrong, and who’s to blame?
Lebanon is experiencing one of the most disastrous economic collapses of the last 100 years. The national economy is less than half the size it was just three years ago, while people are holding up banks in a desperate attempt to get their money out amid rampant inflation and a currency crisis. Stephen Sackur interviews Amin Salam, Minister of Economy and Trade for Lebanon. Politicians have failed the country for decades - will that change before the meltdown is complete?
Zeinab Badawi speaks to the award winning American journalist Maggie Haberman. She has published a book that chronicles the rise and fall of Donald Trump, and her revelations are creating sensational headlines in the US. What is the responsibility of a good journalist?
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Russian rock musician Boris Grebenshchikov, who last played in Russia the day before Putin invaded Ukraine. Now living in exile in London, BG (as he is known to his fans) risks prosecution if he returns to Russia for his anti-war comments. The role cultural icons have to play in the politics of protest is a well-trodden one. But do their voices have any impact inside Russia?
Stephen Sackur speaks to exiled Iranian women’s rights activist Masih Alinejad. The death in police custody of a young woman arrested for showing strands of her hair sparked protests across Iran, led by women, backed by many men. Could repression of women be the regime’s undoing?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Russian MP, Putin loyalist and influential state media commentator Evgeny Popov. Amid military reverses, mass mobilisation, and signs of internal dissent in Russia, is Putin’s Ukraine strategy doomed to fail?
For most of us, death and grief remain a private affair. An irreversible, life-altering shock when we lose someone close, for which there is no guide or preparation. Stephen Sackur interviews Reverend Richard Coles, a broadcaster and Church of England vicar, whose frank account of his own grief has struck a chord with many. Why did the death of his husband nearly break him?
Stephen Sackur speaks to the Ukrainian MP, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, who currently chairs the Ukrainian parliament’s EU Integration Committee. Kyiv’s battlefield gains have prompted Vladimir Putin to announce a partial mobilisation and ramp up his nuclear threats. What does this mean for Ukraine and for the support it relies on in the west?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Maria Pevchikh, investigations chief for Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which is now outlawed in Russia. With Vladimir Putin putting a tighter squeeze on Russian civil society and criticism of the war risking years in prison, where does Russia’s anti-Putin movement go from here?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's former foreign minister, who now serves as the country's ambassador to the UK. With the war in Russia becoming protracted and attritional, and with Putin putting an energy squeeze on Europe, can Kyiv count on the staying power of its allies?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Enrico Letta, leader of Italy’s centre-left Democratic Party. With a momentous General Election looming, can Italians be persuaded against embracing a coalition of the far right?
In a special edition of HARDtalk from the Ambrosetti Forum in Italy, Stephen Sackur speaks to long-time Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham. He is perhaps the most forceful and voluble defender of former President Donald Trump in Washington DC. The expectation is that Trump will run again for president and try to regain the White House in 2024. But with legal troubles piling up, Republicans must decide: Can they afford to remain the party of Trump?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Tova Friedman, one of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz. Never has it felt more important to remember the lessons of one of history’s greatest crimes, the Nazi genocide of the Jews. Europe is again witnessing a war of aggression, anti-Semitism is on the rise in many countries, and surveys of young people reveal alarming ignorance of the Holocaust. Now in her eighties, Tova Friedman has written a memoir and taken to social media to tell her story. Is the world listening...
Zeinab Badawi speaks to Dr Gwen Adshead, a forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist who has spent more than three decades trying to treat some of the UK’s most violent offenders. Why does she urge compassion and understanding for those who many brand as simply evil?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Pinchas Goldschmidt, who was chief rabbi of Moscow until he fled Russia after the Ukraine invasion and left his post. His fate has exposed the scale of wider Jewish flight from Russia, and divisions within the Jewish community. Why is this war deepening Jewish anxiety?
Stephen Sackur speaks to Olga Rudenko, chief editor of the Kyiv Independent - set up by Ukrainian journalists to hold their government to account. Is there room for independent journalism when Ukraine is in a fight for survival against Russian aggression?
Stephen Sackur speaks to the artist Sir Peter Blake, whose work came to define the freshness and optimism of the 1960s. Now aged 90, he is still painting. What keeps his creativity alive?
Stephen Sackur is in Riga to speak to the Prime Minister of Latvia, Krišjānis Kariņš. Latvia is now an established member of the EU and NATO, but Putin’s Ukraine invasion has revived fears of Russian expansionism. Three decades on from the collapse of the Soviet Union, is Latvia still vulnerable?
Humans face a series of interlinked existential challenges. How do we feed a global population heading towards ten billion? Can it be done without degrading ecosystems and exacerbating climate change to a calamitous extent? Stephen Sackur interviews writer and environmental activist George Monbiot, who has spent decades addressing these questions and framing radical answers. Why are so many politicians and voters seemingly unwilling to listen?
According to research in the US and the UK, roughly one in 100 may be transgender. But the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political battleground isn’t driven so much by the numbers but more by conflicting ideologies. Stephen Sackur asks author and journalist Shon Faye if all the attention on issues of sex, gender and identity is making it easier to be trans or not. This programme is subject to clarifications. In the interview with the transgender activist and writer S...
Stephen Sackur speaks to the former First Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh, now a leader of the resistance dedicated to overthrowing the Taliban. A year after the Islamists returned to power, Afghanistan is in the grip of repression and starvation. Is resistance a viable option?
