The Interview

Hardtalk speaks to the activist and rapper Tef Poe. He's described the fatal shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of unarmed teenager Michael Brown as a "declaration of war" by the police. Tef Poe has stated that "my grandparents endured this type of treatment so we wouldn't have to". So if you are young, black and poor in America today are you at war with the police? This interview forms part of the BBC’s Richer World Season.(Photo: Tef Poe)

18 Feb 201523min

In a special edition of HARDtalk, Zeinab Badawi is in Brussels to speak to Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil. He has travelled to the city to tell EU officials that his country has been overwhelmed by Syrian refugees. More than one million Syrians live in Lebanon – many of them have fled the oppression and brutality of the Assad government. So why then does his political party have an alliance with Hezbollah that backs the Syrian President?(Photo: Gebran Bassil. Credit: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)

13 Feb 201523min

Pakistan's Intelligence Service has long been accused of looking both ways: of tackling terrorists when they target Pakistan but actively supporting them when they target Afghanistan or India. But when 152 people were killed in the school in Peshawar, Pakistan's Prime Minister said it was time to change. That the country would no longer distinguish between "good" and "bad" Taliban. Today's guest is General Asad Durrani, who used to run the intelligence service - Are they really prepared to make enemies of their former friends? And what difference will it make?

11 Feb 201523min

It's a year since the protests in Ukraine's Maidan Square - protests that led to the fall of the pro-Russian government. Russian-born Andrey Kurkov has published his diary of the time. He's one of the country's most famous authors and supported the uprising. But, although he lives in Ukraine, he writes in Russian and because of that he's been rejected by some as a Ukrainian writer and accused of being a traitor by Russians. Sarah Montague asks him what role do language and culture play in war? And was the uprising worth it?(Photo: Andrey Kurkov. Credit: Volodymyr Shuvayev/AFP/Getty Images)

9 Feb 201523min

Sarah Montague talks to Juan Mendez, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture. He was a human rights lawyer in Argentina in the 70s when he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured. He has said he owes his life to those in America who took a principled stand against torture. But now Juan Mendez says the world has become more accepting of cruelty and America has been compromised by its own brutal treatment of prisoners. So is torture ever morally justifiable?(Photo: Juan Mendez. Credit: Getty Images)

6 Feb 201523min

Should scientists working with governments and officials give opinions or just stick to giving scientific facts? Hardtalk speaks to the Scottish microbiologist Professor Anne Glover. She has just left her post as the first chief scientific adviser to the EU Commission President, and this is her first extensive broadcast interview since then. Whilst she was still in the post she said that in-house politics had hampered the efficiency of her role. Was she at loggerheads with the EU Commission?(Image: Science apparatus. Credit: Lixuyao/Thinkstock)

4 Feb 201523min

According to Oxfam, South Africa is the most economically unequal country in the World - the wealth of the two richest citizens outstrips that of the poorest 50% of the population. Twenty years after the end of apartheid, why is that so? As part of the BBC’s Richer World season Hardtalk speaks to Jay Naidoo, leader of the South African trade union movement during the liberation struggle and a cabinet minister under President Nelson Mandela. Why hasn’t freedom reduced inequality?(Photo: Members of the Alexandra Trampoline Club in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, South Africa. The township is next to the wealthy suburb of Sandton. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

30 Jan 201523min

Hardtalk speaks to the British Muslim campaigner Moazzam Begg. He was detained at Guantanamo Bay between 2003 and 2005, and then last February he was held for seven months in a British prison. In October all terrorism-related charges against him were dropped and he walked free. He believes that current counter-terrorism measures are fuelling the very problems they are trying to tackle and are alienating and radicalising some Muslims. So how should Muslim communities work with the authorities to prevent the extremists carrying out attacks?(Photo: Moazzam Begg. Credit: Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

28 Jan 201523min