the bbc's stephen sackur has gone to see the effects. stephen: whethe river is in full flow, you can see why the explorer david livingstone lled it a view for the angels. but look at the falls now. this is what southern africa's prolonged drought means, the thirds.wn by two here we are at this viewpoint. al is called the horseshoe viewpoint. >> yes, the change -- the low falls, they are becontng more freq who knows community in one yr there will be noall, no water. stephen: two hours north is the national park, a land dying of thirst. it has the largest conceration of elephants in all of africa. i don't know if you can see, but there is a group of elephants just over there. each elephant needs 300 kilograms of food a day.a ought like this, you can see how dry it is -- that means they are constantly on the move in a desperate search for food. drought is a killer. 200 hants have starved to deatin the last two months. solar pumps stop waterholes drying out, but in drought conditions, the elephant populati here is unsustainable. >> trees are

the bbc‘s stephen sackur has been there.hen the zambezi river is in full flow, you can see why the explorer david livingstone called it "a view for the angels." but look at the falls now. this is what southern africa's prolonged drought means. the volume of water is down by two thirds. here we are at this viewpoint. yes. it's called the horseshoe falls viewpoint, but there's no falls? yes, steve. the change in — the low falls, they're becoming more frequent. who knows — maybe one year there'll be no fall completely, no water. two hours north of victoria falls is hwange national park, a land dying of thirst. hwange has the largest concentration of elephants in all of africa. i don't know if you can see, but there's a group of elephants just over there. now, each elephant needs about 300 kg of food a day. in a drought like this, and you can see how dry it is, that means they're constantly on the move, in a desperate search for food. drought is a killer. 200 elephants have starved to death in the last two months. solar pumps st

now on bbc news, it's hardtalk, with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. last weekend in hong kong, metro stations were torched, the chinese state news agency was attacked, police fired water cannon and tear gas and 200 people were arrested. that is hong kong's new normal. how long can it go on without a major intervention from beijing? is there any way out of the impasse between hong kong's government and pro—democracy protesters? well, my guest is a former senior official in the territory's administration, anthony cheung. are hong kong's prospects bleak? anthony cheung in hong kong, welcome to hardtalk. you're welcome. from the outside, it looks as though hong kong is sliding ever deeper into chaos, is that the way it feels to you, inside hong kong? well, it's really distressing to see what's happening. protests and violence seem to be continuing and the whole community is getting very anxious. some young people feel they don't see a breakthrough. they don't see light at the end of the tunnel. and indeed, for the whole city, we have yet to find a politic

now on bbc news it's hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.any filmmakers and filmgoers movies are about escapism and entertainment. look at the listings in your local cinema and you'll see what i mean. but not so for my guest today. one of the most lauded and durable directors in the uk film industry — ken loach. he has made 27 films, he has won the biggest prize at cannes twice, and yet his films are the very opposite of escapism. his latest is an unrelenting, bleak take on the exploitation of workers in the so—called gig economy. if entertainment isn't his mission, what is? ken loach, welcome to hardtalk. thanks very much. a pleasure to be here. around five years ago, i seem to recall, there was some talk of you maybe not making movies for very much longer if at all. yet here you sit having just made another movie, sorry we missed you, before that you made i, daniel blake, which won a huge prize at cannes. so can we take it that your passion for filmmaking burns as bright as ever? well, it does, because it's a huge privilege to do that. and

welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur. significance of the political unrest in hong kong stretches far beyond the borders of that tiny territory. it poses president xi jinping with the most serious challenge of his presidency. if beijing cannot quell the calls forfreedom in hong kong, what does that tell us about the sustainability of its authoritarian rule elsewhere? my guest is china's ambassador in london, liu xiaoming. his government faces mounting internal and external pressure. how will it respond? ambassador liu xiaoming, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, thank you for having me. it's a pleasure to have you here. let us start with hong kong. president xijinping has been in powerfor seven years. would you accept that the prolonged unrest and instability in hong kong is the greatest challenge he has faced in his presidency? i think our government policy is clear. i think 12 days ago, the president made a very authoritative statement when he attended the brics summit. he said the top priority for hong kong is to end viol

stephen sackur, bbc news, harare.bc iplayer. demonstrators who object to teaching primary school children about relationships, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ones, have been permanently banned from protesting outside a school in birmingham. campaigners had claimed that equality lessons at anderton park school in sparkhill promoted homosexuality which was against their islamic beliefs. the school and the city council welcomed the ruling. 0ur midlands correspondent sian lloyd sent this report from birmingham. this is a paedophilia agenda! one of the protests held near anderton park school, this filming was used in evidence in the case. demonstrations were held objecting to lessons teaching about lg bt relationships. the judge said what pupils were actually being taught was sometimes being grossly misrepresented. videos made allegations against teachers, including that they brought convicted paedophiles into the school. today thejudge said that wasn't true. the school's head welcomed the ruling that pro

now on bbc news, it's hardtalk, with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur.d trump wants americans to bask in the afterglow of the killing of the world's most wanted terrorist, abu bakr al—baghdadi. but many are focused on the daily developments of the impeachment investigation led by congressional democrats. both say something important about the way donald trump conducts national security and foreign policy. my guest is former senior us diplomat richard haass. trump horrifies the foreign policy establishment, but does that matter to american voters? richard haass in new york city, welcome to hardtalk. good to be with you. would you accept that the killing of abu bakr al—baghdadi has given a major boost to president trump when he needs it most? it has helped him in two ways. in and of itself it is a good thing and, secondly, he was on the receiving end of tremendous criticism from republicans and democrats alike with his recent moves regarding turkey and syria and for many people this seemed and i emphasise that word, and seem to negate or offset that. why a

