HARDtalk

Stephen Sackur speaks to Israel’s Ambassador at the UN Danny Danon. Israel is now fighting a multi-front war, intent on delivering its enemies in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran a series of crushing blows. But can force alone deliver Israel the security it craves?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Tamir Pardo, former director of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. He was appointed by Benjamin Netanyahu but now he’s a fierce critic of the Israeli Prime Minister. When he says the greatest threat to Israel’s future comes from within, what does he mean?

Allan Little speaks to Kim Aris, the son of the ousted civilian leader of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi. Now a political prisoner approaching the age of 80 and in declining health, what is her fate and that of the country she left her family to serve?

Mishal Husain speaks to Imaan Mazari-Hazir, a lawyer in Pakistan whose passion for human rights began early in her legal studies. She has become well known in her home country for defending people’s rights against the state – taking on difficult cases of abduction and forced disappearance, and speaking out against the country's powerful military. She has herself faced arrest, and now charges under anti-terror laws. Amid political and economic turmoil, is the rule of law in Pakistan in crisis?

Stephen Sackur speaks to the de-facto leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado. Two months after an election which she says delivered a humiliating defeat to the country's authoritarian leader President Nicolás Maduro, he’s clinging on to power and his regime is clamping down on dissent. Have hopes for change again been thwarted in Venezuela?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Lebanon’s economy minister, Amin Salam. His country is being bombed and the casualties are mounting as Israel attempts to destroy the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants entrenched in Lebanon. Is there an off ramp from the road to all-out war?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). For five decades she has led the campaign to end human exploitation and abuse of animals. From food to fashion, to testing in laboratories, are we humans really capable of going animal-free?

Mishal Husain speaks to Martin Griffiths, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs

Stephen Sackur is in Tuscany to speak to the world famous Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani. He changed the world of advertising with his provocative images of racial diversity, illness and death. His work combined glamour with a social conscience but did he sometimes go too far?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the UN’s refugee agency for Palestinians. This week, six UN relief agency staff were killed in an Israeli strike on a central Gaza school that had been turned into an emergency shelter for thousands. UNRWA’s death count in Gaza since the beginning of the war is over 220. Is his agency’s mission now impossible?

Following the death of James Earl Jones at the age of 93, another chance to listen to Stephen Sackur’s 2011 interview with the legendary American actor. Known for his deep, rich voice and as the voice of Star Wars’ villain Darth Vader, his was an extraordinary story from poverty and segregation in the Deep South to Hollywood. How hard was his journey?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Balázs Orbán, a Hungarian MP and advisor to his namesake, Prime Minister Victor Orbán. Hungary’s government is known for its anti-immigrant, anti-Brussels hardline nationalism. Is it a template for other far-right movements to follow?

Stephen Sackur speaks to a close ally and sometime confidant of Donald Trump, Republican Senator from South Carolina Lindsey Graham

Stephen Sackur speaks to the former deputy speaker of the Afghan parliament Fawzia Koofi. She was forced to flee into exile when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Women and girls in Afghanistan have since seen their rights eliminated. How should the world respond to what the UN calls ‘gender apartheid’?

Vladimir Putin talks of restoring greatness to what he calls the Russian world: an expanse of territory which, as Ukrainians know to their cost, stretches far beyond Russia’s current borders. Putin’s expansionist nationalism requires military power, but it’s harnessed the cultural and spiritual authority of the Russian Orthodox Church too. Stephen Sackur speaks to Andrey Kordochkin, who was a Russian Orthodox priest who spoke out against the Ukraine war and the "Putinisation" of the church. Is he swimming against an unstoppable tide?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza. His images of death, destruction and loss in Gaza went viral across the world. He left 108 days after Israel launched its military response to Hamas’s October 7th attack. What impact have his images had, on him, and us?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Latvia’s defence minister Andris Sprūds. He wants to ramp up military support for Ukraine, and he backs Kyiv’s dramatic push into Russian territory. But will divisions inside Nato and the EU leave Ukraine short of the backing it needs?

Stephen Sackur speaks to leading artificial intelligence researcher Neil Lawrence. He’s Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge and has a Senior AI Fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute. His new book – The Atomic Human – explores the transformational potential of artificial intelligence, while reflecting on the qualities of the human mind that cannot be replicated by even the most sophisticated machines. As more and more aspects of our lives are impacted by the rollout of machine learning, as control of big data and the development of algorithms to exploit it becomes a source of immense power in the 21st century, tech futurists are divided on whether we should embrace AI or fear it. In the end what will matter most isn’t the technology but the humans who develop and deploy it. Should we have faith in ourselves to get it right?

Stephen Sackur is in Rome to talk to Nicola Procaccini, an MEP and confidant of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. When her nationalist Brothers of Italy party took power, it sent shock waves through Europe. A couple of years on, how has hard-right rule changed Italy?

Stephen Sackur speaks to one of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Ministers, Olha Stefanishyna. Kyiv’s military offensive inside Russia has shifted the dynamic in what looked like a war of attrition tilting in Moscow’s favour. But does this dramatic gambit make strategic sense, or is it an act of desperation?