The Interview

Stephen Sackur speaks to Akram Khan - globally renowned as one of the great contemporary dancers and choreographers. In every culture on earth dance is a physical, joyful form of expression and communication. It is, in a way, the world's most basic common language. Khan epitomises the ability of dance to cross borders of time and space - he is British by birth, Bangladeshi by family heritage. His performances weave together influences from East and West, past and present. How would he define his dance?

(Photo: Akram Khan (R) and Tamara Rojo (L) perform during a dress rehearsal of English National Ballet's Lest We Forget, 2014. Credit: Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Taken hostage in Syria and held by the Nusra Front, which is allied to al-Qaeda, American journalist Theo Padnos was beaten and abused for nearly two years. He says the most bitter moment of his captivity was the realisation that it was he himself who was mostly responsible for his ordeal.

(Photo: Theo Padnos in the Hardtalk studio)

Zeinab Badawi speaks to, Angelina Teny, from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in-Opposition. The people of South Sudan have known little peace for many decades and independence in 2011 has brought them nothing but war, increasing poverty, starvation and suffering. The UN says the current spate of fighting amounts to ethnic cleansing and could spiral into genocide. The main rebel group is headed by former Vice-President Riek Machar, who is now in exile. His wife Angelina Teny is a senior member of the movement. How much responsibility do they bear for the suffering?

(Photo: Angelina Teny in the Hardtalk studio)

We are about to see what kind of impact Donald Trump's presidency will have on the US and the world beyond. From big power diplomacy with Russia and China, to global trade and climate policy, how different and unpredictable is Trump going to be?

(Photo: President for Council on Foreign Relations Richard Hass, 2015. Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Zeinab Badawi speaks to psychologist Jan Kizilhan who has helped bring over a thousand Yazidi females from camps in Iraq to Germany to start a new life. The so-called Islamic State may be coming under pressure in both Syria and Iraq but still accounts emerge of atrocities carried out by them. The minority Yazidi community has been amongst one of the most persecuted groups of people; living mostly in northern Iraq, they have been killed, forced to convert to Islam and the women and girls have been held in sexual slavery. How does he decide who should stay and who should go?

(Photo: Psychologist Jan Kizilhan, 2016. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)

Stephen Sackur speaks to Bassma Kodmani, member of the negotiating team of the Syrian opposition. After six years of terrible bloodshed could 2017 dramatically shift the dynamic of the Syria conflict? Change is certainly in the air. Aleppo has fallen to the Assad regime and a ceasefire deal brokered by Russia and Turkey is just about holding. Moscow's dominant role in the diplomatic endgame is now undisputed, with Ankara also playing a pivotal role. Is it time for the moderate rebels to accept their de facto defeat?

Stephen Sackur speaks to General Sir Richard Barrons who led the UK’s Joint Forces Command and fought in wars from the Balkans to the Middle East and Afghanistan. How vulnerable is the West in the new balance of global military power?

Stephen Sackur speaks to Egyptian film director, Mohamed Diab. His new film, Eshtebak, or Clash, paints a remarkable picture of the tumult in Egypt which led to the military takeover in 2013. What has happened to the spirit of the Tahrir revolution?

(Photo: Egyptian director Mohamed Diab (R) poses after receiving the silver Tanit award for his film Clash at the 27th Carthage Film Festival, 2016, Tunisia. Credit: Fethi Belaid/AFP)

HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Homa Hoodfar, a Canadian- Iranian academic recently released after 112 days imprisoned in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. Why did a respected anthropologist become an enemy of the Iranian state? Reading the political mood inside Iran is notoriously difficult. Since last year’s nuclear deal it seemed the relatively moderate President Rouhani was in the ascendancy. But Homa Hoodfar has reason to see things differently.