stephen sackur, bbc news, harare. this now from jake levine, former energy and climate aide to president barack 0bama. despite all that we are doing to other species in the natural world in general, do you think we as a species, humankind, get it? do we really have a sense of how much needs to change? well, the obvious a nswer to needs to change? well, the obvious answer to this question is no, absolutely not, that is what this report is really about. we haven't just been missing the mark over the course of the past decade, un has been conducting these types of analyses. we have been way off. i think one of the things that this report really indicates is that in addition to all of the scientific findings that it shows around a rise in omissions, around —— emissions, we have not shown the leadership from our governments, the collective nations that have formed the paris accord and that have previously formed the paris accord such as the united states, we have not shown the leadership required to really take on climate

stephen sackur, bbc news, harare.r figures in malta's government have stood down, and angry crowds have booed the prime minister, as police step up their investigation into the murder of the investigative journalist daphne ca ruana galizia. now out of government are the chief of staff to the prime minister, the tourism minister and the economy minister. rich preston reports. one by one, three government ministers stepped down. first was the prime minister's chief of staff keith schembri, amid reports he was to be questioned by police. shortly after, the tourism minister konrad mizzi, and then the economy minister christian cardona, pictured here with prime minister joseph muscat, suspended himself from duties. the men deny any involvement in the death of the prominent journalist. these resignations come days after angry scenes in malta with crowds accusing politicians of protecting those responsible for daphne caruana galizia's death. she was killed by a carbomb in 2017. she'd been investigating corruption at the high

stephen sackur, bbc news, harare.ne is former energy and climate aide to president barack 0bama. i asked him if we human beings fully understand what is happening to the planet right now. well, the obvious answer to that question is no, absolutely not. that's what this report is really about, is that we haven'tjust been missing the mark. over the course of the past decades the un has been conducting these types of gap analyses, we have been way off. and i think one of the things that this report really indicates is that, you know, in addition to all of the scientific findings that it shows around a rise in emissions, around an increase in the rate at which our emissions have risen, is that we have not shown the leadership from our governments, the collective nations that have formed the paris accord, and that have previously formed the paris accord, such as the united states, we have not shown the leadership required to really take on climate change and make the commitments that we need to start reversing this crisis

stephen sackur, bbc news, harare. the bbc iplayer. demonstrators who object to teaching primary school children about relationsips — including lesbian, gay, bi—sexual and transgender ones — have been permanently banned from protesting outside a school in birmingham. campaigners had claimed that equality lessons at anderton park school in sparkhill promoted homosexuality — which was against their islamic beliefs. the school and the city council welcomed the ruling. 0ur midlands correspondent sian lloyd sent this report from birmingham. this is a paedophilia agenda! one of the protests held near anderton park school, this filming was used in evidence in the case. demonstrations were held objecting to lessons teaching about lg bt relationships. the judge said what pupils were actually being taught was sometimes being grossly misrepresented. videos made allegations against teachers, including that they brought convicted paedophiles into the school. today thejudge said that wasn't true. the school's head welcomed the rulin

welcome to hardtalk, i'm stephen sackur.tably, britain's unresolved brexit agony has led to a general election. the current parliament couldn't find a path out of the morass so the people must now elect a new one. brexit has exposed deep tensions in britain's vaunted system of democracy, raising questions about the relationship between the people, parliament, government and the courts. my guest is businesswoman gina miller, who led two legal challenges to the government's pre—brexit strategy and won both times. how come this non—politician has had such an impact upon britain's political landscape? gina miller, welcome to hardtalk. lovely to be here. it seems something very important happened to you after thatjune 2016 referendum which saw a majority voting for brexit. you ceased to be just a concerned citizen looking at the politics of britain. you became an activist determined to use the law to make an intervention. what prompted that change? so the idea of becoming an activist injune 2016 is not actually, there is a backgr

——iam —— i am stephen sackur. my guest todayis —— i am stephen sackur.y is an extremist of a very kind. nothing to do with his political views but recognition of a lifetime spent embracing physical challenges at the extreme limit of human endurance. sir ralph irons has taken on and conquered the polar ice, the world's highest peaks and the world's most ruling deserts. he has been described as one of the world's greatest living explorers so what is the motivation for this life of extreme adventure? —— sir ranulph fiennes. sir ranulph fiennes, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. seems to me, your entire life, you have spent testing yourself, challenging yourself. why this preoccupation with tests? it doesn't come about in that particular way, it comes about because of being brought up in south africa, arriving in the uk, not getting a—levels, that's what it comes from, because that's not what i wanted to do, it's what my dad had done, commanding the royal scots' greatest tank regiment when he was killed in the second world war, and i wanted to comman

stephen sackur, bbc news, harare. laura: how zimbabwe is struggling with the effect of climatema change in s ways. in otherho news, three men w murderongly convicted of were set free after 36 years in a baltimore prison. alted chestnut, andrew stew , and ransom watkins were handed life sentences in 1984 for killing a 14-year-old boy. there were fe ed after a jueared their convictions reviewing the case. officials in the democratic republic of congo said 36 people have died foowing heavy rain in the capital, kinshasa. extreme downpours ve damaged homes, roads, and bridges. many victims were swept away by landslides. officials say the search for survivors is continuing. now british politics, where labour leader jeremy corbyn hast been singledy britain's e to be ior jewish leader, who primque minister. the chief rabbi says a poison of anti-semitism has taken root in the labour party. speang to the bbc, mr. corby said there could be no place for any kind of racism in his party. the bbc's laura kuenssberg reports. >> anti-