Hardtalk

From global media baron to convicted criminal doing time in a Florida jail, the remarkable rise and fall of Conrad Black has made for years of lurid headlines - not least in the newspapers he used to own. Now Conrad Black, or Lord Black of Crossharbour, is a free man out to rebuild his reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. After a turbulent decade, is he a changed man?(Image: Conrad Black. Credit: Brian Kersey/Getty Images)

Stop smoking, eat less, exercise more, pay your taxes on time. So many things governments want us to do; so hard to get us to do them.Shaun Ley speaks to behavioural economist Richard Thaler who thinks he has the answer. It's called 'nudge' theory, but it's not just an academic idea. Britain's Prime Minister is so impressed, he's set up a whole 'nudge unit' in the heart of his government. If you live in Britain, you may unwittingly already be part of a nudge experiment. So is the nudge guru teaching those in power how to encourage us to live better; or helping politicians to control us?

What has happened to Europe’s ambition to lead the world toward a low-carbon, sustainable future? As austerity bites, so doubts intensify about the wisdom of de-carbonising the European economy and financing greener growth in the developing world. Stephen Sackur speaks to the EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard. Are Europe’s politicians failing the climate change challenge?(Image: Connie Hedegaard, Credit: AFP/Getty)

The grandeur of the French foreign ministry in Paris gives a sense of how France sees its role in Europe - it's assumed here, Paris will have a dominant role in shaping the continent's future. But how does that square with current reality? The French economy is in a mess, the public is apparently disillusioned with the EU and the new Socialist government has yet to define a clear vision for Europe's future. Stephen Sackur speaks to France's Europe minister Bernard Cazeneuve.Is France capable of leading Europe out of its current crisis?(Image: Bernard Cazeneuve, Minister delegate for European Affairs, France. Credit: JOHN THYS/AFP/GettyImages)

The aviation industry is in trouble. Fuel prices have soared, there’s been a drop in passenger numbers and some airlines have gone out of business, but in Europe there’s one airline which is bucking the trend. The low-cost, no-frills Ryanair carried almost 80 million passengers last year. Michael O’Leary is the pugnacious, outspoken Chief Executive of Ryanair who has ambitions to make his airline even bigger, but how far can he fly before he gets shot down? He talks to Stephen Sackur in Dublin. (Image: Michael O'Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair Credit: Getty Images)

With elections approaching in six months, many Kenyans are apprehensive. The last disputed presidential election resulted in violence which claimed 1500 lives. Two of today’s presidential candidates face charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague as a result of their alleged involvement in 2008’s bloodshed. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur talks to one of those men, former education minister, William Ruto. Are Kenya’s politicians failing their people?

In-depth, hard-hitting interviews with newsworthy personalities.

Can the euro be saved? Europe's leaders think so; its central bank says there's no limit to the money it's prepared to spend to defend it. But is their solution in danger of destroying not just a currency but Europe's union, too? Otmar Issing fears so. As one of the most senior officials when the European Central Bank was founded, he helped bring the euro into being. Until this year he advised Germany's Angela Merkel and he remains one of Europe's most influential economic voices. When the euro was being planned, Otmar Issing believed that political union was essential. Now he fears that centralising power in Brussels and Frankfurt and sharing financial risk could provoke a public backlash that would wreck both the currency and the continent.

In the lead-up to November's Presidential election in the United States, groups on the right and left are sounding the alarm at the influence of money on US politics.Katya Adler speaks to one guest who knows a lot about that. At the height of his career he made millions as a career lobbyist in Washington, wining, dining and influencing lawmakers. His fall from grace was dramatic and saw him publicly disgraced and imprisoned for fraud and bribery. A free man once again, Jack Abramoff says he is a reformed man, lobbying to correct what he describes as a corrupt system where he says his behaviour was and continues to be commonplace. Is he trying to make amends for his past or put the blame on others?

Europe's economic crisis has pushed its governments further and faster down the road of economic integration than many might have expected. But it is also raising serious questions about countries' individual powers and identity. At a time when the people of Europe say they've never trusted the EU less what is the European Union's ultimate goal - to be a federal super-state or a looser union based on common economic goals? Katya Adler has gone to the heart of EU business, Brussels, to the European Parliament to talk to British Conservative MEP Richard Ashworth and to Guy Verhofstadt, former Belgian Prime Minister, now the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Where is the EU project going and are the people of Europe behind it?(Image: European Union flag Credit: Getty Images)

Kurds in Iraq are growing restless and impatient over the violence and open political rivalries in Baghdad, between Shias and Sunnis. Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region of four million is a haven of relative stability and prosperity and what's more has its own oil riches to exploit. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Ashti Hawrami. For the last six years, he's been Minister for Natural Resources in Kurdistan's regional government. Why are Kurds upsetting the central government by increasingly seizing control of their oil resources and exports? Do they have plans to breakaway?(Image: Ashti Hawrami. Credit: AFP / Getty Images)

Have opposition politicians in Zimbabwe learned the lessons of the violent and disputed elections in 2008 in which Robert Mugabe and his party Zanu-PF outmanoeuvred the Movement for Democratic Change, and held onto power. The MDC has since been in an uneasy power-sharing government, in which its main leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, is prime minister. But a breakaway MDC faction led by the Commerce and Industry Minister, Welshman Ncube, is splintering the opposition ahead of fresh elections due by next June. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Welshman Ncube and asks whether the opposition should be united to better oppose Zanu-PF.

Germany's pivotal role in resolving the Eurozone crisis has sparked fierce international discussion but also deep rifts at home. Katya Adler speaks to Hans-Werner Sinn, one of Germany's most influential and controversial economists, who is at the heart of that debate. Recently he joined forces with more than 100 colleagues to oppose any move towards Germany paying for the bank debts of other countries and appeared in front of the German constitutional court to criticise the EU bailout fund. Is he reflecting genuine public concerns or fuelling Germans worst fears?(Image: German economist Hans-Werner Sinn. Credit: MICHAEL GOTTSCHALK/AFP/Getty Images)

Chile's economy is booming, growing at a rate which almost echoes that of China. While Chile is the world's largest producer of copper, China the biggest importer - a perfect marriage except that China is losing its appetite. So how will Chile cope? Shaun Ley speaks to the Chilean finance minister, Felipe Larrain, discussing the country's economic future.(Image: Chile Finance Minister Felipe Larrain. Credit: ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images)

To their critics they're publicity hungry blasphemers; to their minds they are feminist punk rockers protesting against what they say is Russian president Vladimir Putin's authoritarianism and sexism. When three members of the Russian band Pussy Riot were jailed in August, there was an international outcry. They were found guilty of hooliganism for staging an illegal performance early this year in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Zeinab Badawi speaks to Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of one of the jailed activists, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Is Pussy Riot's high media profile the result of their shock tactics rather than real political clout?(Image: Members of the female punk band Pussy Riot (R-L) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow. Credit: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Files)

For years, it's been one of the biggest questions in sport. Did Lance Armstrong - the seven time winner of cycling's greatest race, the Tour de France - dope? Is the man who beat cancer to become one of the greatest sporting figures ever - a cheat? Armstrong has denied wrongdoing. But now a former teammate and roommate of Armstrong's, Tyler Hamilton, has produced the most detailed and wounding set of allegations yet. Is Hamilton self-serving and greedy, as Armstrong insists? Or a shaft of light on a sport that's been mired in murk?(Image: US cyclist Tyler Hamilton. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

The future of the Gulf state of Bahrain remains uncertain after 18 months of street protests inspired by the Arab Spring. Some of the most outspoken Bahraini critics of the ruling Al Khalifa family are behind bars, violent clashes between police and demonstrators continue. Maryam Al Khawaja is a prominent human rights campaigner, whose father was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to overthrow the government. Who will win the fight for Bahrain's future?

The 2008 banking crash prompted a prolonged crisis of confidence in the financial institutions and markets that underpin Western capitalism. Governments on both sides of the Atlantic have tried to recalibrate the balance between risk and reward and to encourage genuine wealth creation rather than short term speculation. Xavier Rolet is the CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group. Have financial markets learned the right lessons from recent history?(Image: Xavier Rolet, Chief Executive of the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Copyright London Stock Exchange press office handout)

The grim threat of renewed conflict hangs over the Democratic Republic of Congo. An armed rebellion in the East - on the Rwandan border - has already forced hundreds of thousands to flee. The DRC army is in disarray and the Kinshasa government has been undermined by allegations of electoral fraud and corruption. Stephen Sackur talks to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raymond Tshibanda. What hope is there for the Democratic Republic of Congo?(Image: Democratic Republic of Congo's Minster for Foreign Affairs Raymond Tshibanda. Credit: JUNIOR D.KANNAH/AFP/GettyImages)

Tarek al-Hashimi is in a very strange position: he is Iraq's vice president but right now he is a de facto fugitive in Turkey. He is being tried in absentia on charges of sponsoring death squads inside Iraq. The conflict in Syria is fuelling sectarian tension across the Middle East. In neighbouring Iraq a political and security crisis has deepened in the last year. What hope is there for justice or peace in a region in the grip of sectarian strife?(Image: Iraq's Vice President Tarek al-Hashimi. Credit: AFP / Getty Images)